Hi, I’m Dorothy
I’ve been enjoying the life of an independent designer since 2005, and started D Banzon Design because taking care of my family required me to have flexibility in my schedule. My kids are grown now and I still genuinely love the design process. I am grateful to be able to use my skills to help organizations succeed. D Banzon Design recently relocated from Northern Virginia to Annapolis, MD and serves clients throughout the United States.
For more than 25 years, I’ve been designing a broad range of projects for small- and medium-sized business clients as well as large corporations. My career began in NYC, and following an internship at a design firm, I went to work at one of the large advertising firms. In the 90s I transitioned to the client side, working in the in-house corporate communications department of Information Builders, Inc. I honed my skills there for 12 years before opening D Banzon Design in 2005. Throughout my career, I have served in a multitude of business categories ranging from consumer, personal services, technology, to non-profit. I also co-founded a website development firm specializing in combining the disciplines of design, development, and content strategy to deliver highly-effective, robust websites for medium to large businesses.
My capabilities include everything from designing sales sheets, brochures, packaging, direct mail, digital and printed newsletters, presentations and websites, to branding events with logos, signage, and much more.
Every project offers an opportunity to build a brand. Through my proven processes, I will assess your needs and deliver a solution that becomes an asset. I’ll keep the big picture in view and connect all the pieces so the brand can emerge and grow organically.
A good designer can apply good design to anything. However, designing websites brings its own challenges, and you benefit the most from working with someone with a lot of experience in the nuances of how to get the best reader response to your website.
Keep in mind that website development and website design are two distinctly different skills. Website development deals with the coding of the site, while design focuses on branding and the creation of a beautiful user experience. D Banzon Design partners with expert developers who love to code, and know how to keep your website secure and develop with best practices for search engine optimization (SEO).
Good design doesn’t have to cost a fortune. However, bad design can cost you business.
As a boutique design firm, my services are charged at rates far lower than the large agencies, and you have the opportunity to work directly with me, the designer. I can’t promise you that I have the lowest rates, but I do promise that working with me will be a smart investment. As each project differs, D Banzon Design provides package pricing or custom quotes based on our initial conversation.
Here are some of the things I value:
Honesty
Through honest and straightforward communication, I bring your brand to life and craft messages that tell your story and help you stand out in your industry.
Reliability
You’ll receive quality, professional, results-driven strategic design, created with considerable attention to detail. As an organized creative problem-solver, I keep my promises and respond to your emails promptly.
Relationship
You’ll benefit from our partnerships with professionals who provide top-notch support, such as developers, copywriters, printers, and other vendors. In addition, I place great importance on creating lasting client relationships. If you’re not happy, I’m not happy either.
Respect
I have a deep respect for you and your time, and strive to remain low-key and humble throughout our transactions. I also greatly respect people of all walks of life and celebrate diversity.
Care
I’m passionate about helping you communicate your mission with impact. It’s always been my quest to use all that I am – my life experiences, my desire to achieve balance and remove visual clutter – to produce work that motivates and inspires. I care deeply about environmental issues and doing work that makes an impact in the community.
Dorothy and I brainstormed on how to improve the Herndon Festival website. Her vision for this project exceeded my expectations. She presented dynamic ideas and vibrant design concepts. With Don’s (Katalyst Solutions) help we were able to quickly implement a new Joomla template, while keeping all of our SEO. In addition, this project stayed within our budget. Both both Don and Dorothy are wonderful people to work with.
Dorothy is collaborative… she delves into the “heart of the business” to understand – the mission, vision, goals – but more importantly the values, the desired outcomes. She has a meticulous process that enables her to deliver value visually through vision and creativity, but also organizationally through time management, and attention to detail. There is systematic cataloguing of assets and an eye to the future for integration of additional pieces – that’s more than a mere designer… it’s a partner!
For several clients of mine, Dorothy has created effective and beautiful marketing materials. One brochure for a particular client of mine was extraordinarily done. She made this small firm appear far more professional than the large firms they compete with. Anytime I can work with Dorothy Banzon, I know that the finished product will be highly effective for marketing and sales.
We have been working exclusively with D Banzon Design for over five years. Dorothy has guided us through major website redesigns and countless marketing initiatives. Her creativity, imagination and incredible responsiveness has given us a real sense of corporate identity that resonates with our clients and staff alike.
I’ve been working with Dorothy to produce seasonal brochures for our Recreation Department for about two years (our jurisdiction has been working with her even longer). She is very flexible and responsive. The process from sending her text and photos to a fully finished brochure is very simple. She also provides input and suggestions for improvements. It is a pleasure working with her.
Over the last decade, I have had numerous times to work with Dorothy Banzon. While she is a wonderful graphic designer, she has more marketing expertise than any other designer I have encountered in my career. Dorothy designed the logo, banner sign and other trade show materials for Career-Confidence.org. Prior to her design work, we sent her pictures of similar work done for Fortune 100 firms and other large organizations. Dorothy’s quality is similar to (maybe better than) than the work done for Fortune 100 firms, yet she gears herself for smaller firms. The Career-Confidence.org team was thrilled with what she has done for us.
Dorothy is a talented designer who is easy to work with and very creative. She knows how to take a raw idea and give it powerful visual expression.
Dorothy’s design talent we think impressive and that has been validated by professionals who work in that industry. Don knows his craft and communicates the issues really well to his non-tech clients. We have found both of you to be extremely responsive to our requests for service, even when we need a rush job. On top of that, you are very nice people and that comes through in our discussions. We are very happy to have found both of you!