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

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

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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.

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.

Being that so much of our industry is perception turned reality, I’ve decided to start a professional blog. My wife, Sarah and I will keep posting to our personal adventure blog, but this will be a place for me to expound on my ideals as an interactive designer. You may see some subjective commentary, jaded criticism, or blatant self-promotion here, but isn’t that what it’s all about?

Here, you’ll be able to read about many aspects of interactive design like layout, typography, usability, user interface, design trends, CSS, Flash, Photoshop, social media, new apps, link-sharing, and most importantly, respect to quality work around the internet.