Why should I hire you?

We know our stuff. We're incredibly focused on making your project better than expected. We're driven by a fanatical desire to bring quality, consistency, and great design to your project and your business.

Who do you work for?

We at design{panic} hate to drop names, but we've worked for everyone from major-label bands, to a well-known guitar manufacturer; nationally-known music stores, large book publishers. Yes, we do a lot of music-related work. We like music.

We also do quite a bit of work for lots of local people with small businesses, and oddly enough, a few other design studios that will remain nameless for reasons I'm sure you'll guess.

We like to do neat stuff; chances are there's something neat about your project you never even imagined. Get in touch.

So you do websites and logos. What else?

We've done more photo retouching than some people have taken photos. Some other things we're good at: catalogs, menus, illustration, book layout, CD packaging, web & print advertising, t-shirt & sign design, business cards, even photo slideshows with menus on DVD. We work closely with other specialty studios, and when we can't do something in-house, we entrust them with these projects.

This relationship with other skilled designers and craftspeople allow us to offer letterpress, silkscreening, editing, photography--even audio and video production is available.

So design me something, and if I like it, I'll pay you.

We don't do work on spec. Just like you can't order a pizza and pay on the condition that it's delicious. We work with you and know what you want before a line of code or a graphic is made. We're not going to waste your time or ours with design you don't like.

This guy's brother will do my website for 50 dollars! Why do you charge more?

You get what you pay for. If your business' image is worth 50 dollars, by all means go for it--you've found a bargain!

I could mention the time we've spent fixing up bargain design, but I just did.

Where's all the fancy stuff, like flaming text, rotating logos on a (flaming) globe, and buttons that make a noise when you click on them?

We've been on the internets awhile, and those things are tired. You want your information to be easy to find and easy to read. Crazy animated stuff may be cool the first or second time, but when you just want to get to the point, bouncing links, animated cursors and dancing e-mail boxes just get in the way. Simple and clean is the design{panic} motto.

Where are your prices?

We quote every project as something unique. We're not interested in template-based carbon-copy design. You're not going to find per-link, page, or site prices here.

That said, we're not also not going to crank up our quote just because you have a nice watch.

Let us know what you need, and we'll quote you a price. If you don't like it, we can give you some options. If you really don't like it, I hear this guy's brother will do it.

Hey, this site you did doesn't look right in Internet Explorer!

Maybe not. We code to standards, and IE does not support standards. We do not support IE6. We might do some workarounds in IE7, but that's pushing it.

What's wrong with IE6 & 7?

That list is longer than I have room for, even on a dynamically expanding page. Go here, or here. To put it another way, it's like every automobile from a single automaker needing extra parts to drive on the highway, when vehicles from other carmakers don't require any special treatment. Also, the parts are different depending on where you need to go, and you don't know if you have the right combination of parts until you start driving. Oh, and the car crashes a lot. Whee.

Life's too short to support a browser from 2001. That said, our sites are look and work great in Safari, Firefox, Opera, and other standards-following browsers.

What do you mean, you won't take my job?

As there are only so many hours in the day, we need time to sleep, eat and walk the dog. We have families, other clients, and the usual responsibilities. If we do turn you down, it's most likely for this reason. If we can, we'll forward you to someone who can help you out.

I need something yesterday!

We don't usually do rush work, for various reasons. You can certainly contact us with a deadline looming, but we make no guarantees that we'll be able to fit you in.