Services

Unlike a lot of “big box” web and graphic design companies, Harness Design Indy is dedicated to finding the best design solutions for your individual needs. Our first priority is to work as a team with our clients and create an end product that they envisioned.

Another advantage of keeping our business small is that our overhead is very low (no additional staff, no big offices), which allows us to create high-quality products for our clients while keeping their costs low.

Since every project is different, prices can vary. We can discuss your budget during our initial meeting, which will help us decide the best course of action for your design.

Our payment structure varies depending on the budget and scope of the project. For instance, for smaller projects we ask for 50% of the project fee in advance with the balance due upon completion of the project.

For larger-scale jobs, we divide the payments into thirds: one-third due upon acceptance of the contract, one-third when we submit the project for final review, and the final payment due when the project is completed.

Alternative payment plans can be accommodated as needed.

This, again, depends on the project and our workload. Generally smaller design projects such as postcards, stationery, web ads, etc, are ready for review within two or three business days. Websites and larger design projects such as catalogs, programs and brochures may take up to three to four weeks, due to the time involved in creating them

We can almost always work within shorter timeframes. Please let us know if you have a hard deadline to meet and we will do our best to get the job done.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is probably our clients’ #1 concern when we discuss a web design project.

Many business owners pay thousands of dollars to SEO “specialists” who promise to put their site at the top of a web search, only to find that it did not work. SEO does not take a “specialist” and it does not take thousands of dollars. If a website is built correctly, it will naturally rise to the top of a search over time.

At Harness Design Indy, we employ only “white hat” techniques. We don’t cut corners to increase a site’s rank in order to get instant results, since that can actually hurt your ranking. We use industry-standard implementation to get a positive rating for your site. No matter what an SEO specialist claims, no web designer can ever guarantee continued success and high ranking — and neither can we. However, we do provide consultation with our clients on how to create meaningful content in order to achieve better search engine results.

A lot of times friends and relatives have the best of intentions, but unless they have true experience in the industry their efforts can inadvertently give you a sub-standard website.

One concern is that your friend may not know all of the keys to optimizing your website for search engines. Another thing that we have seen pretty often is that a rift forms between family members and suddenly your trusted web developer is no longer available.

By relying on an established company like Harness Design to build your website, you can guarantee that you will have a quality site, and that we will always be here when you need us.

Things move quickly in terms of technology and best practices with web design and development.  It is important to take advantage of new technologies, reassess if their website still reflects the main focus of their business, and to stay on top of changes in search engine optimization strategies.  Look at how much our own site has changed over the years!

Free website builders were great when not everyone had a website. However at this point if you drop your logo and content into a website builder, there will most likely be many other similar businesses with the exact same website – just with different content.

Another concern with using a site builder is that at the end of the day, your hosting company owns your website, not you. If in the future you decide to change hosting companies, you will have to completely rebuild your website with the new hosting account.

We have chosen to focus our time on graphic design and web development over managing clients’ hosting plans.

While we do recommend hosting plans to our clients based on their individual needs, the decision of which company to use is ultimately up to our clients. We simply request administrative access in order to launch and manage their websites.

By allowing our clients to choose their own hosting plans, we can pass on the additional savings to our clients.

Absolutely! We now use the WordPress platform to build all of our websites, which gives you the flexibility to edit pages, create blog posts, and manage your online store yourself.

If you only plan on updating your website occasionally, you can opt to have us make changes for you.  We are only a call or email away and usually can make updates within a day or two, depending on what you need.

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a great tool for small businesses owners to spread the word about their business by targeting exact neighborhoods in their area. By being able to focus on a specific target market, they can ensure that their marketing budget is spent effectively.

We at Harness Design Indy will be happy to work with you step-by-step to create an effective EDDM marketing piece and get it into your prospective customers’ mailboxes

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There are many printing companies that offer online tools to design your own marketing materials. What we have found – for ourselves and from client feedback – is that they can be difficult to use, and the end product isn’t always what you expect from the proof.

By hiring a graphic designer to create your marketing materials, you can ensure that the process will be smooth and stress-free, and the end product will look professional.