Web Design by Sheriar Designs: Impeccable Code | Beautiful Design

I recently had a really great experience doing some design / xhtml / css tweaking for a great up and coming web application – iMoondo.

This job was simply a pleasure from start to finish. Andrej Masiar was just so fun and easy to work with … one of those clients you want to stay on the phone chatting with after your done talking about work stuff. Andrej has some key characteristics that make up a great client that I’m going to keep in mind when trying to replicate that type of client. They are:

If you freelance then you’ve many times guesstimated the time you’ve spent on projects. You’ve often had a nagging suspicion that you’ve either overcharged a client or cheated yourself. Recently I’ve discovered a little web app that has put an end to those issues for me.

Yesterday I met this cool guy named Bijoy. He was an immediately obviously intelligent, well-spoken, and interesting person. I liked him right away. Pretty early into the brief conversation, though, he told me that I was the type of person who could never be happy having a boss. Not too much later he told me that I was an evangelist. Huh? He meant that I was one of three types of people, as he has defined in his book The Human Fabric. These three types are Mavens, Relaters, and Evangelists. When asked what how these types were defined I was told that mavens are all about knowledge, Relaters are all about relationships, and Evangelists are action driven. I told him that I’d like to think I was a bit of all three and he gave me a knowing wink and simply said, “everyone does.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I have an inherent difficulty with those that think they can classify me as any “type” of person – especially upon first meeting me. I am a deeply reflective person and I feel that I am the one best equipped to realize my own nature.

So I felt a bit conflicted – I liked Bijoy and clearly he was quite interesting and charming, yet I didn’t appreciate being immediately classified. I went back to my hotel and did some research on him and found that my confusion only deepened. Clearly there were lots of folks who believe that Bijoy has this gift of “seeing” people quickly and clearly. He had written what appeared to be an interesting book, and he had started a network of entrepreneurs, the Bootstrap Network, that was flourishing here in Austin with splinter groups popping up around the world.

I just attended the most impactful presentation I have seen here at SxSW. It was called The 4-Hour Workweek: Secrets of Doing More with Less in a Digital World and it’s description read, “Is your team mired in the goo and muck of old-school thinking? Are your designers and developers divided on their approach and about to throw in the towel? Are you dying to move from a stale world to a more agile, innovative approach? This panel features formerly stuck experts as well as those who have helped clients get out of the muck. Success in today’s web environment means merging design and development thinking to move to a 2.0 world and beyond.”

I almost didn’t go to this today because it was the first panel of the morning, I was tired, and I couldn’t really tell from the description whether it would be interesting or now. Well, the description was misleading. The lone presenter, Tim Ferriss, was a charismatic, dynamic, power-horse of amazing advice. Honestly, right now, my mind is a bit blown. I am filled with manic energy while I frantically try to process how my entire view of running a business and living a life may very well have just been dramatically altered.

Here are my notes from this radical presentation:

DDM is looking for some freelance scripting help. Our ideal relationship would be with a modern programmer (in other words, buzzword compliant) that we could hit up with some, “We want to have this functionality … is it possible” questions. ;~) If the answer is yes then that programmer would whip up some scripts for us and we would pay for them.

To get us started in the relationship, we have a real-life example of functionality we actually need to find a way to implement right now. I’m sure I could find a way to do it with hours or days of head-banging … but I want it done better than that, and frankly … faster too. Here’s the deal – you take a look at this project and let us know how long it would take you, how much it would cost, and what technologies would be employed. We get back to you and ask you to bust it out if it seems like an elegant solution.

Yep, you heard it … I’m in search of a prodigy to bring into Deluxe Digital Media. I am basically looking for a mini-me … me a few years ago, if you will. (Narcissistic much?)

We at DDM are looking for someone to bring in initially on a freelance basis on some of our smaller projects, but if the fit is exceptional it would hopefully lead to a full-time job. You would be working directly with me and I would happily impart any and all of my knowledge on you and hopefully get some or yours back in return. You would also have the extreme pleasure of working with some of my colleagues here – who are brilliant, friendly, and fun.

You may recall my post of a couple months ago – Office Space, a New-School Web-Programming Geek, and a Business Name – in which I spoke of a new business partner and a new business venture. You may be wondering whatever came of that? Well, the business partner is still with me, and the business venture is still in the works … it’s just changed scope a bit (as ventures tend to do). It’s gotten more exciting!

After close to three years of working out of my home in my pajamas I am finally ready for a change, and a move up. I am planning on taking the plunge and moving into an actual work space. You know, a space dedicated only to work? Not also to laundry and cooking and movie watching and child-rearing? My own creative space (drool).

Well, not just my own. I am teaming up with someone else. A secret-identity project manager, business-type guy. So I don’t have to take care of all the business! And if the space sharing goes well, we plan on forming a full-fledged startup company! It’s very exciting!! In the mean time, we are in need of three things – eight others to share the space with, a new school programming nerd and, eventually, a new business name. If you live in the East Bay of the San Francisco area and are looking for space, check out what we have to offer and drop me a line. If you are a new-school web-programming nerd and you’re looking to team up with, say, a designer/coder and a business guy, definitely let me know. If you have any name ideas, please, please, please sumbit them in the comments – it’ll be fun!