Tara Laing Design

14/05/2024

🖥 When building a website for a client, it’s essential to gather comprehensive information to ensure the final product meets their expectations. ✏️🖱🎨

Here’s what you’ll need:

Business Overview: Understand their business, target audience, and objectives for the website.

📄 Content: Text, images, videos, and logos that will populate the site.
Design Preferences: Color schemes, layout ideas, and examples of websites they like.

📊 Functionality Requirements: Any specific features they want, like forms, e-commerce capabilities, or interactive elements.
Domain and Hosting: Information on their preferred domain name and hosting service.

🔍 SEO and Analytics: Keywords for SEO and any specific requirements for analytics tracking.

⚙️ Maintenance Plan: Determine how the website will be updated and maintained post-launch.

💸 Budget and Timeline: Clarity on the available budget and expected timeline for project completion.

Gathering this information will help you create a website that effectively represents the client’s brand and meets their needs.

24/04/2024

🎨 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿: 𝗨𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🎨

𝗖𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝘆 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗲: Forget fancy art studios; my creative sanctuary is a cozy coffee shop. Give me a latte, a laptop, and a quirky playlist, and I’ll whip up designs that’ll make your eyes dance.

𝗙𝗼𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗠𝘆 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵: I spend hours browsing through fonts like a kid in a candy store. Serifs, sans-serifs, script fonts – they’re all my guilty pleasures. Sometimes I even dream in Helvetica. 🤫

𝗣𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗹 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝘁: My eyesight? 20/20. My obsession with pixel alignment? 20/10. If a logo is off by a single pixel, I’ll lose sleep over it. Yes, I’m that person.

𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗜𝘀 𝗠𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱: I wield Photoshop like a wizard. Layers? More like dimensions of reality. And don’t get me started on the healing brush – it’s my time-travel machine for erasing bad hair days.

𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 = 𝗘𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿: When a client says, “Can you make the logo pop more?” – I interpret it as, “Can you turn it into a disco ball?” And then I cry a little inside.

𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗠𝘆 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲: RGB, CMYK, Pantone – I speak them all. I’ve debated the emotional impact of teal versus turquoise at 3 AM. Spoiler: It’s teal. Always teal.

𝗖𝘁𝗿𝗹 + 𝗭 𝗜𝘀 𝗠𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘁: My life motto? “Undo is my best friend.” I’ve undone more mistakes than a politician during election season.

𝗩𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰𝘀 = 𝗭𝗲𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲: The gentle curves of Bézier handles soothe my soul. Illustrator is my meditation app – “Breathe in, create a path; breathe out, adjust the anchor points.”

𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗠𝘆 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲: I’ve seen that smiling woman holding a salad in at least 37 different ads. She’s my spirit animal.

𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀 = 𝗥𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀: “Design a logo for a plumbing company.” My brain: “Water droplets? Pipes? A wrench? Or…a majestic unicorn surfing on a pipe-wave?” 🦄

So, fellow designers, keep your Pantone swatches close and your humor closer. We’re the unsung heroes of aesthetics, turning chaos into visual poetry, one pixel at a time. 🎨✨

30/11/2023

Out with the old, in with the new 🦄 ✨

I've given UniPaper a bit of a digital branding facelift. I'd love to hear your feedback...

29/11/2023

Stay committed to your decisions,
But be flexible in your approach.

I DON'T DESIGN FOR BRANDS, I DESIGN FOR PEOPLE INTERACTING WITH BRANDS

09/08/2023

Happy Women's Day

Today we celebrate our courage, our strength, vulnerability, sisterhood and softness.

24/11/2022

No caption needed. This design speaks for itself.

13/10/2022

Proudly the creative idea generator behind UniPaper

This brand has been an almost two years project in the making that has finally been launched at Cleantex 2022 that's being held at Gallagher Convention Centre

Thank you Johan van Zyl for allowing me to be part of this wonderful project and trusting the brand in my hands. I will nurture it and ensuring that it grows into a household brand.

Watch this space!

21/02/2022

THE BEST INTENSIONS WITH THE WORST RESULTS

I’m convinced that most of you can relate to the heading of this piece of writing. You do something or say something with the most pure intension. You’re convinced you’re doing the morally right thing, you’re standing up for what you believe in or you’re simply doing your utmost to help another person. And then… Things snowball. One simple action or word spoken turns into an avalanche.

The worst part usually is that you don’t have an escape planned, because you were completely blindsided by what has transpired. The plot twist is so unforeseen that your mind is usually having difficulty coming to terms with the events. How did you get it so wrong? How did your good intension have such dire results?

That’s usually the part where the serenity prayer comes to mind “Accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference”. Even then you end up with so many questions. Can I change things? Were my intensions pure? Did I misinterpret the entire situation? The list goes and it repeats, because absolutely nothing is making any sense to you right now.

At this point I’m challenged by this – pure intensions and possibly the worst unforeseen results. I’m looking for answers, searching for the pinnacle point where it all went awol. The truth is that life doesn’t always go according to plan. You can be calculated to the finest detail and still curveballs can be thrown your way. Curveballs the size of what seems like giant boulders. It’s at this stage where you have to accept that you can either stay on that path where the boulder can crush you or it’s a sign that you need to change your path. Call it “changing direction” if you may.

Even if you have the purest intensions, they can merely be your own perception.