Category: inspiration

The Seattle Series, Classical Music Performances in 2022

Posted on by Stephen

We all have made huge sacrifices living for two years during COVID. One of those sacrifices is seeing live music. For all of you who love music as much as I do, this has had an effect on my overall happiness. For this article, I’ll be focusing on what some of my clients do to make the world a better place, instead of writing about the web development and design behind the project. But, I will have more to say about the project from a technical standpoint in another article to come because of the new paths I’ve gone down as a web developer and some important tips for people who want to sell tickets on their website.

Chamber Music in Seattle

One of my favorite forms of classical music is smaller ensembles as experienced in chamber music. As stated on their website, “The Seattle Series is a chamber-festival-meets-recital series, featuring ad hoc combinations of awe-inspiring artists who perform together for one evening to create a magical moment in time.  Outstanding Seattle-based artists are given the opportunity to invite their colleagues from around the nation and globe to join them for a unique collaboration, unavailable elsewhere.” The location for this series in the intimate Women’s University Club located in downtown Seattle.

Efe Baltacigil, cello, and Anna Polonsky will be playing piano on Fri., February, 22, 2022, at 8pm. Dmitry Sinkovsky, violin, Meeka Quan DiLorenzo, cello, and Jonathan Oddie, harpsichord, will be playing Thurs., March 10, 2022 at 7pm. And, Demarre McGill, flute, will be playing Fri. May 6th, 8pm. All of these musicians are top players, some residing in Seattle some traveling internationally. See their amazing credentials on The Seattle Series Website.

A Call For Photographers To Join The Photography Studio at The Gelb

Posted on by Stephen

Coming from an art and design background, I was saddened to hear the news today (the day of this blog entry) that my office space in Seattle’s University District was going to close down the photography studio and turn it in to yet another office full of computers. It’s financially responsible and rational to serve the needs of the market, right?

It was a symbol for me personally of what is happening to Seattle and many west coast cities: The artists (and many other marginalized groups) are getting financially squeezed out, while the tech companies grow and their employees move in. Nothing against tech, my web design business is connected to tech. I just believe that we are all happier when we live in a place where there is a balance between the creative and the technical.

Fortunately, the manager of the Gelb changed his mind and decided to give the photography studio another chance. One small factor was my email expressing my opinion of the inherent value of keeping the Gelb a place for creatives. I realize there were many other reasons that made him change his mind. For one, he is a creative person too. He has done an amazing job designing this floor of offices to be both stylish and comfortable, while also serving the needs of an independent small business.

The photography studio is great for shooting stills for fashion, portraits, products and more. Also, a great place to shoot video interviews or bios. There is a private green room, and some photography equipment is supplied. There are large paper back drops and a lot of windows with south facing light. The studio is in a SECURE building.

The Gelb is centrally located on The Ave in the University District with bus lines to every other corner of the city, and hundreds of restaurants and shops near by. I love working here!

I’m calling out to photographers across Seattle:

JOIN THE GELB PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO!

The Gelb website is not current. There is mention of the offices spaces and desks being a coop, but actually all the offices are private. Schildbach Design is in one of the office spaces. But, the photography studio is a shared space which makes the monthly costs very affordable. I never see the studio booked all day, so there is plenty of time available for all the photographers to use it.

Additionally, there is occasionally an open office space if you are an independent creative in another field.

Please contact me via my contact form and I will pass the message along to the manager at The Gelb.

 

 

Schildbach Design Is Now A Team

Posted on by Stephen

I’m transitioning my business, Schildbach Design, in to a web design studio (a small team of people passionate about design, development, and marketing) with the help of Leslie Timmons and Shaun Vine. Leslie and Shaun are helping Schildbach Design change and grow!

About Leslie Timmons

SKILLS: Business Management & Organization, Marketing, Consulting, WordPress Production, Content Writing

Leslie brings a wide spectrum of experience ranging from office management to website quality assurance. She has already done some light Word Press content work on a couple of projects, and is beginning to help keep me more organized on the business front. In the future, she may contact you for business meetings or other coordination. Leslie and I have known each other since graduate school at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Welcome to Schildbach Design, Leslie!

About Shaun Vine

SKILLS: Web Design, Web Development, WordPress Production

Shaun grew up on the coast in Durban, South Africa; a beautiful place. Warm ocean water, long sandy beaches and amazing surfing all year long. My parents loved  the beach and would take the entire family to the coast most week ends. So, naturally I started surfing, and at ten years old was already comfortable in the ocean. My University years were spend at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. While completing my Masters in Business Administration I represented my University and State in Surfing. I still surf here in Washington as much as I can, even though it is so much colder than the waters off Durban. More about Shaun…

It’s All A Process

Running your sole proprietorship is not easy. The cliche is true that you have to wear many hats. Everyone who takes this independent path clearly sees their strengths and weaknesses as the projects come in. You can’t do every facet of the business well.

What happens if your have more work than you can do? I have been in this situation for about 5 years now. You turn down work, and sometimes accept more than you can do, and the quality of the work suffers.

The other option is to choose to grow, but expanding your business larger than yourself is a little overwhelming when you have been working on your own as long as I have. I started by occasionally having a sub-contractor help out with the overflow and have been doing that for 7 years.

Then I saw two people who kept coming back for more work and started thinking about a dream I had when I was living in Brooklyn, NY fresh out of graduate school—working for a small design firm or design studio. As the years progressed, I continued working on my own, and I’ve seen how exclusive design firms and advertising agencies can be, while many people want these jobs. So, instead, I’ve modified that dream as many of us need to do.

 

 

Happy New Year, 2016! Using Dada instead of Data for a Successful Business

Posted on by Stephen

It has been a successful year for Schildbach Design. I reached some personal goals for the business in 2015. And, while data continues to perfect the answers to our business questions, I’d like to credit my personal success to welcoming a touch of Dada (not data) into my business plan.

For those of you who don’t know what Dada (or Dadaism) is, it is many things, but is summed up on Art Factory as a “form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and cultural values of the time. It embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics. Dada was not so much a style of art like Cubism or Fauvism; it was more a protest movement with an anti-establishment manifesto.”

Adding Dada to large companies would probably take that company down, but the beauty of working for oneself is you can write some of your own rules, and have flexibility to use more unconventional tactics to find your personal successes. Below are 12 tips I’d like to share.

12 Dada Business Tactics: How To Get Web Design Work, Graphic Design Work, and The Secret To One Freelancer’s Success

  1. Eat honey instead of sugar. Let’s face it, sugar is crack. Switch to honey and you will feel your body chemistry change, and suddenly honey businesses like Urban Bee will need you for your specialties. Even businesses that have a bee in their logo will need you, including orthodontists. These orthodontists will also be attracted to the fact that you have gotten off the sugar drug, and ask you to help design the collateral for their Halloween Candy Buy Back Program.
  2. Reminisce often about how much you enjoyed college. Dada has shown that 937% of people who went to collage were happier overall than they were in their 40’s while doing dishes, filing their taxes, or changing diapers. Sentimentalism about your 20’s and collage will guarantee some college or university will contact you. In my case, it was repeated calls from the Pathology Department at the University of Washington. Although, with this opportunity to relive your college years, be prepared to have to remember acronyms like MMTP, CPDx and PANUC, and be required to memorize and understand them.
  3. Become fascinated with your clients psychologically. Clients are not good clients or bad clients, their minds are simply fascinating! Once you see it this way, psychologists and therapists will now trust that you can do their business identities, as Solstice NYC and CBT Westport requested I do theirs.
  4. Do yoga regularly. Yoga not only flexes the muscles, it flexes the mind. After one hundred sun salutations, yoga studios like Richmond Beach Yoga and yoga practitioners like Cosetta Romani will call you for your specialty.
  5. Thank your mother. My mother is entering her last years of her life. Panorama Library, Speaking of Dying and others, know how difficult this can be, and want to make the last years of our mother’s life as pleasant as possible.
  6. Talk to the crows and raccoons. Stop criticizing animals that eat your trash. They are smarter and more like you than you think. Once I started talking to them, they agreed to get me website work with Bird Ally X.
  7. Raise a child or act like one. Children take up a lot of our personal time, but schools and PTA associations will thank you with web design work, for the time you spend with your child, just as Broadview Thomson K-8 PTA did for me.
  8. Meditate regularly. Then, the Northwest Dharma Association will ask you to rebuild their site, and produce quarterly newsletters. Also, more Buddhist non-profits like Dongyu Gatsal Ling Initiatives will ask you to work with them in 2016.
  9. Curse the companies and nations that disregard the environment due to their greed and apathy. While your thoughts are stewing, the ghost of Seattle’s past (or a ghost from your home town) will come to you to show you how much worse it was at the turn of the 20th century. At the same time, this ghost will lead you to people who are working on projects like The Lake Washington Ship Canal Centennial and Miles Lost Miles Gained to bring awareness to the past, and in turn, our environmental future.
  10. Marry a harpist. One harpist is a doorway to the whole Seattle music scene. A foolproof tactic to getting web design work with music schools, music organizations, and musicians.
  11. Obsess about traveling to other countries. As the character and ethics of our nation unravel, dream about the countries you want to travel to and possibly live in. For me it is Italy, India and Poland (among others). In return, you will start working for clients who where born in those countries. Don’t be disappointed if they tell you they left your dream country for good reason.
  12. Read a book that takes place in Africa. While reading the novel, “What is the What“, Seattle City of Literature thanked me with web maintenance work for expanding my horizons beyond the western world and my rides to the airport conveniently provided by Hayat Town Car Service.

Now that I have given you my secrets to freelance business success, this hopefully inspires you to create your own. Have a successful and prosperous 2016! But, be careful what you think about, and who you talk to. Because, your thoughts may come back to you in the form of a mustache on the Mona Lisa or a murdering airplane.

Top 10 Website Maintenance and Troubleshooting Needs

Posted on by Stephen

Over the course of my 8 year career as a web designer, my client’s needs have changed. Although, website maintenance is still a large need for new and repeat clients alike. Now, as we wrap up the 2015 year, below are the top 10 tasks I’m asked to do and can do for my clients. Hopefully, this top 10 list will inspire you contact a web designer that can make improvements on your existing site. See the website maintenance plan packages that Schildbach Design offers.

1. Website Maintenance to your Content

While entering your own content, sometimes formatting issues arise. All of your your paragraph text becomes title text for example. Or, the content your are typing in the dashboard does not appear as you envisioned in the site. Sometimes you need a web designer to fix these inconsistencies and explain to you how to avoid these problems in the future.

2. Content Management

You can enter your own content yourself, but we are all busy and often have more than we can possibly do. If the content on your site is outdated, have someone else do it for you. Often web designers will have the writing skills to write content for you, Schildbach Design does, but if you need a specialist in your field, pay someone who can write the content for you and have the writer or web designer enter the content. Along with content management comes upgrading and plugins or the core of your WordPress site (if you have a WP site).

3. Design Tweaks to an Existing Design

Adding content to your website may be going fine in the beginning, but then you decide to put an image in a different place and the design falls apart. New design elements can either break your website’s design or not be easy to add without making design changes. My specialty is CSS coding which handles the design of your site. If you have modifications that need to be made to an existing template, I can change the style sheet or html so that it allows for a newly introduced element.

4. WordPress Troubleshooting

Upgrades to the core and plugins and WordPress go smoothly for the most part. Much smoother than the original CMS I used to work in. But, still sometimes a plugin might conflict with some custom elements to your site, or the WP core. Rather than making matters worse, you may want to call a web designer who knows WordPress to go through the site and pinpoint the locations that the conflicts are present.

5. Extending Your Site

Maybe there is not a problem with your site, instead you just want to add something to it. After having a brochure site for some time, many of my clients just want to add a blog, some new pages, a contact form or some 3rd party features—such as linking to PayPal.

6. Image Manipulation

If you have an image heavy site, but don’t have the image editing software that a designer has, you may want to contact a designer to improve on the raw state of the images you are using. Sure, you can do basic editing with your photo application on your computer, or online services. But, often we don’t have the time to work on what we are not good at. Almost all designers have Photoshop and they can improve the basic appearance of your photos by lightening dark photos, cropping and sizing. More complex tasks are at a designers fingertips like using filters that can do such things as change the mood of the photo. I am first an foremost a designer with call the current Adobe CC applications for advanced image manipulation.

7. Website Migration

Maybe you have an old html site or outdated CMS and don’t know what to do next. Ask 10 web designers and you may get 5 different answers. Schildbach Design offers consulting on “what to do next” or “I don’t know where to begin”. We can go over your broken site and decide whether it is worth fixing and staying with the old platform, or migrating to a new one.

When it is clear that the present platform is not working for you, it is time to move to another content management system. In 2010 or earlier, the common migration was from an html site to a content management system. Now, most sites are already built in a content management system, and you simply need to move from the inferior system to the most appropriate CMS for your needs. The number one choice is often WordPress. But, drag and drop website editors like Squarespace are grabbing a lot of independent sole proprietors and small businesses. Migrations are quite clumsy, tedious and time consuming. So, be prepared for the work to be costly, averaging around $2,000, only half the cost of building a new website.

8. 3rd Party Elements, Plugins or Features

Even though it is not literally website maintenance, our websites often are associated with 3rd party services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Mailchimp, or PayPal. Sometimes these third party elements disconnect and stop “talking” to our site due to upgrades or changes to the coding. Or, maybe you just need to add one of these elements and are not sure of the best way to do so. Web Designers will link and design these third party services in to your site.

9. I Can’t Get in to My Website or Hosting Account

Still, one of the the most common problems I get calls on is “I can’t get in to my site’s content management system, my hosting account or some other password protected account”. Fortunately, there are solutions. The simple solution is often calling or emailing the web host. But, if it is the content management system you can’t get in to, and you have already tried “Forgot my password”,  accessing the database to your site is the more complex solution. And, that is where Schildbach Design or another web designer can help. My most common CMS I work on is WordPress, but this can be done with any CMS. I will access the database, find out the email that “Forgot my password” is accessing, or change the password to my password, then return to “Forgot my password” to complete the task. All of this is done with permission from the client of course.

10. Website Security

Most all sites I build have no problems with security. And, without buying any additional software, your website is safe. But, occasionally, a hacker breaks in to your site when you have a CMS. The result is more of an annoyance than it is actual damage to your site. They might add files that store something they are hiding, or add a script that adds links to your site to improve on SEO for their other sites. I work with small business and you are most often not a target. Fortunately, when it does happen, I get multiple warnings from Google Webmaster Tools and your hosting plan. I then go in and weed out the files and scripts. Thank you spammers and hackers for wasting other people’s time, when all you get back is bad karma.