Gatorworks | Baton Rouge Web Design & Development

Today I attended a meeting of the AAF Baton Rouge chapter, and I had a fairly eye-opening experience. I realized though I may work at a Graphic Design firm, I didn’t have any idea about any of the competition in the area. I really had no information from what I’ll call the “outside world”- meaning any company other than Gatorworks.

That being said when I went to this collaboration of designers and artists I was somewhat blown away. They spoke about their processes they went through in order to win the Addy Awards (awards given by the federation for excellence in creative design, marketing and advertising) and it made an impact as to how I view what I do.

One of the speakers (whose name is Greg Milneck) was the winner of an Addy for his work on some local commercials. Now when he spoke about his process it seemed at first that “Oh he’s talking about filmmaking, so this doesn’t really apply to me.” Yet, when I took time to listen and examine what he was saying it all made sense and really fit well into the process of my job.

Pre-production, pre-production, pre-production. Those were the three most important steps in his process. And if you think about it, those should be the 3 most important steps in pretty much any design process. Regardless of whether it’s print design, commercials, or web design, having pre-production as the primary priority in your process is pretty logical. He went on to say that regardless of budget “more time spent on pre-production will allow you to spend less time on the actual production and post-production saving you money in the long run.” That’s why it’s so important. For him, it was to avoid going to a set and having 30 cast and crew not knowing exactly what to do. But for people like me and my coworkers, it’s more about having the site functionality and content laid out in front of you like a blue-print. If it isn’t, the client will make mid-design changes, or even post-approval design changes which cause more time to be spent going back and repeating work.

He had others that he put less emphasis on, but the one that stood out to me as a web designer was “Cooperation between pre- and post-production crew.” Now in terms of web design, this struck a very resonant chord with me. More often than not, I’ve run into an issue in the closing processes of deploying a site because I didn’t inform the designer of the limitations of HTML/CSS. With an increase in collaboration between developer and designer, these hiccups and tiny setbacks that frustrate us all and run minutes/hours off the clock could easily be avoided.

This is why i think even though the speaker was talking about commercial making, the logic and process applies to all walks of life.

My purpose with this post is really just to share with you my experience at the luncheon and how it affected me. If you have any other steps in your design process or workflow that you find is imperative I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment or email me directly.

I am a person that likes a challenge. This year, for Thanksgiving, my sister and I decided to get as close as possible to having a no-waste meal (i.e. buying fresh produce from a local Co-Op and using as little pre-packaged food as we could). A daunting task, but if you think about how much tinfoil, paper goods, styrofoam and leftover food are thrown away, to spend many, many years in a landfill, it’s not as inconvenient as you initially think. The average US family wastes $600+ worth of food annually, and that doesn’t include holidays.

On the way to our parents this past week, we decided to document the amount of food we made and compare it to the amount of packaged waste we had. The prepping and cooking were the hardest parts. But the culmination of thought and preparation when the meal hit the table made it all the more special. The results are pretty awesome. As seen here:

Feast and packaging pre-recycle.

So, after a long day of chopping, cooking, eating, and cleaning up, I felt really good about the small amount of waste, which was all recyclable, and the money we saved by buying local and organic. Next year I am going to attempt a NO WASTE Thanksgiving. Despite the traditional waste-ridden thanksgiving, you can easily accomplish an eco-friendly thanksgiving by attempting to reduce waste and save money in the process. Or not…

For a sustainable Thanksgiving reference:

http://coolfoodscampaign.org/thanksgiving/ten-cool-thanksgiving-tips/

In late April 2008, I attended An Event Apart in New Orleans. Firstly, let me just say that the conference was one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life; I highly recommend it to any web professional. After the first day of lectures, (mt) Media Temple hosted a party for all conference attendees and presenters at Crescent City Brewhouse. While there, I had the extraordinary opportunity to meet Jeffrey Zeldman (Godfather of Web Standards) and even talk with him for awhile.

Jeffrey Zeldman. Photo by Adrian Q.

I, of course, complimented him on his lecture and told him how much I was enjoying the conference (and the free beer). After the pleasantries, I wanted to ask him a few questions that couldn’t possibly be better answered by anyone else in the industry. I asked him how to overcome that feeling of “average-ness” that new designers often experience. To which he concisely replied, “Almost everyone goes through that. Just keep working hard.” I then asked him my #1 most important question, “How do you get your clients to listen to you?” His answer was perfectly on point:

“Always bring it back to the user.”

I won’t go into what he said after that, but that statement alone was profound enough for it to change my entire perspective on web design. When Zeldman told me to bring it back to the user, he wasn’t just giving me a method for convincing clients that my design motives were legitimate. He was also swiftly pointing out one of my own flaws as a designer: I had been designing for my clients, instead of for their users. After I realized that, I’d swear I saw a heavenly light shining down on him and could faintly hear the hymn of angels.

Since then, I’ve changed. My designs are almost exclusively centered around the user’s experience, instead of purely aesthetics. It’s better to let the appearance of the site come more as a function of the interface design, instead of just “making sure it looks pretty.” Besides, simple is beautiful.

I’ll never forget what Jeffrey Zeldman said to me that night. And I truly hope it’s something other designers (and clients) can take to heart as well.

P.S. - Happy Birthday to my brother, Spencer. :)