Design project: JewelryByJewell.com

When we first spoke with Carolyn, the business owner and sole producing artist of Jewelry by Jewell, we liked the possibilities associated with upgrading her self-built site, a caption of which is shown at right.

After some initial success with a series of photos we took in less than optimal conditions during the West Seattle Fair, we briefly discussed the goals she and her husband Gary had for their website. Primarily, they were seeking an enhanced overall website image that would also allow them to update their own site with photos and new products.

Their primary concern was one that we have heard frequently ever since E-commerce became a reality on the web:

"Our products are individually unique, and they sell very quickly..."

Reading between the lines, this translates to:

"If we have to pay a designer every time we want to update our site,
we will not be able to keep up with the costs, so even if we had the
cash to burn our inventory moves so quickly we doubt that any
designer has the time to keep up with us !"

In the end- or the beginning to be most accurate- our first consultation allowed us to make a summarized proposal of an all-inclusive upgrade for a price we are proud to say didn't even make them flinch.

"Thanks to Erik Braziunas who has partnered with StarLogic Systems' team of commercial photographers, top-notch product display was made affordable for Carolyn's site."

Our half-price fee structure offered exclusively to Northwest Arts & Crafts vendors certainly helped, and yet there was something else that a quick review of the proposal summary would reveal- whether Carolyn and Gary realized it or not- when they signed up for a complete custom web design package including professional product photography, we planned on investing our time and expertise to build a solid foundation for the next phases of their E-commerce development, as well as the framework to self-manage the website on their own terms.

In concrete terms this means we secretly planned 2 hours of programming for every paid hour of design proposed. We also delivered a contract that put the summarized proposal into writing, and then accomplished a complete re-design and implemented 75-80 compelling product images, delivering a completely custom site for a price which had only one catch- it simply sounded "too good to be true."

Addtionally, and perhaps more importantly, the upgrades required to implement JewelryByJewell's custom site-management tools will make their total investment 85% of the reqular price quoted for the website. When they opt to enable the upgrades, the tools will be operational very quickly as they are already built-in.

Again, in concrete terms it means that:

a) we built a fantastic stand-alone site for half-price which they get to use now.

b) we invested our time and sweat-equity in Carolyn's site to implement custom controls which will allow nearly anyone to update the inventory at will.

c) after they choose to enable custom management tools, their total investment still rings in at 15% less than the regular price for the original site we built, and the custom site management tools are practically ready to go.

Before we make it sound like it's all about us- one of the chief strengths we saw in Carolyn's business is the outstanding price/quality ratio of each piece of jewelry, and the fact that her product lines are already well developed. Carolyn's extensive background in computer tech helped our best ideas get communicated easily. We capitalized on these strengths and simply pitched a web proposal to take up the slack in the weaker areas... and we notice that her prices have remained the same even after affording our services

"The Graphic Design expertise of Jen Hayes brought Carolyn's unspoken design goal into focus. Jen's 18 years as a professional designer promises to deliver outstanding results to all our clients- present and future."

While our mutual long-term goal is to put the power of website management in Carolyn's hands within a beautifully created custom framework, we have brought JewelryByJewell.com current so that her short-term goals are met while providing a cost-effective means to expand the website as business grows.

Because we rely on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each business to craft our proposals, we cannot guarantee the exact same package will be offered to each business - yet we do guarantee half-price on all work proposed to Northwest Arts & Crafts vendors whether it's a new website, a simple plug-in to an existing site, a custom quote or a complete redesign. Standard packages with 50/50 terms are displayed at this link on our site, we offer these exclusively to the Artisans and Crafters in the Pacific Northwest.