This past weekend, Nashville Interactive launched SpenshaOnline.com; the online home of inspirational musical artist Spensha Baker. The website design and development was handled completely by Nashville Interactive. I've said it before: creating an artist website design is always a fun project to work on. The creative freedom and ability to work with less "traditional" layouts allows the opportunity to stretch the creative muscles a bit.
The site was built using an Open-Source Content Management System so that the client has full control over their own online presence. Using open source software also means that there are no monthly licensing fees of any kind which often come along with bulkier proprietary systems.
Nashville Interactive recently designed, built and launched alwayssisterforeverbrothers.com. This website for the 2010 Always Sisters Forever Brothers Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, proved to be a great project to work on. The site design awarded Nashville Interactive the opportunity to use some pretty cool javaScript and front-end development techniques. The website features a scrolling "homepage" that creates a nice, cohesive experience for viewing the top-level content. Much care was taken to ensure that the browser back and forward buttons would work with this design and more importantly that deep linking to all the top level content within the scrollable sections would work across all the major web browsers.
The site utilizes WordPress as a content management system which allows the client to take full control of their website and in-turn the message they want to put in front of their audience. Empowering clients to control their website's content is good website design, and this sort of self sustainability is part of Nashville Interactive's primary mission.
Nashville Interactive recently completed a custom Flash design project for the world-renown Gaylord Entertainment. The client wanted a Flash-based landing page that was tied in with email marketing campaigns. The end product was a completely customizable experience that included a photo slideshow with accompanying text for each image. The all-Flash landing pages are easily "re-skinned" with xml and image replacement making them extremely flexible and quickly edited. While I've become an advocate of more "traditional" methods for web development, I always enjoy diving into some custom Flash Design.
Nashville Interactive is proud to announce that we've developed and re-launched richardmarx.com. If you aren't familiar with Richard Marx's music (you probably are even if you don't know it), He's a Grammy Award-winning, #1 song-writing (13 of them), multi-platinum album selling artist.
The Richard Marx camp was in need of a new provider for website design and development services and Nashville Interactive is flattered to be able to help out. Richard's website was less than one year old when the need arose to redevelop the established website design on a new platform. Nashville Interactive was called in to rebuild the site. In order to avoid the all-to-common scenario of being locked in to a proprietary system, open-source content management technologies were implemented. Don't get me wrong, proprietary systems have their place but open-source is the preferred solution is this type of situation. The site is controlled and owned by the client and they can do with it whatever they wish. This is just one of the advantages of using open-source content management systems to develop websites.
Designing websites for musicians and bands is always a fun project for me. Seeing the response and interaction on artist and band websites puts a lot of things into perspective because the target audience is so engaged with the artist. I'm happy to provide the tools for the interaction and see my work bringing fans and artists closer.
Generally, where web design and development are concerned, there seems to be a common view that larger web design firms and agencies can provide much better service than smaller shops and individual web designers. I'm here to dispel that myth. Having worked for several "established" companies where I was the key (if not only) player in many site builds and designs, I've come to realize that all the company itself was bringing to the table was me. I've concepted, wire-framed, designed and developed many a site on my own while working for larger companies. Often times companies can present the illusion that you've got a huge team working on your project while in fact you have one person (just like me) sitting in a room getting around to it when the boss says to.
Just a few of the major advantages of using individuals or small shops include price, quality of work and service & response time:
• Price of course is probably the biggest advantage. Agency rates are often times well into the $150-$200 per hour range. Typical freelancer hourly rates beat that by a mile and in this economy every dollar counts. Smaller shops and individuals have less overhead and fewer costs yet all the knowledge and capabilities.
• Generally the quality of work will be better with an individual at the helm. Smaller companies depend much more on word of mouth referrals to get new business and thus (generally) put in a good bit more time and effort than your disgruntled agency employee who hates his or her boss and has no real vested interest in your site.
• Service and response time are also a big consideration when selecting a provider. In my experience with larger agencies, The red tape and bureaucratic process are enough to stop any minor change in its tracks. A change order has to be made and placed. Then it goes through the traffic person, then it hits the designer or developer's desk at which point it has to be produced and then run through an approval process before it can be shipped back out the door for client approval. Needless to say, with an individual that process is dramatically cut down. With an individual or small shop, most of the time you have direct access to the person who is really responsible for your website: the person who can get things done quickly.
Don't get me wrong, larger web design firms have their place. If you run a huge corporation or have a very complex site with hundreds of pages and tons of complicated upkeep then perhaps a larger firm is right for you. Even in this case though, if the site is built correctly from the start, minor maintenance and updates should be easily handled by your people internally. Anything else should be easily handled by an individual.
So for your next design or development project, consider a small shop or individual. You'll get all of the know-how and capabilities at a fraction of the cost. And for the love of God don't outsource it to India. Buy American!
