Let’s say you love grilling and eating outdoors, but you don’t like the isolation of manning the charcoal. While everyone is pretending to enjoy each other’s company over glasses of box wine, you are relegated to the corner of the pavers, eyes red and teary with a bottle of Bud and an apron emblazoned with […]

Shop Your Way – the next Sears Roebuck & Co?
…not sure about that title, but maybe it got your attention? Recently, Members of UX team here went to a presentation by Hugh Dubberly, presented by IIT. (Thank you both). It was one of the more impactful I’ve been to in years, and made me look at many things with a new perspective. I’ve found […]

Useful and Usable
Back when I was in architecture school, I was introduced to the phrase “dead cat corners”. It was how our design professor described areas in floor plan that were basically un-usable, or, in her opinion, only a place to throw dead cats. This was probably one of first time that I became aware that things […]

Boring work is fun!
One of the first paying gigs I ever had was washing dishes at my parents’ church. It was one of those huge industrial kitchens where everything from the fridge to the counters was stainless steel. The dishwasher could do a load in about 60 seconds and when they come out they were so scalding hot […]

Why I Want To Be More Like Tony Stark
As we kick off a new year, we all naturally look forward, thinking more about the future. What kind of future are we building? When I say we, I’m not just asking about our team, or our company …but the digital industry …the web, mobile, tablets, desktop, the whole the ecosystem system we work in […]

Putting Your Website on a Diet
Every Wednesday here at agencyState we have a design review with our VP. While he claims to be an engineer and defers on passing judgement on most aspects of design, he does bring a pair of fresh eyes to all of our work. One of his common opening lines is, “in a world where every […]

Telling Brand Stories in the Digital Space
Often people equate branding with “having a logo.” Not the case. In order to get your brand to stick in a customer’s head, you need more than a type treatment. You need a story. For this reason, brands have long used storytelling for the TV format. Subway’s Jared story, Apple’s 1984, ESPN’s This is Sportscenter. […]

How Boba Fett Influenced My Work Ethic
Smart, silent and bad ass. If I had to give three descriptors of Boba Fett, those are them. I grew up a Star Wars kid (hell, I still am) and I recently noticed that my work style is a lot like Boba’s. Coincidence? Maybe. Years of subliminal absorption with tendencies imprint personas from a fictional […]

How to Get People to Happily Pay $125 for 5 Beers
The other weekend, I attended Dark Lord Day at Thee Floyd’s brewery. This event is considered one of the High Holidays for beer enthusiasts. It’s the only day all year you can buy Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout in bottles. Tickets sell out in a matter of minutes and thousands descend on a small brewery […]
blogging about blogging
I’m developing a workshop, with the help of some very talented people here in our Keebler tree at SHC. Actually, it’s like two workshops, both about blogging. The first one is “What is a blog?” and grew out of a desire to not screw up as we add more blogs to our sites. The second […]