"One is never overdressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress." ~ Karl Lagerfeld
What Is a Boutique Web Design Company? What Do You Do?
Let's start with the simple answer. By web design, you probably have surmised that we design and build websites. By boutique we mean that we are a small company that specializes in a particular type of web design (individuals, small businesses, churches, and nonprofits in our case). It's not that we don't take on other projects but we generally work with these groups.
Now let's get into the details. When you want a website these days, you basically have two options: 1) hire a someone to craft your design from scratch or 2) build one yourself.
The first option can be a great one. A professional designer can create exactly what you want and customize every last detail if you request it - and if you can afford it. This is one of the drawbacks of hiring a digital artisan. The other drawback is that, once you receive your beautiful design, it can be tough to maintain it. Sometimes the programs you use are complex and not very user-friendly. If you have it in your budget to hire someone to maintain your website (like a webmaster), this isn't such a problem for you. But if you are like most small businesses, you don't have the budget to hire additional staff simply to keep your website current.
The second option can also be great. When you design the website yourself, you often save quite a bit of money. Also, who knows what you want better than you do? Unfortunately, if you don't have much experience in design, this can be a difficult option as well. You hear all kinds of jargon bandied about and wonder what you really need to know right now and how much of it just applies to websites that are much bigger and fancier than what you need. Then you find the DIY platforms - the computerized web designers that offer you ready-made templates so you can design the website yourself. They also show you gorgeous example sites that were designed with their software. You get excited. This is exactly what you wanted! Unfortunately, frustration sets in quickly as you spend hours trying to figure out what kind of content you need to include in your website. Then, once you have finally come up with a basic idea, you just can't seem to get your website to look like the example ones. You wind up with something that gets your name out there but it just doesn't have the professional look you want.
Enter Little Black Dress. Our goal is to meet you somewhere in the middle in order to bring you the best of both worlds. From the professional designer side, we offer the elegant, customized aesthetic you want and take the time to help you plan your website (where you talk to an actual person with actual experience rather than trying to piece together ideas on your own via computer blogs). From the design-it-yourself side, we strive to be jargon-free and we work exclusively with a user-friendly interface that is perfect for the DIYer. We're DIY platform meets custom web design. In other words, if you're looking for an option between total do-it-yourself and total custom design, we just might be your perfect fit.
The idea is that we build the website you need and then equip you to maintain and even expand it yourself once you're ready. Rather than creating something that will leave you dependent on us or that will drive you to create a webmaster position for your business when your budget won't allow for any new hires, we want to give you something beautiful and then teach you how to be self-reliant when it comes to the next steps. After all, isn't independence really the hallmark of the entrepreneurial spirit?
Now let's get into the details. When you want a website these days, you basically have two options: 1) hire a someone to craft your design from scratch or 2) build one yourself.
The first option can be a great one. A professional designer can create exactly what you want and customize every last detail if you request it - and if you can afford it. This is one of the drawbacks of hiring a digital artisan. The other drawback is that, once you receive your beautiful design, it can be tough to maintain it. Sometimes the programs you use are complex and not very user-friendly. If you have it in your budget to hire someone to maintain your website (like a webmaster), this isn't such a problem for you. But if you are like most small businesses, you don't have the budget to hire additional staff simply to keep your website current.
The second option can also be great. When you design the website yourself, you often save quite a bit of money. Also, who knows what you want better than you do? Unfortunately, if you don't have much experience in design, this can be a difficult option as well. You hear all kinds of jargon bandied about and wonder what you really need to know right now and how much of it just applies to websites that are much bigger and fancier than what you need. Then you find the DIY platforms - the computerized web designers that offer you ready-made templates so you can design the website yourself. They also show you gorgeous example sites that were designed with their software. You get excited. This is exactly what you wanted! Unfortunately, frustration sets in quickly as you spend hours trying to figure out what kind of content you need to include in your website. Then, once you have finally come up with a basic idea, you just can't seem to get your website to look like the example ones. You wind up with something that gets your name out there but it just doesn't have the professional look you want.
Enter Little Black Dress. Our goal is to meet you somewhere in the middle in order to bring you the best of both worlds. From the professional designer side, we offer the elegant, customized aesthetic you want and take the time to help you plan your website (where you talk to an actual person with actual experience rather than trying to piece together ideas on your own via computer blogs). From the design-it-yourself side, we strive to be jargon-free and we work exclusively with a user-friendly interface that is perfect for the DIYer. We're DIY platform meets custom web design. In other words, if you're looking for an option between total do-it-yourself and total custom design, we just might be your perfect fit.
The idea is that we build the website you need and then equip you to maintain and even expand it yourself once you're ready. Rather than creating something that will leave you dependent on us or that will drive you to create a webmaster position for your business when your budget won't allow for any new hires, we want to give you something beautiful and then teach you how to be self-reliant when it comes to the next steps. After all, isn't independence really the hallmark of the entrepreneurial spirit?
What's in a Name?
Of all the names of all the businesses in all the world, why choose "Little Black Dress?" Especially when we design websites?
Little Black Dress is more than a business name for us. It is an approach to design - a creative mindset that goes to the heart of what we do. The Little Black Dress is timeless. While it is something of a rite of passage for designers, for us it is a fixture; it conceptually stands as a symbol of timeless elegance and yet somehow manages to fit and reflect the culture around us. Designer Miuccia Prada once said: "to me, designing a little black dress is trying to express in a simple, banal object, a great complexity about women, aesthetics, and current times." For us, it is about using something as mass-market as a website to express the essence of your individuality and the uniqueness of the business that drives you.
The Little Black Dress, then, is an aspiration to us. It is the goal we set for each website we design. Every site should be simple enough to be effective but elegant enough to impress. In both of these respects, it should work even in our simplest plan but it should lend itself to expansion through accessories (add-ons). To us, your website is not just a job. It is an opportunity to create a piece of art that will represent you and all you stand for in a digital fashion. It is a great and beautiful responsibility that we cherish.
And so we aim for designs that are elegant rather than trendy. Little Black Dresses are not simple because they are bland or boring. They are simple because they have achieved such a level of classic elegance that they can the luxury of simplicity. As Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, once said: "When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place.” We couldn't agree more.
Little Black Dress is more than a business name for us. It is an approach to design - a creative mindset that goes to the heart of what we do. The Little Black Dress is timeless. While it is something of a rite of passage for designers, for us it is a fixture; it conceptually stands as a symbol of timeless elegance and yet somehow manages to fit and reflect the culture around us. Designer Miuccia Prada once said: "to me, designing a little black dress is trying to express in a simple, banal object, a great complexity about women, aesthetics, and current times." For us, it is about using something as mass-market as a website to express the essence of your individuality and the uniqueness of the business that drives you.
The Little Black Dress, then, is an aspiration to us. It is the goal we set for each website we design. Every site should be simple enough to be effective but elegant enough to impress. In both of these respects, it should work even in our simplest plan but it should lend itself to expansion through accessories (add-ons). To us, your website is not just a job. It is an opportunity to create a piece of art that will represent you and all you stand for in a digital fashion. It is a great and beautiful responsibility that we cherish.
And so we aim for designs that are elegant rather than trendy. Little Black Dresses are not simple because they are bland or boring. They are simple because they have achieved such a level of classic elegance that they can the luxury of simplicity. As Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, once said: "When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place.” We couldn't agree more.
How Are You Different?
In a nutshell, Little Black Dress aims to find a happy medium between professional custom work and do-it-yourself simplicity when we design your website. We not only design the look of your website and build it for you but we also take the time to get to know your business and help you plan the site so that it will work for you. We do this by using a simple platform so that you will be able to keep your website looking fabulous long after we turn everything over to you. Here are a few other things we do:
1. We listen to your needs and urge you to start small. We don't want to sell you the biggest, most expensive, and most elaborate website if it's not the kind of thing that will suit you best. We create something that will work for you where you are right now. We then provide you with the basic training you will need to grow into the design you want to have - all at one affordable price. While you are always welcome to hire us to maintain or upgrade your website, we want to give you the information and tools for you to be able to make your website everything you want it to be.
2. Our platform is user-friendly. We do not only want to create a great website for you but we also would like for you to be able to use and maintain it for yourself once it is created. For this reason, we use a user-friendly design platform so that our clients will be able to make changes, modify, and even add on to their websites once we are finished. This is the "Little Black Dress" idea. We provide you with the basic structure - which works great on its own - but also with the means to accessorize it so you can make it whatever you need it to be once it is designed.
3. We believe in honest, upfront pricing. Web design can be costly. Sometimes that cost is easy to find but, more often than not, it can be pretty difficult to figure out just how much your website will cost once all fees come together. This is one of the ways we strive to be different. We avoid estimates and quotes. If we quote you a price when we meet with you, that is the price we will charge. Period. On our website we break down the fees involved in web design so that you can plan your budget. We also provide a list of accessories (add-ons), should you want to customize your website in a way that is not a part of the plan you choose.
1. We listen to your needs and urge you to start small. We don't want to sell you the biggest, most expensive, and most elaborate website if it's not the kind of thing that will suit you best. We create something that will work for you where you are right now. We then provide you with the basic training you will need to grow into the design you want to have - all at one affordable price. While you are always welcome to hire us to maintain or upgrade your website, we want to give you the information and tools for you to be able to make your website everything you want it to be.
2. Our platform is user-friendly. We do not only want to create a great website for you but we also would like for you to be able to use and maintain it for yourself once it is created. For this reason, we use a user-friendly design platform so that our clients will be able to make changes, modify, and even add on to their websites once we are finished. This is the "Little Black Dress" idea. We provide you with the basic structure - which works great on its own - but also with the means to accessorize it so you can make it whatever you need it to be once it is designed.
3. We believe in honest, upfront pricing. Web design can be costly. Sometimes that cost is easy to find but, more often than not, it can be pretty difficult to figure out just how much your website will cost once all fees come together. This is one of the ways we strive to be different. We avoid estimates and quotes. If we quote you a price when we meet with you, that is the price we will charge. Period. On our website we break down the fees involved in web design so that you can plan your budget. We also provide a list of accessories (add-ons), should you want to customize your website in a way that is not a part of the plan you choose.
Is There Anything Else That Sets You Apart?
Definitely. We are blessed beyond measure to get to do what we love every day and we believe in giving back so that others might have the same kinds of opportunities.
Because our company's owner/founder is a third-culture kid (a missionary kid, specifically), she has a special place in her heart for others with similar backgrounds. She also has a special place in her heart for the Bible verse James 1:27 ("Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.") In fact, as a child she always dreamed of starting an orphanage. For this reason, we donate 5% of all Little Black Dress profits to organizations that reach out to third-culture kids, orphans, and widowed adults. During certain times of the year, we also offer promotions in which we have the opportunity to donate more of our proceeds to these groups.
If you want to check out the groups we donate to, stop by the websites for MK Ministries, H.O.M.E. International, Compassion Services International, and Texas District Single Adult Ministries (this is one of our designs). They are wonderful groups filled with incredible people who dedicate themselves to the service of others.
Because our company's owner/founder is a third-culture kid (a missionary kid, specifically), she has a special place in her heart for others with similar backgrounds. She also has a special place in her heart for the Bible verse James 1:27 ("Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.") In fact, as a child she always dreamed of starting an orphanage. For this reason, we donate 5% of all Little Black Dress profits to organizations that reach out to third-culture kids, orphans, and widowed adults. During certain times of the year, we also offer promotions in which we have the opportunity to donate more of our proceeds to these groups.
If you want to check out the groups we donate to, stop by the websites for MK Ministries, H.O.M.E. International, Compassion Services International, and Texas District Single Adult Ministries (this is one of our designs). They are wonderful groups filled with incredible people who dedicate themselves to the service of others.
