pixels and digital bits

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Firefly Multimedia v2.0

The Firefly website has had some major renovations.
Now with far more character than ever before!! the old site (which will soon be retired) took more of a business approach, with that Web Shop feeling. I wanted to make it more personable, more inviting, more animated, more creative…

There’s still much to be done (as always) but I’d like to be the first to welcome you to the new & improved Firefly Multimedia, Inc.

Friday, January 26th, 2007

keep it organized…

I always keep to-do list(s) - plural, exactly my point - I would start a list, then when it got too long, I would start another list, kinda reorganizing all the stuff leftover, etc, etc, etc. I have an old dog-eared book that keeps all these lists, and sporadic phone numbers and whole bunch’a other notes. Not such a time efficient way of managing my time.

I just discovered BackPackit and I love it. It took a few hours to “move in” but now I have all of my projects, notes, files, etc in one place, with cute little checkboxes and images. It even allows you to share pages (I added Cory, my new helper!)

I feel so organized!
No wonder all the freelance graphic artists recommend it!!

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

writing a web development proposal

Sure, you could just tally up the estimated hours, multiply it by your hourly rate and post it in an email… But the proposal is the first thing you produce for your potential client so it should be done thoroughly, informatively and with a touch of class. ;)

The basic outline I use is as follows:

• Company Info - tell your potential client a little about your company, about your skills, your qualifications. In a nutshell, give them an introduction that invites them to want to work with you.
• Project Overview - In a paragraph or two, explain your understanding of the project, their product or services, the target audience, their marketing goals… and most importantly, how you plan to meet these requirements.
• Design Notes - describe how you envision the site’s look and feel, keeping demographics and target audience in mind. Give them a few visions to run with while they read the rest of your proposal.
• Target Market Notes - who? where? show that you’ve done your research on their target audience. Emphasize how you plan to create a site suited for their demographics.
• Flow Chart - show how the site will flow from page to page. There are many flowchart diagraming apps out there, or you can even use Photoshop/Illustrator if you really want to get crafty with it.
• Development Timeline - break the project into task-oriented bite size chunks, along with estimated dates of completion, project checkpoints, client deadlines, etc. This is where you can tally up the estimated hours, show your in-depth understanding of the required features and suggest additional features that may work well within the project.
• Project Cost - this is the price breakdown, hourly rate x estimated hours, domain name registration, hosting fees, 3rd party applications and any additional fees. Also be sure to include a little time for revisions, consultations, the final walkthrough of the site, demonstrating the admin panel features, etc.
• Terms & Conditions - your potential client knows what they want from you, but you also have to define what you expect from them, ie: content, graphic assets, data, prompt feedback, etc. This is also where you can define your payment terms, deposits, non-disclosure and privacy notes, intellectual property notes.
• Example designs - it’s always a good idea to send a few applicable samples of work you’ve done in the past. You can also summarize how these projects relate to theirs: features, UI styles, similar industries. Give them only a few selections but offer more upon request.
• Ongoing Maintenance - just because the site is done, doesn’t mean the project is over! Offer a retainer fee or hourly rate for general website maintenance.

It’s a good idea to let the client know your first proposal is merely a draft. This allows room for fine tuning the requirements, and possibly finding a few new features they can’t live without.

It’s important to be informative and show you’ve done your research, but don’t be TOO detailed… sometimes clients use the proposal process as a way to have their requirements logically mapped out. That’s a huge part of any project, so you want to save the technical details for later in the courting phase… once the client has shown particular interest in working with you and your company.

Use your company letterhead, or a customized Word template. Include a cover letter. And be creative! Even business documents can have a splash of color and creativity!

Best of luck — now go get ‘em!!

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

cool portfolio site

Looking for an easy to manage portfolio site?

check out cabonmade

a nice high-res portfolio management site for photos, graphics, videos and flash. they have a free plan with 35 images, 3 projects. the actual portfolio page is nice and clean with little branding, and you can also create an XML feed of your images.
check it out…
lots of great portfolios to explore!

Sunday, June 18th, 2006

the 12-step commute

The alarm clock would go off…

Every morning I would lay there hoping something amazing would happen to save me from having to go through it all over again a short 24 hours later.

I never was a morning person. Mom said, as a baby, I used to sleep until noon.

Come to think of it, I never was a neon light person, or a pantyhose power suit person, or a cubicle person. And I certainly wasn’t a rush hour traffic person.

After my last dot.com layoff, I took a one month sabbatical to cleanse my mind, spirit and body… I would lay around in my backyard soaking up the natural sunlight my skin had been deprived of all summer - while working indoors only one block from the beach.

Then I came across an ad on a job search site:

Work from home - All work is performed in a 100% telecommuting WAN environment allowing you to live anywhere in either the U.S. or Canada.

Really? Could such a job exist?

I sent my resume (several times actually, along with emails consisting of my ramblings about the parallels between music and programming.) For some reason, I wasn’t taking the standard approach I always had when it came to pursuing a job. It’s almost as if something in me had snapped and I realized life is too short to go around playing corporate games. I was in search of a work environment that would allow me to be myself.

The interview went great and I started 2 weeks later.

When I first logged into my office (a collaboration server) I was greeted by welcome emails from the 50 employees already enjoying this telecommuting lifestyle. I poked around the application and found my mailbox, project folders, discussion groups, and conference folders with tips and code snippets. I felt as if I was wandering the school halls during class, quietly peeking into each of the windows as I passed by each room.

There are literally hundreds of folders with messages buzzing around. Some messages are lengthy, filled with technical specs and details, while others are one-line responses or links to related articles and tutorials. There are discussions of family, music, art, movies and technology; just as you would have in a standard office environment. And when somebody in the company has a baby, all of the employees post messages of congratulations and cheer.

One of the beauties of working solely on a collaboration server: everything is documented. Every little comment, every little note, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, is documented. Which means nothing is missed or lost or overlooked. Quite honestly, I’ve never felt so organized… and with such little effort. Imagine being able to do a search on something somebody said 3 months ago.

Another huge benefit is having access to other projects and how they were handled. There’s no better way to solve a problem than to see how others have successfully dealt with it in the past. And since there are 50 developers and designers, someone is bound to have the answer.

I recently checked out the website for a well-known product that I happen to really like. After filling my little shopping cart with enough natural health and beauty supplies to last a year, I decided to follow the employment link. After reading about the web developer position and falling in love with the idea of working for such a cool company, I sent my resume and yet another one of my eccentric emails.

After the first phone call, it was decided I was perfect for the job.

“Great! When can you move to North Carolina?”

Umm…

I explained the two reasons why that’s not an option.

1. My home and family are here.
2. I would never relocate for a position in the IT industry.

I’ve been laid off twice already.
Go ahead, call me bitter.

Today — a company can afford to relocate a full-time web developer
Tomorrow — the needs of the business or the economy changes, and then what?

No thanks.

So, I offered to work remotely. After all, it’s a perfectly feasible solution to a perfectly solvable situation. Even though they were looking for an in-house person to fill the job, they were curious about how it would work. I was asked to put together a detailed email about how it could work… if they were willing to try it.

It came down to the president of the company and the idea was shot down.

There’s something about having that warm body physically there in the office that companies just don’t want to let go of. Perhaps it’s because they want to see you working? Or maybe it’s so they can look over your shoulder and make sure it’s being done as they had asked? Or maybe the idea of telecommuting is impossible for some companies to accept because it’s just not the way business has been done in the past. Old school.

I think business models and organization charts need to progress right along with technology. The planet is a lot more connected now than it’s ever been, so why not take advantage of that? Save the overhead costs of having a brick and mortar office. Give the employees the freedom to work however and whenever it is that allows them to be most productive.

It’s been 5 years now since I unplugged my alarm clock and stuck it in a box in the closet. Five years have gone by where I work when I feel like working, sleep when I feel like sleeping, eat when I’m hungry. I’ve learned that I’m much more productive without the distraction of fax machines, fire drills and idle chit chat.

It’s been 5 years, and I see my co-workers once a year.

No neon lights, no pantyhose, no cubicles.

And the only rush hour traffic I deal with is when my dog is laying in the path of my 12-step commute.