Ideawire’s new grill

Posted December 30, 2009 by Mark Harlien

There’s a grill on my deck that needs to be retired, but I just can’t bear to get rid of it. First, it was free, a parting gift from some friends who were moving to San Francisco and didn’t want to haul a grill across the western United States.

Second, I'm convinced that it is a "seasoned" grill, capable of serving better flavor than any shiny grill on the market today. And finally, when I do look at those shiny new grills out there today, I can't make up my mind what bells and whistles I want. Some come with expected features, like a guaranteed one-push pilot. Others come with a refrigerator built in, and even halogen lights that hang over the pit.

There are notable similarities between my grill and our website at Ideawire. Our old site was the cream of the crop when it launched in 2002. It served up great samples of work (that we had created at that point), that we felt were seasoned and impressive. But after a while, our website became weathered and rusty like my grill, and failed to show timely, new samples or great work. We grafted a blog and our Facebook page to the site, but it really looked, well, grafted.

Now, some of the reason our website looked like a old grill was because we were busy. Our gross billings climbed to all-time highs and we just didn’t have the time to update our site. But it also was because the Internet (and the technology driving it) moved fast through the late 2000s, leaving us wondering which features to add, if any, to show what we’re all about. Do we add Flash? What about AJAX? And of course, social media went from being a personal diary of one’s life to becoming the new standard of communicating and sharing online. And much to the dismay of a few designers here, no sooner would we start a new design than something else would step in the way to make us stop and wonder if we were going in the right direction.

So this last May, what we finally decided to do was a more modest approach — create a site that reflects personality and success without bells and whistles. We are still one of the most experienced and talented web design – and web programming – agencies around. While other agencies claim ROI, we win the awards that measure and recognize it. And we love to help other people, which is reflected in our longstanding relationships with our clients. This is further reflected by the launch of our new client-support portal — which is authored and designed by us. So if you’re a client, you will love it.

So, without further adieu, we present our new website. Like everything else online today, it will evolve as we add new tips, news and information about our company. We hope it reflects our personality, expertise and desire to do great work.

(And meanwhile, I will continue to grill on my old, seasoned grill)