Bramme.net - Bram Van der Sype's online portfolio

This post was written for the $11,000 Prize Giveaway at Just Creative Design

A while back I decided to set a standard signature in GMail. I got as far as “Bram Van der Sype” and I knew I wanted my URL in it too. But then I was stuck. Do I put webdesigner or webdeveloper below my name? I consider myself a webdesigner. I have designed all my websites myself (unless clients provided a design that only needed coding). I’ve never outsourced my designing. I like the feeling I get when I finally hit that design I like. I love to browse through dozens of blog posts, looking for inspiration and I love experimenting with photoshop.

On the other hand, I don’t like designing as much coding. I love to puzzle images together with HTML and CSS. I love the intricacies of PHP and I certainly love the possibilities the CodeIgniter framework offers me. I like thinking about security measures, passwords salts, complicated foreach loops and database abstraction. The real geeky stuff.

So what to put down there? Designer or developer. The answer is actually a simple one. It includes a slash. I decided to go with webdesigner/developer. I want to promote myself as much as possible, attracting as much clients as possible. So far all the clients I designed for new little to nothing about making websites and whatnot. Those people don’t go looking for developers, they probably don’t even know what that means. And that’s why I promote myself as Webdesigner, to address those clients. But I’d also like to attract bigger projects, bigger clients that need an extensive backend, people who know what they’re looking for. And I’d like to be found by them too.

So what did I end up with?

Bram Van der Sype
Webdesigner/developer

http://www.bramme.net

The e-mail signature is offcourse a small part of a bigger problem. How do you promote yourself? How do you come out to the world? Do you promote yourself with idea of getting as much clients as possible or with the idea of getting clients that need work you love doing? This entire situation relates to one of my previous posts too, about getting a new portfolio. I got some good advice there and made a few decisions since then. I have decided that I’m gonna make a new website: with a very specific portfolio, no blog whatsoever. And I’m getting a new name too. Even though a lot of people have told me that Bramme is a good name, I believe I can attract more clients with another, a better, name.

If you have ever had to ponder these issues, I’d love to know how you handled them!