Researching and Trolling

The design and concept for my Professional Portfolio is very simple and straight-forward: A website showing my work and skills for graduate school. In contrast, I am having a very hard time with creating the logo, identity, and branding for my Web Design Company site. I've felt somewhat torn between what type of aesthetic style I want to employ. I have read several articles on the topic of web design portfolio sites (standard portfolios as opposed to mine which is for graduate school application) and through my research I found Jason Reed's portfolio site. I love how straight forward it is and how he employed such a unique method of displaying information tabs.

I have examined a multitude of web design / development sites, and I have noticed the cliche and ever recurring usage of light-bulbs and gears when describing / advertising their services. I want to stand out. The average business owner doesn't know what html, css, php, dns, and mysql are, and they shouldn't have to. This examination/critique has given me a idea for using a different approach which focuses on solutions as opposed to process. If I have to call a plumber because my sink is leaking I honestly don't care about all the possible solutions he has, I don't care about what tools he's going to use, the possible problems that are causing the sink to leak, and frankly I don't care about anything other than if he can fix my problem.

I feel that I want my site to promote solutions and not require a potential client to research what code languages, server side scripting, and content management systems are. I want them to see solutions and not my "toolset" I use to create solutions. I'm not going to remove my "toolset" from view, but I'm not going to make the process the focus. I want to provide clients with solutions.