For the last three years I have been extremely fortunate as I’ve run Debut Creative. I have worked with some great clients on great projects. I have learned so much about other areas of this business, and I have broadened my skill set tremendously.

Recently my wife and I moved to the GTA, and we learned that we are going to be parents! With all of this I find myself yearning for some predictability and stability in my job. Plus, who wants to work when in the next room is an adorable baby?! I began to crave something different than the life of a freelance / contract designer.

Yesterday I took a job as a Web Designer with Thrillworks in Burlington. This incredible team produce some very high end enterprise websites for notable clients across the country… maybe the world! I am really ecstatic about the chance to work with these people. Here’s more in depth how I landed this job.

With this news comes great change for Debut Creative. I will no longer be taking client projects, or working outside of Thrillworks; I am slowly winding down the last few projects. If you’re looking for a freelancer please email me and I can make some recommendations.

My inbox is always open, stay in touch.

Arley

To defend the ubiquitous paradigm of the scroll, I often refer to the namesake.

Scrolls were likely invented as a way to protect and keep paper based messages in order. You can imagine carrying around loose pages would be cumbersome and fraught with difficulties. Like webpages it would be easier to read the first section, but the reader would have to scroll to read the rest.

The metaphor works. Consider the option to have many pages; it is far easier for the reader to deal with one scroll that deals with the text than sifting through a few dozen little strips of paper.

In fact, multi-page posts are often decried by the hardcore as being one of the “worst things on the Internet”. If you have any doubts  read some of the comments on sites like Digg.com; “Buried for 20 pages“, “View the printable version for one page“, “Mirror!“. It happens every day.

Scrolling works, and is the simplest solution for organizing content. A quick peek at some of the top websites of the world shows a lot of sites that scroll (with the exception of search engine front pages, or login pages for sites like Facebook)

The client has an excellent point though, the real estate at the top of the screen is vitally important. Designing “above the fold” is a major consideration that has to be addressed. That will be the first impression your site makes; it has to be the right one.

Likewise, I’m not advocating dozens of browser-heights of straight text. The content should be broken up into logical pages. The content itself will be easier to digest with a modest smattering of helpful and relevant images and breaking some content up into lists (oh how the Internet loves lists).

If someone you know hates scrolling, please tell them how this post ends as they likely didn’t read it.

In the weeks that follow Debut Creative may be up to 4.5% harder to contact! Here is some updated info.

Email: as always will be arley@debutcreative.com or which ever address you commonly contact me at. I will still check this fiendishly often.

Skype: I will endeavour to be online much more for handy Skype calls with my user Arley McBlain

Mobile: Until further notice I will still be using my mobile number of 519-386-1442 – As roaming charges may get wild, I will likely want to call you back.

Phone: I will no longer be answering my Kincardine Home Office number!

Snail Mail: My PO Box  will be checked somewhat periodically until we move, at which point I’ll hook you up with the new details. If you need to send me something please contact me and I can let you know where would be a better place to send to for punctual reception.

To make sure you’re in the loop you can check out my “Current Contact Info” on my website here http://debutcreative.com/contact I will update my contact page and this post promptly as things change. When I change my mobile number to a GTA number I will let you know!

As always I value working with you, I look forward to getting out of these wild and harried transition times. Sorry in advance if I get a little scatterbrained!

Hopefully I’ll be writing lots more for this site in the future!

You can follow Six Revisions on twitter here.

What does this mean for me, the client of Debut Creative!?

Understandably this might worry some of my local Debut clients; but let me assure you that 95% of all the great work we do is for clients hundreds of kilometers away. With the exception of some understandable moving-related scatterbrainedness, it will be business-as-usual for DEBUT.

It wasn’t easy to use a theme with so little reformatting; but several factors pushed me this way.

1. TIME: After three years I had had/made no time to work on my own site. It was impossible to get a site ready for the May 1st challenge otherwise.
2. PAIN: Every agency / designer knows the very hardest job to do is design & develop your own site. Building on a theme is a huge shortcut, one I decided worth taking.
3. LOVLINESS: This Woo Theme is very well built. I set out looking for a two column theme, and found this one with lots of delightful extras. Why reinvent the wheel, when this is very close to what I was setting out to make myself?

After making the decision to use a theme I did a lot of snooping around at paid-themes, but finally decided on this free Woo Theme. I kind of wanted to go with a paid theme, if only to see it on the web less. Irresistible however, was very well named.

I highly recommend Woo Themes as the CSS / Admin controls are second to nothing else I’ve seen.

Since 2006 I moved away from the city I lived in for twenty years, I left my comfortable job as the New Media Developer of a marketing agency, I married, bought a house, and I estimate that I have worked on up to forty websites – but I never worked on my own website.

You know what they say; there’s always something wrong with the mechanics car. I was fine not having a site as I was so busy working on paying client sites. I could only put it off for so long however. 

In addition to my May 1st website launch contest with Pixel Flex there are many reasons to have an online presence - and it’s the same reasons I tell my clients:

• It shows you’re relevant and current
• You need to meet your target audiences expectations
• It’s an investment in SEO for when you need it

BasicallyI need to take my own medicine. 

It’s been a long time coming, so I hope you enjoy it. I will be making journal posts regularly, newsletters every month or two for the time being, and launching a portfolio in the coming months. It’s exciting work – I love making the time to work on my own brand.

This week I made a trip to North Bay to meet up with a couple of my bigger clients and to help PixelFlex founder Tim Lum with his Canadore College presentation “Get the Edge” for the Graphic Design program’s Professional Practices class (a video or series of videos of this presentation will be linked here when he gets it online).

It was awesome to be back at the ol’ stomping-grounds. We caught up with former profs and met some very promising young talent. At the end of Tim’s presentation of Seven Tips to Get the Edge I shared Three Tips to Not Go Over the Edge.

Three Tips To Not Go Over the Edge

There is a lot of emphasis especially in school about how we work, so I wanted to share another perspective.

1) Keep it Fun

Let’s face it, in the career of a someone in the creative industry there are going to be soul-crushing clients who squeeze all the life out of projects. It’s important to keep things fun. One example of this is the May 1st Reboot that Tim and I are doing. It’s hard to make time for your own projects, so by making a friendly competition out of it, we’re making this kind of work fun.

2) Get a Hobby

Computers have a nasty way of sucking us in. I was a lab rat during my college years. I would spend 14 hours a day at the computer only to go home and game on my PC. I think one of the best things I ever did was to buy a bass guitar and teach myself how to play. Get a hobby – one that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a screen.

3) Keep a Life Perspective

I have heard it said that the production industry is so deadly that the average career lasts 10 years. I follow many people on Twitter who will tweet about PHP and js all day and all night. Blogs reveal that some of these people do X kind of work in the day and Y kind of work in the evenings… seven days a week! Life is for living, not working. You are not your job.

The example I like to think of is me in an old age home 50 years from now. Yes, I’ll still remember and talk about the horrors of IE6, how the internet was at its best in my youth and how stupid I think the current paradigm is. I won’t wish I had spent more late nights working. All that will matter is friends, family and memories made with loved ones enjoying life.

Summary

This was my second time in the class as a non-student. As always the class was really receptive and asked some great questions. Surprisingly I didn’t leave feeling quite as old as I thought I would.

3.14159265 Greetings!

Initially this little package was to be a Christmas hello, but we took our sweet time and now it’s March. And so, please allow me to be the first to wish you a very happy Pi Day on March 14 (at 1:59 to be exact) http://bit.ly/156Cxh

Please enjoy the herbal teas. They’re completely caffeine free and delicious. Allow a teaspoon’s worth to steep for 7 minutes. Also enclosed is a photo of the happy McBlain family. Be sure to send us a photo for our fridge too.

In site news debutcreative.com is moderately updated! Full launch set for May 1st. As always I am making monthly mixtapes at arleym.com/mixtapes

May your decimal places never end!

π Arley + Kristi