Timberline Group New Media

And usually they end up messy. Such is the case with Timberline Group and Network Solutions.

Let me tell you a little bit about the nightmare I call, changing Registar’s.  Holy smokes, you stand a better chance opening a BBQ Pork stand in Mecca.

I’ll set the stage. I had a domain that was hosted by Network Solutions. The domain and hosting were purchased all at once. AND I couldn’t be more pleased. I found another host for my Timberline stuff and for clients so decided to move all my domains. Now with NS you pay for your hosting up front, but I had 4 mos left and figured I’d eat that in favor of the new host, and so I changed my DNS. The DNS point off NS and to my new host. To me, and I would expect to most rational people that in and of itself means I won’t be renewing my hosting with NS.

Of course I get a renewal notice.

It’s automated and I expected that, OK - but then I send a message saying to the effect,… “I’m curious but why if my DNS ( Domain Name Server ) points to my new host would I even be approached to renew? Seems to me that even an automated process can detect when a site is no longer being hosted. It became obvious to me that they had every intension of renewing my hosting package and billing me, even tho - my site no longer lived on their servers. Nice Tactic - Nice Try! Sorry.

And I get a canned response, again - what I expected. Not what I wanted, but expected.

It became obvious to me that Network Solutions was going to be a carbon copy of the experience I had with ValueWeb. VW had been purchased by Affinity, and soon after customer service went into the toilet. I had been with them since 1995! They weren’t interested in me as the little guy, they wanted the big fish. Again, understandable but not something I need to put up with.

I manage a few sites with Contegix as well. They HAVE the big fish, and still make an effort to help me, answer questions, and install things lickity split. These hosts and domain companies should really pay attention to what Contegix is doing.

I digress - so, I find a new reg for my domain,… Go Daddy. I figured I’d give them a shot and while they lack a personal touch, their interface is slick and response fairly quick. However once again NS proved to be the speed bump in the process. Instead of helping me, they were more concerned with “earning my business back.” What used to be a very simple process, a simple transfer of registar’s has taken me over 8 days to complete. I’m STILL not 100% it’s done.

Their tech support was less than helpful,… sounded outsourced. Their emails were less than insightful and full of babble and confusing links, and I for one will not be using them again for anything. I do dread the process I’ll have to go thru with moving the rest of my domains off, but for me it’s worth it.

Just because this world is hectic and techology changes at mind numbing speed doesn’t justify the crappy service and unhelpful support offered by, what in my opinion, used to be a top notch company. I don’t know if some big corporation came in like Affinity did to Valueweb,… whatever it is - its not working for me.

And so, the relationship comes to and end.  It may seem like a simple process when you buy a domain, but be very careful and also question any company that will also host you after  you register. If I didn’t catch this and let it autorenew, I’d be the proud owner of a blank server and out $250 bucks. Caution people, caution.

So that’s my tale, my woe - we’ll see if everything is in order. If not, another post to vent.

-max

It’s finally coming!

Yesterday I ordered my APPLEtv from the Apple Web Site, and just got word it SHIPPED! YAY!

I have to say tho, I used to trust the guys at the Apple Store but can’t say that much anymore. Seems like they’ve lowered their standards and hire anyone now. There was a time when they’d only hire Mac Guys ( and girls ). Recently they’ve sold me wrong adaptors, or given me wrong info on software - or flat out didn’t know. I expect that at other retailers who purposely hire the Andy Stitzer’s of the world to push crap electronics are the local “SmartTech”.

The last time I went in to the Mac store looking for the APPLEtv unit…the guy there took me over to a video iPod.

Ouch! Damnit Andy!

Anywho - I am pretty excited, it should be here by the end o’ the month and I’ll write a review here.

The REALLY cool thing that surprised me was the HDMI cable and Optical you can buy from MAC. Normally a HDMI will run you about $45 - $75 bucks, and they are both available on the MAC site for $19.95. A pleasant surprise because normally cables and such are so inflated in price on the Mac site you look for alternatives. I ordered them as well. My total came to $399 for the APPLETV, and two cables. Pricey, yeah BUT I tried to turn my PC into a entertainment center and between upgrading my video card to HDMI or at least DVI to HDMI cable, remote keybord, optical audio card, and misc crap for it along with Vista would have ran me well over $800. I know because I tried and gave up when the video card didn’t fit in my dell. ha!

So - I am REALLY looking forward to my AppleTV

Until then, if you don’t know about it - would like to see it, check it out on the Apple Store site…

Now there’s always something good on TV. With Apple TV, you can enjoy movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts in your iTunes library, plus photos and movie trailers, on your widescreen TV — wirelessly, from your Mac or PC.

Download

Ready to be entertained? Any time day or night, simply download what you want to watch or listen to from among millions of choices on the iTunes Store. Then let Apple TV do the rest.

Sync

Apple TV automatically grabs the digital media on your computer and makes it available for you to enjoy on your TV. Best of all, whenever you add something new in iTunes, Apple TV updates automatically.

Watch

Thanks to the intuitive interface, finding what you want to watch is as easy as navigating a few simple menu items using the included Apple Remote. Just a few clicks and you’ll be enjoying all your favorites from the comfort of your couch.

-maxi

( repost from MyFoxColorado.com )

OK, let’s get the groans outta the way. I am a MAC guy. OK there, I said it. Amazes me that there is still a separation, a rift between PC and MAC but for their part I believe Mac has revived that contempt by their ( awfully funny ) commercials with their pseudo-Gates lookin’ nerdo PC guy and the young hip feller. I’m more of a morph of both I’d say but find alot of connections between real life and those commercials. Anyway to be fair, I started my computing career in 1991 on an Amiga 2000 computer, second box was a ( shudders ) Packard Bell 50mhz PC. For my job at the time I used SGI’s ( Silicon Graphics ) Mac’s as well as NT’s so I would say - over the years I’ve had my fair share of different platforms and OS’s.

So - while I sit here writing this on a G4 Mac my PC is unloading, restarting, deleting and reinstalling software. One thing that surely hasn’t changed is how Microsoft and PC’s refer back to the Days of DOS and build their machines a little backwards. I’m NOT bashing a PC - I still prefer PC’s for some of my work, but it’s rare that I have to do a restart when installing things on my MAC - It happens, but certainly not as often as I have just in the two days of using/installing Vista.

The machine I have is a Frankenstien PC. Basically a DELL, which has its own issues. Remember when Dell’s were Swell? All my hardware checks out. Once Vista is done figuring out what the hell it wants to do in there, the machine will be an entertainment center and on occasion be used to test, build auto run CD’s and check web sites I’ve built. ( Because Windows EXPLODER sees the internet the way IT wants to and doesn’t for the most part conform to WC3 web standards - I always have to write CSS fixes,..yay! Not! ) So my expectation and requirements are low - but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a pleasant experience when installing and using this new “upgrade” that I just paid $250 American Dollars for. Oy!

Alright. I was running XP Pro. Other than your basic Office package installed, and Adobe Photoshop/Dreamweaver there wasn’t much on the machine. I started installing the 32 bit version of Vista ( a Microsoft Cert. Tech told me to avoid the 64 bit - yikes! ) around 2pm. By 8pm it was still installing. This isn’t an old PC either - 2.0 ghz, gig of ram…. so yeah,… I was thinking my machine locked up as the disclaimer on the packaging ( which in my humble opinion is where alot of the $250 price tag went ) said the “install may take several hours”. Er,…note to self. Microsoft time: Several Hours equals HALF A DAY!

I let it be. I looked online, and I wasn’t the only one who fell into the worm hole of time caused by this install. I actually went to bed, hoping that in the morning Ballmer-Claus ( Steve Ballmer Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation ) would surprise me and alas - HE DID! There was Vista, installed.

…not configured. So systematically it starts to go thru and kill my software. It hated Norton, it wasn’t compatible. I don’t blame Vista for that. Come on, Vista was supposed to be released what,… 3 years ago - it’s not like Microsoft surprised these software companies and released this under their noses. Granted, I can download patches and updates and this and that… so that’s basically what I have been doing for a DAY. Updating and deleting and reinstalling. I’d like to tell you all about my experience actually USING Vista, but I haven’t yet.

I have seen Internet Exploder ( explorer ) 7 and as a web design/development guy - it’s nice. I just wish they’d quit doing what AOL has tried to do over the years. Reformat and rewrite the internet to their specs. For those of you who don’t know… there is a web standard, and old Frontpage and the IE browser basically ignores these standards and also writes their own,…um,… stuff. So while on a Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc browsers a web page generally look the same when designed to W3C spec - it won’t look that way in IE usually. The thing that sucks, most computer users use IE - and you always have to dummy your site down, or write hacks to make it all work. BUT to the new 7 browser’s credit - it sure is pretty. Has tabs, and overall I like it. I won’t use it - but it’s nice. I went right back to using Firefox.
Other than that - I haven’t had a chance to do ANYTHING because all my time has been spent setting up the OS environment. I wanted to post this and let you all know. Bottom line is, it appears to be pretty swell and I am sure it will eventually work well. I am also sure it will be just like all previous versions of the Microsoft my day will start downloading updates, I’ll get infected, I’ll swear alot…so, nothing new. If you are considering Vista, and have an older machine,… I would just go ahead and buy a new box with Vista installed. If you thrive on your computer and you are a PC user - I would wait! Actually you have no choice…even if you buy it and install it, you have to wait! Or get a admin to install it. Best case, I would have another computer ready to work and go so you don’t have any down time - but not everyone can do that. I think overall this operating system will do well. I’m using Ultimate which was an upgrade and ran me $250. The Full Version is closer to $400! I don’t think most of you would need Ultimate. The Home Premium is what most should use. The regular Home Basic, looks pretty much like a waste. There is also a Business version. I say either Home Premium or Ultimate should be your choices. Kinda dopey to have all these different version, I’d like to think I know what I am doing and even I was baffled - standing there at CompUSA looking at boxes and saying “ Well this one has this and this and this, but this one has this and this and not that but it does have this which this doesn’t but that does yet it doesn’t have that or this! OY!!!” That’s not a good plan for consumers who still are a little overwhelmed. Again,… MAC OSX, there’s one and it does everything you need it to do. Bias? Yeah! I told ya that.

I have Vista now. I’ll work and design on my Mac mostly. And that’s pretty much that. I can only hope this gives you a little insight before you jump into the Vista world. I may update this if I ever actually get a chance to use my PC!

Thank you that is all. Over.
-maxi

Alot!

Recently ( like this morning ) I just copied and pasted my blog posts from BLOGGER over here to my new WordPress Blog. Like a jackass I updated my BLOGGER to the new post beta version and there for made it impossible to import those postings into WP. Luckily for me there were like 6 posts. But since there weren’t alot - I figured I’d do it now. I’m sure tomorrow they will release the simple import but I just couldn’t wait. I’m pretty proud of my recent new abilities - installing Joomla! and now WordPress along with some MySQL. As I said in one of the other posts I’ve never had to do that, I’ve always depended upon the swell folks at Contegix! I still highly recommend them, simply the best hosting and support out there!

As I restart Timberline Group and move on to greener pastures since Virtuas passed away, or as we all grew to know and love it…. I felt the need to teach myself how to do the things I’ve come to depend on Contegix doing for me.

I am the first one to admit that when, in early 2005, Matt Raible suggested we use a CMS tool I thought “Ohhh no! The geeks are going to ruin my creativity by making me one of them!”

Nothing could be further from the truth. Using Drupal, Joomla!, Wikimedia, WordPress, Roller and such inspired me - forced me to learn - and actually made me more creative. So therefore I felt the need to teach myself how to make this happen in my world. I’ve never attempted this before and now I am glad I did. I know there are ALOT of creative’s out there who flat out refuse to code, program or roll their sleeves up and dive into CMS tools, back end crap, and live in the egghead world and to those people I say, you are nuts. It’s a wonderful and exciting world. The water’s fine - jump in. You will be glad you did.

Read my posts on Joomla! and Drupal here. Try it out for yourself too. I am glad I did. I’m also glad to have had the pleasure of being guided down this path by some really talented folks, in the end - it’s made me a more well rounded creative.

-max

Ahhh Ha! You thought I meant illegal crap didn’t ya! Ooooh ya bastards! No!

Let me set the stage for you. I LOVE - SIMPLE LOVE WITH A SICK ADDICTION QUALITY - The British TV show GREEN WING If you haven’t seen it, get the DVD! I did and that is why I am writing about MacTheRipper which I just downloaded. First, my bestest friend in the world Hana asked her sister who is living in London to pick me up season’s 1 and 2 for Christmas. YAY! I am also lucky enough to be able to play them in my mac. However, some of you may or may not know about region codes. Well simply put we ( in the US ) are in region 1 - and England is region 2 and there for I can not play the DVD’s in my regular DVD player.

So yeah, if you happen to pick up a movie that’s still in theaters at a outdoor shop in China, those are region 6 and won’t play on a dvd player in the US, Canada, England, most of Europe and any where else for that matter - except China.

So along came MacTheRipper and god bless ‘em for doing so. Sure you can be a tool and rip DVD’s you rent or borrow and you’d be a tool for doing so…. BUT here I am with a real reason to do so. A friend and her sister out of the kindness of their heart got me a present that granted I can use, but you only get 5 times to change your Mac DVD region and I do intend to switch it back at some point. So - the plan,… Rip the DVD’s to remove the region code and simply enjoy them on my home DVD player and watch them on the big flat screen and above all, turn all my family and friends on to this twisted, yet enjoyable, warped British TV programme…. or however they spell it over there.

I’m rippin’ right now, and it’s BEAUTIFUL. And did I mention, it’s a free download. Amen.

MacTheRipper is a DVD ripper (extractor). It removes CSS encryption, Macrovision protection, sets the disc’s region to ‘0′ for region-free, and is capable of removing RCE region checking. It can also copy ARccOS copy-protected DVDs.

Sure I do creative stuff, design a bit, programming ( very little ). I run a multimedia business doing video, graphics and web design. In fact however, I am more like a coach, a teacher, and a therapist at times. BUT when I try to help, sometimes it’s taken the wrong way - a client comes to me thinking that since they know their business, service, or product inside and out that they will be able to dictate to me how their web site is supposed to run.

This also applies to their commercial, or their brochure or whatever promotional vehicle they choose. While we do need to partner for the project, it is very hard sometimes to educate and instruct a client on how the process works. Too often a client comes to you wary and takes your guidance as a sales pitch. Or they may just be overwhelmed by the technology. People strongly believe that they can buy a $50 web design program and conquer the Internet. You have to let them down gently while educating them. It’s easy to see why a client could and often times, do think you are full of crap when you describe what goes into an effective web site.

And still they think they can get the same effect and more bang for their buck by paying their nephew to do it instead of you. If as a designer, I get those kind of clients. I offer them my services as a consultant, and I send them away - they will be more trouble than they are worth and they are not serious about making their site or business successful. Clients also don’t want to be educated most of the time. Seldom do they realize or see themselves as partners with you and resist your advice. They believe that since they know their business and their clients they art direct or instruct you how their site should look. This is always a bad move, and you end up with a site that appeals to the company internally but not to outsiders.

Instead of effective marketing, you’ve created a vanity piece. When the site flops and traffic is almost non-existent this will be the designer’s fault and not the client’s company itself. That is why you must, up front, establish that your role is not only to design, but to educate, and consult. That your offering your skills and services as a member of their team and you must earn their trust. I will just address web site design and web promotion for clients or potential clients. My goal is to help clients be better team players. I will address some of the common mistakes clients make when offering suggestions for site design, and explain why it’s bad. Keep in mind, It’s never a bad thing getting feedback from clients, or idea’s - it should be strongly encouraged - but it is important to make sure it is a two way street. Otherwise, you end up with a designer just trying to get the client out the door and a client who is unhappy with their site. The following come from different clients I’ve worked with at different points in my career. Here are some of the common mistakes made…

Bad Navigation
You want to make sure your users do not have any trouble finding information. It is a good practice to have a set of your main links at the top of the page as well as the bottom. It is more convenient for your users to click on a link at the bottom of your page than to have to scroll to the top of the page. The link, be it a button or text needs to be clearly understood by visitors. If you as the client understand it, but no one else will - you need to change the name of the link to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Otherwise you have a link that may not be clicked on. That is always bad!

If you create drop down menus, your visitor should not have to click on one page in order to find a link to navigator to another page. Users will get frustrated and leave if they can not find what they are looking for. Everything on your site should be at most, 3 clicks away as a rule, give or take a click.

Slow Loading Pages
I do not know what is more annoying than going to a website and waiting for it to load. Visitors do not want to wait for their information. We live in a fast pace world and want everything immediately. Granted with high speed access this is less of a problem BUT because of high speed access you shouldn’t design a “heavy” web site.

High quality graphics and rich interactive media is the number one course for slow loading web pages. I know your website will look more attractive with these rich graphics but it is not worth it. Export your images at a lower quality to achieve faster loading pages.

Unattractive Color Scheme
This is an important and underrated area in web design. You want your visitors to feel comfortable. Do not design your website so that it is a strains their eyes. Have warm attractive colors that compliment each other well. This is where you as the client need to trust your designer. It’s never meant as an insult, but it is usually taken to heart when a designer suggests changing your color scheme. This is for the best as the designer is trying to create your brand, or your corp. identity and not trying to insult your daughter’s favorite color, or your country’s flag, or the colors of your college - whatever. It’s amazing what people use to justify bad color combos.

Do use common sense of course, trust your designer’s eye as he or she has been around the block and knows what works and what doesn’t, usually. Do not use bright backgrounds. Having a red, yellow or green background can draw to much attention from the users and they will be distracted from what is important on the website. In addition, do not use dark text on a dark background. You should make sure your text is easy to read and is more prominent than the background.

Page Layout
Be consistent. Consistency is important. Do not make each page different. Make sure they all look the same and the navigation is always in the same location. Have the important information located at a section that is easy to find and do not forget to have a common theme throughout the site. Using a content management system ( CMS tool like Drupal or Joomla or countless others. )

Sideways Scrolling
I hope this would go without saying BUT most developers are aware of this web design malpractice. Typically I do not see many websites where the users have to scroll horizontally. There should never be any reason for this. On the opposite end of that spectrum, sometimes a client may have an older machine/monitor - or they have their monitor set for 800×600 - the new standard is monitor resolution is higher than that, usually 1024×768 and higher. Client’s have to be made to understand that designs are made for this standard, and just because it “doesn’t look right” on their monitor it shouldn’t be changed to fit their screen, we are appealing to the masses. It’s a hard sell sometimes.

Non-Cross Browser Optimization
Just because your website looks perfect in Internet Explorer does not mean it will look the same in other browsers. Usually it won’t especially if your site is designed with something like Frontpage. Each browser handles HTML Tags differently. Be careful when designing your website. Constantly check your websites progress and make sure it is compatible in all browsers.

AND THE GRAND DADDY OF ‘EM ALL,...

Not Taking Advantage of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION & SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
Optimize your website! The only excuse for not having a search engine optimized website is laziness. Add a title to your website, META tags, ALT tags, relevant content, title tags on links and other SEO practices. Internet marketing is its own beast to tackle and that is a huge understatement! This is the element that hardly any client takes serious.

WHY?

Several reasons. One: It sounds like crap when you pitch it to a client. Each search engine works differently, different algorithms, different priorities of keyword placement, how their spiders work, how the conduct business - the list goes on and on. You have to be honest and tell the client that SEO is a moving target and not, NOT an exact science - and you can not,… CAN NOT guarantee top ten, number one, or high performance. You can’t blame the client for being wary or thinking, why bother. Unless they’ve done their research, it’s a hard sell to get the client to understand that it can take weeks, months, and years to get a decent ranking. Alot of site inadvertently employ black hat seo techniques ( underhanded ) - they think if they stack their page with hidden words, or they have different URL’s that lead to one site, or they use tons of keywords - the list goes on and one and believe me, the search engines know all the tricks…and you’ll be
penalized if you do them. Sometimes a site can be black listed, and it is an uphill battle to get back in the search engines good graces.

Internet marketing takes a lot of time and dedication, but making sure your website is SEO friendly is the first step to attract a lot of traffic to your website.

It is an art form all it’s own and as a client, you have to work with a design firm you trust as well as educate yourself. Keep in mind that you can spend thousands even millions on your site but with out top notch SEO and SEM you might as well buy stock in beta video decks,… or use NetZero as your main pipe. It has to be taken serious and it has to be factored in.

One last thing. If you are here, I’m sorry - WORST OF THE WEB - If you don’t see any thing wrong with these sites, I’m REALLY SORRY! 

If you have had issues with clients, feel free to share them here. Not in an insulting way, we are trying to help clients be better communicators, and partners in design.

Highly regarded SEO expert and Enquiro head, Gord Hotchkiss, while chiming in on SEO mythbusters, came to a harrowing conclusion: SEO as we know it is about to change drastically. Change is inevitable, but SEOers are soon to be in a sink or swim situation.

Hotchkiss begins with reaffirming that natural search engine optimization is not dead, as the doomsday mythspreaders are saying. SEO is not just alive, but is becoming more crucial as universal search results go by the wayside.

Geotargeting, personalized results are a “King Kong sized monkey wrench in the SEO works,” says Hotchkiss, which, to mix a fantasy metaphor, means the SEO “quest stands on the edge of a knife.”

To summarize, traditional SEO, which follows a set of principles to push a website to the top spots of natural search results, is nearly an Internet relic. Search engines, diligently tweaking their results for the end-user based on location, search history, and personal preferences, will create an entirely new, largely unpredictable search environment.

That means new tools, new research, new insights in how to maximize exposure, all to achieve presence in various personal search results. In the interim, if the goal of omnipresence (which is the present goal) is not achievable through current standards and practices, then organic search results will become more important than ever.

A prediction here, then, is appropriate. While focus on keywords has been the law of the searchland, SEO professionals will have to more diligently and acutely focus on the end user - every unique end user - mulling scenarios, personalities, and motivations, which makes SEO more akin to traditional marketing, where a firm grasp of psychological concepts is as necessary as the technical acuity of keyword targeting.

Repost from Web Pro News

Labels: effective, Keywords, Marketing, SEO

I started to think it was me.

It usually is.

Over the past ( going on ) 5 years now I’ve worked with very accomplished technical people who through their own admission possess no so called creative skills, or design eye, or they like to say to me “ you’re the creative guy,…”

I then, in turn, would gladly take on both roles as art director and designer. There’s another way of putting that - it’s called chasing your own tail. So I thought, well if I don’t get it how can I expect clients, employers, co-workers and others in my field.

In most visual communication media, art direction is as important as graphic design, although over the past decade or so, print media has increasingly emphasized design over art direction. On the web - art direction is rare, partly because much of the work is about guiding users rather than promoting concepts, but also because there aren’t many design schools that teach art direction. It’s something you have to pick up and use from your years of experience. On the same token, I can’t ( as a pushing 20 year professional ) accept a recent art school grad as an art director. You gotta be in the trenches - a grunt - a foot soldier before you can be a general, ya know?

Alot of companies ( and clients ) put people, like me, in a position where I have to art direct yourself. In addition to that, there is no concept - no appreciation of using visual forms of communication to get points across unless it is in the form of a soul-less diagram. In addition to that, some companies go a step further and make a creative brain run admin or technical side of a web site. In my case, I am fascinated by tech-tools and CMS and very basic programming but I would never take a position where that would be all that I would do. I think it’s required that a creative make the effort to understand the business world, marketing world and developer/technologists world in order to communicate, because trust me - they aren’t making the effort to understand the creative world. It’s on you!

I think companies who hire a jack of all trades person get what they pay for, a person with skills but limited skills. I understand that budget concerns are what leads these companies to hire someone who can “make pretty pictures” as well as “admin the database” but these same companies would likely be better off ( in the long run ) with people dedicated to their specific jobs. This applies to Art Direction and designers as well. These are two separate positions that need specific attention. You would think a left brain position vs. a right brain position would be obvious but two creative positions are just two creative positions that can be done by the same person.

Not so.

Design no longer serves the product; the product serves the design. The product is merely a vehicle allowing the designer to express his vision. Thus design becomes a modified version of fine art (and practically the only version of fine art that pays). It’s hard to art direct from that stand-point. You have to police yourself, make your client or your boss happy while at the same time, you end up creating something you would normally not create - or worse - you allow someone who isn’t a skilled art director direct the art. How many times has that happened to a designer? A designer with enough skills and talent to know what works and what doesn’t work - and a client, with NO CLUE comes along and flat out demands you do something you are opposed to designing. It never appears in your portfolio that’s for sure. Imagine having to do that, to yourself!

That is what eventually is expected when you are a one man shop, or a one person art department.

And the blame can’t be put on non-creative folks. There is a whole generation out there of branding, marketing, and creative people that are driven to “tell” designers how to design and art directors how to do their job while diluting the positions with non-technical requirements.

In a perfect world, a company would hire an art director and allow him or her to develop a team that consists of technical and creative people and designate them to do specific jobs. Above all, this company would have faith and respect in the AD’s abilities and allow him to develop a style for the company, a look and feel - yes a BRAND, a corporate ID - and then marketing and sales would work with the AD to refine and adopt THAT - run with it and everyone would be happy. ( cough cough yeah right cough )

What we have are websites and brochures that all look like they same guy made ‘em, and company CEO’s ( with no design experience ) doing art direction based off these same soul-less cookie cutter web sites and art directors doing design and tech jobs at the same time. This is the new trend, I’m not sure it’ll change any time soon.

You will notice when it does tho. When you see a site, or a commercial that stands above the rest, that is original and speaks entirely different than the main stream. When you stop seeing ad’s on Monster.com for system admin with photoshop skills, when you get hired for a creative job and you don’t have to report to a developer.

…when an art director actually directs the art.

I hope I live long enough to see that day.

I received two books from Matt Raible ( co-worker at Virtuas Open Source Solutions ) to review. One was Building Websites with Joomla and the other was DRUPAL. To be honest, it wasn’t all about reviewing them as it just so happened we were in the middle of a redesign of the Virtuas web site using Drupal. I am the first person to admit that I am as far from a technologist or programmer as they get. I shamefully admit that I started my career with a Netscape WYSIWYG tool, and then even worse FRONTPAGE! YIKES. Because those tools were CRAP, I had to learn to code. I doubt most people go from visual tools to SimpleText ( Notepad ) but I did. I do have to admit that I still rely on Dreamweaver for low end projects, and traditional sites. Why am I telling you all this? Drupal basically has nothing to do with these tools and it is not a design tool. I tell you this because it has simply made my design life alot simpler. By using CSS and XHTML my designs have become cleaner, less clutter code and add in PHP and MySQL by way of Drupal and you have a combination that’s simply unbeatable. I am by far not an expert on PHP or MySQL - so you shouldn’t be either. If you can make sense of the code, and have a working knowledge of HTML you will find yourself in a much better place by including Drupal into your arsenal. It forces you in a good way to use clean effective code. Granted, a tech-head would be in their element using Drupal, but as a creative who’s focus is more on the visual and less on the programming I would be overwhelmed with the work load on the Virtuas website alone if it wasn’t for Drupal.

Drupal as I mentioned is NOT a design tool, it is a Content Management System.
The design elements are up to you, I personally find it alot easier to use very simple CSS and HTML, XHTML or in the case of the Virtuas website, a premade design from OSWD.org ( Open Source Web Design ) - Since Virtuas is an open source company, it just made sense and granted saved time. Really when it comes down to it, its all about managing your time effectively and keeping your site dynamic and current. That is why a CMS tool comes in handy.
I just wanted to set you up on my personal situation, and my on going situation with specifically the Virtuas site.

As my roll as Creative Director, I have irons in many fires. Originally Raible and I did the Virtuas website, and I could of used the book Drupal by David Mercer then for sure. This round we hired on Sean Downey from Ireland to lay out our new site. I needed to be able to effectively communicate with Sean and then eventually take over control of the website. David Mercer’s Drupal book sits right on my desk, usually open with a ton of post-it’s sticking out of it. I use it as a reference guide but I have to say, if you are new to the concept of using a CMS tool or even a seasoned Drupal user you’ll find this book indispensable. Because I’m less technical than the average Drupal user and relatively new to CMS I found David Mercer’s book spoke to me in terms I understood. At first, most people used to traditional web design and deployment find using a CMS tool a little overwhelming. You have to force yourself to think differently but this book makes the transition easier to undertake. It covers EVERYTHING. Anytime I ran into an issue, I found it in the book. Sure I use the drupal.org forum, which I strongly encourage you to use. However, alot of the postings there are from people who are very knowledgeable using Drupal, or PHP, MySQL. David Mercer’s book pretty much assumes you are new, and doesn’t overwhelm you with intimidating jargon. If it does, it explains what the jargon is all about and how it works. Sure, the drupal.org users usually take the time to help you - that’s what open source is all about…but having this Drupal book handy, I can look up and figure out what needs to be done without having to wait for replies to my posts. Let me be clear, this isn’t a user guide or reference book. What it does is explain in great detail what you can do with Drupal, and how to accomplish it. Sure, you will need to educate yourself a bit, but this is for the best anyway. While you are at it get brushed up on Apache, AJAX, Linux - check to see if your host provides the server you need. Revisit your coding skills. PHP, HTML, CSS and what not. Look around at some of the other Open Source tools out there available to you like the GIMP project for graphics, check out NVU for web design if you haven’t already. And if you decide that a CMS tool is right for you, give Drupal a shot. If you do, pick up a copy of David Mercer’s Drupal book. It’s the perfect companion for any Drupal Administrator.

So - I started messing around with Joomla!, a pretty swell CMS ( Content Management System ) for my latest and greatest site - Media Hype Cre8tive. When I first started doing video and graphics back in 1991 - we called ourselves Media Hype, so it was only fitting.

I decided to go with Joomla! this time over Drupal for several reasons. I was able to set up Joomla! pretty easy on my new host. You have to keep in mind I am not an admin,…well usually not willingly. This was the first time I set up Joomla! on my Apache server and set up the Database. It was a little a little clunky at first, but the documents were pretty helpful as was the book “Building Websites with JOOMLA!” by Hagen Graf.

Like the Drupal book I reviewed here, Matt Raible gave me this book as well to review.

I figured I’d go a step further and tell you how things go as I set up Media Hype Cre8tive as well as how helpful the book is/was.

First off - out of the gate - Hagen’s book was a life saver getting started. It cater’s to chuckleheads like me who think they know what they are doing, just enough to be dangerous… well the book helped me not be dangerous and actually get things rolling. I started out just doing it, setting up and installing Joomla! on a whim,… but soon found myself in the land of “what the hell?” Having realized I bit off more than I like to chew - I first went thru what Joomla! had to offer and it is extensive and useful - however, in my opinion it does seem to be geared towards a tech-head or at least someone with admin experience…. even tho they say its not.

When I felt that squished up facial expression starting to harden into my new look I remembered that Raible hooked me up with the Joomla! book and was quickly flipping thru it and found it a nice go between. What Joomla! assumes you know, the book explains. It does have alot of PC references and examples but I was able to work thru that. The main thing is that the Joomla! book got me where I needed to be quickly - and nobody was more surprised than me when I went to the URL and there was my login for admin, working!

Before I would just call my friends at Contegix and say, could you please give me a DEV folder with { INSERT CMS NAME HERE } and they would make it happen. So it was quite an accomplishment for me. Altho, looking back at what I did - with Joomla! and Mr. Graf’s book I can see that apes could do it,…. I still feel like I accomplished something. So YAY ME!

Now - going forward, as I develop stuff for this site I will post my accomplishments as well as my failures and frustrations…. if any. So please do play along and watch. If I know you, or you at least seem trustworthy - I’ll give you a limited username and password so you can come inside the Media Hype Cre8tive site and look around. Let Me Know!

That’s it for now. Let’s see how this turns out aye?

-maxi