Rohdesign Weblog: Design

Here you'll find all posts file under the Design category.

April 23, 2008

The New Gig: Art Director at Northwoods Software

Last November, I mentioned in detail Apple contacting me about a job opportunity with the iPhone/OS X design team. After taking time to ponder and reflect on the opportunity, I felt it wasn't the right move for myself or my family.

I loved living and working in Milwaukee, helping independent software developers with branding and design challenges at MakaluMedia.

These were the major reasons I decided to decline the Apple opportunity.

Fast forward to spring 2008.

Following several discussions with leadership team and design/development staff at Northwoods Software, I've been offered an art director position, which I have accepted. I start my new job in mid-May.

After 10 great years at MakaluMedia, I'm taking the next step.

A Tough Decision
This change was a very tough decision. I love the design work I do, the clients I help and the many colleagues I've had the pleasure to collaborate with. I've spent several years building a reputation for doing good design work, solving problems for my clients and being a designer who listens and is easy to work with.

There is nothing wrong with MakaluMedia. I've loved my time at MakaluMedia.

This change in direction is about new opportunities and challenges on multiple levels. This is the next step in my growth as a person, a designer and art director.

10 Years at MakaluMedia: Priceless
Working for MakaluMedia since 1998 has been a wonderful experience. Matt Henderson, the owner of MakaluMedia and I have been through quite a bit together.

I was Matt's first employee, leaving a position with Hare Strigenz, a Milwaukee print design firm. I'd developed a passion for the web and wanted to learn the new medium by diving in head first.

I learned HTML from books and building sites in BBEdit. in 2003 I shifted from tabled design to web standards, thanks to Designing with Web Standards.

I was the first MakaluMedia employee to work fully remotely. This was way back in 1998 when it was still a little quirky and unusual. I produced my design work on a Powerbook Wallstreet, with a 19" Sony CRT on a folding table in my apartment.

I experienced a shift from larger design projects with the European Space Agency, to building a network of small, independent clients over several years. The first year was tough, but a long-term, steady approach to doing good work and making clients happy has paid off in many referrals, a backlog of work and profitability.

By working remotely and having to build my own network of clients and partners, I've effectively run a small design business. I've enjoyed the entire process: finding clients, winning projects, solving design challenges, selecting and managing partners, producing the solutions, invoicing the work and promoting the work.

These past 10 years have shaped who I am, formalized my iterative design process, provided a better understanding of business, built my knowledge of helping clients, improved my customer service and more. It's been a priceless experience.

Northwoods Opportunities & Challenges
Becoming an art director at Northwoods Software is a step in my process of growth as a designer and a person. I'll be working on larger projects, exercising research, analysis, problem solving and visual thinking skills in new and different ways. I'm looking forward to bringing what I've learned to new projects and users.

I'm very excited about working within a creative group again. Working alone has developed my focus, but I've missed being in an office with a small group of creative people. Over the years I've built a network of design colleagues online, but IM, Twitter and voice chats are just no substitute for having colleagues close at hand.

Sharing with my team will be satisfying part of the position. I'm looking forward to offering up my 20+ years of experience in design practice with colleagues. I hope that all of the joy and pain gained from many years of working on projects with clients will benefit my colleagues at Northwoods.

The company is focusing on new creative areas of expertise, and I'm extremely excited to be part of this. I'm hoping my skills and experiences in building a small design business from scratch will be helpful in this regard.

Finally, the company attracted me with its unique working environment, including a private office with shower and toilet, ping pong tables, popcorn on Thursdays, workout and nap rooms and space outside for frisbee. Northwoods' family first approach and flexibility made a positive impact on me, as I'm coming from a pretty family-friendly and flexible work at home environment.

All in all, I am very excited about this new Northwoods opportunity.

Thanks!
I'm very thankful to Matt Henderson for the opportunity to be a part of MakaluMedia these past 10 years. It's been a great ride, I've learned quite a bit, and I know the team will continue to produce great stuff.

I'm also grateful to the team at Northwoods, for making me a part of their team at this exciting time in the life of the company. I'm looking forward to being a contributor to Northwoods' success and growth.

Northwoods Movies & Photos
Tracy Apps, a friend of mine and my future Northwoods colleague, has grabbed several movie clips and photos of the Northwoods offices on Flickr. I thought would be fun to post several of them here for a little context. :-)

My New Office at Northwoods

Yep, that's my own private office with a window, bathroom, shower and vanity. Northwoods has retrofitted an old hospital space for their offices, so every employee gets an office just like this. Pretty slick.

The Creative Wing Tour

Tracy takes the camera down the hall from my office, and shows the central area where the ping pong tables and other amenities are located.

Brian Artka Scootering in the Creative Wing

A few weeks ago, Northwoods picked up scooters for the team, and of course my friend Brian Artka had to show off his scootering skillz!

Tracy's Extreme On-Board Scootering

Here we have Tracy capturing her thrill-a-minute extreme scooter ride!

Ping Pong Tables

And here are several Northwoods team members playing ping pong.

Permalink | Comments (23) | Design | add to del.icio.us

April 3, 2008

Lola & Foxy Pet Tag Design

Yesterday I received four very cool sample pet tags from MakaluMedia client Pam Trainer at Lola & Foxy. I was so impressed with how these tags turned out, I had to write a little something here to tell the story of their creation.

Back in early 2007, Pam Trainer, the sister of Jon Trainer at Outer Level (another client) came to me to help her tune up, simplify and redraw the logo for Lola & Foxy, her startup business offering pet collars, leads and tags online.

The logo refresh project went very well, so when Pam needed several pet tags designed in a pinch for a trade show late in the year, she called me again for help.

I happened to be booked when she contacted me, but I'd been working in an art direction role with Milwaukee designer Jason Behlke on some other production and design projects, and thought this would be a perfect job to collaborate on with him.

Research & Analyis
I talked with Pam about technical specs, wording, look and feel ideas and overall goals of the project. Then I took all of the raw information and analyzed it, producing a design brief with Pam's specs and my own thoughts on style, fonts, colors and other directions so that Jason could start working on the design.

Jason produced black & white concepts in Illustrator, which I reviewed and presented to Pam with detailed thoughts, gathered her feedback and we continued until we had final 4 winning designs that were properly prepped for the tag production house.

Pam was able to get samples in time for her trade show, and the designs went over quite well. She's now selling all four of the tag designs on the Lola & Foxy site and reports they're very popular.

Project Observations
While this was a small, quick project, I think it provides valuable insight on how the process works, and how everyone benefits. Pam had a great experience and now has a popular set of tags to sell. Jason had a chance to do some very cool design work on something he'd never done before. I had the pleasure of helping Pam make an idea reality, while acting as a guide and mentor to Jason through the process.

I smile, knowing we've all benefited working on this fun project. Even better, these pet tags are benefitting pet owners who can enjoy the fruits of our collaboration.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Design | add to del.icio.us

February 7, 2008

Attending SXSW Interactive 2008!

For the past few years, I've been very intentional about attending thought-provoking conferences and events, to learn, grow and meet new people.

In 2007, I attended BarCampMadison, UX Intensive, SOBCon07, BarCampMilwaukee2 the SEED Conference and excellent monthly Web414 meetings through the year.

For several years I've heard great things about SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Many of the people I admire attend yearly, I've enjoyed podcasts from the event, but it's never worked out for me to attend.

That will change in 2008. On March 7th, I'll be heading down to Austin, with fellow Web414 members Ashe Dryden and David Overbeck. We're all excited to see first-hand, just what all the SXSW buzz is about.

Thanks MakaluMedia!
I've been given the opportunity to attend SXSW as art director and designer from MakaluMedia. I'm very thankful for this opportunity, and I plan to make the most of my time in Austin. I'll attend multiple sessions, take notes and capture sketchnotes similar to the ones I did at the SEED Conference and UX Intensive.

Advise the Newbie
Since this is my first time to SXSW Interactive, I welcome tips and ideas from seasoned veterans. I'm also open to Austin tips and suggestions from any Austin dwellers out there who would like to share. Just leave a comment below. :-)

Contact Me SXSW-Goers
I also want to meet old friends and new people while I'm at at SXSW. If you're attending SXSW Interactive 2008 and would like to meet for a coffee in Austin, drop me a line with the subject SXSW. I'd love to connect before I head down to Austin.

Resources
As I prepare for SXSW Interactive, I've compiled a selection of resources to share with other SXSW attendees, and those interested in the event:

SXSW Interactive 2008 — The official site.
SXSW Interactive 2008: Panels (Time) — SXSW Panels, time schedule.
SXSW Interactive 2008: Panels (Day) — SXSW Panels, by day.
SXSW Interactive 2008: Panels (Category) — SXSW Panels, by category.
SXSW Registrant's Guide — Registrant's guide.
SXSW Registrant's Mobile Guide — Mobile registrant's guide.
SXSW '08 Insider's Guide — Information and forums on Ning.com.
SXSW Baby — Un-official Weblog and forums for SXSW.
Ze Frank Explains SXSW Interactive In Under a Minute — Classic Ze Frank humor!
SXSW Core Conversations — Directory for informal conversations.
SXSW Past, Present, and Future — Great podcast interview with Hugh Forrest, Director of Events for SXSW Interactive on the history, culture and future of the event.
SXSW Geeks Love Bowling — Bowling with SXSWers, Sunday, March 9th.
Airbag: Hampton — Greg Storey's Guide to SXSW Newbies.
John Phillips — Beginner's Guide to SXSW.

Have a resource to share? Email me and let me know!

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February 5, 2008

Winterblast 2008 T-Shirt Design

For the past several years, I've had the great opportunity to design t-shirt graphics for Winterblast, our church youth group's annual winter retreat.

For 2007, I created a snow monster for the shirt design, and loved how the white ink on navy blue long-sleeve t-shirts turned out. For 2008, I chose a stylized white polar bear design, on forest green long-sleeve t-shirts.

Designing the Polar Bear
To create the stylized polar bear illustration, I used image searches to locate a few reference photos, to help me establish correct proportions and shapes in my memory. Using this reference, I created a front-view polar bear in Adobe Illustrator. No sketches were necessary, as the bear idea had formed in my head by this point.

After several design iterations, I decided to add a pair of black 1960s sunglasses, a winter cap, and enclosed the polar bear within a circular shape.

I explored various type treatments for Winterblast '08, settling on a combo of Helvetica Bold and Medium. The rounded rectangle shape around the type suggests a highway sign — as our group typically has a long road trip North to the retreat.

Printing the Shirts
Once the art was complete, I took my final files to MJM Screen Print & Embroidery Studio in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. MJM provided great screen printing and superb service, turning these Winterblast t-shirts around quickly, and with great quality.

Here are a few photos of the finished t-shirts:

I think these shirts turned out very well. I can't wait to pass these bad boys out to the 50 students and leaders going to Winterblast 2008!

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January 24, 2008

Helvetica: Full Film on Google Video (Removed)

I've just learned that the full 1:21:44 documentary Film Helvetica (which I recommended in a previous post) ~~is currently~~ was available to watch on Google Video.

I had a look at the comments, and saw someone listed as "gary hustwit" who may (or may not) be the filmmaker:

"yes the filmmakers should be making money... this is an illegal upload and will be deleted soon. if you'd like to support the film, go to http://www.helveticafilm.com"

This video may indeed be an illegal upload, and might disappear soon. I'd momentarily embedded the video here, but decided to remove it, as it isn't clear if the film was legally posted. At least it can't be downloaded.

My advice is to rent or buy the film, see it as intended and support the filmmaker, Gary Hustwit, for his hard work. Helvetica is available at Netflix or Amazon and directly from the Helvetica Shop.

(Thanks to Russell Beattie for the tip.)

UPDATE 2008-01-26: This video has now been removed from Google Video.

Permalink | | Design | add to del.icio.us

January 21, 2008

Helvetica: The Movie

The film begins with a close up of a typographer's hands, selecting metal type from a case, building a line of type for an old-school proof press.

I'm talking about Gary Hustwit's film Helvetica, a gorgeous documentary about a typeface's birth and cultural impact.

Helvetica features beautiful filmwork, an interesting storyline, fascinating interviews and a killer soundtrack. It's a joy to watch Hustwit blend visuals, sound and voice into a compelling story of one typeface's impact on our culture.

I love the wide selection of interviewees Hustwit chooses — old-school and young gun designers, typographers and design critics, those who love Helvetica and those who abhor it. The film's broad spectrum of voices provides a full picture of Helvetica, the neutral Swiss typeface that somehow draws out extreme opinions.

See this film! See it even if you aren't a designer, but especially if you're a designer.

You'll gain insight into the making of a typeface. You'll gain a deeper understanding of how fundamentally typography shapes design, advertising, street signs, packaging: even common items like government forms. You'll be surprised.

For a taste of the film, here's an 8 minute selection of clips for your viewing pleasure:

Helvetica is available at Netflix or Amazon and directly from the Helvetica Shop.

Check it out! You won't be disappointed. :-)

Permalink | Comments (6) | Design | add to del.icio.us

December 15, 2007

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar Update

3 weeks ago today, I released the 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar, and since then, I've been pleased with the results. Here are some highlights:

54 calendars have been purchased since Saturday, November 24th.
The quality of the printing from Cafe Press is quite good (see the photos).
I've had positive feedback about the calendar grid for actual use as a calendar, as the days in the grid aren't covered with images or text.
The Sketchtoon Calendar Set on Flickr has been viewed 2,500 times.
Both the Vertical and Square iPhone/iPod/Palm wallpapers have been popular.
The original Sketchtoon Calendar post from my blog has the number 1 position in natural search results on Google.

It's been an interesting and fun experiment. I'm learning new things, and have been meeting many interesting people through the project.

The calendar still has a brief window of opportunity for sales, probably through mid January or so. I'll be interested in seeing where sales go from here — hopefully I can earn a few more sales before 2008 arrives.

Buy the Sketchtoon Calendar: 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar: $19.99 + shipping.

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November 30, 2007

Square Sketchtoon Coffee Wallpapers for Palm & iPod

It seems the vertical 320 x 480px coffee sketchtoon wallpapers for the iPhone, iPod touch and Palm OS devices with vertical screens are quite popular!

Since square-formatted screens on Palms and iPods can also make use of wallpapers, I've created a new set of twelve 320 x 320px wallpapers.

Each coffee wallpaper is a 320 x 320px color JPG file, available as a free download from Flickr, for personal use.

Coffee Calendar
If you like the wallpapers, please consider picking up a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for yourself or a coffee-loving friend as a unique gift as a way to say thanks.

Donations
Not a calendar person? consider a PayPal donation, and I will be happy to send you a complete set of 12 JPGs as a ZIP file:

Thanks, and have a great weekend! :-)

Permalink | | Sketchtoons | add to del.icio.us

November 26, 2007

Sketchtoon Coffee iPhone/iPod touch Wallpapers

Now that the Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar is complete and available for sale, I've been considering ways to make other interesting items with these illustrations.

Today I was inspired by Les & Ian's comments on my last post to create a custom 12-pack of sketchtoon coffee wallpapers, designed especially for iPhone and iPod touch screens.

Each sketchtoon coffee wallpaper is a 320x480px color JPG file, available at Flickr as a free download for personal use on your iPhone or iPod touch.

If you like the wallpaper art, consider picking up a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for yourself or a coffee-loving friend as a unique gift.

Update 2007-11-28: I've uploaded Flickr, having adjusted the images to fit properly within the clear window on the iPhone/iPod touch login screen. If you have an older version, check out the updated images and get a new version.

Palm and Windows Mobile Users: Please drop me a line and let me know if you're interested in wallpapers for your devices. I'm currently gauging whether I want to produce these in a few more sizes, like 320x320 and 240x320. Let me know what sizes you might prefer.

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November 24, 2007

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar is Available!

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar now complete and up for sale! You can buy it for $19.99 plus shipping at CafePress, with US and international shipping available.

Last year, I started drawing sketchtoon style coffee illustrations in my Moleskine sketchbook in ink, scanning each illustration into the Mac for colorization in Photoshop.

Each month's illustration features a different coffee drink, with several unique drinks from various areas of the world, like the Flat White from down under and the Greek Frappe. Check out the cover and 12 illustrations at Flickr. I'm very pleased with how the calendar turned out.

Sketchtoon Photos
I've posted several photos of the original ink sketchtoons to Flickr:

It's a great gift idea for coffee lovers who would enjoy a unique coffee calendar.

Buy It Today: 2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar: $19.99 + shipping.

Related Links
Check out Ricardo Levins Morales' very cool 2008 Coffee Calendar too!

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November 17, 2007

2008 Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar Preview

This week I've completed the final eight sketchtoon illustrations for my 2008 Sketchtoon Calendar, which will be going on sale soon:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I've had lots of interest in my sketchtoons, so I've decided to post samples of each calendar page on Flickr and share the previews here. I'm planning to have the calendar ready for sale by next week Saturday, just in time for Christmas.

Once I complete the cover illustration, I'll be creating the calendar with an on-demand printing service. I've used use Cafe Press for calendar printing in the past, however, I plan to check out other on-demand printing services. If you have a service to recommend, let me know with a comment below.

Be the First to Know!
If you're interested in the 2008 Sketchtoon Calendar, and want to be the first to know when goes on sale, email me.

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November 15, 2007

Great Miquelrius Resource: ShopMiquelrius.com

A few weeks back I received an email from Todd Berryman, a radio host at 92.3 WTTS FM in Bloomington, Indiana.

Todd found me because I use Miquelrius notebooks daily for logo, icon and web design work. He wanted to know where I buy mine, as he was having trouble finding them at his local Barnes & Noble.

Since I'm on my last Miquelrius sketchbook, this issue hit close to home.

I haven't found them at my local B&N either. I figured they were simply out of stock. This email got me thinking — I should really locate a good online source for Miquelrius notebooks. Just in case.

Todd mentioned ShopMiquelrius.com, the online store for Miquelrius USA. Sure enough, they have a good selection of the soft-cover books I love so much, and several other options as well.

From Oops to Oh Yeah!
I ordered 3 green notebooks, but accidentally chose lined books instead of gridded. I immediately emailed the ShopMiquelrius help desk and within hours, I had personal emails back from Jennifer and her staff, letting me know they would take care of the error. Wow, that's what I call service!

I'm ordering all of my Miquelrius notebooks from ShopMiquelrius.com from now on. Yeah, they sell the notebooks I need at a decent price, but what sold me was how well they treated me, and how quickly they solved my problem.

An Affiliate Idea
Because of my personal contact with Jennifer, I asked if they happened to have an affiliate program for their products. Since I use the products and love ShopMiquelrius's service, why not share the resource with others and earn a few dollars leading buyers to them?

Jennifer said they didn't have an affiliate program in place, but she was very intrigued by the idea. After a little research and requests of the director, she got the green light to launch a trial affiliate program for 3 months. Very cool!

Today their new trial affiliate program is live on the site.

Support a Great Source
Seeking a good source for Miquelrius notebooks? I invite you to try ShopMiquelrius by using my affiliate link.

If you like their service, sign up for the affiliate program yourself, so your friends can use this resource, ShopMiquelrius can sell more books, and you can earn a little something to buy more Miquelrius notebooks with! :-)

P.S. I wasn't paid to write this post, didn't receive any free notebooks, and have only signed up for the affiliate link a few moments ago. I'm just a very happy customer who wants to share this great resource with other Miquelrius buyers, and to help ShopMiquelrius.com grow and thrive. It's the least I can do.

P.P.S. Just got word from Jennifer that ShopMiquelrius is having a Thanksgiving sale: 10% off all purchases for registered, logged-in users, from Noon EST November 15th through 11:59 PM on November 18th. To get the discount, use the code THANKS07.

Permalink | Comments (3) | Sketches | add to del.icio.us

November 13, 2007

Declining an Apple Job Opportunity

About a month ago, late on a Monday night, I received an intriguing email.

A senior recruiter at Apple found my blog, reviewed my design work and wondered if I might interested in a position on the iPhone/OS X design team.

At first I thought it was a joke. Surely this was a prank, sprung by my good buddy, Michael Ashby.

Then I did my research, and it was the real deal.

This was definitely Apple calling.

Holy smokes!

Talking with Apple
After the shock wore off, I setup a initial phone interview. I had to find out more. I contacted several good friends living in Silicon Valley, to learn more about working at Apple and living in California.

The next day, I had a great conversation with the recruiter. I shared my background and skills, learned more about the potential position, Apple, and California.

If I was interested in moving ahead with this, the next step was an icon design project and an essay on my solution for a UI design challenge.

With this huge opportunity on the table, I took time to get counsel from my wife, family and friends, to think through the ramifications and to pray for God's guidance.

After much thought and consideration I decided to decline the opportunity.

Decline? Are you NUTS Mike?!
The very idea that I was completely nuts did cross my mind. After all, this is Apple, and an opportunity to work on the iPhone/OS X design team!

The opportunity was extremely attractive. A potential opportunity of a lifetime — doing design work on the iPhone, for Apple. But upon reflection and reviewing who I am and what I'm all about, the answer was clear.

Here are the reasons I decided to decline:

I Love My Work
I realized how much I love the design work I do, and how satisfying it is to build brands with small companies. I love being an advisor to my clients, sharing my expertise with them. I enjoy working directly with business owners and entrepreneurs, developing brands that reach their customers and help them compete and win against bigger competitors. I love being my clients' secret weapon!

I Love Milwaukee
A move to California would have been part of the deal. I've been to California and it's a beautiful place, but I love living in the Milwaukee area. I like being able to own a home we can afford, in a quiet neighborhood with great schools. I've spent my life building lasting relationships here. My family is here. It's a wonderful place to raise a son. I love the seasons, the Packers. This is where I belong and I where want to stay.

I Love MakaluMedia
The company I work for is a large part of my success. MakaluMedia's owner, Matt Henderson has been a strong supporter for my 10+ years with the company. He was willing to try remote working in 1998, when it was new and untested. He was willing to let me go after clients and create a design firm within the company. Every day, I get to work with amazing colleagues and clients, and that's very meaningful to me.

Maybe I'm crazy for passing up a chance to work at Apple. I'm cool with that.

I know in my heart and soul, that declining this opportunity was the right decision for me and my family. I'm content knowing this is the place where I want to be and where God is working through me to help others and love others.

For my money, that's the right place to be.

Related Links
Cameron Moll: Why I passed up the chance to work at Apple

Permalink | Comments (26) | Design | add to del.icio.us

October 30, 2007

SEED Conference Thoughts & Sketchnotes

Whew! I'm back from Monday's excellent SEED Conference in Chicago.

What a great event! The Illinois Institute of Technology and Rem Koolhaas' Tribune Student Center building, was an incredibly cool venue. Funky lines and the architectural space provided a unique backdrop for the sessions of the day.

Carlos Segura
All of the sessions were very good, though the most interesting for me as a designer was hearing Carlos Segura speak. He talked about taking risks and thinking deeper for clients and going beyond only what they ask to figuring out what they really need.

I was especially inspired by the Corbis Stock Photo case study, where Carlos' team changed the stock agency's overall approach to consider their clients (designers) and in doing so, changed an entire industry.

Segura also stressed keeping small, working on projects and with clients you really want to work with. Good work comes from these situations, and by staying small you aren't constantly taking jobs you dislike just to keep everyone busy. In fact, this turned into a thread that connected all of the talks of the day.

Jason Fried
Jason spoke very briefly, so he could open the floor for lots of Q&A time. He recommended these 5 items:

Watch out for red flags
Keep your team small
Make sure your staff has alone time
Keep meetings short and focused
Make tiny decisions instead of massive ones

Jason also recommended a small team size, though his perspective focused a little more on communication issues with small vs. large teams and scaling projects to fit your team size rather than scaling your team to fit scope.

I resonated most with Jason's call for alone time. I work remotely, but even though I work alone, there is always a temptation towards IM, email or phone calls, and I find that blocking out chunks of alone time makes a difference. I know this may be a tough one for the multi-tasking generation, but I think it really can help your focus.

Jim Coudal
I loved Jim Coudal's candor and relaxed approach, and especially his openness in sharing his firm's successes and failures. He shared several stories and films, and drew ideas from them. My take away:

Be curious
Choose people on their taste
Don't be afraid to fail

Jim talked about his curiosity and how many of the things he's been curious about have turned into business ideas. Curiosity helps with client work, since you can get to speed quickly and often see a problem from a different perspective than the client.

He also talked about identifying people and hiring them on taste over technical talent. Not untalented people with taste, but rather if you had to choose between two people and one had good taste, go with taste over talent.

Coudal suggested that failures are OK. They're learning experiences which often create opportunities that might never have happened otherwise. You have to learn to identify and capitalize on unexpected opportunities that often grow out of failures.

Discussion Session: Segura, Fried & Coudal
The most interesting of the sessions was the final hour or so of open discussion time with Carlos, Jason and Jim at the front of the room. They fielded all sorts of questions from attendees about their ideas. Questions about small teams, marketing, simplicity, community, building products while still managing client work, questions about creating apps that rely solely on other platorms (Facebook), and more.

Of all the sessions, this was the one I and the 4 other guys I met, thought was the best of all. Why? Because they had a chance to respond immediately and candidly to random questions. I also enjoyed hearing them discuss and explore ideas in depth that hadn't come out in their talks. Finally, it was interesting to hear their similarity of thought and subtle differences of approach and opinion on the same questions.

Sketchnotes
As mentioned last week, I took my pocket Moleskine sketchbook along and captured 17 pages of sketchnotes, from the entire day's talks and discussions, including Carlos Segura, Jason Fried, Edward Lifson and Jim Coudal.

I didn't try to capture everything said during yeterday's event, since others were probably doing that.

Instead, I took time to listen and analyze the talks, distilling and capturing the main ideas I was hearing. By doing a bit of on-the-fly processing, it forced me to boil down what was being said, then express it in ink on the page in a way that would be meaningful to me and to others who might read my sketchnotes later.

To make the notes interesting, I played with typography and images with the sketchnotes, to provide a little texture and depth beyond pages of gray text.

SEED Sketchnotes on Coudal Partners
Seems my notes have struck a chord. Jim Coudal of Coudal Partners emailed about my sketchnotes on Flickr and made mention in their Fresh Signals feed. Thanks Jim!

SEED Sketchnotes on Signal vs. Noise
Awesome! 37signals noticed them too: Mike Rohde's SEED Conference 2007 sketchbook notes. Thanks Matt!

Pretty cool to have speakers and sponsors mention notes taken during the event. :-)

Overall, SEED Conference was well worth the time and price to attend.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Permalink | Comments (5) | Design | add to del.icio.us

October 1, 2007

BarCampMilwaukee2 Shirts: To the Printer

This afternoon, I took the final BarcampMilwaukee2 T-Shirt art, sizes and specs to MJM Ventures. 290 shirts are now in production, with delivery of the shirts set for Thursday October 11th.

After 12:00 today, I closed the window for new BarCamp registrants to gurantee their shirt sizes. I had to deliver the information and art today, so MJM could make the October 11th delivery deadline. That's the way it goes.

Registranst will still have shots at shirts, as I have about 75 extra shirts ordered for walk ups, to be given given out on a first-come, first serve basis.

Final Artwork
Here are snapshots of the final front and back artwork:

T-Shirt Front: Navy blue and rich gold.

T-Shirt Back: Solid Navy blue logo and sponsor names in the shape on an X.

Thank You!
Thanks go to Jen Anne for her wonderful illustrations, MJM for shirt selection and production, Pete Prodoehl (A.K.A. ChaosLord) for advice and information from last year's shirts and Blake Hall for all of his help creating t-shirt lists in Drupal.

BarCampMilwaukee2 is less than 2 weeks away! Sign up now!

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September 6, 2007

Ecto 3 Icon Design

In the flurry of activity here, I've not had a chance to mention the release of the new ecto 3 application icon I've designed for Adriaan at Infinite Sushi:

Working on this one was quite fun, going through the sketch process, until we came to this solution of a box with items you might use for blogging inside. It was a different approach for a blogging app icon, but that's just what Adriaan liked best.

Fireworks & Upscaling
I designed the original icon as a standard 128x128px icon, then later in the process, Adriaan needed a 256x256px version for other uses. I took the opportunity to refine the details, like adding actual lines of text to the documents.

Because I used Fireworks' vector tools to build this icon, it was relatively easy to upscale the 256px icon from the original 128px icon. The initial up-scaled icon wasn't perfect, but good enough to save a god chunk time rebuilding the icon from scratch if it were a 128px bitmap icon.

Thanks Adriaan for working with me on this fun project! :-)

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August 27, 2007

ProBlogger Logo Design

At the end of May, Darren Rowse contacted me through MakaluMedia, to redesign the ProBlogger logo.

Darren has one of the net's most popular blogs, and is one of the founders of b5media. I was honored to have a chance at designing the new identity, so I agreed to come on board the design team with Darren's site designer, Ben Bleikamp.

Darren's story is interesting, not only because he turned blogging from a hobby into a full-time career and business, but because he freely shares what he's learned from blogging. I quite like Darren's attitude of helping others grow and succeed by sharing his knowledge.

In this post, I'll share details and sketches on the new ProBlogger identity.

Initial Specs and Feedback
Darren answered my standard list of questions, and from his initial feedback I gathered several themes to embrace and portray with the new ProBlogger identity. He wanted ProBlogger to be:

A welcoming community where bloggers can learn and grow
A source of information on making income from a blog
A site promoting professionalism in blogging
An extensive blogging reference
Keywords: income, professionalism, community, inspiration, credibility, encouraging

Darren wanted a clean, crisp, contemporary, professional logo, without superfical "Web 2.0" stylings. He wanted a logo to represent himself and his blog, in a design that wouldn't go out of style in 6 months.

Sketches v1
With all of this information in mind, I began sketching multiple concepts to get the project rolling (click the image to see the v1 sketches).

With all of my logo projects, I like to loosen up with pencil in my Miquelrius notebook, freeing my mind to explore ideas. Note the keywords on the upper right of the page, which help guide me in idea generation during this first sketch phase.

I focused on theProBlogger P, as it portrays the brand well, and would be a consistent element from the original design. I explored one other idea (8) which suggested community as a nucleus with network connections and multiple outer atoms.

In Darren's feedback, I learned that he liked the emphasis on the P. He preferred the squarer P characters, as these leaned away from the "surf" look and feel he saw in ideas 17, 18 and 19. He also liked the community concept he saw in 8, so it was on to v2 sketches to explore those ideas a bit more.

Sketches v2
I this set, I explored the winning concepts and a few others, bringing in aspects of idea 8 and the community "atomic" ideas merged with the P character.

After review, Darren and his team of trusted advisers focused on two ideas from this v2 set: concepts 19 and 23. Next up was the black & white and color phase.

Black & White and Color Concepts
Because Darren was on a tight timeline, I changed my normal process, including both black & white and color logos on the same mockups. This way Darren could see the B&W ideas and some explorations of initial colors.

Concepts v1:
In the first set you'll see I came up with ideas based on the v2 sketches (2, 3, 4 and 5), along with a new idea (1) which came out I worked with the logos. Sometimes this happens, and I've learned to go with the flow and include these as options:

Darren's feedback from round 1 aimed us at the P within a nucleus circle with orbiting atoms around this central icon to embed the concept of comminity into the mark. While the more graphical representations of this community were interesting (1, 2 and 3), the clearer P emerged as Darren's top choice.

Concepts v2:
Based on feedback from v1, I narrowed to the single P with orbiting atoms, exploring different ways the atoms could be positioned, the connection between atoms and the outer ring, a font option and variations on the provided color pallette:

Concepts v3:
Darren really liked the color combo in ideas 7 and 8 in this set, leaning toward 7 a bit more. He wanted to keep the "P" and "BLOGGER" in orange and do one final exploration on atom position and separation between the atom and the outer ring. So I did a final v3 to help Darren see the 3 final options:

In the final version, I felt the leading atom suggested forward movement, and the separation of the atoms from the circle provided focus to the 3 atoms. 7.1 was chosen as the final winner:

Conclusion
Darren was pleased with the final logo, which was subsequently included in Ben's redesign of the site. It was great fun to see the logo announced on Darren's blog, followed by the release of the new site design.

As one might expect, with a major change on a popular site, there were a few who liked the old design better. However, after reading comments on the site related to the new logo and design, a majority of Darren's readers really loved the new site design and logo. Most importantly, Darren was pleased with the results.

Thanks Darren for choosing to work with me and MakaluMedia on the logo design. It was an honor and a pleasure working with Darren and Ben on this project.

Related Links
A New Look for ProBlogger - Coming Soon (Very Soon) (ProBlogger)
New Design Update (ProBlogger)
We’re Entering New Design Transition Phase (ProBlogger)
ProBlogger Redesign - Bedding Down for the Night (ProBlogger)
Redesign of Problogger.net - Designer Tells All (ProBlogger)
Redesign of Problogger.net (Ben Bleikamp)

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June 22, 2007

My Podcast Interview on The Micro ISV Show

A few weeks ago, I was invited by author, micro-business owner and new MakaluMedia logo design client Bob Walsh, to be interviewed on Microsoft's The MicroISV Show (a podcast for software developers) with co-host Michael Lehman:

It's a brave new world for MicroISVs in which it's no longer enough to drag some controls onto a form and simply make sure they're lined up and the tab order is right. The mantra "form follows function" is becoming more and more important for developers as advent of Windows Vista, WPF and Silverlight once again change the expectations of how customers perceive software. You've got to "put your best face forward" and think about design of the user experience right from the beginning.
In this episode, Michael Lehman and Bob Walsh talk to Mike Rohde, designer and art director for MakaluMedia, about the changing role of design in software development and how and why MicroISVs must incorporate design thinking into their development process.

Listen to The Micro ISV Show #22 podcast:

• Putting your best face forward - The growing importance of design for MicroISVs
• Direct Podcast MP3 Link (Size: 36MB, Runtime: 40:13)

We had a great time! I had an opportunity to talk a bit about my views on design being more than window-dressing on applications, the importance of starting early with a designer, how to choose a designer, vector-based development tools and how they may effect developers and designers, and more.

Bob worked in questions about my creative process, asked how I generate so many sketch ideas, and even slipped in a mention of my Moleskine Planner Hack project.

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

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June 15, 2007

Friday Tidbits: Pudding, Journler & Northern Room

Here are a few Friday tidbits to share:

Ataraxis Pudding Launches
Pudding, a tool crearted by Michael Sica, launched last Friday. It's a web-based tool for sharing creative work with others. Pudding allows you to post images of your work in a private account, for clients and colleagues, to view and comment on. It comes in many flavors depending on your needs, free 30 day trial and a tour to see what Pudding can do.

Journler Gets 4.5 Mice from Macworld!
My friend Phil Dow's wornderful mac application Journler just received 4.5 mice from Macworld, in an August 2007 review. I've talked about the icon I designed and how I love the application — so it's very nice to see a great guy like Phil, seeing success and critical acclaim for the hard work he's invested in Journler.

Good Tunes: Northern Room
A few weeks ago I came across the local Milwaukee band Northern Room, via my good friend Joe Phillips. They have a great sound, which I quite like. I'd categorize their sound as similar to Snow Patrol, U2, Coldplay, and O.K. Go. Check out Northern Room on iTunes, Purevolume and SonicBids.

That's all — have a great weekend everyone!

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June 14, 2007

"Trying to look good limits my life." — Stefan Sagmeister

I love that quote from Stefan Sagmeister.

It questions concerns with looking good, in context of being real and taking risks. Trying new things. Doing something that may not exactly fit your image.

Why are we so concerned with looking good?

Of course, I understand why on one level. You want to look good for your friends and family, your employer, customers, prospective clients, and people in general. That's not what I mean.

I mean maintaining "appearances" rather than letting down your guard and being real.

I mean sharing weaknesses with your family and friends now and then.

Trying the sushi, kimchee or flaming cheese, exactly because eating those strange foods is both scary and exciting.

One thing for me it's not always letting others know what bothers me.

I'm getting better about being assertive and sharing these things, but it's hard. I don't want to hurt feelings. What might people think?

On the other hand, I need to be real and honest. It's limiting my life.

I'm working on it and will try to let go of looking good in exchange for being real.

How does trying to look good limit your life?

Here's Stefan's TED talk, in which he talks about happiness and how it relates to design. This quote is mentioned near the end of his 15 minute talk.

Check out more information on the design piece "Trying to look good limits my life" on Sagmeister's company website.

I've also found a Hillman Curstis short film on Stefan, sponsored by Adobe.

Finally, Stefan's interview at DesignBoom.

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June 5, 2007

Paul Stamatiou's Logo Design Project

I've just completed a logo design project with tech guru, and fellow 9rules blogger, Paul Stamatiou.

Paul writes commentary and reviews on varied topics with a focus on technology, and has very high visibility on the web. So as you can imagine, I found it a fun challenge to work with Paul.

Below are links to the set of mockups and final art at Paul's Flickr account:

Paul Stamatiou Logo Design Set
Paul Stamatiou Final Logo Design Spec Sheet

It was fun, and different working with Paul, since he put all of the sketches, black and white and color mockups I did for him on Flickr — as they were delivered — and opened them up for public comments. I've not had that kind of in-progress, public critique done with my work before. Paul and the commenters liked the work and through the normal process, Paul selected a final winner.

One advantage to having your client post in-progress to final work posted on Flickr is, prospective clients can see the process, how it works and looks — which hopefully sends them to me and MakaluMedia for their identity design.

All in all, it was a blast working with Paul. I think we've found a clean, crisp and memorable mark for Paul to use as personal branding, on the blog and for other things, which makes me very happy.

Thanks for choosing to work with me Paul! :-)

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June 1, 2007

Panoramio (and logo) are acquired by Google

Congratulations to my friends Eduardo, Joaquín and José of Panoramio, in the recent Google acquisition of their startup!

From the Panoramio blog post on May 31st:

The integration of photos from Panoramio in Google Earth has been so successful since John Hanke suggested it that we see the acquisition of Panoramio as a natural consequence. We have tightened our relationship with Google Earth more and more in recent months, and at the end we decided to walk one step further. After so much work together, honestly, we couldn’t imagine a better scenario than selling Panoramio to Google.

I was honored to work with "the boyz" back in October 2005, when we created the Panoramio identity (along with two other identities after it, including Cursoo).

I'm very excited for the Panoramio team, and just as excited that the identity work for the project had a small part in helping the team get to the next level.

Congratulations guys! :-)

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May 22, 2007

Design Portfolio Sets on Flickr

Busy, busy busy!

It's a busy spring here, working on all sorts of design goodies for clients at MakaluMedia. Because of this, I've had limited time to write up detailed logo design articles, like the ones I've done for Red 66, BOWN and cgi Interactive.

In March, I finally bought a Flickr Pro account. Why did I wait so long? I'm loving the ability to create and manage sets of images — It's been well worth the $24.95/year.

I've wasted no time, creating several sets of design work. Sets are a great way to gather similar works in one location on Flickr. Here are links to the sets:

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Logo Design — A sampling of logos created over the past several years.

Icon Design — Several samples of Mac OS X and other icon design projects.

Web Design — Screenshots from mockups and final pages of web design work.

Print Design — A sampling of print design projects I've worked on.

T-Shirt Design — T-Shirt design samples, including the Espresso Powered line.

Sketchtoons — A comprehensive sampling of scanned sketchtoons.

Hopefully this little public service announcement will make it easier for readers and visitors to check out the work I love doing every single day. :-)

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May 1, 2007

Espresso Powered T-Shirt: Printed Sample & Notes

Today I received a copy of the black Espresso Powered T-Shirt I designed at GoodStorm and WOW! did it turn out well!

You can see me holding my son Nathan, wearing the new t-shirt. The red object in Nathan's hand is a petal from a tulip he picked from mom's garden. :-)

I was quite impressed with the print quality on black — the whites are bright and crisp, brown colors are rich and strong and there's even a nice, subtle speckling of the gradated tones in the artwork. Very nice.

I chose the heavyweight shirt and the quality is good. It's a nice cotton fabric, in a rich coal black.

Emblem Detail
Below I've posted a close-up shot of the emblem on the shirt, so you can see the print quality with a little more detail. Click the image below to see a larger version.

GoodStorm uses a digital printing method to create these shirts, with very good results. Now I wonder if complex shirt graphics might be better reproduced with digital printing than with traditional screen-printing.

If you like what you see, pick up your own Espresso Powered T-Shirt in one of three colors: black, pebble or white.

Espresso Powered T-Shirts
Espresso Powered Black T-Shirt: $12 + Shipping
Espresso Powered Pebble T-Shirt: $11 + Shipping
Espresso Powered White T-Shirt: $10 + Shipping
GoodStorm Rohdesign T-Shirt Store

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April 30, 2007

Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar Preview

While riding the train to Chicago with my friend Sean last week, he reminded me of a sketchtoon calendar project that's been on the backburner due to my very busy schedule.

Sean saw the black and white sketches in my Moleskine sketchbook, and heard my idea of selling the calendar online, to people and small coffee houses. He seemed very excited about the coffee calendar idea.

Now I'm reinvigorated to finish the project! :-)

While I'm wrapping up the final art, I've decided to share previews of 4 calendar pages, to gauge interest in a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for 2008.

Would a calendar like this interest you? Feel free to leave comments here or on Flickr. I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts.

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April 27, 2007

UX Intensive Chicago 2007: Thoughts & Sketchnotes

This week I attended Adaptive Path's UX Intensive: Interaction Design Workshop in Chicago. I've decided to share my thoughts on the event and my set of sketchnotes on the blog.

UX Intensive event was a 4-day series of workshops and lectures, and of those 4 days, I attended 1: Interaction Design. Here are my thoughts about that particular event:

The Speakers & Venue
Overall it was a good experience. Dan Saffer and Kim Lenox are both very smart, talented designers who know their stuff. I gleaned good ideas for tweaking my own design process, and was affirmed in the approach and process I already follow.

The Black Orchid was an OK venue. The room was relatively spacious, and the food was quite good. The tables, however, were designed for drinks while listening to jazz — not ideal for taking notes or working, and not positioned ideally for a conference. I got a bit of a cramp from sitting at an angle at my table, trying watch the speaker and take notes.

Workshop or Lecture?
UX Intensive was billed as a "workshop" even though Wednesday's Interactive Design session was actually a day-long series of lectures. Even though the topic very much interested me, by about 2pm I was having a hard time focusing, even after a second Starbucks cappuccino.

I heard from Matt and Que, 2 guys I met at my table, that Monday's Design Strategy and Tuesday's Design Research sessions were true workshops, with activities and interaction between the attendees — much different than Wednesday's lectures.

Concepts I Liked
There were many good ideas shared by Dan and Kim, some of which I'll note below:

• Research is useless in a raw, unstructured form. It's critical to filter the information and draw insights and conclusions from your research that can be applied to the project. I liked Dan's suggestion to use physical and visual representations of research, using post-it walls and drawings on various surfaces.

• Brainstorming for quantity and brainstorming in categories. Dan suggested brainstorming sprints with limited times and an emphasis on many ideas in that time. I also liked his idea of brainstorming within narrower categories, then displaying findings in a matrix or a grid.

• Failure is OK. A 50% failure rate was suggested as a good thing. I've noticed that in my sketches, the more ideas I can get through the sooner I usually find a solution. Trying out ideas that may fail, lead to a good ideas, so I find this to be very true.

• Good designers make better guesses. Intuition is important in design, and it's based on making good guesses. Dan shared principles and techniques for making better guesses and decisions.

• Living Documents. Kim Lenox talked about designing for suites and platforms, suggesting the use of living documents, sharing information and innovations, consistency and that interaction designers need to think about the integration of 3 key areas: the PC, the Internet and mobile devices.

• All products are broken. By starting with this premise, we're free to try and improve products rather than making them perfect and completely free of brokeness. Dan talked about good areas to focus on for fixes, breaking fixes down into smaller chunks, and the use of quick n' dirty wireframes with screenshots (I use this approach, and it works great!)

• Constant Communication. Use various tools such as blogs and wikis within your team, to keep communication lines open with each other, and to capture information as living documents.

View my detailed notes in my UX Intensive sketchnotes on Flickr.

Suggestions
I'll end this post with my thoughts on how the Design Interaction portion of the UX Intensive event could be improved:

• Call it a workshop only if it has workshop activities. I came expecting interaction and activities with my design colleagues and instead got a day of lectures. Workshop activities would have broken up the time, made it easier for me to focus on the ideas and apply them practically.

• Add more breaks. We had breaks for lunch and for the morning and afternoon sessions, which were great. However, because of the day-long lecture format, by the afternoon I needed mini breaks in-between the individual sessions. By about 2pm I was losing focus on the topics that a few mini-breaks may have helped with.

• Show more real-world examples. We had some nice examples in the lectures by Dan and Kim, but I wanted to see more of them to illustrate the concepts presented. Having more examples might also have helped my focus in the afternoon.

• Go narrower and deeper. I think reducing quantity of material covered and focusing on deeper real-world examples, discussions on those ideas and workshop activities might improve the relevance of the information to attendees. So much info was presented, that I couldn't adequately digest, discuss or apply with those ideas to my own design practices.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to fellow designers, and might be useful to Adaptive Path in tuning and perfecting their UX Intensive series in Amsterdam in June.

Many thanks to MakaluMedia (my employer), for sending me to the event.

Technorati Tags: uxichi07, chicago, design, rohdesign

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April 12, 2007

Embracing Iterative Design Talk (Slides & Audio)

Tonight I gave a talk to the Web414 group on embracing iteration in the design process, and I think it went pretty well.

I discussed what iteration was and gave ideas on how to embrace iteration and use it to your advantage when designing logos, website and more.

I shared sketches, black and white and color artwork from the Blit logo design, and the UserScape web redesign. We had a great discussion in the Q&A, where I had a chance to share details of my design thinking related to both of these projects. It was fun to get up in front of my Web414 friends and talk about my design work.

Interested in checking out my slides from the talk? You can view the Slides on Slideshare or on Flickr.

You can listen to my talk, recorded at April's Web414 meeting in MP3 format, or hear it streamed here from Blip.tv at the end of this post, or stream it from Archive.org at the link below:

Mike Rohde: Embracing Iterative Design (Archive.org)

Thanks Pete for recording it for me!

You may also want to read my article at Graphic Define on the same topic.

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April 11, 2007

AdaptivePath UX Intensive & SOBCon07 Blog Conference

I'm excited about the end of April and beginning of May, because I'm attending 2 important events in the Chicago area. Both look like great events.

Since I'm a Chicago kid, going back to the hometown is always great fun. I'm planning on a train ride for one event and a road trip with a friend for the second. If I'm lucky, I'll even meet up with a few Chicago friends while in town.

Here are the two events I'm attending:

Adaptive Path: UX Intensive: Interaction Design Workshop
The First event on my schedule is Adaptive Path's UX Intensive: Interaction Design Workshop, happening on Wednesday April 25, at the Black Orchid in Chicago:

In this course, you will build upon your understanding of the principles of interaction design by learning tools and techniques that will improve your interaction design work and your collaboration with your teammates. Will be led by Dan Saffer, a Senior Interaction Designer at Adaptive Path and author of Designing for Interaction.

I'm very excited about growing more deeply in my interaction design practices, being challenged in new ways, and meeting some interesting people at the event.

SOBCon07: Successful Outstanding Blogger Conference 2007
The next event, SOBCon07, takes place Friday, May 11th and Saturday 12th at Hotel Sofitel at Chicago's O'Hare airport:

An evening and a day of community, strategy, and information about the art, technology, and science of relationship blogging for 250 experienced bloggers.
We will demonstrate to 250 bloggers how to take their existing blogs to the next level through interactive presentations on publishing, design and branding, tools, analytics, social networking, marketing, and coaching, from the perspectives of the blogger and the audience.

I'm heading down with my blogpal Phil Gerbyshak, who I suspect will know tons of people, and introduce me to more than I can remember. I'm looking forward to meeting other bloggers, and learning how to be a better blogger.

I'll likely write follow-up reports on the events, so keep an eye open here for those.

If you happen to be attending either UX Intensive or SOBCon07, drop me a line!

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April 10, 2007

Embracing Iterative Design at Graphic Define & Web414

Yesterday I saw that my design buddy Daniel Schutzsmith launched Graphic Define Magazine, a online magazine of design and design business issues — for designers.

I'm thrilled to see my article, Embracing Iterative Design, is featured in the inaugural issue. The article is based on the post Embrace the Creative Process, with expansion on practical ways to take advantage of an iterative creative process.

I'm giving a talk on the same topic on Thursday the 12th at MSOE, for Web414, the local Milwaukee Web Design group I'm a member of. There I'll discuss these ideas, share samples of my iterative work, and take questions from fellow members. So, if you're in Milwaukee on Thursday, feel free to attend that free meeting.

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March 29, 2007

Learning Good Value from My Local Garage

Today I was pondering why customers hire me to help solve their design challenges.

I believe it comes down to one simple thing: providing good value.

What's good value?
It's demonstrated by my local garage, Gordy's Service on 84th and Bluemound in Milwaukee.

Why? Because the guys there treat me well, tell me when fixes are truly critical and try hard keep my costs reasonable, as long as it doesn't jeopardize our family's safety or our car's well-being.

They open early and stay open late. They're up the street from Stone Creek Coffee, so I can do a little work while I wait for my cars to be serviced. Their guys are friendly and quick and they tell me the truth.

When it was time to buy new tires last year, I went to Gordy's. Turns out they weren't much more than the big retailer at the Mall. I know if I have questions, Gordy's guys are there to help. In fact, I think they were a better value, because I knew the same guy who installed them would be there if I had a question.

What happens when Gordy's gives me a good value? I tell other people about them, and faithfully get my work done there, even if I have to schedule an appointment because they're busy.

This is what I strive for daily in my own business dealings with clients. To be honest and clear, helpful and understanding. To help solve challenges for a reasonable price. To be fast, good and to tell the truth.

To provide a good value to my clients.

What's your definition of good value?

Photo by Michael Bowman (Duff Suds)

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March 23, 2007

Journler Mini Review & Icon Design

I've been using Journle