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Module 4Create your Design Firm

Create your Design Firm

Overview

Note: For our purposes, when we say “firm”, “design company”, “your design firm”, or “design firm” we mean your web development/design brand, not your animal/whimsical company.
To distinguish these, we’ll use:

  • Firm → your design/consulting brand
  • Mascot/Animal/Fun/Whimsical site → your creative project site with business idea & products

Setting up Your Design Firm

  • Create your design/consulting firm brand in a subfolder within your course folder.
  • All your other pages (outside this subfolder) will link to it in their footers:
    Example: “Page designed by YourName Enterprises” (with YourName linked to your firm).
  • Add a link to this firm page in the footer of your Whimsical Company site as well.

Naming and Domain

  1. Come up with a firm name that includes your own name.
    • Examples: Jackson Enterprises, JJ Unlimited.
  2. Search a domain registrar for an available domain.
    • Example folder: vonbriesenenterprises.org/
  3. Inside your course folder, create a folder named after that domain (including .com, .org, etc.).
    • Example: icabaddesignsinc.co/

Page Requirements

  • This firm’s page is unique → no shared headers/footers from other pages.
  • Still include semantic structure: <header>, <main>, <footer>.
  • Make a simple index.html page.

Styles

  • Use an embedded stylesheet (<style> in the <head>).
  • Generate a palette from Coolors  and save the URL in a comment above your styles.
  • Apply colors carefully (check contrast with WCAG guidelines).

Linking

  • Update footers on all your other pages:
    • Link “Designed by …” text to this firm folder (relative link).
    • Example: href="companyname.cc/"

Content Guidelines

  • Must include:
    • A graphic/logo (public domain or free-to-use, e.g., CC0/CC1)
    • An h1 element with your firm’s name, adjacent to the logo
  • Resize logo appropriately in an editor; don’t upscale.
  • Include correct height, width, and alt attributes.

Main

  • Begin with an h2 like: “So-and-so’s Services”.
  • Add:
    1. A descriptive paragraph about your firm.
    2. An unordered list (with non-standard bullet style) listing 5–10 fictional “amazing” qualities of your firm.
    3. A closing paragraph outlining what you’d like to do for clients.
    4. A nicely formatted contact block (fake email, phone, address).
  • Should not say “Designed by …”.
  • Instead, include:
    • A tagline/slogan unique to your firm
    • Copyright notice (© 2025 YourName Enterprises)

Additional Requirements

  • Site should look completely different from your class site.
  • Use semantic HTML elements instead of custom classes (e.g., <nav> instead of .menu).
  • No external CSS files needed since styles are embedded.
  • Keep normal folder organization for assets (/images, /scripts, etc.), but no /styles.
  • Ensure accessibility and proper formatting/punctuation.
  • Validate HTML & CSS.
  • Publish to both GitHub and University Pages.

Submission URL Example: webpages.charlotte.edu/aprechte/itis3135/alexanderprechteldesigns.com/ 

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