AbsoluteB.com

It’s been an insane 2 weeks! Since coming onboard with Bonobos, the amount of work has never pilled on as much as it has in the past 14 days.

To start off with, I’ve lately inherited the responsibilities for everything to do with phonebook ads. Everything from their design to their final distribution and communication with the sales department. Besides creating SEO strong and beautiful websites, Bonobos also creates phonebook ads for its clients. Don’t laugh too hard, I chuckled a little too when I thought that there were still people out there who even own a phonebook. But despite the fact that it Is a diminishing market, it remains profitable to be a part of. Despite this, you wouldn’t believe how many badly designed phonebook ads are out there! I think it has a lot to do with companies designing their own ads in MS Paint rather than hiring on a professional design firm to get the most attention necessary out of an ad. Many of the ads cram too much uninteresting information into them and don’t get a clear message across, next to the fact that they’re just really ugly! Not that I care what other companies decide to do with their designs. It just makes my job that much easier, as long as the client doesn’t butt in too much.

Next to that, my quest to redesign a Google continued up until last week when a design which I had worked on for nearly 3 weeks was finally approved and green lighted for production! I think once it gets launched and I have the ability to show off screen shots, that many might scratch their heads and wonder what on earth we were thinking. But the shock and awe and recognition factor of the design will hit most visitors like a solid brick to the face! In a very unconventional and very un-Dutch way, I think we’ve managed to pull of something unique and exciting. I’m looking forward to its launch!

The other thing that has kept me from posting regularly was a project that involved designing a series of sites, about 11 of them, as part of a series of occupational based websites; meaning, a site designed specifically for electricians, specifically for plumbers, locksmiths, lawyers, roofers, glass handlers, etc, etc, etc. These sites had to interest visitors in need of such professionals to contact our trusted clients for that specific service. Now, I wouldn’t say that this was an easy project. Designing 11 sites which fit together as a series but are as different and unique as the next was challenging enough. But have you seen what’s out there? I’ve always felt that Dutch web design was always a bit on the boring side. Large multi national companies like the banks had websites that were too to the point and too clean. So once I had a look at a few of the smaller company websites out there… man, what a shock! I really think that this series of sites is going to make a huge difference, not just because of the effort and work we’ve put into them, but also because the competition out there, well, just doesn’t really feel like competition at the moment.

As my ex-colleague would always say “screenshots, or it didn’t happen”. I’ll get to them eventually and when the time is right, but for now, I’m going to take a long needed sleep after not having slept well for nearly 2 weeks.