Welcome to the new Upward Creative blog written by myself, Stuart Gamblen, a freelance Web and Graphic Designer based in Gloucester.
Starting this blog has been on my list of to-dos for a while now. Between launching my new main website and regular freelance design work it’s been a challenge to find the time needed to complete the initial bulk of work and more importantly plan for it’s long term goals.
However, after much planing, designing, programming and writing it’s finally here and I’m both excited and a little nervous to be able to share my ideas and knowledge to the world and hopefully help a few people and businesses in the process.
But what are my goals and who am I hoping to help?
Blog Goals
The goal of this blog is to provide as much value as possible to companies, entrepreneurs and independent creatives in order to help them build, grow and improve both their businesses and lives through design and the web.
Sounds simple enough right? Well I like a challenge.
While I’m new to blogging and probably not the worlds most gifted writer (at least for now!), what I do know is that I have a lot of knowledge related to design and the web that I could put to far better and more importantly wider use.
With a bit of self discipline and hard work the plan is to get it out there into the world in order to help as many people and businesses as possible.
Despite the many benefits great design and a successful web presence can bring for businesses, for many making the right choices when trying to create or improve either can seem like a mysterious and daunting process. It’s my goal to make this process as simple as possible.
It’s about sharing advice, tutorials and knowledge so you can make informed decisions and action to build, run and improve your business through branding, design and the web.
Through the extensive planning I’ve been doing I’ve built up a huge list of article ideas that I intend to publish over the upcoming weeks and months (and most likely years!).
So what are the main topics I’ll be talking about?
Specifically, I intend to publish articles and help you grow your business with the follow key areas I’m most passionate about:
Topics I’ll be Covering
Branding and Design
I love design. In all its forms. I believe it really can improve our lives and more specifically, our businesses, and I intend to provide you with practical tips on how to achieve this through great branding and Graphic Design.
It’s true that branding is more than just design or a logo, your brand is built on every interaction you have with the public. I can’t improve your customer service but I can teach and help you with specific techniques on how to reinforce, strengthen and improve your image and promotional material through great design.
Typography, layout, whitespace, colour etc all play an important part when branding and creating any material your audience will interact with.
Over time I intend to cover different areas within branding and design and show how it can be used to positively influence and grow your business.
Whats name should your choose for your business? How can good design help your business? What makes a great logo? What phycological impact do different design elements have on your business? These are the sort of topics I intend to cover.
Web Design
Web design is ever changing. Even in recent years there’s been a huge shift both in technologies and the way we access the web. Mobile devices are widespread and the constant progression of technology means best practices are continually evolving.
As a business owner you don’t have to understand the technical process, that nots what this blog is about, I’m not planing on publishing detailed technical how to’s, but you should be able make informed decisions through a broader understanding in order make the best decisions for your business and stay ahead of the competition. Thats what this blog is about.
As with any design there are good principles you should follow when creating a website. I intend to cover these principles in relation to web design along with any important aspects, advancements and current best practices that should be used to create, improve and ensure the continued success of your website.
What is responsive web design and why should you care? How do you keep visitors on site for longer? What is web hosting and why do you need it? How can you make your website more profitable?
WordPress
WordPress is a fantastic open source software and content management system (CMS) that I use for practically all of the websites I create.
It’s flexibility and ease of use once set up mean it’s great for building high quality, affordable websites of any scale that are easily updated and maintained without the need for a Web Developer or coding skills.
I’m a massive fan of WordPress (and Genesis, the rock solid, time saving development framework I use) and I intend to help you understand it’s many features and benefits as well as teach you how to get the most from it as a business.
Why choose a WordPress website? How can WordPress benefit your business? What is a WordPress plugin? How do you set up a mailing list with WordPress?
Rounding up
Great use of branding, WordPress and web design equal more exposure and profit for your business and it’s my mission to help you achieve this…
I still learn everyday, as I’m sure you do, but by documenting my current knowledge and continual learning in relation to these topics I hope to help you and your business as much as possible.
Long term I aim to publish a new blog post once every 2-4 weeks. However, in the coming weeks and months I may publish more frequently as I flesh out the blog with some key content and information.
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Please feel free to ask any questions you might have using the comments sections below…
What topics would be most useful to you and your business? What articles are you most interested in? Do you have any particular questions in mind that you’d like me to cover in a future blog post?
I look forward to sharing with you and learning as much as possible from one another along the way.
