Daily Brad, the blog

The Omniture UI team is growing continually, and we’re always looking to get some talented people on-board. It seems the UI designer is one of the most difficult to find. Someone who is not only talented in the aesthetic realm (our highly graphic applications depends on creativity and innovation), but who is also adept at creating easy-to-use interfaces for a highly technical and complex web-based software. And someone who’s willing to work in Orem, Utah. (Utah rocks!)

Here’s the latest job description we’re getting out there for a new hire. If you’ve got questions about the position or what it’s like to work at Omniture, drop me a line.

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The bad news is that I’ve been a bit of a slacker on posting to my blog, but the good news is that I have been very busy. (Always good news for me, never good news for clients that want to get on my schedule.) But there are a couple things I’d like to mention today.

New Designers Added
First of all, I’ve added a couple of links to the list of Utah Graphic Designers that are of note:

The Utah Graphic Artists Forum Launched
I received an email from Wade (mentioned above) telling me about the new Utah Graphic Artist Forum that was recently launched. Here’s an exerpt from the email: (I figured I couldn’t say it much better):

Now officially launched, I present a gathering place for local graphic artists. My purpose is to promote and support the development and expression of graphic arts and to facilitating and ecouraging conversations and interaction between graphic artists in Utah, in an environment free of dues or obligations. I hope to provide something of value to members involved in all forms of the graphic arts, including illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, typographers, user interface designers, and web developers.

Both working professionals and students are welcome and encouraged to participate, discussing current events and trends, historical topics, theory, techniques, technology, business, and/or employment.

Features include a forum, mailing lists, an IRC channel for chat, job announcements, RSS feeds, syndicated calendar events, and plans to meet periodically for socials and workshops. Membership is free and open to anyone interested.

Visit, participate in and support this worthy effort of uniting us creative professionals here in Utah. It looks like it already has over 40 members, and will continue to grow.

I check my lists of Utah Graphic Designers, Utah Graphic Design Firms, etc. on a regular basis to make sure that all the folks listed there are active links and still doing great design, and tonight I ran across something cool.

Though I don’t remember what EyeFX had on their page previously, what they have now is a lot of fun on a boring afternoon. The page loads up grey, and your mouse curser becomes a pen tool that allows you to create webs of designs that looks somewhat like a Jackson Pollock painting. Hovering the pen longer makes a thicker stroke, and moving quick keeps it light and thin. You’ll notice that the canvas area fits any size browser whether full screen, half screen or made tiney.

Give it a try at http://www.eyefx.com

Back in early April of 2001 I went out with Morgan Lynch. I had known Morgan from when I worked at Studeo and he worked at Insurquote and used Studeo’s graphic design services. Morgan had this idea for a company that would design logos on a fixed budget and fixed time frame. I remember thinking that the market already had a couple players, and as an occasional freelance designer myself, I wondered how could he do it? And then I saw his business plan. It was flawless. He asked me if I would come up with a couple sketches for his logo, the company’s name was Logoworks.

I watched Morgan as he grew Logoworks from its small office on Mountain Way Drive with 1 employee to the office on Center Street near the freeway with a couple employees to their current location in the Center 7 Building in Lindon. It has been quite a ride I’m sure. The company has not been immune to controversy with some Internet discussions claiming their designers “borrow” from other logos because of “sweat shop” payment for their services. They respond to these claims the way a business should and move on. The growth and the creations of Logoworks has been phenomenal, and they’ve produced some fabulous creative.

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Did you know that our little Utah Valley State College here in Orem Utah is growing up? Yes folks, the school is getting big. Since I’ve attended many classes there, I was surprised to hear recently from a student that goes there that they now offer a BFA in Art and Visual Communications. Wow!

Here’s the link to the Requirements for the BFA in Art and Visual Communications at Utah Valley State College.

Currently, UVSC serves more than 23,000 students; 13,877 are Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs). UVSC offers 51 baccalaureate degrees and a wide variety of associate degrees. In a recent press release (last week) it was announced that the State Board of Regents has reviewed UVSC’s Proposal for University Status but no formal action has been taken regarding the proposal other than some recommendations.

UVSC is a great value for your education dollar as the tuition for 2006-2007 is $1,654.00 for residents of Utah and $5,169.00 for non-residents. (PDF showing Tuition costs broken down)

In a feature article from connect magazine, there was a story about a new Salt Lake City Utah based promotion agency called MINDWISE. It took me a couple searches to find their website, which currently isn’t built out, though the article says they have officially opened for business and “…already engineered a slew of promotions locally and is in talks with various companies to handle upcoming events, promotions and sponsorships next year.”

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I recently got an email from one of my friends that announced the launch of his latest venture called Scribble Art (located at http://www.scribbleonwalls.com). Scribble turns any blank wall, mirror, window, ceiling, tabletop or even a low traffic floor into a giant canvas to create your design masterpiece.

Other than being a big fan of their logo (way to go Chris!) I am a big fan of the product. Removable wall art is not a brand new concept, I remember first reading in Business 2.0 about Blik who also produces designer surface graphics. They’ve been 2 years in development and received plenty attention from press and the art worlds. This is a good thing - as Scribble has a proven model to emulate - and yet the challenge is that they have to differentiate their product and design in the eye of the consumer.

Their website just launched a few days ago, and so there’s still a few technical glitches. (I had trouble using it in Safari, which is a known bug). But it’s well organized, fun, and for a company just launching - they’ve got a lot of great designs which will only continue to build. They’ve made an good effort to be playful with their copy such as the following:

The point is, we’re design geeks who get off on creating self-adhesive art for your walls. We’re not hip, Swedish people. In fact, we don’t even know any hip OR Swedish people. We are garden-variety art and design geeks. And we’re precisely the sort of people you’d want in your house creating cool designs for your walls. As long as we promised to leave at a decent time.

Could those “Swedish people” the website refers to be my sweet IKEA folks?

For the Therty Brand headquarters (I blogged about this company a couple days ago) I think it would be fun to do large spots with different designs to reflect their product and logo. What great ideas can you think of to do with Scribble art?

Congratulations on the launch! Happy Scribbling!

I’ve been adding a few links every week to my lists of Utah talent (have you checked lately?), so keep checking back. I’m always doing Google searches trying to find more to add that I’ve missed. Tonight I ran across a directory called Salt Lake Sites at http://slsites.com where I was able to find a few more design firms, a photographer, and an illustrator I was missing.

Salt Lake Sites
Salt Lake Sites claims to be the largest open directory for Salt Lake City, Utah and surrounding communities. While it may not be the prettiest directory I’ve seen, with over five thousand listings in 280 categories, it well could be as it claims. The site was created by Kevin Delaney as a non-commercial hobby site. All he asks for being listed is a shout-out on your blog or website, or a small listing fee in return. There was a couple ill-fated links in the design section that I reported to Kevin - I’m sure he has plenty on his hands to do just approving new links.

So in an effort to get more people to find my site, I’m listing it there tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes (I use Google Analytics to track it).

Utah Designers, Illustrators, Design Firms and More
And keep checking back for my continued lists of Utah Talent! (I add a few new ones every-so-often, and verify their existence at least every week.)

And please let me know if you have any suggested links of other Utah talent!

On the front page of Axis41’s website, they define themselves:

“We’re not an ad agency, consultancy, design firm, or web shop. But the best from all of the above. No one word describes us. Although the word refreshing is a popular choice for those who have been through marketing hell.”

Perhaps that’s why their website is organized a little bit different than most ____ shops who do design work are.

Axis41
155 North 400 West, Suite 135
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
T 801.303.6300
F 801.303.6339
E info@axis41.com
W www.axis41.com

OVERVIEW
Axis41 has proved itself as a firm to be reckoned with - its designs seem to be appearing in all the recent publications that I’ve been looking at, and they’re winning a lot of awards. Since they don’t have much on their website to say “about us” other than describing the solutions they provide and their approach to those solutions, the only tidbit I found beyond the above is their press release signature:

About Axis41
Bringing a revolutionary approach to marketing communications, Salt Lake City-based Axis41 comprises a team of communication and program design specialists who strategically use and develop a wide variety of marketing and Web tools to effectively create a measurable voice that radiates from their clients’ organizations. Included among Axis41 clients are: Ciena, ClearOne Communications, FranklinCovey, Symantec, ADP Lightspeed, Novell, VISTA Staffing Solutions, and Intermountain Health Care. Learn more — visit www.axis41.com.

I assume that their name originates from the fact that Salt Lake City lies near the 41st parallel, though technically their location in downtown Salt Lake is about 40.77 degrees north. (I guess a little “rounding” was in order there. I can’t imagine Axis40.77 being as easy to remember.)

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I was clicking through the list of Utah Illustrators I compiled for my Daily Brad Blog and was impressed with Trent Call’s website, his drawings/paintings, and overall talent. Under his “current” link I discovered where his website “SWINJ” gets its name, (though I don’t know what it means exactly.) or perhaps where his publication gets its name.

SWINJ (A limited edition book produced by Call that showcases local artwork) recently released their sixth edition. SWINJ #6 features the work of 31 Utah-based artists that was collected over the period of a year. The limited edition book has some great work in it, looks good aesthetically, is well put together, and exemplifies the growth that the ‘zine has experienced since it started out as just a small xeroxed publication in 1998. Trent Call is responsible for the publishing, editing, and organization of the book. If you’d like to purchase a copy, they’re $15.

Listed contributors include: Endur, Eliza Strack, Cein Watson, Fletcher Booth, Camilla Taylor, Liz Evans, Toward Feeling in the Blank, Jonathon Clarke, Trent Call, Vile Blue Shades, Alex Ferguson, Nick Bottman, Tessa Lindsey, Ryan Jensen, Alexa Filanowicz, Stephani Dykes, Russel Daniels, Kevin, Camron Larson, Patrick Eddington, David Clarke, Jason Jones, Sri Whipple, Oliver Chipping, Jenni Lord, Ruby Claire Johnson, Gentry Blackburn, Leia Bell, Zak Jensen, Jessica Minckley, and Steven Larson.