This was a great opportunity to work with Scott Strickland of Abba Homes. Scott is an independent contractor in Saco, Maine who specializes in hardwood floor installations and restorations, and he needed a brochure to showcase his work. In this case, the job came pretty easily as his craftsmanship speaks for itself. We used a photo of a gorgeous hardwood inlay that he had done as the background for both the interior and exterior of the brochure – a great way to get a handcrafted feel to the project. The next step was coming up with the “Relationships, Not Just Renovations” slogan that’s used on the inside and outside – which conveys Scott’s attitude towards his clients and the quality work he does. Because of the many repeat customers that he has from his 10 years in business, testimonials are used throughout in order to enhance the photos of his work.

This is a concept for Scott’s new website, which will hopefully be debuting sometime soon. Rather than a multiple page “brochure” type site, I’ve opted to have everything displayed on a single page. Visitors can navigate by manually scrolling up and down, or use the menu options across the top of the page, which will be linked to anchors throughout the page.

I was privileged to work on Aquaboggan’s summer brochure for the second year in a row and decided to make some changes. Using the 2009 brochure as a reference, we began with adding some new photos and wanting to feature the spaciousness of the overall park. After a few test runs, this was best accomplished by using a wide shot of the park as the centerpiece of the interior design and moving all the important text to the bottom of the page. By doing this, it shows how much “green space” is available for visitors while still communicating information clearly. To segue between the main photo and the text, I used pictures of the different attractions – a good way to list out and also show what visitors can look forward to at the park. The exterior of the piece remained somewhat the same to keep some consistency, but we were able to add some new photos, brighten up the background a bit, and also bring in the park’s home on Facebook as well.

We began by focusing attention on some of Scott’s best work, his custom hardwood inlays, and used that as background images on both sides of the brochure. The next step was coming up with a way to get across Scott’s philosophy towards his work and clients – that it isn’t just about getting the job done and moving on, but forming a bond with his clients and meeting, then exceeding their needs. I came up with the “Relationships, Not Just Renovations” tagline and we were off and running. The focus of the piece then became testimonials from clients along with background on Scott and his business.

The result is a sharp brochure that stands out from the pack at meetings, something both Scott and I were very happy with. Next up, I’ll be working on Scott’s new website over at ABBAHomes.me in the next couple weeks.

Now that it is 2010, it seems as though the chances have presented themselves and the idea has begun to fill itself out – Do More, Give More.

Starting this year, I will be donating 5% of each project to charity. Along with my own donations, I’ll be giving my clients an opportunity to learn more about the causes 276 Design will be involved in and giving them an opportunity to donate to them as well. My hope is that by taking this small step of my own that it might help others do the same. After all, each journey has to start with a first step, right?

The first organization I’ll be donating to this year is called Love146 – a group who is dedicated to ending human trafficking. It’s estimated that 27 million people are enslaved today – more than twice the number at the height of the African slave trade – with many of them being women and children. For how to help and what they do, visit www.love146.org. I’d explain more, but I think this video does a better job than I ever could…

From now until the end of this year, I’ll be donating 5% of each project to Love146. It’s my hope that my workload and income will increase enough to add an additional charity by the middle of summer.

Now, the challenge is, what will you do? I’m not saying you have to donate money to charity or hire me because I donate to charity – far from it. What I’m asking is something a bit deeper and more personal. Is there something that you’ve thought about doing, or maybe know that you should be doing, but aren’t doing? I’m challenging you to do whatever that is, whether it’s scratching a check to a charitable organization you believe in or spending some time working at a soup kitchen or volunteering at the local library. Do it now and keep doing it. That’s the challenge.

I’ve been reading Smashing Magazine for awhile now and they have this really great recurring feature each month where designers will submit desktop wallpapers to be given away for free. I’m a little late to the party for February, but that just enables me to offer my submission to all the folks who happen by my little corner of the web. Without further ado, here’s my free desktop wallpaper for February 2010…

Download your resolution here:  1680 x 1050, 1440 x 900, 1024 x 768, (and for those people unlucky enough to be stuck back in 1996) 800 x 600

As you can tell, I’m not all into the “hearts and cupids” theme for Valentine’s Day – instead, we get a terrific quote from poet Charles Bukowski. Chances are, you won’t find this one on any candy hearts at the local drugstore. Enjoy, and pass it along to a friend!

Cue the canned applause. Thank you, thank you. Even louder fake applause. No, really… you’re embarrassing me… Fake applause slowly dies into the background.

My thoughts and reflections on the end of 2009 are those of gratitude and excitement. Gratitude first. I am exceedingly thankful to all the people whom I’ve had a chance to work with in the past year – not just for the business, but for pushing me with each project to be a little bit better.

When it comes to personal improvement, I always think back to a moment on one of my favorite albums – In Session with Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In between songs, King tells Stevie that no matter how good he gets, he can’t stop working to get better. “You’re gonna be good… than what you are. … You’re already pretty good.” That wasn’t a slap at Vaughan, it was an older and wiser guitar player trying to motivate and stoke the fires of a young man who was already better than most of the players on the planet. But it’s true for all walks of life and professions – you can be better than what you are, it’s a matter of working to improve.

The excitement comes from all the possibilities that are waiting in 2010. I am personally looking forward to putting more energy into creative endeavors and pushing my skills to levels I probably don’t even know exist yet. In fact, I wish that to be part of everyone’s resolution for the coming year – to push themselves in new directions and beyond their current limits.

Be more, do more, and love more. That’s what it’s all about and there will be more on all those topics coming in the early parts of January 2010. Stay tuned.

This is the third re-design that I’ve done with the folks over at National Automotive Support and it’s been great working with them. They wanted to do something a little different this time around and were very keen on being able to update their own content and samples. Naturally, WordPress made the most sense and I got down to business planning out their custom theme. In the future, they’ll be using blog posts to make samples available to their clients and drive traffic to the individual posts for that month using an email blast. Give the portfolio page a look.