We fell in love with Lost Weekend Clothing Company shortly after they opened for business here in Long Beach.  Not only do they do stellar quality custom embroidery, Craig and Troy (and their handsome Boston Terrier, Tank) are just plain nice.  They’re very quality and cost-conscious on behalf of their customers and take good care of us here in teeny tiny town, with prices below what this office had been paying for non-embroidered polos, shirts towels and duffels.

We’ve had our own logo stitched up for some time.  If you like it and want to get some beachdog gear of your own, or one of our much-used jowel towels, we leave an open license with the fellas so you can do that.  All you need to do is give them a  jingle to take a look at a catalog and tell them it’s our logo you want.  The same is true of the South Pacific County Humane Society logo.

Here’s the exciting news:  Lost Weekend Clothing is now online! 

LostWeekendClothing.com launched recently, the final step in a package of products and services we’ve been working together on.  They wisely took advantage of our bundling of services to save on time and costs.  First came the logo, then the business cards and, finally, the website.  We’re pleased with the final product and, more importantly, Troy and Craig are happy and getting great feedback.

For the logo, it was important for the visual to say what it is they do, especially since their business name doesn’t clearly do so.  It was important to the guys that a rainbow of colors be included as they work with every color of threads.  At the same time, they didn’t want to sacrifice masculinity in the design.  Wendy and Keleigh did some preliminary sketches and gave the gentlemen a variety of art styles from which to choose.   The best of all worlds were then combined into the logo you see here.

Business cards were quickly ordered and, in the interest of getting their domain up and running so it could begin to ‘age’, the business card design was translated into a one-page website.  Craig and Troy got such a great response to the initial web page that they got motivated and did all their homework so we could move ahead quickly with a site build.  We love it when that happens!

Sabrina headed up this part of the project.  The men explained they wanted to lay out how their custom embroidery process works, from initial consultation to final product, including giving an idea of costs.  It was also really important for this friendly company to also use the site to share who they were, things they cared about, and connect with all the great community groups and customers they’ve met while living here on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula.

As a result, Sabrina made their home page a blog.  This lets them post news about what they’re doing as a company and what’s up in their, or their customer’s, lives and made a special page for showcasing all their customers and linking to their websites. A “Customer of the Month” page was also designed.

This is a great example of a “lightly customized” blog site.  The guys didn’t need a ton of bells and whistles or high-end design customization so we were able to give them our standard install, which includes a variety of functional plug-ins, and choose a simple pre-made theme which could be easily customized to match the look and feel of the temporary page they liked so well.  The result is really low cost, yet highly professional-looking web presence.  And, since Craig and Troy are able to edit it themselves through a web browser (the training session is included in the cost of building the site), they’ll keep maintenance costs down.

These are a few of the many things we love about blog-based sites.  Site owners don’t have to compromise between spending way too much and having a site that looks homemade and unprofessional. And the tools included with our flavor of installation and setup allow our customers to keep their sites up-to-date without accidentally changing that professional look and feel.

And then there are the search engine advantages of this sort of site… Suffice it to say it is a good solution for a lot of folks. So take a click around and let the good men of Lost Weekend Clothing Company know what you need in the way of custom embroidery.  We know you’ll enjoy working with them.

Here are a couple of auto magnets we’ve recently completed.  Auto magnets are a fairly inexpensive way to turn your vehicle into a moving billboard–without the commitment of decals and wraps.  The newer materials are great; they’re thin and stay in place regardless of weather and wind and, if properly cared for, there’s almost no risk of harm to your paint job.

Nowadays, it is only a few dollars more to go full color, which opens your design options quite a bit.  Using eye-catching color is GREAT!   However, as is our belief in most things, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.  There are very few instances where using a photograph on a small canvas that is a moving target would be advisable.  However, some well-placed color really ‘pops’ the message:

Keep your message as simple as possible.  Less is more!  Remember, the less information you offer, the likely it will all be read, remembered…and seen while moving.

 

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Lilly joined our beachdog.com family yesterday.  She’s spent the past couple of years cohabiting with other white Danes having visual and hearing challenges.  You see, white isn’t really a coat color but rather the absence of color.  When white dogs, like Harlequin Great Danes, are bred to other white dogs with the same gene, it isn’t uncommon to end up with deaf and/or blind puppies.

Keleigh had a fabulous blue-eyed dalmatian for 15 years who was born deaf and so, when the time came to find a buddy for Perdita, and Keith was unyielding that it should be a Female Dane, it shouldn’t have surprised either to happen across a Deaf Dane Rescue online.  Kandace and Marc at Deaf Dane Rescue are doing an amazing job with a lot of dogs with special needs.    The hard part for Keleigh was taking only ONE dog home (Keith was adamant about that :-] ).

Perdi was comfortable with Aspen right away but really enjoyed playing with Penny once they were properly acquainted.  Keleigh fell in love with Stevie.  And Aspen. And Penny.  And Caliber.  Keleigh would like to house a Dane rescue someday.  Keith was thoughtful.  He couldn’t decide;  he really liked Penny’s energy but was concerned it was too much for Perdi.  He was concerned about Aspen’s age; at 6 years old, she’s not a youngster for a giant breed dog. At the same time, he had a heart filled with compassion for her having spent so much of that time in a rescue and he wanted to give her a forever home where she could be spoiled like the elegant lady she clearly is on the inside.  Aspen came home with us.

As it turns out, she chose Keith.  She’s been like a piece of velcro, stuck to his back side ever since leaving Oakridge and nearly inconsolable in his absence.  As Keith is wanton to do, he added to her name on the drive home.  She’s now Aspen Calla Lilly Schvartz.  She’s strong and lean like an Aspen but elegant and feminine as a Calla Lilly.  There’s a nice thing about a deaf dog;  we can call her Lilly and she won’t really notice the change.

Today was a big day for our new charge.  She absolutely loved all the comings and goings of people in the office.  We have two cats spending their days with us temporarily and Lilly found Snuffy & Chloe QUITE interesting.  She kept her manners intact…for the most part.  Like most royalty, she has a stubborn streak and turns away if she doesn’t want to ‘listen’, and she’s not used to our house rules about greeting guests just yet, but heck, it’s only day one.  Don’t be intimidated by her size; she’s a very gentle lady!

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Another great benefit of this past weekend’s adventure in meeting Lilly was staying at Tired Dog Ranch in Oakridge.  We enjoyed the heck out of our time walking in the woods and otherwise around the grounds, meeting chickens and ducks and horses and dogs and a LOT of kitties!  We had a truly relaxing afternoon listening to rain on our yurt as we read, played cards and just hung out.  Proprietors Amy Jo and Sally made us feel completely at home and gave us tons of space, a balance not often found in such wonderful places.  I can’t remember the last time we enjoyed accommodations so much.  If you ever want a getaway about 40 minutes out of Springfield, Oregon, give them a call.  Seriously.

Update 03/26/09:
The girls are settling in quickly.  Perdi is starting to follow Lilly’s lead in all subjects other than personal comfort.  Perdita remains the alpha queen on that topic .  Lilly loves greeting guests at the office and is ‘listening’ to staff and family much better now that she’s tested everyone out and found we’re all just as stubborn as she is.    We’ve also found that she’s not completely deaf; Keleigh has come down with a nasty head cold and whenever she gives a hard sneeze, Lilly runs to the front door and barks.  Perdita follows, of course.  Then they come back with quizzical looks on their faces as nobody was at the door.

Rescue a Dane.  You won’t regret it!

We love it when Richard Dawson of Seaview Garden Cottage comes for a visit.  He’s got an incredible wit, which makes his presence welcome at any time.  But we had a treat when he brought Arthur with him the other day, to talk about Water Music Festival.  Is this guy gorgeous, or what?

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I’m not being fresh;  I mean ARTHUR! RME

One of the sites we follow, www.webdesignerdepot.com, had a great article this week on the five things our clients should know to build a successful website.  Click the link in that last sentence for the full article.  Here’s a condensed version for you:

1. The client is the secret to a successful website

I have worked on hundreds of websites over the past 15 years and each site’s success or failure has always been attributed to the quality of the client. It is their decisions that shape the site and their commitment that defines its long term future.  As web designers, I believe we need to clearly communicate to the client the importance of their role and dispel the misconception that they can hire a web designer and walk away.  Not only do we need to emphasis the importance of their role, we also need to define the extent of it.

2. Clients have a diverse and challenging role

I believe that the role of the client is by far the most complex and challenging in web design.

A client has to be a:

• Visionary – capable of establishing the long term direction of their site
• Evangelist – able to promote the site both internally and externally
• Content guardian – responsible for ensuring the quality and relevancy of content
• Project coordinator – overseeing all aspects of the site as well as dealing with suppliers
• Referee – making final decisions between conflicting priorities

What is even more is that the client is supposed to know enough about a broad range of disciplines (from marketing to interface design), in order to make informed decisions.  Unfortunately their role is also often massively under resourced.

3. Clients identify problems, designers provide solutions

One of the biggest problems in most web projects is that the client starts making the decisions that are best left to the web designer. Not only does this lead to bad decisions, but also inevitably leaves the web designer feeling undervalued and frustrated.  This problem can manifest in a variety of ways, however ultimately it comes down to a single issue – the client is trying to find solutions to their problems instead of relying on the web designer.

[One example is  the] wish list of ideas that they have for the site. They are the client’s attempt to solve an underlying issue. For example, their problem might be a failure to engage with customers, therefore …they suggest adding a forum. Of course, in reality there are many other ways to engage with customers, however unless they express the problem to you, you will never have the opportunity to suggest a solution.  At the beginning of every project, encourage your client to focus on problems and not solutions.

4. Sites should evolve

A typical website goes through a constant cycle of redesign. After its initial launch, it is left to slowly decay. The content becomes out of date, the design begins to look old fashioned and the technology becomes obsolete. Eventually staff stop referring customers to the site and it is perceived as a liability rather than an asset. In the end, senior management intervenes and assigns somebody to ‘sort out the website’. This inevitably leads to the site being replaced by a new version, and the cycle repeats itself.

We need to start encouraging our clients to invest regularly in their websites. They need a permanent website manager and an ongoing relationship with their web design agency. Together they need to keep content up-to-date, improve the user interface and ensure that the technology keeps pace with change. Ultimately this is more cost effective than replacing the site every few years.

The ongoing management of content is an area that needs particular attention. Unfortunately it is often massively under resourced and generally neglected.

5. Content is king – Act like it!

I am constantly amazed at the difference between what clients says and what they do. Take, for example, content; most clients fully accept that content is king, yet few are willing to spend money on ensuring its quality.

It is our role as web designers to educate our clients about the importance of copywriting and explain the size of the task, if they choose to take it on themselves. Without previous experience most clients will significantly underestimate this task.