I recently completed work on an updated visual identity and website for SalesMedics, a leadership development consultancy firm that specializes in working with the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. The identity was inspired by their tagline – “The heartbeat of leadership.”

The website has a responsive layout, meaning it is optimized for tablets and smart phones, as well as standard computer web browsers. The redesign was built using WordPress and coded with HTML5. Visit site »

So what is coworking anyway?

I came across this video that does a much better job of explaining the movement than I can. Enjoy.

Lancaster WordPress Meetup

By the way, The Candy Factory will be hosting a new meetup for WordPress users/designers/developers. If you want to network with other WordPress users, join us March 29th at 7:00 p.m. Learn more here.

The premise of the book is that in addition to websites being functional, reliable, and usable, they should also provide their visitors with a pleasurable experience. Why can’t visiting a website and completing a task online be fun, and not just functional? Like Aarron says:

We need a new yardstick to measure the success of our designs. We can transcend usability to create truly extraordinary experiences.

This book makes the case that when you create “truly extraordinary experiences,” you can expect improved conversion rates, improved sales figures, increased brand loyalty, etc. The book delves into human psychology, and principals of design and branding. It explains how to shape website content with a distinct voice/personality. Theory is backed up by case studies from websites such as Wufoo, Betabrand, Twitter, Photojojo, Mint.com, Dropbox, (and of course MailChimp), among others.

For anyone involved in creating websites or working in an online or web-related business, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of Designing for Emotion. Aarron is a great writer, and like the other “A Book Apart” books, this is a quick read and is full of full-color images that illustrate the content.

I’m excited to continue pushing “emotional design” concepts with some current and upcoming projects. I’ll post some new work soon, so stay tuned!

Back in 2004, Lancaster Theological Seminary asked me to design a banner for their graduating class at the time. The theme was “Called to Serve.” After exploring some different ideas, I settled on this concept . . .

Example of one of the traced hands

Each graduating class member did a tracing of their hand on a white sheet of paper. We scanned the papers and then I did a vector art tracing of the hands to use as part of the final artwork that I created in Adobe Illustrator. The hands appear to be launching out into the world.

The banners are used outside the LTS main building at various times. It was a fun project, and I really liked the participatory aspect of how each graduate had a “hand” in the final artwork.

Here are some samples of these signs. I will add to this gallery as I come across more. Please contact me if you know of some other good ones I should photograph.

My iPhone has been opening up a whole new world of photography for me recently – probably because it is so convenient to snap photos, and I always have it with me. Here is a composite panoramic photo I took in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania recently. I took several photos of this amazing sky and pieced them roughly in PhotoShop just to play around and see how it might turn out.

Here are a couple photos taken in Virginia when visiting relatives during Thanksgiving. Both of these were edited on my iPhone using some photography apps.

In the last year, I completed a comprehensive rebranding for Eastern Mennonite Missions. Above shows the logo/taglines before and after. See more »

• smartphones like the iPhone or Android phone?
• tablets like iPad?
• TVs?

If you don’t like the way your website looks on these different devices, contact me and we can talk about how we might adapt your site to be more scalable / responsive in nature. It is usually advantageous to have a website that can adapt to different screen sizes rather than one site for desktop computers and a separate site for mobile users.

Making a site “responsive” in nature is done by employing some HTML and CSS magic, creating . . .

1. Flexible, page layout grids/structures
2. Flexible, scalable images and media
3. CSS3 media queries to allow for custom styling at different screen widths
4. And last but not least, excellent craftsmanship and attention to detail when building the site

Kudos to Ethan Marcotte and his recently published book, Responsive Web Design. I found it very helpful and has been influential in my recent approach to designing/building websites.

Logo/tagline combination

The design is my reaction against slick “Web 2.0″ style logos (i.e. the new Xerox logo, among others). This design harkens back to Lancaster City’s industrial past and the typographic styles from that era – some of which can be seen on the historic warehouses and business buildings around town. See some examples. »

Logo without tagline

I also decided to incorporate a descriptive tagline “Web. Print. Visual identity.” as part of the logo but it can also be shown without the tagline, depending on the context.

Variations of the logo

A good logo should be adaptable so that it can work well in color, grayscale, black and white, and white against a dark background as shown above. This is one of the things I always try to ensure whenever I am designing a logo for my clients.