People in my business talk about web design as if it were a separate, distinct, stand-alone profession. One that invites wild, almost garish creativity. To the point that you see crazy calls to action such as "Let's get funky." It's true that today the graphic possibilities are limited only by the developer's creative imagination. But here at Javelin we believe that raw creativity must be rigorously disciplined. Because "web design" in fact belongs to a long-established, mature marketing discipline called branding.

Branding uses words and images to propagate a consistently told story of your enterprise across all channels of communication. The story concretely conveys the goals and values of the business; and the unique value of its products and services. Thus your website cannot stand alone as a wild and crazy piece of eye candy. It has to extend – not reinvent – the brand which you have worked so hard to create.

Does that mean we recommend drab and boring? To the contrary. We love vivid and colorful. We also love dynamism. Internet technology offers some unique opportunities to engage visitors, including animation effects and web video. They are all in our toolkit.

What it means is this. Sizzle for its own sake is dangerous. The sizzle must serve the dictates of a strong, highly developed brand strategy. All the sizzle on earth won't save you unless it tells a compelling, credible, persuasive story. Many times I have made the observation that marketing is storytelling. Now let's extend that statement one step beyond. "Web design" is also storytelling.

Your web designer might be a whiz at cool graphics. But does your web designer understand how to tell a story with utter conviction? Does your web designer have the ability to help you better understand and articulate your own story?  I'm here to tell you that it's the hardest and most critical part of this job.

We don't make any claim to be God's gift to graphic design. If you really want crazy funky, we are probably not the right shop. We do, however, consider ourselves to be pretty good commercial storytellers. And we stand ready to put that ability to work for you in building you a new website that burnishes your brand image. Contact us today to learn more.