Julie and Drew of GettyDrew Homes are all about helping people find a new home. And when it came time for their company to find a new home online, I was ready to show them what was on the market. We all agreed that the site should have a fun but professional layout that showcased not only their homes, but also their personality. A custom WordPress theme was built so they have the ability to update all the content, including their current listings. Check out their new “home” at GettyDrew Homes.com.

Rita Brodnax isn’t talking about just using your brain. She’s talking about how to use it better. Her new brand is meant to reflect her philosophy that learning about how your brain works should be a fun and engaging experience. Next up is designing the web site, which is going to incorporate a very unique layout. Stay tuned!

The work in the portfolio section of this web site is that which I have both designed and developed. However, since I do both, a big portion of my day to day work is doing one or the other for people or companies who don’t do both. Whether I am coding sites (often integrating WordPress) for designers, or designing sites for programmers, I always keep in mind the flip side of the project.

One such example of these collaborations is the recently launched, PrettyIndy.com. The site, which was designed by Kelly Karrmann of Klevergirl PR + Marketing was given to me to develop and integrate WordPress so that it could be managed by the client. Proving that working together with others can be a beautiful thing.

The topic of web-friendly fonts has come up a few times recently in the presentation and early stages of the web design process. In a perfect design world, every font could be read by every browser and the topic of web safe fonts would not be an issue. But as long as there are different operating systems and different browsers, it cannot be ignored. For this reason, I have put together the following reference list of common web-friendly fonts, that can be checked across multiple browsers and platforms. They are listed here as HTML text at a 24pt and 12pt font size.

Arial Arial

Verdana Verdana

Lucida Grande Lucida Grande

Times New Roman Times New Roman

Century Gothic Century Gothic

Trebuchet Trebuchet

Georgia Georgia

Courier New Courier New

Impact Impact

Helvetica Helvetica

Arial Black Arial Black

Arial Narrow Arial Narrow

Tahoma Tahoma

Hallett Gutter Cover decided it was time for a branding facelift. The quality of their products and services did not match the dated logo and web site they were using.

Upon having a new logo and print materials created, they contacted me to use this new identity system to a design and develop a brand new web site that could be a resource for both home owners and contractors. The goal of the new site was to embody a clean design that was easy to navigate and could be updated by the client using WordPress. Check it out at HallettGutterCover.com

Every once in a while, I get a request from a client that is outside of my normal services. Any graphic designer has some schooling in illustration, and I have had clients request it in the past for apparel, identities and invitations. This, however, was my first request to illustrate a plush toy.

Longtime client SwitchGear Genomics approached me to come up with a clever yet fun marketing item to use in upcoming promotions. Overall, they wanted a “mascot” that would serve as a fun and light-hearted giveaway to go along with their very technical products. A component of SwitchGear Genomics involves the firefly luciferase gene, which was a perfect set-up for deciding what animal their mascot would resemble.

The next steps included submitting an illustration (shown in the image above) to the company responsible for production of the plush toys (5 inches to be exact) and getting their recommendations before receiving the prototype, which you can see in the image above.

So even though “designing stuffed animals” won’t be making its way to my services list any time soon, it was a fun project that was a nice diversion from my usual work.

Last week, I attended a seminar about how to use Twitter as a marketing tool. The seminar was led by Kyle Lacy who has written a book on the subject. In a nutshell, it is very obvious that social media is being used more and more for lead generation and it’s not going away anytime soon.

If you already are on Twitter, you can follow me @jacksonsky. If not, I suggest taking the time to sign up (it’s free) even if it’s just to get your feet wet and become familiar with the social tool that 75 million people are using to connect with one another.

I just picked up my new business cards today from Woodfield Printing and am really happy with how they turned out. Since most of my work in intangible, it’s always a treat to actually hold something I designed in my hands.

If your business is considering new cards, I encourage you to think beyond the standard rectangle when creating your design. Sometimes it’s the shape of the card that stands out more than the information on it.

Welcome to JacksonSky.com, the new and improved business web site of Rhaya Shilts.

On January 1, 2010 my official business name changed to Jackson Sky Web Design & Development. This name change results from, and allows for, the expansion of services and staff as my business continues to grow.

My personal site, rhaya.com, will still be online and updated regularly with non-business news and photos.