LANCASTER, Ont.
— Bridging the gap between high-end design and affordable design is where you want to find a career in web design, says one Canadian web designer.
“I’ve always been very interested in web and web design,” says Chris McNeill, a Toronto-based web designer and designer with a background in print design.
McNeill was born in Toronto, grew up in Ottawa and later moved to the U.S. to attend college.
He later earned a degree in web development and digital media, and now works at a small web design studio in downtown Toronto.
“My clientele ranges from big, well-known brands like Apple and Facebook to smaller companies that might have just started,” he says.
McNeil says he was always looking for the right design studio that could help him with his freelance business.
The first job he ever got for his design work was for a Canadian online fashion magazine called Design for Love, he says, which ran in 2011.
That’s when McNeill says he first learned how to create a website.
“They had this great team of designers that I would go on and on about the design process.
They would just make me happy.”
McNeill says his clients liked the site’s clean, minimal look and wanted to be able to interact with it.
He started with just a couple of templates, but eventually added more and more, eventually creating a site that now has over a million views.
He says he still designs the site and that it’s still one of his top workflows for web design.
“It’s kind of like I’m a digital design and development company,” he explains.
“You’re basically making these pages, adding colors and textures, adding some animations and so forth.
The idea is that I’m helping clients make their own designs.”
McNeil said his clients would come in with ideas for new designs, and he would then take those designs and make a design for them.
“A lot of times the clients were like, ‘Oh, we need a lot of buttons to be displayed on our website,'” he says with a laugh.
“So we have to do a lot more, and I just love the way that people respond to the product.”
McConnell’s clients also appreciate the fact that he takes the time to design the site themselves, not just for them, he adds.
“People really like the attention to detail that we do,” he said.
McConnell says he’s learned a lot since starting his own company in 2009, which he’s now launching as an online design and web development company called DesignForLove.
He says it was a tough time financially, but he feels it’s made his business better.
“It’s definitely helped me in terms of making more money and getting more people to be on my website, so it’s really paid off,” he told CBC News.
“And, as you know, when I first started, I was making $400 a week.
Now I’m making $5,000.
So that’s been a real success.”
McNeal said he’s also benefited from the fact he works with an international team.
He’s working with a team in Canada, Australia and Japan, and has worked with people from all over the world.
He’s also thankful for his friends and family, and that he’s got a supportive network of colleagues.
“You know, a lot is built around trust,” he added.
“That’s really what we need to focus on when we’re designing.
It’s just that we can always build the trust with our clients and our customers.
We can build a great website and it’s a lot easier to be confident about it.”
