Here are some answers to our most frequently asked questions.

General Questions | Web Design | Web Hosting & Domains | E-Mail & Newsletters | Print & Identity Design

General Questions

Are you available?
We are now available to take on new projects starting August and would love to hear about yours! Please get in touch to request a free quotation for your project.

How do we get started?
Great, glad to hear you’d like to work with us! If you would like us to get started on your project, please fill out our quotation form and we will get back to you with a quotation and further details.

When can we get started?
We can get started on your project in most cases within a week, depending on our current workload. Usually we get you to fill out a little form to tell us about your project, and then send you a quote. Once the quotation is accepted, we require a 50% retainer payment and then we have a discussion about your project to make sure we have the details right, and then we dive in. You can read more about our process, here.

Can we get started, like, yesterday?
If you are in a hurry then please let us know as this is important for our planning and we will need to figure out whether or not we can accommodate your project in your desired timeframe. Most projects take 4–6 weeks to complete and although we can strive to finish your project sooner, time frames such as one week are usually unrealistic, except for the smallest of well-organized projects.

Will you provide me with several concepts (mockups) to choose from?
We have a one concept policy, unless you elect to have more concepts developed for you. We think it’s a better use of resources to work on one really good and well thought-out concept rather than a selection of half-baked designs, and we have found in practice that there is usually one standout concept that the client ends up choosing in the end. Offering one concept is a one of the ways that we are able to offer our high quality work at such a bargain price. If you really do feel that you need a choice of concepts, please just let us know and we’ll be happy to factor that into the price. Before you decide, take a look at our process — we take our client satisfaction very seriously and we have developed our process to ensure that you get the results you want from each project.

Can you come up with a few concepts before I pay you?
Unfortunately, in our line of work, our time and thinking are what we charge for and, unlike someone who sells a product, we can’t get our time back and resell it. We come up with custom solutions for your business and therefore a lot of work goes into the research and conceptualization, and (as we’re sure you’ll understand) working for free is not a good way to stay in business. We keep our prices reasonable by keeping ourselves busy and therefore having more billable hours to cover our business’ overheads. Work without pay is called Spec Work in the industry, and we recommend you read about it in this article

Can you provide references?
We would be happy to provide references. Please be sure to take a look at our portfolio page to get a sense of our work and you can also read our testimonials to hear from our satisfied customers, and our case studies to get a better understanding of our capabilities.

Are expenses included in your quote?
Depending on the project, there may be expenses that are incurred during the course of building the project for our client, such as typography (fonts), SSL certificates, WordPress plugins etc. We try to include all expenses in our original quotation to you but occasionally an expense will arise during the course of the project, in which case we will notify you for approval before the expense is incurred.

Web Design

How much does a web site cost?
This is a very difficult yet popular question. So popular in fact, that it has its own article now. Have a look at our post “How much does a website cost?” for a general guide on the price of websites, or you could request a quote.

How long will it take to build the website?
The length of time it takes to build the site for you depends on what type of site is being built. Even the most simple projects take approximately 6 weeks from start to finish because we pay special care and attention to make sure we’re building what’s right for you. It starts with a web consultation, then we go into the design phase, and then we build the site for you – and in between, we communicate back and forth to ensure that we are on the right track and let you decide upon some options for which way you’d like things done. You can read more about our process here.

What’s the difference between theme customization and custom website design?
A custom website design is made just for you, whereas theme customization is customizing an existing theme to suit your purposes. Customizing a theme is like moving into a furnished apartment whereas a custom website is like building a house and then getting all your own furniture and furnishings, and putting them exactly where you want them.

Do you customize existing WordPress Themes or other templates?
Nope! All of our designs are original and custom designed for you. We design them from the ground up and then hand-code them into a website made just for you.

Can we talk about my website project?
Absolutely! We’d love to because it makes projects go so much more smoothly. We offer a free 1 hour consultation for new and prospective website customers. Although e-mail is a terrific tool, we have found that having a person-to-person conversation lets us communicate much more effectively in the project initiation stage. Please fill out our quotation form and let us know when a convenient time to talk would be and we can get started. If you have questions, feel free to call us!

Who creates the content I need for my website?
Preferably, you will have all of your content (text, images, videos & photos) ready for your site already, before the start of the design process. The text you are going to use for your site is important because we design the layout of the site around the content you want to present. We can use placeholder text or use your draft to begin with but the message is what’s important so if you have your main headline(s) sorted out to start with, or at least a good general idea of what you want to say it will probably help things along considerably. If you don’t have the time to write your own content we are happy to help you with your copywriting needs for a reasonable hourly rate, or we can refer you to a web copywriter who can write it for you.

If you don’t have images for your site we can help source photos and other media for you. Not all photographs are useful because typically they need to be of a certain size and pixel depth to be of use, especially for print jobs, but we can try to work with what you have and advise you if alternative images are needed. Please ensure that you have permission from the photographer for any images you wish to use (we can’t use images you found on Google, for example).

Note: We would suggest that you don’t jump ahead and purchase images in advance because sometimes clients of ours have purchased images that didn’t “work” for their message, so save your money on that front for the time being if you don’t have images already.

We are more than happy to help you develop the content for your website, from planning the content through to writing your copy and selecting images. We have customer handouts for our clients to provide further information on writing your web copy which we will supply you with once you select us for your project. We also have a free e-mail series called “Planning your new website” which we encourage you to sign up for.

I only have my logo in Word format, can you use it?
It’s unfortunate that we have to include this question, but we have spoken to several startups that have had their logo “designed” by a low-cost company that doesn’t specialize in logo design and have been supplied with an inappropriate and unsuitable file, one which cannot be used for print or web design work. If you are going to supply your logo file to us, we will need it in a re-sizable format, such as .eps. Logos designed in Word, MS Paint or Photoshop are not usable for print or web design work, we are sorry to report. If you have fallen victim to a cheap and nasty logo design, we have some good news for you — we do logo design and would be happy to rehabilitate or redesign your logo for you.

Do you assign me the copyright on the web site design after I pay?
Not unless arrangements are agreed to in advance. Typically, we assign exclusive rights to you so that you may use and reproduce your web design in its final format. In practice, this means you aren’t allowed to take and use elements from the web design for other materials and media without written permission from us. However, we do provide your finished site’s files, such as the theme and image files, to you upon completion of the project. Upon request, we can negotiate to pass the copyright over to you, but typically an additional fee, agreed upon by both parties, is charged.

I can’t afford a website right now, can you build my website and I’ll give you a share of the profits when it’s successful?
No.

Web Hosting & Domains

What is web hosting? 
Web hosting is the place where your website’s file “live,” the place where they are hosted. Think of web hosting as the house, and the domain name as the street address for your website. Web hosting is required if you want to have a website that people can visit, but some services such as GoMobi include website hosting in their offering.

What is a domain name?
A domain name is the address at which your website can be visited. For example, our domain names are www.frankenmedia-design.com and www.frankenmedia.ca.

Can I have multiple domain names for my company?
Yes, you can have more than one domain name and you can point them to your website, if desired.

I want a domain name that isn’t available, can you get it for me?
If the domain name is for sale, then it is possible to purchase it. If the domain is unused sometimes the owner may be willing to sell it, the best way to find out is to contact the owner of the website. Typically, a domain name that has already been registered is more expensive to purchase than an available domain name. We offer premium names for sale through our domain name store, click here to search for a premium name.

Can I transfer my domain name to Frankenmedia?
Yes, as an ICANN authorized registrar, you can transfer your domain name to us and we can manage it for you, including your contact details and renewals.

What are my rights & responsibilities as a domain registrant?
You can find information on your rights and responsibilities as a domain registrant on the ICANN website by following this link.

Is your web hosting on site?
No, and this is not typically something you would want because servers have specific requirements, such as power and cooling requirements, and are therefore usually housed in what are called datacenters.

What types of web hosting do you offer?
We offer both shared and private server hosting, and cloud hosting. We recommend different types of hosting based upon your website’s size, traffic and individual needs.

Can you monitor and maintain my website for me?
Yes, many of our customers opt to have us monitor and maintain their website for them because they don’t want to have to deal with the day-to-day maintenance of keeping their site up and running. We offer website maintenance such as system security and spam prevention, software patching and server uptime monitoring. For more details, please see our technical services page.

E-Mail & Newsletters

I have been given an e-mail address, how do I get my e-mail?

When we set up your e-mail we set it up so that you can access your mail at
https://webmail.{yourdomain}.com Substitute your domain name for the yourdomain.com shown.

If you would prefer to read your mail on your computer, here are some walk-through instructions for setting up the most popular e-mail clients:

• Microsoft Outlook 2010/2007/2003 and earlier
• Windows Mail (Vista and Windows 7)
• Mail for Mac OSX v10.5 and later
• Entourage for Mac
• Mozilla Thunderbird

If you have any error messages or trouble retrieving your e-mail, please let us know and we will be happy to help.

Print & Identity Design

Can you arrange printing for me?
Yes, we have a partnership with a local printer who provides very high quality printing at terrific rates with a choice of quality paper stocks and inks so you get great results. We will quote your print job for just the artwork alone, and for the artwork plus printing so you can compare rates.

Why is your printing more expensive than my local print shop?
High volume print shops, such as Kinkos, are fine if you are duplicating a form or something similar but when it comes to your business, appearances count. You wouldn’t turn up to a meeting wearing slippers, so why would you use low-cost and low-quality printing for something as important as your business’ marketing materials? Our printing may be a little more expensive than your local copy shop but the results and finish are much better. Some people have even said “phew” when they saw the difference in quality.

Do you assign me the copyright on the logo design after I pay?
Yes, when we design a logo or identity for your company we will assign exclusive and reproductive rights to you so that you may use and reproduce your logo design in its final format, wherever you like. Typically we supply your final logo in .eps (vector) format and a range of .jpeg file sizes for use on the web. We don’t normally supply the source file for the logo as it is editable and can accidentally be altered (and thus making it not quite right) but for additional fee, we can arrange to supply you with the source file, however, most of our clients lack the software to be able to use the file and most find it an unnecessary step.

Do you assign me the copyright on the artwork for print after I pay?
Not unless arrangements are agreed to in advance. Typically, we assign exclusive rights to you so that you may use and reproduce your print design project in its final format but we do not supply source files. In practice, this means you aren’t allowed to re-use elements from the project design for other materials and media without written permission from us. Upon request, we can negotiate to pass the copyright over to you and/or provide source files, but typically an additional fee, agreed upon by both parties, is charged.