In issue #29, we meet freelance designer Dustin Curtis and discuss the letter he wrote to American Airlines about his experience as an AA customer. We also hear what it’s like to be a intercontinental drifter-designer | duration 43:22

dustincurtis.com |  Dustin’s Blog | Dustin on Twitter

The listener is encouraged to follow-along over on Dustin’s site:

1. Dear American Airlines, the open letter
2. The Supplement, a design comp by Dustin
3. Dear Dustin Curtis, the response from an American Airlines designer
4. The Follow-up {coming soon}

Episode 29 topics:

• The American Airlines discussion
• The reply letter from an AA designer
• The fallout
• Dustin’s static site and the passion for writing great design articles
• Apps & links

Supplemental Links:

1. Expression Engine | www.expressionengine.com
2. Almost.at | almost.at
3. Passive Aggressive Notes | www.passiveaggressivenotes.com
4. Typekit | typekit.com | blog.typekit.com
5. Handcrafted CSS | handcraftedcss.com
6. Unstoppable Robot Ninja | unstoppablerobotninja.com

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A rather strange podcast episode where hosts Alan and Eric were stood up by their  interviewee, and basically wing it.

In this weeks Episode Alan and Eric talk about:
Designers & Templates, Their hate for Lotus Notes, Fix Outlook Campaign and upcoming interview with Dave Greiner of Campaign Monitor, Fix Outlook Campaign/Email Standards Project and their history with Adobe Flash and the new Adobe Flash Catalyst | duration 28:40

Intro Song “The Step and the Walk” by: The Duke Spirit.

Show notes provided by Johns Beharry Freelance Web/ Graphic Design

We just started recording because I stopped the last recording because I stopped the
last recording to totally hide the fact that I was talking about a stalker —-
You’ve joined us on a rather strange podcast episode where Eric and I er ah, have
been stood up by our interviewee this week.
So this may or may not be released, this may become a bonus episode that we
auction on ebay one day… For a dollar!
There’s a guy who did a cartoon cat, for sale on Ebay, for like 1 cent. And it was a
basically a “Felix the cat” hand drawn cartoon and I went ahead and bought it and I
never received it.
I never like asked for it, but they were gonna email it to me but I was like.. ehh
-
Excuse me Sir, I specifically sent you a penny for your kitty cat drawing and I expect
delivery.
-
So Eric what are you into right now?
-
Hmm.. You just wanna, like just roll with it
-
Ye
-
Or you wanna make this live and get somebody else on the phone? Or you just wanna
make this into a fireside chat if you will?
-
We could do a fireside chat unless it’s not totally lame, you know?
-
You want me to go and get my banjo?
-
Do you have one?
-
No, I was kidding..
-
Cause if you had one it’d be more awesome than not.
-
Well hang on Alan I’ll just get my flute and it will make this amazing..
-
[Flute Music Interlude]
-
[Laugh] You have a flute!
-
No I don’t have a..no I don’t have anything
-
[Weird Noise from Alan] Flutes are horrible, you can’t like play cords on a flue and
sing along with it – Its a solo instrument
-
Well umm I was thinking it might be interesting to talk about HTML templates.
Because designers probably, don’t ever admits to using them but I’ve used them in
the past. And the only times I’ve ever gotten burnt is when they’re.. Like designed,
you know when they’re more like a sandbox type theme. You know when there’s
nothing done to it, totally striped. Void of style.
-
Just like structure only, assemble. Here’s your thing it’s assembled now make it
something.
-
Ye I’ve started with those before and quite successfully because, I’m pretty much
defining everything going forward. I have in the past met with a client and really
small, like no budget so I’m like I’ll knock something out for you real quick and I kid
you not probably 3 times I’ve done that 3 times I’ve been burnt. There’s always
something that needs to change and the way to change it takes forever cause its not
meant to do that. Oh there’s no footer in-place.. You know there’s no way t attach
the footer to the bottom cause its relaying on the container its in. You spend so
much time tweaking and playing with someone else’s stuff that just like start over
you know.
-
It never ever ever does save time, no matter what. I mean there’s a lot of very large
template stores, I don’t if thats what you call them. Places you can buy endless
numbers of templates for like $10 “Includes full layered Photoshop files”.
-
Who is making all this and selling it for $10. I haven’t done, hardly any freelance
work my entire web design career. Its almost all been at work stuff right. Umm
[clears thought] and if someone has one of these pre-bought templates of-course
unless of course it’s one we make. Cause we make some but.. If they come to us with
one of these whether they spent $500 on it or $15 on it. I’m looking at theme forest
right now. These things are 15$! We always charge more. They never save time. It
looks like all the work’s been done but… You know in reality if you have an idea for
any custom layout that you wanna do and have full control over the way thats gonna
look in the end you just gotta start with your own stuff.
-
Ye
-
Its all been built from the outside-in and if you want to do something with the
bottom you’re just hosed and you. Sometimes you just either can’t or it’s just not
worth the time and effort to completely redo all the other stuff around it to make that
one thing work that you want. It’s a nightmare.
-
Ye it might almost be better if they say this is exactly what they want then take a
screenshot and use it like a background. You know like a tracing image.
-
Ye you know if you’re literally using a template for its.. It’s a 5 page template fill in
the 5 pages post it to my place you know. OK, That’d work but when we want all this,
and start from this template. Noo!
-
I’ve had some people that were so trusting and didn’t care at all what I built and were
still willing to pay. 1 client in particular at a company I worked for, they paid upwards
$35,000 – $40,000 back in 2000 for basically for a dynamic site and it was driven by
lotus notes, so it was like horrible and they were using this site for like 7 years I
think. And I would contact them after leaving this company and was like hey if you
ever want to redo this “Oh no were fine” and I finally went in and watch their process
as they did it I was like you’re done with.. “How much do you pay a month for
hosing?” “We pay 60$ a month for hosting”
Ok you’re done. When i gave them a quote it was like super low to them. It was pretty
good for me. they were the type to go we know nothing about computers we just
want it to look good we wanna be able to mange it. So i was like WordPress lets do
this. And in no time at all I had a signup form and they were as pleased as punch that
they could use WordPress and host the thing for like $10 a month and just.. Easy.
There’s not that many clients like that, who have you know see that steep price and
have to pay that kind of thing and would almost bow down to anything you wanna
build.
-
Not so much anymore most of those people have been through it 2 other times so
I’ve cut it in half already. You know twice. You know.. Lotus. Lotus notes.. Seriously?
-
Ye they were like a note shop we worked for large firms and had like 30 notes
developers on staff or something and it was more like application type development.
But as many sites as they could sell they would with lootus notes back-end to
manage their pages.. It was like really Bad..
-
Wow… Because we have 1 particular client that sounds very similar to that type of
company. And this dude sole responsibility is to email a comma separated value
(CSV) document. Just a text document with data in it separated by commas. A really
basic format of exchanging data.
Email this to this email address – We’ll do the rest. We go in we check the email we
pull it though the system we run it through this thing and it turns into a database
and we put it into the store and all this crazy stuff update the inventory and all this.
That 1 email he has to send he uses Lotus Notes for all their corporate email and it
attaches this multipart header to ever message it sends that literally the regular
email system cannot parse.. What is this? It just fails over and over again. I just can’t
imagine using an entire site from Lotus Notes.
-
Its hot garbage thats what it is!
-
With the CMS type templates like WordPress and things like that, you know there’s
thousands and thousands of themes out there and I would encourage anyone to use
those as a stepping off point you know get a basic theme and start from there.
Because you know if you do a WordPress theme form scratch you’re just good and
you understand the thing so you’re proud and shouldn’t be listening to this right
now.
-
You know thats completely different. A template is like completely different form a
theme right. Because that thing we were talking about thats so painful is taken care
of with a theme because the structure is already in-there and predefined and you
just skinning it basically. And those you can always have control over at least with an
advanced system like WordPress everything’s been thought out 2 or 3 times. You can
put stuff wherever you want it’s totally different than a template.
-
I agree about the price, i have had people contact me. “Hey do you do custom
Wordpress themes” and I’m like ye sure “Umm well I bought one for like 29$” and I’m
thinking oh its horrible and I look at it and it’s the most awesome thing that I could
never build. And I’m like what do you want done to it.
-
Well I just want to make it look like our site and I was so offended that I was just like
yee.. I probably wouldn’t be good for that. I mean once I add up the. Ok maybe i will
spend 10 hours on this or something and well that’s alot of money for them they
wouldn’t of just bought just a 30$ theme if they wanted a real web designer to do
something
-
Why wouldn’t they just use the kick-ass theme?
-
I don’t know they, they just wanted it customized. I think a lot of people when they
buy something like that they want to make it look like they didn’t buy something like
that.
-
Ye thats another problem with the you know .. Buying templates at a store. There
could be plenty of other sites out there you really don’t know how many that look
exactly like it.
-
Ye, which i guess if you’re not concerned about your brand I guess you know go for
it.
-
I think thats the coolest part of a theme you know the same rule applies.. Umm but
with a theme you always have some kind of control because it’s already been themed
already. There’s stuff that comes with it you can change the colors, move stuff
around, pick a new font-face, make it really tick it the top and skinny at the bottom
and there you go it’s completely different and you can do it really fast.
Thats what i did with my site on Square Space. I didn’t start with the developer
template which is this raw thing you can style from scratch and which I’m gonna do
eventually but I just picked one of their themes and then beat on it and changed it
around it and switched all the switches they gave you and went into the custom CSS
area and can’t even tell. The structure was good. It was a good theme made it look
the way i wanted works great
-
Ye I mean you can tell people. You’re a designer and you can tell people that you did
that.
-
I thought it was awesome.
-
Unless you want me to edit that out right now [laughs]
-
No, not at all. I had some douche bag send me an email from my site saying that
they.. uh “we”. I don’t know who they are, so they said “I can’t believe” I call myself a
designer. How could I say I’m a designer for using Square Space and bla bla bla. And
of course the weeny didn’t leave his email or any information so you know it was just
useless information.
-
[laughs]
-
Its completely ridiculous that someone who calls himself a designer can’t take a tool
like WordPress or Moveable Type or Square Space or Django temples or anything and
drive their own style into it with whatever. Whether it be script or artwork or CSS and
design it doesn’t make it less designy if you start with a theme.
-
Ye, I mean if you stole it or they say don’t remove the credits or something like then
thats another issue together. I mean like the CreativeXpert site there’s no way I could
design that. I don’t have time to build a site like that so basically i just grabbed a
theme and stuck it in there and I’ve tweaked it a little bit you know just changed the
fonts what ever.
-
I whitnessed the change. I mean literally I was browsing around it looked one way.
-
As I was changing it??
-
As you were changing it, I couldn’t load it then refreshed then “Ka-Pow!” it was
competly different.
-
[laughs] I love that.
-
All theese sliders slide all the podcast all around, I was like holy crap!
-
I love that because its like you jsut never know whos’ gonna look at it but you always
have that in your mind if someones there they’re gonan refresh now and see this now
and thats just odd [Alan and Eric share laugh]
-
I just designed it* – That just happened!
Page 8
-
I just did that real quick all that Javascript that was me. That lttle sidebar that theme
that is on the CretveXpert site I’m super happy with it but down in the footer done by
someonelse I wasn’t gonna say that I did it. It’s just they have ads in the lower right
and they have in the footer that if you remove it this is copyright bla bla bla
message. I removed it just to see what’d happen and it just replace it with a bunch of
hash garbage text and it probaly sent off some alarm.
-
Thats Aweosme! So when you took it out it just barfed all over the your page?
-
Ye… [If anyone has a way to hack that let me know]
-
You should be able to just do a “display none” on that badboy.
-
Well I was just thinking of changing the color at least.
-
Its a cool looking theme…
-
Its a wonderful theme!
-
I haven’t seen it on anyone else’s site so thats probably why [both share laugh]
-
Cause that German on the bottom says something rude, really really foul.
-
I’m offended!
-
Did you see I sent from the CX twitter account I sent, Dave at the email standards
project. I guess Microsoft is ignoring web standards in Outlook 2010.
-
I saw they were using Word to generate the HTML
-
Ye so there’s a site “fixoutlook.org” if you tweet “fixoutlook.org” I guess your avatar
is added to “fixoutlook .org” basically speaking up.
-
Did it?
-
I didn’t see if it was it took forever to load. Too many just too many images on there.
-
I did it too and uh, I looked for my big brother whites.. Didn’t see em. I think it’s a
shame and it’s a awesome designed site and its a good thing to bring attention to..
Really we heard that. It’s funny that that’s a big deal now cause I think that
everyone’s known that for quite a while. At least anyone who emails newsletters or
announcements or ya know anything. And took people that were concerned about it.
They’ve been making a stink about that for quite a while but I guess they don’t have
anything else right?
-
Ye. It is an issue and I’m sure just because Microsoft corners the market with
corporate enterprise email they’re gonna win. Thats why Campaign Monitor is the
bomb. Oh.. My bad..
-
Ye.
-
Soo.. Yes.. We can hopefully talk with him and an Adobe representative about Adobe
Flash Catalyst which is a rapid prototyping Flash thing.
-
It looks pretty crazy awesome, maybe I’m too ingrained by the thought process and
the workflow that i do everyday but I don’t quite get it.
-
I think.. Don’t you find with flash that there are some people and even some
companies that are totally Flash.. All about the Flash and Flash this Flash that. But I
haven’t been with any of these companies. I mean I learnt Flash back in 2000, 2001,
2002. And didn’t deal with it at all since then. I guess because some of our corporate
clients that I’ve worked with they just didn’t really.. We kinda steered away from it
so.. Sad but…
-
It certainly seems like an amazingly powerful thing to do all sorts of ridiculous stuff
right?
-
Ye
-
I haven’t had to work with it much either. I learnt it back then too. Maybe around the
same time 2001 stuff like that. And I even built a whole site in it. And you know
many many times to myself I muttered it shouldn’t be this hard.
-
Ye, oh ye!
-
Action script you want me to write action script
-
Once you figured it out doing it all on the time line and opening another timeline and
then they go. You know flash developers really should do it in Action Script and just
put one key frame on the timeline. So what’s Action Script? What? You want me to
learn that?
-
So I wanna make stuff pretty!
-
And quickly mind you. So thats why I never used Flash. So back to that flash catalyst
interview.
-
Woops
-
No I would like to be told otherwise because I’m sure if you can drag and drop. And I
know that’s what its about you can do some like rapid drag drop this form element
here and add a little bit of code. And you hand it over to your developer and they do
their work. And i guess it’s suppose to work better.. Faster.
-
I guess it’s just like that right you layout some type of thing. The beauty of it is that
it could be anything cause you’re not using a code-base to build this all visual stuff.
And you put this thing together whether it be this little miniature app for phone or
app for a company intranet or whatever it is. Put in those basic interactions and stuff
and I think you give it to a Flex developer and they can literally take that file into
their programing environment and continue where you left out without having to
lookup any IDs or figure out any bits, they just, Go!
-
Sounds incredible!
-
Now Flex is another thing I don’t quite understand so maybe we can talk about that
too. Ye
-
I’m sure they’ll know.
-
[Music Interlude]
-
I went searching and used Wakoopa. Have you ever seen that before?
-
I haven’t.
-
Ok, it’s thing. Really creepy actually, you put this thing in your toolbar and it just logs
the applications you use and for how long.
-
You put it in Firefox?
-
No it runs on OSX there’s a Window’s version as well. It just runs in the toolbar and
the taskbar in Windows. So this awesome RSS Reader I found, cause it’s a cool way to
find software and stuff like that but it’s called Snackr.
-
Is it an iPhone App?
-
No it’s not an iPhone app but it’s another cool club type of app. It’s an Adobe Air
App. It’s kinda a half and half type of club. A lot of people dig this look and work and
they’re small and all that. But then the other half of the people say that they’re a RAM
hogging stupid apps once you build on it. I think Airs really cool.
But it’s called Snackr the flickr way (without an e). And it’s an awesome RSS Reader
that runs on the right side of one of your screens. And you tell it which screen to use
and all you have to do is have a feed in your clipboard and it adds it.
-
Thats cool
-
Really Easy to keep a lot of feeds and keep a lot of information. But it’s not in my
browser shortcut bar or in my email. I don’t want feeds in my email you know. Does
that freak you out? Where do you keep your feeds?
-
Honestly I don’t follow a lot of feeds. I use uh.. I call it my peripheral brain but
bookmark it. Ah NetVibes that’s what I use!
-
Ahh
-
But I don’t use it that often because it’s kinda overwhelming sometimes. Like “You
have 2000 unread” thing and I’m like ahh.
-
Ye I hate stuff that tell you how many things you have to read. So you have it on the
side and if you take a mini break it’s right there you see something interesting you
click on it. It’s just like a nice little info treat.
-
Snack-R
-
Snackr it’s awesome, but you know if you don’t dig on feeds then it’s really
unimportant but you know I just think there’s just a great resource for you know
creative people to have all of these you know whether inspirational you know
photography or design, product design, architecture, typography, graphic design,
illustration all of that stuff. It’s just so much free information just for the taking
without letting it all go. I just didn’t want it in my email or in my browser or all my
other places so I thought Snackr was awesome and it let me subscribe to a steaming
load of Feeds and I don’t have them in my stuff anywhere just show up when i want
them to and they’re off the right side there. You should try it.
-
Ye that’s something I need to do.
-
That’s where i get all those awesome links you’re always talking about.
-
If I just subscribe to your life stream basically I’m done.
-
Finished, problem solved.
-
Thank you for listening to Episode 28 of CreativeXpert. Sorry we didn’t have the
interview part this week but stay tuned for next weeks episode which should be right
on track.
Now. Go do something Creative!

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In issue #27, we keep Jeremy Keith awake at 3am, discussing Clearleft, Javascript, Huffduffer, Microformats and Salter Cane. | duration 68:41

Jeremy’s site: http://adactio.com |  Jeremy’s Baby: http://huffduffer.com |  Jeremy on Twitter @adactio

Episode 27 topics:

• It’s really true — we spoke with Jeremy at 3am, Brighton time!
• Jeremy is one of the founders of Clearleft (www.clearleft.com), titled “Agent of the New”.
• He uses Text Mate for markup & javascript and CSS Edit for CSS work.
• Jeremy talks about how he got into working with Javascript and Dom Scripting, which led to writing the book “Dom Scripting“.  {Eric calls the book “The default kit for learning about the Document Object Model”}
• We go further in-depth on javascript, and how cool it really can be.
• Jeremy tells us all about Huffduffer and how he built this awesome site.
• Microformats, Hcard, Vcard and other machine code.
• We hear how the band Salter Cane came together. You’ll also hear them sprinkled throughout this episode {The beginning and the end in particular}

Special thanks to Salter Cane for the songs LONG GONE and WE ARE DAVID. Salter Cane (C) 2006 Black Ship Records
Also thanks to Fanfarlo for such an awesome album! Visit Fanfarlo at www.fanfarlo.com

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Our hope (comedic, of course) is that the world can finally agree to bury Internet Explorer 6. If you want to offer your last respects, we are asking that people leave a voicemail (or email an MP3). Your message will be added the the funeral service.

Please record a short message to be played at the service, by calling 206-339-7746.
You can speak as if you’ve taken the podium to share your last respects. Speak openly and candidly about your love for this once great browser. Also give us your name and a quick shout-out for your site.

rather email us?

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In issue #26, we speak with Eric Meyer about CSS, Web Standards, Google IO, the Death of IE6, Javascript and the web as a platform. | duration 62:54

We kick-off the show in a most-unusual way this week. Intro topics include: neckbeards, mouthbreathing, stunt boots* and Google Wave. It’s clear that we {co-hosts} are going to have a blast on future episodes.

Keep track of all things Eric Meyer at http://meyerweb.com
Follow Eric on Twitter @meyerweb

Get more information on An Event Apart at aneventapart.com

Episode 26 topics:

• Why Web Standards are important
• Google I/O Conference stuff, including Google Wave + Google O3D
  • View the Google Wave presentation on our site…
• The future death of the browser plug-in
• Death to IE6. HOO. RAY.
• CSS3, HTML 5 + delivering experiences for HTML 5 using Javascript
• Javascript over the years: from hack to commonplace awesomeness
• The web as a platform to build-on and the future is now

Q/A Time:

Clinton Christian | @pygeek
HTML 5 makes it easier to design good websites. However, browsers incompatible with these new standards are still largely in use –  making work for us designers difficult. Despite it’s recent popularization, how far from now do you think we are from practical use of these new standards?

Jerrod Enders | @jenders
More and more companies are outsourcing the majority of their development to Indian companies these days.  It appears to me that most of them are not producing the kind of semantic markup and separation of content and presentation that has become a given to us in the U.S.  It’s pretty rare these days to find a web development company that doesn’t at least understand the benefits of this approach.

Have you worked with any of these companies, and if so, what has your experience been?  Do you know if there is the same effort going on over there as there has in the U.S. over the last 7 years or so?

Heidi Cool | @hacool
How do you sell naysayers on the importance of Web standards? Too many people poo-poo the idea.  These are the same peeps who think tables are better than CSS and shiny design is more important than content and intuitive user interfaces.

Michael Packer | @sTmykal
What’s your take on naming conventions for css ID and class selectors?  I try to push the concept of naming a class or ID as it relates to the form and function of the object – describing the object and implying its use within the CSS in order make the CSS document meaningful for whom ever might read the document. It beats the heck out of cryptic names such as “menu” or “left column”.

I’ll explain briefly…. When we want to describe a visual layout of three vertical columns, laid out left to right in the browser view port, we’re tempted to class them as “containerOne”, “container Two” and “container Three”. This sucks.

But really – that does nothing for the value of the content. It doesn’t describe importance or weight of the content contained in the columns. So I suggest calling the containers “container Primary”, “container Secondary”, “container Tertiary”. This way we know what’s important and how to describe the container and its contents in the CSS.

When describing visual order, we should use “first”, “second”, and “third”. And then finally, when we need to describe numeric order, as in a set of data, THEN we should use “one”, “two”, and “three”.

It’s this attention to detail and depth of knowledge of the content that can allow us to more accurately provide meaning to our CSS. At least that’s my belief. I was curious on his take on this level of thought.

*special thanks to @hofmann @craigbirchler for sparking the Stunt Boots concept.

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CreativeXpert, the pioneering design podcast featuring internationally recognized designers, developers and creative ninjas, is seeking production interns, for various new projects.

CreativeXpert produces edgy content with a focus on geeks, social networks, technology, design, development and entertainment.

You will have the opportunity to learn and gain experience within all aspects of recording, editing, writing and producing podcasts.
You will also be exposed to superstars of web design (our guests too! *SNEER*)

You: are motivated, highly creative, and committed to quality work and production values, with a snappy sense of humor.

Audio transcription (not full “word-for-word”, but providing bullet points + overviews/excerpts)
Audio editing, Blog posts, News gathering, Forum moderation, etc.

Bonus points for mad design skills, working knowledge with any/all of the following: XHTML/CSS, WordPress, Squarespace, audio recording/editing software. Oh ya, if you’re crazy about social networks too. Extra-bonus points for someone who likes to produce special segments, skits, news pieces.

Contact: production ~at~ creativecomponent.com

{sorry about the earlier typo}

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Here’s the Google’s presentation on Google Wave:

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In issue #25, we announce our plans for the new season, and we introduce the new co-host, Eric Anderson. | duration 23:16

Esquareda's Winning Grin

Eric comes to CreativeXpert with close to a decade of Web Design experience. Other designers pale in comparison to Eric’s passion for all things web.  And the links that he shares — my god the links!

Eric can be found at his digital lair, ESQUAREDA.COM and pushing pixels for the man at NEOVERVE.

Follow Eric on Twitter: @esquareda

Alan, like a mug

Alan is the Producer & co-host of CreativeXpert. He’s the snarky one.

Alan can be found at CREATIVECOMPONENT.COM and on Twitter: @alanhouser

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In issue #24, we speak with Jason Santa Maria, designer to the stars. | duration 28:27

Jason {from Twitter}

Be sure to take the CreativeXpert Survey. Thanks!

What I know of Jason is that I envy the work he does. He’s an incredible designer who not only is on everyone’s Twitter list, he’s presented at many of the cool design conferences that I wish I could attend.

One recent achievement was making the list of Extremely Heterosexualist Web Designers. Fawny.org says Jason Santa Maria is a densely packed, deceptively short powerhouse with giant paws and a macabre streak. Honest.

Jason is a Creative Director at Happy Cog Studios. To quote Happy Cog:

Jason has been recognized for designing stylistic and imaginative web interfaces that maintain a balance of usability and effective content presentation. His work has won dozens of awards, including seven Addys in 2004.

During the interview we face-off in the first-ever Word Association Smack-down | Houser -vs- Santa Maria.

Jason answers these questions:

• When did you first decide to become a designer?
• You consider yourself a Graphic Designer, but you must be involved with UI design and User Experience. What do you do most?
• What type of design do you like the most?
  
• What things inspire you most? And where do you find them?
• I know lots of designers say that they don’t seek inspiration online, that you can get inspiration from things not web-related, but since we work on the web, and our work shows-up on the web, don’t you find that it’s necessary to pick-up some things online?
• Do you use a sketchbook?
• What do you do to stay current or fresh?
• Are there techniques that you have yet to try? Any new tools or software?
• We have a comment from Brad Thomson on the WordPress design. Brad says: “Great job on your WordPress work! How did you get that gig, and how long did it take you? Can you describe the design steps?”
• Another question from Kelsie J: What’s your favorite donut, both in brand and in flavor?

This interview is the 6th in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.

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In issue #23, we speak with Kate Rutter, a Senior Practitioner for Adaptive Path. | duration 38:34
During her ten plus years in the web industry, she’s honed her talent for bringing companies and customers closer together through smart strategies and inventive design. She actively embraces the term “specialized generalist.”

Have questions for the show? Contact us now.

A website costs money. It’s your job, as a web professional, to make sure your website is written and designed well, that visitors can use it easily, that it’s accurate, and that it’s contributing to the achievement of your company’s mission.

Kate answers these questions and more:

• Why is site evaluation important?
• The best way to improve the effectiveness of a Web site is to have data that indicates how it’s performing. That would primarily be based on visitor’s experience. How do you get this information?
• Using tools that we’ve talked about before, like Google Analytics or Woopra, I can view the number of visits to a page, etc. But how can I measure satisfaction?
• I can know my audience through research: Surveys, Phone Calls, What about Profiles or fake personas? How are these effective? Like designing a site based on needs and expectations?
• I want to collect both quantity and quality results. What sort of Web Metrics or Web Analytics?

SIDE NOTE:
Government agencies are required by law to establish performance measures in their web practices, to show how they’re achieving their mission, and further — to make their annual performance plans readily available to the public. The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA)

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE:
Listeners will appreciate a product coming soon from Clear-Left called Silverback. It’s An OSX application to help people run their own low-cost Guerrilla usability tests, combining screen activity and video from the built-in iSite camera. Sign-up for information at silverbackapp.com

• What about Usability testing?
• What about Quality and Compliance?
• What about Usability Goals — setting performance goals for your users. Can you talk about that? (the time it takes a user to find specific information, or submit data) — I sometimes think about this topic when bailing on an e-commerce form, hoping they’ll see me running-away from the transaction.
• On the topic of Parallel Design, I worked for an online company where we used a service that would deliver content to a small cross-section of members. This would allow Marketing to make design decisions based on user data. Very breakthrough, and I must also add that it was somewhat limiting as a designer — where I’m stressing that a particular look & feel is what will work, and being shown the data that proves otherwise.

Be careful when MOVING THE DOG DISH.

Evaluate the markup on your site using the Firefox plugin called The Web Developer Toolbar.

• Does the website work with CSS off? Meaning — can you read the content?
• Does the website work with Javascript disabled?
• is the website using tables for layout, instead of CSS?
• is all essential information in the HTML?
• is there extra code, non-essential information in the HTML?
• is the site all Flash?
• is there hidden content?
• is image replacement being used?

LINKS PROVIDED BY KATE:

The Elements of User Experience
Jesse James Garrett
http://www.jjg.net/elements/
(You can download the summary diagram of the elements from here.)

Content essay with Kristina Halvorson & Kate Rutter
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000959.php

Kristina Halvorson of Brain Traffic
! Big note !..I think I flaked and said BrainTree (thinking of Boston, apparently) and the company is Brain Traffic. http://www.braintraffic.com/

Jeff Veens old but still great essay on content inventory
Doing a Content Inventory (Or, A Mind-Numbingly Detailed Odyssey Through Your Web Site)
http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000040.php
It’s a great way to start a site assessment.

This interview is the fifth in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.

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In issue #22, we speak with Henning Fischer, a design strategist for Adaptive Path, whose principal focus is on design research and strategy development. | duration 29:24

Have questions for the show? Contact us now.

If you’ve seen writer/director Cameron Crow’s 1996 film, JERRY MAGUIRE, you’ll remember Tom Cruise’s character, Jerry, typing vigorously at 1 o’clock AM at the Miami Hilton, fueled by passion. Jerry was writing a Mission Statement.

A large percentage of companies, including most of the Fortune 500, have corporate mission statements.

Mission statements are designed to provide direction and thrust to an organization, an enduring statement of purpose.

A mission statement explains the organization’s reason for being, and answers the question, “What business are we in?”

Henning answers these questions and more:

• Do small companies need mission statement too?
• How do I create a mission statement for my company?
• What are the differences between a Mission, Vision and Value statement?
• Should a mission statement be specific, or simply a 30,000 foot view?

Show listener Anonymous asks this question about living-up to a mission statement:

“I’ve worked at many organizations that had mission statements straight out of Dilbert, and don’t live the values they espouse, they’re just words on paper that have zero impact on action. Why does this lack of vision-transfer happen from the C-suite down? How can you get companies to wake up in middle management and start walking the talk?”

On the topic of Web Design & Development…

• Why is scope important, or even necessary?
• How do you determine Project Scope?
• In terms of the visitors of a website, it’s probably best to know your audience?
• On planning, what about setting objectives? Does this come from asking the hard-hitting questions?

Listener Elbowroom Design in Calgary, Alberta asks this question:

“Sometimes we get great ideas for a website once we’re halfway into the development project. By that point, it’s not called a good idea, it’s just something that gets in the way of meeting deadlines and budgets.
– What are some ways to shake out the important epiphanies at an early enough stage?”

Join us next week, when we speak with Kate Rutter, a Senior Practitioner at Adaptive path, who will be speaking on EVALUATING YOUR CURRENT WEB SITE.

Learn more about Henning and Adaptive Path on their web site.
Henning Fischer’s bio: www.adaptivepath.com/aboutus/henning.php
About Adaptive Path: www.adaptivepath.com/aboutus

JERRY MAGUIRE’S MISSION STATEMENT
The things we think and do not say: thoughts of a sports attorney

This interview is the fourth in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.

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In issue #21, we speak to Lorraine Ball from Roundpeg, based in Carmel, Indiana.
Roundpeg helps small businesses become big businesses. | duration 17:46

Lorraine believes that the only way to be successful is for a brand to stand for something, and to own that position in a consumer’s mind.

She says:

“It’s allot easier to use a brief statement, like we help small businesses become big businesses, and if I’ve caught their attention, when they ask me ‘how do you do that?’, for me to then go back and explain: We develop logos, we develop web sites, we develop marketing and business plans, etc. etc.”

“If someone is not interested in your message, there’s no reason to go to that next level. The same can be said for your branding communications, and certainly on your web site.”

Lorraine then explains that when a visitor comes to your site, they want to know immediately — have I come to the right place?.

Read more show notes on the Creative Component Re-Design site.

Visit Lorraine online at www.roundpeg.biz

The Twitter reference mentioned during the show is www.weallhatequickbooks.com.

Other interesting links from flickr.com:

Vintage Logos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_carl/sets/72157604144345854/
Advertising, 1950’s-1970’s:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkponk/sets/72157600267969060/

This interview is the third in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.

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In issue #20 we meet Lea Alcantara of Lealea Design, who helps the arts community and niche small businesses find their identity to be seen, be heard, and be read. | duration 25:28

Most people think that your BRAND is your logo or your identity. Lea explains that branding encompasses allot about the processes, the identity, the core and heart of your business, your values, etc.

“Your brand is about every single aspect that touches or interacts with your customer/intended audience.”

Lea mentions how stereotyping is important — get to the core of who you are.

We also hear about establishing a brand, honesty, integrity, and the most important aspect of branding: CONSISTENCY.

Visit Lea online at www.lealea.net

About Lea {from lealea.net}…
Lea Alcantara is the sole proprietor of Lealea Design and is often hired to kill bad design. A graduate of the Design Studies program at Grant MacEwan College, Ms. Alcantara started her career in 2003 as Print & New Media Specialist for a national Canadian security services firm, launching her own company, Lealea Design, in 2005. Ms. Alcantara’s articles have appeared in Design-in-Flight, and her Art of Self-Branding series has been linked and well-received by several design blogs and publications. Her thoughts and techniques regarding branding are also shared through her speaking engagements at conferences like the Future of Web Design 2007 in New York City and SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX.

This interview is the second in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.

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In issue #19 we speak with Michael Boyink of Boyink Interactive, who provides Internet consulting and design to clients of all sizes. | duration 17:46

Michael is known for his online ExpressionEngine training both on his site, and his EE training site, Train-EE.com. This interview covers the basics of building a site with ExpressionEngine, a commercial Content Management System {CMS}. We also discuss site architecture, specifically for ExpressionEngine.

ExpressionEngine is a content management system, designed by EllisLab. It is available in a free “Core Version”, and in both “Personal” and “Commercial” versions after paying a one-time fee. The current version is 1.6.3. Version 2.0 has been announced for “some time in the summer of 2008″.

ExpressionEngine is intended to be a simple, yet powerful content management system; for instance, it requires no knowledge of PHP, (but allows you to use it, if you want) and has extensive online documentation and a very active community of users and developers, with regular participation of the company’s lead programmers and other key personnel.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT…

This interview is the first in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.

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In issue#18 we speak with Leah Culver and Daniel Burka, both representing Pownce — the coolest social messaging application! | duration 42:32

Leah Culver is Co-founder and Lead Developer of Pownce. As a contributor to OAuth and supporter of various social network portability tools, she is considered a leader in open web practices.

OAuth is An open protocol to allow secure API authentication in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.

If you’ve followed CreativeXpert, you already know that Daniel is Digg’s designer, and is also still involved with silverorange, based on the East Coast of Canada.

I’ve been a Pownce Pro user for several months. To me, it’s THE BEST social application I’ve used. The usability is second to none. One cool thing about this interview, aside from having both Leah and Daniel on the show, is the fact that Pownce members were the ones to develop the content!

Jump over to Pownce and sign-up now!

Thanks for your support and your requests to bring back CreativeXpert in 2008! It’s been a busy 2007, and with your help we can plan some more great shows! Alan

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In issue#17 we speak with Alan Musselman –Developer Relations for Adobe Fireworks CS3. | duration 36:17

In this interview, both Alans discuss life behind the scenes of an incredible software release. We hear how Adobe has recognized the awesome power of Fireworks to hold it up high and say “world… use this for web graphics!” {ok, that’s what I’m saying, but still…}

One of the many cool features of Fireworks is the ability to import Photoshop files and all live effects are maintained. This level of control is a welcomed addition — the ability to preserve your document withouth having to go to Photoshop for small tweaks. We also hear about Illustrator integration, Hierarchical Layers, the new Page feature, the Common Library and the overall position of Fireworks within the Adobe community. It’s worth coming-over to check-out Fireworks.

Download a 30-day trial version of Fireworks at Adobe.com

Additional Reading:
A Sparkling Future for Fireworks
Adobe Developer Center – “Introducing Fireworks CS3″

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In issue#16 we speak with Chris J. Davis — designer, developer, writer, speaker, WordPressian and Habari Expert. | duration 26:24

photo cred : Chris J. Davis @ chrisjdavis.org

Chris shares a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Habari. He talks about the other members of the team: Scott Merrill ~ skippy.net, Owen Winkler ~ asymptomatic.net & Rich Bowen ~ wooga.drbacchus.com. We learn about the vision and the future of Habari and what Chris is still doing with WordPress.

I’m excited to get involved at the ground level, reading-up at Google Code, the Habari dev wiki and glued to habariproject.org.

In the most simple terms, Habari is a collaborative open source blogging platform in active development. With Habari, you are given the power to create a blog or web journal of your own.

The official Habari Project site | habariproject.org

The Habari project over at Google Code
code.google.com/p/habari

More on Habari, from Chris’ site
chrisjdavis.org/tag/habari

While you’re trolling-around for more information on Habari, be sure to stop-by the “Being Chris J. Davis Photo Pool“.

Listen to win the book “Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications” by Patrick Lenz! Packed with easy-to-understand instructions and sample code, Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications is the ultimate beginner’s guide to Ruby on Rails.

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duration 24:53

In issue#15 we speak with Daniel Burka, xpert Designer.

digg this interview

It’s great to be back in the swing of things for CreativeXpert!

Also great is to speak with Daniel about his design experience. We hear about the Hinterland-based silverorange, where Daniel made some skrilla for Mozilla, and Wine Wednesdays at digg.

More on Daniel:

Silverorange is a small web development shop based on the East Coast of Canada. Several of us formed the company back in 1999 by merging our previous little companies (Whitelands and Metamedia) together. We do a wide variety of work including full site development as well as UI consulting and development. Lately, we’ve done a bunch of work for clients like Digg, Mozilla, Ning, Idee, Revision3 and more traditional development projects for e-commerce clients across North America.

I’ve been doing web design since high school {pictured at left} in Canada when we formed silverorange and I’ve had a hand in just about every project silverorange has been a part of.

I started working with Digg through silverorange a year and half ago and that developed into a long-term ongoing relationship. Last spring Kevin convinced me to move to SF (he didn’t have to twist my arm too hard) and I came to work on more of a full-time basis with Digg with the blessing of the silverorange crew.

Photo of Daniel: courtesy of owen byrne, digg.com
Photo of Daniel’s school: 98% lies.
Diggnation is pwned by Revision3 Corporation

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duration 17:31

In issue#14 we speak with Mia Michaels, xpert Choreographer.

I had the great opportunity to speak with Mia who was relaxing at Mom’s house in Florida. Mia shares what it’s like to be one of the most in-demand choreographers today. She talks about working with Celine Dion, Cirque Du Soleil, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and beyond.

Mia clippings | Source, wikipedia.org:
Mia Michaels is an American choreographer. She has worked with Madonna, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, and Prince, and is best-known for contemporary dance choreography. She is a regular judge and choreographer on the program So You Think You Can Dance, and choreographed Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show “A New Day,” as well as a Cirque du Soleil show, “Delirium,” and several commercials such as those for Coldwell Banker, Ziploc and the WNBA.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Mia’s Website | Mia at Wkikipedia

PPST: We’ve opened the doors on our design forum. Check it out: www.creativexpert.com/forum

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duration 22:43

In issue#13 we speak with Eric Rodenbeck from Stamen Design.

It was at digg labs that I first heard of Stamen. After sitting and drooling over the digg work, I knew that Stamen were Creative Xperts. Eric walks us through an interactive tour of digg labs, so while you listen, head over to labs.digg.com and follow-along. Eric tells us about his education in NYC and his move out west. We learn about The Cabspotting Project and Invisible Dynamics, sponsored by The Exploratorium. We also hear about the work Stamen is doing using the Flickr API to create Mappr. One last thing: Stamen is hiring.

so digg this…!

While at digg, digg this posting.
And tell your design peeps about CreativeXpert!

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Stamen.com, labs.digg.com, Cabspotting, Exploratorium, Mappr

NEWS LINKS:
Flash Turns 10!, Apple leads other PC manufacturers in customer satisfaction, Odd Job Jack releases all episode master Flash files

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duration 21:35

In issue#12 we speak with Lynda Weinman of Lynda.com.

Lynda shares her history of building Lynda.com and their training methodologies. We also cover the Online Training Library — why Alan considers this a Lynda-send. Lynda tells us about the FlashForward Conference and why everyone should attend. Tickets are still available for this year’s conference in Austin, TX.

{lifted from Lynda.com}
Weinman has worked as a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, and Macromedia. She has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and lecturer at numerous design, animation, Web design, and computer-graphics conferences. Weinman and her husband Bruce Heavin co-founded lynda.com, a training company with headquarters in Ojai, CA, in 1995. She co-founded the Flashforward Conference and Film Festival, the largest Adobe Flash® conference in the world, in 2000.

{FlashForward.com}
The Flashforward Conference and Film Festival bring together the best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet. With the focus on Flash as a platform, Flashforward offers diverse knowledge and inspiration for everyone in the Flash community, whatever role Flash plays in their life and work. Flashforward is dedicated to providing education, inspiration, information, and community resources via our conference, website, blog, and podcasts.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Lynda.com | Helping media designers & communicators understand how to use professional tools and design to enhance visual communication through web, print, and motion graphics.
FlashForward | The best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet.

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duration 23:57

In issue#11 we speak with Matt Shobe, co-founder and Chief Design Officer of FeedBurner.

Matt explains why feeds are so important, and why web designers should be using Feedburner.

{5-finger discount from FeedBurner.com}
He has over ten years of experience tackling design and ease-of-use challenges in web software design. Starting with the central Usability Group at Microsoft in 1993, and continuing with several startups through to the present day, Matt’s mission is to create enticing yet hassle-free user experiences through observant evaluation and design. The results include Yahoo’s July 2000 Top 50 Most Useful Sites award for Spyonit.com, desktop development tools for XML and Java-based alert development for 724 Solutions, and a host of other efforts for large and small companies alike, now including FeedBurner. Matt holds an M.S. in Technical Communication from the University of Washington and a B.A. in English from Purdue University.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Matt’s Blog
FeedBurner’s Blog, BURNING QUESTIONS
Visit FeedBurner and create your feed. www.feedburner.com

• CSS WORLD AWARDS {CSSMANIA.COM} — Awards given to top blogs and web sites for excellence in CSS. First place: UX Magazine www.uxmag.com | Second Place: Veerle’s Blog http://veerle.duoh.com | Third Place: Vitamin www.thinkvitamin.com
• BROWSER SHOTS {BROWSERSHOTS.ORG} — BrowserShots.org allows web designers to view screenshots of their pages in different browsers, at different screen resolutions and with different plugins. LINK: www.browsershots.org
• THE WAYBACK MACHINE — In 1996, the Internet Archive began archiving the web for a service called the Wayback Machine. They’ve now archived 55 billion web pages. That’s enough web pages that if you were to print them all out using your roommate’s printer while he was at class and tape them end-to-end, you could reach the moon and back 28 trillion times. LINK: Internet ‘96

FeedBurner is now accepting volunteers to host and produce our podcast. Show off your skills and gain exposure for your podcast or podcast-related service. Sound interesting? Email podcast@feedburner.com today for details.

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duration 21:57

In issue#10 we speak with Paul Miller a.k.a. D.J. Spooky That Subliminal Kid.

DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid (born Paul Miller, 1970), is a Washington DC-born illbient and trip hop musician, turntablist and producer. He borrowed his stage name from a character in a William S. Burroughs novel. {And this chunk was borrowed from Wikipedia} More on DJ Spooky…

INTERVIEW LINKS:
djspooky.com – DJ Spooky’s official site
rhythmscience.com – Get the book
In Fine Style – DJ Dpooky presents 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records

• Google’s Webmaster, Dennis Hwang {CNN} — Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world — his work doesn’t hang in galleries or museums, but it’s been viewed hundreds of millions of times. LINK
• Adobe Goes Green {Treehugger} — The software developer recently announced that one of their San Jose buildings has reached the highest level of environmental efficiency and friendliness. LINK
• Scott Wade is an artist who’s favorite medium is dust. He works with dust on car windows. LINK

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duration 41:54

In issue#9 we speak with Illustrator Richard May and Designer, Photographer Jason Arber of Pixelsurgeon.

Pixelsurgeon is an art, technology, culture, music, games and movies portal, that’s fueled by caffeine, a hand-picked team of newsposters, insanity and passion.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
pixelsurgeon.com – A digest of the creative, strange and interesting
blackconvoy.com – In short, it’s a collective
childrenoffinland.com – Jason Arber’s Design Thinger
richard-may.com – Richard May’s Illustration
audiosurgeon.blogspot.com – Pixelsurgeon’s podcast

NEWS LINKS: lullabot.com | twit.tv | orato.com | lynnster.com

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duration 26:20

In issue#8 we speak with Tracy Thirion, founder of Bamboo Worldwide, on the subject of Advanced Ideation Principles and Brainstorming. One of the many things we learn is the fact that the Creative Director isn’t necessarily the most creative expert {Xpert} in your herd.

Tracy suggests the following:

Purple Cow by Seth Godin
More Lightning, Less Thunder by Bob Eckert and Jonathan Vehar
Optimize The Magic of Your Mind by Sidney Parnes
How To Have Kick Ass Ideas by Chris Barez Brown
Moderating to the Max by Jean Bystedt, Siri Lynn and Deborah Potts

The conference that I highly recommend is the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), as well as checking out their parent organization for local events: Creative Education Foundation | www.cpsiconference.com
Additionally SUNY Buffalo has a Masters program in Creativity that is highly targeted!

Visit Bamboo Worldwide: www.bambooexperience.com

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duration 24:13

In issue#7 we speak with Luke Williams, Associate Creative Director for frog design.

Luke talks about Taking Your Design to the Next Level, creative brainstorming, innovation and the history of frog.

frog design is a creative consulting firm founded in Germany in 1969, where it worked with firms such as Wega, Sony, then Apple. Today, frog design works with Fortune 500 clients to evolve, expand and envision their businesses, by identifying emerging market opportunities and transforming ideas into compelling product and service experiences. Recent clients include Nextel, Disney, and Hewlett-Packard. frog also has a broad range of industry expertise ranging from retail to entertainment, finance to medical, consumer electronics to automotive, and software to fashion, among many others. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and employs over 300 individuals with an eclectic range of backgrounds.

Luke Williams is Associate Creative Director for frog design, and heads the Industrial Design practice for the New York studio. Prior to that, he worked in frog’s Silicon Valley and San Francisco studios as a creative lead for projects spanning a wide variety of enterprises such as Motorola, Logitech, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Daimler Chrysler.

He brings with him 10 years of professional facilitating and speaking experience, having presented at conferences and moderated seminars in the USA and abroad for audiences ranging from 50 to 500. He also lectures regularly at universities such as Columbia Business School, California College of the Arts, Parsons School of Design and NYU Stern School of Business. Luke’s opinions on innovation and design have recently been sought after in interviews with National Public Radio (NPR), Business 2.0 Magazine, ID Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal.

Visit frog: frogdesign.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Luke or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We’ll play your comment on the show, so keep it real and represent.

Additional music for this show was provided by Bryan Mark from the album Kunghay. Brian is at blog.xuru.net

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duration 22:11

In issue#6 we speak with Patrick Riley and Jason McVearry of a brand-spankin’-new advertising company called Vantageous.

Vantageous is an advertising network comprised of high-end design communities and art publications. The company leverages the company’s existing relationships in the online art world to develop a gateway for discerning advertisers interested in reaching this valuable demographic.

Patrick and Jason tell us how hosting innovator, Media Temple, took a chance with this great opportunity.

Visit Vantageous: Vantageous.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Patrick, Jason, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We threaten play your comment on the show, so keep it tight and drop it like it’s hot.

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duration 32:14

In issue#5 we speak with Jeff Robbins, Drupal ninja.

Lullabot is a web development company focused on “making open source easy” by creating sites with Drupal, a content management system {CMS} that is gaining serious ground. Jeff introduces us to the world of Drupal and tells us about a few of the projects they’re working on: MTV.co.uk and TWiT.tv

Jeff also explains, with the rising awareness of Drupal, there is a high demand for designers and core developers in the Drupal community.
Visit Lullabot.com for training, the Lullabot Podcast and Drupal.org

PS: If you didn’t already notice, Jeff is the husband of designer Jennifer Robbins, who we spoke with last week on issue#4.

A few unrelated links we dropped on the show:
istockphoto.com, lomography.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Jeff, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We might even play your comment on the show.

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duration 23:19

In issue#4 we speak with Jennifer Robbins, Web Designer, Author & Chef.

Jen tells us about Cooking with Rockstars, her original production over at The Jenville Show, featuring alt-rock musicians talking about what they like to cook. Listen for a special segment by Jack Black.

She also designed the planet’s first commercially-driven web site while working for O’Reilly & Associates. Jen is also the author of three web-design books, all in their third edition. These books are: Learning Web Design, Web Design in a Nutshell and HTML: Pocket Reference. Note: The third edition of Learning Web Design will be released at the end of the year.
Visit Jenville at www.jenville.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Jennifer, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We might even play your comment on the show.

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duration 19:38

In issue#3 we speak with Josh Williams, the owner of Firewheel Design – a design firm that fuels icon and interface design for web2.0. I wanted to talk with Josh about the design of their amazing online invoicing tool called Blinksale, a tool that I couldn’t be without.

Firewheel can be found online at firewheeldesign.com, also check-out Blinksale.com, IconBuffet.com and IHeartRootkit.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for Firewheel, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We might even play your comment on the show.

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duration 29:47

In issue#2 we speak with Rich Roat & Andy Cruz, the owners of House Industries – a creative company that makes fonts, illustrations, t-shirts and makes things just look cool.

House Industries can be found online at houseindustries.com or visit house33.com

We want to hear from you! If you have any questions for House, or comments for the show, email us: podcast at CreativeXpert dot com or leave a message at 206-20-CREATE. We might even play your comment on the show.

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duration 23:23

In this inaugural episode, we are excited to speak with Baul Boag of boagworld.com and founding partner at Headscape in the UK.

Visit Paul at boagworld.com

“It’s easiest to take little steps to work towards the goal of achieving the highest level of accessibility as possible.”

In this interview, Paul explains why he is a pragmatic designer and is passionate about web accessibility.

We learn what makes Paul tick, from his design background at Art College, a lead role at IBM and now a partner at Headscape, a web development firm in the UK.

Paul is an incredible web designer, but the greatest exhibit of Paul’s work can be found on his personal website, boagworld.com. Subscribe to his podcast, and the podcast that he hosts for Practical Web Design Magazine.
Visit Headscape online at headscape.co.uk

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