http://www.gridworkdesign.com/ We create and manage web sites for small, mission-driven organizations. By combining smart planning, best-of-breed software and beautiful design, we will maximize every penny of your budget. At Gridwork Design, financial stability, artistic integrity and a social conscience aren't competing goals. en Copyright 2010 2010-02-01T06:11:18+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/102/fear_of_publishing/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/102/fear_of_publishing/#When:22:09:44Z “Who here is in publishing?” Maybe 20% of the hands in the room go up. I’m not sure how to answer and decide to leave my hand down. The speaker replies, somewhat scornfully, “You’re ALL in publishing!” Oh, right. For the rest of the weekend, this exchange rattled around in my head. Why didn’t I raise my hand right away? How should “publishing” apply to my day in and day out work? What do I need to change in my career to embrace this idea more fully? The speaker was Jeffrey Zeldman, chief mentor of the internet, and a personal hero, so I took his words seriously. And of course my answer should have been an enthusiastic “YES!”. I started out in journalism and print design at my college newspaper, driven by the power of media to create social change. After graduation, I went into textbook production and, eventually, magazine art direction. And now, a huge part of my business is building and maintaining websites for publications. At the same time, the reality of making websites on contract is days, weeks, months of pushing pixels and tweaking code. As a freelancer, I’m frequently left out of the conversations about strategy and content development. So while I might be “in publishing”, I feel too far removed from the process to really feel in it. Not everyone is — or should be — a publisher. It’s a difficult, frequently traumatic job. But more of us should be trying. I’m simultaneously terrified and inspired. In the months since this experience, it’s become clearer that I need to confront this fear and plow forward, even if it’s a little reckless. So based on my experiences as an employee or contractor for some pretty good publishers, here’s what I think it takes: 1. Be a leader Talented teams of individuals aren’t enough. Good leaders will help everyone do their best work. This could mean mentoring, or paying for conferences and seminars, or maintaining a reference library. Whatever it takes to make there are opportunities for growth and connectedness with a wider community. It also means living a healthy lifestyle, which is something I think many of us struggle with. I know I do. We spend almost all our work days in front of a screen, and a growing portion of our leisure time as well. Taking vacations, exploring other fields, making families, exercising, cooking dinner, these are the antidotes to uninspired, unsuccessful work. 2. Understand money At many magazines, the publisher is in charge of all the finances. This means having a consistent grasp on cash flow and accounting, in addition to working with bookkeepers and accountants. Optimizing the way you spend that money requires at least a surface understanding of what everyone in the organization does. That includes copyediting, interviewing, human resources, photography, graphic design and snack selection. It also means that you pay people for their work, and they should be paid on time. And that you foster new streams of revenue. Recurring subscriptions and advertising aren’t enough anymore. 3. Write well Fundamentally, publishing is a business of words. There is a staggering amount of cumulative emails and drafts and rejections that go into a finished publication. And at some point in the process, everyone needs to step into the role of copyeditor. The ability to write a clear email cannot be understated. Threads that go on and on are almost as wasteful as 2 hour staff meetings. Occasionally, you need to publish thoughtful essays that articulate ideas and motivate your community. 4. Know great people The referrals and feedback you get from other talented people are genuinely invaluable. Fortunately, the publishing world is filled with these amazing, generous people dying to share their knowledge. You should be one of them. As an introvert (INTJ), this sounds exhausting. The internet helps, but I still push myself to go to occasional conferences or meetups. And I have to continually remind myself to delurk, participate in discussions, offer assistance when possible and share solutions that other people can use. 2011-05-16T22:09:44+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/90/consumer_loans/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/90/consumer_loans/#When:16:19:17Z Working closely with a copywriter, illustrator and product managers, we designed an eye-catching interface that steps way outside the bounds of typical financial sites. The sketched artwork, concise terms and friendly layout strive to engage customers both rationally and emotionally. 2011-03-22T16:19:17+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/73/shipped_in_2010/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/73/shipped_in_2010/#When:04:23:02Z About a year ago, I vowed to write one new blog post per week for the whole year. I promptly wrote two posts, several half posts and gave up. Blogging seems like it should be easy, but with a full workload, mild fear of putting something out there forever and three cats to keep happy, it’s the first thing to go when I need less screen time. I think I need some other spaces on the web outside of this company & social networks, but that’s not why I’m writing this post. In addition to my failure to follow through on blogging, I’ve been simmering a redesign of this site since March which has kept me from posting new projects to the portfolio. New potential clients are probably visiting this site, seeing a bunch of old dates & moving on. And despite all this, it was a busy year from start to finish, including moving to a new city (Seattle!) and surrendering bookkeeping duties to a trained professional. So to span the gap and get a running start into 2011, here’s my list of stuff that Gridwork shipped, or helped ship (as inspired by Seth Godin): Front-end code for the new Bethel University site. Social change platform for Thousand Kites, allowing prison reform activists to quickly organize in communities and around issues. ExpressionEngine implementation and front-end code for 4-Tell, an amazing ecommerce recommendation system. Translated Spanish site for Ecology Project International. Site design, development & deployment for the Smart Stage Mom and Aaron Jacobs Casting. Still unfinished, beta launch of Washington D.C.-based job classified site Good Job. Currently in progress, nearly finished redesign of the Small Screen Network. New site for the Appalachian Media Institute (currently experiencing some server problems). CartThrob powered store for BijouDally. Redesigned site for leadership consultants Kaplan Devries. Invitation to an awesome trampoline party. This list required scanning through a full year of email remember everything that actually got done and a few things are instantly clear from that little exercise. I need to do more design. And when I do code, I want to be challenged in a way that requires me to become a better coder, no more running in place. Anyways, there will be more time for resolutions next week. At least this proves 2010 was more active than this site might reflect and now I’m extra motivated to get the redesign finished and launched. 2010-12-31T04:23:02+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/91/leadership_consulting/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/91/leadership_consulting/#When:21:42:51Z As a thought-leader in leadership consulting, Kaplan Devries' needed a website that would reflect their caliber. We refocused the design entirely around clean, crisp typography to give them a solid base to evolve the site from over time. 2010-11-01T21:42:51+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/89/political_organizing/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/89/political_organizing/#When:04:28:04Z This powerful organizing platform stretched every muscle we have. Kites Campaigns allows field organizers to quickly outfit community groups with a multimedia-driven website around issues of prison reform. The baseline audience includes novice computer users, so it must make the complex interactions from uploading videos to taking action around an issue accessible to users with a very short learning curve. 2010-09-02T04:28:04+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/92/plum_cottage/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/92/plum_cottage/#When:21:27:46Z Brochure site for a family business. Panoramas of the property give potential guests a genuine sense of what it might be like to rent the cottage. 2010-04-01T21:27:46+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/97/job_classifieds/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/97/job_classifieds/#When:20:21:30Z This web app allows nonprofits to easily post listings for jobs in the Washington D.C. area. We worked with the client to deploy a phase one prototype that can evolve into a full-fledged business in and of itself. 2010-03-01T20:21:30+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/93/bethel_university/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/93/bethel_university/#When:19:50:52Z Our job on this project was narrowly focused on delivering exceptional front-end code based on supplied Photoshop files that could be utilized by the in-house implementation team. 2010-02-01T19:50:52+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/68/blogging_and_proposals/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/68/blogging_and_proposals/#When:06:11:18Z Among the many unrealistic New Year’s resolutions I make every year, this may be the king of the hill. Project 52 is a petition to write a blog post a week for the whole year. Given that the last 5 years of running this site I’ve averaged about 4 posts a year, and I’m already a month behind, this seems like an impossible challenge. But the point is to dedicate more time to writing and reflecting, so I’m gonna post as much as I can, even if I don’t hit the magic number. Writing didn’t seem like it would be a very important part of running a web design company at first. It’s about your style and the quality of your code, right? Wrong. So foolishly wrong. The initial exchange of emails and proposals with a client is almost as important as the final deliverable. It establishes the tone of our relationship, determines my capacity to meet expectations and clarifies the steps required to make something wonderful. Regardless of whether Gridwork is hired for design, development or strategic planning, words play a critical role. On design jobs, it’s the sample content used in initial compositions, the labels on form fields, text in navigation, among dozens of other items that may never even get discussed, but require attention to language. In development, it’s the documentation, training materials, even the way variables are named. Using plain English as much as possible is considerate of the other people who might work on that code in the future. 2010-02-01T06:11:18+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/99/community_knowledge/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/99/community_knowledge/#When:19:40:10Z Since this finished site would be deployed on a complex, unspecified platform, we wrote obsessively clean, modular code that could be sliced and diced with ease. 2010-01-10T19:40:10+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/98/agency_portfolio/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/98/agency_portfolio/#When:22:17:00Z mStoner is an agency full of talented designers, developers and strategists that is laser focused on the higher education market. Overloaded with client work, they took the smart strategy of outsourcing components of their own site in order to keep their attention where it belongs. 2009-12-01T22:17:00+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/65/expressionengine_Thanks/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/65/expressionengine_Thanks/#When:03:37:18Z After over six months of not posting to the blog, I’ll admit that this comes a day late and a dollar short. Lots of stuff has happened since I launched the redesign and a couple posts in the SXSW whirlwind: new clients, new sites, new office, new dreams … but those are posts for another time. Tonight, I’m squarely focused on one of the most crucial components of our site design process, the content management system. ExpressionEngine powers nearly every site I’ve ever designed and developed. From little brochure style sites promoting a friend’s upstart consulting business to big university departments and publishing institutions, it bends and flexes to serve readers, students, users and administrators. We don’t waste budgets fiddling with obtuse methods of “skinning” a overly engineered backend, nor do we bill clients for routine changes they should be able to do on their own. EE shields us as web designers from the most technical parts of development, and in turn we are able to shield clients from the most technical parts of EE. It’s a huge part of how Gridwork has grown and stayed viable even as the economy has tightened. 2009-10-02T03:37:18+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/100/instructional_video/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/100/instructional_video/#When:03:05:55Z We designed and developed this fun retro site as a marketing tool for an instructional video series for aspiring young actors. 2009-10-02T03:05:55+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/70/student_field_science/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/70/student_field_science/#When:17:07:03Z We redesigned EPI's website from top to bottom, working closely with on-site staff and contracted editors to deliver a lively, bilingual, user-friendly web experience. Carefully constructed forms guide new travelers from submitting their enrollment application through to planning fundraisers and sharing flight information. For outbound communication, we built tools for managing blogs, events, testimonials and press releases. 2009-09-16T17:07:03+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/101/conference_promotion/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/101/conference_promotion/#When:03:05:45Z We contributed design, development, hosting and strategic planning to this conference for technology workers in and around Tacoma, WA. 2009-09-02T03:05:45+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/96/educational_interface/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/96/educational_interface/#When:22:59:15Z The primary objective for this interface was extensibility, both for additional disciplines and for integration into an unspecified content management system. We delivered several iterations on the approved design and precision HTML/CSS code. 2009-07-01T22:59:15+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/95/nonprofit_redesign1/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/95/nonprofit_redesign1/#When:21:58:30Z This remarkable organization needed an equally remarkable site in advance of announcing a major corporate partnership. We rolled out a site that incorporates the whimsey of quilting patterns and allows staff effectively share the stories of the kids impacted by their work. 2009-04-01T21:58:30+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/53/crafting_every_square_inch/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/53/crafting_every_square_inch/#When:04:38:02Z Last week, thanks to some friends who are always up for an adventure, I visited the factory of Tiny Texas Houses about an hour south of Austin, TX. Part of a growing movement towards beautiful prefabricated housing, they are small, environmentally-friendly and utterly charming. The special sauce for Tiny Texas Houses is their raw materials — outside of insulation, electrical and plumbing, nearly every component is salvaged from tear downs and junkyards. Their partner organization, Discovery Architectural Antiques, collects vintage windows, beautifully weathered lumber, ornate doorknobs, among countless other vestiges of craftsmanship that find their way into each home. Touring the little houses, I was struck by how much thought and care clearly goes into designing these 150-350 sq. ft. residences. Each square inch felt contemplated, from the lofted sleeping areas to the miniature bathrooms and kitchens. And even though these were essentially new houses — built to last 100 years — because of the materials, they smell like a well-loved home. Here are a few random video clips from our walk around the operation: Of course, actually living in one of these houses full-time would require a major lifestyle adjustment, particularly for two people. It would take the right climate so you could create lots of usable outdoor space, a separate work/studio space, and much less crap overall to make it work. But the benefits of low energy use, easy maintenance and affordable craftsmanship might easily outweigh any downsides. So what does this have to do with Gridwork? More than you might think. The lesson I’m taking away is that in eventually in any design process — whether its housing, or lifestyle, or web design, or writing — you benefit from stepping back, identifying what is truly necessary and eliminating everything else. And once you’ve identified your absolute minimum needs, obsess over them until they are perfect. The lifespan of a website is probably going to be less than 100 years, but we can take care to build things to last, reduce (information) pollution, and feel instantly comfortable. 2009-03-26T04:38:02+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/52/sxswi_2009_wrap_up/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/52/sxswi_2009_wrap_up/#When:02:14:00Z After nine thrilling days in Austin, Texas, I’m back home beginning to sort through the mass of information, people and activities still swirling in my head. This year marked the first time Gridwork was able to partially fund attendance for three people. As a very small company, this was a pretty big deal, so we were there to make the most of it and hopefully inject some new energy into becoming better at what we do. Without a doubt, the single most important reason I went to the conference was to preview the upcoming major upgrade of our favorite content management system, ExpressionEngine. A huge part of our business relies on being experts at this system, so I wanted to educate myself as much as possible before the official release. So in addition to attending EE-centric parties and chatting up some of the best and brightest developers, I also forced myself to get up early for a breakfast demonstration with the people behind the code, EllisLab. I was surprised at how radically improved the new system is for end users while still acting like an iterative release for developers (no major changes to the coding methodology). There are certainly some lovely new additions (better file uploading, picture editor, whizzy forms), but most of the changes will help us work faster and more efficiently. For instance, we often obscure the control panel completely for content management, especially for group blogs or clients with low tolerance for technological learning curves. This gives them a seamless transition from navigating their site to publishing or editing content. The problem with this solution in EE 1.x is that we end up replicating dozens of forms and bits of functionality which is time consuming and difficult to upgrade. EE 2.0 will allow us to make radical alterations to the design of the control panel so we can essentially rebrand the administration functionality for each individual client, omitting unused features and streamlining tasks into fewer and fewer pages. And this is the tip of the iceberg. There so much attention to detail, you can understand why it took so long and why the wait is worth it. Of course, the conference was about much more than software and talking shop, it was about getting out from under our antisocial rocks and meeting people. And the one overarching value that I keep thinking about is how important it is to participate in dialogue. Everyone is obsessed with their blog and Twitter and Facebook and iPhones because they are great tools to foster that dialogue. It’s so easy to hate on whatever is trendy, to opt out because you’ve seen some shallowness, or because you’re self-conscious, or unknown, or intimidated. I know I’m in some of those groups, lurking on the EE forums and posting twice yearly blog entries. For all the talk about the artificiality of social networking, it only takes one offline interaction with a formerly online-only connection to realize the value of chiming in and participating, regardless of which medium you want to use. 2009-03-20T02:14:00+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/47/redesigned_site_for_sxsw/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/47/redesigned_site_for_sxsw/#When:14:00:00Z About a year ago, I started redesigning this site with lofty goals and no deadline, so as you might imagine, I’m very relieved to be writing this post. The first version of gridworkdesign.com was conceived while it was still just me working out of my mom’s guest house. It worked well enough, but didn’t reflect the current state of the company, nor did it go any deeper than a few samples from our portfolio and a brief creative process. What I wanted was more than just a marketing tool, I wanted a site that we could track staff hours and client projects from start to finish. Something bold and different, where I could obsess over our grid and typography just as much as I do on paid projects. So what you see here is the beginning of our integrated portfolio, project management, staff management tool. Using ExpressionEngine, we can weave clients, projects, task, deliverables and static content together seamlessly, floating our favorite content to the public site as “portfolio” entries and hiding everything else behind password protected pages. It’s taken several late nights to meet the self-imposed deadline of South by Southwest — where Erik, Mary and myself are sitting this very moment — so there are some missing pieces and unfinished sections. But it’s good enough and something I’m actually excited to show people we might meet here in Austin. 2009-03-13T14:00:00+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/18/online_video_network/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/18/online_video_network/#When:13:32:42Z Small Screen Network creates high-quality videos specializing on the "liquid culture" of cocktails and beer. The site we created highlights the interactive flash videos and provides a platform form blogging, podcasting, and sharing content. 2009-02-09T13:32:42+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/41/coworking_website/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/41/coworking_website/#When:11:55:25Z Suite133 is a shared office for telecommuters, start-up entrepreneurs, creative professionals, and anyone craving the creative energy that comes from working alongside other people. We developed a platform to promote and manage the business that work out of the space. 2008-12-15T11:55:25+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/21/outdoor_education/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/21/outdoor_education/#When:04:00:10Z Global Explorers specializes in sustainable travel education for students, giving them unique experiences that will help shape global citizens. We created a fully interactive and customizable site, students and faculty can connect online, raise money for their trip, and prepare for the adventure ahead. 2008-10-21T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/20/news_magazine_website/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/20/news_magazine_website/#When:03:45:40Z This flagship site for a leading progressive news publication required coordinating the input and talents of half a dozen editors, designers and coders over the course of a full year. 2008-10-02T03:45:40+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/11/widgets_vs_originality/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/11/widgets_vs_originality/#When:15:04:02Z This is a design company. Or at least I thought it was. As I look at our summer calendar and recent project launches, I’m starting to notice development work and maintenance arrangements becoming larger parts of the business. I can think of a few reasons to explain how this came to be. One reason may be an influx of designers being asked to reach beyond their comfort zone as more complex web technologies become commonplace. It could be that our clients are starting to ask for the same complicated things, so we’re spending more time adapting an existing design into ever more interactive experiences. It could also be that the particular software we specialize in, ExpressionEngine, is gaining a wider following and more clients in need of advanced features and consistent maintenance work. Early on when Gridwork first started and there wasn’t enough client work to fill all my time, I wasted money and carbon aimlessly driving around listening to business-y audiobooks, the first of which was The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. I don’t remember much from this book, but one thing has always nagged me. He says something like your business must be something that you can repeat by automating and essentially franchising. Even though I never intend to franchise what Gridwork is doing, I’m strongly drawn to the idea of automating and standardizing as much of what we do as possible. The tension between selling creativity and simply executing functionality requests still exists, but the more we know about the best way to do one thing or another the more brain energy we can devote to the broader design and strategy. Creativity will always drive the spirit of this company, but standards and automation will finance our dreams of awesome health care and long forgotten credit card companies. It is with this insight that we’re entering into our first real growth period. This spring, I began transitioning from full-time developer and designer to focusing a greater portion of my time on recruiting new clients, managing long-term relationships and training new associates to take on the added workload. Joining Mary (print design) and Brooks (development) is Erik Hanberg, currently implementing new client projects and bringing proven writing experience and project management to our talented roster. In the coming months, look for a redesign of this site in the spirit of automation and improved communication. New client login tools will include dashboards for reviewing timesheets, assigning new tasks, self-administering their sites, monitoring project progress and storing brand / tech assets. 2008-06-07T15:04:02+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/22/magazine_site/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/22/magazine_site/#When:04:05:06Z Shelterforce is published by the National Housing Institute, an independent nonprofit organization that examines the issues causing the crisis in housing and community in America. 2008-06-02T04:05:06+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/48/support_and_development/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/48/support_and_development/#When:20:24:24Z We came on shortly after mStoner redesigned and relaunched this huge, fascinating site. Using our experiences with managing large, content-heavy sites in ExpressionEngine, we continue to provide technical support on their code and incremental feature upgrades as they come up with new projects and information sources. 2008-06-01T20:24:24+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/43/magazine_site_coding/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/43/magazine_site_coding/#When:16:11:37Z We partnered with designers at Livingston & Partners to develop around their amazing layout for the Word Among Us magazine. With over 100,000 print subscribers to sync with their membership database and thousands of articles to manage, this job pushed the limits of our tools and expertise. 2008-05-15T16:11:37+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/32/group_blog/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/32/group_blog/#When:04:01:53Z To accommodate dozens of contributors at varying levels of technical proficiency, we created a "zero-learning curve" administration system for posting, editing and managing content. Even though there's a fairly complex system behind the scenes, new authors can publish their posts without an instruction manual in a matter of minutes. 2008-03-02T04:01:53+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/10/office_lunch_coworkers/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/10/office_lunch_coworkers/#When:14:56:31Z As of early September, Gridwork is no longer being operated from my living room. Goodbye to the endless distractions and errand running that slowly seemed to take over all my free time. At first, working from home was tremendously liberating. I found myself spending many more hours on being creative and less in meetings or on busywork. However, over time I completely merged personal time with work time, which usually meant working off and on from early in the morning until late at night. To regulate this social life killing regimen, I began spending more and more time at a nearby café. Now, I love coffee as much as any native northwesterner, but there are severe consequences for consuming vast quantities of caffeine. Fortunately, we’ve had an opportunity to partner with some friends from Exit133 on a new coworking space, Suite133. The coworking business model attempts to create a middle ground between a coffee shop and a typical office. Probably the most obvious difference is that most of the people in the space are either freelancers or small 2-5 person companies. Rather than fixed workstations, we’ve got a bunch of desks lined up that stay perfectly clean until someone needs to work. The timing for this change couldn’t be better as work continues to flow in. To expand this workload, I’ve begun working more regularly with two talented freelancers, Brooks Seymore and Mary Holste. Their enthusiasm for building websites and designing materials is invigorating and will hopefully lead toward many good things to come. 2007-10-23T14:56:31+00:00