Things are getting REALLY exciting at Stonewall+ on a number of different fronts. We’ve landed some GREAT new accounts and are doing work for some of the countries leading brands, including Virgin SA, General Motors (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Isuzu, Opel and Hummer), Investec, Pam Golding, Cadbury, Shoprite, Checkers and PriceWaterhouseCoopers to name but a few.

We aim to achieve a number of goals with our work:

1. Produce work of international standard
2. Create exceptional value for our clients
3. Push the boundaries of the medium and experiment with new technologies
4. Have fun doing it.

If you share these values, and you’re keen to join a dynamic, innovative company full of people you can learn from and produce some outstanding work, apply now! Here’s a short rundown of what we’re after:

• Interactive Motion Designer
  Are you an After Effects and Flash junkie who gets off on visual effects and constantly downloads showreels? Do you have an eye for animation and see video as the future of the web? This job is for you. Get in touch! Send a link to your showreel / portfolio as well as your CV to designer[at]stonewall.co.za
• Actionscript Guru
  You’re object-oriented by nature, and you communicate in classes and functions (). You’re not scared of conceptual thinking, and you know what Papervision 3D, Sharikura, and WiiFlash are. Don’t miss this opportunity. Send your CV and work samples to developer[at]stonewall.co.za
• HTML/CSS Programmer (Code Ninja!)
  You’re presentation layer is separate from your content, and you validate when interrogated. What are you waiting for? CV and work samples to developer[at]stonewall.co.za
• Senior Interactive Designer
  Photoshop is your playground and Flash is your friend. You so over the Web 2.0 look, and you eat complex design problems for breakfast. You make the most of every opportunity to create, and your portfolio speaks for itself. Come on - send it on to designer[at]stonewall.co.za
• Production Manager
  You’re a compulsive list-writer and you’re a natural born leader. You understand the web inside and out, and you’re able to bring out the best in people. Send your CV to studioproduction[at]stonewall.co.za

Peaked your interest? Maybe, just maybe this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Get in touch - what do you have to lose? Oh, and if you know of anyone who fits the above descriptions, we also offer a R5000 referral commission. Go on then!

I’ve just started reading Seth Godin’s new book titled “Meatball Sundae“. His analogy is pretty simple (and brilliant). To sum it up, New Marketing - blogs, social media, word of mouth, viral, etc. are like toppings on a Sundae. Add these to a “sweet” organization and you have a winning recipe. Sadly, many brands want to embrace New Marketing without evolving and changing who they are and how they operate.

They are meatballs.

Here’s a short extract from Amazon’s editorial review:

Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don’t.

The winners aren’t just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You’ll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces “Will it blend?” videos that demolish golf balls, Coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube.

Godin doesn’t pretend that it’s easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he’ll convince you that it’s worth the effort.

This is really phenomenal stuff… HIGHLY recommended reading! Check it out!

And if you’re not familiar with Seth Godin’s work, be sure to check out his blog - he is a marketing genius.

Presenting work to a client can be pretty scary. No matter how much you believe in a particular direction, design is a very personal and subjective thing, and chances are that you’ll often get thrown an unexpected curve-ball. Some of my all time favorites include:

• “I don’t like it.”
• “Hmm… not quite there yet.”
• “A good start - looking forward to seeing the final options!”
• “Why can’t I click on anything? It’s not working. Fix it.”
• and let’s not forget… “I played around with it in Photoshop a little - let me know what you think of this!”

Humor aside, it’s important to extract quality feedback from clients in order to move forward and lock down a final design direction. I often send the following instructions to clients in order to aid in the quality of design feedback and help in narrowing down the options presented:

An interface design consists of a number of facets. These include:

• Communication - more of an emotional facet, this relates to the overall message you’re left with from viewing the design.
• Styling - This relates to the overall look-and-feel and it’s art direction, i.e. rough, slick, corporate, surreal, etc.
• Elements - different objects / groupings of objects that form part of the overall interface, e.g. logo’s, navigation, paragraphs of copy, images, etc.
• Composition - the way these different elements are positioned around the interface
• Colouring - the overall composition will make use of a particular colour scheme.

When providing feedback on a particular design or set of designs, it’s important to dissect the design and comment on each of these facets INDIVIDUALLY. In other words, comment on the design as a whole (Communication - the emotional feedback) but also analyze the design in terms of the other facets. As a guideline, these are the questions you should be asking yourself:

Communication
• How does this design make me feel?
• What is the message I’m left with after viewing this design?
• Is this the desired message?

Styling
• Do I like the way this particular design is styled, or should it be styled differently?
• How would I describe the styling? Use as many adjectives as possible to communicate the desired styling.

Elements
• Do all the elements work well together?
• Do any elements require more emphasis?
• Which elements do you like / dislike?
• Are there any elements missing that should have been included?
• Has an element been included that need not be there?

Composition
• Do you like the overall composition of the design?
• If not, what don’t you like about it?
• If you’re happy with the composition, is there anything you might change within it?
• Think about your users – does the composition work in terms of the user experience? In other words, is everything logically positioned?

Colouring
• Do I like the colour scheme used?
• If not, is there a particular colour scheme I would like to see?
• Break this down to the individual elements - Is there a particular element that isn’t working with the current colour scheme? Would I change the colour of any particular element?

In asking yourself all these questions, you’ll get an idea of what you like / dislike about each design. When multiple designs are presented, you might find that one particular design is 100% correct and you’re able to sign off that particular mockup in order for us to move on to the next phase of the project.

If this isn’t the case, please think of the first round mockups as a MENU from which you’re able to pick and choose exactly what you would like, i.e. elements from design (A) mixed with styling and colouring from design (C), composed as per design (B). This allows us to gain a much better understanding of what you like / dislike and allows us to mock up a second round design far more efficiently.

I’ve found this approach to help a great deal in improving the quality of feedback I receive from clients. Feel tree to try it yourself - I hope it helps!

I’ve just finished reading a fascinating article published by Business Week. It’s about how employees in many major corporations are demanding requesting Mac’s instead of PC’s. Here’s the amazing thing… Since 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, they’ve avoided the corporate market, choosing to focus all their attention on the consumer market… and the results are staggering. Here’s a short excerpt from the article:

In the March quarter, Mac sales blew away all forecasts, soaring 51% over the previous year, or more than three times the rate for the personal-computer industry. Throw in the iPod and iPhone, and Apple’s total sales have surged from $5.2 billion in fiscal 2002 to $24 billion last year. Its share price has risen 2,300% over the past five years, giving the company a market capitalization, at $154 billion, that tops those of tech giants Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Intel.

So… sales of $24 billion, without focusing any energy on the corporate market! Market research shows that Apple only holds about 2.19% of the business market share, but in today’s increasingly employee-centric market, corporates will have no choice but to submit and give employees what they want. And when that happens, Stevie’s smile will no doubt be even wider.

Ingenious business strategy or a massive stroke of luck?

Make sure you check out the article: The Mac in the Grey Flannel Suit

I’ve just found out about a Cape Town based Wordpress group:

The Wordpress Meetups Cape Town is a monthly gathering of Wordpress enthusiasts, developers, hackers, designers and other interested in learning and sharing Wordpress knowledge. We aim to solve problems, push the boundaries of Wordpress usage and generally make noise about all things Wordpress related.

A group of guys and gals geeking out over Wordpress for three hours once a month? I’m so there.

The next meeting is on the 28th May - 4pm at the Bandwidth Barn. Find out more here.