Overview

WordPress is the most widely used Content Management System (CMS) in the world today. It is primarily used to design and develop websites, for the purpose of serving information to site visitors around the globe. It’s come a long way since the its inception, and  its now a pleasure to use.

Today, it powers nearly a billion websites, more than any other platform. Initially launched in 2004, it was originally software meant to be used for blogging, or writing or articles. It is successful because is its openness. Most other platforms are tightly controlled and do not support adding outside technology, or even exporting your site.

This article will focus on the benefits of using WordPress, the technology that powers it, and the competitive space.

Benefits

The main benefit of WordPress is that it is free and open source. This means that the code is created by volunteers who make this web platform free for all to use. As a result, there are a considerable communities providing support in terms of articles, videos, and other forms of media. If you get stuck on something, there are lots of resources to guide you.

WordPress is also terrific when it comes to SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Right out of the virtual-box, WordPress is geared toward providing great search results. Especially when you follow the basic rules of HTML formatting.

Maintaining WordPress is easier than ever. You can choose to have it auto-update the platform itself, and the related plugins. You can also choose to auto-update with only major software releases, or every minor release in-between. We tend to not use this function because sometimes new releases may not go as planned. Therefore, we’ll usually wait a few days or weeks. However, this feature is handy for folks who don’t regularly log into their sites. Keeping website software up to date is becoming more important than ever. Vulnerabilities often exploit older code, which can also negatively affect your SEO.

The ability to scale your website as your business, or organization, grows is a huge benefit, and there is no cost in doing so. Some of the free site builder platforms charge fees when your site expands beyond a certain number of pages. They will offer a base set of pages for free.

Technology

Flavors of WordPress

There are two types of WordPress. One is the server software that anyone can download and use. It will require a hosting service for installation. This is available at WordPress.org. The other WordPress.com is a free website and blogging portal. This also uses the WordPress software, but its hosted by them. The version of WordPress found here is limited in functionality.

Plugins

The major benefit of using WordPress is the ability to add  technology plugins that provide a wide range of solutions. Simply search for the solution that you need and browse the results. When you find one, simply download it and it will become a part of your website. If you don’t like it, you can disable it and remove it.

There are roughly sixty thousand plugins available that offer solutions such as online forms, slide shows, SEO, polls, social media connections, and more. You can review these here: Https://WordPress.org/plugins. Nearly all of them are free to use, but are often feature limited. More functionality can be found in the paid versions. The premium versions of plugins are usually cost effective.

Responsive

Out of the box, WordPress is mobile ready, or responsive as we say in the industry. This means that your website will adjust its sizing regardless of the device being used. The content automatically narrows to accommodate a smaller device.

This is critical because nearly 65% of all website traffic here in Loudoun County, and Northern Virginia, stems from a mobile device. You don’t want your web visitors having to zoom-in on a webpage to view it. When your website is responsive, it accounts for devise sizes of nearly any kind.

Hosting

Another difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is that the latter will require that you obtain your own website hosting account. The .com flavor of WordPress offers hosting, but in a limited fashion. The .org style is software that you download and install on your own server.

Value oriented Shared Hosting can be purchased for about $120 per year. You will be responsible for managing this host, which not only serves your website to the internet at large, but also affords email accounts and lots of other technical goodies.

Needless to say, Wicked Design also offers website hosting. We handle of your web hosting needs throughout the year without charging hourly fees. We also use a fast VPS server for the best performance possible.

Themes

Another benefit to using WordPress is the number of themes available. Themes lay on top of WordPress and offer a feature rich set of editing tools and functionality.  Many WordPress themes are free to use, other charge a fee. Known as premium themes, these usually offer a drop and drag interface, fancy content features, and support.

WordPress.org currently offers more than thirteen thousand themes, and they can be viewed here: https://wordpress.org/themes. However, many more themes are available outside of WordPress, but they can be used like any other.

You simply download a theme, install it, and then activate it. Once it is activated, you can then begin changing out the text and photos for your own. It will retain is look and feel, but will then feature your own content.

SEO

Search engine optimization is inherent with WordPress. If you follow the basic guidelines of HTML, you will be ranked by the search engines in search results. This means that your website will appear in search results, depending on your search term and the competition for particular phrases.

Ranking higher than competition can be challenging, however. If you sell widgets, you may have 20 competitors in your area also selling widgets. It may be hard to rank higher in search results if others have big marketing budgets to used to increase their SEO. But through research, you can learn how to begin rising for those results. It often takes patience to do so, but its worth it in the end.

Competition

There are a handful well-known of WordPress competitors out these, and many are free to begin using. They offer themes and features within their own proprietary platform. They also offer some plugins but they are limited to their platform, and often a premium feature to use.

Platforms such as Wix, Squarespace and Weebly all offer free access. However, they often charge your for add-ons, extra pages, commerce, SSL certificates, adding third party code, etc. Some of these won’t allow you to export your website once it’s built. These website platforms are fine for simple sites with a few pages. But the costs can rise quickly as you make the site larger or add additional functionality.

Closing

No matter the type of WordPress than you choose, you can be assured that you made the right content management choice. Due to its flexibility, pricing, support, technology and leadership in the space, it is simply the best choice. The platform will serve you well now, and into the future as you grow. We have personally used WordPress since 2010, and have used it ever since. We have designed and developed more than 800 website using WordPress, and can solidly recommend it to anyone wanting to start building and maintaining a website.

The definition of a sign is “a motion or gesture used to express or convey an idea, command, decision.” In the case of this article, you are either a Loudoun business or a Loudoun organization that are using signs to convey a message to help influence a buying decision, or to attract attention to an idea or an event. To do this effectively, signs should adhere to certain principles that will help your success in messaging.

This article focuses on the following aspects of sign creation: Types of Signs, Common Mistakes, Design Parameters, Your Audience, Proper Messaging, and the Creation of Signs. By the time you finishing reading this post, you will have a greater understanding of what makes signs more effective.

Signs can be made locally, or ordered online. Examples are provided at the conclusion of this article.

Types of Signs

Signs come in all sizes, shapes and materials. They can be square, rectangular, oval, or have an irregular shape. Sometimes the shape of a sign can determine how effective it is. Signs can also be made of many different types of materials, including wood, Mylar, metal, digital and more.

Each type of sign offers certain benefits, therefore, consideration should be given to placement and where the viewer may be seeing it (there is more information on this topic later in this article).
For example, if the sign is outside, it then needs to be weather durable. When ordering signs, the seller often provides information on it’s durability and rating, in addition to cost and turn around times.

Common Sign Mistakes

If you adhere to basic principles, your sign can be incredibly effective. However, the inverse is also true; a poorly designed sign may be completely ignored.

• A sign likely won’t be effective if:
• It can’t be seen effectively
• It contains too much information
• Lacks an action to be taken
• Incorporates bad design
• Has poor color choices
• Has bad placement, or is too small for the viewing position

To avoid these common sign mistakes, keep the following facts in mind:

You must carefully consider the placement and location of a sign. If it’s too far away to read, the message won’t received at all. We advise that you position yourself from the perspective of the viewer, and consider the sign size. The lettering within the sign must be readable for the viewer. Will the viewer be walking by? Driving by? Inside of your establishment? Eye level? Placed high above?

According to data by the International Sign Association: “Experts recommend designing signs with letters a minimum of one-inch tall for every twenty-five feet of distance”. If your sign text is too small, it can’t be read effectively.

If the sign is to be placed outside, what is the background of it’s placement? On a building? Freely hanging from a bracket? Will it’s color compete with it’s surrounding? Can it be seen at night? If the sign is to be placed inside, will it compete with other effects from the building? Does it need to be eye-level? The answers will depend on your unique situation.

Signs should be designed with simple, uncluttered messaging. Having many fonts and too many words will make for an ineffective sign. Studies suggest that at least 30% to 40% of the area should be left empty. Doing so allows the viewer to consume your message quickly.

Sometimes your logo or company name is sufficient. But if you want the viewer to take action, then one must be presented. Do you want them to call you? Visit your website? Use their phone to scan a QR code? If so, then those actions need to be clearly presented and visible.

Incorporating bad design can cause the message to be completely ignored. Being a Loudoun graphic design firm, of course we are going to recommend hiring a professional designer like us. However, you can always design your own sign using good principles. We speak more about this later in the article.

Color choices within your signs are also critically important. There are design principles that can be used to assure the attention you are seeking. Choosing poor colors can make your sign hard to read, or blend into the background. There are a set of common colors that should be considered when designing a good sign. Keep reading to learn more.

Effective Sign Design

It is recommended that you adhere to your brand colors, when possible. Doing so helps to reinforce your company or organization brand, and result in a lasting memory of the message.

The use of an image within the sign is recommended, but it should be done effectively. You don’t want the image to compete with the message, but compliment it instead. The image could be your logo, or a symbol that helps to reinforce the message within the sign. It is appears in the background, consider making the image have a transparency factor. If the image is off to the side, it should be done in simple terms; not being too big or too small. Contrast is a good feature, but it all must work together. Consider having a friend or colleague reviewing your design to provide constructive feedback.

The use of negative space is critically important. As mentioned above, 30 to 40% of the sign should be negative, or empty space. This helps to draw the viewers eye to the message within the sign itself.

Data regarding the use of borders on the perimeter of the sign is mixed. Several research firms suggest that it increases sign effectiveness by 25%. However, Signs.com sends a different message by insisting that signs without a border is 11% more effective. The jury seems to be out of this particular design component. We suggest taking each sign into account based on its placement, the viewers perspective, and the message itself.

There are sets of sign colors that have been determined to be most effective. While you want to adhere to your brand colors as much as possible, the color combinations below should be considered for maximum contrast and readability. They are listed from highest to lowest in terms of effectiveness:

1. Black on yellow
2. Black on white
3. Yellow on black
4. White on blue
5. Green on white

Fonts used within signs are equally important. As mentioned previously, you should only use one or two fonts within your sign. The use of three or more fonts can cause the viewers eyes to “glaze over”, and potentially missing your important message. Again, keep your company brand in mind and use fonts from your logo. You should consider the use of a mix of capital letters, and lower case letters. Doing so make your message easier to read.

The time in which folks can comprehend your sign and message is relatively short. Therefore, your sign titles should be brief and contain only three to five words, written rather large. Some research indicates that viewers will only spend eight seconds reading a sign. Other research says this may be as little as only three to five seconds.

Know The Audience You Are Trying To Reach

Understanding or defining your audience type will also help to drive the design style for your signs. As with most graphic design projects, you need to know what type of customer you are trying to communicate with. What are the age ranges for your customer? Are they most male, or female? Are they local to your establishment, or are they visitors from other places?

Once you know who you are targeting, then you can design for that group specifically. For example, a flowery sign design may not work well for most men. A “loud” sign design may not appeal to older customers. Potentially, an older crowd may not use QR codes, while a young group likely will. Color choice can also be an important factor here. Carefully consider the group that you are messaging.

Ordering Signs

Like many residents of Loudoun County, Virginia, we like to support local businesses when we can. Below are a couple of local sign producers who print or manufacture signs for many uses. Below that you will find online businesses who also produce signs for every need.

Mr. Print, located in Purcellville and in Middleburg, Virginia, offer various types of printed signs including yards signs, printed signs, and more. Wicked Design has used the services of Mr. Print for many projects, and can vouch for their services.

Sign Design in Purcellville, Virginia creates hand-carved and hand-painted wooden signs for nearly every need. You can see their work all over the county in terms of property signs seen from the road.

For ordering signs online, we have used Signs.com for several projects. We usually refer to this company for large and unusual projects. Their quality products can be seen on our clients businesses across the Loudoun County, and beyond. Delirium restaurant, located in Leesburg, Virginia is a good example of this. We designed all of their signs can are seen attached to the blue building in the middle of town (we also recreated the famous elephant logo used on those signs.

Conclusion

Wicked Design has created hundreds of signs for businesses and organizations since 2012, and we can do the same for you. Contact us should you want to discuss a sign design for your business or organization.

However, in the long-run, your costs may actually be higher and your time spent on the project could be significant.  Also, if you care about search ranking, you may not obtain the desired effect when creating your own website. These are some of the things that a professional Website Developer should bring to the table when supporting you.

These factors should be weighed carefully when deciding whether to hire a web developer, or go it alone. Below are a set of questions that should be considered when deciding whether to buy or build.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What goals are you trying to accomplish?
• How much time and money are you willing to spend?
• Will it be simply informational, and/or be used to attract new visitors, or something else?
• How important is your public brand?
• How important in SEO (search ranking again competitors)?

Below, this article explores all of the factors involved in this important decision. This article will cover Cost, Time, Branding, Competitive Edge, Scalability, Security, Performance, Technology, and Qualities To Look For In A Professional Web Developer.

Cost and Fees

Most, if not all, businesses and organizations focus on earnings and operating costs. This articles makes an argument as to why a higher price tag for web and WordPress development is usually worth the price. Due diligence on a development team is always recommended.

What is your hourly billing rate? Should your time, therefore, be spent developing a website? How many hours will it take to complete web design research? Usually much longer that you may be anticipating, especially if just learning.

Time

If you count on designing and developing your own website, you should plan on spending dozens of hours of simply learning. Then, you will need to add all of the written text, and photographic, content in such a manner that is appealing to your visitors. This is also known as using good design principles.

Most professional Website Designers carry an education in graphic design, plus years of experience putting that training into practice. This is why you can discern a professionally made website, from one that was not. These factors matter and reflect on your brand and services.

Branding

A professional Web Developer will be able to design a site that stands apart, adheres to good design principles, and make your brand look as good as possible. Conversely, a beginner website can stand out as just that, and often appearing as thought it was quickly assembled. While doing it yourself can save money initially, a less than professional job can turn away potential customers, leaving a bad lasting-impression of your company, and brand. What is the costs involved at this point?

You want your web visitors to leave your site feeling like they obtained the info they came for, plus having an affinity for your brand and services. Investing in your well crafted website will return value for many years in terms

Competitive Edge

It’s highly likely that your competition hired a professional website developer, and it’s going to show. This will be reflected in the over design, performance, and search ranking. In theory, you want to at least match the effort of your competition. Searching for keywords and phrases related to your business will reveal how your competition is ranking. You should strive to appear in search as high as possible, meaning page one or two of results.

Your customers are going to decide who to call and hire  based on the appearance and performance of your site. If your website does not at least match your competition, then you may be hurting your efforts, and revenue. Your website is also going to reflect on the quality of your products or services, directly. If your website is sloppy or outdated, your potential customers will view your offerings in a similar manner.

Scalability

The word scalability means the ability to grow over time. Your website will need to expand as your services grow, your team expands, your history and successes increase in size. You may be adding eCommerce to your site, or interactive dynamic online forms (see related article). Perhaps you expand your product offerings and need a whole range of page expansions.

Reputable web developers will leverage a content management system (CMS) that can edited and updated by the client. They should provide you with complete credentials to access any of your services, and even provide training for content updates. Then, you or staff should be able to expand the site with the only cost being time. May of the free web platforms will begin to charge for added pages, features, technologies and more. These incremental (and repeating) costs add up over time. In aggregate, they will end up costing more that hiring a designer to begin with.

Performance

The faster your website renders, the better the experience will be for your visitors. If it loads slowly, your potential customer may move their search effort to other search listings. Most professional Web Developers know how to make a site operate as quickly as it can. This usually involves the use of a fast web host server, deferred code loading, sized and compressed images, caching, using the latest technology, and more. All of these performance issues can also increase your search ranking.

Many of the free or cheap web building sites operate slowly because you pay little up-front costs, they do not invest in speed (unless you pay for it). Sites built on these platforms generally do not obtain good search ranking. Are you curious about the performance of your existing website? You can use free online tool such as GTMetrix.com. Testing sites like this one provide not only grade rankings for your site, but also provide details behind dozens of factors that relate to the performance of your website. You should not have a grade less than a B in any category.

You will also enjoy longer visit times to your site from potential clients, if the site operates smoothly. Folks have little patience these days, and will move on quickly if challenged.

Technology

The backend technologies required to maintain a website today are ever changing. Keeping up with these changes keeps your site running fast, and remain protected from a daily onslaught of online threats and hacks. If you host your own website, you will be responsible for maintaining your own updates. If your developer hosts for you, they should keep your site up to date on your behalf. This also holds true for a managed hosting solutions.

Professional website and WordPress developers will also advise you to obtain hosting services that are near your business location in order to obtain the faster website possible. If you offer business services in the Mid-Atlantic region, or Loudoun County, you do not want a website hosted on the west coast of the county.

Your website should always be mobile ready. This means that someone accessing your site should see content displayed properly regardless of the device being used. On average, between 40% and 60% percent of visitors coming to your website today will be using a phone or tablet.

Qualities To Look For In A Professional Web Developer

When looking to hire a top notch web designer you should look at their client list (our client list), and the services that were provided to them. This is usually a good indicator of community trust, business acumen, and professionalism. You should also look at their reviews (our reviews) and read what the community has to say.

Honesty also play an important role in the designer / client relationship, as with any business. Your website developer should provide you with all logins, answer any questions, provide options both now, and for your future. Their fees should be provided beforehand, and be reasonable. Conversely, you should be aware at the average development fees within your area.

Here at Wicked Design, we’ve been in business since the spring of 2012. In that time we helped more than 500 customers meet their online and branding goals with flying colors. Perhaps that why we have only 5-star ratings nearing 50 at the end of 2022. Contact us should you want to learn more about hiring a developer to improve your brand online, and perhaps bring more clients into your business.

We use many different kinds of devices, and applications, these days running on our phones and computers. Many of the companies and service providers you use likely sell your personal information for profit. Companies such as Facebook not only track your activity while in the app, but also your activity outside of the app. They are tracking your website activity, contacts, what your phone hears verbally, logs network connections, phone types, apps installed, location (even when disabled).

Additionally, there are bad actors out there trying to steal your information, passwords, identities, records, and more. More than $700 billion dollars were stolen from unsuspecting US citizens in 2021.  They may use your credit cards for purchases, or open card or utility service accounts in your name. They can steal tax refunds, leverage your insurance, or pretend to be you. Some of this can be prevented by using a VPN service. These services will encrypt your personal information as it’s being sent online, keeping it secret. Some of these services will also block online ads from appearing in website and apps. They can also block phishing, malware, and other online threats.

News of COVID-19 hit home as folks wearing masks in public affirmed everything we heard for months. It was finally here. Family, friends, teachers, neighbors, service providers, and business owners realized change was here to stay.

We all had to figure out how to continue living our lives while staying apart from one another. If your business survived through April, your problems were likely just beginning. All of a sudden the general public were advised to stay indoors, changing the dynamic of providing goods and services.

Delivery and curb-side service overnight became the new way. Restaurants scrambled to create outdoor seating areas. Places that never offered delivery, now did. People began searching online for food and goods they needed, rather than casually picking them up from the store. Those businesses that were able to swing into action were rewarded. Those who could not, folded.

Geographic patterns changed, regarding the use of online media. Many western Loudoun business saw their web audiences contract geographically with users coming more close to home. In more rural areas, users reached out further than normal, creating an SEO opportunity. Web hits for needed services jumped immediately. Some restaurants saw their website traffic triple overnight. Some of this has since relaxed, but a portion of increased activity remains strong.

Websites have become more critical due to distancing, and with social distancing, our habits have changed. We now plan things before jumping out into public. We gather information online to plan the trips. This means that your website is more relevant than ever.

Longer page views have been seen during this time. Folks at home have more time to spend looking for what they need.

Take note of these items to maximize your online presence:

• Make sure that your website theme, WordPress, and plugins are updated. Old code is a security risk
• Review the performance of your website. The speed in which it renders, and they server quality matter today in gaining the best search ranking
• Ensure that your website adheres to the basic expectations of HTML formatting
• Your photos should be cropped, sized, and compressed
• Your site should have several pages, that link to each other. A one-page website will not provide maximum search ranking

Different communication channels have emerged

Social distancing has caused a shift in the way that your customers interact with your business. With more time on their hands, your customers are more likely to call or send an email. While some segments of the population will continue to message or text, the more traditional methods of communication and picked in the recent months. Which is a reason to ensure that your contact information is up to date. Not doing so will cost sales for your company.

Watch for video communication to become more popular with your client base. We’re already seeing retail providing in-store video for those bound at home. This could present an opportunity for your company or organization.

Being mindful of your client needs will help to separate you from your competitors. This may mean updating the language on your website to be more mindful of the experiences your customer may be going through. We suggest going through each page of your website and reading your content while keeping in mind the virus-relates changes that our society is experiencing.

While you are doing that, take time to ensure that all of your online content is accurate and up to date. Not having accurate web info may result in your visitor leaving. This may include your hours, policies, practices, expectations, and accurate product and services.

Respond to your inquiries as soon as possible. This builds trust and confidence in your business. At the same time, use a level of professionalism and respect that your potential customers may not expect. Delivering a higher level of service stands out today, and is needed in this competitive environment.

Shift into what’s working

Your website traffic monitoring tool, such as Google Analytics, tells you critically important things about your website usage, and business in general. In order to stay competitive in this new COVID environment, reports are your friend. We suggest comparing web stats from before the pandemic, with those after. You want to look for new patterns that can help you be efficient and lean. For example, how have your buying patterns changed? What do folks favor now, that they didn’t before. Are you being found in search for new phrases? If so, how can you take advantage of that? Wicked Design can help you analyze all of these things.

Are your website referrals shifting? Pay attention to them. You want to know which website referral sources are sending traffic your way, and why. Then spend more time examining whether you advertise, promote, or partner with those sources. Sometime these referrals can be other business, local tourist bureaus, the press, a blog, or something else. Google Analytics provides you with a detailed view of how web visitors arrived at your site.

Did the pandemic shift your customer base? Did the demographic shift older, or younger? Are you seeing a customer change in terms of gender, or race? Are they now coming from different places than before? Recognizing these changes in your business can help you to create more efficiency, sell more services, market appropriately, and cater to the best of your ability. The bottom line is staying smart regarding who your customers are.

Because many businesses are suffering, competition here in Loudoun County has dramatically increased. You can see this in terms of the updated language being used, the type of imagery shared, and the tone of the message. We even saw signs that said “We need your help”.

Because of this, social media marketing has all of a sudden become much more interesting. We’re seeing better visuals and more thoughtful posts. Camera angles that are thought provoking, messaging is more meaningful, lots people sporting smiles and having fun. We’ve seen spilling beer, funny videos, lots of cute pets, and bright colors.

Because the economy took a hit, many people are searching for the best deals. Therefore, if you are able, leveraging a themed-sale could help make the difference. Promote it on various platforms so you stand apart. Be prepared to lose some sales to those businesses offering similar products and services to yours, but at a reduced price. Lower overhead is how some are offering lower pricing that you may be able to. Many folks, for example, are seeking the gig-worker community to get services done at a cheaper price. This can also erode your bottom line.

Regarding social media, watch what others are doing, and participate in the respective online communities. This means liking posts of others, commenting on posts, and sharing things you like. Successful social media it a two-way street. You cannot effectively promote without participating.

Be unique and don’t copy what you see. Instead, use cool things for inspiration. Then create your own versions of what motivates you. There is inspiration all around us. Find hot topics, products, trends, and more that you can leverage as topics for promotion.

Develop a marketing campaign with purpose. What do you want to happen? Sure you want more sales, but marketing should be done with a specific purpose and intent. For example, I want 20% more traffic to my website, or I want to sell 60 widgets this month, or I want five people to walk through the door tomorrow. While you always want to keep your name fresh is people mind’s, it should be done with purpose.

Wicked Design can help you with all of these things. We listen closely to your goals and then create a marketing campaign that explicitly described  what kind of posts will be done, and when. Then, the results of these efforts are monitored and analyzed. Was the marketing campaign successful? What made the difference? Contact us for a free marketing and branding consultation.

Lastly,Wicked Design swung into the action by creating a website to help the Purcellville area community: PurcellvilleCares.com. It offers a list of companies and organizations that shifted practice to continue providing services. Like many of our neighbors, it was a time to help one another.

Supporting Loudoun County

As a small company, there is not much more rewarding than providing design services to local towns and counties. Wicked Design has supported several, including the Town of Round Hill, Purcellville, Bluemont, and Loudoun County. Lately, we’ve been supporting the Loudoun County Parks and Recreation department, and could not be more excited.

This week we finalized the new Loudoun Parks logo, including versions for Loudoun Parks including Franklin Park, Claude Moore Park, James A. Bolen Park, Banshee Reeks Park. Their motto is Discover Your Outdoors, and they promote that notion daily for the benefit of us all.

Before designing the Loudoun Parks logo, we completed a map illustration of Franklin Park, and their Disc Golf map, both located in Purcellville, Virginia. These documents are printed in classic map format, and come folded.

Franklin Park Map

Both of our recent map design projects were based upon the excellent geography data provided to us by Loudoun County. If you weren’t aware, Loudoun County has planes fly over every foot of the county annually, to record land changes over time. Therefore, their data is always fresh (which otherwise can wreak havoc on a project otherwise.

The first task was to strip all of the data from the received map art that was not needed. The digital drawing contained hundreds of layers that were not needed for the map, and some represented land boundaries that extended well beyond the visual focus. The layers names were not much help, so testing was required to find out which were needed, and which were not. In addition, Loudoun County had dozens of layers representing things were not required for this project. They related to operational and maintenance items that also had to be turned off or deleted.

With the desired layers then in order, we then had to visually transform them into something that was both pleasing to the eye, and able to communicate specific messaging. For instance, activity symbols were required to be a specific brown color, the water blue, and the trails represented using dashed lines. The many park features also had to highlight in a meaningful way, including: ball fields, hiking trail, arts center, pool, disc golf, equestrian trails, and more. In the end, all of the important park features needed to fit within the folded, printed map which overall measures 11” x 17”. The map shape had to be “juggled” within the given boundaries to provide the largest view of the details as possible.

A wide variety of software tools were use during the design process. They included vector based programs, and bitmap programs such as Photoshop. Often, work would be shuttled between programs to obtain a particular desired digital effect. The use of layers was critical for this project. Given that there were nearly one hundred types of digital components (water, trails, roads, parking, buildings, etc.) within the park map design, being able to address one, or all, was important in terms of efficiency. For example, If you needed to make all of the water symbols a darker shade of blue, having to locate them without the use of layers would have been nearly impossible.

Therefore, setting up a named, hierarchical layer system at the beginning of a complex design project is a critical skill. Doing so can literally save dozens of project hours, if not more.

Franklin Park Disc Golf Map

The finished Disc Golf map is a sub-set of the Franklin Park map. However, it is so intertwined with the park at large, that the map design is nearly as big as the park map itself. The printed map measures 8 ½” by 11”, so it’s smaller then the part map. Therefore a bit more design complexity was involved here: more symbols and less space. The Disc Golf map includes dozens of icons that each represents holes numbers, baskets, tees, fairways, direction, and locations.

The main challenge with this graphic design project was effectively communicating all of the symbols within a smaller space. It was also taken into account that golfers will be carrying this map as they moved from hole to hole. The outside flap features a scoring chart for each tee type, and basket. The chart also features distances to the holes. Therefore, this map is a critical component to the game itself, it would be carried about by the players as a game proceeds. This introduces a peculiar requirement, as the document becomes a part of the game.

In the end, all graphic design and website projects come with their own style of requirements. Producing an effective document for a business or organization must successfully meet each of them in order to have a successful project. It is for these reasons that you should hire an experience designer to handle your needs. A less experienced firm could cost twice as much in the end, even with a lower hourly rate. Paying for experience, with a history of successful projects, consistently offers greater value and efficiency, and quality.

PRCS Loudoun Parks Logo

Loudoun Parks, a sub-group of Loudoun Parks and Recreation, needed a logo to help brand their various efforts in Loudoun County. They hired Wicked Design to develop several approaches for consideration of this new branding effort. We provided dozens of various logo designs for their review. All of these graphic design efforts focused on nature subject matter, such as trees, leaves, hiking, maps, logs, county shapes, characters engaged in activity, and more. It was our goal to provide a wide variety of approaches so that the best brand strategy could be chosen.

The challenge in supporting a group or committee is that many individuals are involved in the decision making process. Everyone has their own opinion and ideas regarding the best approach. In this case, Loudoun County is made up of five parks, each with their own staff and directives.

Luckily for us, our terrific point-of-contact was able to boil down the member input into simple task lists, which kept Wicked Design in the position of designing and not playing referee. We will normally request one person to communicate design changes for the sole purpose of creating efficiency in the process.

They organization did present simple goals up front: They wanted a design that was simple, clean, and a brand that would translate across the department’s goals and missions. They selected the branch shape for various reasons, but mainly because it conveyed nature without thinking about it. The simple branch and leaves shape serves as an upbeat message with nature in mind. Secretly (don’t tell a sole), each of the five leaves represents a park within the organizations. As mentioned above, there are currently five parks in Loudoun County. So while it’s not The DaVinci Code with its big hidden messages, we did help to create a tiny bit of hidden messaging here in our backyard.

Each of the parks will have their own version of the selected logo design. They will all feature the name of their respective park below their own individual logos. Franklin Park will appear below the Frank Park version, and so on. Each park will also feature their own branded shirts, and other items, using their own versions of the logo.

In Closing

As a small design company located in the Northern Virginia area, we are thrilled to be supporting Loudoun County with graphic design services. Now in our eight year of business, we have faithfully supported the county for many years. Through the process of successful execution, and a commitment to quality service, we have earned the trust of our local government.

To us, it’s reassurance that we’re on the right path of delivering high quality design services at every turn. Whether it’s a website development project, or the design of a simple advertisement, Wicked Design always over delivers on our projects. Referrals represent our biggest source of new client work due to our focus and execution.

Should your business or organization require professional web or graphic design services, Wicked Design will always be here to support you. Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more about marketing, branding, and online awareness for your efforts. We’ll be happy to help.

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