I’ve run across a few situations that deserve comment, and that might help professional people who are looking for a new website, a better website, or a new relationship with a web design or web development resource.

I deal mainly with professional artists and business owners – usually I deal directly with the owner or artist, or occasionally an agency.  I also get a lot of work currently from two or three other companies that out-source to me – my comments here also reflect issues that each of these companies has experienced.

First,  let me “set the stage” here.  The world of “Internet Technology” or “Information Technology” as well as the adjacent area “digital presentation design and creation” are actually similar to “rocket science.”  They are NOT intuitive or simple.  So when you are hiring someone to build a website, you are looking for an actual PROFESSIONAL, not anything less.

Now, here’s a key point for why I decided to write this post:  A Dentist, an Actor, a Business Owner all have specific skills, financial resources or other qualifications that allow them to be in the position they are in.  This does NOT mean they know how to evaluate or hire Internet designers/developers, or what they should pay for professional services in this area.  

Back in the days before computer technology became the “wave of the future” that it has become in today’s world, if you wanted to have some promotional materials created, you simply went to a design firm or ad agency, paid them money and got the work done.  In TODAY’s world, this simple method has become VERY complex by the fact that you can purchase a LOT of “do it yourself” software, install it on your computer and BANG, you’re a web designer, a graphic designer AND a database programmer!!!!  WOW!

But guess what?  It’s all someone else’s MARKETING.  It’s not reality. Companies want you to buy their stuff and THINK it’s easy to get a “web site in ten minutes.”  It does a great disservice to all concerned.  Unless you are wiling to settle for a really cheap and crummy looking web site, this is not going to be a solution.

Graphic design is a PROFESSION.  Web design is a PROFESSION.  Programming is a PROFESSION.  Each of these areas requires training and experience to get things done so that they present your message in a professional way, with good use of aesthetics and appropriately worded copy, navigation, color scheme, layout, etc.

Also, technology changes constantly.  Websites built 5 or more years ago are outdated in terms of the actual technology used to make them.  People in this profession are constantly updating their skills and knowledge to keep up with what works best.  Do you have the time to do this, as well as keep up with your own profession?  Probably not.

The do-it-yourself-in-ten-minutes model just doesn’t work.

Here’s another aspect to this situation:  When I have a toothache, I go to a DENTIST.  The dental profession is highly regulated.  You cannot be a dentist without a license and passing the Board Exams to get that license is REALLY HARD.

There is NO license required to become a web designer, graphic designer or programmer.  So ANYONE can put up a shingle and claim to be a professional.

So what’s the solution?

Unfortunately, what I’m going to express here is not likely to be popular, but I think it pans out as a set of “workable truths” with regard to this area.

1. “Know before you go.”

Research enough to know what you actually need to get done.  This WILL require that you find and clear the meaning of basic terms relating to the creation of the materials you need created. This can mean even hiring a consultant who has extensive (documented) experience managing the creation of similar projects to what you need done. Someone who has worked as an art director for a major web-based promotion firm would be a good example.  Beware people who are NOT actually expert, such as programmers (who are NOT graphic designers) or graphic designers (who are NOT programmers or web designers and don’t actually know how to build websites).

This step is important.  The reason for this is that the area is actually NOT simple.  A business owner who knows nothing about what it takes to build a professional web site will have no idea how much actual work it takes to get things done correctly, and thus have no way of evaluating the cost.  As an example, a well-designed, professionally done website with good graphic design, use of photos and other visual enhancements is going to cost anywhere from $2,000.00 -$5,000.00 in today’s market.  Yes, you’ll find people who will do it for much less, but you will end up with poor design, badly written code that contains errors and doesn’t work on all the different types of web browsers, Mac and PC, service headaches, things that have to be done over, people who never complete the work, and a host of other problems. Professionals need to be paid correctly.  You need to have enough basic knowledge to have a realistic view of what needs to be done and how much it should cost.

2. Look at examples of  the work of anyone you are looking at hiring.

Any competent web presentation professional will have portfolio you can view online.  IMPORTANT: Do NOT judge the design firm based on the “style” of the portfolio UNLESS the company states that they specialize in certain types of work.  The reason for this is that designers make what the CLIENT needs, which will generally NOT be what you need.  You are looking for evidence that the QUALITY of work is up to the standard of professionalism needed by your project.

3. Avoid anyone claiming to have the “lowest price…..”  

This is because in today’s world, MANY companies are out-sourcing their work over-seas to programmers and designers who will work for extremely low wages.  While there is nothing wrong with this in principle, the actual day-to-day reality is that people in other countries do not understand english well, they do not understand the culture you are in, they definitely do not understand domestic marketing and PR, and you’ll end up with lots and lots of headaches and wonder why your project isn’t getting done correctly.

Professionals charge professional rates.  Don’t think you are “saving money” by trying to get the “low priced leader.”  Get the work done right by a valid professional, pay the money and get a REAL result that gives back a valuable asset you can use to promote effectively.

4. If possible, get a referral or testimonial.

 This would mean someone who has already dealt with whomever you are looking at hiring.  Was the company easy to work with?  Was the relationship a good one?  Was the timeline met?  Most designers can offer you someone who would vouch for them as a current or former client.  Sometimes this data is hard to get, but doing what you can to establish the actual working pattern of the designer can pay major dividend to you.

Lastly, there is one suggestion I have to anyone needing to get Internet presentation work done.  Unless you personally have extensive experience with design, marketing and PR, choose a good resource and let them do their work – in other words, don’t try to “micro-manage” the work too much.  Designers generally “try things” and will do “mockups” that you can “sign off on” before they go online as a final work.  Usually, a design contract will provide with two or three “revisions” before you are required to pay extra “revision fees” to ask for additional changes.  I’ve worked with all kinds of clients over the years.  The best work I’ve done (and if you look at my own portfolio you’ll pick these examples as your favorites) was where the client trusted me to be the artist and come up with good ideas, requested a few changes, and let me do those changes, which were then accepted and got a great result. The chemistry between the client and the designer has a great deal to do with the speed and quality of the result.  

I hope this is helpful.
I’m happy to discuss any potential project and also help you walk through all the above steps.  I enjoy great relationships with my clients and am happy to work out new relationships as they come my way! 

Rex Perry
www.perrymultimedia.com

A couple of definitions:

1. Presentation – as a noun, “presentation” is defined as “a show or display; the act of presenting something to sight or view (“The presentation of new data”).”  It comes from a Latin word – præsentationem, meaning “a placing before.” 

This gives us a simple view of what we are dealing with when creating a presentation of any message, artwork or subject, whether it be verbal or visual in nature.

2. Multimedia – also a noun, “multimedia” is defined as “transmission that combine media of communication (text and graphics and sound etc.).”

In today’s world, one can go right into apathy trying to work out how to get the attention of the right people with the right message and in enough volume to get any kind of useful response. So anyone who manages to keep a promotional budget in place and keeps “getting the word out” is to be commended.  But when you get your word out to people, how do they receive your message?  Do they even care to read or look at what you are showing them? 

Well, this is of course, all about the subjects of PR & marketing.  But the focus of this blog post is “presentation and multimedia.”  The reason why these things are important to you is that the world we live in is constantly shifting in the direction of more and more high-quality presentation materials that use combinations of audio and visual presentation methods to get attention and get the message accross.

VIDEO – is more and more accessible to practically anyone.  Animated presentations that allow a complex stream of information to get accross with images and audio have become common to the point where everywhere you look, you see animations, slideshows, videos, people talking right at you, etc., etc.

Now, my point in writing all this is not to tell you something you already know – most people are aware of these things. But here’s something that may surprise you:  JUST because you use lots of audio, video, bells & whistles, loud noises, sexy images, and fancy slogans does NOT mean you are reaching anyone!

The RIGHT image, the RIGHT text, a correctly shot and edited video with aesthetically pleasing and effective composition are KEY aspects of making what you present really LAND and CONNECT with the audience viewing it.

This is NOT voodoo.  But it is ART.  It also includes knowing fundamentals of public relations, ethnic and cultural values, emotional “triggers” and other factors that are not “intutitive.”

I intend to keep writing down ideas, methods and bits of “hard won know-how” that have resulted in the good responses I get on the presentation materials I create for clients using this blog.  For now, I’ll end with this one very basic concept:

Having a well worked out presentation that uses a good balance of multimedia elements along with vebal information,  and that keeps good focus on the actual communication getting accross to the right audience is worth its weight in gold.  Sometimes this can mean VERY simple materials.  In my next post I’m going to get into different approaches that can make or break presentations.  Stay tuned for that and have a great week!

Rex Perry
Perry Multimedia Inc.
www.perrymultimedia.com

In my world as a web designer and Internet presentation builder, I’m generally creating what others use to promote themselves or their products & services.  I see how people have held back on spending in these areas. But confidence is on the rise again.  People should use this good indicator as an opportunity or “trigger” to start investing in the facilities that help promotion and expansion to occur.

Because the Internet is well established as the media and communication channel of the future, spending the time, effort and money now to create or enhance one’s presence on the Internet is action that cannot fail to assist in creating more motion and more expansion.

Of course I have “the agenda” of selling my services – this is MY way of promoting!  But what I create is fun and exciting for me because it is helping others create success for their activity.

I specialize in high-quality, aesthetic and professional web sites and related products, such as blogs, shopping carts, specialized multimedia presentations, all with attention to detail and a genuine interest in helping my clients get real impact and great results from their Internet promotions and their over all “web presence.”

I hope that you will contact me and use me as a resource for your Internet promotion needs.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Rex Perry
Multimedia Artist/Producer, Web Designer/Developer
Founder & CEO Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

Learning Actionscript at all was a jump I had to make to feel I was going to be able to create the high-quality presentation media that I felt was up to standard for my caliber of clients and for my company.  This came along with learning PHP/mySql, which put me enough in touch with programming to be competent, but hardly expert.

Learning Actionscript 2 is not easy for a non-programmer, but I found lots of online tutorials and was able to grind my way up the ladder and become able to create pretty advanced animations and controls.  When Flash CS came out, and Flash’s capabilities to create full web sites with great interacitivy, there was no turning back.  The road I travelled became one of a “no mans land” between art & design and programming.

I suppose this article and those that will follow are part of my version of “pay it forward,” as I got lots of free help from others on the Internet (Adobe’s documentation is clearly NOT written to help non-programmers and typically uses convoluted and advanced examples to illustrate simple basics) in learning how to get results with code.  Hopefully, some of the comments I make here will help others to face the somewhat overwhelming wall of “data intensive” learning curves that accompany this highly useful medium of multimedia presentation.

Actionscript 3 forces one to pretty much learn things all over again up to a point.  I purchased about three different books JUST to get a handle on the subject, especially to help me translate things over from Actionscript 2 to AS3.  Being someone who was already struggling to push my way into programming anything very advanced with AS3, it was REALLY difficult to face up to the learning curve with AS3.  A tip I would give anyone new to this – forget what ANYONE says. Unless you are an EXPERIENCED programmer, learning the new Actionscript 3 is going to drive you have nuts, especially if you hope to depend on Adobe’s convoluted documentation to give you practical guidance on how to proceed with learning it.

BUT – IT’S WORTH THE TROUBLE!  The cool features and new methods ARE really cool.  The over-all code strategy IS easier to deal with once you get over the shock of having to learn about clases, the Document Class, and the completely new system where practically every interaction is based around event-listeners. 

Also, the error checking system is confoundedly strict.  BUT again, it’s also helpful because the error messages are very specific and most of the time actually point you to the exact thing you need to fix to debug your code.  So guidance is built in to that degree.

I’m now successfully working with code for XML playlists, music players, video players, photo galleries, external loaders and full dynamic web sites, all using AS3.  I have to say it’s getting pretty cool and my clients are happy with what they get for their money!

I’ll try to point out tips and successful ways to handle the learning curve and perhaps some of the sources of information that have helped me, as I have time, on this blog. 

-R