A Message to the Design Profession
From Karen & Rob Vosjan, Founders of Domain Design
What is Domain Design
Domain Design is an image driven, interactive website which profiles Architects, Interior Designers and Landscape Architects and Designers.
Domain Design offers the public and industry a single, comprehensive reference point and design resource. It is fast, easy to use, highly visual and descriptive. It conveys a vast array of information at the one site which alleviates the public and industry of the time consuming and frustrating exercise of visiting multiple websites with vastly different methods of presentation and navigation.
The profile for each designer contains a description of the design practice, a description and images of five projects and contact details including a contact form and a link to the designer’s website.
Each design practice loads its own profile and then manages it by making as many changes as they want whenever they want. This ensures that profiles are current and reflect the designer’s most recent body of work.
Domain Design includes a news section containing information of interest to design professionals, the public and industry. Design professionals are encouraged to submit articles on matters of interest to them for publication in the news section.
The Origin of Domain Design
The idea for Domain Design originated with our own frustration at the inability of existing internet search functionality to deal with the rapidly expanding volume of information available on the internet. When entering a generic search phrase and returning thousands if not millions of results, we were acutely aware that most design practices would either be buried in the search result never to be found or not even be included in the search result.
We were also maddened by the time wasting exercise of clicking on a link and waiting for a website to load just to check whether a company was even remotely relevant and then having to waste even more time familiarizing ourselves with the variables of site navigation.
With information on the internet increasing exponentially, we were well aware that it was only going to get worse.
We recognized that the design profession needed a tailored internet solution. That solution needed to be highly visual, to convey information succinctly and to be fast so that the public and industry could expeditiously review a vast array of information at the one website and so avoid the time consuming and frustrating exercise of visiting multiple websites with vastly different methods of presentation and navigation. Only when visitors to the website had qualified prospective designers would they then visit the websites of those designers for more information.
We believed strongly that standardization of presentation and parity of treatment were important contributors to the efficacy of the website. We wanted the public to move seamlessly from profile to profile without the annoyance of priority listings so that nothing but the work of a particular designer would distinguish him or her from other designers.
We also recognized the need to develop search criteria which was based on the locality in which work would be undertaken rather than the location of a designer’s office. In recognition of the visual nature of design, search criteria also needed to refer to the type of work and the style of work and be capable of refinement using descriptive words.
The Objectives of Domain Design
Domain Design aims to be the definitive resource for those wanting to retain Architects, Interior Designers and Landscape Architects and Designers. We aim to provide our visitors with a comprehensive compendium of information and images presented in a format which is succinct, fast, easy to use, visual, descriptive and effective.
We are committed to providing the design profession with unprecedented exposure to the public and commercial sectors of the community on an international level.
We want to highlight the significant contribution of designers to our living and working environments and encourage the community to utilize designers more extensively.
We want to alleviate design professionals of the time and cost burdens of undertaking their own advertising, marketing and web optimization campaigns.
We want to facilitate effective communication between designers and prospective clients by qualifying prospective clients as to the type and style of work of each designer and by providing news and information to better inform the public about design issues.
We want to encourage and facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue among designers and the formation of cohesive design teams of compatible professionals.
We believe that a greater engagement of the design profession is a key factor in ensuring that our future living and working environments are sustainable, functional and aesthetic in order to deliver health and wellbeing outcomes and preserve natural resources.
By alleviating the design community of the time and cost burdens of implementing their own advertising, marketing and web optimization campaigns, we aim to free them to commit more time and resources to thinking creatively, to engaging in dialogue collaboratively and to working beyond the constraints of existing project briefs.
We believe that there is a real opportunity for this creative process to result in design outcomes capable of producing profound improvements to our living and working environments and our use of natural resources.
The Future Plans of Domain Design
Having launched in
Issues of sustainability, quality of life and economic responsibility are imperatives. These issues are global and design professionals globally have an important role to play.
Domain Design is committed to facilitating a global access to design professionals and to the dissemination of information and formation of affiliations throughout the international design community.
How to Participate in Domain Design
It’s easy to subscribe to Domain Design and load your profile.
Start by visiting the profiles of the designers already featured and familiarizing yourself with the layout.
Your profile will comprise of –
· Your contact details
· The locations in which you accept work
· A brief description of your practice
· Your logo
· Your hero image
· A brief description of up to five projects
· Up to five images for each of those five projects.
It is best to prepare this information in advance and save it to a specific folder in your computer. In preparing your logo and images, please note that the optimum aspect ratio for all images is 4/3. Make sure that your images are either JPEGs or PNGs and have been compressed to web page size (less than 1MB).
When you are ready to proceed, click Professional Login. On the right side of the screen enter your login name and password, enter your password again and click Continue. Then follow the prompts.
That’s it.
Your profile will then by reviewed by us and uploaded to the live site. We’ll send you an email when your profile is live and ready for you to view.
You will then be able to access your account and manage your profile by making as many changes as you want whenever you want.
In addition, we encourage you to submit articles on matters of interest to you for publication in our news section.
We have created Domain Design to facilitate a greater and more effective engagement of the design profession both locally and on an international level. To achieve those goals, we welcome and look forward to your participation.
