Brutally honest opinion please

I know this is in the shiny stuff realm mostly, but I have also seen some awful fine "shiny stuff" in the other parts of a lot of members here garages so I think I can get some good opinions [ddev.
Some background....... I was forced to retire after 24yrs from a Federal/Military job in 03 due to some medical issues of my own, but things happen for a reason because shortly after that my wife and I realized my mom was in the early stages of Alzheimer's. We moved her in with us and I have been her primary caregiver for the last 7yrs. Right now she is in the final stages of the disease.
For about four years I had been running a powder coating business out of my shop at the house and was managing to keep up with my moms needs at the same time til last Jun when I was getting way too much work and her condition was deteriorating so I had to shut down the shop indefinitely. Well I have been reworking our web site a little at a time and would like some honest unbiased opinions on what I may do to improve it if anyone would have a minute to take a gander at it .

I purposely don't have any contact info listed on it right now since we not taking any work on plus please don't think I am trying to advertise because even when we were open I was only taking local carry in jobs and that wont change when I fire it back up.

Wow this turned into a long read sorry
Here is the site if you have a minute....thanks
www.TwistedEdgePowderCoating.com

what I think?
o.k., since you asked,
site looks good, except,
screaming guy does not work for me,
coating work looks nice.

now don't become "screaming guy"

kudos for helping with mom

I think you have addressed a lot of questions a potential customer might have, and explained why your services are above the norm as far as quality and the equipment to do the job properly. BUT.....................I totally agree that that drawing of the guy is way over the top and has no reason for being on a business website that is trying to sell itself as professional. What was the rationale for having that on there?

You asked, so I am going to be honest. If I opened up that website I would not use you because that drawing says the owners are a little shakey and I would go elsewhere. That sort of thing might work for a head shop, but not a legitimate powder coating business. Sorry if I am a little direct, but this is strictly business, not personal.

Otherwise, very professional job and it looks like you guys know your stuff. Sorry to hear about your Mom, and wish her well.

Don

I concur

I have to agree with the guys that the screaming guy makes me think about going to another shop! (you asked for brutal honesty)!Maybe a picture of some of the quality work you've produced. That being said, my hat's off to you for what you're doing for your mom. Quite a sacrifice to give up your shop to take care of her. Been there, done that, so I can relate to the tramatic experience you're going through...Hang in there and good luck....CR

I kinda like the bloodthirsty meth zombie but visually he says "drink Dr Pepper!" more than "hey powdercoating over herel"

Edit- I didn't misspeak... Nothing says drink Dr Pepper like a can of Mr Pibb

How about a picture of some Amish working over a Harley and 33 ford with some Johnson's paste wax?

P.S. your artwork rocks

Well I understand the image on the site you have, but it dosent go very well with what your trying to sell (your business). If it was me why not take your selling product, that of which you have in your gallery and put that on the forefront of your store. Take what you do not your web site business name as a depiction of your "store" for a first impression on your home page. Accentually what you are doing with the picture you have now is like for example a actually physical business in your city named "Joe's Pool Hall" and putting up in the window a picture of swimming pools when inside its 8 ball and 9 ball games. Id say take some of your best 'unique' pieces that you've done and put that up on your home page. Well thats my 2 pennies hope it helps


PDP

Thanks for the kind words about my mom.....it's been a long road and I have had a tough week wrapping my brain around the change in care priority's since we brought hospice in last week.

These opinions are exactly what I was looking for....thanks and please keep them coming.....it helps me to know what direction I need to go by seeing what we look like from the outside looking in.

We have several custom coaters in the area but none are doing the multi stage stuff we are doing and when we were thinking about a logo we knew it was going to be a double edged sword but wanted something that would jump out and people would remember the next time they saw it even if it didn't have our name on it. We have done shirts and vinyl stickers with it also. Our thought process was if we did a good enough job and got our reputation built up slowly all people would need to do was see the face and go "hey it's those powder guys"

One other place I hope it works as shop recognition is when we set up at major events and our competitors canopy's are blank you can see and recognize ours from a long way away over the crowd......

Got Rust? said:

screaming guy does not work for me,

Click to expand...

What he said, doesn't work for me either!

Toad

I have to agree with the others,that screaming guy is not right.I would go with a stylized car or hot rod,can be something wild and crazy,but cars are what most of your business comes from,so your symbol should be related to that. Otherwise I think the website looks great,really like the way you did the galleries and most importantly that you have those extensive pricelists.To me the whole reason of looking up stuff on the computer is information,and what stuff costs is the main thing I want to know.Yet most websites want you to call or contact them and I HATE that.I always think they are hiding something and want to talk people into their products or they would show their prices upfront.

Well your gig is named twisted edge not screaming edge...

What if the mascott didn't look like he was screaming or getting ready to bite?

What if he looked like he was intensely at work


open mouth pics bring the visual conveyance of insanity, aggression, or in other cases ignorance or surprise...
...and mouth breathers

forgive my shakey mouse I'm good with a pencil not a mouse but here is a quick rough sketch of the idea...put some gear on him and have him laying on a coat or masking something off with a wry smile and his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth just a little as if intensely concentrated...think "1.21 gigawatts" instead of "more brains"

Don't get me wrong... I like it, it's good art I'm just impartially picking it apart just to pick it apart

Slowdrive said:

d when we were thinking about a logo we knew it was going to be a double edged sword but wanted something that would jump out and people would remember the next time they saw it even if it didn't have our name on it. We have done shirts and vinyl stickers with it also. Our thought process was if we did a good enough job and got our reputation built up slowly all people would need to do was see the face and go "hey it's those powder guys"

Click to expand...

Yeah that awesome great thought process. Maybe perhaps another suggestion is perhaps keep it on the but make it smaller and still on your homepage just not the focal point of your whole business. Just 2 more pennies of mine

Well....if you were selling electric fences I would say your logo works very well. With a caption of "You'll only pee on our fence once", it would say it all. But the connection to the powder coating is lost on me. But, my age has a lot to do with that. I'm not really into the piercing, studs, ear ring, etc crowd, and that's what I see when I look at the logo. The name could be related to anything by itself, but the logo and name, steers my imagination to the piercing world. In a crowd, where all could see was the tent roof, I'd keep walking. Nothing there to indicate powder coating.

But...

You also mentioned you've been quite busy, so your doing something right. I have no idea what demographic your after, but I can't see the "baby boomer, empty nester with no mortgage, but has a healthy wallet" on the run to your display because the logo spoke to him. If the powder coated items grabbed his attention, that's what you need to promote. The screaming head could still be used, but to a smaller scale, as a recognition tool as you suggested. With the 'head' up front and loud, I don't know what your selling, (but I'm guessing), (and I've guessed wrong) but by now, I don't want what your selling. Besides, I've spotted a powder coater over there, I know, because his sign says so. My suggestion...keep what you have, back off on the sceaming head promotion by using it as a smaller background recognition tool, and promote POWDER COATING. That is the business...not MY NADS ARE CAUGHT IN A MOUSE TRAP!! Ok no more teasing. You do some nice work, what ever you decide, best of luck.

While I understand your desire to make yourself stand out from the crowd and have people immediately recognize your logo, I think you have stretched a little too far on this one. That logo is just bizare and in no way makes me think of powder coating when I see it. Maybe if your target audience is simply a bunch of outlaw bikers or something like that, but it sounds to me like you want a broader reach.

To put it into perspective, what if your logo were a drawing of a guy with his drawers down around his ankles. Yes, people might remember it and when they see it automatically think of your company, but WHAT would they be thinking? When I see your logo now I think drug rehab.

I'm also curious about the name, Twisted Edge. How does that fit in with powder coating? By the way, you are getting marketing feedback from all of us that big companies like McDonalds pay good money to get. You may not like what you hear, but it is vitally important to your sucess.

Don

donsrods said:

I'm also curious about the name, Twisted Edge. How does that fit in with powder coating? By the way, you are getting marketing feedback from all of us that big companies like McDonalds pay good money to get. You may not like what you hear, but it is vitally important to your sucess.

Don

Click to expand...

I would say this is even better marketing than what MacD's would get because of the humor......lol been reading and enjoying the feedback with a smile

The Twisted Edge name just was a combination of (at the time 4yrs ago) trying/doing a lot of cutting edge and "out of the box" stuff that most coaters were not doing at the time, sort of cutting edge with a twist. I still have a ton of new ideas sitting in my head ready to try when I get back in the shop

Without targeting a specific group our largest market was bikes....mainly Harley's about a 75/25% split with the rest.
Second biggest was imports followed by race/street/show cars. One interesting trend we had noticed was after having contact/jobs with the younger guys we were starting to get a increasing secondary contact/business from their dads/uncles/grandfathers.

I could see the tuner crowd having no problem with that pic. You might want to consider a logo with just the letters T E also with the face. The face will pt off some.

As for the website - either make the face small (like 2"x2" at most) or as a shadow background.

The average web surfer probably spends 1.2 seconds on a page to decide if it's what they're looking for. I don't like having to scroll before finding any info on what you can do - pics or words.

That first 1028x764 is your storefront window. Scrolling down or clicking a link is like a surfer walking in the store. Put an eye catching item up top. Not what is the trickiest to do, but what will suck somebody in to the rest of the site.

How about an album cover for a death metal band?

Or a public service announcement?

Okay I got bored and messed around with the picture a little more for no reason at all...

Hi Slowdrive. some props and respect...

I was pretty harsh on your screamer icon I hope your not offended , all in good fun?

This is ot but I hope you find it interesting:

I came up with something more respectful because I do really like the screaming guy

Here is a great man I often use as an avatar, The Physician Dr Wilhelm Reich.

Regarded as a quack by mainstream medicine but a genius nonetheless. A student and later a critic of Freud and the father of the theory of psychosomatics.
He theorized psychosomatics not as a magic power where your thoughts by unknown mystical mechanisms cause disease or heal but as a condition where your thoughts and emotions...be they run a-muck or focused on healthy ways of thinking and acting cause your physical condition to be relaxed and open to the biological energy flowing in yourself or "armored" as he put it... hardened, and closed off to life.

Reich did not believe that a doctor wielding the whiteness of his cloak, the exclusivity of his education and his rank in society could actually heal a sick person with a sugar pill and a lie.

In eastern thought it would be the same as having control over your chi through feelings and body such that you can be either like water or stone when appropriate and by choice... not when stimulated to be either by outside forces.
this extended into his views on politics which is why he was at odds with the status quo.

Here he is Younger and merged with screaming guy

One of the biographies on him is titled "FURY ON EARTH"

Torchmann said:

I was pretty harsh on your screamer icon I hope your not offended , all in good fun?

This is ot but I hope you find it interesting:

I came up with something more respectful because I do really like the screaming guy

Here is a great man I often use as an avatar, The Physician Dr Wilhelm Reich. View attachment 52881

Regarded as a quack by mainstream medicine but a genius nonetheless. A student and later a critic of Freud and the father of the theory of psychosomatics.
He theorized psychosomatics not as a magic power where your thoughts by unknown mystical mechanisms cause disease or heal but as a condition where your thoughts and emotions...be they run a-muck or focused on healthy ways of thinking and acting cause your physical condition to be relaxed and open to the biological energy flowing in yourself or "armored" as he put it... hardened, and closed off to life.

Reich did not believe that a doctor wielding the whiteness of his cloak, the exclusivity of his education and his rank in society could actually heal a sick person with a sugar pill and a lie.

In eastern thought it would be the same as having control over your chi through feelings and body such that you can be either like water or stone when appropriate and by choice... not when stimulated to be either by outside forces.
this extended into his views on politics which is why he was at odds with the status quo.

Here he is Younger View attachment 52887 and merged with screaming guy View attachment 52886

One of the biographies on him is titled "FURY ON EARTH"

Click to expand...

Don't forget how things ended up for him. Killed by the system for being a little too much of a free thinker, same as Royal Rife and Viktor Schauberger.
The screaming guy just bothers me, it makes me edgy just to look at it. Even your later version. I know you think you have a target clientele but it still seems like shooting yourself in the foot.

I think some of your prices are way off....$400 for bike cases? Are you gold plating them? $250 maybe, but $400....I'd spray can them first. And yes, I do know whats involved in media blasting and powder coating. If I'm missing something here I appologise but that's a straight up rip off.....