http://www.gridworkdesign.com/ We create and manage web sites for small, mission-driven organizations. By combining smart planning, best-of-breed software and beautiful design, we will maximize every penny of your budget. At Gridwork Design, financial stability, artistic integrity and a social conscience aren't competing goals. en Copyright 2012 2012-04-19T19:28:33+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/117/minimalist/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/117/minimalist/#When:09:25:41Z 2012-04-25T09:25:41+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/116/the-habits-of-exceptional-clients/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/116/the-habits-of-exceptional-clients/#When:18:35:00Z First and foremost, my favorite clients are friendly, inquisitive people. If nothing else, those two qualities will override all others. It’s not worth any amount of money to spend non-work hours stressed out about your project instead of relaxing and recharging. Beyond that, there are a few simple things that certain clients do that make me happy. In no particular order: Present requests in clear, succinct writing. Phone calls are great for establishing broader goals and arguing points of contention, but details get lost in conversation, and there’s no to searchable archive. So email first, then phone. And only phone if necessary. Pay closer attention to your content. It sounds obvious, but good content makes everything easier. Design & technology contribute to your success for sure, but more than anything, it’s the words. Ruthlessly edit them down to the bare essentials. Late stage drafts should be finished before design begins, approximating the tone and length of final text. Resist the urge to use lorem ipsum and “swap it in later”. Read about content strategy, hire great writers, and practice your own writing everyday. I will if you will. Avoid obsessing about the typography, color palette, layout, or what content management system to use, that’s why you hired a professional. Tell me what you like/dislike at the beginning and then just let it go. If you enjoy being neurotic sometimes, as we all do, there are plenty of other super important things to worry about: audience, analytics, tone, lunch. Do not assume anything about how long something should take. Some things that seem easy can take forever and vice versa. Good research is crucial and labor intensive. Even small bug fixes can take all night sometimes. I’m sorry that I don’t always know beforehand. Unfortunately, this seems to be an axiom of nearly all software development of any kind. Please just tell me your budget and target launch date from the beginning. Then I’ll tell you what can be done with that. Let’s not be coy or play games here. There are two numbers to start with: how much to spend on building the project and how much to maintain it post-launch. Ask your web vendor to help determine a reasonable range to work within. Launching is just the beginning. Great web projects must be iterated on over time. When sending requests for troubleshooting, include links, screen shots, and make sure I know your browsing environment. Deducing these things from a cryptic “such and such isn’t working” can take a surprising and unnecessary amount of time. Use a password manager and properly archive your email. I have billed an ungodly number of hours just in looking up passwords for people and resending old emails. Hours I would much rather put towards optimizations, design improvements, adding features, etc. Avoid panic. Websites go down sometimes. Things don’t work like they should. Data gets corrupted. Hackers penetrate. Bugs will be found. Probably some typos too. Poor decisions to renege. When this happens, you have to make a choice. You can stress out, have a wack attack and we’ll all slog through a crappy day. Or you can put your ego aside, explain the problem calmly, ask for help, and we’ll go out for ice cream after. 2012-04-22T18:35:00+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/115/tenants-union/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/115/tenants-union/#When:06:54:19Z The Tenants Union of WA serves to protect and inform renters of their rights. Their website serves as a comprehensive legal resource library, so to cope with the hierarchy and sheer volume of content, I decided to use a stylized site map as the primary content for the homepage and omnipresent on every page at the end of content blocks. As you drill down deeper, the left sidebar shows additional items based on the context of where you happen to be at that moment. 2012-04-21T06:54:19+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/112/cognitive-edge/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/112/cognitive-edge/#When:19:28:33Z Cognitive Edge is a unique organisational & management consulting firm with offices in Singapore (HQ), UK, Canada and USA. Their methodology has been adopted by practitioners all over the world, but their site was stuck in the past. Gridwork delivered a powerful platform for generating revenue and delivering an array of library content to network members. 2012-04-19T19:28:33+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/111/clarasmom/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/111/clarasmom/#When:19:18:58Z Clarasmom is a classified site for moms in Seattle. The proprietor is a tech savvy new mom adrift in a sea of new & slightly used baby stuff. The options for unloading it were underwhelming, from sketchy Craigslist, to neighborhood news groups and a smattering of mail oriented websites. So the main problem this site tries to solve is making it as easy as possible for moms (and dads) to buy and sell extra baby crap. 2012-04-19T19:18:58+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/102/fear_of_publishing/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/102/fear_of_publishing/#When:22:09:44Z “Who here is in publishing?” Maybe 20% of the hands in the room go up. I’m not sure how to answer and decide to leave my hand down. The speaker replies, somewhat scornfully, “You’re ALL in publishing!” Oh, right. For the rest of the weekend, this exchange rattled around in my head. Why didn’t I raise my hand right away? How should “publishing” apply to my day in and day out work? What do I need to change in my career to embrace this idea more fully? The speaker was Jeffrey Zeldman, chief mentor of the internet, and a personal hero, so I took his words seriously. And of course my answer should have been an enthusiastic “YES!”. I started out in journalism and print design at my college newspaper, driven by the power of media to create social change. After graduation, I went into textbook production and, eventually, magazine art direction. And now, a huge part of my business is building and maintaining websites for publications. At the same time, the reality of making websites on contract is days, weeks, months of pushing pixels and tweaking code. As a freelancer, I’m frequently left out of the conversations about strategy and content development. So while I might be “in publishing”, I feel too far removed from the process to really feel in it. Not everyone is — or should be — a publisher. It’s a difficult, frequently traumatic job. But more of us should be trying. I’m simultaneously terrified and inspired. In the months since this experience, it’s become clearer that I need to confront this fear and plow forward, even if it’s a little reckless. So based on my experiences as an employee or contractor for some pretty good publishers, here’s what I think it takes: 1. Be a leader Talented teams of individuals aren’t enough. Good leaders will help everyone do their best work. This could mean mentoring, or paying for conferences and seminars, or maintaining a reference library. Whatever it takes to make there are opportunities for growth and connectedness with a wider community. It also means living a healthy lifestyle, which is something I think many of us struggle with. I know I do. We spend almost all our work days in front of a screen, and a growing portion of our leisure time as well. Taking vacations, exploring other fields, making families, exercising, cooking dinner, these are the antidotes to uninspired, unsuccessful work. 2. Understand money At many magazines, the publisher is in charge of all the finances. This means having a consistent grasp on cash flow and accounting, in addition to working with bookkeepers and accountants. Optimizing the way you spend that money requires at least a surface understanding of what everyone in the organization does. That includes copyediting, interviewing, human resources, photography, graphic design and snack selection. It also means that you pay people for their work, and they should be paid on time. And that you foster new streams of revenue. Recurring subscriptions and advertising aren’t enough anymore. 3. Write well Fundamentally, publishing is a business of words. There is a staggering amount of cumulative emails and drafts and rejections that go into a finished publication. And at some point in the process, everyone needs to step into the role of copyeditor. The ability to write a clear email cannot be understated. Threads that go on and on are almost as wasteful as 2 hour staff meetings. Occasionally, you need to publish thoughtful essays that articulate ideas and motivate your community. 4. Know great people The referrals and feedback you get from other talented people are genuinely invaluable. Fortunately, the publishing world is filled with these amazing, generous people dying to share their knowledge. You should be one of them. As an introvert (INTJ), this sounds exhausting. The internet helps, but I still push myself to go to occasional conferences or meetups. And I have to continually remind myself to delurk, participate in discussions, offer assistance when possible and share solutions that other people can use. 2011-05-16T22:09:44+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/90/consumer_loans/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/90/consumer_loans/#When:16:19:17Z Working closely with a copywriter, illustrator and product managers, we designed an eye-catching interface that steps way outside the bounds of typical financial sites. The sketched artwork, concise terms and friendly layout strive to engage customers both rationally and emotionally. 2011-03-22T16:19:17+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/73/shipped_in_2010/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/73/shipped_in_2010/#When:04:23:02Z About a year ago, I vowed to write one new blog post per week for the whole year. I promptly wrote two posts, several half posts and gave up. Blogging seems like it should be easy, but with a full workload, mild fear of putting something out there forever and three cats to keep happy, it’s the first thing to go when I need less screen time. I think I need some other spaces on the web outside of this company & social networks, but that’s not why I’m writing this post. In addition to my failure to follow through on blogging, I’ve been simmering a redesign of this site since March which has kept me from posting new projects to the portfolio. New potential clients are probably visiting this site, seeing a bunch of old dates & moving on. And despite all this, it was a busy year from start to finish, including moving to a new city (Seattle!) and surrendering bookkeeping duties to a trained professional. So to span the gap and get a running start into 2011, here’s my list of stuff that Gridwork shipped, or helped ship (as inspired by Seth Godin): Front-end code for the new Bethel University site. Social change platform for Thousand Kites, allowing prison reform activists to quickly organize in communities and around issues. ExpressionEngine implementation and front-end code for 4-Tell, an amazing ecommerce recommendation system. Translated Spanish site for Ecology Project International. Site design, development & deployment for the Smart Stage Mom and Aaron Jacobs Casting. Still unfinished, beta launch of Washington D.C.-based job classified site Good Job. Currently in progress, nearly finished redesign of the Small Screen Network. New site for the Appalachian Media Institute (currently experiencing some server problems). CartThrob powered store for BijouDally. Redesigned site for leadership consultants Kaplan Devries. Invitation to an awesome trampoline party. This list required scanning through a full year of email remember everything that actually got done and a few things are instantly clear from that little exercise. I need to do more design. And when I do code, I want to be challenged in a way that requires me to become a better coder, no more running in place. Anyways, there will be more time for resolutions next week. At least this proves 2010 was more active than this site might reflect and now I’m extra motivated to get the redesign finished and launched. 2010-12-31T04:23:02+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/89/political_organizing/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/89/political_organizing/#When:04:28:04Z This powerful organizing platform stretched every muscle we have. Kites Campaigns allows field organizers to quickly outfit community groups with a multimedia-driven website around issues of prison reform. The baseline audience includes novice computer users, so it must make the complex interactions from uploading videos to taking action around an issue accessible to users with a very short learning curve. 2010-09-02T04:28:04+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/68/blogging_and_proposals/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/68/blogging_and_proposals/#When:06:11:50Z Among the many unrealistic New Year’s resolutions I make every year, this may be the king of the hill. Project 52 is a petition to write a blog post a week for the whole year. Given that the last 5 years of running this site I’ve averaged about 4 posts a year, and I’m already a month behind, this seems like an impossible challenge. But the point is to dedicate more time to writing and reflecting, so I’m gonna post as much as I can, even if I don’t hit the magic number. Writing didn’t seem like it would be a very important part of running a web design company at first. It’s about your style and the quality of your code, right? Wrong. So foolishly wrong. The initial exchange of emails and proposals with a client is almost as important as the final deliverable. It establishes the tone of our relationship, determines my capacity to meet expectations and clarifies the steps required to make something wonderful. Regardless of whether Gridwork is hired for design, development or strategic planning, words play a critical role. On design jobs, it’s the sample content used in initial compositions, the labels on form fields, text in navigation, among dozens of other items that may never even get discussed, but require attention to language. In development, it’s the documentation, training materials, even the way variables are named. Using plain English as much as possible is considerate of the other people who might work on that code in the future. 2010-02-01T06:11:50+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/100/instructional_video/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/100/instructional_video/#When:03:05:55Z We designed and developed this fun retro site as a marketing tool for an instructional video series for aspiring young actors. 2009-10-02T03:05:55+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/70/student_field_science/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/70/student_field_science/#When:17:07:03Z We redesigned EPI's website from top to bottom, working closely with on-site staff and contracted editors to deliver a lively, bilingual, user-friendly web experience. Carefully constructed forms guide new travelers from submitting their enrollment application through to planning fundraisers and sharing flight information. For outbound communication, we built tools for managing blogs, events, testimonials and press releases. 2009-09-16T17:07:03+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/53/crafting_every_square_inch/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/53/crafting_every_square_inch/#When:04:38:02Z Last week, thanks to some friends who are always up for an adventure, I visited the factory of Tiny Texas Houses about an hour south of Austin, TX. Part of a growing movement towards beautiful prefabricated housing, they are small, environmentally-friendly and utterly charming. The special sauce for Tiny Texas Houses is their raw materials — outside of insulation, electrical and plumbing, nearly every component is salvaged from tear downs and junkyards. Their partner organization, Discovery Architectural Antiques, collects vintage windows, beautifully weathered lumber, ornate doorknobs, among countless other vestiges of craftsmanship that find their way into each home. Touring the little houses, I was struck by how much thought and care clearly goes into designing these 150-350 sq. ft. residences. Each square inch felt contemplated, from the lofted sleeping areas to the miniature bathrooms and kitchens. And even though these were essentially new houses — built to last 100 years — because of the materials, they smell like a well-loved home. Here are a few random video clips from our walk around the operation: Of course, actually living in one of these houses full-time would require a major lifestyle adjustment, particularly for two people. It would take the right climate so you could create lots of usable outdoor space, a separate work/studio space, and much less crap overall to make it work. But the benefits of low energy use, easy maintenance and affordable craftsmanship might easily outweigh any downsides. So what does this have to do with Gridwork? More than you might think. The lesson I’m taking away is that in eventually in any design process — whether its housing, or lifestyle, or web design, or writing — you benefit from stepping back, identifying what is truly necessary and eliminating everything else. And once you’ve identified your absolute minimum needs, obsess over them until they are perfect. The lifespan of a website is probably going to be less than 100 years, but we can take care to build things to last, reduce (information) pollution, and feel instantly comfortable. 2009-03-26T04:38:02+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/52/sxswi_2009_wrap_up/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/52/sxswi_2009_wrap_up/#When:02:14:00Z After nine thrilling days in Austin, Texas, I’m back home beginning to sort through the mass of information, people and activities still swirling in my head. This year marked the first time Gridwork was able to partially fund attendance for three people. As a very small company, this was a pretty big deal, so we were there to make the most of it and hopefully inject some new energy into becoming better at what we do. Without a doubt, the single most important reason I went to the conference was to preview the upcoming major upgrade of our favorite content management system, ExpressionEngine. A huge part of our business relies on being experts at this system, so I wanted to educate myself as much as possible before the official release. So in addition to attending EE-centric parties and chatting up some of the best and brightest developers, I also forced myself to get up early for a breakfast demonstration with the people behind the code, EllisLab. I was surprised at how radically improved the new system is for end users while still acting like an iterative release for developers (no major changes to the coding methodology). There are certainly some lovely new additions (better file uploading, picture editor, whizzy forms), but most of the changes will help us work faster and more efficiently. For instance, we often obscure the control panel completely for content management, especially for group blogs or clients with low tolerance for technological learning curves. This gives them a seamless transition from navigating their site to publishing or editing content. The problem with this solution in EE 1.x is that we end up replicating dozens of forms and bits of functionality which is time consuming and difficult to upgrade. EE 2.0 will allow us to make radical alterations to the design of the control panel so we can essentially rebrand the administration functionality for each individual client, omitting unused features and streamlining tasks into fewer and fewer pages. And this is the tip of the iceberg. There so much attention to detail, you can understand why it took so long and why the wait is worth it. Of course, the conference was about much more than software and talking shop, it was about getting out from under our antisocial rocks and meeting people. And the one overarching value that I keep thinking about is how important it is to participate in dialogue. Everyone is obsessed with their blog and Twitter and Facebook and iPhones because they are great tools to foster that dialogue. It’s so easy to hate on whatever is trendy, to opt out because you’ve seen some shallowness, or because you’re self-conscious, or unknown, or intimidated. I know I’m in some of those groups, lurking on the EE forums and posting twice yearly blog entries. For all the talk about the artificiality of social networking, it only takes one offline interaction with a formerly online-only connection to realize the value of chiming in and participating, regardless of which medium you want to use. 2009-03-20T02:14:00+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/18/online_video_network/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/18/online_video_network/#When:13:32:42Z Small Screen Network creates high-quality videos specializing on the "liquid culture" of cocktails and beer. The site we created highlights the interactive flash videos and provides a platform form blogging, podcasting, and sharing content. 2009-02-09T13:32:42+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/21/outdoor_education/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/21/outdoor_education/#When:04:00:10Z Global Explorers specializes in sustainable travel education for students, giving them unique experiences that will help shape global citizens. We created a fully interactive and customizable site, students and faculty can connect online, raise money for their trip, and prepare for the adventure ahead. 2008-10-21T04:00:10+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/20/news_magazine_website/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/20/news_magazine_website/#When:03:45:40Z This flagship site for a leading progressive news publication required coordinating the input and talents of half a dozen editors, designers and coders over the course of a full year. 2008-10-02T03:45:40+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/11/widgets_vs_originality/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/11/widgets_vs_originality/#When:15:04:02Z This is a design company. Or at least I thought it was. As I look at our summer calendar and recent project launches, I’m starting to notice development work and maintenance arrangements becoming larger parts of the business. I can think of a few reasons to explain how this came to be. One reason may be an influx of designers being asked to reach beyond their comfort zone as more complex web technologies become commonplace. It could be that our clients are starting to ask for the same complicated things, so we’re spending more time adapting an existing design into ever more interactive experiences. It could also be that the particular software we specialize in, ExpressionEngine, is gaining a wider following and more clients in need of advanced features and consistent maintenance work. Early on when Gridwork first started and there wasn’t enough client work to fill all my time, I wasted money and carbon aimlessly driving around listening to business-y audiobooks, the first of which was The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. I don’t remember much from this book, but one thing has always nagged me. He says something like your business must be something that you can repeat by automating and essentially franchising. Even though I never intend to franchise what Gridwork is doing, I’m strongly drawn to the idea of automating and standardizing as much of what we do as possible. The tension between selling creativity and simply executing functionality requests still exists, but the more we know about the best way to do one thing or another the more brain energy we can devote to the broader design and strategy. Creativity will always drive the spirit of this company, but standards and automation will finance our dreams of awesome health care and long forgotten credit card companies. It is with this insight that we’re entering into our first real growth period. This spring, I began transitioning from full-time developer and designer to focusing a greater portion of my time on recruiting new clients, managing long-term relationships and training new associates to take on the added workload. Joining Mary (print design) and Brooks (development) is Erik Hanberg, currently implementing new client projects and bringing proven writing experience and project management to our talented roster. In the coming months, look for a redesign of this site in the spirit of automation and improved communication. New client login tools will include dashboards for reviewing timesheets, assigning new tasks, self-administering their sites, monitoring project progress and storing brand / tech assets. 2008-06-07T15:04:02+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/22/magazine_site/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/22/magazine_site/#When:04:05:06Z Shelterforce is published by the National Housing Institute, an independent nonprofit organization that examines the issues causing the crisis in housing and community in America. 2008-06-02T04:05:06+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/10/office_lunch_coworkers/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/10/office_lunch_coworkers/#When:14:56:31Z As of early September, Gridwork is no longer being operated from my living room. Goodbye to the endless distractions and errand running that slowly seemed to take over all my free time. At first, working from home was tremendously liberating. I found myself spending many more hours on being creative and less in meetings or on busywork. However, over time I completely merged personal time with work time, which usually meant working off and on from early in the morning until late at night. To regulate this social life killing regimen, I began spending more and more time at a nearby café. Now, I love coffee as much as any native northwesterner, but there are severe consequences for consuming vast quantities of caffeine. Fortunately, we’ve had an opportunity to partner with some friends from Exit133 on a new coworking space, Suite133. The coworking business model attempts to create a middle ground between a coffee shop and a typical office. Probably the most obvious difference is that most of the people in the space are either freelancers or small 2-5 person companies. Rather than fixed workstations, we’ve got a bunch of desks lined up that stay perfectly clean until someone needs to work. The timing for this change couldn’t be better as work continues to flow in. To expand this workload, I’ve begun working more regularly with two talented freelancers, Brooks Seymore and Mary Holste. Their enthusiasm for building websites and designing materials is invigorating and will hopefully lead toward many good things to come. 2007-10-23T14:56:31+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/15/student_website/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/portfolio/15/student_website/#When:05:31:33Z To help guide Chicago Public Schools' students through their post-graduation plans, we worked closely with the Department of Postsecondary Education to design and built a site targeted directly at students 2007-10-02T05:31:33+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/9/seasonal_content/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/9/seasonal_content/#When:13:54:51Z Clearly, I am not a natural blogger. Four posts a year does not a blog make. I’ve always had a thing for marking seasonal changes, and it looks like blogging will inherit those impulses. As a child, I would rearrange all the furniture in my room whenever the temperature hit an arbitrary number of my choosing (e.g. the dresser moves to the north wall when the overnight low hits 20°F). For ongoing design projects, I tend to roll out larger changes and pages every three months or so. And when I can resist summer fruit from Chile, my body appreciates food appropriate to the current season. Nevertheless, one of the biggest surprises I’ve learned about building a small business is how vital it is to write well and often. If it’s not new client proposals, it’s maintaining existing relationships. There’s so much jargon and assumed knowledge with design and the internet that “writing clearly” is almost oxymoronic. So heading into year three of sole propriety, I’m setting a goal to increase the amount of content on this site, hopefully in more ways than lame seasonal posts. Anyhow, with spring emerging my focus has turned back towards independent publishing. A new client, Shelterforce magazine, will require a satisfying mix of print and web design. The past few weeks have involved becoming familiar with the latest iteration of InDesign and lusting after all the typefaces I’ve missed from the pre-web design days. (Note to self: Look into flash type replacement.) The Media Consortium (long-time client In These Times is a member) has also begun to show its prowess. They have begun building out their member tools with GoLightly and convened one (of two) technology sharing meetings. I attended the first one in New York and finally felt the benefits of collaborating face-to-face. Tech people like to use space-age communication tools, but there isn’t a technology that can foster the type of relationships that physical proximity can. You can’t react to someone’s facial expression or body language in a conference call, and forget about sarcasm over instant messenger. 2007-03-09T13:54:51+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/8/commence_rainy_season/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/8/commence_rainy_season/#When:14:50:00Z Autumn has turned from a shockingly bright, crisp, leafy delight into a bluish-gray, waterlogged, baked potato gloomfest. Growing up in the NW, I learned to force myself to like this time of year. Attentions turn towards staying home and assembling puzzles, reading anything within reach, and trying to do all the things I said would get done when the rain finally came. Fortunately for business, without sunny distractions, its easier to find the diligence required of a more ambitious workload. For a change, I am looking closer to home for new projects. The past 18 months of building Gridwork involved working primarily with clients scattered across the country. Meetings are always conference calls, collaborations always online. Normal human contact comes from working at a coffeeshop or cruising Fred Meyer (although Halloween provided an adorable respite). Fortunately, a couple small local projects are currently underway that involve real people within driving distance. One is still in the design phase so there’s no link to share, with a prototype in development. The other venture is also, still early in development, but I have high hopes. The name is still unofficial, but the Tacoma Independent could possibly be a forthcoming progressive news and community site. The group behind the concept is in the planning stages of looking at what it would take to form an organization devoted to publishing a variety of media in Pierce County (including radio, public access TV, and a newspaper) with a left-of-center point-of-view. The prototype site currently includes a functional calendar/meeting planner, discussion forum, and membership features. Elsewhere on our map, we’ve recently rolled out tagging features and a new link directory over at In These Times. And while there isn’t a public link or demo, rolling out a group communication system for Global Explorers was a tremendous learning opportunity. Their internal system allows dynamic groups of students and teachers to share educational materials, photos, fundraising ideas, and begin to form a social group months before they embark on an international, traveling workshop. 2006-11-03T14:50:00+00:00 http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/7/when_it_rains/ http://www.gridworkdesign.com/blog/7/when_it_rains/#When:14:38:09Z Spring has come and gone. The northwest spent several weeks under drizzly, cooler than normal weather, and suddenly summer has arrived. And with it, a new city, new projects, a new office/home. In fact, almost everyday brings entirely new ups and downs. Without the familiarity of work to stay rooted in, I’d probably be drowning under the weight of it all. Since my first year in college, life seems to oscillate between long bouts of nose-grinding routine and short bursts of everything changing all at once — it is both terrifying and liberating. The new city: Tacoma, WA, about halfway between Highway 16 and Pt. Defiance Park. It’s a big, but secondary city about 30 minutes south of Seattle. So far, I’ve spent very few days actually getting out and exploring, although I’ve managed to get lost driving around several times, which is one of my favorite ways of discovering new places. And there are several fantastic grocery stores and farmers markets scattered throughout almost every neighborhood. Several projects at Gridwork are currently either nearing completion or just taking off. For Global Explorers, we created a travel journal for a group of blind and sighted high-school students who hiked through Peru to the lost city of Macchu Pichu. Before that, we had the wonderful opportunity to work with the Center for Social Media, creating an entirely new online presence, and implementing some of the latest exciting web technologies along the way. And just today, we launched an interactive Flash-based map of the progressive media for In These Times. Looking forward, we’re thrilled to be developing a new site with the Independent Press Association, which is currently in heavy development. We’re also working with a new group, The Media Consortium, on rolling out a centralized content management system and web application for content editors across the media landscape. They’ve developed a gorgeous, prototype site to skin the prototype application we demoed earlier this past Spring. So while business is looking up and moving forward, it leaves less time to calm the chaos outside of work. It takes more effort than it should to carve personal time out for cooking or tennis or taking pictures, or anything truly relaxing. I’d like this summer to be about striving for that balance, and hopefully finding some peace. 2006-06-26T14:38:09+00:00