Events & Weddings Costa Rica, is a company focused on creating unique, customized wedding and honeymoon experiences in one of the most beautiful countries in the Western Hemisphere. Recently, Samantha Kohn, owner of ECR, approached JLB and asked us to create a clean, professional graphic design in an easy-to-manage content management system. (We’ve known Samantha for a few years now, having helped optimize a previous iteration of her website with very successful results.)

The result of our endeavors? A pretty little website with a tad more than 60 pages of content (yes — we even helped Samantha import all of the existing content from her previous website), engineered on a very robust CMS (thank you, WordPress) with a slideshow tool and an easy-to-update News section, where Samantha can feature various weddings that she’s planned. The best part? All of her content is even better situated for Search Engine Spiders (read: even stronger SEO than before).

Wanna get away? Check out the new site…

Franklin Synergy Bank has just opened a new branch in Franklin and they had their Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting today! JLB has worked closely with Aimee Punessen, the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Public & Investor Relations to make sure the Grand Opening was a success.

Constant Craving catered the food, Southern Events provided the necessary event equipment and supplies, Cornerstone Music did the sound and the TMA Group (another client of JLB) supplied the shuttle to and from the parking garage. Kevin Wimpy Photography was around again to document the entire event.

Everyone worked hard to pull off a successful Grand Opening for FSB!

The FHA assists low-income families by providing safe and affordable housing, operating 297 public housing units and serving nearly 700 residents. It has played a vital role in the community since 1953. Now the organization is poised to renovate and update its facilities, having received initial support from aldermen and the city planning commission for a 10,000-square-foot maintenance/office facility (valued at $1.2 million), along with a separate, three-story senior living center (valued at $4 million).

Hired to work on the project in conjunction with Alday Communications, Team JLB set about the tasks of designing an updated logo for the 56-year-old organization. Along with logo development, we created new identity materials including letterhead and business cards. Upon approval by the board, we created a new website design and accompanying website development. Now the FHA has a robust Content Management System (CMS) with which it can update its site regularly and keep its current (and prospective) residents informed on timely issues.

FHA has launched its new identity and website this month. Construction of the maintenance/office facility is expected to be completed this fall. JLB is proud to support and promote one of this area’s most valued and needed public assets.

Franklin Synergy Bank has a lot of cool new plans in the works to help serve people even more than they already do, and they’ve asked JLB to help them spread the word. Just recently, JLB had the joy of teaming up with Kevin Wimpy Photography to take pictures of some of Franklin Synergy Bank’s hard working team.

Working closely with the photographer, Julian and I assumed the roles of Project Manager and Art Director respectively to help FSB capture exactly what they need for their upcoming marketing material.

Thanks to all involved!

One look at Phillip L. Walker’s portfolio reveals quality, depth and paramount professionalism. Walker is a planning expert with more than 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors and has worked on a wide range of planning projects, including downtown and neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, comprehensive planning, zoning, development design standards, and community visioning.

Walker, who has three degrees (including a Master’s from Harvard), has helped towns like Manassas, Va., Pinehurst, N.C., Lookout Mountain, Ga., and Forest Hills, Tn., to name a few. He has an acuity for detail matched with the ability to visualize, clearly, the big picture. When he approached Team JLB seeking a new website, we knew we were in for a challenge. Not only would the site have to be clean and professional, but it would have to adhere to a high-level of design and content consistency throughout.

Nearly 55 pages and more than 300 portfolio images later, Team JLB has designed and engineered a site (guided closely by Mr. Walker, of course) in a manner that is accessible, visually appealing and easy-to-navigate. While it’s a nearly impossible task to portray online the depth of Mr. Walker’s expertise, we hope that this new site approximates at least a certain level of the top-notch work that is The Walker Collaborative.

The XSi has received nothing but glowing reviews and is a great starter camera for me. Though I don’t actually have the camera in my possession yet (I equally love / hate waiting for packages), I assure you, I will not start posting every single picture I’ve ever snapped on my Facebook…though I may post a few.

So what’s the big deal about a throwback venue an hour away from Nashville in small-town Mt. Pleasant? The food is on par with the finest restaurants in a 100-mile radius. To say it’s worth the drive is an understatement. Coupled with excellent service, a top-level marketing team (hello! The Andrews Agency), a smart and tireless leader (Tim Porter), and a strong desire to put its mark on the map, Mt. Pleasant Grille is a happenin’ place.

For all of the above, JLB is proud to have been added to the Mt. Pleasant Grille promotions team (thank you, Mr. Jim Barrier). So far, we’ve re-designed the restaurant’s website (complete with audio, image slideshow, and a flexible content management system), helped guide a full-force graphic design campaign (business cards, letterhead, envelopes, mailers, menus, coupons, and print ads), and we’ve even begun the identity development (read “initial branding” steps) for two ancillary businesses in Mt. Pleasant.

If you haven’t ever been to Mt. Pleasant, it’s a fun jaunt. And the Grille makes it more than worth your time. Take a friend, or two… they’ll thank you (and so will your tummy!).

Well, the folks at underconsideration have heard our cries for help and have produced a perfect bound book (also available for digital download) that ships today called “Flaunt: Designing effective, compelling and memorable portfolios of creative work.”

This little introduction is from the website where you can order the book.

“Through more than forty case studies, nearly twenty interviews with experienced professionals, and a series of (nonscientific) surveys, Flaunt is a resource for design students as well as young, experienced, freelance, and independent designers. It explains how one can find a way to cohesively, succinctly and creatively showcase their work through an accessible, effective, and creative portfolio. Flaunt showcases a variety of alternatives through a selection of portfolios that represent both the most common approaches as well as some offbeat executions. Hopefully, this book will help ease the anxiety and burden of creating a portfolio—and, perhaps, even help demystify the process of putting it together, along with the expectations of presenting it.”

Based on the book samples they provide on their website, Flaunt looks full of easy to read information covering a wide range of topics from portfolio production to actually submitting and communicating with potential employers.

How do you prefer to visualize conceptual models in an interface design?
Lets break down my personal process:

wireframes > digital comps > finished home page, secondary and sometimes tertiary page designs > HTML markups

The client reviews the marked up site on our test server and gives the final approval. I sometimes do sketches but not always. I can’t stress the importance of wireframes enough…especially when designing large sites with lots of content. They can save a lot of headache and a lot of time. This is a great article regarding wireframes: http://buildinternet.com/2009/09/why-your-next-website-should-be-designed-with-wireframes/

Though it doesn’t happen often we’ve had clients that have approved everything: wireframes, sketches, jpeg mock ups…and have gotten to the fully and completely built out site on our server, and before we go live say, “This is a good start, but…”

What do you find are the most difficult milestones to meet with clients when establishing a visual identity for a company and for their website? Are there strategies you find helpful?
We do a fair amount of identity development and the kinds of clients we serve are varied. It’s hard to have a single process that applies to every client when everyone we do business with has a unique situation. We have developed identity design briefs that we ask each client to fill out. These briefs contain around 10 questions and serve to inform us of the clients history, their biggest competitor and what they would like to see happen with their business in a given timetable. The briefs really give us a glimpse of the personality of the clients business, which we’ll then craft into a brand. I think some of the most difficult situations arise when the client hasn’t already identified some of these key components.

Once the logo, colors, fonts, logo placement standards and printing substrates have all been decided on, we’ll begin working on the clients web design. Keep in mind that when sending web comps, some clients will take what they see literally. If you’ve used lorem ipsum to fill in some space, make sure they know it’s just filler text because they may ask why their site is in French (it’s happened).

At the start of a project, do you design more than one visual interface design to help the flow of ideas?
That really depends on the client. We have our clients fill out a web design brief (very similar to our identity briefs) which consists of questions that help them identity their goals but also helps to dictate the design process. Sometimes the project will require several different design examples and, sometimes, a client needs us to guide their decision making process a little more than usual, which means we offer one interface design and explain why it’s the best solution.

Enter Browser Size from Google Labs.

Give it a shot! It’s rather interesting to plug well-known, high-traffic sites into Browser Size and see where some of the most important content ends up…