The Runaway Serf is a web design company based in Encinitas, California. We specialize in custom websites for professional writers and outside agitators.

Our websites are individually crafted to maximize the public relations potential of a well-designed site. We specialize in artistic, visually-pleasing, easy-to-read web pages that reflect both the personality of the writer/designer and the genre in which s/he creates. To encourage repeat visitors, we add information and new features regularly. Our goal is to design a professional, interesting site that brings readers back to the page -- just like a good novel!

We begin with what has become almost ubiquitous in a well-designed website: a main page which clearly identifies the site ("brands" it). The main page should let the reader know everything you think he should know about you, then invite him into the other pages.

As it is, the main page isn't just "eye candy" for a human being. Because it comes first (it's the page identified by the domain name), it's "read" most often by the search engines, and most search engines give prominence to whatever words and phrases are placed on the page. Therefore, we at The Runaway Serf embed information in the ALT tags (the part of the code used to contain the images) which provides a lot of data about the page, the imge, and the site. A user can find the messages by scrolling their cursor over the images (some people do that, looking for links and "secret" messages), but they're designed to be read by the search engines and people.

In addition, we at The Runaway Serf have studied the latest data on search engine placement, website organization, and internet programming. This is why we first update a site with "invisible" changes which affect search engine placement and loading speed and efficiency. We also render a site accessible to all users, including vision-impaired and color-blind visitors.

Another notable feature of our website designs is color. Many website designers are hostile to any use of color, or indeed any other design elements, on a website. For them, a site is all about how much and what type of programming code it uses. Any website which uses color or design elements gets criticized by the "purists," but guess what? Viewers find black and white websites too boring and too businesslike! Printing technology demands that a book's pages be black and white, but its cover is designed with rich, beautiful, eye-drawing and evocative colors and images because the human eye is drawn to color and beauty and repulsed bu ugliness and utility.

We invite you to visit the sites we have designed (their "buttons" appear in the column on the right) to see examples of our work.

Head designer Beverly Price has a long-standing interest in literature and writing; she has a BA in English (1991) and an MFA in creative writing (2007). Drawn to the creative potential of writing directly for the internet, she obtained a certificate in website design from the University of California, San Diego (2001).

The Runaway Serf has designed sites for award-winning science fiction author David Brin, avant-garde writer Harold Jaffe, pop-cult phenom Stephen W. Potts, and the cutting-edge online magazine ArmageddonBuffet.com.

We are currently focusing on current clients and our time-consuming writing career. To contact The Runaway Serf, call (760-942-3308), write (120 Via Cantebria #A18, Encinitas, CA 92024 USA) or email.

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