Cava Mezze Grill is a popular Greek-inspired restaurant chain that’s making noise in DC and surrounding areas. They were recently named D.C.’s Best Fast Casual Restaurant 2014 by the Washington City Paper, and have expanded into several cities along the East Coast. In addition to growing their business, Cava Grill recently underwent an entire refresh of their brand, website and mobile app. Over the past several months, I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of that process.

Cava Grill worked closely with DC-based Graphic Design studio, Polygraph Creative, for the visual design of their new print and online collateral. Once that process was complete, I took the beautiful desktop website comps that were produced by Polygraph and coded them into functional, front-end templates for their new responsive website. After we had everything styled and tested across devices and browsers, I built an all new content management system so the marketing team at Cava Grill could easily update their menu, locations, story and press. The end result is a visually stunning website that caters to #cavafresh patrons everywhere. Learn more at cavagrill.com.

Earlier this year I put together a new portfolio website for my friend, Justin Kosman. We took a departure from his previous site and opted to roll with a simple one-page site to showcase his photography, and ditched the blog in favor of pulling updates from his Twitter and Instagram accounts. Check it out at justinkosman.com.

The hell with being a rockstar; I didn’t have the hair for it anyway. I make websites.

Great post by Mat Marquis on taking pride in doing “honest-to-God, unglamorous work”.

This is a big transition for me and a decision that was not made easily. For the past several years I’ve been living a dream. I went independent, started a design business and successfully blazed my own path doing what I love. I’ve labored for clients and poured my heart into projects I was proud of. I’ve collaborated with the brightest and most talented colleagues of my career and learned a great deal in return. All things considered I was completely satisfied, professionally. Whenever I would receive full-time offers from clients in the past I would always decline. It never appealed to me and always felt like a step backwards. So what changed?

For starters, this doesn’t feel like “taking a job”. I’ve worked with RoundPegg for over a year now helping out with UI design, front-end dev and various icon and illustration projects. Right from the get-go working with RoundPegg just felt like a good fit. They are a small, productive company and I’ve always enjoyed working with them.

After working with RoundPegg on a semi-regular basis I’ve already begun to feel like an active part of their team. When they recently approached me about coming onboard it felt like a natural progression. For the first time in a long time I was excited at the idea of joining a team again. Not just professionally but for personal reasons as well.

Anyone who’s ever ran their own business knows just how hard it is to maintain a solid balance between work and life. The work never stops. This is especially taxing with a family. The ability to focus on work while at work and enjoy my family and friends when I leave the office is a luxury I’ve long forgotten.

I’m humbled and grateful for the experiences I’ve had over the past several years and I sincerely thank all the wonderful clients and friends I’ve met along the way. I’m excited to join the talented group at RoundPegg and looking forward to what lies ahead.

Cava Mezze Grill is a successful Greek restaurant chain that offers nutritious fast-casual Greek fare using fresh, local ingredients for a truly unique and delicious experience. We recently had the pleasure of helping Cava Mezze Grill make their website mobile friendly to cater to their hungry users on the go.

CavaGrill.com was originally designed by Unison who did a fantastic job designing a beautiful website for modern desktop browsers. We took their existing design and front-end assets and rolled them into a custom ExpressionEngine CMS so Cava Mezze Grill could easily update and manage their previously static website. Once the CMS was in place we used moderate device detection to optimize the markup and content for mobile users on the go. We also crafted a responsive interface for device browsers which enabled the original Cavagrill.com design to be fluid for smaller screen sizes.

The end result was a hybrid mobile solution. Rather than forking the existing site and using a subdomain to redirect users to a dedicated mobile site we created responsive styles for handheld devices and used device detection to optimize content delivery and improve load times on non-desktop browsers. This was a fantastic solution as it allowed Cava Mezze Grill to maintain a single domain, codebase and source of content while providing an optimum user experience to all their users, regardless of the browser or device they accessed the website on.

The end result is now live on our about page and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. This final cut, however, is a big departure from our initial, brew-influenced, concept of the “Digital Lumberjack”. The basic metaphor was we were honest, hard working guys that tackled big problems by chipping away at small tasks. Our studio also resembles a cabin, so there’s that too.

The lumberjack idea didn’t quite pan out but we ended up getting some pretty silly video and it was fun to spend a day in the hills. Here’s a rough cut from the original concept.

I always get excited when it’s time to design a fresh run of business cards. This last go around we paired up with our favorite letterpress/design ninja, Jason Wedekind of Genghis Kern, and decided to try something a little different from our previous cards. We talked through a few ideas and ended up going with a duplexed Lettra with a blind HFC logo on the back, 1 color impression on the front and a PMS 021 painting along the edges. As usual Jason knocked it out and we couldn’t be happier with the end result!

With only a few months down, 2011 is shaping up to be another significant year with some hefty changes already underway. A few weeks ago my partner and close friend, Brett Duncavage, decided he had grown tired of being independent and wanted to pursue a more stable position as an in-house developer somewhere. Obviously, I was bummed to hear this news. I’ve worked with Brett for years. We’re close friends, our families get together on the weekends every so often for trips and vacations, etc. When it comes down to it, if you aren’t happy with something you should change it. Plain and simple. That’s exactly what Brett has decided to do.

There are no hard feelings between us and I certainly understand where he’s coming from. Running your own business isn’t for everyone. It’s hard work and the ebb and flow of client services can really take a toll on you. Especially when you have an entire family to support. I know I’ve certainly had my fair share of sleepless nights over the years. As of this moment Brett is currently on the prowl for a new job and I wish him the best of luck. I know he will do great things wherever he ends up deciding to go.

With one friend out the door, serendipitously, another close friend has stepped in. Over the past several months my buddy, Dan Weaver, had been planning to leave a full-time position to start his own independent development business. I reached out to Dan shortly after Brett decided to leave and we got together for lunch. We had a couple pints and talked about our experiences and personal goals for our respective businesses and realized we shared many similar ambitions. By the end of our lunch we had reached a mutual conclusion: we needed to join forces and become partners!

I’m happy to report that as of March 1, Dan Weaver has officially joined me as a partner at Hold Fast Creative. Dan is a mean hand at Ruby on Rails and loves getting dirty with front-end development. He’s passionate about client services and he is completely dedicated to his craft. Dan and I share the same goals for this business and I’m really excited to see what we can do together in 2011.

What’s that you say? It’s not really the cover, it’s only a square inch in the top left corner? It takes talent, determination and a laundry list of professional accolades to be taken seriously? Well I got news for you, Jack! You obviously have never attempted to drink beer whilst wearing a tri-colored Hulkamaniac ’stache at MXoN.

We totally made the cover.
%#&@ YEAH!

Quinn Acoustics, as a brand, represents quality, innovation and value. This was something we kept a close eye on when designing the logo and user interface of the website. Designing the Quinn Acoustics logo required some special considerations: not only did the final logo design have to work well online and on various printed collateral; their logo also needed to stand its ground when applied to the physical product by method of sublimation, adhesion or, occasionally, when stamped into rubber moldings.

Once the logo and website design was complete, Be Good Not Bad did all of the front-end and CMS development, launching the site at the beginning of November. If you are in the market for affordable, high-end speakers and subs for your ride, check out quinnacoustics.com.

Wow. I’m pretty pumped right now! I worked with AccuTerra to design the user interface of this award-winning iPhone application and to see it win Best iPhone OS 3.0 Beta App is truly amazing. I can’t say I’m not at all surprised. The fine folks at AccuTerra have developed a stellar application that is truly unlike any other mobile application available today. AccuTerra for the iPhone is a hiking GPS application that works even when your phone doesn’t get a signal. You can learn more about this application at mobile.accuterra.com.

Sound familiar? I know I’ve muttered those lame ass excuses a time or two before. To be totally honest, I’ve found myself deflecting opportunities to have fun with the excuse of being “too busy” for years now.

At first I didn’t notice. I was too focused with getting my career rolling. Shortly after that I woke up and realized I was married. Then I had a kid. Now there’s two kids, holy shit! I definitely can’t take a break now, I have to work to keep this all afloat. What happened? How did I end up here? You would be amazed how fast life can move sometimes. No matter how hard I worked I never seemed to finally “get there” and resume a normal pace. With every milestone accomplished there was always another to take it’s place. I realized I had become one of those adults who chooses to work their life away. When I was younger I had a name for those types of unhappy people: assholes.

Last month I decided it was time to slow down, get selfish and quit being an asshole. Now this isn’t a quarter-life crisis or anything like that. I adore my family and I love running my own design studio; absolutely! However, those were not the type of things I would day dream about as a kid. What I did fantasize about was making the main event at Washougal and pulling a holeshot at Glen Helen. That’s right, I’m talking about motocross.

I started out racing 80’s when I was 14 and kept at it all the way through college. For me, there isn’t any greater feeling than riding with friends on a sunny afternoon. It’s my thing. It is what I am passionate about. All the reasons for selling my race bikes years ago still exist today: I can’t afford to get hurt right now, I don’t have any time to ride, I should probably save some money, etcetera; but it didn’t matter. Riding has always made me happy. Recently I decided it was time to get back in action and, on a whim, I went out and bought a new race bike.

One month in and I can already see a huge change in my life. I’m not stressed out when I am at home with my family. My creativity and productivity have skyrocketed at the office and most importantly, I’m happy. So if you shelved a personal passion for whatever reason, it’s time to put it back in your life. Don’t wait another day. Dust off your cleats, get the band back together. Do whatever it is you used to do and remember what it’s like to have fun again.

The amount of available panels to check out on any given day is absolutely overwhelming. The mobile web application, Sitby.us, that was created by Naz Hamid of Weightshift was a huge help. I was able to sift through the available panels for every time block of every day and mark anything of interest to my personal schedule. This was especially handy for figuring out where to go at 9:30am after retiring from a Hampton Inn second floor balcony whiskeython™ at 5:00am.

Of all the panels I attended at SXSW this year, there was one in particular that really excited me; HTML5: Tales From the Development Trenches by Bruce Lawson. Bruce gave a great broad stroke review on the events that led up to the creation of HTML5, what exactly HTML5 aims to achieve and who is making it happen. For anyone involved in any aspect of creating anything for the internet, you really should read up on what Mr. Lawson has been writing about. A powerful and truly device agnostic internet really is just around the corner and we should all get busy with making this happen!

Outside of taking in presentations, I spent a fair amount of time exploring the city, meeting up with old friends and making a few new ones as well. I’m normally rather shy when it comes to meeting new people. If I don’t have a friend to make an introduction, I will generally stick to the sidelines and then spend the rest of the night regretting a missed opportunity to share a pint with a personal design hero. This year I made a conscious effort to break out of my shell and get social. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone I spoke with was extremely friendly and welcoming to conversation; even those snooty, elitist rock star designers everyone’s always complaining about.

The ExpressionEngine community was out in full force as well. I was blown away with how engaging everyone was at the EECI party. It seemed everyone there was hellbent on making connections, sharing advice on EE, business and methods to succeed with running an agency. I met a ton of really nice and talented folks and it really made me appreciate being a part of the ExpressionEngine community.

Speaking of nice and talented folks, I would like to call out one individual who takes the cake: Mathew Hoy. I had the pleasure of meeting Mathew for the first time this year and he is an absolute machine! I’m certain he is capable of transcending space and time because he attended just about every panel, conducted multiple interviews for his podcast on a daily basis; and still managed to find time to attend parties and then blog about everything, every day! I should also point out that Mr. Hoy is a Canadian and likes to give ‘er!

I would say that SXSW met my expectations and definitely lived up to the hype. I made it back home with a renewed excitement for getting back to work and focusing on being a better designer and developer. Thanks to all of you responsible for making this trip to Austin so much fun!

This particular campaign, as is any campaign on the 90999 short code, was made possible by the good folks over at mGive. I worked with the founders of mGive a couple years ago and helped design their logo and website, and remember the simple utility in what they were hoping to create: The easiest way to raise money for a cause. If you stop and think about it, it’s amazing that SMS donations are not more popular in the United States. Everyone has a mobile phone that requires some method of payment for monthly use. Everyone uses SMS to communicate and receive notifications and alerts. People are comfortable texting to short codes for acquiring mobile content to their handsets. Why not use SMS as a donation platform?

This is exactly what mGive has created, an SMS donation platform that enables qualified 501c3 Non-Profit Organizations with the ability to raise funds for their cause through text messaging. It’s unfortunate that it took a massive tragedy to bring the benefit of SMS donations to the lime light, but through the unified efforts of many people around the world; mobile donations generated more than $25,000,000 in support for Haiti. In a brave new world, it’s comforting to see that all this technology really can make the world a better place.

The new venture started out as planned and it was everything I had hoped it would be. I was working with a lightweight team of ninjas, free to motor away on projects without the constraints of working within a large organization. We were driven, we believed in what we were doing and most of all, we were happy.

I’ll spare the details, but a few things beyond our control changed the focus of our company. We addressed the change head on and were optimistic with the new direction. Bit by bit everything we enjoyed began to slip away and we found ourselves in a very different situation altogether. As much as I tried to keep a brave face and convince myself I was happy, it just became more apparent to my friends and family that this just wasn’t the case.

Today I find myself making the same decision again. I know what makes me happy. I know I’ll be wasting my time if I don’t pursue it. This time I’m not jumping ship to start something new. I’m jumping ship to cut the distractions from what I’ve been doing my entire career: designing. So here’s to saying “fuck it” and taking another chance at being happy.

I’m going the way of the hired gun. Wish me luck.
If you see me selling fruit off I-70 in 6 months, please be kind and buy a bushel.