June 9, 2008

When clients get burned

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The following is a true story. Names have been changed.

I’ve had many experiences as a freelance web designer, most good, some not. But even the worst don’t compare to my experience with “Bob” and his seemingly single-handed attempt to give web designers everywhere a bad reputation. He did a great job of taking people’s money and ruining not only their websites, but their perception of the web design industry. In the end, that was the only thing he was good at.

“Bob” and the damage done

Bob worked as a freelance web designer for a group that helped small businesses get online. They hired him to do several small to medium sized websites for their clients. I was hired to work for the same group after he was apparently let go, and my first few jobs were to fix what he broke. He was still in business at the time; now I believe lawsuits are pending, and I hope for all of our sakes that he gets run out of the web design field for good.

How Bad Was It?

After working with several of Bob’s former clients, I started to get the bigger picture. Complaints about Bob ranged from hysterical to downright creepy: Calls at 8pm at night to discuss the project. Other phone calls never returned. Showing up at a client’s place of work and ranting about the power-hungry government.

The worst was a client with a shopping cart. After taking their money, Bob set the shopping cart up under the trial period special that the cart company was offering. When the trial period expired he was nowhere to be found to turn the cart back on.

One of the best questions I received was “What are your office hours?” I responded, “I work a typical day, 9-6, why?” “Well, Bob would call me at 8pm and want to talk until midnight about my website, and that was just crazy!” I told them, “I’m finding out from you and other clients that there were a lot of things about Bob that were not…” (Both of us in unison) “Normal!” This little joking conversation helped to put the client’s fear aside for the time being.

Read more

June 7, 2008

2 years later, our wedding is still a hit!

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My wonderful wife Amanda and I were married on top of a cliff at Chimney Rock Park, Chimney Rock, N.C. It was an intimate 20-guest gathering, and the word on the street is that it was an event not to be forgotten (sorry for tooting our horns, but it was a lot of work to put together your own wedding (ask Amanda!) and we are gracious for the response!).

First, our good friend and wedding officiant, Rev. Georgette Cressend, has launched her own website at http://www.livingaslove.net with the help of her web guru, Joan Renton.

As our testimonail for her puts it:

“Our wedding simply would not have been the same without Georgette as our officiant. Her kindness, compassion, and tenderness is expressed wonderfully through her beautiful, poetic words and spiritual presence. I highly recommend her to anyone wanting to enhance their special occasion!”

– Amanda and Jon

Second, HGTV has a feature article on us on their website about DIY weddings! Amanda put so much work into the wedding, it’s good to see her get a little publicity for it. Here is the link for our “Cliff-Top Nuptuals” article!

June 7, 2008

Work In Progress

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Well, it’s that time again… blog updates! I love to update the look of my blog every year or so, to keep it fresh.

The theme of my blog is “Work In Progress,” simply because that’s what my life seems to be these days. Projects linger forever… artwork takes months to complete… songs take time to write and record… yet nothing ever feels “done.” Maybe it’s because of the digital medium being so easy to make changes to. Maybe I’m really obsessive about my work. Maybe I’m bored.

Who knows. Keep reading, hope you enjoy.

July 31, 2007

The most important business of all: yours

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Life running your own business has its ups and downs. The ups are great, the downs, not so great… unless you develop a plan! When business slows down, it’s time to market yourself.

The strange thing about marketing is that it might not pay off immediately. You need perseverance and a lot of patience to make it work. I started freelancing three years ago, and word of mouth helped tremendously for about the first year. Then things started to slow down. Read more

January 19, 2007

Logo and web portfolio additions

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What a busy season it has been! I hope everyone has had a great holiday and a prosperous beginning to this new year.

I’ve posted a few new websites and logos in the portfolio sections. I’m busy at work on several new websites that will be posted soon. Here’s a quick view of a few new pieces:


Thanks everyone for reading my posts and visiting the blog. If you are a new visitor, please feel free to drop me a line. Oh, for out-of-town visitors, you can finally put a face to the name on the about page.

Thanks!

Jon

January 19, 2007

Excellence Awards

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It always feels good to get a little something back after putting together a website, whether it be an award, a highly satisfied client, or lots of traffic for a client site. Well, this is definitely a highlight of my work as a web designer and developer so far.

Last year I had the opportunity to work with San Francisco companies Shepard Associates and VelocIT to build two websites for a medical device company using DotNetNuke (DNN). I was responsible for HTML/CSS production of a series of templates that were incorporated into the DNN content management system, which was custom built by VelocIT. I also ran a two-day on-site training session for the client to use the CMS, and produced a lengthy instruction manual on the CMS for the client.

Earlier this year, the client’s websites won three WebAwards from the Web Marketing Association. Shepard Associates, VelocIT and I worked tirelessly to develop the websites, which consisted of a consumer oriented site (Essure.com) and a site directed toward professionals (EssureMD.com). Highlights of these sites include geolocation, a WSYIWYG CMS for the client, and an online training section.

November 17, 2006

Book Review: CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions

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CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
Andy Budd with Cameron Moll and Simon Collison

CSS Mastery, written by Andy Budd with Cameron Moll and Simon Collison, is perfect for all levels of CSS users; from novices to experts, there’s something in the book for everyone to learn.

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets, which, when used with HTML, gives web developers more control over how pages are displayed. It also allows the developer to control global styles with one file. For example, if you need to change a color or column width on 100 pages, simply change the CSS file and you’re done. CSS is a very powerful tool, and current trends in web design and development show that it will replace table-based designs.

The foundation of great CSS skills lies in constructing meaningful markup, i.e. code. I can hear many WYSIWYG web designers screaming, “NO!! Not HAND-CODING!!!” While Dreamweaver is great at visually creating table-based layouts, CSS requires a bit more hand coding… ok, a LOT more hand coding. But the rewards of learning this layout method are far greater than the drawbacks. Easy to manage sites, better search engine optimization, faster loading pages and more accessibility are just a few reasons you should be designing with CSS.

Anyone can jump into this book without any knowledge of CSS and learn quickly (putting all fears aside), but a little knowledge of HTML, XHTML and CSS will certainly help in grasping the key concepts outlined. Read more

October 25, 2006

New Coding Service Introduced

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I’m introducing a new coding production service as of today. It’s a “slice and dice” coding service that allows busy web designers and agencies to hand over layered design files to me, and I will translate them to xhtml/css table-less layouts with our without php includes. Turnaround times are pretty quick, and prices are very competitive. I’ve already been doing this regularly, and thought it would be a great vendor service to offer to agencies and designers.

If you are interested, Meebo me over there to the right, or email me.

September 28, 2006

Centered Tabs in InDesign

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Here’s a solution to a problem I’m sure a lot of designers run into. Imagine you are laying out document, any length or number of pages, and in the flow of text, there needs to be a 2-column list of services. For example, “We offer the following services: Service 1, Service 2, Service 3… Service 8.” There are a few ways to approach this. Read more

August 19, 2006

Trauma: MAC UPDATED

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I’ve noticed a lot of people searching for information on repairing their PowerBook latch. I have an addendum to Trauma: MAC. The superglue I used to hold the latch recently gave out. I found another adhesive that works even better. Liquid Nails works wonders, it binds metal to metal. Here is a link to their site. The specific product I used is “PL 400 Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive.” I found it at Home Depot. It takes 48 hours to cure, so the only downside is being away from your Mac for two days. The results are great. I’ve been using the Mac heavily for a few weeks, and the latch is still working great!

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