Recent Posts
By Jeff White: May 03, 2012
Filed Under: Development, Jeff
Only a few short years ago, we built as many sites using static HTML and occasionally (gasp!) Flash as we did using a Content Management System (CMS). This was due to several factors. In 2002, there were a lot more sites that were simple brochure-ware, and most companies still weren’t using their web properties as dynamic platforms for selling, conversing with and informing their customers and community.
A decade later, however, and the vast majority of organizations have come around to the web as a primary marketing medium. As such, most sites on the web today use a CMS. There’s plenty of choices when it comes to picking a system, and this post isn’t about the benefits of one CMS over another. No matter which CMS you choose though, it’s important to understand what you’re buying and what it will do for you. Read More »
By Jeff White: Apr 17, 2012
Filed Under: Jeff, Social Media
If you follow me on Twitter, you might know that I re-watched High Fidelity this weekend. Aside from my life being at least 200% different from John Cusack’s character on that movie, we’re a lot alike. Still, I love the Top 5 lists. Or Barry Jive and the Uptown Five.
You can tell the stories you’re passionate about. Everybody’s good at a couple of things. Usually these align with the things that they’re interested in. I’m good at design, business, cycling and barbeque. I’m interested in lots of other things too. And those are usually the things I’m interested in talking about. Read More »
By Carman Pirie: Mar 07, 2012
Filed Under: Business, Carman
This week’s introduction of the new Basecamp—Kula’s project management tool of choice—presents an interesting decision for us. We can switch to the new or stick with Basecamp Classic. We like a lot of what we see with the new Basecamp, but here’s the thing:
There are no private messages.
Read More »
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: Business, 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 »
