Eric and Patty Rosol are the husband and wife team behind, RenderingEffects, their website design and development studio based out of Wisconsin in the United States. Together, Eric and Patty have built RenderingEffects from their collective knowledge in developing and designing websites over the past 6 years professionally. They use the power of Magento and WordPress to meet and exceed the needs of their clients with respect to developing ecommerce as well as standard websites.

Patty Rosol is a web designer and developer who is self taught who uses her knowledge of coding and design to build very cohesive websites. Eric Rosol is more focused on development but is focused on system administration tasks in the day to day operations of RenderingEffects.

Eric and Patty have created a great web design company focused standard platforms including Magento and WordPress as well as Quality, Communication, Flexibility and Creativity.

1. Patty, I understand that you are the designer and your husband, Eric, is the developer of your husband and wife web design and development team.  How do you balance your personal and professional lives as a couple in your business?

Well, actually Patty is the lead designer and developer. For her, knowing the possibilities of the code makes designing easier.

Eric does do some of the developing as well, but the majority of his time is spent doing all of the other services that we offer such as: hosting, email, pc repair/maintenance, and product photography.  He also handles billing, and helps to keep me focused as I have a tendency to constantly second guess my work.

We have a lot in common and share many of the same interests so working together seemed like a natural extension of our relationship.

2. Patty, as a web designer how do you keep yourself learning new technologies?

In my spare time I am constantly reading design blogs, books, and looking through the various CSS galleries.  I also spend a lot of time just experimenting.  I have folders full of design and code ideas.

3. When did you design your first website? How long have you been designing professionally?

We built our first personal website about 7 years ago, and we started professionally about 1 year after that. It was a rather quick transition, but we realized pretty quickly that it was something that we really enjoyed doing.

4. Where did the idea come from to start your website studio, Rendering Effects?

At the time that we were creating our personal website Patty was working for a photography lab, and they had a horrible website.  She told her boss that she could do better and he said “go for it”.  She managed to impress her boss, and some of their customers who started asking her if she could build them a website.  The demand was there so we decided to make it official, and we created Rendering Effects.

5. Eric, as a web developer what is the benefit of building websites and ecommerce sites using standard website development platforms like WordPress and Magento?

The obvious benefit of WordPress and Magento is that they allow our customers some control over their websites, while allowing us to be able to customize the look to our customers liking.

We were very excited when we heard about Magento because we weren’t happy with the other options that were out there.  Most of the other ecommerce platforms we had tried were just too limited with their features.  It was discouraging to have customers ask if their cart could do this or that, and we would have to say no… Or give them a hefty price tag for the adjustment which usually scared them away.

Mark O’Brien is the new CEO of Newfangled Web Factory (He’s been the president for the last 5 years), a company focused on helping advertising agencies build better websites for their clients. Mark was good enough to speak with us about Newfangled, which he has been a part of since 2000 and that he has played many roles with the company including ‘intern’ which is how he originally started with Newfangled.

1. For those who may not know, you are the new face of Newfangled Web Factory since you are in the process of taking the business over.  As the owner of the website is there a new direction that you are hoping to take Newfangled in?  If so, do you care to let us in on some of them?

I’ve been with Newfangled since 2000, when we started “Grayscreen Prorotyping” and built the CMS. I started as an intern, but I’ve been the President (there were many roles in between) since 2004. So, I’ve been with Newfangled for 9 of our 14 years, and I’ve been centrally involved in running the company for the past 5. This isn’t a situation where I’m excited to storm in and shake things up, since the company is on the exact track I think we should be on. That being said, we go through consistently directed, yet massive, changes every year, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. We’re focusing more closely on our positioning of helping marketing firms build great marketing websites for themselves and their clients, and I’ve been very focused on getting that message out there, mostly through public speaking. We work pretty closely with three of the main consultants in this industry, David Baker of Recourses, Blair Enns of Enmark Performance Development (a.k.a. Win without Pitching), and Tony Mikes of Second Wind. I’ve been speaking at their events, in addition to speaking at this year’s HOW Design Conference in Austin. We also have a new version of our CMS, NewfangledCMS, coming out in the next few weeks. This CMS is directly aimed at being the best marketing CMS available. We do this by building it for marketers, as opposed to many CMS that are built by programmers, for programmers. We focus heavily on dirt simple usability, powerful asset management, Business Intelligence and closed loop tracking for key site interaction events. In addition to the CMS, we have a new site design in the works, and the company name will be officially changing to Newfangled, without the Web Factory.

2. Newfangled Web Factory has produced some helpful and very useful videos in the past.  What drives you guys to put content like this together?

Our content strategy is, alongside with very well placed speaking events, at the heart of our marketing strategy. Between our newsletters, blogs, webinars, and videos, we add a huge amount of content to our site every month. We feel that the best form of marketing is free education, and the job of a marketer, any marketer, is to accurately, thoroughly and regularly describe the firm’s expertise to Google, so that Google may drive the specific masses to the firm’s website. I am talking about this stuff all the time, and we very much take our own medicine. We do this to get the attention of those that are contemplating a future website project, and are searching for expert info in preparation. We want those people to discover us as the experts in this field at that stage of the buying cycle, so that we are top of mind when they make the transition to the purchasing stage. This is not marketing content, by any means, it is generous, objective, and useful content. Beyond the soft sell, “pull” marketing objectives, we feel that putting great content out there makes the web a better place.

3. Is the main scope of your business working with Advertising Agencies or are there other secondary aspects of the business that also contribute to the bottom line?

Yes, working with ad agencies/marketing communications firms (based on what they might call themselves) is our very clearly stated focus. On every single page of our site you can read that “Newfangled helps Advertising Agencies build better websites for their clients.” A lot of development shops have had a flavor of this niche, at some point or other, but most ultimately abandon it. We enjoy this niche. We’ve been doing it for fourteen years, and we do really well with it. We focus on mid-sized firms for the most part, because they are the ones that generally need outside help with the web. What we’re really great at is building marketing sites, and that, of course, has all kinds of applications.

4. I see that you guys have put together a book “Client vs. Developer Wars” and I’ve read some of it.  Where did the idea to produce this come from?

Well, producing the book shares all the same base motives as our other content production. In this case, though, Eric thought our breakthrough discovery of effectively communicating web development intentions with our clients was book worthy, and I agree. For our first 5 years of business, we did what everyone else does; we built sitemaps and highly detailed wireframes. In those days we failed at communicating the subtle (read: most important) details of what we intended to build for our clients, which, of course, led to a lot of frustration and waste. Once we discovered our proprietary Grayscreen Prototyping process, or, building the site before we built the site, our rate of success skyrocketed. It was an industry-changing breakthrough that we swear by to this day. Why everyone doesn’t build websites this way is beyond me.

5. How has the concept and practice of using Gray-Screen Prototyping helped Newfangled since you started using it?

Hmmm, I think I might have just answered this question, I guess I got ahead of myself! Let’s put it this way, we are still in business because of “Grayscreen Prototyping”. It is how we impart our expertise to our clients, it is how we define scope, it is how we know we are going to get the project done right the first time, every time.

6. What else are you guys working on these days? Any “Top Secret” things that you might be able to share?

Well, this too I’ve already covered. NewfangledCMS 5, the best marketing CMS on the market, is our latest and greatest. Next up: real time Google Analytics integration. That is all I can say about that for now.

John W. Ostler runs operations for Eight Bit Studios, a small web development studio based in America. The company has about 11 people working for them from various backgrounds. Since 2003, Eight Bit Studios has been developing websites. When they first started they where a PHP shop that was concentrating in small boutique websites. Recently I found out about a site that they developed called “Joe Bidden’s Teeth – Teeth you can believe in” using a blending of RoR (Ruby on Rails), Google Maps API, Scriptaculous and Prototype JavaScript frameworks. The company’s focus is tied to the Viral and Social web space including developing for the iPhone and they balance this development with a focus on an agile development.

1. How long has Eight Bit Studios been in the business of web design and development?

Eight Bit was first established back in the winter of 2003 at Michigan State University.  We were a PHP shop in those days, and concentrated in small boutique websites.  After doing that for a couple of years, the partners and I went our separate ways.  It wasn’t until the fall of 2008, that I began putting the foundations under the new company with a new set of partners.

2. Where did the idea for JoeBiddensTeeth site come from?  How is the site related to the Trident engagement?  What kind of web technologies did you use in the project?  What other technologies where used as well?

Joebidensteeth.com was created by my good friend and business partner, Daniel Peck. We were sitting around watching the Vice Presidential debates, and one thing we couldn’t get over, was that Joe Biden had a killer smile. After about a week of asserting “Joe Biden has the smile of America”, we decided to do something about it.

We gathered some friends and launched the site before the election. It went viral almost immediately.  After its success and the election ending, Trident (among other teeth-friendly brands) came knocking.  Once the partnership was in place, the site was brought into the products team at Eight Bit Studios for strategic and technical development.

The site in its current iteration was built on Ruby on Rails, with support from the Google Maps API and Mapeed.com’s pin-scaling map technology.  The game along with some of the other error handling was produced using the Scriptaculous/Prototype JavaScript frameworks.

3. What other websites are you guys producing these days?

We’re concentrating most of our efforts in the viral and social web space. This includes niche social networks and iPhone Application development. We practice and preach agile development, usually concentrating efforts on a very specific piece of functionality first, then iterating on that. Although I can’t talk about the specific projects we’re working on, I can tell you that this team is the best of the best.  There hasn’t been a more exciting time to be in our labs and a part of the web medium.

4. Is Eight Bit Studios a “one-man show” or is it bigger?  I cannot tell by checking out the site so its a bit of a mystery

Eight Bit Studios is currently a 11-(wo)man show. We work with some contractors depending on project needs. I’ve kept the team small on purpose.  We need to be able to communicate and collaborate at a very intimate level.  When you can provide that channel and compliment it with mutual respect, our ideas and shared expertise gel.  This formula is very rare and I am blessed to be apart of it.

5. John, what is your role/job at Eight Bit Studios?

Besides operations, my efforts have shifted slightly into marketing and concepting our viral products.  I try to stay actively involved in all aspects of the company including the technical work.  We all have shared roles within the company and I think that’s what keeps it fun.  We have a motto, “If it feels like work, you’re doing it wrong.”  Any time you start doing something you’re not passionate about, it’s easy to get tunnel vision on a concept.  We’ve learned that doesn’t work in a creative environment and as a result, we do everything we can to change the way we think about “work”.

6. What is Eight Bit’s focus when it comes to designing websites?

We spend 50% of our time identifying our user-types and their main goals when coming to a site.  Many of us come from a video-editing/animation background, so this usually involves lots and lots of story boarding.  We’ve subscribed to the “less is more” philosophy and do our best not to clutter the web space.  Not until we have identified the functional needs and behaviors of a site’s assets, do we start making design decisions.  The process is extremely creative and collaborative and has proved to be incredibly successful.

Shawn Johnston is the Creative Director from BlackWave Creative in Parsippany, New Jersey in the United States of America. He brings with him 13 years of professional design experience. BlackWave Creative is developing a custom CMS called Kimera that is launching in late spring of 2009 that is PHP/mySQL based. Even though the company itself is only a year old it has a good team of talented people including Shawn who bring their professional experience to BlackWave Creative.

1. How long has BlackWave Creative been in business since?

Blackwave has been in business for one year, and in earnest for 4 months. My professional experience extends back 13 years.

2. What are some of the benefits of hiring your web design company?

Blackwave works at a very polished level of professionalism and personal responsibility to our clients. Our motto “We are what we make” states this perfectly. Every project gets our total focus, creativity and dedication. Every time, no excuses. To compliment this, we pride ourselves in our creative and out of the box approach to web and brand design. We’re not big fans of grids and boxy trends. We try to inject personal touches, and unique elements into every design we do. To round this off, Blackwave is a 21st century business in that we don’t believe in office fronts or superfluous overhead costs. We’re essentially a band of freelancers, and we want to keep it that way. It keeps us nimble and low-cost without sacrificing integrity or our passion for what we do.

3. Does your company work off of a proprietary platform that was built-in house or do you use pre-built platforms (WordPress, ExpressionEngine, osCommerce, etc.) to run your clients online web presences?

We are in the process of developing our own CMS called Kimera which should launch late Spring ‘09. The back-end is PHP/MySQL based and eCommerce enabled with a healthy dash of AJAX drag and drop, with
template selections, and common JavaScript plugins like coverflows, accordions and popups to name a few. The front-end is all table-less web standard CSS with plenty of JavaScript functionality. We’re putting it together based on two precepts…what do designers want and what do customers need? Designers want easy to add JavaScript plugins and simple creative customization and customers need ease-of-use and intuitive interfaces and Kimera will have these in spades. We do work with commercial CMS’s like Magento and open-source systems like WordPress, but often they’re a lot like driving a tank to pick up the mail. Kimera will be designed to be light weight and transparent for faster load time, quick page views and superb search engine optimization.

4. What are some of the most frequent questions people ask about your business and how do you answer them?

People often ask about our freelancer collaborative setup. It’s a somewhat less well-known way of doing business that does require good communication and teamwork. But with the right mix of personalities it
works very well. My common answer to this question is to quote the Musketeers, “all for one and one for all.” The egos get parked at the door at Blackwave. We’re about the work, not accolades.

5. Do you have a physical office where clients can come in for a consultation or does the office run virtually?

As mentioned above, we’re a virtual outfit and plan to remain that way. We meet clients wherever they’d like: local coffee shops, restaurants, or their offices. Whatever they need. This often works in our favor.

6. What is your company best known for in the web design industry?

As a relatively young design company, we’re still making our mark. Having said that, during my freelance career I recently was included in a Smashing Magazine article highlighting hand drawn elements in web
design. This goes back to what I said earlier about adding personal and unique touches to our designs. We follow the design trends close enough to be relevant but we always try to push every design a little (or a lot!) off the beaten path.

7. Do you employ freelance web designers either on-site or off-site, part-time or full-time?

All of the above. We have one full timer, another on part-time retainer and a few we bring in on an hourly basis. Each designer has a style or a set of strengths. We try to match the project with who we think will be able to use their strengths to give the client what they’re looking for while standing up to Blackwave’s standards.

8. How does your company feel about outsourcing?

If by outsourcing you mean to places like India or China, on principal we’re not against it provided the workers in those countries are being paid Western level incomes and in acceptable working conditions.
Anything less is exploitation and we are firmly against it. We don’t use it ourselves as the time zones and language barriers present enough obstacles to make it a less than worthwhile endeavor. In web development and design, you get what you pay for. If you’re paying bottom dollar, you’re going to get less skilled designers and developers and your final product will reflect that. I think that most clients out there understand that.

Melissa Connolly is one half of the husband and wife team at emTwo Web Studios from Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States of America. Together with her husband Sean Connolly they’ve built a small yet very focused web design company. Melissa has been designing websites since 2001. emTwo Web Studios designs for ExpressionEngine and WordPress but they also develop for other platforms at well.

1. How did you first get started in web design?

I first started doing web design after I started blogging in 2001.  I began by designing my own blog, which looking back on it now, was horrible. But we grow, right?  At the time, “blog skins” were pretty popular and I think I had at least 20 different “skins” for my blog.  Every now and then I would get a comment from a reader who wanted me to design their blog.  At first it was a hobby…and then it grew into a passion.

2. How do you find being a husband and wife team in the web design industry?

We love it.  We absolutely love working together.  Sean does most of the coding, while I’ll come up with the concepts for each site.  He keeps me spirited and optimistic while I keep him practical and realistic.  We compliment one another really well.

3. How long have you been doing freelance web design?

I’ve been doing freelance work since 2002, though during that time I held a “regular” job which paid the rent.  In June 2007, I quit that job and jumped head first into our business and we’ve been thriving ever since.

4. How do you usually price your web design projects?

We quote each project with one lump sum price. This puts the exact dollar amount in front of our clients from the very beginning so they know what to expect and how much it will cost.  Should they need additional items that are outside of the original scope, they know that it will cost more.  This keeps “The Scope Creep” in check.  On rare occasions we bill by the hour, but that’s mostly for maintenance and upgrades.

5. Where do you get your inspiration to design websites?

From everything!  Is that too broad?  I find a lot of inspiration in my own environment; from the clothes I purchase to the branding on my dogs all-natural pet food products to the various magazines we read to the wide assortment of video games we play. I also peruse most of the CSS galleries to see what other designers are creating.  Photography sites also really inspire me.

6. How do your clients usually find you? Through word of mouth? Agencies? Or something else?

I get about 85% of my clients through word of mouth/direct referrals.  The other 10% come through google or the ExpressionEngine Pro Network or various social media sites that we use, like Twitter and Facebook.

7. Do you design exclusively using ExpressionEngine? Or do you use other CMS systems to design for?

We LOVE ExpressionEngine and Wordpress and develop for both platforms.  We also develop for other platforms like Movabletype and Ning.  We aren’t afraid to work with something new, so we’ll use whatever CMS is the best solution for our client.

8.  What tools can you not work without when designing a web design project?

For designing:
Photoshop and Illustrator of course
ColorSchemer or ColourLovers
Typetester

For development:
Notepad++
Web Developer Toolbar
Filebug