Computerlove™

January 30th, 2008

Studio IC

Studio IC has finally launched. Studio IC is our visual production factory and is powered by Internet Communicators.

November 29th, 2007

And another plug

We (Internet Communicators) also launched this minimalistic site. We not just post this site because we made this site. We loved creating this site for comic character Paplov. You can read and download Paplov's adventures as well as sent your friends e-cards and download wallpapers. For all those people who don't understand dutch....we're sorry.

More great stuff on this site in the near future.

check out: paplov

We (Internet Communicators) just updated our site

We just uploaded new stuff and redesigned our site. Not a completely new design, just slightly different. And if you're living in the Benelux, check our rockstartour as well.

Internet Communicators

March 5th, 2007

Internet Communicators launched

Our new corporate site has launched. Check it out at internetcommunicators

January 29th, 2007

MusicPromoStation launched

Musicpromostation is a new network for independent artists and consumers. Artists who are ready to conquer the world meet music loving consumers who can download their music for free.

We just released the official website. The official start of the network. Check MusicPromoStation. If you want more than mainstream...musicpromostation is the alternative. Listen to these great musicians through our random music player which functions as a radio or search for artists and download music. For Free.

If you are an artist, you're in a band or you know a independent band: Join today. Suggest yourself using the 'suggest a band' button on our site. And MusicPromoStation will promote you and your music. Or theirs. Note: Pleas read the terms of use of use carefully.

MusicPromoStation is developed by the 'internet communicators'. As the name suggests our company works on online communication for brands.

October 8th, 2006

J2PX | my new weblog

I have a new weblog for my work. Mostly for my personal work but that might change in the future. My main focus is on design and photography. Visit my weblog at J2PX

June 19th, 2006

webblast -episode 19 - listen now

Episode 19 - subject 'your reward as a designer' is online. The last in our series about the design process.

Webblast is your audio source for cool webdesign, online trends and visual communcation. The Webblast podcast is available in mp3 and is totally free. For you to listen on your ipod, mp3 player, psp or simply on our website. webblast website

June 14th, 2006

Has internet become boring?

Lately I walk around with this question. Is it just me or the internet?

When I started as a junior designer everything was new and exiting. I felt like a little boy running around in a toys store surrounded with all great stuff. The possibilities of the world wide web were limitless. More and more people started using the internet. And usability gurus like Jacob Nielsen started preaching universal solutions and standard ways of working. More and more designers applied to this rule and standard solutions became... standard.

Compare it to magazines. Does every magazine look the same...because otherwise no-one could read it? No, magazines come in every form and shape. Why do webdesigners follow standard rules so blindly then? Why are webdesigners not questioning every little aspect and every little rule? Isn't that the essence of being a designer? Questioning the standard and doing it differently.

If we follow blindly, innovation will never occur. And that's a dead trap as we all know. Look at all the companies which stopped innovating. Look at all the brands that stopped reinventing their brand. Look at graphic design. Graphic design in the last century certainly did innovate.

We as web designers should bring the audience a new experience when we do a project. Suitable to the project off-course. Not every company needs a "2-advanced" website, I understand. But look at the following websites: Philips, Iomega and Sony-Ericson. Yes, the colors are different but if you look at the underlying grid...it's almost identical. The position of the logo, the horizontal navigation, the flash product area underneath etc. They all use the same conventions. And none stands out. I know innovation is not in the position of the logo or navigation. What bothers me is the fact the marketing managers and design agencies seemingly didn't dare to do it differently.

And you could try to argue conventions are good. And that the examples I gave you are portals which should be accessible to a large group of people. If that is true and you do consider a website to be nothing more than a user interface (which is only part of it) these companies have to find other ways to stand out. They still need to be innovative online. In the future having a decent website isn't enough for brands like my examples. It's not enough for them to survive following all the convention there are.
Conventions are rules. And my whole education taught me one rule.

Know the rule and break it.

June 12th, 2006

webblast episode 18 online

Episode 18 - subject 'pitching' als part of our design process theme is online.

Webblast is your audio source for cool webdesign, online trends and visual communcation. The Webblast podcast is available in mp3 and is totally free. For you to listen on your ipod, mp3 player, psp or simply on our website. webblast website

June 8th, 2006

new portfolio online

I finally added a portfolio on cpluv.
And this artwork can also be found at jankojanko.com

May 22nd, 2006

Pricing

*!!This post can also be found at www.webblastolnine.com/weblog along with a lot more info about the design process!!

!! And while you're there, listen to the webblast podcast!! *

Pricing is a very difficult thing. Because you have assess the time you need for a project beforehand. And as you know every design project is different. Even if it’s for the same client. And even when you don’t work as a freelance designer you won’t escape budgets. In larger companies you often not only face the client who thinks everything is too expensive, most often you have to convince the account manager as well. I have years of experience and still I often find myself struggling with the right price. Beacause what I think is a fair price is not always what you client thinks is right.

Look at your client’s reputation. How much does he knows about design and what importance does he think communication has? Clients who often do not understand the importance tend top think you too expensive. He or a colleague always knows a nephew who can do it for far less. Fine. Remember you don’t have to do the project. Unless you desperatetly need the project, skip it.If you find the right price for these kind of projects, the question arises if these projects are the ones you want to do. If you can put your creativity in it.

Pricing becomes even harder when your client wants you to do a project based on a fixed price. It means if you assess the project wrong, it’s your financial problem. I hate these kind of projects. An I know more and more companies who don’t like them either. And the won’t work on these conditions. Always ask why your client wants a fixed fee project.

Often he tries to stretch-en the budget-project scope to a maximum. The end result for these projects is almost always the same. The Project isn’t profitable and the design is often not what you hoped for. Because somewhere down the line you have to make a decision in the design process. Kick the quality, let’s just finish the project.I strongly believe in quality so I hate these kind of projects. I don’t do them anymore.

But if you want to do it. I had advise once from a senior account manager. Try to come up with a reasonable price and multiply this with two. if this is to expensive. You don’t want the project. Just keep that in mind.

So how do you come up with a reasonable price?
Although you might not like all the financial blabla, you have to nicely order them for future purposes. When you do more and more projects you start recognizing different kind of projects. And although every project is different, with experience you can see average hours you spend on projects. Count with these, multiply them by one and a half. And you might have a nice price.

Sometimes you can't assess the project. Because it will run for a longer period or the scope is unclear at this point. You can give your client a price range. For example it will cost somewhere between 10.000 and 13.000 euro’s.

Whatever you do...understand no-one likes to have unpleasant financial surprises at the end of a project. You better have a price which is too high at first then to low. If it’s too low you’re client will think about you as a unreliable partner and extremely expensive.
If you’re too high you can always give you client a discount. And that’s what everyone likes.

April 24th, 2006

How to get your production team together

*!!This post can also be found at www.webblastolnine.com/weblog along with a lot more info about the design process!!

!! And while you're there, listen to the webblast podcast!! *

For some creatives this part of the design process is the most rewarding. In this phase you will slowly but surely see all the peaces of the puzzle fall into place. All the conceptual ideas are now going to be real parts of a website or an advertising campaign.

To me the hardest aspect of this phase in the design process is managing the production. In smaller projects you will do quite al lot yourself. But when you are longer in the business of designing and creating your role changes and you are more and more the guy or girl that has to manage other people. This means you have be capable of arranging different tasks in the production. Next to that you have to give different people different tasks to make the production work.

In most of the cases you have to deal with colleges like junior designers, and in my case programmers. They all need to know about your concept. First of all they need to understand what you worked on with the client in the concept phase. And they also need to know what there role will be in the production. Remember, your concept is basically the first step in a process that will lead to a product. And it is very clear that it is not just you working on it. So for you it is very important to know the people you are going to work with. You have to know what they are capable of to make a good decision on the way you will divide the tasks in the production phase. This step requires some management skill from you. Not that much but a little. In general the most important thing you have to be aware of is that you are now working with and in a team. And a team is as good as its worst player. So the final product will depend on the quality of your team. For you as the captain of the team you have to make sure all players will preform in the best possible way.

While working in the production phase you will find yourself often looking over the shoulder of a junior designer, a HTML programmer, or a real back-end programmer. And some of these disciplines are probably very familiar to you. Like the designing part. You where once there to. Creating web-pages because a senior told you to do so. And I don’t know about you but being a junior can be a bit boring. Especially when all your tasks are completely pre-defined by a senior. So when you are the senior, make sure you give the people around you some creative space. Don’t work it all out. Give them directions and the possibility to come up with some creativity on there own. Make sure that the whole team around you is in good spirit. And one of the way to manage people into a good spirt is to give them responsibilities. Everyone in your team has to feel responsible. And responsible in a good positive way. So every member has to have a good feeling about his or her role. He has to feel that you knew his value to the project when you where assign him to a task. He has to know that you believe that he can do the job. He also has to have the feeling that he can come to you when he has an idea or suggestion.

This part of the managing production is very important. Because working with people is really the only way to get the job done. You can not do a project on your own. In web projects for example you need to work at least with some technical talent. These people have skills you need to use. And you need to tread these people well. Stimulate them, try to get them all ‘reved up’ for the project. And don’t forget to tell them once in a while how happy you are with there contribution. Don’t make an act out of it do. People know very well when you mean what you say. It is really a little thing, and it is overlooked very often. While the opposite of making a compliment is something some people can’t get enough of.

Being positive and making people around you enthusiast about the project will get you the best possible result in the end. And the best possible does not always mean that it would be the best result ever. In some parts of the production you would have done some things different if you were assigned to the tasks of your junior designer. And it could be that some technical solutions in the project are not the best once in general. It also could be that you have on idea about those... So remember your team is as good as the worst player.

Pieter