Supafly.com

Earlier this week at work I realized it’s time to start designing several new websites for our organization before I go part-time. The first one is ym.lifeteen.com, which will be an online resource for effective Catholic youth ministry. Although this site isn’t going to be as cool to design, I know that it will be helpful for our organization.

What I am most excited about is designing camps.lifeteen.com, which will be a big website just for our summer camps division. The site will have plenty of info about our summer camping ministry, and then have three mini-sites within it for each of our camps: Tepeyac, RockyVine, and Covecrest. I spent most of the day on the phone with the Camp Directors finding out what they need in the site. Then I created an outline for the content that will give structure to the site. Then it was time to have fun…

I want the sites to make people feel like they are out playing in the woods. There are a lot of dorky nature sites out there, and I don’t want to be one of them. To make the woodsy theme relevant, I decided to give each camp mini-site its own regional theme. When you go to tepeyac.lifeteen.com, you should feel like you are in the desert Southwest. When you go to rockyvine.lifeteen.com, you should feel like you are in the wine region of Missouri. When you go to covecrest.lifeteen.com, you should feel like you are in the Blue Ridge mountains surrounded with water.

Developing these sites is exciting to me because each of these regional themes are an extension of logos I designed for each camp a year ago. I spent a lot of time and prayer designing those three logos, and they’ve been very popular since the day I debuted them. They are successful because the logos are the first chance we have to tell the story of the camp. And the logos tell it well. I have people tell me all the time, “I just look at the logos and it makes me want to go.” As a designer, what could be more flattering than that?

Now I have a chance to keep telling that story with the websites. Unlike lifeteen.com, the biggest draw of camps.lifeteen.com will not be the fact that it is updated 25 times each day. So I can be more playful with different sections of the site because I’m not bound by changing content that changes the look of the page.

I don’t have much time to develop these sites, so on a whim I decided to build it off of an existing Macromedia Dreamweaver template. I know that using a template is an absolute taboo for a proud designer, but I don’t give a damn. I understand the time limits of the project, and I don’t want to spend half of my time inventing the style sheets to tell the text how to look and where to go. I’ll focus instead on changing the template to fit each camp.

I have spent three days on the camp sites, and I already have a terrific looking site posted online.; (At a secret URL, of course.); I’m still waiting on content to drop in each section, but for the most part, the site is done. I’ve never had a turn-around like this. It’s exhilarating. I even skipped lunch on Thursday and Friday because I didn’t want to leave my computer.

This is such a contrast to how I’ve felt at work over the past year. This year has been very difficult and very frustrating. That frustration boiled into anger. A month ago I realized I was talking like a victim, and I decided to take bold moves to try to change the circumstances that have made me a victim. Designing these four sites is part of my plan to change those circumstances so I’m no longer a victim.

What I am realizing is that our organization loves what I have done with lifeteen.com, but the whole site is still just an expense one year after the next. My hope is that these new sites will become vital parts to our money-making divisions.

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I write this journal knowing that I haven’t actually added any; journals from the last three months to supafly.com. My friend is almost finished with the CSS and PHP that will shape Version 3 personal site that I designed six months ago. It’s embarrassing to not update a my personal site for three months, but I can’t put the time; rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

I spend that time writing the copy for my first online portfolio that will be; big section on the site. The portfolio will show off my design skills, so I don’t have to jazz up the rest of the site. I am excited just to make it cool looking but very easy to use.

It’s odd…this enthusiasm I have inside of me right now. I don’t really know how to deal with it because I’ve been angry for so long.

For one reason or another, I’ve avoided being a fan of Steve Jobs from Apple Comuters. Maybe it’s my Georgia Tech education in the late 1990’s when Macs were toys, not machines. Or maybe it’s because I’m a defiant designer that is tired of others telling me that “Macs are great for graphics.” But more than anything, I don’t like to be an evangelist for worldly things. I like NPR for news, Hondas for driving, and Andy Warhol for art, but none of that will save my soul. I am an evangelist for Jesus.

In being a professional evangelist for Jesus, I’m always looking for ways that people have succeeded in my trade. I know that last sentence was a reckless mix of divine and worldly words, but I don’t know if there’s a better way to write it. Quite simply, I want to believe there is a more effective way to do youth ministry. There has to be something more than hokey youth conferences and youth group meetings. Since there aren’t many people within youth ministry doing anything new, I look to the secular world for examples of success. Who knows? Maybe the secular world has a lot to teach us.

One success story that is hard not to admire is the story of Apple Computers since Steve Jobs took over the company again in 1999. They’ve just done one thing right after the next. As an Industrial Designer, it’s hard not to love what Apple accomplishes. I don’t sit in their executive meetings, but it seems from the outside that their biggest priority is to make cool looking, easy-to-use products. The iPod is a success story of Industrial Design matched with effective marketing.

From that amazing iPod, Steve Jobs introduced iTunes and legitimized the business nightmare of people downloading free MP3s. Not only did he help save the music industry, he went a step further and gave TV networks a chance to sell their television shows. Now through Podcasting and Video Podcasting, everyone has a chance to develop their own media mini-empire. It’s amazing. He pulled the whole thing off!

Now it looks like Disney is going to acquire Pixar. Yet another chapter in the story of Steve Jobs. I think Pixar is the most talented group of innovators and Disney as a nostalgic but stale brand. Nobody cares about Disney anymore. Maybe Steve Jobs can turn Disney around too.

I want to be like Steve Jobs. I want to do amazing things that makes an impact on culture. I want

Tonight I joined Candyce for a lecture at ASU by Eames Demetrius, the grandson of legendary furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames. (For the record, Charles and Ray were married, Charles is the husband and Ray, the wife, is; a woman.) I wanted to attend the lecture because I’ve been a fan of Eames furniture ever since I discovered the hip mid-century designers while taking History of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech.

To any of my friends from the ID department back at Tech, the chance to meet the Eames grandson is like a music fan meeting John Lenin’s grandson. (I’m not a die-hard Beetles fan, so I don’t know whether or not; John Lenin actually has a grandson.) In every creative field, there are talented people that eventually become stars, and their children will in some way continue that legacy and celebrity.

The lecture hall was packed with students from different all majors within the design college. Scattered in the group were fashionable college town adults of varying ages. Candyce and I had to sit in the isle because all the seats were filled.
The presentation itself was cool because we got a more personal story of the designers. We watched one of their short films, which was pretty cool. I always admire a designer that can be good at more than one medium.

The lecture dragged on because of technical problems with the overhead projector and the laptop that was supposed to play the DVDs. By the end, the more restless students had cleared out, leaving half of the once-coveted seats empty. I was embarrassed for them but at the same time a little bit jealous. It was a long night and I was tired.

The reward for the evening was that they had a raffle for some Eames stuff at the end. The grand prize was an Eames rocking chair, which will cost you about $500. I; had entered my name in box as we walked in because I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give myself a chance–even it it was 1000 to 1.

Well the first name the drew was my own. I couldn’t believe it! Everyone’s heads jerked around the room to see if someone would raise their hand. As I walked forward, they looked at me with contempt and excitement. I hammed it up and pretended I had just won and Oscar for best supporting actor. I acted shocked yet flattered. I even stopped to shake hands with some of the losers. By the time I made it up to the front, my arms were spread wide to give the Director of the Design school a heartfelt hug. He wasn’t as excited as I was, but the students in the room thought it was funny.

I didn’t win the chair, but I did win a book written by Eames Demetrius who had just given the lecture. Afterwards I met him, and asked him to sign my book. I explained to him how I caught a vintage furniture collector trying to peddle bootleg versions of his grandparent’s furniture around town. He was really proud of me when I recounted how I reprimanded the dealer for deceiving people.

He explained in his lecture that his grandparents believed that their designs were not just chunks of furniture, but a dynamic example of how to be a good host. When you sat in one of; their chairs, you were their guest. And when people copied their furniture and made it from cheaper materials, it was essentially people thinking they were going over the Eames house as a guest, only to be turned away angry because of a fake. I thought he was going to give me a hug because he’d found someone who understood what his grandparents were trying to do.

In his message that he wrote in the book, he encouraged me to buy a lottery ticket because I seemed to be lucky. After Candyce and I had dinner at a swanky restaurant, I drove by a greasy gas station and bought a lotto ticket–my first ever. Maybe tomorrow I will be a millionaire.

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Wednesday night:

I just checked online and I didn’t win a lottery. I didn’t think I would, but I can see why people like to buy a ticket every so often. It gives you a rush because you get to play in your mind for the next day of how your life could change. But I feel lucky just to have me Eames Demetrius, and the lotto ticket will make a good bookmark.

Tonight we celebrated my friend Adam Robo’s 22nd birthday. Adam has been working with me on lifeteen.com as a full time intern on the website for past nine months. He’s a good guy who has given a lot, so it was fun to spend tonight celebrating his birthday.

Tonight a big group of us went out for a night of looking cool. Our group consisted of me + Candyce, Adam + Carolina, Carlos + Erica, Johnny Oertle, and Kevin Day. We started the night at a hip restaurant called AZ88. It’s a real stylish place, usually packed with arrogant people who love knowing they are cool. In the middle of all of that was my fun-loving posse of friends making jokes and telling stories like we were at a bar. It was a blast.

Afterwards we walked across the park to have drinks at a boutique hotel called The James.; Let me spend a couple paragraphs talking about cool hotels. I first encountered a cool hotel at The Standard in Hollywood in the year 2000.; I’d always understood hotels to come in two breeds: budget hotels and resort hotels. I had no idea there were hotels for people who like to hang out and act cool. Since then boutique hotels have been fun places for me hang out as I’ve traveled a round the country. My favorites are The Hudson in New York City and The W in New Orleans. Actually, I’ve liked every W that I’ve been to.

Since I moved to Arizona in 2001, Phoenix has become more hip. By this time next year, there will be four boutique hotels within a mile of each other. There will never be as many nightclubs as there are bars, but the nightclubs in Phoenix have stepped up their game. Local restaurateurs are beginning to create a buzz around their food.

Different parts of town are developing a distinct personality, mostly because real estate developers are making more than just strip malls. There’s Tempe, South Scottsdale, North Scottsale, The Biltmore, Arcadia, downtown Mesa, and downtown Phoenix. With that excitement for different part of town, the art scene has grown from nothing to something. There’s been an increase of city-based magazines, newspapers, and websites, each telling the story of life in the city.

My drive to work used to be so boring, but now my commute is more like me driving past one cool real estate project after the next. All of this growth is important to me because it constantly reminds me that I need to stay on top of my game.

I think I’m going to try to take six months this year and go part-time with the youth ministry that I work with. My frustration since 2003 comes from the fact that my personal projects add up to a full time job. For better or for worse, I already have a full time job, and there’s no time at the end of they day to get any of my own stuff done. This hasn’t been too much of a problem because lifeteen.com has had a bright future. But now that I’ve created a great website and my staff is still tiny, it’s time to expand my other websites.

The plan would go like this. I would find a couple interns to do half of the work I do everyday. That half of my job includes updating the website and getting back to phone calls and emails. My part-time hours will be dedicated to planning, designing, and implementing projects. My hope is that my absence will prove to the organization that we are better off when someone else does the routine updates on a website and I am doing what I do best: creating the vision.

I hate that I have to even play games like this. I’m 27 now, and it seems ridiculous to have to campaign so hard just to get the organization to open their eyes to the potential of the Internet. I mean, come one, it’s the year 2006. At the end of my six months of going part-time, I’ll have to make the decision whether or not I want to keep working for the organization. I love what we do, but I cannot put myself in a place where I feel fenced in.

What matters most to me right now is that the time off will give me a chance to get the rest of my websites together. My big scheme is to develop several great websites. Some will do better than others, and I’ll know that those deserve more time and attention. The idealist in my wants to believe that these good-hearted websites won’t always remain an expensive hobby, but they will actually make a difference in people’s lives.

If the websites don’t make it big, that’s okay too. I’m up for a new career that encourages entrepreneurs to be bold and ambitious. Because at work, people think my ambition is nice, but nothing changes internally when I do something awesome. I’m just sent back to my office.