Journal

Marbella II branding project

2013-05-02T17:39:03Z

I recently finished a project for a great client, whom after we wrapped up our final meeting looks across the table at me and says, "I really like working with you. Want to do another one?"

Um... yes?

The aforementioned client had just closed on a rather sizeable yacht and wanted to brand it. He and his wife had previously owned a yacht dubbed the Marbella. So this new (and larger) craft would be called the Marbella II.

I did six concepts, the following of which he and his wife picked and literally didn't want to change a thing.

The 8' stainless steel name plates will be back lit near the flybridge on the side of the boat as well as the stern near the swimming deck. I also did a vector outline of the boat which will be used for crew apparel, stateroom decor, thank you cards, etc.

All I am really hoping for is a ride sometime...

Who produced the Amazon Whispercast video? We did!

2012-10-23T19:35:15Z

Alongside Jon Bergstrom at Amazon HQ in Seattle, we put together the 3 days of shooting at Clearwater High School and Curtis Fundamental Elementary. Due to tax laws in Florida, nobody from Amazon could come to the shoot, so we (J House Studios) coordinated, produced and directed the shoot. Jon put together the interview segment of John Limp, and we did everything else.

Special props to Ryan Dean, our Director of Photography for doing an awesome job making everything look great despite the super hectic shooting schedule on location during legit school days!

Links to the video and screen shots of it have been all over the map as tech blogs across the country have written about the release of Whispercast.

Friends = Good for the soul

2012-07-24T00:59:17Z

What does going to a small Christian college in the middle of an Indiana cornfield get you?

Really close relationships.

This past weekend Beth and I emerged on Detroit with college pals from all over the country for our good friend's wedding. Pushing 10 years since our own now, it was the last of our Class of '02 circle of friends.

We barely slept, we laughed a lot, had incalculable inappropriate jokes in front of spouses, and overall a really, REALLY good time.

Never mind that we left our kids with a good friend in Orlando, it was a really great way to recharge our spirits after some roller coaster months. Even after sleeping about 8 hours in three days, it still felt fantastic.

I'm really grateful for our tight knit crew that has stuck close over a decade through marriages, moves, post grad school, kids, etc. I wish we could do this once a quarter. But with 20 strong now including wives, that would be quite a challenge.

A morning in the life of small business owners

2012-07-14T18:32:25Z

I document these things just because I think they'll be fun to look back on one day.

Yesterday morning was not uncommon, but as it unfolded, I found myself wanting to document it just for fun.

For me it started at 4:00am. The previous night I intended to do my workout and then stay up late to work on proposals. However, my workout ended with my near inability to drive myself home from the gym. *Note to self: Don't work out at night when you didn't eat lunch and had a venti coffee at 3:00

So as I passed out in bed at 10:00 I set my alarm for an ungodly time the next morning to make up for it.

Before the kids were up I had completed the three proposals I needed to and modified the email blast that was already a week delayed in going out to our subscribers about new projects.

However, all of these things needed next steps, most of which involved Beth. We strategized over who would do what in order to achieve showers, breakfast, wardrobe, potty, and work. At times I was elbow deep in a diaper while trying to keep my son out of the office while Beth focused. Then I was trying to double check our email and get it cued up for delivery as he invaded every 60 seconds to let me know what his schedule for the day was.

I had to bail on a Chamber of Commerce breakfast and let Carly go it alone as my wife had found imperfections in my work (gasp) and now I needed to address them. Then I texted Jordan "Email cued to drop at 9:50!", which he rightfully interpreted as "Why is the email blast you've been working on cued to send in 30 minutes!?" He cancelled it, and I then corrected the situation by explaining I had finished and planned it.

In the end, proposals were sent, emails were blasted, kids were fed and clothed, and all before 10:00.

It's a fun life, really.

Wobbly Baby Deer

2012-05-25T02:45:15Z

That's what I felt like yesterday while working with my trainer.

I'm getting back into the fitness regimen after about a decade hiatus since playing baseball through college. Funny enough, my trainer also played in college and was drafted by the Reds (and he's 22 which makes me want to cry).

Anyway, there's this thing called your "core". An apparently it's pretty critical when you're balancing on a half rubber ball doing squats after 3 sets of leg presses. God love him, Josh was sarcastically admirable as he told me my wobble was as fluid as if I was on a machine that was synchronizing it. Then he told me I'd be doing it while holding a medicine ball in a few weeks. I questioned his sanity ever so slightly as I managed to walk with less grace than our daughter when she just leaned the skill at 12 months old.

Nonetheless... here are my goals I'm transparently posting for accountability's sake:

A) Run a 5K in the next 6 - 12 months without stress fracturing a/both knee/s ("I HAD a bad experience")

B) Drop from 16.7 to 15% body fat and maintain it

C) Get my college athlete build back (somewhere in the neighborhood of 180-185lbs. on my 6'4" frame)

I push pixels and try to figure out how to keep our business advancing on a daily basis while juggling a 3 and 1 year old with my wife. So working out is going to take extra special commitment.

I will say however, I think this has been a really important addition to my routine. I feel better, I sleep better, I eat better. Getting over this first hump will be a big step.

Here's to soreness!

White Space

2012-05-21T18:03:41Z

I saw something on Flipboard a few days ago that really hit home. The title was something like The White Space of Life. I'm sure the article was something about crammed life (but I didn't have time to read it).

Like everyone else under the sun, I'm super busy and chaotic. And I think I'm guilty of what could be compared to design overflow. If life is like a nicely designed, minimalist blog... I've managed to cram so many links, tag clouds, AdWords and banners in there it looks like a Blogger.com page for a vitamin suppliment MLM member.

It's time to dial back on a few things to start with. I'm going to make a concerted effort to eat better, sleep better and work out more. This in turn should mean I'm more focused and productive while I'm doing necessary things for work and home. I need to start saying "no" to a few more things... like free consultations to people that can't afford to hire us. I need to be able to hang out with my kids and not stress about an email I didn't get off before I left the office.

Time to increase the padding and margins, and remove a lot of bg-images.

The 5:00 shift

2012-05-02T09:07:31Z

It's another one of those morning where the alarm went off at 4:40am and I hit snooze 3 times. And now it's me, my coffee, Of Monsters and Men and my laptop out in the dark dining room.

I started doing this a few times a week not too long ater Fiona was born. It's about the only way I've found to stay up on my quantity of working hours when things get hectic. But thankfully, it's when I seem to get some of my best work done as well. I've tried to reserve it for business development work rather than client work, but I'm a little too behind for that right now.

If anybody else has the same routine, or is up for trying it, let me know. I've thought it would be kind of fun to set up a Campfire chat room and use that as motivation to "show up". I suppose my friends on the west coast are a real long shot for 5am EST:)

Web designer budget spreadsheet

2012-04-25T16:49:22Z

A few months back we developed a little more methodology to build our pricing on projects. Maybe I was a little late to the party, but nonetheless...

At the bottom of this post are two files, one in Excel and one in Numbers, that itemize as many things as I could think of that are involved in a new web development project. We've got one (much more complex) that is always evolving for production projects as well.

Basically, it's broken into three columns on the top half, where hours can be applied for each task (some may end up being 0 on certain projects). Those hours are then talied and multiplied by the hourly rate. There's also a number of slots to insert prices for incidentals like stock photos, type faces, SSL certificates, etc. Finally, it has a calculation for buffer and discount rates.

Every cell on the sheet that has a light gray background is a formula based number. They will dynamically update as all of the other figures are entered. The Excel version also nicely uploads to Google Docs and holds formatting and formulas. Hope it's useful for you!

Would you put the price first?

2012-04-18T19:04:19Z

I've been playing with this idea/question for a few days and wanted to see if anybody else out there has as well. I revised my approach with our proposals a few months ago, and quite like the format now (however, since I'm in the middle of Blair Enns' book Win Without Pitching, I'm completely rethinking the paper proposal all together).

But... one thing I want to try is putting the price front and center on page 2 of the proposal right after the cover. Total price, breakdown price, hourly rate, etc., however it is broken down for the given project. Nice, big font. And then the following 5-ish pages cover the deliverables, milestones and terms accordingly.

My thinking is this:

1. In 90-99% of situations, the cost is going to be more than the client wants to spend, regardless of when they see it. Why not find out the nature of the gap on the front end and know more about potential limitations?

2. In a lot of situations, they say they have no budget (they just want X,Y,Z and need to know what it will cost). If there is objection up front to the cost, then the issue can be raised that they didn't have a budget and this is what it's going to take to develop what they asked for. If all of the sudden they have a number in mind, this puts more authority in your hands now that you've presented an expert approach with a corresponding cost. If you have to come down in price, they know that there will be feature reduction.

3. Many times after going through a proposal, I find that the client is already building to a number in their mind. They're getting excited about the project, but saving the let down for the end (see #1 above) unwinds that enthusiasm when it's most important.

I feel like getting the number out of the way in the first 5 minutes will either a) provide evidence that maybe this isn't a good fit for them or you and that's fine, no more time spent... or b) provide a much more productive conversation about the deliverables and help them understand where the cost is coming from. Then at the end, they've worked back into justifying the cost and are on the optimistic upswing.

All that being said, I'm still hesitant to do it. The next time I sit down to crank one out, I'm going to see if I can muster the confidence. If anyone else has thoughts or input, please post below!

Recently finished: JOG Host Video

2012-04-16T19:10:03Z

A few weeks ago, J House Studios took a trip to South Florida for a few days to film a new project for our good friends at Generous Giving. This piece is very focused for one audience in a specific context, but we are very pleased with the result. We got to film in a couple incredible homes and see some fantastic weather for the two day shoot.

Some production stills from set