arkitrave :: log

So I’m working on a design for the web services division of the company I work for contractually. This presents some interesting tensions, which I am not sure how to resolve.

THE PROBLEM

I do not run the company; I am not involved in any of its operations, but I am the main web designer - I am a “strategic partner.” So, most of the websites they contract and create will be designed by me. This means that their website should be in the spirit of my own design aesthetic. But I do not have the freedom I would have on my own website, as the company is fairly conservative, and has its own set of business goals and values.

So. The tension is between wanting to make the site look like me, and being conservative enough for my company. If I go too conservative, I will potentially get myself into work that isn’t very creative or pushing any edges, because the site will attract the kind of clients who like that kind of design, and I will design their websites. If I go too modern, I risk alienating the kind of clients my company wants to attract.

Web company sites are a difficult design problem. We present ourselves in the same medium that we design in, which means that we always are going to have a tension between exploiting our own medium to its fullest potential, and still attracting the greatest number of potential clients. At least that’s the assumption we make. But perhaps we shouldn’t be trying to attract the greatest number of potential clients…

A SOLUTION?

The Weld-Coxe matrix of architectural firms is a fascinating angle to examine:

Weld-Coxe basically takes architecture firms and divides them into three groups based on Expertise, Experience, and Execution.

Expertise (brain/idea) firms are those star-studded architects like Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, and Frank Gehry. They give new ideas to the profession, and are expensive. People hire them for their unique perspective and free thinking, and ability to see an architectural problem in a different light.

Experience (gray-hair/service) firms are very good at what they do. They customize ideas that the expertise folks thought of, but rarely contribute unique ideas of their own to the profession. The client is seeking the experience of this architect, knowing that he has the ability to take previously created solutions and apply them to the client’s problem.

Execution (procedure/delivery) firms deliver quantity quickly and at low cost. They use pre-designed solutions, quick construction methods, and cheap materials. These are the architects who build grocery stores, strip malls, and Wal-Marts. The client isn’t looking for ideas, or custom solutions. The client wants a structure built quickly and cheaply.

Coxe goes further with a matrix created by dividing each of these three areas into practice-centered firms and business-centered firms. Practices see their profession as a calling. They are the “designers” or artists. Their evaluation of their own work is qualitative. Business firms look to the bottom line of quantity. How succesful are we as a going concern?

This matrix can be applied pretty well to web design, and gets me thinking that we often have the cart before the horse. What kind of web design firm am I creating a site for?

One of Coxe’s theses is that a firm should be targeting not the kind of clients it wants, but the kind of clients it should have given its positioning on the matrix. A firm can reinvent itself, but that requires usually dramatic personnel shifts. Instead, a firm should focus on identifying what kind of entity it is, and targeting the kinds of clients that are looking for that kind of firm.

Hopefully this will give me a better sense of what kind of design to create for my company; I think I already knew the answer but needed to go through this process to get back at what my original instinct was.

What do you think of the application of this idea to web design? Does it translate across the two disciplines? What problems does it have?

Autumn and I would like to announce that we are expecting a baby, come late December (or early January, though we’re hoping for the former).

It will be either a boy or a girl, and is doing very well, according to the technician at our ultrasound this morning. Two legs, two arms, one head. If he has something else, he wasn’t going to show us, so we’ll have lots of yellow and green things and two sets of names. I’m actually looking forward to the surprise, even though we had planned on finding out the sex if it were possible. We won’t go back for additional ultrasounds, as there was no indication of any problem on this one.

I’ll try not to turn this into a baby blog (I’ve been resisting wedding stories, too) but we probably won’t make it till December without another post or two. There is perhaps a large project in the near future; I’ll be writing about process and design again soon.

Warning: this is not a pick-me-up post.

This has not been a great week for me. My grandmother died over the weekend at age 92. It’s not as though it was a great shock; she had been doing poorly for a couple years and my family knew the end was near, but it is difficult nonetheless for us, and especially my father. I am flying to Minneapolis tomorrow for the service, which will be on Tuesday. My sister Kate has compiled some memories of Grandma. She will be missed, but we can celebrate her good long life and many happy memories.

This was not the low point of my week, however. On Tuesday evening, my friend Scott Parkinson died. He was 27, and it was sudden and unexpected. I had just spoken to him Monday; he and his wife Robin were going to come over for dinner on Wednesday, and he called to cancel, as they were too busy preparing to go out of town.

Autumn and I have known Robin and Scott since we moved to Buffalo three years ago, and have shared many good times together. He was a trombonist, she a bassoon player. My wife met Robin at one of their first gigs in the area. They hit it off, both being new to Buffalo, and we soon got together as couples. They were our favorite couple in Buffalo; we shared meals at each others’ homes, ate at some of Buffalo’s great restaurants, saw a few movies, hung out after Buffalo Philharmonic concerts, tasted great whisky, and talked architecture, food, music, woodworking, and home remodeling. They just purchased a gorgeous home in Buffalo, he won the job as the Principal Trombone for the Buffalo Philharmonic a few months ago, and they were about to leave for an annual music festival and visiting the family farm in the Midwest.

He leaves behind his parents, a sister, his wife’s family, the Orchestra, a host of friends across the country, and his wife, Robin. The two were a beautiful couple, and loved each other deeply. Scott was an amazing person - insanely talented on the trombone (Juilliard, The New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, United Brass…), a skilled woodworker (he made Robin a bassoon-desk complete with cutouts and holes for reed-making equipment), an accomplished cook (with a mean marinara), a connosieur of fine whisky (which he delighted in sharing with friends), and one of the most genuine, kind, enthusiastic people I’ve ever met.

I count myself blessed to have known him, and my heart and prayers go out to his family and to Robin.

Lately I???ë?¬?ve been thinking a lot about reality and design. This was perhaps prompted by the discussions a while back about drop shadows, but it has been kicking around my head for much longer than that. It is also prompted by my, let???ë?¬?s say, extremely formulated (OK, totalitarian) views on architecture.

I hate fakeness in architecture. I can???ë?¬?t stand woodgrain plastic, marble-look vinyl, brick-patterned exterior cladding, beadboard that isn???ë?¬?t really beadboard, and Dryvit-stonework. The common denominator is that these materials are masquerading as something that they???ë?¬?re not (and they look it). I don???ë?¬?t dislike any of these materials (plastic, vinyl, plywood, MDF, Dryvit) on a basic level. I appreciate the variety of materials we have available to us. I just want them to be what they are, not pretend to be something else. For example, molded plastic is a great material for a chair ???ë?¬® sexy and smooth and formed, with a single color perhaps. Take plastic, and wood-grain it and laminate it onto a computer desk, and it looks like crap.

Having views like this makes life difficult lately, as it seems that everyone fawns over every fake material with comments like ???ë??it looks just like marble!???ë?? or ???ë??these window mullions are in between the glass panes to make cleaning easy!???ë?? In fact, I hate it when people tell me my concrete countertop looks like granite. No. It doesn???ë?¬?t look like granite. It looks like polished concrete. If I???ë?¬?d wanted granite, I would???ë?¬?ve saved my pennies and bought granite. My wife has learned to deal with my occasional tirades, and I hope someday to create architecture that uses materials honestly, like Steven Holl, Louis Kahn, Le Corbusier, and Alvar Aalto, several of my architectural heroes.

My elitist attitude also makes the prospect of someday working in architecture difficult. I know that my idealism will run head-on into the realities of budgets and clients who like materials that are ???ë??maintenance free???ë?? and look ???ë??exactly like wood.???ë?? I will drop ceilings. I will lay vinyl floors. Hell, I???ë?¬?ll probably spec Dryvit at some point in my life. This will make my conscience work overtime, and hopefully I won???ë?¬?t throw myself off the Millenium Bridge in angst at age 40.

This brings me to web design. Since I live in both worlds, I have been thinking lately about the fact that these ???ë??moral???ë?? issues don???ë?¬?t come up in my web design life. Instead, like the old ladies who adore their marble-look Formica, I embrace such things as drop shadows and gradients, guiltlessly creating the impression of a 3D environment where none really exists. I have made the switch to Apple in the past couple months, and love OS X and its lush screen experience (though I’m getting into the Terminal too!)

I guess it???ë?¬?s because everything is fake on the computer screen ???ë?¬® there are no real materials at all, so the moral framework that physical design sets up (or that I set up…) is nullified, and all rules are off. My idealism doesn???ë?¬?t get in the way when I build websites.

What do you think? What pseudo-moral isses does web design set up for you? Is web design an escapist pursuit for people with the sort of ideals I have?