July 21, 2010 It's been a busy month here at Creative Component!
After the launch of Squareflair.com a few months back, I've been so busy with Squarespace development I could puke jump for joy. Seriously, if there's any question about my love for this platform, then you don't follow me on Twitter, so do that now.
Here's what was just released into the wild, and there's more that are wrapping-up very soon.
June 25, 2010 This observation takes me back several months in the the dribbble-sphere.
If you're a web designer, then you already know about the insanely-awesome site called dribbble over at dribbble.com.
"I liked it so much, I bought the shirt!" -- A. Houser
in their words
Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. Share sneak peeks of your work as “shots” — small screenshots of the designs and applications you’re working on.
Designers are "drafted" to play, and by "play", I mean post images of what we're working on. It's an extremely-social atmosphere, and you can actually get some great feedback through the process of posting design iterations.
I was drafted by my good friend Eric about 5 months ago, when it was still considered a private beta. Even with thousands of players, the public couldn't view player's shots.
"Behold, the Ampersand" by Alan Houser (my fave), courtesy dribbble.com
Then the ads came. Today they appear on the right-side of the site, typical to site banner advertising, the ads are outside the context of what people are there to do. One of these early advertisers was MailChimp, one of the leaders in newsletter software.
... months and months go by ... (segway music here) ... dribbble is now a public site, meaning that the world can go view activity. They still can't participate unless they're a drafted player. While that part adds a bit of tension for outsiders, it seems to keep the quality at the highest level possible.
A few weeks back, I noticed that Dan Rubin, designer to the stars, posted a few MailChimp images, and this week, I see Veerle Pieters is now posting some. (all posted below)
Between these four images, there were 2,816 eyeballs that clicked-in to view the images. These eyeballs were mostly designers who are potential MailChimp customers, decision-makers or at the very-least, influencers.
It's this designer's opinion that MailChimp targeted these top designers, knowing (possibly encouraging) them to post shots on dribbble. Maybe it's far-fetched to assume that MailChimp recognized this awesome opportunity, but these dribbble shots posted by the web's top designers are ads themselves, and the very essence of social marketing. And that's why I say IT'S GENIUS.
"Mmm, Paper." by Dan Rubin, courtesy dribbble.com
"Finishing touches" by Dan Rubin, courtesy dribbble.com
"Where's Freddy Looking?" by Dan Rubin, courtesy dribbble.com
"Bricks X Dots" by Veerle Pieters, courtesy dribbble.com
Alan Houser
Handsome Dan just Tweeted me:
"they may have hoped for it secretly, but never suggested or hinted. they picked designers who love to share, I guess :) ...see also: http://drbl.in/22248 (from @squaredeye)."
June 8, 2010 
When working on Adam's website, we had the discussion towards the end about his brand.
I was in the process of changing the site's title text, and added the little orange dot in-palce of "just a period". I then emailed Adam and joked how just this orange dot should be his logo.
Then it hit me:
What if the front of a business card is all black, like the site, and only says ".director"? (An incredibly simple, yet bold stroke, or so I thought)
To begin working on the card concept, I asked Adam "what would you like on the card?" and he responded "Name, Phone and Email... there isn't much more we need is there?" I agreed. Appreciating his grasp of simplicity, I gladly made the backside of the card as basic as possible.
After the second iteration, I realized that we didn't even list the website on the card! I designed the site, and forgot that all-important part!? It's funny how something so obvious can stare you right in the face.
For the third, and final design (below) I kept the full website heading on the front, then for the back I just swapped the .director with a .com, and — BOOM! Nailed it! — Back-away from the computer, this thing is done!
From front-to-back, the client/card-holder knows that Adam is a director, and appreciates a simple statement.
In this case, the identity wasn't forced at all.
It just sort-of arrived.
May 27, 2010 I'm happy to announce the launch of another Creative Component Squarespace site. This is one of several projects I'm working on with Adam. You will soon see that the man is one talented Director.
Enjoy AdamRichardJones.com
May 11, 2010 
The Godfather of Web Design, and my Web Design mentor, made my month brighter with one Tweet. I love this guy.
