Local Business Site - GUARANTEED - $1000 Total Prizes

We’re selecting 3 winners for this contest.

We are looking for a clean looking home page design that is consistent with a professional web 2.0 look and feel. This website you create will be used as a template across multiple websites used by local service providers to explain the services they offer to potential customers. Examples of local service provides that would be selling their services through this website would be plumbers, electricians, flooring contractors, realtors, insurance agents, etc. Each local service provider will have its own website hosted at a different URL.

The primary focus of the website is to get visitors to pick up the phone and call the local service provider. The entire focus of the website is to drive that action. In terms of actions we’d like the visitor to take, the input form on the site is of minimal importance, but we’d like to keep it on there.

The website should give a sense of trust and a feeling of professionalism.  It should provide feelings of community-based trust, safety, reputation, and leadership.  We want visitors to feel like the money they’re going to spend with this service provider will be money well spent and that they will ultimately be happy with the level of service they receive from the service provider.

The target audience of the people visiting the website is consumers between 25-55 years old, and slightly skewed female.  These are people who are concerned about getting the job done right the first time and at a fair price.  

The template needs to be broad enough to work for any of the previously mentioned types of service providers.  The photo that appears on the main part of the home page should be a stand-alone photo that is 250 pixels wide.  That photo will be a stock photo for that we will choose based on each company’s service type (i.e. plumbing).

We have wireframes already created that you should use as a base-line for your design.  Basic wireframe: http://www.outrank.com/wireframe_template.xls - Wireframe with some real content filled into the wireframe: http://www.outrank.com/wireframe.xls - You do not need to follow the templates exactly. These are more for an example of what we’re looking for, but we’re also interested in creative ways of laying out the information we need on the page.

The wireframe mentioned above is ultimately a multi-page website, as you can see from the navigation on the wireframe.  You only need to design the home page for this contest.

Colors: We are fairly open on colors.  We want to stay away from dark themes, but otherwise we’re fairly open.  The site should have a clean look and feel, especially considering the large amount of text on the page.  The background color behind the main text on the page should most likely be a lighter color, such as white.

Fonts: This should be clean and streamlined.  The font needs to look professional.  The text heavy areas of the site, such as the “Profile: Listing Input Form” or the “Services” should be between 12-15 font size.  The font of the “Article” area should be no larger than size 12.  The font of the phone and text encouraging someone to make a phone call should be larger than size 15 font.

We have a guaranteed prize for 1st place of $700.  99Designs has no way to guarantee prizes for 2nd and 3rd place winners.  The prize for 2nd place is $200 and the prize for 3rd place is $100.  We'll pay you after the contest is over for these prizes.

- We would like a clean and professional website.
- 2 column website design
- 250 pixels wide photo in main content area of the website
- Call to action (phone call) in a prominent location

- No existing templates, even as a base for what you’re designing
- No kiddie, cartoonish, or curvy fonts/design
- Do not include any photos that are specifically related to any one service type (i.e. plumbing), except the 250 pixel wide photo in the main content area of the site.  The site needs to work for any service type without any changes to the template above and beyond the 250 pixel wide photo.