Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
It’s hard to believe we have been designing websites since before Google was even a word! Most of us use that word daily and it’s even become a verb when you ‘Google a great vacation’ to find where your next adventure will be.
As the founder of Web Casa Design, I did not start designing websites as a part time night or weekend side hustle. I cold-turkey quit my career in the marketing side of designer cosmetics that was my dream job at the time. As soon as I understood how huge this thing called the ‘NET’ would be back in 1995 I detoured very quickly into this relatively unknown world. The opportunity came in the form of a very good friend mentioning that her boss wanted a website for him to sell his vintage memorabilia online. Since I was a friend of hers, he was willing to allow me time and space to learn since there really was no formal education for web design yet. I jumped at the chance, took a huge pay cut, dove in and never looked back.
1996: My very first website design project
Amazon had started selling online in 1995 and it had not really spread out to many other privately owned websites as it was tough with dial-up modems to get enough power to even add an item to the cart let alone load a product page that showed more than 4 or 5 products without crashing your browser. This website sold very cool music memorabilia like autographed albums, photos, stage-worn items from greats like Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Madonna and more. We did not have the options in ecommerce we have now but we were able to add an item to cart, enter name, address and even billing information and place an order. We would process the order offline like a phone order, then ship the item. It worked great for the times and we could not believe how cutting edge it was. Of course this site was not responsive to anything but a computer window as there was no such thing as a Smartphone or iPad/Tablet yet. But as everything in the internet world, it moved at lighting speed. After this kick off project and quite a few more for this entrepreneurial business owner, the idea for Web Casa Design was born. I am so grateful to that early experience and the opportunity I was given and have been able to continue my education in the design and marketing field since then to grow with this lightning speed technology.
Fast forward to 2018 and our hundreds of website design projects
These are exciting times in technology and we are now able to order products and services from our smartphones and even have same day (and even same hour) delivery on many items including food, booze and many products & services as well. There is so much more to offer than website design. We now have seo and marketing, branding, content writing, social media management, web design & technology consulting and more. It takes all of these to succeed online or at the very least to equal what your competitors are doing.
I think after so many years of full time work in the web design and SEO industry there is almost nothing we have not seen. It is so much easier now to just listen to someone who needs a website and ask the right questions to get to the bottom of exactly what they need; not more and not less- just right to get them where they want to be. There are so many web development companies out there with the one-size-fits-all philosophy and they are either overselling people or underselling them and in all cases it’s just wrong. I believe part of why we are probably the longest running design agency in Orange County is because we listen to our customers needs and not only give them what they want and can afford, but what will work in helping them achieve their goals with the website.
Honesty, integrity and above all experience to deliver the right product at the right price = longevity.
A huge thank you to our wonderful clients
I’m very excited to have this boutique digital agency turn 20 this year and to have such long term, wonderful clients who have become like friends and family to us in some cases. Thank you to our amazing clients for helping us help you succeed by trusting us with your most important business asset- your online identity. I look forward to 20 more years and all of the incredible advances in technology we will see in the future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
