Agenceum is "Agency + Lyceum". My mission is to use my design and production experience to create products that help people start their personal journeys. In the meantime, designing stuff is my most immediate source of income, so I need to formalize this aspect of my business to make a living. To align the design business with the overall mission, I will share the thinking, tools, and resources developed under this pretend-agency blog; feel free to explore, discuss the material, and steal ideas for your own use :-)

Staff Meeting — Leave a comment
16
Mar 10

Tuesday Evening Staff Meeting

Yet another week of non-Agenceum work. However, all that templating work from months ago has been coming in handy as I build new website shells elsewhere. I have a small handful of tips that I am reusing over and over again:

  1. Faux Columns.
  2. Centered Fixed Layout.
  3. Using a Reset script to start everything from scratch.
  4. Using position: relative on a parent div to allow children to use absolute positioning, which makes layout a lot easier.
  5. Using float: left to force a parent div to fully-contain its child divs instead of letting them overflow. This is actually part of a set of techniques that seek to control div behavior.
  6. Standardizing on a 72-pixel or 60-pixel grid size for layout (I need to print out a reference chart for this to make things easy to add/subtract).

This seems to solve the vast bulk of my layout needs, which are very simple. Then I have a typography.css file that builds up the type in a way that I find pleasing, again based on a 72-point grid broken down into 12pt or 18pt linespacing.

So although I’m not doing a whole lot with Agenceum at the moment, it’s helped me get over a hurdle with doing faster, simpler CSS layouts that are relatively bulletproof.

Staff Meeting — Leave a comment
09
Mar 10

Tuesday Afternoon Staff Meeting

There hasn’t been much movement on Agenceum-related stuff for the past week. In fact, I completely forgot to do my staff meeting post last week.

Although I don’t have anything to report here on the Agenceum Blog, there’s plenty of stuff going on elsewhere on my other blog and behind-the-scenes. Some of the Agenceum material, particularly the Wiki, may be re-purposed. And I’m thinking a lot about how to package websites again to meet more specific market demands at specific price points. When I get those packages defined, I’ll post them here. There are few technical challenges that I need to solve immediately, this means I’m past the technology building stage and am now in the business development stage. There’s the need to create marketing materials and put them in the hands of prospective clients, once I find them. This is an entire process in itself that I will be looking at more closely.

In the meantime, there is some old business that will be closed out this week,, which will perhaps lead to continued business.

Development — Comments Off
27
Feb 10

Expression Engine 2.0.1PB Notes

I’m in the throes of working with yet another CMS. This time, it’s Expression Engine 2.0.1PB. My main website, davidseah.com, runs on Expression Engine, and I’m looking forward to having it move over to the new 2.0 codebase because it’s based on a general PHP framework I’ve had my eye on, CodeIgniter. I also like the improved control panel interface, at least at first glance.

The 1.x to 2.x jump requires quite a few little changes here and there. The internal layout of files has changed, definitely, as has the use of some of the tags. All plugins, as far as I can tell, need to be updated, and that is where I’ve been spending my time for the past several hours: working through the plugins I need converted now to get davidseah.com looking and working correctly. Right now, I’m stuck on the PHP Markdown Extra plugin, which has been further modified with the image thumbnail code I wrote way back in 2005 for my old WordPress blog. Thankfully, there’s an Expression Engine 2.0 conversion guide available to make the process relatively painless. And it’s important to note that the CodeIgniter documentation also applies now, so some functions that used to be in EE are now in CI.

This kind of stuff always gives me a headache, and I end up taking a lot of brief naps, but this is what the learning process is like for me when engaging with a foreign development environment. Still, that I even was able to get this far after a few hours is a nice reminder that I’ve grown more comfortable with programming (or at least modifying) web applications. I just realized I’m actually pretty close to having this transition completed, which will start to unlock an entire new web platform that will serve well for the next couple of years. Gotta remind myself that the dozen hours of slow progress now will pay off many times over.

Staff Meeting — Comments Off
23
Feb 10

Tuesday Evening Staff Meeting

There hasn’t been much going on at Agenceum this week, though I am spending more time looking at C# and the .NET framework on an unrelated programming project.

One very cool new development, however, is that producing new web templates is much faster than before. This is due to having a fairly strong grasp on how to effectively use CSS to create the kinds of cross-browser compatible layouts that I typically need. As a result, I am feeling pretty comfortable with what I can make work. My rough CSS notes, collected over several months, have helped me grok what’s going on with the simple layouts I am using. At some point I will revisit them and reformat them into a cheat sheet / howto guide.

Current Push

There are a few areas that I can work on:

  • Creating the simple low-cost packages
  • Designing simple templates for specific kinds of entrepreneurs and artists
  • Distributing information about the packages to organizations that have members crying out for promotional websites.

This is all marketing. I am feeling the need to collect all these strands of effort into one tracking system that uses a simple formula to manage dozens of different marketing channels. I can feel the shape of it in my mind.

Development — 1 comment
20
Feb 10

Playing with ASP.NET

This isn’t related to low-cost websites, but it IS related to development. So I’m leaving some notes here. My friend Robert is visiting from out of town so we can have an intense ASP.NET bootcamp this week. I hardly know anything about ASP.NET and web development with it, but I figure it won’t hurt to learn some basics about it.

Getting Set Up

Microsoft provides some free development tools for getting started with it; while they don’t do everything their professional-level tools can do, they do a whole heap of a lot when it comes to just learning the environment. Plus, it is based on their terrific Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE). Yay!

Getting a free version of the tools was as simple as going to Microsoft’s ASP.NET website to download the Microsoft Free Web Platform Installer (WEB PI). The installer pulls the files it needs to install from the Internet, so it takes a bit of time to complete. It also installs SQL Server 2008 Express, the developer version of Microsoft’s database. In my case, it was about 160MB of data.

Splashing in the Kiddie Pool

After getting set up, I ran the newly-installed Microsoft Web Developer 2008 Express and blinked at the IDE. I dimly remembered something about it from having done a Flex vs PHP vs ASP analysis for Adobe via another company, so I just created a new Web Project and ran it from the Build menu. The IDE has a built-in web server, so I didn’t have to install Internet Information Server (IIS), the Windows web server, which is nice. I was rewarded with a nice blank page. The first successful compilation!

I recalled what I knew of the ASP.Net development process:

  • You code your HTML files in aspx files. This is similar to creating PHP files.
  • You can switch to “Design View” and you can drag and drop various controls on the page. This changes are reflected in the aspx file as special widgets that are executed on the server.
  • When you drop a control on the page that has associated events, they appear in a “partial class” that implements the handlers.

As for how to architect an actually application, I currently have no sense of what the best practices are. So I will start with my basic understanding of how a web app works this week, watch a few tutorial videos from the asp.net website, and see where that goes. There’s a LOT to learn!

Staff Meeting — 1 comment
16
Feb 10

Tuesday Evening Staff Meeting

Things are slow right now, but there have been a few key developments:

  • I printed 35 sell sheets for the $500 Photo-Website package at DigitalLizard. The quality was quite acceptable, as was the price: US$13.00 for those 35 double-sided prints, and $7 UPS Ground shipping.  This was 1/4th of the price I had quoted from another POD place. I had previously requested a print sample kit from Digital Lizard but never got it, so it was with some trepidation that I placed my small order. Their automated system is pretty good, I must stay. I’ll be using them again for some of their post products.
  • I got a chance to catch up with client Mark Pensgen, and he clued me on on the value of step-by-step guides that go through the very basics of writing content. Essentially, anything I can write that illuminates the process of making anything for a website is well worth while, even things that may seem really basic. Those basic steps help anchor the more complex ones.
  • I downloaded the trial version of Camtasia Studio for Windows, with the idea of using it to make screencasts describing how to use software to upload websites and edit HTML. It’s US$299, but it’s very polished and easy to use. I’m impressed.
  • I converted my davidseah.com website from Expression Engine to a WordPress Template as a favor to a new acquaintance. This has given me more up-to-date knowledge of the current WordPress page architecture, which opens up WordPress as a new platform to offer customized websites

That’s really it for now. There are a few lingering projects that I need to unstick. The low price point that I’m setting for the work is proving difficult to work with if I want to maintain a “cost-effective” work to revenue ratio. I’ve decided, though, that no matter what the cost is, the work should be the same. I believe I mentioned that a few weeks ago; the trick is keeping the process moving along.

Other Solutions — Comments Off
10
Feb 10

TemplateWatch: iBusiness Theme

Came across this via Mashable: The iBusiness Wordpress Theme. It looks like a nice base theme to build a Wordpress-based business site around.

Staff Meeting — Comments Off
09
Feb 10

Tuesday Evening Staff Meeting

Goodness, I almost forgot to have the staff meeting! Here we go.

Status

Chelsea’s website is live! We also have a new $500 Photo Website Package, based on this same template and my buddy Sid’s portrait photography. The surprising thing to me was that I could repackage the exact same template and still feel I was delivering value; having three examples of the site helps. Sid’s photography also really helps make the package a great value. I am having 35 two-sided flyers printed with the information on the photo website package, which cost me about $20 including shipping from Idaho. Not a bad price at all, though I’m taking a gamble on quality.

Also, reconnected with two other website projects. The first of these projects is a design/education project, really. I just passed the HTML files onward and provided some guidance. The second of these projects is for Mark’s more traditional business website, and we’re waiting on content. I got some excellent feedback about what would be helpful in this case: examples of how to write content for a small business, and how to find examples, etc. I was reminded that just knowing how to start is precious information!

I also have been evaluating Unify, the PHP application that allows easy editing of a static website without the need for a CMS or a database. Client Mark gave it a try, and he liked what he could do with it, so that’s a big relief.

Upcoming

I’m trying to close down as many open projects as possible, so I can launch the next round of packaging. Based on Mark and Chelsea’s feedback, the package concept is attractive. I may even be able to raise the price, which would be good because every client is going to need additional design and content guidance, and this extra time needs to be taken into account.

There’s quite a bit of support material to write, and a lot of it can be streamlined further and included in the package. I would say the next immediate production plan would be to create several examples of the “business template” that are attractive and easy to understand. Then, I can create a second sell-sheet. Again, this can be very simple.

Next, packaging the design services is next. I’d prefer, actually, to outsource this to other designers, so I’ll keep a lookout for interested parties.

Marketing — 1 comment
08
Feb 10

Smaller Packages

I recently finalized one of the Agenceum clients using an existing template, and by coincidence I also used it to make a small subsite for Sid’s upcoming Portrait Photography workshop. With that, I had three websites using the same template, and each of them used Sid’s photography. I talked to Sid about making some kind of package that combined his photography and this website specific template, and presto! Here is our first real package.

I reworked the Agenceum Sell Sheet into something I could show people who come into the studio.

New Collateral

At first, I had thought that I needed to make a custom website for every client; this comes from a desire to really understand the uniquenesses of each individual. However, in terms of business, customization to the nth degree is very time-intensive and hence unprofitable. And for most people, it turns out that that level of customization is not needed. Essentially, people need a website that represents them well and is within their means. This template happens to work pretty well for what it is, though mentally it is something of a stretch to use the same template over and over. The mental shift is from “designer” to “product packager”.

The front side has 6 examples of the layout and a call-to-action at the bottom. Instead of the Agenceum logo I’m using the Collective logo, which is what I use when doing collaborative work. The price is correspondingly higher, at $250 for the web work. It turns out that this is more realistic than $75 once you include all the customization and back-and-forth with people. At a total cost of $500, it’s still a pretty cheap package, especially given that it includes custom photography.

I print the first sheet  on matte photo paper, and second sheet (with all the text) gets printed in black-and-white on the other side of the photo paper. The photo paper I’m using is a little thin and bleeds through; printing in black and white makes the bleedthrough less noticeable on the pretty front side.

For a better look, check out the PDF Download.

I’m having a version of this printed via an online printer I’ve been meaning to try, Digital Lizard, which I came across via a Facebook advertisement. They have a very snazzy online interface, and some interesting product offerings for the solo designer. I however have not seen samples of their print output, despite having requested a sample kit a couple of times. This experience was echoed by another friend of mine who was looking into using them. The prices look great, however, and the phone call I had with their representative was very professional and personable, so I’m willing to chalk this up to “we’re super busy”.

Customer Support — 1 comment
04
Feb 10

Initial Impressions of Unify from Unit Interactive

I purchased a license of Unify (tagline: “The Simple Content Editor Anyone Can Use”) earlier this week to test on my staging server. The websites that Agenceum is developing are static HTML based on my simple templates, as I wanted to avoid the complications that even a polished CMS introduces for people who are just getting started with the Internet. However, the great bugaboo of any website deployment is enabling the client to edit their own content. That’s where Unify comes in.

I’d first become aware of Unify a couple of weeks ago thanks to commenter Bill Kracke, who listed a whole slew of simple CMS-like products. Essentially, it’s a web-based program (requires PHP5) that will edit the content in your static website. To tell Unify what block-level areas are editable, you simply apply the unify css class to it. Then, you browse to the unify subdirectory on the website, which contains the web app, which loads the web page in a WYSIWYG-style interface. The block-level elements that have had the unify css class applied to it show what you can edit. You can enter rich text and upload photos, and then publish your changes. You can even click the links and browse your website as you would normally. It is practically perfect for simple websites. The changes are saved back to the files (hence, they need to be writable by the web server).  Very slick. They have also added “unify repeatables”, which will duplicate and repeat any block-level div and its contents. Great for maintaining lists of things, I’d imagine. I haven’t tried this yet.

Some additional notes:

  • You need to buy a license of Unify for each domain name. That includes subdomains. As licenses only cost $16, that isn’t too bad, but it does mean that you need a development license for yourself, and a separate license for each of your clients. The web app is customized to your domain, and appears to communicate with Unit Interactive’s server to validate users (I haven’t verified this, though).
  • Because of the above, you can’t develop “local” without Internet access.
  • Installation is super easy: just upload the unify folder to the website, and add the unify css class to the block-level elements you’d like to be editable.  Make sure that your files are writable by the web server. You will also need to have PHP5 on the server.
  • You can’t “nest” editable areas.
  • You need a separate install of unify on each website.
  • It supports multiple users: the administrator can add other users to a site to allow editing.
  • It’s not 100% WYSIWYG, but it’s darned close. Really sweet.
  • It requires a modern browser and a fast PC to run it well.
  • See the Unify FAQ for more information.

So far, I’m impressed, and have started rolling it out to Agenceum’s clients. It does seem a little slow to start, particularly on the first startup when (I think) it is scanning files for changes. I haven’t profiled it either to see what kind of impact it has on the my server. But these are minor nits; this product vastly simplifies the need for training and content support after-the-fact, which frees me to do other things while giving the client control of the content whenever he/she wants to grab it. Booyah!

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