HOW TO CREATE A DESGNING AGENCY! Your compete guide with pictures, step-by-step instructions, and everything else you need to run a successful design thread!! Come inside and take a peek! INTRODUCING NEW W.R.D AVATARS & SIGNATURES BY LAH5!!!

[lah5]

**NOTE: This thread is currently in construction, but feel free and view and leave comments ; more tips to come!**

Many WI members come frantically over to the "Decorating Tips & Ideas" Forum looking for advice on how to turn their Webkinz World room from drab to fab. The people who make these dream rooms are no other than the W.R.D.'s, or Webkinz Room Designers. But, as a W.R.D., what exactly do you do? Well, this guide will go through everything you need to know so that you can create the perfect design thread (I know it's long, so bear with me!).

Table of Contents

1.) Are you a true designer? See what it takes to be a W.R.D.
2.) Getting ready for opening day What to do, What to do?!?!
a.) Know your Webkinz World: What W.R.D's pay attention to
b.) Floor plans: The most important job of a W.R.D.
-How to make grids as well as post them
-What makes a floor plan top-notch?
3.) Opening Day Cut that red ribbon and get ready for business
a.) First post: First impressions are important!
-What to include in your first post
-Creating forms
b.) Hiring employees: Time to submit your resumes!
4.) Customer Satisfaction The customers always right!
a.) The golden rule: DON'T FREAK OUT!
b.) Working with the customer: Cooperation is key
5.) Conclusion
6.) W.R.D. Avatars and Signatures by lah5

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Are You A True Designer?

Designers need to have many important traits in order to be successful. One thing that a designer says that sends the wrong message may make a customer upset. W.R.D.'s need to be VERY creative, but they also need to be able to control their imagination. Customers look for creativity in their room, but they want the designer to stick to their specific outline that they described in their form. The designer also has to be organized. I, as well as many other W.R.D's, know that once your business starts to boom, things can get pretty hectic. You have to be very organized and know how to work swiftly and accurately.

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Getting Ready For Opening Day

Anticipating the opening of your design business can be very exciting, but there are many things to do before you start.

Know Your Webkinz World
In Webkinz World, W.R.D.'s pay most attention to the W Shop. This is where designers find prices and descriptions of merchandise, as well as the different room themes. Designers should have a good idea on what products go together and how to design a room without breaking the bank. Another place that isn't in Webkinz World that designers should check out is the "Housez in Webkinz World" Forum on WI where they can be inspired by other WI member's ideas.

Floor Plans
Floor plans are extremely important to a design thread. They are the basic foundation of the thread that allows the customer's ideas to get across to the designer. Below I will show you all of the basics of a floor plan (a.k.a. a grid)

Making and Posting Grids
Grids can be made using many different programs, but I will show you how to make a gridon paint. If you don't have paint, I'm sure that another WI member will supply you with directions to use another program, but unfortunately I was only taught how to use paint. There are three different sized rooms which can be expressed as grids; Large (10x10), medium (7x7), and small (5x5). The grids are shown below as well as the steps to post a grid:


Large Grid:



Medium Grid:



Small Grid:





1.) Copy the grid I've given above and paste it on a blank canvas that's supplied in paint.



2.) Adjust the outlines of the canvas to match up with the outlines of the grid.


3.) Write in the name of the product using the font tab by drawing a text box inside one of the grid squares.


4.) Draw arrows with the lines tab, make lines bolder by thickening the line, and erase the line in between two squares to make a bigger space with the eraser tab.



5.) When done, go to File.....Save as and save your grid in a place on your computer that you'll remember it.



6.) Go to www.tinypic.com and click "browse" until you find your grid, then click "upload".



7.) Once you get to this page, highlight and copy the address under the "IMG code for forums and message boards" heading.



8.) Go back to the thread and paste your address onto the typing box. It will come up as an address, but once you "save" or "preview" it, you will find that it turns out as a picture.



This process will be confusing at first, but with a lot of practice you'll be doing it in no time!


Top-Notch Floor Plan
There are specific things to include on a floor plan that would make the grid a "true floor plan" such as the name of the object ad which way it is facing. There are also many things that aren’t necessary, but make your floor plan top-notch. These things include color-coordinating, notes to the customer, and maybe even a signature at the bottom . Here are some examples of grids that I have built in the past with notes from me included.





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Opening Day

It's finally here! Get ready to post your new design service and open it to the public!

First Post
As you know, first impressions are important. f you don't take the time to make your thread colorful, organized, and easy to follow, members won't take the time to participate.

What To Include
First posts should invite the reader in, therefore they need to include specific details. Some of these include good grammar, color, and organization. However, design threads also need a couple of extra things:

-an introduction about yourself as a designer
-what you as a designer specialize in (what your good at)
-pictures or examples of your Webkinz rooms to give the customer an idea of what your style is
-a form for the customer to fill out so that they can have a room made for them
-(optional if you're hiring) a form for a member to fill out if they want to design for you
-why the customer should choose your design thread over someone else's
-anything extra to put at the bottom f you want to attract customers (avatars, signatures...)

Creating Forms
Forms are what the designers look to in order to see what kind of room the customer would like. Every designer is different, so it isn't odd that there are different forms for different design services. Here is an example of what designers include in their forms:
-username of member:
-member's budget:
-suggested color(s) for room:
-suggested theme for room:
-any special item(s) included in room:
-size of room:
-placement of doors in room (bot. left, bot. right, top left, top right):
-any other notes:
Try to work as best with you customer as possible. If for some reason you had to make a change, be sure to tell the customer what you did. If the customer doesn’t like it, be sure to suggest other possibilities.

Hiring Employees
It is possible for one member to run a designing service on their own, but know that t is extremely hard to run a business going solo, especially when your business becomes popular and more orders come. That’s where employees come in. There can be different kinds of employees. These include designers, idea brain-stormers, and organizers. To hire employees, you first need to make a form for members to fill out, similar to the customer design forms. These forms can include:
-username of member:
-any past experience in the design industry
-why you deserve to work for this thread
-what position you would like (designer, etc.)
-any other ideas:

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Customer Satisfaction

Once you are open to the public, you will slowly but surely start getting customers (most members choose their design thread based on which thread has more posts. It will take a while for your thread to grow, but don’t give up!). If a customer is satisfied, the customer will tell their friends or even leave a positive rating. I’ll tell you how to satisfy the customers and get those stars!

Golden Rule
As I mentioned before, your business will get pretty crazy if it ends up being successful. During this time you could be working up to 5 orders at a time. The key to doing well on your projects is 3 simple words: DON’T FREAK OUT!!! If you are stressed out, just take deep breaths. So what if you use more time than you expected? As long as you are putting n everything you’ve got, your customer will understand. If you are working with other designers, you could possibly ask one of them to take over one of your orders and let them take a load off of your shoulders.

Working With The Customer
In your designing career, you will come across a customer who will want you to design a fancy, large room that only cost 1000 KC. Even though you know that it will be difficult, you need to make the room your customer wants. If you think it’s impossible to make a quality room out of the instructions the customer gave you, talk to the customer and see if you can use a little extra money to spend on the room. But always be sure to inform your customer before you make a change in their instructions.

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Conclusion

Designing forms can be extremely rewarding. I worked at Spectacularly Stupendous Designs with waltdisneyworld2008 (Love ya girl! Great memories!) and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, I became too busy and wasn’t able to design anymore. I loved the fact that was able to have fun and do what I loved while helping out someone else. When you’re done with a design you feel proud that you’ve created your own “masterpiece” and you feel even better when you get the chance to share t with someone else

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Avatars & Signatures

Here are some avatars and signatures that I’ve made to provide to anyone who is interested. Feel free to take one, two, or even all of them!

Avatars:






Signatures:





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I hope you liked this thread and are inspired to design rooms. We can never have too many W.R.D.’s! If you enjoyed this thread, please leave a rating and rep points! Feel free to PM me any questions or comments.

Thanks & happy designing!!

Sincerely,
lah5

[iluvwarriors]

This is very helpful! Thank you so much for taking your time to type this out and take the pictures! (: Rep!

[LissyRose]

Oh my goodness! This thread is really good! It must have taken forever to make, thanks!
Rep! =)

[lah5]

Yea it did! I wrote it all up which took about 8 pages, revised it, and then I typed it up!
Anyway, I'm glad you liked it!

[*POP*It]

Wow! You did a lot of work to put this up. Thanks for helping all of us! Rep points for sure.

[lah5]

Thank you soo much!!

Anyone else.....

[lah5]

Hellooooo!!!

[superyoshi8]

OMG I did all of these things that I understood and I stll have no customers

[lah5]

Really? Well then maybe since your new to WI (by the way, welcome!) try to kind of browse through different threads and see how members get their threads to become popular. Once you know how and get to know more members, you could maybe suggest to them to chck outyour design thread and they could help you spread the word.

[lah5]

Has anyone else seen this thread?