How did you get started in web design?
Summer of 1997 - I got to play with a top of the line 1 GB computer with like AOL 3.0 (okay this was '97 people) - I signed up for a free Geocities website and ended up staying up all night trying to figure out what the hell FTP access and HTML coding were. By 7 in the morning all I had was a background color and two pictures on the main page, but I was in love.

Did you always want to be a graphic designer?
I think I always had an inclination towards it. I remember desperately wanting an Etch-A-Sketch Animator when I was 6, so the computer graphics predisposition has always been there - even when maybe the technology wasn't. (Click here in case you don't remember the mid-80's technological marvel that was the Etch-A-Sketch Animator)

Okay, well aside from the Etch-A-Sketch, what's your favorite software?
Illustrator and Dreamweaver are my favorites - however, you can't forget your roots. I'm self-taught by way of MS Paint, which as my friend Callie points out so aptly, makes me one of only two people who still use that program - the other being a little girl who made her grandma a birthday card.  That's fine though. I swear by Paint - I would be lost without it.  That's where you learn your basics - all the other programs can't even compete.

Sounds like someone's got a little crush.
Well. . .

Well, I love your website! It's great.
Thank you so much. It's definitely 100% Kelly White Design. It's kind of an assortment of everything retro that I've ever wanted to work with. It's got the 50's look scattered throughout, the 70's plaid on the info pages, the mod 60's room on the prices page - it's just fun to be able to implement all the random ideas I've always wanted to try and have them come together into something that people really enjoy looking at.

What's the comment you hear most about your site?
Everyone loves the history page! LOVES it. It's crazy, it's flattering - after 130 yrs. in the biz, we're finally getting the recognition we deserve. :)

Now when you design a website - what's the process?
I like to meet with the client first - learn about their business and get an idea for what they're going for. Often times, people are very much into getting a site just to have an official sounding e-mail address or simply because everyone else has one. That's okay. . . I guess. . . well, at least it's getting them someplace. A lot of times clients don't know all the great things they could be doing with a website, or they may have ideas but they're worried about cost - either for design or for hosting. OOH - you know, can I just say something about hosting real quick??

Sure - what's on your mind?
Please PLEASE people - don't overpay for hosting! Please? It's such a simple cheap thing but it freaks people out because they don't understand what it is. I have an analogy - can I use my analogy?

By all means.
Okay - imagine that the internet is a library. The entire internet is one big library filled with shelves and shelves of books - aka websites. The title of the book is what's called your domain name (like kellywhitedesign.com). To get your book (website) in this library and able to be checked out (literally), your first step is registering your domain name. What that does is it tells the whole library/internet: "Hey - this is my book. No one else can use this name for their book because I'm using it." People will charge you a lot to register your domain name because, truthfully, you probably don't know any better. (KWD Tip: Anything higher than 5-10 bucks for the entire year is a rip-off)

Okay - so what does this have to do with hosting?
Hey - all right. So we've got the library and we've got the books. Domain regstration is purchasing the title of your book. Hosting is paying for space to shelve your book. When you pay for web hosting, you are paying for space to store it - but rather than a physical bookshelf, you're getting an alotted amount of space on a server. You can put whatever you want in that space - photos, text, files, anything - as long as it fits in the space you paid for. This is where people start to become confused. Now when you picture your website/book in your mind, you probably see a sturdy hardcover when, in reality, the majority of websites figuratively only take up the space of a pamphlet! Hosting companies know this, so they oversell their shelf space - maybe selling you 100 MB of space a month, when you actually only use 2 MB. You don't need to pay for an entire shelf when a tenth of the space would work just as well.

Wow - okay I think I get it!
Hey - I do what I can.

So a hosting package with Kelly White Design is . . .
Like an Ethan Allen bookshelf for Sauder prices.

Can I hire you just to make analogies?
Of course!