we all have a story to tell about what we did during lockdown, this is mine
Throw back to March 2020 when most business were closed and life was very uncertain. Desperately trying to fill my days productively I made the decision that I would use my time wisely. I needed to focus on my business. I set myself a goal to design and create my own website.
A website is something I would always recommend to my customers. It’s your shop front to the world, it gives you an online presence and adds professionalism to your business. But for all my talk I never had one! After 17 years in business it was finally time to change that.
Through the Local Enterprise Office I attended a one day online build your own website webinar hosted by Dorcas Réamonn from Zonua. I found it really interesting and Dorcas was so good at explaining how it all worked that I was instantly hooked. The decision was made and I was finally going to get out of my comfort zone and learn something new that would be of huge benefit to me. A lot of my graphic design work comes from referrals but I had noticed in recent years I had nowhere except a brochure to direct perspective customers to show them my work.
Dorcas had an online intensive Word press course starting the following week. It was to run over six weeks with classes twice a week. With lockdown in place there was very little else for me to do so this was the perfect solution to spend my time wisely learning.
There were eleven students on the course and immediately we settled into a new way of learning via zoom. All of us from different types of business with limited wordpress skills but one thing in common, we were all on lock down and having something like this course to keep us busy and distracted every Tuesday and Saturday was great. We all had a goal of creating a fully functional website by the end of the course.
From creating pages, buttons, blogging, images, building pages and sliders. New words and plugins becoming part of our everyday lives. Learning about SEO, social media, web colours, google fonts to name a few. From google my business to analytics and everything in between.
I was very busy. Plans on spending an hour or two working on my site only to emerge five hours later! It became addictive.
As a graphic designer I am used to having all the elements in front of me onscreen when creating something. I can chop and change as much as I want with ease. Change colours, fonts, images and the result is immediate. After seeing it now from the other side I have total respect for any web designer. For me I can only describe it like designing while wearing a blindfold!!!!!
The Local Enterprise Office have been a great support to many businesses as well as the Trading online voucher scheme there are many grants available. I applied for the Continuity Grant which I received. This has allowed me to receive one to one mentoring sessions with Dorcas which helped me finish my website to a standard I would be happy with.
Is web design in my future? Who knows. I had a new skill to my belt. I recently gave a customer a design audit of their website only to be impressed as to how easily the advice came.
I would like to thank the amazing Dorcas Réamonn from Zonua for her skill, knowledge and huge patience. To my fellow students, we all came on this journey together, we had some laughs and learnt a huge amount from each other. I look forward to seeing your websites live very soon.
Siobhan Fitzpatrick
Well done on putting your lockdown time to such good use. Your branding skills and experience are definitely showcasing your personality and style on the new website. I love the freshness of it and the ease at which you can move around the site. For someone who has never designed a website before, I think this is incredible. Hats off to you 😉
If I were to add anything of value in terms of feedback, I would suggest adding some images and context to the social media / website examples you’ve done for clients.
Congrats.
David
Easily the best use of lockdown time I’ve heard. Phenomenal job. It’s hard to believe this is your first website! I particularly love the use of the Bitmoji character – so engaging. You obviously already had the design skills and now you’ve added another string to your bow, well done.
If I ever need a website built you’ll be the first person I’ll call.
Breda Smyth
Well done Maria, you are inspirational.
You always design lovely invitations and brochures for Kilcock Art Gallery. We are always on the same page, however you are great at thinking out side the box.
Best of good fortune and keep safe during this Covid-19
Breda Smyth, Curator, Kilcock Art Gallery. (established 1978)