Planning & Discussion
Together with you and your team we think about your requirements and how we can balance them with those of your users. We will agree a schedule, costings and brief for the project.
Sarola organises successful events around the world for a variety of loyal clients. They needed a new identity including logo, stationery and a website. The result is a clean, modern design which sets them apart from the competition.
ABA wanted to update the look and feel of their online presence, and be able to have more input into the content of the site. We designed and built the site, using Perch CMS to pass the control over to them, and gave them training to ensure they would be confident updating the site in the future.
We specialise in handcrafting clear, usable and creative websites for your business
We like to work closely with our clients to develop the best solution for their business. We think everyone produces their best results when they enjoy working with a team, so we like to work with people who are as passionate about their business as we are about making websites! Honest and open relationship??
“It has been great working with Pen & Pixel. We are really pleased with the quality of our new site and, what’s more, it was all delivered with punctuality, professionalism and a smile!”
Louise Gibbons, Location Marketing
Together with you and your team we think about your requirements and how we can balance them with those of your users. We will agree a schedule, costings and brief for the project.
We love using pen and paper, and we start every project by sketching out thoughts and ideas before getting near a computer. We will be considering not only some first design ideas, but also user journeys and interactions. We will produce site maps and wireframes which will help us to work through any complex areas of the site, as well as identifying and resolving any potential issues before they happen.
This stage in the process is all about rapid iteration: ideas and concepts can be worked through quickly and will evolve until everyone is happy with the outcome. It is a great time for you and your team to be involved: after all, you know your business best!
Great websites are built on great content. From copy to photos, illustrations and videos, having a well thought out content strategy can make or break your site.
Your content should reflect the personality of your business and should be consistent, concise and appropriate. We can help you to cut out the jargon and develop a clear content plan for your site, where appropriate pulling in help from one of the dedicated Content Strategists who work alongside Pen & Pixel.
From our first ideas, we will develop the design until we have crafted a beautiful site for your business. This is an iterative process, and can involve going back to the drawing board for certain interactions, or making prototypes to test out how the interface will work.
We develop using the most up to date coding technologies like html5 and css3, handwriting clean, clear and accessible code. This makes your site easier to maintain and update, as well as helping to improve search engine rankings. Every site is built with the future in mind to ensure its longevity.
We don’t just deliver the goods and walk away. After the launch of your site, we will be there to help with any ongoing support you need. If your site uses a CMS, we offer training to you and your team to ensure everyone is 100% confident with the technology. Building strong and lasting relationships with our clients is really important to us, so even after launch, we are often involved with the next stages of their web strategy.
Although the stages above have been listed in a logical order, the design and development of websites is a very fluid process: in practice, many of the stages overlap each other, or are returned to throughout the lifespan of the project.
We work with wide range of clients in and around the UK and beyond. We take on projects small and large, and We work with wide range of clients in and around the UK and beyond. We take on projects small and large.
We keep the core team small, collaborating with a number of other studios and freelancers on various projects to bring in extra skillsets where needed.
“It has been great working with Pen & Pixel. We are really pleased with the quality of our new site and, what’s more, it was all delivered with punctuality, professionalism and a smile!”
Louise Gibbons, Location Marketing
We like to think of this more as ‘responsible’ design. Technology is progressing at a rate of knots: the mobile age is upon us, and who knows what new device is around the corner. We feel that we have a responsibility to our clients to produce websites which not only function on modern devices and browsers today, but will work in the future too.
Developing an understanding of the needs of your user, and balancing that with your own business requirements is essential to producing an effective and usable website. Whether you simply need to consider exactly what information a user might want to find on your site, or if you would like to undertake comprehensive user testing to ensure the success of your product, we can help to make your users happy. And happy users equal a more successful business.
Wherever possible, we recommend using a Content Management System (CMS) to handle the content on your site. From adding a new email address to your contact page, to writing daily posts on a blog, giving you the ability to perform these tasks on your own site is an important part of the development process (??) We don’t just work with one CMS either: that’s a bit like hammering a square peg into a round hole. We are experienced in working with a number of systems, and will make a recommendation based on your own project’s requirements.
Pen & Pixel is the small design studio of Jo Lankester, and is based in Oxford, UK. We love what we do and work with a whole range of clients, big and small, in the UK and further afield.
Coming from a background in typographic and information design, we have been designing and developing websites for since 2005. Pen & Pixel design is passionate about usability and believes that all products should be easy to use and understand. This is achievable through thoughtful design, well written and relevant content, and a thorough understanding of the needs of your users.
We believe that great web design should be accessible to everyone, so we deliver thoughtful and creative online solutions at a reasonable cost. If you would like to work on a project with us, please get in touch, or download our client questionnaire.
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We’d love to hear from you, so please drop us a line!
You can also find Pen and Pixel on twitter and dribble.
If you are interested in working with us, we are going to need a little more information about your project, so please take a look at our client project questionnaire and provide us with as much info as you can.