When a Friend
Comes to the Aide

A confession, a solution

I have the hardest time designing for myself. This site is the premier example of my vacillation. It's been something like seven years since its inception and what you're looking at is essentially the same as day one. Sure, last month I dropped the animated gif intro from 1998—which was hard as I've grown rather fond of my sentimental, Dot-Com nostalgia—but that's no excuse for the vacancy of a living, breathing online portfolio. This (as it appears to be) blog post is manually coded because I don't even have a blog, for Pete's sake. I'll pretend I've closed the comments (they don't exist), thank you very much.

So, I was rambling about unprofitable ventures to a friend who insightfully explained that if I want more freelance work, I should start with my website (he's into SEO, mind you). I told him in not so few words that I can't—it's too hard. Being the amazingly creative person he is, he responded with a spectacular design concept; one I would have never thought of:

Behold, the original BMP in all its 2MB glory...

I want to point out a few elements in his design that are remarkable, although there are many other layers beyond my comprehension:

1. Bright yellow hues on white makes the tagline extra easy to read.
2. A call to action that just makes sense: You can't leave this site without hiring him. Pure genius.
3. The contact phone number is a digit longer than usual; this helps folks really think about how much I truly rock.
4. The testimonial from my wife: Hopefully it will bring tears to your eyes as it does mine. We're still in testing though.
5. Translation of copy into Wingdings. How techie!
6. The illustrative style "hero" shot. I would never have thought to take it to this level.
7. Finally, a single page without navigation really is all I need! That's profound IA.

To my level-headed and wise-beyond-his-years friend: I bid you a fond thanks. I sent your rate via paypal.

– Jesh