Every time a client inquires about a prospective project, we get our hopes up — way up — that we’ll have the chance to push the limits of creativity and come up with something truly awesome.

I image it’s the same for other agencies. We have the skill sets to pull out all the stops and create a mind-blowing marketing campaign or a website that’s so far outside the box, it’s in a completely different warehouse. All we’re waiting for is the opportunity.

On last week’s episode of “Mad Men,” copywriter Peggy Olson lost her cool with a advertising client, claiming that unlike most clients who don’t feel anything while reviewing agency pitches, the man in question was worse because he did feel something but was too afraid to act on it, too scared to take even the tiniest of risks.

I imagine many creative folks — whether writers or designers — who watched that episode applauded Peggy’s moxie. After all, who in this or any industry hasn’t watched his/her brainchild get shot down by a client?

It’s tempting to paint a picture of the perpetual tug-of-war wherein agencies fight for the audacious and clever while clients always take the safe stance. But that’s simply not true.

In my experience, most projects start out with a lot of enthusiasm on both sides. The agency and the client have high hopes because everybody wants the same thing: a successful marketing campaign or website or commercial. If the two parties don’t start on the same page, however, there will be problems ahead.

Consider these scenarios:

Agency is aggressive; client is conservative

Sometimes the client needs the agency to push a marketing piece or a delivery method beyond “expected.” Innovation without risk is impossible, so it’s the agency’s job to explore options that will get a client noticed in a good way and to explain the benefits of tapping into a new tactic.

Of course companies can’t give an agency free rein. A company’s marketing staff and senior management understand the goals, resources and long-term effects of any given initiative better than the agency, and they have every right to shoot down an idea that doesn’t mesh with their overarching plans or could prove to be detrimental to their reputation.

In short, agencies can’t recommend the client approve a creative direction simply because it would be really, really cool to do something new. Every risk must be rooted in reason. If, however, the two parties meet somewhere in the middle, the compromise can result in a creative and practical approach — a solid win.

Client is aggressive; agency is conservative

On the other hand, it’s all too easy for an agency to skew toward safe. Why put together a concept that’s so “out there” the client might not approve it, especially when it’s just easier to deliver the expected?

That is a slippery slope to mediocrity. Clients shouldn’t accept middle-of-the-road proposals from agencies. They reach out to the agency because they need the agency’s expertise and skills, so an agency must bring its “A game” every time.

Yet there is a time when it’s appropriate for an agency to hit the breaks on an overzealous client: when there is a better solution. Maybe that best solution isn’t as flashy as what the client is asking for, but the agency has a duty to spend the client’s money wisely. If the route happens to have a little less razzle-dazzle but the client will get more bang for his/her buck, then that’s the right move.

Agency and client are appropriately aggressive

Welcome to the sweet spot.

When both the agency and the client “get it,” greatness happens. Agencies align their concepts with the client’s expectations and goals. The client trusts the agency’s recommendations.

Forget the tug-of-war mentality, agencies and clients should inspire each other to reach new heights of creativity and success through cooperation and compromise. Because, in the end, both parties have a responsibility to push the envelope, raise the bar and shoot for the stars.

And that’s exactly what we mean by “You + Us = Awesome.”

I’m back!

Whilst Down Under for five weeks on a Rotary Group Study Exchange, I’ve taken in an incredible amount of Aussie culture, design industry insight and great “tucker” (Australian slang for food). I’m still mentally digesting everything I’ve experienced, so bear with me while I serve up some of the highlights in no particular order.

• Playing the didgeridoo … well, attempting to.
• Enjoying an intriguing social media discussion over “brekkie” (breakfast).
• Adoring the little penguins during the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.
• Simultaneously screaming like a little girl and swearing like a sailor upon an unexpected encounter with a harmless Huntsman spider.
• Squeaking my feet against the sand at no place other than Squeaky Beach.
• Browsing studios, art galleries, museums and more.
• Talking design principles and potential careers with year 11 and 12 students.
• Lawn bowling!
• Partaking in civic receptions with local mayors and council members.
• Taking a historic gold mine tour.
• Detouring to Honalulu on an already insanely long flight home.

In addition to those adventures, I had the opportunity to sit with a branding studio (which, coincidentally, also followed the “color + inanimate object” naming convention), numerous graphic designers, web designers and developers, marketing consultants, newspaper staff and so many others.

I quickly “learnt” that technology, design trends and industry challenges are pretty universal. So instead of focusing on differences, I spent numerous hours exchanging ideas, resources and more based on the many similarities.

These nuggets of information not only will be beneficial in my daily design doings, but also have fueled my passion for my work to an insane degree. During my trip and especially upon my return, I’ve transformed into a giant sponge. It seems I cannot soak up information fast enough to feed my creative cravings

This trip and every bit of information I continue to absorb broaden my outlook and knowledge in design, business and industry — and life in general. It’s inspired me to push my designs and ideas to be even more innovative and to be even more in-tune with global culture, issues, news and events.

So what does this all mean? As I had hoped prior to my departure, I feel strongly that this experience has and will continue to elevate the work I create for our BrownBoot’s clients, our team and the Fond du Lac community.

Intrigued and want more details? Contact me and we can meet up for morning or afternoon tea (my newfound pastimes).

If you dare, you can even try some of my Vegemite!

Forget firewalls; often the biggest barrier in communication — electronic or otherwise — comes down to word choice.

It’s easy to blame developers. Not only do they spend most of their time writing in a foreign language that we lay folks irreverently call “code,” but also they recklessly throw around such esoteric phrases as “parsing errors,” “div tags” and “iframes.”

(No, an iframe is not the hot, new Apple device.)

But even if developers succumb to bouts of techno-babble, they aren’t the only employees at interactive companies, web design firms and marketing ad agencies who sometimes rely too heavily on lingo.

Does the average person know the difference between a logo and a wordmark? A bitmap versus a vector file? A mobile website and a mobile app?

As experts in the field, it’s our responsibility to educate clients and to describe as clearly as we can how a website will work, the subtle nuances of search engine optimization and the importance of adhering to brand guidelines. The more detailed we can be with the services we offer and the production process, the more likely our expectations and our clients’ expectations will align.

Of course, questions inevitably arise. Sometimes it’s because we’re speaking a different language; other times it’s because we forget that our clients don’t deal with these same steps day in and day out, and so we make assumptions, skimming over important details.

Never hesitate to ask for clarification!

Jargon aside, the simplest words also can cause confusion, too. Take the word “calendar.” A basic calendar contains upcoming events — a straightforward who, what, when, where, why and how much. But a calendar also might allow multiple users to log in with individual passwords to add their own events. It might also incorporate reservation functionality. And what about email reminders for future events?

When it comes to complex functionality, it’s always best to map out how a program or tool will work. Agencies can stamp out ambiguity by taking the time to ask clients the right questions. Anything from a bulleted list to a pencil sketch to wireframes can aid in spelling out the specifics of a project.

As with so many things in life, clear communication is the key. It’s when we don’t take the time to hash out the details and compare notes — to talk face to face in the same language — that we create problems.

Think of them as offline “id10t” errors.

Blame it on newspapers, which made a tradition of showcasing the best content on the top half of the front page to entice passersby to make a purchase.

Old habits are hard to break. Even as the print medium steps aside for the steamroller that is digital media, that old notion of “get it above the fold” prevails.

Scrolling happens...

When discussing new website layouts and existing site revisions with clients, a common request we hear is bring as much content up above the fold as possible in order to save visitors from performing the onerous task of scrolling down to find what he or she is looking for.

In extreme cases, clients might ask us to make sure nothing falls below the fold. However, there are a few problems with this line of thinking:

• Ferreting out the fold — A website’s homepage might serve a similar purpose to page A1 of a newspaper, but the big difference is that while every issue of a particular periodical has the same dimensions, the same cannot be said for websites. Monitors come in many different shapes and sizes, and even as the average screen resolution continually evolves, any individual can adjust the page view by zooming in or out. One man’s fold could be another man’s footer.

• Scrolling is easy — Designing a website to be as user-friendly as possible is commendable. This proverb comes in handy when examining usability: If you have to explain how something works, it doesn’t work well enough. And yet scrolling is no chore. Visitors can explore the territory south of the so-called fold by using arrow keys, manually moving the browser’s scrollbar or using a mouse’s scroll wheel. It’s even easier on a screen with touch technology. Moreover, people expect to scroll on a website.

• Fold phobia leads to other ailments — Now, newspapers aren’t wrong to put the most important words and images above the fold on the front page. And web designers should put the most useful, most used text, graphics and links front and center. But as with most things, there is a balance. Cramming every entry point and iota of information in the space of a single screen is more likely to overwhelm a visitor with options, which is far more annoying than scrolling down a few more inches.

Attempting to annihilate the fold is even less practical on the mobile web. Smart phones’ screens are just too small. If you observe the mobile web “Rule of Thumb,” then you’ll be lucky to get more than a handful of buttons on any given page, let alone full navigation.

Even if the fold is more myth than menace, it admittedly can present problems on occasion. Designers must be mindful of where any given screen might cut off. For instance, if there are a few inches of uninhabited horizontal space between elements, it could happen to fall at the bottom of someone’s screen, which might end up looking like the bottom of a page. In which case, it might not occur to the visitor to scroll down to find more options. A good designer lays out a page so that the content flows naturally and doesn’t create an artificial fold.

Scrolling happens. It’s an inevitable operation while browsing. And that’s OK. But if you’re still scared of scrolling, face your fears head on here: www.thereisnopagefold.com.

It’s hard not to get excited when we launch a shiny new website, especially when we have the chance to retire a site we built a while back and replace it with something even better.

Such was the case with the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corporation (FCEDC) website redesign project, which went live this week. BrownBoots Interactive had designed and developed FCEDC’s former site and over the past few years worked with the client to make updates to the site’s appearance, organization and functionality.

And we’re happy to provide these virtual nips and tucks.

A full-fledged website redesign, however, allows us to start from scratch, helping clients once again focus on their goals and target audience, evaluate what worked and what didn’t work before, modernize the look, and utilize the latest technological bells and whistles.

If you visit www.fcedc.com, you’ll get a whiff of that new-site smell.  It looks fantastic and provides a smooth user experience (if we do say so ourselves). And best of all, the staff at FCEDC did a lot of legwork to make sure their target audience can access the facts and tools they need. It can’t all be about visual trends and whiz-bang technology, after all.

Complementing the website overhaul are a mobile-optimized landing page (www.fcedc.com/mobile), which provides the information that someone on the go would likely seek, and a blog (www.fcedc.com/blog) that integrates Connection Corner, an FCEDC-managed forum where professionals can “talk shop,” with a repository of staff-written articles that share a broad range of expertise.

The reborn website also benefits from a tune-up “behind the screen.”

Using the HTML5 markup, including article tags that break the page up into more discrete blocks of text, the new FCEDC website will do an even better job of helping search engines determine the most important content on each page. As more websites begin to implement HTML5, search engines such as Google will begin to take advantage of the new semantic code — which makes www.fcedc.com “future ready.”

Meanwhile, BrownBoots will continue to explore and employ the new features of HTML5 in forthcoming websites. More on that in future posts!

The most-asked question at an interactive agency isn’t “How do you make websites?” or “How long does it take?” It’s “How much does it cost?”

And prospective clients don’t always like the answer.

With so many online companies advertising cheap websites, some people who request a quote from BrownBoots have no way of knowing what goes into the cost. At times, we account executives feel like the proverbial used-car salesman when we describe what separates a so-so website from a great one and the difference between what those one-stop-shops offer and what we do.

Automobiles and websites have a lot in common, actually. At the most basic level, they both serve a single purpose: Vehicles get a person from place to place, while websites convey information over the Internet. A customer can build from that foundation with as many extra features as his or her budget allows.

There’s a big difference between a jalopy and a Jaguar. Do you want to rattle and sputter your way to a destination or arrive in style? Likewise, no one questions why a Nissan Versa costs so much less than a Bugatti Veyron.

But whereas the bells and whistles on a new car are immediately evident to a shopper interested in taking a test drive, it can be difficult to explain the value behind a BrownBoots project, process and price tag. The metaphor stretches only so far.

Imagine walking into a car dealership and saying, “Yeah, those cars on the lot look great, but I want something completely different. Put me behind the wheel of a car that no one else is driving.”

That, in essence, is what happens when a prospective client contacts BrownBoots. We don’t have an inventory of cookie-cutter sites that must go to make room for next year’s models; we design and build custom websites.

If you just need a “web page” or an “online presence” so that your clientele can access basic information about you, then dropping a few bills on a website that looks and functions like everybody else’s — the online equivalent of a run-of-the-mill, low-cost sedan — might be right for you.

If, however, your business or organization requires a website that inspires a specific audience to perform a particular action and you want to give them the smoothest ride possible, then the quick-and-cheap option isn’t going to cut it.

Suffice it to say, you get what you pay for. But what, exactly, are you getting with a BrownBoots website?

In a word: expertise.

Planning and project management — Before we push the first pixel or write the first string of code, we gather as much information as we can from a client, determining target audience, goals, specific requirements, and who is responsible for the creating the content and architecture. We offer copywriting and photography (professional and stock), and we work closely with our clients to develop a sitemap so that we are always on the same page as far as what goes where. A diligent project manager makes sure milestones are met and proactively finds answers to questions, curbing potential problems down the road.

Graphic design — Plainly put, our designers rock. Tell them what tone you want to convey, favorite colors, pet peeves and everything in between, and they will produce a layout that will knock your socks off. You always have the final word of approval, and if you need several different subpage layouts, they’re happy to design those too … something “one-click website” services don’t do. Employing the principles of usability and search engine optimization (SEO) tactics, BrownBoots makes sure your website is user-friendly for both humans and search engines.

Development and programming — Now that the layouts have been approved, it’s up to our developers to work their techno-wizardry, transforming the Photoshop documents into a fully functional website. They also build those extra interactive elements such as forms, calculators, calendars, photo galleries and all manner of customized “whiz-bang” features. Finally, the website is integrated into BrownBoots’ proprietary content management system (CMS), which allows customers to make most changes — from editing existing content to adding and deleting pages — in an easy-to-use interface that doesn’t require any knowledge of programming languages like HTML (more info: Not all CMSs are created equal).

Needless to say, it takes more than a couple of days to plan, design and build a website that’s going to drive the right traffic to your site and wow them once they arrive. And since we bill for our time (who doesn’t?), that means the more complex the site, the higher the cost will be.

So when a prospective client asks, “How much does a website cost?” our answer is always the same: “It depends what you want and what your customers need.”

The test results are in. Using just one blog post to target the key-phrase “Wisconsin Website Design” we went from outside the top 100 results in Google up to a high of 52.

For the complete back story, please refer to our first blog post titled Wisconsin Website Design.

Here are the complete test results:

• Feb. 14, 2012 — Our blog post targeting the key-phrase “Wisconsin Website Design” is posted on our site. When doing a Google search for that same phrase, the BrownBoots site does not show up anywhere in the top 100 search results.

• Feb. 20, 2012 — When searching for “Wisconsin Website Design” our blog post now shows up in the 54th spot in Google!

• Feb. 23, 2012 — Up to 53.

• Feb. 27, 2012 — Up to 52.

• March 2, 2012 — Down to 54.

• March 7, 2012 — Down to 61.

That’s rather amazing: one blog post targeting a key-phrase we’ve never targeted before takes us to the 6th page of search results on Google.

But wait, there’s more! The 6th page isn’t good enough! With this second blog post, I’m also targeting the phrase “Wisconsin Website Development.” (You could tell, couldn’t you?)

I’ve used the phrase “Wisconsin Website Design” seven times in this blog post. If the first part of our experiment got us up to page six, I’m curious to see how our ranking is impacted by a second post targeting the same phrase?

We continue to proclaim that content is king when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Using a blog as a content delivery vehicle not only opens up the opportunity for two-way communication, but also search engines, specifically Google, interpret it as very relevant content, giving your site, or page, a boost in the rankings.

In my next post, I will share the results of “phase two” of the experiment, and I might even let you know if these two blog posts generated any traffic on our site and, more importantly, if it opened up any work opportunities for us.

In my role as graphic designer and Director of Creativity and Team Synergy at BrownBoots, I am constantly asking myself what defines creativity — and what I can do to achieve it.

Through various team activities and brainstorming exercises, I’m attempting to help my teammates understand that no matter what their title and job duties, they are creative individuals as well. This way of thinking is essential to developing innovative, efficient and effective marketing solutions/products in a fast-pace, technology-driven industry such as ours.

All that being said, when the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to Australia through the Rotary Group Study Exchange presented itself, I knew I had to give it a shot. After all, creativity is by no means a switch you can flip on and off. It’s fueled by new experiences, perspectives, knowledge and much, much more.

This trip Down Under is all of that. I’m extremely grateful for such an opportunity and for everyone supporting it — my husband, family, friends, coworkers and my sponsoring club, Fond du Lac Morning Rotary.

So, what will I be doing in Australia, you ask?

In three days, six hours, six minutes and 15 seconds (who’s counting, anyway?), I will take off for a cultural and vocational exchange. My team will partake in many activities, such as but not limited to Rotary Club visits within District #9820, where we will present to local Rotarians about ourselves and the wonderful state of Wisconsin; sightsee (coastlines, mountain ranges, wineries, rainforests and more); and tour Victoria-specific businesses and industries.

To top it off, I will have the opportunity to participate in activities specific to my work as a graphic designer and marketer. I will visit numerous design agencies, studios and news groups in order to learn about their processes and operations on the other side of the world.

While my five weeks down under may not define creativity in its entirety, I’m positive it will fuel my passion for my profession like nothing else. In addition, it will equip me with diverse perspectives, a refreshed mindset, news tools, and experiences that will ultimately elevate the work I create for BrownBoots clients, our team and our community.

Please feel free to follow along on my adventure through the team blog (http://rotarydownunder2012.wordpress.com). Until my return, g’day, mates!

Sara Hathaway, AE

BrownBoots Interactive Inc. ushered in the new year by augmenting its team with a new account executive and a graphic designer.

As an account executive, Sara Hathaway works with a portion of BrownBoots’ clients, helping them to develop their marketing communications strategies and tactics and managing projects from the planning phase to execution.

Prior to joining BrownBoots, she served as the executive director at a non-profit organization. She recently received a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

•  Learn more about Sara at www.brownboots.com/sara-hathaway.html.

Alyssa Riegert, Graphic Designer

Alyssa Riegert, a graphic designer, is responsible for concept development of marketing materials as well as production of online materials.

A Fond du Lac native, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in graphic design from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

• Learn more about Alyssa at www.brownboots.com/alyssa-riegert.html.

Sometimes the simplest things present the greatest challenges.

While working on a top-secret project for a client who will not be named (yet), BrownBoots tackled a wide variety of tasks, ultimately creating a program unlike any we’ve built before. Due to the client’s precise requirements and our own high standards, we were put through our paces.

Mapping out the parameters of the program, designing a streamlined and user-friendly interface, and paring down the text to its most essential syntax, we developed a tool perfectly suited for the (confidential) situation. Then it came time to think of a name.

The hope was to come up with something early on so that we could get accustomed to calling the new program by its true name from the start. But we continued to refer to it by a handful of generic titles throughout the planning, design and development phases. Many ideas came and went, yet it was easier to put off naming “the thing” while we tricked out some new functionality or jumped into beta testing.

Because picking a name is hard.

Not so unlike bestowing an appellation on a newborn, it’s a big responsibility to come up with something really great. Naming a product has the added pressure of incorporating such ideas as marketability and uniqueness. (You’re not going to get sued for copyright infringement if there’s more than one “Lyle” in your son’s kindergarten class.) And for this particular program, it was imperative we invent a name that is crystal clear to the eye and ear as well as something that would immediately come to mind when it is needed most.

Should the name be broad in scope so that we don’t exclude possibilities for future functionality and audiences, or should it be very narrow so that it explains exactly what it does at a glance? As far as creativity goes, what’s the fine line between clever and cutesy? Does the name have to be the same as the URL?

When it comes to brainstorming, search engines are both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can make sure your idea doesn’t infringe upon some else’s intellectual property. On the other hand, you quickly realize that you are far from the first to think of “that perfect name.” Every imaginative instance of wordplay — from an acronym that spells out a keyword to a portmanteau that rolls off the tongue — has already been taken.

That notion is magnified when hunting for an available web address. Seemingly, squatters have cornered the market on every conceivable two-word combination for the .com domain. After seeing a string of “already-sold” results, I became so exasperated I combined the next two random words that came to mind: “cat” and “sandwich.”

Sure enough, someone already owns catsandwich.com.

Five months — and more than 300 ideas — later, we finally came up with the ideal balance of memorable, marketable and meaningful. I can’t share the name (yet), but I can share the lesson learned throughout this brainstorming extravaganza: There is no such thing as a perfect name.

Names are subjective, and even the ones you think are great could — and often should — get shot down for any number of reasons. For everyone who thinks “Lyle” is the best boy’s name ever, there is someone else who thinks it’s boring, too exotic or problematic due to some private connotation. A great name can’t be extremely creative or incredibly pragmatic at the expense of other aspects.

But with enough inspiration, perseverance and dumb luck, you might just get to have have your catsandwich and eat it too.