I called 2advance and let me say it was the worst expierence i have ever had with a sales person.

The guy was the biggest ass I have ever been,

Now you would think that im trying to have them do our corp site that they would be cool, think again.

Sorry to say I would never ever use this company again. As director of sales my sales , first never put down your competition to that degree and second dont put down the company trying to by something services from you

Overall what this = is someone else to do this project


Let me add that for the webreseller site they started at a minimum of 80k for a static html site, now thats BS
Joe

That's a big chunk of change!

I've got a friend that's a good designer, but I think he's all booked up.

Ive always liked the style of
http://designerduo.com/
theyve done some nice work, webauthorities.com used them.

Can you be more specific about your conversation?

Overall i wanted to get a quote for the corp site.

Initally they threw out a quote of 80k. I am sitting there very suprised.

I called back to find out more about that quote and well we got into a rather heated discussion as he made it seem like anyone other then 2 advanced sucked.

He put down many of there competition and then proceeded to put down the company i work for.

Overall that is the pg rated part of it.

When i called back to speak with a ceo or something, there wasnt one. Overall this company well is off my list.
Joe

You guys actually like 2advanced's work? I think all of it's really ugly, heh. I'm not saying I could do better, but come on.. theres much better personal designers out there.

I think there work is good, but there people suck, so there are much better personal and nicer people then them.

Some small-time designers actually do corporate-style design work. Saves you a lot.

Oops, sounds like a pitch. Apologies. :)

Jbiz, try John Hwang, "alpha" on the forums, i definetly recommend his work :agree:

Can you email me the R rated part jbiz? I'd really like to know how they performed. matt@truji.net

I really do not think that would be wise. Lets just say it was no good.

Originally posted by OverSkilled
Can you email me the R rated part jbiz? I'd really like to know how they performed. matt@truji.net

Why are you so interested secret agenda :confused:

:D

Im always interested in news like this.

I can't believe they would charge 80k for a site, I don't care how good they are.

Seriously if you look at their portfolio you'll realise their design style is almost the same in every site. You know the "45 degree angles and arrows" style. It's fantastic to look at for the first time, but it gets a little repetitive after that.

As a designer, there're more designers out there that I truly respect. Such as Paul Rand who created the legendary IBM logo, or David Carson who started the grunge style, even people like Joshua Davis of praystation's a humble and nice guy.

Eric Jordan of 2advanced does good work, but he was once a ripper who ripped off a wallpaper @ chapter3.net. This was a very popular topic at the old dreamless.org which has already been closed down.

I know it's slightly off topic but what I wanted to point out is 2advanced's not really that cool after all. Not to me anyway.

Just try ceonex.com

I don't know about most people here, But 2advanced services don't seem nothing special.
Sure they built a good brandname over the past few years which will see them get alot of clients where they can charge alot of $$.

But the fact is what's their afterservice like?
I checked their services and they don't even offer search engine optimisation services.
If i was to choose a web design company to design a website for me their services would have to include SEO.
Basically what's good a website if you don't do much offline advertising and your site can't be found on the top 10 search engines under good search terms that can bring decent traffic? yahoo, google, msn, av, lycos, alltheweb, hotbot, looksmart, aol, netscape, teoma/ask.

What most design companies will do is just design the site and nothing else.
Leave it all in your hands to attend too.
So if you wanted SEO services they will send you to another company that specialises in SEO where you will be charged another $$$$ (sometimes even more than you payed for your website!! Depending on the search terms you are after) amount or try and do a half-assed job themseleves if they don't know how particular search engines rank websites or tell you to "pay search engines for high rankings" .

Fact is search engines are probably the Best and Most cost effective way out their to get new clients and to get your name out their for the long term.

Web Design + SEO should all go in 1 Package and should be addressed during the design of websites and after websites have been launched for the most Effective internet advertising.

I would personally clearly stick way clear from BIG web design companies that don't offer SEO Services unless you personally want to take it on yourself.

Just my 2cents.

Good point, nuthin. But "afterservice," as you call it, is a very small part of search engine optimization. Actually, it should be almost none of optimization, which is best done before the site is online (and I know you know that, just making a clarification).

I can't speak about 2advanced, but any high-end web shop should absolutely be including such work as keyword research and related optimization in the process. If it's not done upfront, yep, it's going to cost at least as much as the site did, and maybe more, and it's going to set your timeline way back.

I guess the only disagreement I might have with your post is based on that. I wouldn't see it as a red flag if a company turned post-launch search engine marketing over to another firm, or even if they partnered with one during the process. It's a specialized area of knowledge, and you're probably better off having it done right by an expert rather than wrong by someone who doesn't understand it, or whose knowledge is even a few months out of date -- regardless of how fantastic their html, graphic, or Flash skills might be.

http://pixelpaladin.com does all of my site design if you want to give them a ring :)

jt

If I had that sort of cash hanging about I would probably see what pixelbrick can offer me... 2advanced have soem nice styles but I allways found pixelbrick much more eye catching.

I agree with acidHL !! I would take a look at Pixelbrick. I really love their design style. ;)

Originally posted by JBIZ718
Let me add that for the webreseller site they started at a minimum of 80k for a static html site, now thats BS
Joe

80K for a website? LOL, that's downright absurd no matter how good they are. Pixelbrick isn't exactly cheap either, but they won't be anywhere near 80K, that's for sure. A decent site through them will run 5K on up.

Best of luck,

David

One time I found a web host that had ripped one of 2advanced designes (something like host4life or something like that). I finally sent them the link and a very short message and I never heard from them...oh well. I tried, and was always a fan of their talent, but I am floored by that 80K crap. I think they may have become a bit "too big for their britches" so to speak. 80K....lol what fools!

If people will pay 80k, then they will charge 80k. To a large corporation, that is a small drop in the bucket.

80k is a VERY nice car or half a DB7...i would have the car anyday! you can have a site done for any price but it will be the same style...corporate. not hard to do!

Originally posted by MadSkilage
If people will pay 80k, then they will charge 80k. To a large corporation, that is a small drop in the bucket. Hmm... Who is more worthy of criticism: the people who charge 80K and get enough clients to thrive (and it wouldn't take many!), or those who will do the same site for $200 and can never get ahead?

As with any other service, if they have clients who will pay it and are happy with it, it's worth it. Still, $80,000 is a little unbelievable!

I used to work in the marketing department of a big corp that paid 25k per month for "site-maintenance". This was a recurring bill that the company paid every month. I wonder what they paid for the design itself. Come to think of it, I wonder what they pay for hosting.

I also have a friend in the software business that paid 175k for an agency to come up with a company name. 175k for a name.

I've also worked for a big firm that used one of the top 5 advertising agencies. The agency would charge $500 to resize an image. Yes, $500 to drag the corners of an image.

The only difference I gather between those agencies and 2advanced is that those agencies at least knew they were robbing their clients and did everything they could to kiss...

I know, because I got to enjoy some of the perks.

And here we are, members of the board, bending over backwards for our clients for $10 a month - or less.

What a world...