Forum menu
You say you specialise in joinery, furniture and "outdoor spaces". Do you mean outdoor spaces or do you mean sheds? A garden is an outdoor space, as is a field, wood, road, ocean etc.
Hi,
I won't mention the font which on a mobile device is almost invisible
( https://www.screencast.com/t/uPUwztogBwUQ).
1) Make all images in your slider the same size.
2) Fewer images per gallery/ per slider to improve load times. use Google PageSpeed Insight tool to test or pingdom
3) You can't go wrong with black text on white background
4) Get a proper email address.
5) Nothing wrong with the name. Keep it, it sounds good, is quirky and doesn't have to relate to anything.
6) Think about who your target market is and tweak the content to target that. Is it local? If so where, which area/towns. Is it a demographic? If so tweak it.
There is a book called Building a Story Brand that you can get on Amazon for £8-odd. It is the best resource I've found for simplifying small business marketing.
Keep your name and all the bits about your business that you like and just simplify the messages, fonts and layout.
Other than that I find it all very pretentious, but maybe you want to sift out clients that just want boring furniture.
What is pretentious about it? Genuine question.
I'm not about making things that mass-market retailers make if that is what boring is. There's no point. I just enjoy the craft of making and enjoy making things that are different.
I don't usually give my pieces names and speak about how 'I wanted to explore the juxtapositional interplay between the textural qualities of teapot and wombat'...for instance, like many furniture designers do. So which bits are pretentious?
Where are you based? I can’t really tell. I could use someone like you but if you aren’t local to me (Surrey) then it’s probably not going to work .
Good shout and I'm going to add that. Leamington Spa, Warwickshire by the way. Nice and central 🙂
This is what you have on your web site:
Since then, I've travelled along many related. avenues
an architectural joiner making complex builds for houses
I've explored many practical and creative avenues in my work
I can offer you creative and beautifully crafted solutions to whatever you need
<span class="color_16">To communicate my ideas I use CAD software such as Sketchup</span>
Nothing awful, but a bit flowery and use of words like "builds" and "solutions", both words that could be replaced to advantage by "work", imho. Also how many people after a shed know or care about Sketchup? Would they need a software package to view it?
Contrast this with what you put in your original post:
I’m setting myself up as a maker of bespoke furniture, fitted furniture, joinery and outside spaces (sheds, summerhouses etc) all with more emphasis on the one-off.
This is straight and to the point and a model of clear writing (apart from the use of "spaces" - but you define that afterwards)! It's also what anybody coming across your web site would want to know from the off. You're trying too hard on your website, and to me it comes across as a bit pretentious. Just think what the potential customer needs to know, then write it down. In the "About me" section I'd list your qualifications and experience (i.e. as a proper list).
I'm not trying to knock you down, just offering some hopefully helpful criticism as per the OP :-). I may be wrong!
Also you could add how far away you are prepared to work and deliver.
Have a look at this for an example:
http://www.jamesbespokejoinery.com/about
They do go on about their "journey" but you can forgive them that because it's so much easier to read the typeface!
Thanks Nico. I understand what you're saying.. I'll take a look.
Regarding the font,
I kinda like it, as fonts go. It's quirky and different. However. It's grey text on a grey background, a very fine typeface and small lettering. On a relatively high-res screen it still dithers in an ugly manner, I can't imagine it's particularly readable on a smaller device. If you absolutely must keep it, you need to increase the contrast and maybe bump up the font size a couple of points.
Hotmail email address screams amateur hour. You have a domain name, use it.
Your home page is the first thing visitors will see and there's no content on it other than a cycling set of images. I can click through and discover that you do commission work but really, why would I? It looks at first glance like a hobbyist page / vanity project, if you're selling something then you need to hit them with your sales pitch front and centre.
The gallery needs work, as others have said. No-one is going to sit there clicking through 40-odd images in case something takes their fancy. Strip it down to half a dozen examples of your best work, maybe add images inline with body text elsewhere rather than just a gallery. I'd perhaps organise it by project - so have a picture of a bench which someone going "ooh, a bench" can then click through and see more photos of that project.
Look at your image descriptions. "Perspective 2" - of what?
Having "everything else" and then more menu items after it sets off my CDO. If there's more stuff then it's not "everything else," is it.
What's the point of "making images"?
The videos don't show in Chrome - I'm guessing it's a Flash thing? I just get very fuzzy static images.
What manic puts sugar in tea? (-:
Nothing wrong with Soho; just use regular (or thin), not condensed.
There only seems to be Soho Condensed, so I've changed it all to 'Avenir Light', along with a few other changes.
Thanks for all the feedback folks. It's a great help.
https://www.blackteaonesugar.co.uk/
Incidentally, I already pimped my ride with some graphics, and I used the Hotmail email address so I'm a little reluctant to change it again now, although I appreciate what people are saying about it not looking overly professional.
[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1836/29062480227_63a78da173_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1836/29062480227_63a78da173_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/Lh9NRi ]Untitled[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/79912681@N06/ ]kayak23[/url], on Flickr
I was driving through my town and I heard a bloke shout after me to stop a minute. He came over, said he was a plasterer and that he had been thinking of calling himself 'black tea NO sugar' and wanted to take a picture of my car...
Can I sue him? 😉
I used the Hotmail email address so I’m a little reluctant to change it again now
No reason they have to be the same....
Can I sue?
If he presents himself as being part of your business or linked to you when he is not - that would be “passing off” which as I recall is a criminal matter.
More often people complain about Trademarks. They don’t need to be registerred to afford protection but it makes things easier - especially as you are relatively unknown. UK registration is not too expensive but probably enough to make you question it! You can add a small TM to the end of your name and beside your logo though which asserts your ownership and might just scare away anyone looking to rip it off.
i’d be more upset if his branding looked very like mine than the name was similar.
the easiest thing to do though is register the domains blackteanosugar.com and .co.uk if he has not already!