August’s Website of the Month winner was Flying Cow Labs owner Neil Judges. We caught up with him to find out more about his website and his views on design.

Tell us a bit about yourself and the history of Flying Cow Labs.

I started Flying Cow Labs about 2 years ago after a number of years working for a design company in Spain. I wanted to make the move back to the UK and it seemed natural for me to take the leap and set up my own design studio. Since the early days I’ve always worked alone in my office but now employ a number of talented people from around the globe, each of us working remotely.

The obvious advances in technology have made it easy for us to stay in touch, we use Skype daily to plan and discuss projects and use other forms of social media to keep up to date with the daily running of the business and general chit-chat. We find it works really well for us and it shows that even in today’s climate, as long as you’ve got a good team, no matter where in the world they are, you can make a business work with good communication.

Lately we’ve been focusing more of our time on the template side of our business. We develop Premium Templates that are for use with Serif WebPlus Software.

We found WebPlus to be far easier to use and much more flexible than other website building software, but felt they were lacking high quality templates that are more like the offerings available for WordPress, so earlier this year started up Serif Templates, https://seriftemplates.com. We now have a growing collection of easy to use and customise templates; even novice web designers are able to create professional websites for themselves or for their clients. I’ve had many reports of people starting up web design businesses off the back of our templates. I feel really proud to know that we have helped people make a living from what we enjoy doing!

Flying Cow Labs is an unusual name, where did the inspiration come from?

There’s no bizarre story relating to the name, I was after something that was unlike any other web design studio and one that was less forgettable than the norm. As I originally come from Somerset, and always loved cows, that was the starting point and the rest was conjured up over a brainstorming session late one night.

Your website has a very distinct design, what did you want to achieve with the look and how did you go about it?

Again I wanted to achieve memorability factor – it was important that the site poked its head above the huge crowd of mundane sites, and for that to happen it needed to strike an emotion. If a design doesn’t evoke an emotion, it’s more likely to be forgotten…that’s something I strive to achieve in all my designs.

I love to illustrate, so it was fun creating the pieces that make up the site. I especially like the blinking eyes from the lab technician sheltered in the bunker on the ‘About’ page – blink and you’ll miss it.

You offer various different design services including illustration and logos, which is your favourite type of design and why?

I’m loving all aspects of design at the moment. In my free time I’m always trying out different techniques and styles, I’m a massive fan of Dieter Rams and the work he did as chief designer for Braun. The simplistic style of his work is something that still influences a lot designs today and I’m finding myself creating things while trying to maintain his ethos and attempting to keep things clean and simple. I feel as a designer it’s important to constantly experiment with new techniques to help you grow your own unique and individual style: as designers, I don’t think we ever stop learning.

Why did you choose to host Flying Cow Labs with us?

Simply because of the positive reactions and reviews I had heard from the design community and people that were using you to host their sites. There are masses of hosting companies out there and the bad ones certainly outweigh the good, selecting Heart Internet was an easy choice. I’ve been stung in the past with poor support and bad customer service, I’ve experienced quite the opposite from your team, so for that, I thank you!

How did you go about asking people to vote for your site in our Website of the Month contest?

We actively use Twitter and have a fan page on Facebook for the Serif related resources we offer. I simply mentioned that we had had been shortlisted, and people who know us kindly voted – that’s one of the great things about social media! Everyone with a business should at the very least have a fan page, you never know when you’re going to need it!

The web design industry is getting increasingly competitive, what are your tips for standing out from the crowd?

Definitely find a niche, there are new web design businesses starting up every day. To get that competitive edge I think you need to offer services to a select industry or sector; you could, for example, provide web design and marketing for hairdressers. Do your research into the industry, find out what makes for a successful hairstylists’ website, and find out what their customers expect to find on their websites. This way you will gain clients from your selected industry because they’ll trust you for the knowledge you have of their business. And if you can gain trust you can gain business.

What are the biggest challenges facing small design studios today?

The main challenge has to be the competition, not only from larger companies but from young designers just starting out and charging next to nothing for a website. I’m all for new designers coming on to the scene and strutting their stuff, but they can seriously undervalue the service we all provide and make a profitable business all the more difficult.

What would you like to see for Flying Cow Labs in the future?

We have lots of plans for the future! But for now we’re happy creating great things for clients and using our reputation to help us grow organically. It’s exciting times for us and it’s great to know we’ve got some excellent clients coming along for the ride.

Thanks very much for the interview!