Castle Crow Design Studio is the creative business place of Frances Castelli. I think one of my strengths is the ability to combine the fluid creative and the linear.

Being a weaver, knitter and bookkeeper for years has made learning code a very enjoyable challenge. I love to learn new tricks and take classes to attempt to keep up with the ever changing standards world of the interent.

The Process:

Send me links to websites, magazine ads, pieces of fabric or anything that will give me an idea of what you like. Already existing promotional materials are also important. We'll also need to discuss how you want to use the website, how it needs to work mechanically to fit your needs.

I do all my designing in Photoshop; the layering ability combined with the wide array of vector graphics is great. I usually don't need to build graphics in Illustrator thanks to the many vector graphics brushes for Photoshop. I create image files and post them online for my clients to view and critique. Once the design is approved then I figure out how to code it for the Internet. I use Dreamweaver and keep it in check with alot of hand coding to keep the page weight light. This is when the mechanics, i.e. scripts etc. are integrated and content is added.

Content & Graphics

Content is the hardest! The images are easy, either my clients are artists so have plenty of visual material to choose from or I pull from the wealth of graphics and Photoshop vector brushes available or I use the graphics I've created in the design phase. The words are a lot harder for most people. Take me for instance; it's taken years to get this website up since I am not a natural writer. Especially when I need to write about myself and, on top of that, promote myself.

I suggest writing down thoughts and goals for your business as a good way to start. Add research on key words, the search terms that you think you're clients will use to find you. Then talk to a good copy editor. They will iron out the rough spots. If you don't know one I can recommend a couple that I've worked with before. This site has not yet been edited. can't you tell?