The type of clients we work with is equally varied. Some design shops focus on certain niche markets, but we are happy to work with anyone who is interested in creating a great experience. You can certainly save time on research if all your clients are doughnut shops, but I think you also sacrifice a bit of perspective. Often, generality is seen as a weakness in business, but I think a healthy breadth of work and skills helps to bring unique perspectives to a project.

i think its a bit ironic, but i think hard core programming gets lost amidst the buzz about browser based languages. i.e. html, xhtml, css, xml, etc.we make every effort to communicate to our clients the benefits of database integration, database conversion, real time data, and other backend solutions.

We started out by spending a lot of time figuring out who Fusion Pictures was, what they were trying to do and who their potential audience was. A pretty standard approach to good design.

One of the core ideas was that they were creating compelling media, but it was stuff that most mainstream media wasn’t really dealing with. Also, their first feature was a documentary about a racially motivated hate crime, so social justice issues are pretty central. We came up with the idea that the kinds of things that Fusion was doing were like footnotes to mainstream media. Things that are important and are part of the fabric of our lives, but don’t really get covered in the depth they should.

One of the central ideas that came out of that was to create different levels of content in the site. On the surface is the basic information, but there is another layer that is filled with snippets of content – footnotes to the main story. For various reasons, it ended up that a lot of the basic information parts of the site never got fully developed (we have a whole subnav system that we designed that hasn’t been implemented at all). So the meat of the site actually transformed in to these things that are hidden from view until the user takes time to explore and uncover them.

It is a risky situation because on the one hand, it’s a pretty cool idea – on the other hand, some people probably never find these hidden footnotes (despite our efforts to create multiple ways to access them).

Or, we try to tell a familiar story from a fresh angle; meaning, we don’t limit ourselves to strictly the obscure. We certainly wouldn’t turn down an interview with pt anderson. But we would try to do something more that just a standard Q & A, cause with a guy like anderson, that’s been done a million times. We actually had an idea to have p.t. anderson and mike figgis list their top 5 indie films and then we were going to try to get the employees at Movie Madness pick a winner based on the lists. Unfortunately, anderson wasn’t doing any press at the time so we got shut down by the publicist (or maybe it was the publicists assistant). I hear he has a new movie in the works, so maybe we can resurrect that idea for issue 3.

Anyway, the idea is simply to try to foster some humanity within this massive community of people that is connected via machines. Whether or not we succeed at that is probably up for debate, but that’s the goal anyway.

We do so many things that it is hard to define a “typical” day. Usually I come in and do a quick check through my email. Then we meet to figure out what is on tap for the day and figure out who is doing what. Somewhere along the way I eat lunch and read some more email. It’s pretty unexciting actually – a lot of time just sitting at the computer and designing or coding or emailing.

For years it lived in obscurity with half completed features, random layouts, etc. – we just never found the time to finish a complete issue. So when the idea formulated, there wasn’t as much “competition”, it just took us a couple years to get the first issue out. In those formative years the idea evolved from simply a design playground in to a way for us to meet and talk to interesting people and share their stories with the world.

In the end, it is mostly about us trying new things and pushing boundaries, so if there are people doing similar things, it doesn’t matter much. Our main goal with ranger has always been to please ourselves and show what we are capable of doing. We certainly want others find it enjoyable, and we do work hard to try and make that happen, but we’re really not out to compete with other zines. If we are happy and the people that see it like it (even if it’s only a handful people), then I think we’ve achieved our main goal.

I realized that we should try to have content that was compelling enough to stand on its own, but at the same time try to push the design as far as possible. I didn’t see a lot of that out there (not that it wasn’t out there, I just didn’t see it – no flame mail please). Most sites I saw either focused on the content or focused on strictly design. Obviously, Born has been brilliantly combining design and literature for years, but they operate in a completely different space: fiction, poetry, etc. I felt like it might be a relatively fresh approach for a magazine to try to apply a high level of design to some meaty content.

I suppose this balance has met my expectations, but I always think things we do can be better. We’re constantly trying improve the quality of the writing and the quality of the design – but I think we did an OK job for the first couple issues.

The big surprise I’ve encountered with this balance of content and design is the overwhelmingly positive responses. People seem to appreciate that we are about design, but still have something to read.

And of course, the issues always take more time that we think they will, so we always ended up with massive amounts of stuff to do just before launch. And the launch dates slip like a rollerskater on an ice rink.

I feel like I’m constantly improving my time management, just like we try to constantly improve the design/programming/content of our projects. It’s really about good organization and to-do lists. I probably couldn’t function without my Visor reminding me when to do things.

I think it has to do with the fact that we started doing DOM/DHTML stuff back when we only had version 4 browsers to work with and the browser use was a pretty even split between Netscape and IE. At that time, we felt like if you wanted to do something cool, you pretty much had to build it cross-browser and cross-platform. So, part of it is we’re used to dealing with all that, and part of it is we’ve learned a lot from past problems. A nice side effect is that the stuff we learn doing ranger gets taken in to projects we do for clients.

The browser landscape is changing though. We’ll probably move away from version 4 support in the next issue. We’ve never really worried about excluding certain browsers if they can’t deal with what we are trying to do. That is a horrible attitude when it comes to accessibility, and a lot of people are probably shaking their heads at how contrary that is to the very nature of the internet. And they are totally right – but this is our playground and we can do whatever we want. We deal with way too many x-browser & x-platform problems with the stuff we do for clients, so it’s nice to be able to draw a line when it comes to the personal stuff.

I feel compelled to point out that we’re not just doing things with DOM/DHTML – those are just technologies that worked well for what we were doing in the first 2 issues. Issue 2 had a few flash pieces and I’m sure it will continue to be a healthy mix of technologies. We’ve talked about doing an issue that is all QuickTime – I’d love to do that someday.

We just want to create the best possible experience. Of course, sometimes compromises need to be made – the Corey Martin story in issue 2 was going to have some other features (an overhead view of the movement through the imaginary space, links to larger views of the images), but we just ran out of time.

The other part is simply trying to have the design be driven by the content. We try to come up with concepts that reinforce what is being said, instead of just trying out some funky design and throwing some random content in there.

I read through design magazines because I like looking at and reading about good design, but I also try to be aware of all the beauty that is available in the world around us. I watch a lot of films, I’ll flip through Cosmo just to check out the photos and design, I soak up as much input as I can – everything can be a source of inspiration if it’s looked at from the right perspective.

I see creativity as applying your perspective & knowledge to a particular situation or problem in order to formulate a solution. That sounds pretty scientific for a term often rooted in the world of art, but such things are inherently hard to define.

Creativity manifests itself in many different disciplines – programmers use creativity to solve problems just like graphic designers do, they just apply different sets of knowledge to different problems.

Creativity is just taking what you know or what you’ve seen and using it to come up with something new or interesting. I think that is why I consume stimuli as rabidly as I do, I feel like it fuels my creative juices.

Another overly evasive answer, huh? OK, I’ll try again – beauty in design can be (but is not limited to): simplicity, complexity, detail, structure, true functionality, elegant behavior, appropriateness to the message…

Every aspect of design can be beautiful if it is executed thoughtfully.

1. Think. Take the time to think through every aspect of a project. Think about the audience, think about the message, think about the functionality.
2. Test. Nothing pisses me off more than stupid errors that happen because someone didn’t bother to test something properly.
3. Strive for elegant, thoughtful solutions.
4. The client is not always right. There is a reason they are paying you – if they aren’t willing to listen to your suggestions, (try to) find clients who believe in your abilities.
5. Don’t assume that what is common is what is right.
6. Listen to others, they might know something you don’t. Share what you know with others. (A good example of this is the webdesign-l list – in the past 4 years, I’ve probably learned more from that list than any other source.)
7. Never stop learning. (See #6).

These “7 Keys to Better Web-Design™” will soon be available on an inspirational poster for hanging in your home or office – your choice of 2 background photos: rock climber hanging from cliff or kitten playing with yarn.

i guess we have some posters to make.