Lee Boone [dot] com

An Open Letter to My Blog

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:10:30 +0000

Dearest Blog,
I know that I haven’t been around much lately or given you the attention that you deserve. I haven’t updated your posts or cleared out your spam. Some of your plugins need updating desperately and oh, I’m ashamed to say there’s still some design work left to do.
I have been consumed with work and family obligations, but I’m sitting here in my desk chair before you committed to make a change.
I have launched sites in previous months, some of which I will mention here in coming days. But I will not confine my posts to site launches. Oh no! There is a whole vast internet to write about. You will be seeing more of that in the coming weeks as well.
I hope you are well, oh blog. I have missed you.
You blogger,
Lee

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:14:42 +0000

EDIT – Found a better image of Banshee by the legendary Dave Cockrum. (With wonderfully overwrought dialogue by Chris Claremont.) If this doesn’t make you want to pick up a copy of X-Men #100 from 1976, I don’t know what will.

I [heart] MODx

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:02:00 +0000

I have been using the MODx content management system for about 10 months now and I am becoming truly astounded by what can be accomplished on this platform with minimal knowledge of PHP. I am currently working on a couple sites that I am extremely excited about.
I have finally gotten my feet thoroughly damp with the @bindings options for template variables in MODx. Its amazing how well you can integrate the data on your site to streamline content management for better, more intuitive functionality.
For example, one of the sites I’m working on is for a commercial property management firm I have a folder in the admin area to contain documents with a ‘property’ template and a folder to contain documents with an ‘agent’ template using the @SELECT and @EVAL bindings I can associate data from the ‘agent’ documents with a template variables assigned to the ‘property’ template. This will allow the end user to assign a contact email from a drop down menu and listing agents from a checklist and the template variables will automatically update whenever a new agent profile is added to the ‘agents’ folder.

Site Launch – Ashburn Car Wash

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:38:00 +0000

So this is a site for a car wash. Water, bubbles, your car… all fun things that I wanted to make part of a site that could easily be stale and boring. Ashburn Car Wash is located in Ashburn, VA, so If you’re in the area drop in. The sun is shining, get your car washed and go for a drive!

Site Launch – Obi Sushi

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:25:58 +0000

This website is for Washington, DC area Sushi Restaurant/ Night Spot, Obi Sushi. If you love sushi and a good night out, this is the place to go. I looked to Japanese art for inspiration and tried to add a healthy dose of night time to the overall look. For me, this is a rare use of reversed type for body copy, something I usually avoid like yesterday’s nigiri. I think it works here.

Site Launch – American Tap Room

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:21:31 +0000

Here’s another restaurant site I’ve launched recently. American Tap Room is a white-collar beer and steak destination in Washington, DC. The place has a rich, warm feel that they really wanted to come through in the website. I’m kind of embarrassed by how graphics-heavy this one is, but I think it pays off when it finishes loading.

Site Launch – Austin Grill

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:16:35 +0000

I’ve launched a few sites recently, and its about time I announced a few of them. This one is for a Washington, DC area Tex-Mex chain called Austin Grill. I wanted to really create the mood of being in that restaurant on the site. I hope you like it.

What’s in a @TwitterName…

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:34:12 +0000

How much thought should one put into one’s twitter handle? How do you know if you have a good one and what are the risks of changing it? A lot of us are out there using our real names. I’m @leeboone because I want people who know me to be able to find me. It helps that I own my name in it’s wwway useful dot-com form. Keeps things consistent and lends a bit of credibility. Odd’s are, no one will wonder if I’m a bot.
I recently asked one of my social media idols, Kristi Colvin, would she have as many followers were she @MunchkinLegs instead of @KrisColvin. It was a joke, but it got me thinking… aaaand butchering Shakespeare.
Here’s another example. On Twitter, Pete Cashmore is @mashable, but if you go to the Mashable website, You’ll see that its much bigger than just one guy.
Some people I know have changed theirs, to make it easier to find or remember. Is it possible to build up so much of an identity with one twitter handle that it would be detrimental to change? Does it even matter at all?
If you’re on twitter, let me know how you came up with your handle. Thanks.

Don’t Freak Out About Google Sidewiki

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:43:01 +0000

I’d like to address the subject of understanding (and therefore not freaking out about) Google Sidewiki. For those of you who are unfamiliar. Google sidewiki is a browser add-on that lets you, in Google’s words “Contribute helpful information to any web page.” It is a new feature of Google Toolbar and is currently only available for Internet Explorer and Firefox Browsers.

The reason this is vitally important for marketers and web professionals to get out on the front end of this is simple, so I’ll repeat. ANY WEB PAGE. Simply put, you are doing a grave disservice to your clients if you do not make them aware of this proactively. You do NOT want to have the client call you asking “What is this Sidewhatzit? and how can I get rid of it?”

So the first step is to dowload and enable sidewiki on your own browser. This bugs me because it adds another layer of clutter to my already tricked-out Firefox, but I’ll deal. People are just starting to use this, so a lot of sites you frequent don’t have any entries, so go to your favorite big, popular site and check out what happens. You’ll have a sidebar attached to your browser with commentary from any visitor who wishes to leave it.

What this is going to do for anyone who cares what people think of their site, brand or product is to force them to become a part of the conversation, if they haven’t already. Currently this tool is in the hands of early adopters only, don’t wait until Oprah or the Today show get ahold of it. It will be too late.

My Logo Design Process

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:32:18 +0000

Logo design is a more comlicated process than many clients expect. Here’s the process I like to follow to help me narrow down concepts and finalize a successful logo.

Before putting pencil to sketchpad I need ideas. I ask for as much existing information about the brand that I can get my hands on. I need to know who the target audience is and what the product is all about. Sometimes this is readily apparent, other times not, so its important to tell me as much as they can. Also, any particular ideas the client has about what the logo should look like should be presented at this point.
Once information is collected there I’ll research similar brands and competing products to find out what seems to be working and what doesn’t. Also, I don’t want to copy a competitor inadvertently.
Now I’ll do some hand sketches. I want at least 10 that I’m happy enough with to present to the client. These are rough and represent ideas in their most basic form. I’ll present these sketches to the client, get input and narrow down to three ideas.
At this point I’ll start to flesh those three ideas out more fully. I’ll develop them more fully and start making decisions about color, font and how the icon will be rendered. At this point we will have three simply rendered logos comprised of a mark and logotype that can live on a page together or independently. I’ll ask the client to select a final logo concept
Now I will finish rendering the final concept, tweaking and finalizing the logo. I’ll deliver 4 vector-based files to the client with the logo in Black, Spot Color, CMYK and RGB.