We are super excited to announce our new site is finally done.
Shannon, Ryan and I have been working on it a lot. It has been a great process, to re-think the typical design firm site. We found a lot of our clients didnt like sites that were all about the company, and less about the clients or products.
So in an effort to better reach the people we deeply care about, we had to start over.
Go check it out. We think it’s pretty special. Feel free to let us know any comments or questions you have. I am more than open to hearing them.
And now my wife can stop harrasing me about the coming soon banner I put up too long ago. (backstory, I normally make fun of companies who put coming soon banners up, then take two years. So I placed the coming soon banner up as a reminder to myself that if the site didn’t go live quick, I would be a hypocrite. I guess 5 months = hypocrite)
We use wordpress here at factor 1. A lot. I really dig wordpress for blogging personally and here at factor 1.
In the progression of mobile phones, and browsing the internet, I find myself wanting to edit my blogs away from my desk.
So I found some great new plugins for the non-iphone but still PDA phone users.
wphone – is a great admin panel plugin to strip the WP admin panel to be a super lightweight, fast loading easy to use tool. It’s great on IE for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry’s browser, and even the iPhone.
I actually would recommend this plugin for those on a slow starbucks wifi, or on a mobile data / laptop card too. Its easy to decide to use it when logging in, by simply checking a mobile admin option.
WP mobile edition – is a super easy way to re-program the front end blog view to be mobile friendly.
I know, i know, iPhone can display sites in their entirety. But Im a blackberry kind of guy, and I know a lot of windows mobile people too. Maybe someday if the iPhone comes out on a CDMA carrier (like sprint) i will join the club of iPhone geeks.
Designers & idea people are NOTORIOUS for dreaming and promising far more than they deliver on.
9 times out of 10 you can completely forget about these creatives delivering your product on time.
Communication, clear, detailed and consistent, will be missing almost every time.
So, why like an addiction, in this era of highly competitive and open business do they continue to survive? The reasons a too numerous to list. The main 2 would be relationships and lack of knowledge on another option. Like anything else you go to people you know and when you make a bad choice it is probably because you didn’t know that there were other options.
When you hire a creative firm, you should expect & demand leadership. You are paying for the service! Ownership, detailed communication, problem solving, delivery of all the pieces… these are the types of things that you should come to rely upon.
Also, never pay ANYONE in full before they deliver the project. You should expet to pay deposits BUT you should also expect to see a finished project BEFORE anyone gets paid.
LEADERSHIP – expect it from your service provider, even if they are an artist!
