Recent Posts
By Jeff White: Feb 01, 2012
Filed Under: Design, Jobs
We’re on the hunt for a ridiculously talented web designer to join our agency full-time in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. If you’re passionate about design, obsessed with the web, and enjoy creating elegant user interfaces people love, we should talk.
People Matter, Objects Don’t – it’s the world view that shapes everything at Kula Partners. We create marketing programs, build websites and apps, and develop content that connects people to each other. Basically, we see the evolution of the internet, the rapid adoption of social media, and the increasing role technology is playing in our lives as being more about people than the technology itself. And that means we really care about design. Not in the “design is the stuff in front of our cool technology” sorta way, but in the “design craftsmanship matters because amazing design makes people’s lives better” sorta way. Read More »
By Jeff White: Jan 27, 2012
Filed Under: Education, Jeff
I’ve had the pleasure of giving a talk at each of the Podcamp Halifax events since it was begun four years ago by Craig Moore, Ryan Deschamps and Jon McGinley. I thoroughly enjoy the event. It’s well organized, and the excitement and interest is infectious.
Since I get to give a ton of talks for my business that usually have something to do with the web, design, social media or the like, I like to give presentations on subjects I don’t normally get to talk about. Last year I discussed saving the oval mixed with typographic trivia and this year I spoke on how to start and run a business. There isn’t really time or space enough to recap the entire talk here, but I thought I’d share some of the major points. Read More »
By Jeff White: Jan 05, 2012
Filed Under: Jeff
Three years ago on this day, I wrote this post: Five years ago today, my life changed forever.
If you want to know how I started this business originally, have a read of that post. The basic gist of it is this: my oldest child was born on this day in 2004. The company I was working for (who had attempted to recruit me for most of a year) laid me (and the rest of the department) off one week later. I vowed to never be an employee again and here we are eight years later, and I seem to have kept that resolution. Read More »
By Jeff White: Nov 15, 2011
Filed Under: Jobs
Update: This position has been filled. Thank you to all of the applicants.
We are on the hunt for an exceptional project manager to join our agency full-time in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia.
As the ideal candidate, you have experience managing numerous projects at once—keeping a small team of very focused designers, developers and marketers on task and on time. Further, you possess strong client service skills and instincts and are keen to contribute to the creation of successful marketing programs, working to craft great strategy backed by flawless execution. Read More »
By Jeff White: Nov 14, 2011
Filed Under: Design, Jeff
(I originally posted this as a comment to Jian Ghomeshi’s opening monologue for CBC Radio’s Q. As a NSCAD grad, I think it’s essential to spread the message about what’s happening at the school. Any support you can provide would be appreciated.)
When I was 16 I worked for a summer with a graphic design agency in Halifax. It made me realize that my destiny was to become a designer. I started at NSCAD in 1991, and spent five very full years exploring as many aspects of the school as possible, eventually graduating with a bachelor degree in Communication Design (at the time, the only degree of its kind in Canada and among a very small group in the US). Read More »
By Jeff White: Nov 01, 2011
Filed Under: Education, Jeff
It is with great sadness that I learned today of the passing of one of my most treasured mentors, Horst Deppe.
In the winter of 1992, I was about to start my fourth semester at NSCAD, then the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. My third semester had been hard-fought. I had begun to study design after a year of foundation, photography and art history and I was ready to enter my chosen field of study, or so I thought.
I have very little in the way of hand skills when it comes to design. I can’t draw very well, and I’m messy as hell with plaka, ruling pens and rubber cement. So, after a semester of trying to draw perfect 10cm grids with a 0.3mm Rapidograph pen, I was just about ready to give up on the profession I had chosen when I was 16. Read More »
By Carman Pirie:
Filed Under: Carman, Strategy
Once a year, on October 31st, Canadians take a break from discussing the weather to ask each other how many trick-or-treaters each is expecting that evening. And a meeting I was in yesterday didn’t disappoint.
One person mentioned her house regularly “gets” 400+ trick-or-treaters while her neighbour only answers the door to 250 or so (a whopping 37.5% reduction, etc.). The meeting quickly concurred, with each attendee recounting their own similar experience of being on one side or the other of this neighbourly divide. The consensus explanation reached was simple: All other things being equal, the more stairs you have, the less trick-or-treaters you get.
Really? A set of stairs is going to keep a 10-yr old kid on a sugar high away from a fistfull of Wunderbars? While I’m not in a rush to testify to the statistical validity of this little non-experiment, I’ll admit I wouldn’t be surprised. Read More »
By Jeff White: Oct 06, 2011
Filed Under: Design, Jeff
The internet has exploded with news of the death of Steve Jobs and tributes are pouring in from all sides. I’m leery of adding my voice to the din, but I wanted to share a few thoughts on it.
Apple has had a massive impact on my life. There is no question that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Mac.
I’ve known that I wanted to be a designer since I was 16 years old, after spending a summer working for a design agency in Halifax. At the time, I think it was 1989, and that office was full of Mac SE30s, Pluses and other all in one Macs, plus a single new colour Mac IIx that blew everyone’s mind. I had never really used a computer before, but I knew I would be learning about it soon.
Read More »
By Jeff White: Jul 28, 2011
Filed Under: Development, Jobs
Update: This position has been filled. We’re still always looking for talented people, so feel free to send us a resume.
We’re on the hunt for an exceptionally talented web developer to join our agency full-time in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. You’re a programmer who understands the importance of both development and design to the success of a project. You love open source, web standards and having a really interesting development problem just waiting to be solved.
People Matter, Objects Don’t – it’s the world view that shapes everything at Kula Partners. We create marketing programs, build websites and apps, and develop content that connects people to each other. Basically, we see the evolution of the internet, the rapid adoption of social media, and the increasing role technology is playing in our lives as being more about people than the technology itself. That doesn’t mean that we value the way things look over the way they work. Just the opposite. We want every interaction to be seamless, smooth and well-considered. Read More »
By Jeff White: Jun 20, 2011
Filed Under: Design, Development, Jeff
This morning, we were reviewing comps for the new kulapartners.com site that our design team whipped up (side note—they’re gorgeous, can’t wait to show you). Anyway, in reviewing these mockups we noticed that the on site search box was taking up some valuable real estate that could be used for other things.
Before removing it though, we went and looked at our Google Analytics to see just how many were using the on-site search tool. Less than 0.5% of the pageviews on our site were generated by the search tool. Of those, 2/3ds were for “search kula”, and the other third were for searches I personally had performed looking for old blog posts to reference. Read More »
