Archive for the ‘Portfolio’ Category
| 7 Dec 2009 |
Hire a professional web designer (me) to work for your web design company |
It doesn’t matter if you’re among the thousands of people who read my blog every day checking for movie reviews, design resources, or simply for anything new or if you’re new around here. There is one essential thing that you need to know about me: i love my work and i do my best to be close to awesomeness.
You can find out more about me by visiting my about page.
Till last week i had been working for a company based in U.S. , but it was overtaken by a larger company, and the board decided that all employees abroad on a contract basis should be fired, and new people will be hired who can go in and work at the offices, for higher salaries of course (what a dumb decision). Parallel to working for the company(doing 1-3 projects/mo) i have continued my freelancing career.
The main point of what i’m saying is that i am available to be hired at a web design company. Even though i’d prefer being hired on a contract basis, you can hire me as a freelancer also.
Why should you hire me & what to expect
A great designer is hard to find. This is a fact. At this point you have the chance to hire a great designer with amazing creativity who is always thinking out of the box, and loves challenges and to take his skills to the highest levels.
Professionalism
The most important factor in any line of work. You tell me the details about the task and i get it done, and i get it done real good.
Work experience & quality assurance
With over 5 years of experience in the field of web design, knowledge of latest web 2.0 trends and over 120 satisfied customers you can be assured that the outcome of my every job is high quality.
Great Interaction
I fluently speak, and write english at an upper advanced level, this meaning that communication issues WON’T arise.
Cheaper rates
Many professionals overcharge for their work. I charge as much as i deserve for my work. After telling me the specs of a project i can instantly tell you a price quote.
Unlimited revisions*
* – Well, almost unlimited. If you need changes done I’ll get them done with pleasure, but don’t expect me to redo the whole design.
Availability
I am aware that you might have a company in Australia or U.S. and that time zones may inflict problems in your point of view, but they don’t. Every day i am available on Instant messengers and we can talk about progress i’ve made on a project and do the revisions.
Reliability
I can work on my own without the necessity of constant coordination by a project manager. I can work effective even on multiple projects and under pressure delivering quality designs.
In my resume you will find contact data, details about me, what i’ve done since the beginning of my career, education, and of course portfolio highlights.
The size of the portfolio large because it is print quality and the background presents a small adventure of a set of characters(i’ve invested over 30 hours of work only in the background design) which i’m sure you’ll enjoy.
If you are interested in working with me you can reach me at exes.slayer@gmail.com
| 24 Feb 2009 |
I finally sold the adult video sharing design! |
I made this design a year ago for a customer who ended up not paying because he apparently ran out of money. Anyway ever since i tried to sell it, but was unsuccessful. A week ago a potential customer popped up so i messaged him and voila he loved it and bought it instantly!
I sold the design at the initial price i asked one year ago – $195
As you can see the design is really sleek and ordered, along with ad optimization for maximum CTR. As you can see pink(slutty pink) and black are the dominant colors, excellent for an adult video sharing website. The psd itself is huge due to the lots and lots of layers and filters used: it has 55mb, and its cache is almost 7GB(meaning that you can’t open it if you don’t have 7GB free disk space).
Phew. I finally got rid of it. This is what happens if a customer doesn’t pay! You get stuck with the design for a very long time.
| 17 Sep 2008 |
Custom WordPress design for 1800PocketPC.com |
To tell you from the start this design was a tricky one, mostly the phone’s design, i worked like 4 hours on it including the customer’s revisons, till i got everything like he wanted to look. Designing is hard when you have to completely fulfill someone’s strict requirements.
Overall it’s very easy to design a theme. The harder part is to come up with the concept and the color combination along with the elements arrangement. Before starting work on a design i ask each and every customer what color combination does he want, how many sidebars, extra elements that he requires and any other info that he thinks would be useful to achieve the design he desires.
Also it’s great to talk to a customer via Instant messenger, the customer can do faster revisions, and communication is also a lot better.
George from 1800PocketPC.com checked on me like 1-4 times a day to ask for improvements and previews in order to get what he wanted. It was really great chatting with him, he was a great customer.
Here’s George’s feedback:
I recently had the pleasure of working with Tom from thaslayer.com, I had a vision for a new WordPress theme and he brought it to life. Now my blog has a unique theme and it can stand out from the rest. His price was way better than some of the other design companies I approached. The design was completed very quickly and professionally, and there was constant communication between us so I could approve all the elements in the design of the theme. It was a pleasure working with u mate.
Saijo George www.1800PocketPC.com
PS:The phone looks mat because if i would have made it light-reflective and glassy looking it would have looked like an iPhone, now George has his own custom made pocketPC design which contains the posts.
Customer Name: George
Timeframe: 72 hours
Job overview: Custom wordpress design for a Pocket PC blog
Price: 340$
| 9 Aug 2008 |
Brand new design for Linkmuncher Directory |
Menj is the owner of Linkmuncher Directory , i mostly did conversions for him(he provided a psd of a forum template and i organized and modified the elements to look like a phpld/wordpress design or vice-versa).
In the last period i couldn’t do him any jobs due to my full schedule so i sort of owned him this.
He gave me a phpld design to tune-up. Insted of tuning it up as a gift i built him one from bottom up. I felt that i owe him this at least for not getting the jobs done. I didn’t modify the price either. I asked him 40$ in the beginning for tuning up his theme and thats the price he paid in the end 
.
He was extremely pleased with the design, but he had some paypal issues. He is one of the few customers which i trust so i gave him the design and told him that he will pay me when he’ll get the issue fixed. In 3 days he got back to me saying that he sent the payment.
Customer-designer relationship is based on trust. Although my method is that i get paid after the design is done and everything is fine i don’t send the psd files to new customers only after they sent me the money.
Customer Name: Menj
Timeframe: 24 hours
Job overview: Tune-up a crappy looking phpld design Create a fresh new design
Price: 40$ SPECIAL
| 8 Aug 2008 |
Custom design for ShareUrFiles file hosting website |
The owner of ShareUrFiles.com posted up a job on DP forums regarding the redesign of his wbsite. Guess what? I was the designer who was chosen for the job, and I think he made a pretty good choice, don’t you?
Although my design is not live yet it will be live soon hopefully.
The customer wanted a clean look along with all the features of the script taken in consideration + Ad optimization and a custom logo.
I did everything as he requested and he really liked my work saying that i outdone myself .
The thing that i really like about the overall deisgn is that it looks very clean and spacy giving the user a sensation of flexibility.
Trust me on this guys, light blue with light green looks SICK(great) and it combines very smoothly with the gray top part.
I chose to make the logo black to get it into the spotlight and added orange/red icons to express some warm colors next to it.
Customer Name: DrMerc
Timeframe: 24 hours
Job overview: Design a custom File hosting website Front-end
Price: 180$
| 8 Jun 2008 |
Custom WordPress design for a Medicine niche blog |
This is my latest project which i finished yesterday. Things went really smooth(although i had to fully redo the bottom part of the theme) and the design was completed in a total time of about 10-11 hours,thanks to the good communication with Desmong(the customer).
My favorite part is the footer part, i really like the way the green blends with the dark blue and white
Its great to have the possibility to chat using an IM client with a customer: you can write suggestions and get feedback in real time, so this way if you screw up a part of the design thanks to the high number of feedbacks that you can ask during a session you can correct it and not continue doing something the customer won’t like.
Here are the first guidelines that i got from Desmond:
Niche is Diet pills.
Right now I’m thinking 3 columns would be good.
Here’s a template that I really like:http://www.phentramin-customer-reviews.com/
As far as color scheme, maybe something along the lines of this:
The next day i got back to him, and in the bottom part i put 3 columns: Recent posts, Recent comments, Popular posts. I worked like 20 mins on that part.
Here’s the feedback i got:
okay i whipped up a littel sketch of what im looking for. 1. im thinking do away with the doctor 2. at the bottom i dont need recent post ect and replace those with top 3 product spaces, trying to stay away from the standard blog post theme and go more for a typical .com or something 3. content area in the center area or something with additional nav column on the left 4. if possible, mabe a small ad column on the right?
I know some guys who would have abandoned the customer on sight if they would have got a reply like this, but if you constantly abandon customers you loose your reputation and your skills wont improve. Trust me on this guys, negative criticism is good, because it will help you improve your skills.
We talked over the details and after a while i showed Desmond the design.
Check out his reaction:
D C: OMG
D C: im in love!
D C: thats niiice
The feeling to see a customer satisfied is priceless and boosts your morale sky high!
The theme turned out real great, and after a few smaller revisions it got better. Desmond decided to change the doctor team stock image to a fitness girl. So i did, but i still think the theme looks better with the med team on it, and thats the way i included it into my portfolio.
The transaction went really smooth, i got the money and sent him the fully layered and well organized PSD file.(yet an other tip for the noobie designers – always organize the PSD in groups(header/footer/content/etc) and provide it that way. In case the customer wants to edit something he needs to easily find the layer to edit)
Desmond’s review:
“This is the guy to have do your templates. He’s professional, quick, and creative. He worked with me until the template looked exactly how I wanted to look. Bottom line is he does great work. I will be using him in the future.”
Although the design is sold comments are always welcome.
Customer Name: Desmond
Timeframe: 72 hours
Job overview: Design a custom sleek looking WordPress theme for a diet pills blog
Price: 240$
| 4 Jun 2008 |
Custom newspaper style wordpress design |
This is the first newspaper styled theme that i designed, and everything went pretty smooth thanks to the great cooperation of the customer.
The customer requested the main color to be light blue, and to have a 2 columned theme which is also ad-optimized.
I fulfilled his requests, and used a sleek bright blue as a main color, with a light bolded gray background.
He also requested a box where a youtube video is shown, so i incorporated that also, along with a small icon.
The 2 main posts on top which have the american flag next to them are featured posts, he originally requested the featured post boxes to be black, but i talked him out of it because the black boxes would have messed up the color harmony in the theme.
The outcome looks better than i expected. Really. I wouldn’t have used grey as a background, but the customer insisted upon its usage. The usage of a white background would have raised the contrast of the elements, and the theme would have looked much better, but eh, he’s the customer.
For the body of the boxes i used a light blue/grey gradient, and didn’t close the bottom of the boxes fading the colors in the bottom of each box.
This theme is a good example on that 2 columned themes can compete in quality, and monetization with 3 columned themes 
.
Customer Name: WorldMan
Timeframe: 72 hours
Job overview: Creation of a custom web 2.0 newspaper style wordpress theme
Price: Private
| 11 Apr 2008 |
Custom vBulletin design for an Adult Forum |
Yes, the forum is Adult topic oriented, but my job didn’t have anything to do with xxx pictures, or stuff like that. I just did the design itself, how the buyer will customize it and what items he will add to it it’s his problem.
Here are the client’s specifications:
The forum I need a design for is an adult forum. The domain is NSFWForum. The design I have in my head is a black theme with a logo that has a red circle through “SFW”…I’m absolutley open to ideas of course! I just want it to look good.
Let me know if you’d be willing to do this.
My suggestion:
yeah, of course i can do it, i don’t really care about the niche of the sites that i design, it’s still designing after all
hmm, adult forum how does this sound: black background, pink and grey web 2.0 colors
Said and done. The job was completed within a 72 hour time frame(he told me last week that he will have funds to pay me on wednesday), so i took my time and chilled i did each part of the design on different days.
Check out the designs:
Ben(the customer) just loved it
Hey,
The design looks awesome! Payment of $250 sent, as promised.
Please email the file(s) to [email address]
Thanks again,
Ben
Its a great feeling to see a customer happy, and especially getting the payment, because you know that you have to rely on that money(i have to revamp my father’s apartment so i can rent it, and everything costs money nowadays).
Customer Name: Ben
Timeframe: 72 hours
Job overview: Design a vBulletin design for an adult forum
Price: $250
| 21 Mar 2008 |
WordPress Theme design for World Of Scooters |
This is the second theme that i designed for Robbie. The first theme was for his trampolines blog, of which you can check out more details by Clicking HERE .
The design was made for his Scooter Blog. This is the second concept, the first one was dark(blue+black) and he told me that he wants something clean, pleasant to the eye and easy to navigate.
The job was completed within a 48 hour timeframe(along with revisions and coding.
Coding was done by BETng4U (damn its good to have him back) which went really smooth.
I used a combination of blue/orange/white. Robbie specified that he wants a white background so he got one!. To put a bit of life in the theme i used 2 stock images from iStockPhoto. The main purpose of the blue and orange is to adjust the contrast of the theme(if i would have used grey for example instead of blue the theme would have looked extremely monoton).
The header image is made out of 2 parts:
- The left part with the guy on scooter and the logo - i used myriad roman font for the logo, it’s one of my favorite fonts next to Century gothic and scriptina.
- The right part with the testimonial and the guy from the scooter showing thumbs up - a testimonial is really important at these type of sites/blogs. It can really motivate a potential customer to buy a product.
To see the live design visit www.worldofscooters.co.uk
Customer Name: Robbie
Timeframe: 48 hours
Job overview: Design and code a wordpress theme for a scooter blog
Price: Confidential
| 26 Feb 2008 |
Custom wordpress design for a Trampolines blog |
2 days ago Robbie contacted me to design him a custom wordpress design for his Trampolines blog where he will advertise the trampolines he’s selling.
He asked me to design him a fun design and that he wants to target mostly parents. So i designed a fun banner which is attractive to both kids and parents.
Here’s the main concept of the banner:
in the left corner there are 2 kids who are having fun on the trampoline, with other kids waiting in line
the sun is shining bright and from the right part kids are hurrying to also jump around with a happy mom and dad recommending the service
if i would put an other trampoline than this concept would get messed up because the running kids would have an other place to go to
To create the banner i used lots of stock illustrations(the good thing is that they are royalty-free and you just buy them once and use them forever) and i brushed a lot to get everything look like it’s one piece.
I used 2 fonts from 2 different categories to make the logo:
- MarkerFeltThin-PlainMarkerFeltThin-Plain which is from the handwriting category for “Fantastic Fun”
- Myriad Pro Semibold-Condensed for the “Great fun all summer for every kid” tagline.
Basically the main purpose of the design is to be as appealing as possible and to attract as many customers as possible. This is why i incorporated a testimonial box right in the top of the sidebar.
For the sidebar element titles i used a red rectangle and at every important element i varied the text color to make the design as fun as possible.
I had a rough time thinking out the concept of the posts and mostly i couldn’t think of a cool timestamp background image, but then i remembered that i saw a stock photo with kids and adults holding banners in their hands and one of them matched perfectly the design, so i used it.
To display the comments i made a talk bubble, nothing fancy, but cool.
This design is a great example on how important stock images and stock illustrations are in a webdesigner’s life. They can help create a bright, cheerful design which wouldn’t be possible without the use of them.
Robbie was extremely satisfied with my work and he said that he will have more projects for me in the future:
Robbie: am off for food, thankyou very much for your help tom. will be in contact in the near future for more
The coding of the theme will be done by Naif, i already contacted him about this project and i can’t wait to see my design go live
