Pemaquid Communications

Our year as an inaugural entreverge award recipient officially concluded last week with the selection of new winners at the June 16 gala at Port City Music Hall. So now is a good time to reflect.

When you win an award like entreverge, naturally people often ask how the award changes your life and makes a difference in your business. One thing’s for sure – 2009 was a very tough year, but it would have been much tougher without entreverge.

Entreverge definitely helped build an awareness of Pemaquid, what we are all about, and our coworking experiment at Wycwah. The award’s endorsement has helped to solidify the support of the creative community here in Portland behind what we’re doing.

It’s been great to get some face time with entreverge advisors like former governor Angus King, IDEXX Founder David Shaw, Swardlick marketing group principal David Swardlick, the management consultants of the local ACE chapter, and many others (I was particularly pleased to see that long-time Client Gabrielle Melchionda of Mad Gab’s was among them).

Those connections forged will always be there, and who knows what opportunities they might lead to down the road, and the advisor’s perspective on business and what Pemaquid is doing has been helpful.

On the other hand, no magical secrets were revealed. No great bolts from the blue that have transformed the business. In that sense, it reaffirmed one of life’s basic truths: there’s no substitute for hard work, and when the lights dim and the cameras get turned elsewhere things still boil down to you, your own personal energy and your belief in yourself and what your doing.

Perhaps more exciting than meeting some high-powered advisors was the opportunity to meet and get to know my fellow 2009 entreverge winners. Karen Farrell of Top Line Marketing, Emilie Sommer of emilie inc., Adrianne Zahner of Turtle Love Committee and Jeremy Litchfield of Atayne are all doing amazing things, right here in Portland, Maine, and it’s been so great to get to know them and compare notes. I’m so glad that entreverge decided to select five winners each year instead of just one.

What’s next for Pemaquid? More and more of the same. Smart, bulletproof, common-sense Web design and development, delivered with style, by people who speak English (not geek) and don’t talk down to you, is needed more than ever.

We’re so glad to be doing it here in Portland, Maine, and we’re jazzed that our fair city has entreverge, a fantastic way to recognize, build awareness and support great business ideas and the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Last week, Pemaquid’s first intern, Jordan Warren, officially became Pemaquid’s new Creative Services Coordinator, and we are really jazzed about it.

Jordan’s responsible for managing all the “air traffic”: working closely with our Clients to make sure we’re meeting their needs and that they always understand the status of their project. She also works with the creative staff and subcontractors to make sure that your friendly neighborhood Webslingers understand what they need to do to get the job done right.

Have a question or concern about your Web site project? Jordan’s your gal.

Jordan and I met in April, when I gave a guest lecture to her e-commerce class at the University of Southern Maine. Afterwards, she asked if Pemaquid provided internships. She said she wanted to learn as much as she could about Web design and usability and didn’t care if she got paid.

Music to my ears (the part about learning all she could).

So I signed her up as our first intern, and the rest is recent history. Jordan has read the books, written the blog posts, set up the Delicious links for other aspiring Web designers (and learning in the process) and coded the HTML, CSS, PHP and SQL. She even set up Pemaquid’s Facebook fan page.

When her internship ended this past September, Jordan stayed on as a part-time designer. As she finished up her final semester, she has gotten to know many of our Clients quite well.

And the word, from at least one last week: “We like Jordan”.

That rocks. Jordan’s cheerful disposition, ingenuity and attention to detail are making a positive difference. That’s the kind of person we want to have around.

Please help us in congratulating Jordan on her new gig. We’re eagerly looking forward to great things from her in 2010!

Sheila Reiser is Pemaquid’s Creative Services Coordinator.

Her primary duty is to make sure all “air traffic” at Pemaquid is cruising along at a comfortable altitude and that no Client is experiencing any, um, “turbulence”.

Sheila works with Pemaquid’s Chief Bottle Washer (that’s me) in tracking receipt of content, making sure the project is on schedule and on budget and that your project fits within the overall scheme of things at Pemaquid.

Before coming to Pemaquid, Sheila was in the United States Coast Guard, where she graduated from the Academy. During her tour it was her responsibility to know every moving part and system on her ship. She’s doing the same for us.

She has managerial experience: while at sea a crew of six reported to her. If she can handle a half-dozen burly sailors and help maintain our homeland security, that’s good enough for us – and should be good enough for you on your project.

Last week we asked other Maine Web designers to Twitter some words of advice for our intern, Jordan Warren. What we got was good advice for any Web designer at any level. A sampling:

Wendy Clark – @wending (Senior Web Designer at MaineToday) – “Occasionally leave the computer for your education and inspiration. Visit the PMA or local galleries once a month.”

Tim Shackleford – @fiveleafdesign – “Always be learning, test early and often, and surround yourself with people smarter than you. You’ll learn alot.”

Dan St. Peter – @danstpeter – “Listen to and learn from the experts you meet. Study http://www.smashingmagazine.com and other great online resources.”

Maggi Blue – @magpiecreative – “Don’t over think it…it only gets you in trouble.” (Don’t overthink, Jordan, but please do think.)

Ellen Kanner – @ellenkanner (Kanner Kreative) – “Firebug plugin for FireFox. period.” (We got her squared away with that on day one, Ellen!)

Calvin Gilbert – @calvingilbert – “Create libraries of frequently used code snippets and site templates… and listen to Rob.” (Listen to Rob? Smart man, that Calvin.)

You can find all these “tweets of advice” on Twitter, tagged as #4Jordan. Thanks to the folks above for taking the time to share insights based on their experiences.

So what advice do you have for Jordan? If you’re a Web designer here in Maine, we’d love a quick comment. No matter how insignificant you think it might be, it’s a gold mine of knowledge for her. Help her get better, faster.

She’d love to hear from you.

This post is long overdue. But you know what they say – better late than never.

I thought it was high time I recognized some of the folks who have contributed to Pemaquid Web design projects over the last few years; these are the some of the folks who make up Portland, Maine’s Web design scene.

Jen Ecker – Web Designer, Pixel Surgeon. Jen (a.k.a. Dr. Jecker) has collaborated with me for more than three years now, and we’ve honed quite a system for developing markup. Jen’s specialty is cutting-edge CSS, and she’s got a certain flair when it comes to graphic design. She can also dabble in PHP. In other words, the Doctor is in, and she Rocks! (Word to the wise – she is not a robot!)

Sarah Hines - Creative Services Coordinator and all-around Problem Solver. The Web is not simply about a “Web site” anymore. It’s about solving technical problems elegantly. Sarah’s done that in spades. She can do a little Web design, a little SQL, and she’s even been a project manager at times – though I hate the term. She even took care of business cards a while back when we needed some.

Jeff Norris - Programmer. Actually, programmer is not really a fair assessment; Jeff is a big-picture thinker (dare I say “Problem Solver”?) in regards to technical trends. Jeff has fine-tuned the back-end database systems and has done some sysadmin work for a number of projects, and did the heavy lifting behind Oakhurst Dairy’s innovative job application module, which I architected this past September.

Jamie Peloquin - Web Designer. Jamie, a lone wolf who runs Peloquin Design, has been a frequent contributor to Pemaquid sites over the past few years. Typically, Jamie has collaborated with us to produce the Photoshop comps for a site design concept, though he’s a very capable XHTML/CSS designer who is passionate about Web Standards – which is one reason why I like working with him. Oh, yeah, he knows his way around PHP and a Subversion checkout as well.

Wendy Clark – Web Designer. Wendy is the lead designer at MaineToday.com. We were on the same wavelength when I worked there several years ago and we’ve kept in touch; Wendy has done some graphic design work and XHTML coding. I can’t wait to see her handiwork on the brand new MaineToday.com site which is slated for launch tomorrow – kudos Wendy!

Louise Ellis – Web Designer. Louise bumped into a post on this blog more than a year ago when I was looking for help managing the ever-increasing workload. She lives up the road a piece in Rockport, Maine, but that’s not stopped her from being a frequent contributor. Like most of the folks listed here, she’s passionate about Web Standards and “doing things right”.

Suzy Massey – Web Designer. I’ve known Suzy for some time through a local coffee klatch of Web designers; then last year, we discovered we were both attending SXSW. Suzy’s chipped in a time or two, though mostly she’s been a kindred spirit. She may become more involved soon enough though!

Thanks to all of you for all the amazing work we’ve done. I consider you my Superfriends of Maine Web design. I couldn’t have come as far as fast without you, and I look forward to collaborating with you in the future. Good times!

On Monday night I had the opportunity to meet Eric Meyer, one of the foremost experts on CSS. I asked him just exactly how he came to be “one of the foremost experts on CSS”. Here, according to Eric, are the essential ingredients of his success:

Be at the right place at the right time. Eric was at a conference in the mid-nineties and heard someone give a talk on CSS before anyone knew what CSS was. He developed an interest and wanted to learn all he could about the new technology.

Be first . Eric was one of the first people to do any problem solving around CSS and the varous browsers (and this is back in the day; we’re talking IE3).

Write a book. Eric wrote the books that were just waiting to be written about CSS. Once the books were written, he found he received many more offers to speak at conferences and share his expertise.

Get lucky. Eric will tell you that his success story involves a lot of luck (See “Being at the right place…” above). He said there were other people along the way who had the opportunity to write books, but didn’t, or contribute their expertise and didn’t, or who didn’t meet the “right” person or attend the “right” event to light the spark.

Work hard. Let’s not forget the most important ingredient. It’s a given that you’ll need to work hard to rise to the top in any field. You’ve got to pay your dues to sing the blues.

Eric says for him, it was like Rockefeller, who when asked how he’d cornered the oil market, replied:

Get up early. Go to bed late. And strike oil.

What’s your secret formula for success?

Last night I trekked down to Salem, Mass, with Wendy Clark to a special meeting of the Build Gulld, a fun-loving group of Boston area Web slingers.

The meeting was special for two reasons: it featured the revival of another group of Web designers, the Markup & Style Society, founded by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte (members of the M&SS were on hand), and CSS wiz Eric Meyer, who had blown into town to meet with some East Coast Clients, was on hand.

How did I find out about this? Twitter, baby (if you’re not following people in your sphere on Twitter, you are missing out).

I got to reconnect w/Josh Porter of Bokardo, whom I’d met at SXSW and who works out of the North Shore area.

My real reason for going was not so that I could write up a nifty blog post and drop names (really). It was because I think Portland needs a group like this. Sure, there are Tweetups and Maine UX is a great group for all things relating to usability, but I think there’s still room for a group devoted to discussing the latest trends in Web design – and imbibing good ale.

I talked to several of the founders of these groups on their experiences and fortunately starting an interest group is not rocket science, it just takes “interest”. Free beer doesn’t hurt, either (libations were on the house last night).

Patrick Haney (Refresh Boston) – “The people were out there. They just needed a place to come together. We created that. We joined about 30 other Refresh groups located in cities across the country.”

Dan Cederholm (Markup & Style Society) – “You just get together with people who share a common interest, do it regularly, and eventually others find out about it and it grows.”

Folks said the interest groups usually start out their meetings with a 15-30 minute presentation, often by one of the members, about a hot topic. Then, social networking in meat-space takes place. Only rarely does a saloon-style brawl break out.

The organizers I spoke with said one of their biggest problems nowadays is finding a place to meet that will hold all the people who attend. I naively expected last night’s meetup to be a fairly intimate gathering of 30-40; yeah, no, it was more like 120 people.

Boy, wouldn’t that be nice here? I’d settle for a group of 5 or 6.

What do you think, Portland? Can we do it? Do I hear “Ayuh”?

Scanning through Cameron Moll‘s book Mobile Web Design, and he points out the difference between Art and Design:

…what separates design from art is that design ‘is meant to be functional’.

I couldn’t agree more. The graphical, visual look of a Web site, in order to succeed, must serve to make the site useful.

Pemaquid Communications has scored three nominations for techMaine‘s annual Best of the Web Awards. Pemaquid tied for the most nominations of any Maine Web design studio. The nominees are…

annie|catherine.com
Best e-Commerce Site

The site features exquisite stationery for any occasion, along with fine art prints, calendars and something racy called Go-Go Wrap! The company manages over 200 product listings in more than a dozen categories, along with order tracking and fulfillment, through a custom version of Pemaquid’s Commerce Manager.

More about annie|catherine »

MidcoastMaine.com
(Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber)
Best Non-Profit Site

This site draws out the visually appealing nature of this part of the Maine Coast. For many Internet searchers, the site is a tourist gateway to the region and it was very important to the Chamber that the site, through its look and feel, compare favorably to similar sites for more well-known Downeast destinations.

More about MidcoastMaine.com »

The Big Easy – www.bigeasyportland.com
Best Arts & Entertainment Site

The Big Easy is Portland, Maine’s premier night spot. The club wanted a new Web site that rocks as loud as they do. The Content Manager allows easy-self-publishing of upcoming events as well as multiple Photo Galleries of local bands in action on its stage. The design really makes you want to be there!

More about The Big Easy »

Best of the Web award winners will be announced at techMaine’s Gala, taking place May 20th @ the Eastland Park Hotel Ballroom.

Last weekend marked a milestone for those of us involved in the online world here in Maine. Joe Michaud, who had led MaineToday.com for the last dozen years, stepped down at the end of April, and many MaineToday “alumni” were on hand at Ri Ra last Friday to wish Joe well (Ellen Kanner, an old co-worker who now is a Web designer at Dartmouth, even came down from Hanover).

Folks who spent time working under Joe’s leadership have gone on to form successful, influential Web businesses in the area: Franklin McMahon (former MaineToday.com Creative Services Manager) now has a well-known photography and podcasting company; Justin Davis now heads Portland Web Works, a Pemaquid competitor whose Clients include the Maine Office of Tourism; and (because I like to enumerate things like this in groups of three) I’ll throw myself in there as well.

Way back in the mid ’90′s, when we barely knew what a “browser” was, Joe and a small team at the Portland Press Herald created a skunkworks to try to figure out this “Internet thing”. What developed was a series of Web sites that coalesced to form MaineToday.com. Under Joe’s leadership, MaineToday won many awards, often against larger competitors, and became known as a standard-setting creative force in the mostly bland world of online newspaper publishing.

We were always testing boundaries. I remember covering the 2000 election from the studios of our television partner, WMTW. My job was to post up-to-the-minute blurbs to the MaineToday site about the local, regional and national returns coming in that night. It was pretty radical for a newspaper to have someone publishing on the spot with very little editorial oversight. We didn’t call it blogging back then, but that’s exactly what we were doing.

Now Joe is hanging out a shingle as a consultant to said newspaper industry – and they really need to hear from someone like him. Newspaper ad revenue continues to erode, and those dollars are not migrating to publishers’ digital facsimiles of the printed word. Newspapers’ core revenue centers have continued to lose out to online competitors like Craig’s List (want ads), Cars.com (automotive ads) and Zillow (real estate ads).

My take is that it won’t be long before the creative destruction precipitated by the Internet drives newspapers to the same fate as encyclopedia salesmen. However, if there’s anyone who can help smart publishers figure out how to best take advantage of their remaining assets – strong brands, relatively large audiences and strong advertiser relationships – it’s Joe Michaud.

Pemaquid Communications recently designed and relaunched a Web site for annie|catherine, a dynamic duo that produces designer stationery and related accesories from their studio in the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook, Maine.

Their products include cards for most important occasions – birthdays, holidays, thank yous and other note cards – as well as calendars, picture frames, wrapping paper and prints of the amazing and colorful paintings of Catherine Breer (she’s the “catherine”).

Working with Catherine and her partner, Annie Darling – graphic artists every bit as talented as our own design team – made for an interesting project. Our challenge was to translate the very clear vision they had for the look of the site into something that would be pixel perfect across all browsers.

That’s why making sure the xHTML and CSS was valid was so important. That’s also why we used a “sIFR” (Flash image replacement) javascript to render the page titles in the specific font requested by the Client.

A custom version of our Pemaquid Commerce content management system for e-commerce allows annie|catherine to easily update product images, prices and descriptions, review and process orders and update other site content including Store Locations, Reps, News and Events. They can also create custom promotional pages.

Finally, we developed an easy-to-use e-newsletter manager that allows a|c to send email promotions at will using a simple yet elegant template Pemaquid designed for them.

If you’re looking for great looking designer stationery or fun holiday cards in advance of the holiday season (Gosh! Is it that time of year already?), you definitely ought to surf on over and have a look.

annie|catherine is graciously offering readers of this blog a 20% discount if they enter the promotional code “adcb” at checkout (good through October 31).

If you have OS X, you might want to check out Jeffrey Zeldman’s dashboard. I’ve swiped the screen shot (below); he’s got links to some of the widgets you see.