Pemaquid Communications

Picking a favorite Client is a little like choosing a favorite offspring – you love them all in their own special way. But annie|catherine design stationery is certainly one of the Clients I like the most. The business run by Annie Darling and Catherine Breer has always had a warm, playful friendly vibe and an amazing creativity that is inspiring. Their work is truly unique; Annie has a knack for saying just the right thing and then translating that visually. Catherine’s art captures life along the Down East coast in a way that I’m sure Gauguin would approve.

I’ve helped them create two Web sites over the years, most recently the current version, which launched earlier this year. Annie, naturally, created the design concept, since she’s really the only person who possibly could have done it justice. Throughout the process I’ve come to understand and appreciate Annie’s attention to detail. She wanted to be very precise with fonts, layout and proportion. I also admire her patience: the annie|catherine site is one of the first in which we installed a new kind of e-commerce system, and while we’re pretty good at it now, there was a bit of a learning curve at the time. Annie handled the bumps and bruises with more grace than I would have if the shoe had been on the other foot. If she could bottle that stuff up and sell it, I’m sure she would make a mint.

I’m proud of the site we’ve built together, and I’ve learned a lot about the creative process and the fine art of working together (I still have a lot to learn). I’m sure it would still be a Very Good Site without the work of Annie Darling. But I’m not at all sure that it would be a Best of the Web award winner.

Three sites designed and developed by Pemaquid Communications have been named finalist for the 2011 TechMaine.com Best of the Web awards. And the nominees are….

annie|catherine designer stationery – Best e-commerce Site. Launched on Valentine’s Day, the site run by Annie Darling and Catherine Breer features creative, colorful cards and calendars adorned with Catherine’s art work depicting Maine scenes. The site, powered by the Django Open Source content management framework and its Satchmo e-commerce package, allows them to more easily manage product listings, sale offerings, gift certificates and promotional codes.

Portland Music Foundation – Best Non-Profit Site. The Portland Music Foundation is dedicated to promoting the music scene in Portland and offers regular workshops to assist musicians with their marketing and professional development. To our knowledge it is nearly unique – it’s one of only two music foundations in the entire country, and their mission takes cues from its counterpart, the Austin Music Foundation (and we all know about the music scene in Austin, right?). One unique feature is a Venue Finder, a google map mashup that helps you find the clubs in Portland, Maine where various types of music can be found. The site runs a Django CMS customized by Pemaquid and includes the Satchmo e-commerce component.

Maine Lobster Festival – Best Arts & Entertainment Site. This site redesign was undertaken as part of a class project with students from Maine College of Art, partnered with mentors in a project called Extreme Makeover – Web Site Edition. The site exposed the students to the Web design process in real life situation, and the Client a great site for a fraction of the cost. The site runs on the Django open source framework and the site uses the Satchmo e-commerce package.

Winners will be announced June 23rd at the 2011 TechMaine Gala.

A hearty shout-out to Pemaquid’s Web hosting Client Catherine Breer, who’s beautiful artwork is featured in the lastest issue of Maine Sunday Telegram.

Catherine brought her site, CatherineBreer.com, to us for hosting about a year and a half ago, and you can see many of her best works there, including Light After The Storm, featured in this post.

Her work is also featured at annie|catherine, the exquisite designer stationery business she shares with her partner Annie Darling. Pemaquid built the annie|catherine site, its custom e-commerce engine and its Commerce Manager, that allows Annie (Catherine’s boss) and Catherine (Annie’s boss) to upload and adjust product information for their wonderful cards, calendars and “go go wrap”.