Great collection of minimalist movie posters based on old films. I particularly love The Shining poster shown above.

VIA: Live For Films

So my friends at Flipp have decided to do something different this year. Rather then spend hours/days/weeks/months on their own website, their going to do someone else’s website, for free.

Full details are available on Flipp.ca, but I can say from experience that these guys know what their doing. Any website they do will smoke that website your 15 year old nephew can do for just $20.

Ok, no more whining/complaining/bitching/moaning about client revisions. If you’ve made it in this industry you are very lucky and you should learn to appreciate the positions your not in.

It’s easy to forget how hard it is to break into design and how many people end up giving up on their dream of doing something they love.

_{VIA workman on flickr}

Final Fantasy (Owen Pallet) shows some real commitment in this clip, the rain, the wind, the lightning, some pretty epic results.

2009 has been a surprisingly strong year for music, seems like bands old & new just hit their stride on their releases this past year and I can’t think of any really disappointing albums that came out this year.

As with last year I’d like to give a run down of my favourite songs & albums from the past year.

Top Albums.

The Thermals – Now we can see
This album is so strong I even recommended it mid-year because I was enjoying it so much. Months later and I’m still enjoying the heck out of it. Somehow this albums got a “diamond in the rough” quality to it. It’s just low-fi enough to sound like something a hopeful musician would be selling CDRs of out of a bus shelter. And yet the songs are polished and complete, never sounding forced or over-processed, and just sloppy enough to be endearing.

Truth be told I’m shocked this album isn’t overplayed yet, I’d expect stations like x929 to be all over it by now and I’d be sick of it, luckily this hasn’t happened.

Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
On the opposite end of the age spectrum is Dinosaur Jr’s 2009 album Farm. Dinosaur Jr’s age as a band may even rival that of the members of the other bands on my list. And this album shows that age in the best of ways, rather then peppy kids giving it their all in a garage Dinosaur Jr sounds much more relaxed. Instead you’ve got a group of guys who seem to be pulling this sound off effortlessly, there’s no tension or power struggles, no square pegs going into round holes. Just flowing smooth rock from start to finish.

Cam over at Worksonpaper also included Dinosaur Jr’s Farm on his list this year:

“For me, this was definitely the album of the summer (maybe the year? a close second anyways…), as I found myself listening to it over and over on the highway (Highly recommended as a road trip album!). The standout track is the opener, Pieces, but really there isn’t a track here that doesn’t stand out.”

Death – …For the Whole World to See
This disc actually is a certified diamond in the rough, recorded in 1975 and unreleased until 2009, this disk showcases the emerging punk scene, even if it was slightly a head of the curve. The story of this disc is as such, three brothers start a garage band, record half an album’s worth of material, get into a fight with the record company, forget about the album and grow up to live their lives. This has happened to 100’s of go-no-where garage bands before, and it’ll happen again. The startling thing about this disc is what’s contained on it, amped up garage rock in the vein of the stooges, and hints of the punk that bands like the bad brains & black flag would go on to record just a few years later.

The thing that this disc showcases the best though is that punk-rock in the 70’s wasn’t just an explosion one night in a dingy New York club. There were other bands tinkering with a similar sound in their garages at the same time as the Ramones and The Sex Pistols.

Them Crooked Vultures – ST
This album falls squarely at the half way point between The Thermals & Dinosaur Jr. It’s neither a sloppy garage rock romp, or a laid back effortless affair. It’s as if the three well known members burst into a neighbours garage during band practice, grabbed the instruments away and said “You darn kids, your doing it all wrong, let us show you how it’s done” and then proceeded to blow the top off said garage.

Megadeath – Endgame
Another year, and another new album album from one of the original “big four” of trash metal on my list. From the opening instrumental of Dialectic Chaos to the closing number this is one solid, heavy trash album. Unlike Metallica’s Death Magnetic, there isn’t any filler on it, or experiments to be heard. Just the sound of a lean, mean, thrash band at the top of their game.

Top Songs.

In addition to the albums above there were also some great singles released this year, the following is some of the stand out tracks that have been on repeat for me.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
From the first time I heard this song I knew it would be an instant classic, from the opening note to the first vocals this song has a timeless quality to it that’ll have it popping up on movie soundtracks for years to come.

Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch
The bassline in this song just hammers it’s way into your head and doesn’t let go until the end. The psychedelic mood of this song makes it a great song for the drive to the party or the cab ride home.

Hot Little Rocket – Volcano
A bit of a swan song as Hot Little Rocket released this album in the same month they played their last show, but what a perfect swan song it is. The course of “don’t stop, erupting every night” shows why these guys were Calgary favourites for years.

Josh Freese – I don’t think that’s OK
Vandals/Devo/NIN drummer Josh Freese released a great power pop gem this year along with a great promotional stunt to go along with it. The lead single is just plain fun and stands up to repeated back to back listens.

The Shagbots – Consequences
Ok I am a bit biased towards The Shagbots because I had the pleasure of doing their website this year. But truth be told this song had me hooked before we’d even sat down to discuss the site. The opening keyboard just grabs you by the hips and forces you to dance.

What I missed.

There’s a few disc this year that I listened to once or twice, thought “hey, this is pretty damn good” but then forgot about and opted to listen to Nine Inch Nails for the 9,000th time instead.

Luckily Cam from worksonpaper.ca is much better about keeping up to speed on these disc and included some of them on his list.

Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid
I’m an unabashedly huge fan of the blues-soul-rock of the Black Keys, so of course Dan Auerbach’s first solo album would be among my favorites of the year. If you’re familiar with the Black Keys, this album won’t be much of a stretch in terms of sound and style – it’s a raw soulful rocker in the style of the Keys. 14 solid tracks of Auerbach baring his soul and emoting through his guitar much to the delight of my ears. There just isn’t a white man on the planet with more soul than Mr. Auerbach. Some choice cuts on this one include Mean Monsoon, My Last Mistake and Street Walkin’.

Japandroids – Post-Nothing
Not many albums released this year were as raw and rockin’ as this Vancouver duo’s wonderfully noisy output.

So there you have it, the top music of 2009, along with some bonus picks on the disc I missed. Now, do I dare do up my top picks of the decade? You up for it Cam?

Just launched a new site for Advance Furniture Services here in Calgary. Overall they were a great bunch of guys to work with and I’m very pleased with the way the site turned out.

I also had the opportunity to bust out my camera on this one and do an onsite photo shoot at their warehouse, it was great to get really hands on with the guys and get a feel for the company from the inside out. It was a welcome change of pace from trying to tell a companie’s story based on stock photos.

Overall this is a pretty small & lean site, definitely not filled with pages & pages of filler, just an overview of who they are, what they do, and how to get in contact with them. Were I to be furnishing a large office I’d certainly give them a call.

AFSCalgary.ca

This is a follow up post to my last entry about my first year of freelancing. In addition to how I actually ended up here I also wanted to cover some of the adjustments I’ve had to make and some of the skills I’ve had to pick up in this time.

The Project Manager Hat

One of the great things about being a designer in an agency setting is you don’t have to worry about things like project budgets, scheduling or answering small client queries. For the most part you show up in the morning and your task list is pre-populated from the friendly accounts department and you go on your way.

Of course when your a one man show you end up taking on that role, so in addition to actually designing & building websites I’ve found I’ve had to take on a whole slew of new task.

What this has meant for me is learning how to prepare project budgets & estimates, how to respond to an RFP and writing up a contract. In addition I’ve had to learn a lot more accounting and budgeting then I previously needed when I was just collecting a monthly pay cheque from the agencies.

Tire Kickers to the left.

One of the more important skills I’ve picked up this year has been weeding out potential clients from the tire kickers. Tire kickers are those “leads” that are more interested in gathering information & getting prices then actually proceeding on a project. Now although everyone has right to shop around and gather information, it can be very disheartening to spend 2 or so hours away from your desk on a face to face meeting that ends up going nowhere. Even more disheartening is spending further time preparing an estimate after a face to face meeting and then hear nothing back from the lead.

After 2-3 meetings such as this I’ve become much more selective on my face to face meetings, if I get a lead through my website with no real information other then “I need a website, we should meet” then I’m likely to encourage a phone call instead to find out how serious they are about proceeding.

Providing a free consultation is a great way to land business and it’s still a service I offer, but I’ve found it consumes much less of my time to schedule a 20 minute phone call then to spend 30 minutes driving to a coffee shop, 20 minutes in a meeting and another 30 minutes driving home.

So far the leads that are willing to have an initial phone call have worked out consistently higher then face to face meetings every did for me.

Learning to love the phone.

When I first started freelancing I was all about email, it works well in the agency settings and it’s less time consuming then a phone call. Plus as an added bonus you get a written record of everything.

But I’ve discovered that email centred communication doesn’t work for all clients/companies, as such I’ve had to brush up on my phone skills. Particularly being able to drop what I’m doing to take a client call.

I have discovered however that a phone call can often clear things up faster and clearing then a string of emails.

Further Reading.

One site that has been a huge resource for me during this period of change has been Freelance Switch. It’s a huge well of information and helpful advice, covering a broad range of freelancing issues and discussions. Covering everything from budgeting, client management, and new business development. It’s quickly become one of my daily reads.

It was just over a year ago now that I abruptly left my job at a flashy downtown ad agency. This was a pretty stereotypical agency at the time, gleaming hardwood floors, casual dress code, rows & rows of macs and had plenty of perks like a gaming area and the occasional 2 hour patio lunch. In short it was the dream job I had fantasized about in college, it was hip & urban, the average age was below 40 and we played great music all day. It felt a lot like a college dorm, except we were all being paid to be there.

Rather then go into details about why I left that job I’ll just say it was a combination of egos, lack of new work and differing opinions. In short it was time for a change, so I gave my resignation in November of 2008 and immediately started working on my portfolio.

Now when I left this flashy job my original intention was to wind up in a very similar job with a different company. I figured I’d re-do my website, send out some resumes, do some interviews and be back in another shiny ad agency by February.

But the economy had other things in mind, namely the massive cuts to the advertising industry as a whole. Within 2 months of leaving my position most of the co-workers I had left suddenly found themselves without work as well. The agencies that weren’t doing layoff in ‘09 were considering themselves lucky and they certainly weren’t in the hiring mood.

Hey, want a side job?

To rewind a bit to the day I initially left my job, a coworker of mine sent me a message asking me if I wanted to take on a freelance project he didn’t have time for. After all he still had a job and I did not, so I said “sure, that’ll fill in the gap while I look for work just fine” So I took on his client, did their site and continued looking for work in the meantime.

As mentioned earlier most of my old coworkers would find themselves unemployed by early January, so this was not a great time to be looking for work. I however got lucky and managed to secure a part time job for 2-4 days a week. It wasn’t perfect but I figured “no biggie, it’ll cover the bills and I can freelance the other two days a week”.

Oddly enough this arrangement worked out great, it made the transition from full-time employee to freelancer rather easy. I had a steady source of income and the freedom to be somewhat picky about my side jobs.

Since I was now relying on freelancing for about a 1/3rd of my income at this point it was time to get a bit more serious, time to print business cards, get a filing system in order and get my home office in order.

Passing the freelance threshold.

I continued in this part-time employee/part-time freelancer arrangement for most of ‘09, it wasn’t until the two world’s started to compete with each other in fall of ‘09 that the scale started to tip towards self employment.

Previously I had been fairly selective about my freelance projects, if a client approached me with a project that would require my full-time attention I would politely decline and only accept projects I know I could complete on a schedule of 1-2 days a week. But as my part-time hours at the office started to dwindle I started entertaining the prospect of taking on larger projects.

The pivotal moment for me came when I was doing some book keeping and suddenly my freelance income had surpassed my payroll income for the year. Better yet I was now booked up for the next 2-3 months and found myself turning down work until the new year.

Looking back.

As mentioned before it was never my intention to end up in this position, I had always quite enjoyed the security the agency jobs provided as well as the camaraderie with my co-workers as we hammered away on mountains of work.

But honestly, I’m still highly satisfied with where I’ve ended up, there’s a great freedom that comes with being your own boss. Setting your own hours, directing your own work, and having the ability to call in snow day and hit the slopes midweek.

Big Thanks.

I’ll stop tooting my own horn at this point and just take a moment to thank the clients/friends/colleagues whom have made this transition possible for me.

Flipp Advertising
Cam Hoff
Dan Rigby
Joshua Pinter/Oxygen Webs
Climbing Mojo
Austri Alpin
The Shagbots
Troy Davis

This ad is great on so many levels, it’s funny as hell for sure, but it also gets the point across in a clear and entertaining manner. Rather then demonizing the chemical characters into stereotypical goblin types, they’ve gone the other direction and made them cute & cuddly, but then in a plot twist, the cute friendly bubbles take a turn for the creepy, and it works great.

I particularly like the actresses reaction of “what the f”, coming so close to the f-bomb without actually dropping it, bravo.

New site launched today for Caliper Inspection of Calgary. Clean corporate site done in conjunction with the gang at Flipp Advertising.