Why Hire a Professional Designer?

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"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true, I no longer know how to use my telephone." Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ language

These days you can buy programmes that pre-code that HTML stuff so you don't have to know how. You can even get free templates (the paint-by-numbers artwork of the Internet), or just copy stuff off some other site because it's really easy to do.

Jeff Croft writes: "..they buy a copy of Photoshop or Dreamweaver and call themselves a web designer... No one thinks if they have a hammer they've got the skills to be a professional carpenter. No one decides they don't need a doctor if they've got a stethoscope of their own."

But when it comes to the creative arts the purchaser's opinion too often seems to be that there is no art to creativity. You (or your employer) should hire a professional because:

• A unique design on a well-crafted website says "this is a quality business". The wife's nephew's clipart on a page that scrolls sideways for 3 feet says "we're cheap".

• The design process is labour-intensive so unless you have a lot of spare time then you can't spare the time it should take, or pay for all the overtime that it will take.

• A professional design is a legitimate deductible business expense. The scrawled scrap of bar napkin from your wife's nephew might not stand up to tax department scrutiny.

• When things change (the office will move, a new partner will join, you'll add new product to your catalogue) a properly made site can be updated by another professional if your own designer isn't available. A site that was created by using software on a 30-day free trial download will need to be redone from scratch.