Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a Career Day event for Eagles Landing Middle School in Boca Raton, FL. It was the 5th annual career day for the 8th grade class about to graduate and enter high school next school year. Each student got to select three different careers to hear about so they showed interest in the topic. I was chosen to speak as a Web / Graphic Designer. There was a wide range of professionals from Lawyers, Paramedics, Chefs, Authors, Veterinarians and dozens more.

I was in 8th grade when I started to get into the basics of web design. A friend of mine bought a book on HTML and he taught me some of the basics. I remember making my first website on things that I was into – Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, The Beatles, and things of that nature. I actually still have a copy of the first site believe it or not and like to take a look at it every 2 or 3 years and have a good laugh at how bad it was.

I remember this time frame very well I took them for a trip down memory lane and explained what the internet was like back in 95-96 (many of them weren’t even born yet!). I told them how most people connected to the Internet with AOL 2.5 which came on a floppy disc, that most of them probably have never used a floppy. How it was through a dial-up connection running windows 3.11. When I told them Yahoo was only formed a year before and Google was just a project at Stanford University I could see some of their eyes light up – thinking a world without Google!?! This was several years before iPods, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook and WiFi connections. As I was preparing the presentation and coming up with these little tidbits of information it got me thinking that all of that stuff seems soooooooo long ago when in actuality it’s a very short period of time. Needless to say it made me feel old.

I went on to tell the kids some of the basics of web and graphic design, what an average day is like, the types of programs you use, and the types of people and clients you work with. Some of the kids showed a general interest asking good questions about the job and industry. I was able to present to three different groups on the topic and showed some samples of my work. Following the presentations all of the speakers gathered for a group photo and kind words from the principle and teachers in charge of organizing this as well as receiving some nice gifts.

So thank you again to Debbie Miler and the Eagles Landing Middle School for allowing me to help out.

I’m pleased to announce that we have officially launched our first product line over at GRAFF TOYZ. This has been a great project to work on, we have had bumps in the road which is to be expected when you are creating everything from an idea.

Our first line of Graff Erase Boards feature 3 original designs that make traditional white boards look extremely boring. All of our products are Made and Sprayed in the USA™ something we are very proud of!

The boards are laser cut on heavy-duty transparent Plexi. The cloud and hello tag are all painted for a unique design every time. . Each board comes equipped with a velcro mounts giving you total freedom to remove the board from the wall, draw on any other flat surface and place it back for all to enjoy. Each board comes with two markers that wipe completely clean with only a damp cloth, looking as good as the day you bought it.

In addition to working on the product development and everything else involved with the company we also designed and launched the website www.grafftoyz.com. I am pleased with how it came out and still working on developing content for it along with our next product line. Enjoy!

Local Mojo is finally up! We’ve been working on this behind the scenes at AgencyWeb for the last several months. I designed the front end of the site and built the css framework. Again we worked worked with Luke and his guys who built all the amazing features that make this platform work. It’s currently in soft launch but ready for some businesses to sign up for. It’s the perfect blend for most businesses. We found that a lot of companies don’t need or can’t afford a full blown web marketing agency like AgencyWeb, or they need something more then a directory listing like National Online Directory. Along came Local Mojo.

Local Mojo provides businesses with free local sites that provide the standard directory style information such as location with maps, hours of operations, payment options, services etc. But they allow you some “mojo” by having the ability to embed your own YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Twitter updates and more. Local Mojo also gives the user to track everything with powerful state of the art analytics and the option to buy targeted localized traffic to get even more visitors to your site.

So if you want a free website to help your local business check out www.localmojo.com and if you want to really have some mojo sign up for some of the enhanced features.

One of my favorite design sites Smashing Magazine just posted a new article about Backgrounds in Web Design. The article talks about the new trend in web design about using backgrounds as the main focus of the design. The sites they feature are very impressive and I can’t wait to have the chance to try out some new ideas.

My favorite would have to be the SilverBack web site, resize your browser smaller and wider to see what I am talking about, very cool stuff!

The good thing is I have been designing sites like these over the past year or so for here at Digital Skratch or at my other company AgencyWeb. I’m looking forward to trying new trying some new techniques and keep coming up with creative designs that are also functional and search friendly.

Body and Content Background as One
www.greengarbagedesigns.com
www.lifeskillssouthflorida.com

A Subtle Texture
www.agencyweb.com
www.digitalskratch.com

Semi-Transparent Content Backgrounds in Layered Designs
www.ihoopmadness.com

View more web design from Digital Skratch

I changed the skin of our blog today. I think it reflects our corporate web site better and ties in nicely. I also changed the look of the AgencyWeb blog today. Now that we have this one updated, AW and the iMadness blog running maybe I’ll start to blog on a regular basis!

We launched the website for Green Garbage Designs. They specialize in eco-friendly clothing and jewelry. Go check them out for some cool gift ideas for the holiday season. We also launched another new site for Jack Lannom – Lannom Worldwide.

I’ve been working on a few sites over the past couple of months. 2 are complete and 2 more are about to launch. On the AgencyWeb side of things we launched the new Universal Healthcare Consulting website. I am proud of it and pleased with how it turned out. It is built entirely on wordpress so the client can update content themselves if they want. I also built the new AgencyWeb (my other company) site. It’s still being worked on as we are adding content as we create it but the framework is done.

I am also 99% finished with the new site for Jack Lannom – Lannom Worldwide, and Green Garbage which is an environmental clothing and jewelery company. That is is really cool in my opinion. So hopefully I get the last bit of content from those guys and it launches soon. I’ve also designed a few new logos and have been tweaking up the Digital Skratch site so go check that out.

We have a new layout up at Digital Skratch. It uses the same color scheme and content and similar design elements as the previous layout. Though this one is more web 2.0 looking and not really “framed in” I’m pleased with how it came out and looks cleaner and more user friendly. We also went with a similar design to our sister company Thats My Ad. To have some type of co-branding between the two.

I recently answered a post on Linkedin on simplicity in design and if simple has gotten “too simple“. I think simplicity is good. Why would you want to complicate matters and cause confusion when it could be simple.

In the world of design I think the web 2.0 phenomenon has brought simple design to the forefront where we see it every day. Simplicity is great for usability, as the design gets out of the way of the content so the user can focus on the job at hand.

With that said there is a fine line with good simple design and design that doesn’t put much on the page. One must find a balance between simplicity, getting the message across and not looking too barren. I have seen many 2.0 style sites with hardly anything on the page and they look so amateur. Then I have seen other sites with relatively the same amount of “stuff” on the page and they look amazing. It takes a professional designer who can add those subtle things to achieve clean web design.

I think simplicity goes beyond design and should be a way to live life -Less is more.

We did a complete re-design for That’s My Ad a web marketing company that specializes in Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics. The site features a rich Web 2.0 look to it, with a super clean and simple interface.