Blog Posts By Jon

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Check out Hugh MacLeod’s excellent post on being creative.

1. Ignore everybody.
The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

3. Put the hours in.
Being good at anything is like figure skating- the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

"It doesn't make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement."
- Jackson Pollock

Thought this was relevant to what we've been working on lately. Although we think our latest release (coming soon) looks good, the statement really lies in how much easier it will be for the target audience to use. Stay tuned for the launch...

The FootJoy: MyJoys program is undergoing a visual upgrade. The first step in the upgrade was the redesign of the MyJoys logo.

The handwritten typeface reflects the personalization and customization that go into making MyJoys shoes. The individual "signed" feel clarifies the concept of the MyJoys brand. With a desire to respect the quality and tradition of the FootJoy brand, JOYS, set in all caps, is taken from the FootJoy logo.

Along with the new identity, we delivered the MyJoys team a usage guide. The guide covers specifics such as colors, size recommendations, space requirements, and more.

It’s great to be able to see the FootJoy brand come together, and implement it over the interactive side of their business.

Outsight Interactive is very pleased to announce that it has been selected as a winner for the 2007 MITX Awards. Outsight was awarded the top prize in the category of Applied Technology for their work on the FootJoy "DryJoys Microsite".

The DryJoys micro-site was created to highlight the latest in FootJoy shoe technology -- the new DryJoy’s Stability Pod™ outsole. The new outsole places each of its seven spikes on a hard plastic “pod” surrounded by soft plastic allowing the pods/spikes to move independently of each other, thus maintaining a better grip on the ground especially over uneven surfaces.

Outsight took a three-fold approach to present this complex technology: Animations were created from details of the shoes to highlight the product features. In addition, a full swing was presented, showing key points of the sequence where the pod technology really comes into play. Lastly, within the swing sequence a “heat map” was shown of the bottoms of the shoe to show how the pressure moves to various parts of the outsole through the swing sequence to further demonstrate how the independently moving pods can help afford greater stability.

But that was not the end of the DryJoys story -- a style carousel was created to present all 11 diverse styles and a Team DryJoys area was created to highlight the product's acceptance and use by PGA tour players.
Finally, a contest was created to create buzz around the new product and site.

Outsight announces the launch of a banner campaign promoting the new colors and team logos (Collegiate and Major League Baseball) FootJoy is now offering for their MyJoys Shoes. Subtle animation is used to show the changing colors and logos on the shoe, showcasing the new product enhancements.

This is the latest in a series of banner campaigns FootJoy has done to promote their new products and keep interest in their site.

The DryJoys microsite is the Adobe Site of the Day for August 16, 2007. It feels great to get our first award. A huge thank you to Jack Richmond for the photo shoot that made it all come together, as well as our client: FootJoy!

View the DryJoys microsite.

Outsight is pleased to announce the launch of the DryJoys banner campaign.

This is the latest in a series of sweepstakes FootJoy has done to promote their new products and keep interest in their site. Each contest is supported by a Flash banner campaign, a targeted email campaign, and a homepage hero image on FootJoy.com. Each contest has attracted tens of thousands of entrants, roughly 85% of which are return users to FootJoy.com. This demonstrates a growing, loyal following for FootJoy.com.

Outsight is pleased to announce the launch of the FootJoy: DryJoys microsite. Read more about the DryJoys project in our Portfolio or visit the microsite.

Challenge
You’re working on an animation in Flash on your main time line. You then decide that you want to convert your animation into a movie clip. Should be easy right? You select all of your frames on the main time line, copy them, insert a new symbol (in this case a movie clip), and paste them into the new clip. Should be set to go, but what happens? All that wonderful animation that you spent so much time on goes wonky. Frames that once ended at frame 50 now continue to play until the end of the movie (frame 300). Now you have to go back in and delete the frames in each layer that extended to the end of your time line, and hope that you don’t forget anything as you fix your animation. What a waste of time and energy. Drives me nuts.

Solution
It’s so simple… finally figured it out last week. All you need to do is insert a blank key frame at the end of each animation layer before you copy and paste your frames into a new movie clip. Inserting a blank key frame will keep your tweens in place, end frames and all. No more images overlapping, no more deleting frames, and no more wasting time.

If you have had a similar problem, I hope this gives you back some time (Flash always seems to steal mine). If you have another solution for this problem, I would love to hear about it.

Most modern web designers are aware of web standards and their positive impact on the web. Although the importance of using web standards isn’t an issue for many of us, how we talk about them, especially to potential clients in a sales pitch is.

The Pitch

Imagine the following: You’re pitching to a prospective client that is in need of a site redesign.

You’ve got one hour.

You talk through your prospective client’s challenges, maybe even solve a few along the way. You discuss look and feel, messaging, and how the site will work. The excitement builds as you both begin to “see” the site.

Twenty minutes to go.

You present your process and your work. Time line and budget are discussed, and the potential client begins to feel like a new client. You should feel happy, but the meeting isn’t complete.

What’s Missing?

It’s your duty as a web designer to explain the importance of web standards to a potential client. The problem is, if you try explaining web standards during a sales pitch, there’s a good chance that your prospective client’s eyes will glaze over.

Why?

It is my belief that it comes down to two specific reasons:

1. Client Expectations During a Sales Pitch

   Prospective clients more than likely will hire you for your ideas, and not for your knowledge about web standards.

   read more...