A few weeks ago I found myself in Nebraska visiting a client and had the pleasure of attending a conference for young entrepreneurs and tech startups called Big Omaha. Initially I felt a little out of place as the room seemed filled with ambitious aspiring young tech moguls, whereas I consider myself more of a happy-go-lucky designer/worker-bee, with delusions of artistic integrity. But the energy at this event was contagious, and the vibe was laid back and accessible. Long story short, if you’re at all inclined to run a business or start develop an idea, this conference would be well worth a trip to Omaha.

The discussions began with intriguing talks by Grasshopper’s David Hauser and Behance’s Scott Belskey. The mood quickly changed though when Scott Harrison gave an uplifting and tear-jerking account of the inspiration behind Charity: Water, the organization working to provide clean drinking water to communities all over the world. His creative approach to marketing and energy for promotion, coupled with his sincere and moving story moved the crowd to tears and evoked an eruption of inspired applause.

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library may have been the only man who could bring the crowd back to earth with his unique blend of crass humor and blind tenacity. He spoke from the hip about ambition, persistence, and “hustling”. The author of the best-selling book, “Crush It“, Gary V. is truly a one-of-a-kind individual who initially comes off as some obnoxious Jersey boy. But after a few minutes, his undeniable charisma and surprising humility endear him to you. It’s quite amazing.

Matt Mullenweg of Automattic, the creator of Wordpress (the platform on which this blog is written) also gave a nice question and answer session about the future of the web. This was followed by a dose of common sense from the visionary Jason Fried of 37signals, creators of Basecamp, Ruby on Rails, etc. While Jason’s speech read as a summary of his best-selling book “ReWork” it still managed a great reaction.

Day 2 featured a flurry of kinetic thoughts from Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley, delivering around 150 slides and speaking informally at a micro-machine commercial pace. This was followed by a controversial moment by StyleSeat’s Melody McCloskey who insisted that aspiring entrepreneurs should to move to New York, San Francisco or Boulder, CO to launch their businesses. This statement elicited a hostile murmur from the crowd, comprised mostly of Nebraskans. She was then promptly crucified on the live Twitter feed of the event for her comments. Ironically, her speech was immediately followed by a discussion panel of 3 entrepreneurs from (wait for it…) New York, San Francisco, and Boulder.

The conference wrapped up with an entertaining talk by Tony Hsieh of Zappos, who then delivered advance copies of his book “Delivering Happiness“. He spoke on the history of his company and the evolution of their unique 10 Core Values that dictate every aspect of corporate culture and inform every decision Zappos makes.

Overall, Big Omaha was a huge success and a wonderful surprise. Also, this being my second trip to Omaha I can truly say the city itself is also a fantastic bonus. Great food, unpretentious and welcoming people, happening culture, and a pretty hip scene.

This week I submitted a bid to a potential client  for a maintenance contract. He responded by asking me to justify my hourly rate. It’s a simple question but an important one. He wanted to know why I charge 25% more than his previous web professional. He said he even knew of an agency in Salt Lake (for print work) who also billed out 25% less than me. I was initially put off, but after wrestling with it all night I decided that it’s a very valid question. So I crafted this response which ultimately satisfied his curiosity. We have now started kicking off the project but I’m actually glad he asked me, because it was a nice self-affirmation process. Now I just hope I don’t disappoint him.

Anyway, here’s my response:

I was just writing up a couple new statements of work for some new clients. And I thought about how lucky  I am to be doing what I love and to have such great clients. So I added this little note into my contract.

A Note About Client Satisfaction
“My clients mean everything to me, professionally. I take tremendous pride in the quality of my work and in the satisfaction of my clients. I’m very lucky to love what I do for a living. The essential balance between my career and my personal life allows me to dedicate myself to clients and my family. I make every effort to work quickly, efficiently, honestly, and with your best interests in mind. What’s more is that I’m committed to accountability; something I feel is too often overlooked in this industry. My clients deserve my best effort and that requires an open dialogue. I always appreciate my clients’ feedback and I respectfully request your willingness to rely on my professional expertise, when it’s applicable. In return, I promise never to B.S. you or knowingly offer solutions that are less than optimal. This mutual commitment will allow us to produce a better product. And if something’s not right, I’ll make it right.”
— Joe Myers

Sunday River 2010 website

Among this years ski industry highlights were the redesign of JacksonHole.com, TheCanyons.com, and SundayRiver.com. Sunday River, in Bethel, Maine represented a second round of design; a rare opportunity for repeat business. And for that I’m truly thankful. What’s more, is that Sunday River is the place where I learned to ski. Or rather, Sunday River is also where my wife (a former Sunday River ski instructor) first gave me that all-important, life-altering ultimatum: “Well you can either learn to ski or you can just be lonely all winter…”

The design is a result of very specific and time-tested insight from the established veterans of Sunday River’s brand manager Nick Lambert, as well as the tenacious work of Sunday River’s tireless developer, Maria Silveira. My thanks go out to Sunday River for their cooperation and commitment to their core principles.

As always, feel free to hit me up for insider tips on the design and/or css of this site.

So a month ago I became a new father. My son, Charlie Landwehr Myers was born on October 18th, 8 weeks before his due date. My wife and I have endured the trials of the NICU and are proud to say that he is now home and safe.

The professional implication for me is that I’ll be taking some time to focus on him and enjoy his first few weeks of life. I will be continuing to work on existing projects as I can, but I may be apprehensive about taking on new projects for the next few weeks. While I appreciate your interest (assuming you had any) I will be happy to refer you to another Design professional if I feel I cannot meet your needs.

Thank you.

Today I spoke to an undergraduate design class at my Alma mater Northeastern University in Boston. My friend Mark Wooding teaches a class at night to Junior level design students. This was my second appearance in his class via video conference. Our conversation was centered around the ups and downs of life as freelance designer. I tried to offer a series of tips to make life easier for aspiring freelancers. It seemed to be well received and this time around I was able to keep it much more succinct.

Lecture Notes:

http://www.joe-art.com/about_lecture3.html

Although I don’t profess to be a seasoned design lecturer, I would certainly entertain other speaking engagements in the future. Please contact me if I might be of service.

The new JacksonHole.com

View Site »

Today we launched the new site for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Jackson has a well-deserved reputation as an extreme skiers paradise. But they also need to appeal to a wider international audience of mixed abilities. So the site serves as a branding platform with enhanced copy points and bold imagery. At the same time, the hard-core local elite skiers can quickly access daily conditions and updates from anywhere.

The design overhaul is bold and graphically rich. The nav is cleaner and more usable while the site architecture is streamlined for ease of use and SEO. The home page has a javascript slideshow, a tabbed media container, and an interactive promotional area. All pages have the daily snow report statistics in the header and a macro footer with handy links.

Check out JacksonHole.com »

This summer I had the pleasure of “refreshing” the look of the main resort site for The Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah. As my “home” resort, The Canyons is my preferred place to ski for its variety of uncrowded terrain. So it was an honor to be able to assist their marketing department with the new site.  The Canyons knew what they wanted so there wasn’t an unusual amount of creative exploration. Overall this project was a joy to work on and I’m very happy with the result. Thanks to The Canyons for letting me help on this project.

VISIT THE SITE »

Details: The home page uses a large javascript slideshow which replaces the old Flash version I built them in 2004. The navigation sits in front of that div using z-index and negative margins to create a ribbon-style wrapping effect. Beneath the slideshow is a tabbed box that loads 5 different content objects using the Coda Slider JS by Niall Doherty. A graphic promo and on-board booking engine round out the bottom of the page.

Additional development credit goes to The Canyons Marketing Department and Max Kloeppel.

I started a new web design sketch today. I opened a new canvas to 1100×900 pixels and as usual started laying out guides and had one of those “DUH!” moments. “Why don’t I just make a few common grid templates to start from?”

If you’re saying, “Hey Joe, what a great idea!” then please feel free to download these. There are 6 .psd templates here that are optimized for 1024×768 resolutions. Have at it.

What You’ll Get:
7-column template (945px wide)
8-column template (960px wide)
9-column template (954px wide)
10-column template (950px wide)
10-column template (960px wide)
12-column template (960px wide)

Download Now »

The newly redesigned home page for Ski Butlers.com

Ski Butlers is a Park City-based chain of ski rental delivery franchises all over western North America. They cater to discerning ski vacationers who want top of the line gear without the inconvenience of traditional rental shops. At skibutlers.com you can reserve your rentals in advance for delivery to your hotel room at a time that suits you. They even show up with extra boot sizes if the fit’s not quite right.

The redesign was challenging in that much of the content and functionality did not previously exist. What’s more is that the previous site made little consideration for SEO so the new site had to be completely standards compliant with lots of text and minimal markup.

There’s still a lot to be done with the site’s content to get it up to speed but the new site should really help elevate the brand for next season, while increasing visibility and conversion. Here’s hoping.

As a designer you may find yourself constantly explaining the same things to clients. And while this can be frustrating for you, remember that it may be their first time down the road so you may need to slow down and explain why things are the way they are. Often times, simply addressing these items ahead of time will help you avoid any awkwardness in the transition from concept to development. Hopefully these common questions can help you anticipate your clients’ likely concerns and address them before they become an issue.

There are ways to avoid these “surprises” throughout the process. But they require subtle communication and careful preparation. Remember, you’re the designer. So don’t corner the client with complicated technical or design questions, only to watch them glaze over and feel like they’re being talked down to. Instead try to engage your clients gently throughout the process to extract the necessary information and avoid any surprises.

Common Client Questions

Why doesn’t the type look like it did in the concept sketch?

Setting the proper anti-aliasing for "live type" in your sketch can help avoid surprises down the road. (Mac OSX = "crisp" or "smooth", Windows IE6 = "none", Windows IE7 = "sharp")

It’s so easy to design a concept in Photoshop™ with gorgeous anti-aliased type as it will appear on your Apple Cinema Display. The client will LOVE your design because the smooth type looks better than jagged type on sites on their old CRT in IE6. But that’s not realistic now, is it? One way to avoid this pitfall is to find out what browser your client runs and design your concept to suit their environment. There’s no universal way to perfectly match Windows rendering but if you’re familiar with the evolution of different operating systems and how they render type, you can make small adjustments to better replicate what they will see when the site goes live. If your client is using IE6 as a primary browser, they’re most likely on an older machine without cleartype. So in anticipation, you can set all “live type” (type that will be editable) in your Photoshop sketch to “none” which will more accurately render the type as jagged (gag) like the browser would. If your client is on Vista, using IE7 or IE8 there is no perfect rendering mode, but the “sharp” anti-aliasing mode will be a little closer. If your client is on an Apple with OSX (you lucky bastard) you’re in the clear (pun optional) to use “crisp” or “smooth” as your preferred rendering mode.
Here’s an example of fonts rendering in different browsers.

What’s up with all the white space?

Every time I get this question I die a little inside. But it’s legit. Clients often see real-estate as a finite asset, something to be rigidly maximized. This is understandable but it may be useful to set up an appreciation  for white space ahead of time. Often times, your client appreciates white space but they just don’t know it yet. At some point a client will say “Make it look like Apple.com.” Of course that’s a laughable statement but the undertone is that they like the singular focus and big beautiful imagery. You can do this. You really can. But when you  hear comments like that it’s important to jump on them and respond with something like “Yeah, I love how open their site is, and how focused the imagery is.” You may also have white space in the left hand column below the navigation. This is a common place for “dead space” (as the client  may call it) to accumulate. It’s important  to remind them that (A) the height of that column is independent of the content and will vary from one page to another, (B) it’s most likely dynamic so it’s impossible to control, so you’ve designed it to accommodate the worst-case scenario, and (C) the clean area will allow the user to focus on the important content at hand. But be sure to address it while you’re still concepting, rather than letting the site go to development.

How come the site doesn’t take up my whole browser window?

This is a tricky topic. But if you’re designing for a fixed width, the best answer is that you’ve looked at the client’s user data and it overwhelmingly suggests that their users are mostly on a common resolution (1024 x 768 most likely), and your design is set to optimized that viewing experience. The second half of the answer is that the site does not scale with the browser resolution (like say, Amazon) because your client’s content is not infinite. All the client wants  to know that you’ve considered these possibilities and made an educated decision that your decision best suits there needs. You’ve considered that a fluid width would be detrimental to the ideal line-length (66 characters or so) and ultimately it would hurt readability. You’ve addressed all the permutations of necessary content objects (banners, promos, etc) and they all have a nice neat place to live. And if all else fails, point out that The New York Times does it so it must be right. (Of course, choose your words carefully.)

Why can’t we use our corporate font everywhere?

It can be hard to explain the limited font selection on the web. But once you’ve gotten over that hurdle, it can be an opportunity to discuss why you’ve chosen Arial to compliment their logotype of Bodoni for example. And until CSS3 is universally supported, embedding display fonts through the use of “@font-face” is not a viable option.  In some cases, however you may want to dress up headings or special type areas with more graphic-looking fonts. For that you may want to look into sIFR which is a cool way of replacing live type with display type rendered in Flash through the use of CSS and Javascript. Another options is FLIR which uses PHP, Javascript, CSS and image replacement to render your headlines. But of course the effort and accessibility are drawbacks to these otherwise cool work-arounds. Having used sIFR initially on FetchDog.com I also found that there were load time issues caused by the extra scripts and server calls. So the best bet is to get good at making web type look sexy.

Can you change the rollover states?

It’s impossible to anticipate and document every minor detail for client approval. Sooner or later you’ll have to make some executive decisions to avoid opening a major can of worms and wasting time with client approvals. For example, should you ask your client what visited link color to use in the right hand column? Probably not, but what if they don’t like the color you picked? Obviously that’s an easy one to fix. But what if you created a nice flash site where all the button elements have a complicated mouse-over behavior? It may be best to define the behavior once and seek approval before proceeding with the rest. Your call. But consider how long the effect will take to alter and weigh it against the time it would take to receive a quick approval. There’s your answer.

Can we add a major content element at the last minute?

Last minute scope creep is a given in this industry. Typically it happens when a client is not fully prepared, but is under a tight deadline. But rather than being combative or perceived as unreasonable, cover your ass with a signed Statement of Work (SOW) document that defines the scope and requirements of the project. This document can get batted around many times but when it’s signed you have a project framework and a record of which requests are reasonable and which ones may mean potential added revenue. If those out-of-scope requests add up, you may be able to table them until after launch and address them all at once in a Phase 2 approach. Clients can usually budget and digest that much more easily than a nickel and dime approach.

So I have an idea for the site intro…

NO. This isn’t 1999. I don’t do intros. —Well, let me clarify. I’m not opposed to some animation on the home page. But in recent years I’ve adopted a “no splash page policy”. If someone requests an “intro” I try to talk them off the ledge by offering them an animation on their home page. This usually goes over pretty well once I get done explaining that (A) the concept of an intro is out-dated, (B) it’s annoying to users who are completely over the idea and who just want to find content, and (C) that we can make the same impact without a barrier to entry which the isolated intro represents.

My mom looked at the site on AOL and…

There’s always going to be some techno-peasant on a dial-up connection somewhere who is not getting the complete experience. Your job is to determine early on in the process if those people matter. If you’re able to ascertain who the clients’ core users are and what their minimum requirements are. If your client is hot on ground-breaking technologies or a high-bandwidth user experience, you’ll need to warn them about the risks without talking them out of their excitement. A good way to do this is to make clients sign a Technical Requirements Document (TRD) up front. We’d all like to stop supporting IE6 but that  may not be realistic and it’s important to know up front if that’s important. So draft up a document saying which target browsers will be supported, what system specifications are necessary to view the complete experience and what versions of software will be required.

Your Turn:

If you’re a designer, are there common questions you get from clients that make you want to dine out on a bullet? If you’re a marketer, have you ever had an awkward exchange with a designer that could have been easily avoided with proper communication up front? If so, comment on this post and let’s discuss.

It’s no secret that I love Apple. It’s also no secret that I hate banner ads. So when I see something like this I get mixed emotions. But I’ve decided that I love this iLife ad. Apple has upped the anti for synced banner ads. The idea is not completely original but as with anything Apple’s marketing team dreams up it’s just freakin’ cool.

The premise is that “PC” (John Hodgman) is trying to sabotage the iLife banner’s call to action button to shock users who might  otherwise be tempted to click. Of course, in typical Wylie Coyote style he ends up shocking himself.

Another brilliantly creative synced Apple ad.

The ad works for many reasons.

1. The smooth loading and clean design allows the story to play out in a clear, decisive way.
2. The dramatic scale of the ad is not entirely typical for the New York Times homepage, so it breaks from the heavily loaded content you’re used to seeing in this space. Plus the white space calls more attention to the action.
3. The quality of the video allows for an uncompromosed viewing experience, one that may not have been possible just a few short years ago.
4. The video initially plays without the sound, which is not only standard compliant with most publishers’ ad requirements but it also entices you and draws you in immediately.
5. The aggressive media buy is placed on the perfect site demographically speaking, at the perfect time. A total buyout on a boring wednesday makes sense on a site who’s regular users visit at least daily.

Anyway, not to be a blatant Mac-a-holic, but damn these guys are good.

The web is an ephemeral medium, subject to trends and whims; art directors and design by committee; browser-based compromise and accessibility assessments. Excellence on the web is subjective, elusive, and fickle. But you’d like to think that you do good work. Every project comes with concessions but your latest project is usually your best. You take screen shots for your portfolio, maybe enter it into some contests or showcases, and you promote it any way you can. But inevitably you have to hand that design off to the client, or a developer, or another designer who may not share your vision. And that’s when the heart-break sets in. Lately I’ve had several sites butchered by the clumsy hands of zealous, would-be designers. It makes me envy my friends in the print design field who’s work is preserved at the peak of its freshness like a beetle in amber.

Some of my designs stay alive, just as I designed them for many years. Some, just for a few months. Sometimes the designs degrade over time due to client access, improper training, or just a lack of attention. You try to account for that degradation in your design by applying character limits, styling markup elements, or offering style guides. But it’s inevitable. Then some day someone comes along and institutes a sweeping change. You just hope it’s for the better.

Picture yourself as a parent. You work hard to raise the perfect child and before you know it, they’ve left the house, fallen in with a bad crowd and they’re smoking crack! (Breathe.)

But what happens when the major change is detrimental to your original design, or to the client’s brand? Picture yourself as a parent. You work hard to raise the perfect child and before you know it, they’ve left the house, fallen in with a bad crowd and they’re smoking crack! (Breathe.) How do you tell people that you had nothing to do with it without sounding like a snob? Or, worse yet, what if the client asks for your opinion? I’m not the type to bash people’s work unless it’s unnecessarily awful. By that I mean, you had a perfectly good site but you trashed it just because you felt like it. (Breathe.) It’s natural to get upset about it. In fact it’s healthy. It shows that you care about your work. But it’s also unprofessional to let it get you down.

Remember: It’s not your fault

Don’t forget that people always want to put their mark on things. Even if your design was better that the new one, it doesn’t matter. If someone decides to make a change, you can’t stop them. So have a good cry, keep your chin up, and move on with your career.

Stay Fresh

One thing you can do is keep your portfolio fresh. Make sure your portfolio home page always reflects your latest and/or best work. Be proud of your  latest accomplishments and don’t hang on too tightly to previous success. I used to have a creative director who would walk into every pitch with the same 3-5 case studies of projects he had done over 10 years before. This is a bad habit. The work looks dated and it makes you look as though you haven’t done anything good in a while. PURGE! No one’s gonna look through your old work, and if they do, chances are it does not accurately reflect the way your current status as a designer. If you must include old work, perhaps add a conspicuous date to it, or better yet, section it off in a “vintage” or “classic” area where old designs can be put out to pasture.

Go ahead and tell users that this version is no longer active. But feel free to archive a static version of the site to show.

Stay Honest

If you must show out-dated work, don’t beat around the bush. Feel free to tell users when a site has become inactive. I like to show the date of completion for a project and if my design is no longer live, I say so. If it’s a small site or a Flash site, I may even archive my version on my website for display only. However, be careful not to detract from the current site’s SEO by stripping meta data, alt tags, and any live links to the site.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Push your latest work. I find it useful to have a “featured work” area that showcases my latest and/or greatest work over my other work. Items in my general portfolio are listed by vertical market, while most other pages showcase items I feel represent where I am at this moment. And that’s important because people want to quickly understand what distinguishes you from other artists. Make sure you lead with the right impression.

But the best thing you can do is keep working. Keep doing your best work on each project. You will ultimately be defined by your latest work so make sure that your next design is always your best.

http://www.raisingmomny.com

With so many resources out there for taking care of a baby, it’s about time someone stood up for the mother. Raising Mom is a New York-based organization that helps new moms cope with their new adventure and teaches them helpful techniques. They offer classes and seminars while the site offers articles and blogs to create an empathetic and supportive community around motherhood. Check it out!

While I did the concept design and template/CSS production, additional props go to Integra Strategic for project management and overall development.