I’ve been using dreamhost since the beginning of this blog in December 2003 (yeah, i’ve been blogging that long!). Dreamhost has been a decent host for me so far but they have just had too many problems and too much downtime on their shared server for me to be happy enough. Though, I guess when you are paying as little as I was, you can’t argue too much. I recently bought a virtual-dedicated server with Media Temple and have been trying to figure out how in the world to use the thing. I finally spent a few hours getting my blog set up as a trial and will soon move some of my clients to this server as well. What is the difference? Well, there...Read More →
Category: Web Design
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February 17, 2008
Welcome to Media Temple
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January 7, 2008
Rethinking Church Websites
The following quote from the book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott that I am reading for my design work has got my creative, brainstorming juices flowing in relation to church websites. Here is the quote: “Website content too often simple describes what an organization or product does from an egotistical perspective. While information about your organization and products is certainly valuable on the inner pages of your site, what visitors really want is content that first describes the issues and problems they face and then provides details on how to solve these problems.” then they write, “It’s all about delivering content when and where it is needed and, in the process, branding you and your organization as a leader.”...Read More →
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December 30, 2007
Construction
in progressdone.I’m doing some maintenance stuff on my website at the moment (Sunday, 12/30). It might be all out of wack for a bit. Sorry about that. Update: New Year Cleaning: I’m not sure how much of a difference you’ll notice but I cleaned up the site a bit more. I took off that intro bar underneath the header and moved the “hey” section to the sidebar. I did a few other minor things to the formatting of the posts, mostly things that you probably won’t notice but have been driving me nuts for a while. Quotables: Then I added a new section of the site called “Quotables” which will be where I will post quotes from some stuff I am reading. Feeds: I added some...Read More →
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November 30, 2007
E-Mail issues
If anyone has e-mailed me at my @thewellpa.com e-mail address in the past week or few days, I am having some issues with them. So, if you are waiting for a response from me there is a 100% chance I didn’t get the e-mail. You can e-mail me through my contact form if you want to try and resend it.
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November 12, 2007
Site Maintenance
Doing some site maintenance just for the fun of it. If things look screwy I apologize. Update: So, I moved to a two column scheme. What do you think? Is it easier to read? Easier to find things? Let me know…
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November 6, 2007
Website Launch: The Imperfect Leader
Today I launched a new website for a good friend Davis Taylor. He’s on the leadership team at The Well and I consider him a very important mentor in my life.His book, The Imperfect Leader, “explores the not-so-secret secrets of transformational leadership—the kind of leadership that effectively executes a worthy mission—the kind of leadership that can make a difference in your organization.” I have personally read the book and found it very, very helpful. Go ahead and grab yourself a copy today! Check out this new website here…
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October 23, 2007
Site Maintenance
Its Tuesday Evening, October 23, I’m doing some site maintenance in my sidebar. Things might be wacky for a little bit. Update: Okay, I’m all done as you can tell (I hope).  I didn’t do much but I moved my design portfolio to my new design website and added a link to that site and then added a list of recent discussions / comments on this blog. I really appreciate it when you guys participate so hopefully this will help a bit.
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September 17, 2007
Come and See Website Video Tutorial
I created a website for the outreach and missions ministries of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, MN this summer. David Berge, the intern there this summer, has created a cool little video tutorial on how the website works and its features. Check it out here
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September 3, 2007
TAI Incorporated
I have spent the last 2 months working hard on designing, laying out and coding a new website for TAI Incorporated. About the Company TAI is in the business of leadership consulting. Their tag line is: “bridging the gap between strategy and execution.” Perhaps their greatest strength is their proprietary assessment tool called PRO Development. It’s basically a combination of all the tools you are familiar with and it is really, really helpful. At The Well, our leadership team each took the assessment an then had a training day with Davis Taylor (founder of TAI) and it was perhaps one of the most helpful days we’ve had together in a long, long time. About the Site The goals for this site were the following: A...Read More →
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September 3, 2007
A Blog Tweak
I changed the background of my blog and did a few other small tweaks. Tried to give things a little more room to breathe. What do you think?
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September 2, 2007
Come and See Website
Who was this site for? This site was built for the outreach and missions teams at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, MN. What is the purpose of this site? This site acts as a blog that will share the stories of hope and compassion that are happening in the CPC community. Church members can come to this site to read stories and submit stories to be shared. Other Details: The design is a totally original layout and design by yours truly. The image on the header is from iStockPhoto. Jim Renaud helped me set up the AJAX effects for the user submission box. All the content is managed by the always wonderful WordPress Visit the Website: www.cpcstories.org
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August 27, 2007
Why I Don’t Read Your Website
I spend a good amount of time each week designing websites. As I do I am beginning to realize more and more that copy writing is as much a major part of the project as the design itself. I can do my best to create a site that is visually pleasing, guides the reader and helps promote the website’s cause, agenda or business as best that I can. But, if the copy that is put on the site is poor…the site will be ineffective no matter how pretty my design. So, I’m trying to learn as much as a I can on this stuff so that I can help my customers better. The problem comes when they just don’t believe me that the only person...Read More →
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August 22, 2007
Ecclesia Network Website…
I just launched the website for the Ecclesia Network. This site is excited to see live for a few reasons: 1)I am proud of the design. 2) I am really excited about this network. For the past 7 years or so I have been meeting with a group of pastors. We have all become close friends and partners in ministry and have dreamed of starting up an official network of churches that focused on relational, missional network that is very focused on joining together to be part of what God is doing in the world. What is Ecclesia? “Ecclesia is a relational network of churches, leaders, and movements that seek to equip, partner, and multiply missional churches.” If you are a church that is not...Read More →
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August 15, 2007
Hey, How Do You Use Your Screen Space?
As a designer, I am working on my computer pretty much all day long. After a while, all the little movements it takes to change windows can get annoying so I usually try and set up my screen space in a way that let’s me switch as few windows as possible. The above screen shots are images of my primary and secondary display when I am coding css/xhtml. If you click on the thumbnails it will take you to my Flickr page where you can notes on the page. So, the main reason I did this was because I am actually more curious about how other designers use their displays. I am guessing some people take a free-for-all approach while others are more anal about...Read More →
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August 12, 2007
Future of Web Design Conference
Most of you who know me know that I make a part-time living as a freelance web designer. Those of you who know me know that I love this work and enjoy it a ton. I got into this with the help of a few good and talented friends (thanks Jim and Matt) and besides their help have been pretty much self taught through reading some books, blogs and seeing how the “experts” built their sites (my degree in Bible didn’t give me a whole ton of knowledge for this field). While I feel fairly confident in my skills I have always coveted some more official training and experience. That is why I am really excited to be able to attend the Future of Web...Read More →
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July 31, 2007
This Blog is Wearing New Clothes
If you aren’t using a feedreader to read my blog, you’ll hopefully notice that I’ve given the site quite a face lift. I basically started from scratch and redeveloped it from the ground up. I was the kid who always changed his room around every month just for something new so this should come as no surprise to those who know me. But, I don’t think this was just an arbitrary redesign. I had some purpose and some goals in mind: Create a site that took on more of my “interesting” personality. I tried to show some of my personality in the way i wrote the headings and displayed the content. Part of this is the random quote that comes across the top. Mostly, they...Read More →
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June 22, 2007
thewellpa.com: re-CSSified…
I went to go and fix the menu on The Well’s website late last night and ended up pretty much giving the entire site a face lift. So, what started as a 10 minute project turned into a two and a half hour late-night redesign. The beauty of the process was that with CSSEdit (a program I am growing to love) I was able to change the CSS and see the changes live on my machine with their preview feature. Then I just uploaded the new stylesheet and changed everything over all at once. I really didn’t touch the xhtml except for a few minor validation problems I found. Some of the major changes: New Menu: I finally fixed the menu that had some major...Read More →
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June 4, 2007
“New” Web Design “Portfolio”
I have updated my web design portfolio a bit. Actually, I just listed the sites I have worked on and put up a featured site on this blog. I have found one of the hardest things to do is actually keep my design site current and relevant. I kind of feel like a landscaper who doesn’t have time to mow his own lawn. So, in a way, I guess I am just installing “Astroturf” so the my “yard” doesn’t get all overgrown and ugly. So, go here if you are interested in seeing some of the work I have done.
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May 16, 2007
The iPod is Stupid…or so they said….
Josh over at Church Marketing Sucks just linked to funniest and most amazing discussion thread I have seen in a long, long time. This thread from around 2001 when Apple unveiled the iPod and the discussion that insued. You have to go and read it. Its amazing. Here are a few of my favorites: “hey – heres an idea Apple – rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up?” “I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so...Read More →
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May 1, 2007
Web Lauching Lunacy
Phew. Time for a vacation. It’s only Tuesday. I just launched my third website in two days. Now I have a headache. I am really excited to have worked on these sites and am looking forward to seeing them develop as they grow: Language of Belonging: I already blogged about this one. We’re still adding some content. But, I am really proud of the layout and design for this site. One Village Coffee: This was not only a website job for me. I really believe in what this company is doing. If I were a pastor of a church that served a lot of coffee, I would buy theirs in heartbeat. Oh, wait. I am…ha! For this project, I had the honor of working Samantha...Read More →
