Below are links to some of the website designs that I have created for various small to medium-sized businesses and organisations.

Please click on one of the links to open the website in a new browser window.

Covert Combat

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

To create a friendly, bold website for a customer who runs an outdoor lazertag (lazer combat) site in the Penzance (Penwith) area of Cornwall (UK).

After providing the customer with a selection of possible colour schemes for the site, the customer eventually chose a colour scheme which reflects the traditional army camoflage colours of olive drab, brown and black.  This colour scheme helped the photos which were added to blend in nicely creating a very bold but not too “in your face” design.

Because some of the pages are fairly long on this site, a conscious decision was made to add a second set of navigational buttons at the bottom of each page.  This helps encourage people viewing the website to continue navigating within the Covert Combat site, rather than running the risk of them getting frustrated at having to keep scrolling back up to the top of each page to select another page to view.

The website was optimised by Penwith Web Design to maximise the likelihood of inclusion within the major search engines. In particular, the text of the website was optimised by us to increase the likelihood of a high-ranking search engine position for the customer’s chosen keywords.

The finished website is of a pleasing design, and has received excellent feedback from the business’ customers.

An-Gwella Equestrian

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

To create a bright, friendly and easy-to-navigate website for a customer specialising in a wide-range of equestrian products and services.

The site colour-scheme was chosen to match the customer’s existing choice of stationary colour, ensuring a uniform image in all forms of paper-based and digital communication.

Penwith Web Design also part-designed the An-Gwella Equestrian logo for our customer.  I created the logo, showing a child leading a pony, from a photograph I was commissioned to take for the customer. The background to the photograph was painstakingly removed, and the shape of the child and pony was silhouetted.  The removal of unnecessary colour-detail, via the silhouetting process, helped to crispen and simplify the logo, ensuring it stands out from any background colour.  To complete the logo, a circle and the company name were added to the silhouette by a printing/design company.

An-Gwella Equestrian Online Shop

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

After 10 months of trading, it was clear that An-Gwella Equestrian’s horse tack and rider equipment sales were becoming more and more successful.  It also became clear, however, that limiting the company’s trading potential to what could be sold via a stall at local horse shows was not allowing the company to operate to its full potential.

With that in mind, Penwith Web Design were invited to create an online shop for An-Gwella Equestrian, allowing them to sell their horse tack and rider equipment nationwide.

As a sub-domain to the existing An-Gwella domain, it was felt that it was essential for the style of the existing website to be carried through to the online shop, reassuring customers that they were buying from a well-known and respected company.

Once the site styling was completed, all that remained was to input the details (including descriptions, pictures, weights, costs, etc.) of the 250+ products that An-Gwella Equestrian offer for sale! Inputting the product details was an ENORMOUS task, but seeing the finished online-shop made it all worthwhile.

The online shop is set-up so that the owner of the company can add new product lines, without needing any further input from Penwith Web Design.

The finished website design has resulted in a clear and user-friendly online shop, which positively invites its visitors to place an order.

Seams Good

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

To create a minimalistic, bright website for a customer specialising in all aspects of the seamstress business.

After the site colour-scheme had been chosen by the customer, the graphics for the site were created.  A cotton reel and needle were photographed, then carefully positioned to form the header (banner) of the website.  The border of the web pages was created to appear as if formed by the cotton on the reels; this provides a neat and tidy layout for the site.

In addition to the photography of the cotton reel and needle, Penwith Web Design were commissioned to take photographs for inclusion within the body of the web page. To that end, photographs of the customer were taken, along with some of the tools that she uses in her work. The backgrounds to these photos were carefully removed, allowing them to feature seamlessly (if you’ll excuse the pun!) within the style of this website design.

Samurai Karate Cornwall

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

To create a crisp and clean, modern website design for a customer offering instruction in Karate and general self-defence.

After looking into the possibility of using a tiled-background image for the website, it was decided to use a plain white background. The choice of white as a background colour not only kept the site looking crisp, but also echoed the colour of the uniform (Gi) worn by practitioners of Karate.

Penwith Web Design were commissioned, on behalf of the customer, to take all of the photographs used on the site.  The backgrounds to the Karate practitioners were painstakingly removed to ensure that the photographs fitted seamlessly into website design.

Kleervue Cleaning Services

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

To create a clean, fresh website design for an Essex-based company specialising in all aspects of cleaning including window cleaning, carpet cleaning, office cleaning, home cleaning, twilight cleaning, etc.

Although already a successful cleaning company, Kleervue Cleaning Services required a website to provide an additional advertising channel.  It also required a make-over of its company logo.

After considering the possibility of using the typical (if rather passé) background colour of white - as unimaginatively used by virtually all cleaning companies - it was decided that a more novel approach to colour was required. After some experimentation, the colour scheme of a blue background with white text - representing the freshness of the sky - was chosen.

The company name was given a make-over by adding lense flare to the first letter of each word. The lens flare not only fitted in well with the “sky” theme, but also gave the lettering a “sparkling clean” look, truly befitting such a quality cleaning business.

After the layout of each page had been agreed with the client, the text was laid-out and pictures were added. The finished result is an aesthetically-pleasing, effective website design.

Paintball in Penzance

Click here, or on the screen-shot below, to visit this website.

Design Brief:

To create a visually basic but informative paintball-based website, to bring the activity of Outdoor Laser Combat to the attention of paintball players who might not previously have been aware of its existence.

This text-heavy website lists some of the most common drawbacks with paintball, and advises players why outdoor laser combat can be considered a better alternative where the ultimate in realism is being sought.

The website periodically refers players to an outdoor laser combat site called Covert Combat, which is based in the Penzance (southwest Cornwall) area of the UK.

The decision was made to use a plain white background on the website, with the main title text being in a colourful “splattered paint” font to initially attract the surfer’s attention. Further “splatts” of paint in between paragraphs help to visually break-up the text, and to reinforce the paintball theme throughout the website.

The finished product is a visually-simple but effective website design, which has received significant web traffic.

Further examples of websites designed by Penwith Web Design coming soon...

I strive to ensure, with every website I create, that the generally-accepted principles of good website design are adhered to.  These principles are as follows:

A. The website has been carefully planned before it is built !

Before the website is designed, a flow-chart of the website layout is created, ensuring that the finished result is exactly as intended, and pages flow logically.

B. The website is easy to navigate !

Navigation buttons (links) can be placed at the top, bottom, or side of a page.  Whichever location is chosen, the location should remain consistent - not to mention clearly visible - throughout the website.

C. The first impression made by the website is a good one !

The “Home Page” (first page) of a website should immediately grab the visitor’s attention. It should also clearly identify the website’s purpose. Pictures should appear where they are suppossed to, and all links should work properly.

D. The pages of a website look consistent !

By using the same style (including background colour, buttons and logo) throughout the website design, visitors will be confident that the pages they are viewing are still part of the same site.  Much as a customer might have 12 different photos they want to use as background images to their website pages, the temptation to do so should be resisted in favour of a consistent, clear layout !

E. The content of the website makes it worth visiting !

People have better things to do then visit a website which is devoid of interesting or useful information (well, most people have better things to do...!). Websites must provide visitors with the information they are seeking, otherwise they will go elsewhere !  The content of a website must also be attractive to search engines if you want to maximise the chance of it being listed... this requires a fine balance between text and graphic content, the inclusion of proper meta-tags, etc.

F. The content of the website makes it worth re-visiting !

The content of a website should be regularly updated to encourage visitors to re-visit and find out “what’s new” !  Regularly updating a website also helps to promote its ranking on major search engines.

G. Contact information is easily available on the website !

If you want visitors to your website to bring you business, they need to be able to contact you. For the avoidance of doubt, a “contact us” page should be included.  Contact information can also be included at other key points throughout the website - even in the header or footer of every page, if desired.

G. The pages of the website should load quickly !

Although this is becoming less important with the increased availability and uptake of broadband, many people still have to contend with slow dial-up internet connections !  If your website pages take too long to appear, visitors will leave before you’ve communicated your message to them. Consideration should be given to splitting graphic-heavy pages into smaller, quicker-loading pages.

For an indication of the typical prices Penwith Web Design charge for website services, click here.