Weiser Design

Solving the web content issue

Following upon a good article on website copywriting: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/how-to-spot-and-avoid-web-copy-that-kills-websites/

We often run into clients that need a website but don’t have the resources or time to produce content. This could end up producing a site that is well-structured and attractive, but is an empty husk for some company-centered content that doesn’t do much to hold a visitor’s attention. Thus, the whole point of the web project – building upon and reinforcing the company brand – fails.

The point of this post is to brainstorm a few ideas for the solution to this problem. The most obvious is to simply hire a copywriter: someone who’s paycheck hinges on being able to produce quality content that grabs attention and produces results. This isn’t always possible due to budgetary constraints, but I think it’s a good idea to consider this as part of the design consultation (if you’re not already doing so). It’s the same as if you needed to hire a photographer to produce images of a client’s product, or an illustrator to do draw up some banners.

If a client doesn’t have the budget to add a copywriter to the web design team, choices become pretty limited. Usually (as I’ve seen in practice), we put the responsibility on the shoulders of the client. No one knows their business better than they do, so this should be no big deal, right? However, clients who write their own content (if they’re business owners/secretaries and not professional writers) tend to write self-centered company rhetoric that doesn’t resonate with visitors. I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming clients for this, because it’s easy to speak in your own vernacular. There needs to be a recognition that the client’s customers rarely if ever speak the same vernacular as the clients themselves. That’s where designers come in: we’re there to market to the audience. Not to the client his or herself.

Another option is for the web designer/developer to offer to write the content themselves, although this is a time-consuming undertaking. We understand the need for customer-oriented copy, but because writing is not our primary profession, naturally it’s going to take more time and effort for a designer to produce this copy. In all likelihood, with the time you’re going to end up spending corresponding back-and-forth with your client for the copy content (and likely begging them to listen to sense), it would probably be more cost-effective to just bring on a contract copywriter.

Tones Practice

Discovery: Tones look way sweet! But they also take up a whole lot of time! Maybe as much or more time as it would take to color something.

Apple’s OS X Lion

Personal impressions on Apple’s Back to the Mac keynote today:

iLife 11: Some nice updates. As always, makes it easier to do fancy stuff for people who don’t use professional apps, but you’re stuck within templates.

Facetime on Mac: Apple’s been pushing this. People rarely make video calls. Nice to have the option, but we’ll see if anyone decides to use it. Next topic.

Mac App Store: The iOS environment finally comes to the Mac. Seems like a nice way for developers to promote their applications, although I fear the stringent and often baffling requirements already in place on the iOS App store will make their way here. Of course, I don’t see any reason why developers can’t still market their applications from the web as well as provide downloads. Hopefully that option remains open in the years to come.

Launch Pad: While the interface is nicely designed, I’m not sure I see the function. Basically, instead of clicking on your Apps folder in your dock and scrolling through a grid of icons, you “swipe” through some full-screen grids of applications. While gestures are nice on iOS devices, they have long been a travesty to perform on Apple’s Magic Mouse, and we saw evidence of this during the keynote.

Mission Control: I can understand Apple’s desire to simplify its multifarious window-switching capabilities: Exposé, Spaces, Dashboard, and the new fullscreen. I don’t believe “Mission Control” is the most elegant way of doing so. Again we’re stuck with using gestures (again proven hap-hazardous using a Magic Mouse), which get us to basically an expanded Exposé state. Full screen apps at the top, open windows in the middle. What about minimized apps? Will they be in a row on the bottom, a lá the current Exposé? If Mission Control can be invoked in ways other than gestures (say, hot corners) that would minimize my complaints.

Full Screen Apps: Apple really has some ‘splainin to do here. For years Mac users have lived under the mantra of “We don’t need full-screen, unless the app needs it!” Our little green “plus” circles have either expanded the window to view all content, or shifted back to a user-defined window area. This makes sense in the OS X environment, where one does a lot of visual window-switching. But Microsoft Windows has had full-screen programs for decades. Now all-of-a-sudden it’s better to have full-page PDFs? iPhoto with no menu bar? What has the world come to? My best guess is that most Apple applications will be featuring new “full screen” modes, but this is going to be a crap-shoot in the 3rd party developer world.

One more thang…

The MacBook Air: Apple introduced a new Air (which has been begging for attention) that features flash storage only, a full unibody enclosure, and a new 11.6″ screen model. So users of the 12″ Powerbook, rejoice, your replacement computer is finally here. The thing comes with an underpowered Core 2 Duo processor, a nice new nVidia 320m graphics chip, and a standard 2GB of memory. And the small version comes at $999, which in Apple-terms, means affordable. Other changes include: a full multi-touch trackpad (the sliver button is gone), an extra USB port (for a grand total of: [count 'em] TWO!), crazy-good battery life (30 days standby?!), and a higher-resolution display. The other caveats of owning an Air are still there: no ethernet, no optical drive, no upgradeability. For Mac owners, that last point is fairly moot, and in-line with Apple’s general hardware philosophy. PC enthusiasts will still find reason to gripe though.

So in conclusion: predictable updates to iLife, some awkward steps in OS X development, and a much-needed update to the Air that continues the trend of portability over functionality. I’ll be holding onto my elder Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard for the time being.

New Portfolio Book

I’ve been using a handmade screwpost book for my presentation portfolio ever since making one in junior year. At the time it seemed cool, but the craft was never perfect and it finally bugged me enough to make a new one. There were glue marks and the embossments never looked that clean, so behold the new hotness on the left:

This one was made out of masonite and a 12″ piano hinge. I scratched the front while using a circular saw to cut the masonite, so I ended up sandpapering the whole front to make it look like it was somehow intentional. We’ll see how well that goes when I present this next week. Features my new WeiserDesign logo spraypainted on the front. Could be cleaner, but could be a lot worse too.

Next step will be printing out some new pages…

Redoing old projects

In Spring 2008 I had a college class that taught me new ways of creative thinking. The glass was ArtGr 476, taught by Alan Mickelsen. To a new sophomore design student he was a terrifying professor; to a junior or senior, he was an endless well of helpful critique and information. We chose our own projects in this class, since the goals were in the methodology of the creative process and not its end product. Because I lacked any decent packaging projects, two of my four assignments were of the packaging variety. While I turned my assignments in on-time and received decent marks for them, I can look back and clearly see that they were unfinished. Concepts, at best. With my current ample downtime (read: unemployed), I had a chance to buff these up.

The first was a watch package that used a logo I had also developed at the start of the class. I had the idea of “excavating” the watch out of the package, using textures and opening methods that put the user in discovery-mode. However, my prototype lacked the structural integrity to hold up a watch.

The new version, made two years later and out of college, includes a sturdier frame and a complete rock-face interior. And a bit better photo shots.

See this project on Behance.

I created a second packaging project based on a methodology that began by being given two random words, drawn by a hat. I eventually arrived at a wearable snack-holder, in the shape of a cute chameleon. There wasn’t so much wrong with the prototype, but it did not tell the story that I wished it too.

Over the course of the next two years, I considered the project unfinished but lacked the time and/or the motivation to fix it. Finally, over the past 3 months and especially the last two weeks, I had the gumption to finish what I started. I fledged the chameleon out into a set of 3, branded as perforated snack-holder sheets which users could buy at a carnival and/or fair. More importantly, I gave the system an identity and a photoshoot that the project deserved.

Look at how much happier these kids are now.

See this project on Behance.

Interview Series: A Common Thread

What follows is an interview I did with my Grandmother regarding her quilting. While my earlier post told the story of my Grandfather’s plane collection and flying habit, this one tells of its complement: my Grandma’s skilled fingers and her devotion to supplying new family members with quilts.

1. When did you start quilting? What got you into it? At Church, we had a quilting group 30 years ago. We made quilts for other people. Reverend Hoffman’s wife taught it. The group charged money for quilts, some of which was given to the church. We had a waiting list of people who wanted quilts made for them. The group always had two quilts going at one time, but eventually that dropped off. Usually we had around six ladies in the group. Now I make quilts at home since I retired. I’m past my prime, as they say. It takes me 2 months to make a quilt.
2. What is your favorite thing you’ve stitched/quilted? I don’t have a particular favorite. I try to do different patterns each time. Don’t like to do the same thing over. I don’t get too complicated with the designs. I’ve won 1st and 2nd place at the Mississippi Valley Fair before with my quilts!
3. How many quilts and/or pieces of clothing do you think you’ve made? Personally, 30-40 in fourteen years. As a part of the church group… no idea. I made them for all the grandkids, all the great-grandkids, for marriages, family, myself… It used to take me one month to make a quilt, going 6 hours at a time. Now can only do it for about an hour before my hands get tired.
4. What’s your favorite part about quilting? I like picking out the patterns and materials. I get patterns at Jo-Ann Fabrics store. Sometimes I use patterns from books. I also get patterns and ideas out of quilting magazines.
5. How long did it take you to become good at quilting? Doesn’t take too long; they didn’t complain about me too much when I started at church. I made Robin (editors note: her daughter, my mother) a coat in stitching class. Tiny stitches are tough and I don’t like them, but it’s easier when you’re in a group.
6. Has technology had an impact on hobby quilting? Are sewing machines that much better than stitching by hand? Machine quilting is faster but has less character to it. I use a sewing machine to put pieces together, and have a big frame to do large twin and queen-size quilts instead of doing it in my lap.
7. How do you choose what patterns you want to use for a cloth or quilt design? I choose patterns from my magazines, or pick them up from TV quilting programs.
8. Is there a community for quilting? Do you participate or try to share quilting knowledge with others? Oh yes, we gossiped at church. We talked about life, kids, all that stuff.
9. Do you think there will always be room for quilting or is it a dying hobby? Machine quilting will be around, but hand-quilting is dying out.
10. Do you or did you ever have an interest in fashion design, or was it always more of a hobbyist thing? Nope.
11. How much time per week do you spend quilting or cloth-making? I spend an hour at a time these days because my back bothers me, usually 2-3 hours a day total. 10 hours a week if I’m really working on it. I’m a sewer who needs a pattern, I can’t just sew (like Shylynn’s costume). No problems with arthritis though! Sewing might actually help that, keeping the hands and fingers moving.
12. Your quilting/cloth making influenced Robin quite a bit. She made me costumes as a kid and also regularly sews bibs together for my sister. Are you glad that you passed on this knowledge? How often did you and Robin knit together? Does Laurie also knit, or any of your grandchildren? They weren’t interested in quilting when they were younger. Whatever sewing they learned, they learned it in high school. Robin still sewed a bit for her kids’ costumes, like you said. Great Grandmother Fox quilted with old material out of necessity, and had old, square quilting frames. So there’s a little bit of heritage to it.

Motivation

This was a slop-job poster I threw together one afternoon to motivate myself to keep applying for design jobs. Over time, I discovered how many yellow post-it notes I was using at work (not always for work, heh), and wondered what they would look like in aggregate. I missed a few, but I’m disappointed I still didn’t get to cover the entire 18.5 x 24″ area the poster took up. I moved out of the apartment whose wall this poster clung to, so motivation must come from elsewhere…

Post-it note content includes work-related notes, dates to remember, doodles, character sketches, mood sketches, concept sketches, logo sketches… basically, just a lot of sketches.

New Website Mockup

This is the second of two versions I’ve mocked up in Photoshop thus far. Not sure if I like it that much; it’s stained with too much design-blog viewing (i.e. looks a lot like many of the glitzy websites you see these days on Smashing Magazine, Creattica, et al). It sure its glitzy though.

This will eventually be both a portfolio site and a blog, although you could probably tell that from the tab menu on the left. Hopefully implementing it into WordPress won’t be too bad, but I am admittedly a little rusty on my WP coding.

I also plan on using fonts from Google’s Font API to bring a little spice to the typography. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m awfully sick of seeing nothing but Arial, Verdana, and Georgia. What are your thoughts?

Emancipator Poster Submissions

I couldn’t decide on one, so I made two. Photo credit on the second poster goes to Bob Segal. I was kind of rushed on the first one, so I may eventually go back and add some shadows on the ground-plane for the mountains.

emancipator poster in-prog

Yeah, I’m not done with this. Maybe posting it here will get me thinking on the final outcome. Oh and due Friday, sweet!

I wanted to signify that this is likely the tour to promote “Safe in the Steep Cliffs,” Emancipator’s latest album, hence the mountains. Emancipator’s own album covers and style have a heavy emphasis on nature, and I wanted to mash that with the electronic nature of his compositions. Hoping to make the due date…