Similar to Webflow — which is an excellent intro to styling websites for non-technical folks — there's a WordPress plugin called Oxygen[1] which I really recommend checking out as it is more-less the same as Webflow, just built on top of WordPress which you can use locally, or whatever.
We are a design studio called Superawesome, and we just launched Microawesome https://microaweso.me/ a few months ago, which is a productized service kind of deal. We do tiny, fixed-price projects with quick turnaround. The kicker is we don't do revisions — we call it "what you get is what you get" — and this is where we're making savings for our clients.
We've learned over the years that we spend most of our time convincing clients to trust us and sign off on work we already know is good. Through Microawesome we're asking them to trust us, and in return they will get a good result fast.
It is definitely not for everyone, but that's why we're doing it "on the side", we still have our studio which offers a standard agency-type design service.
As a designer, sometimes all I work with sometimes are images (e.g. when working on a moodboard), and this would enable me to work much more efficiently.
We have a web application out in beta (free) that integrates with Gmail, called Funnel http://funnelnow.com/ aimed exactly at people like yourself (and us, since we developed it for our own needs primarily).
We've finished the integration of the complete new UI (take a look at some screenshots on our portfolio http://sprawsm.com/project/funnel/) that we will be releasing in a few days.
We've been using it for over two years now for our design company, worked wonderfully.
Being a good UI designer means being able to empathise with the users, understand their needs, and enable them to do what they came to do in a most efficient and pleasant way possible.
If you don't have much experience in these fields (UI and UX, as if they are two different things) you will quickly learn that the above trumps most of what you might have learned throughout a formal graphic design education and/or experience as a graphic designer.
So, my direct advice would be to study user behavior on the Web, psychology, and usability. Learn (if you don't already have the habit) how to think through user flows in lo-fi mockups and wireframes, immerse yourself in good UI design, and make it your priority to pay attention to details when using other people's software; and I don't just mean on the UI side. Pay attention at the company behind the app, how they prioritize features, and how they handle unsexy, menial tasks such as recurring billing, support, and how they integrate that into their work, the software itself.
I strongly believe that you can't be just a UI designer. I mean, you can be to a certain point, but you need to know all of the ins and outs of what it takes to take a product to market in order to be one of the few superstars who we all look up to and learn from. You need to be aware of the entire process, have insight into the business decisions that need to be made, so that you can paint a whole picture.
Of course there's an upside, and I'm sorry if you got the impression that I'm unsatisfied with my work. That's not what I wanted to get across.
You get to see a more complete picture of projects you work on. You mature a lot as a person, and develop various skills you wouldn't otherwise. It toughens you up, that's for sure.
My main intention was to warn you that it — more often than not — actually means doing more than one job. Both physically and mentally.
I guess the reason I chose to do this is that I get nervous when I'm not in control, and I still like to be in touch with what I set out to do in life; which is to be a good interface designer.
I would say that running a small consultancy with 1-4 employees can give you more than enough of juggling between managing and producing (designing, programming, etc.)
I am personally in the situation that you want to be in, and to be honest it's the hardest thing I've had to do in my life (this is obviously personal).
Having meetings with customers after X hours of design work in front of a screen is hard.
Sitting down to design for X hours after dealing with an endless stream of information you need to process and be aware of, before lunch is hard.
Worrying about payroll is hard.
Delivering good design/code is hard.
What I'm trying to say is these things are hard enough on their own, and I find myself overwhelmed often. And I'm not trying to dissuade you from giving it a go, I'm just trying to paint a clear picture for you, so you know how it is.
If you think you'll be able to divide your managing hours vs. your production hours — you're deluding yourself. It's a mess and as the saying goes: when it rains, it pours.
The main difficulty with balancing these two roles is time management, and stress caused by having to manage when you'd rather be producing and vice versa.
So, it's interesting, it keeps you on your toes, it beats working in a coal mine, but it's still hard work.
It has personally made me discover that I much prefer working with people that I do sitting in front of a computer all day, so I'm working on transitioning myself from a designer role, to a manager role.
I think Turkey has the most of this type of sellers. Especially the towns that are on the sea and get a lot of tourists.
It usually goes like this:
1. Hey my friend, where are you from? — So that he can set an initial price for you. None of the items ever have prices on them because of this. If say you're from Russia or Germany and the like you'll get the big initial price, if you're from Serbia like me, you'll probably get a smile.
2. Let's say you are from Germany, and were looking at a shirt, he'll tell you €40. — You simply can't allow yourself to buy it at this price, neither is he expecting you to (although I'm sure that happens). At this point he just wants you to pile up the stuff you like from the store.
3. When you're done, he'll sit you down for "the deal". Now's the time to haggle, and you should have been thinking of ways to cut the price while you were picking up the clothes. He'll probably give you a small discount "for bulk" that you should dismiss at once, and aim for at least 30% off of everything (50% is standard somewhere, some parts is less), and don't be afraid to return some things you don't want to buy.
So yeah, if you want some schooling in direct sales, go to Turkey (Alanya is very nice) and go shopping. Be prepared to come back with many knock–off Armani shirts and sweaters.
I would use this for my company if I were able to install something as an OS X app. I'm not comfortable on the command line, and I want contractors and new employees to come on board just as easy (I don't want to have to admin their machines.)
This is very interesting indeed. I wouldn't mind paying for an OS X app that would take care of this problem (the setting up on each machine).
While I see the point of wanting to do this (decoration !== design), the designer ended up with a bunch of designs that look as if they come from a single line of products—they basically look the same. This is mostly due to almost exclusive usage of Helvetica in the redesigns. It is often associated with minimalism (coming from a Swiss school of design), but it is a common trap designers fall into, in that when they strive for minimalism, they immediately turn to Helvetica, which effectively makes their efforts like thousands of others.
I thought it was clear that it was an exaggeration, perhaps it would be clearer if I had used quotes. A polite ”sorry man, I have things to do” will suffice.
