My web design career started in the early 90’s as I realized doing phone support for other people’s services was not the career path I wanted to go down. I had always wanted to get into web design and after building up a little portfolio I scored my first web job in Memphis, TN. This was during the dot com bubble so after working that job for about 8 months I was recruited to work in Los Angeles for a similar web design company. There I learned quite a bit of design methodologies I still use today, things that are not taught in art schools, things you just have to experience for yourself. I also learned the basics of project management and sales, as I was brought along to meetings with Hilton who was their main customer and quickly realized I could handle client interaction. I didn’t have to sit in the dark room designing all the time, I could actually talk to the client and then design based of a meeting or two. It was a eye opener, that I was able to quote time frames and based off the client’s initial requests. This has been the basic tenet of point2point to this day. Many web companies employ really hot sales women who have no idea of what can and can’t be done and will make promises that can’t be kept.
So In 2000 I moved to New Orleans to test my skill at freelancing. I remember sitting in high school saying that I was going to avoid college, move to New Orleans and become a freelance web designer. After living in L.A. for a while it was time to start the dream. I had several projects there and was doing quite well but the majority of my work was coming from Memphis where my father started point2point, which at that time was a structured cabling company. Since most of the businesses they were doing cabling for were new businesses, they often asked if they knew any web designers and I quickly started my design and hosting business. The initial point2point was dissolved when my father opened a new business but I liked the name(already had it on cards) and decided to keep with it for historic sake. In retrospect I remember how sad I was packing up and going back to Memphis but if I had stayed then I would not have been able to help in the recovery of Katrina from my nice dry apartment in Memphis.
Since there are only so many hours in the day I began to hire other Web designers to assist in my design work. I initially hated that I was slowly losing the title of web designer but quickly realizing we can make much better sites with multiple people working on it at once. I quickly became an art director and project manager, meeting with the customer, visualizing what was needed, explaining it to my designers and simply steering the design and the development of the web site.
We currently have a team consist of 2 full time 40 hour a week designers and developers to work along side me in the creation of web presences which allows me to do what I love, building beautiful sites. Also I know that being a web designer is a full time job in itself, keeping up with the latest technology, browser compability and all the other self taught knowledge that is required. I still do 100% of the Macromedia Flash animations used in our sites simply because Flash designers charge $125 an hour and I love creating cool animations.
I still enjoy design work and still think I have an eye for it. I do 100% of the frame work mockups for customers simply because I can create and modify them in real time when we sit down over a cup of coffee. This takes out most of the guess work and allows my designers and developers to focus on what they do best, the design and development.
I’ve been doing this a long time and consider myself pretty good at what I do. We have built web sites for companies that insure oil rigs as well as e-commerce web sites for closet purse hangers. In my eyes all web sites are exactly the same, they all have a purpose, a goal and a reason, everything else is just variables.
We’re not here to educate on design, certain feedback we provide I’ll explain why it’s a good idea and we push harder on but at the end of the day we are here to build your dream, not talk down to you while trying to educate you on design.
My design team has been handpicked out of dozens of designers with American Idol style design contests. Having 2 designer/developers on hand at all times is great since it’s always great to pick the right man for the right project. One of my designers is better at building web sites for high powered lawyers, while the other design makes great strip club web sites. You wouldn’t use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail and you don’t want to make a designer design something for a project he doesn’t really “get”.
Also a few years ago I met a very talented Search Engine Optimization specialist who has taught me many good standard practices to make sure all of the web sites we built come pre optimized to allow for maximum search engine results. There is a science to building sites and we know it.