Escape Plan Design

Escape Plan Design is fairly new company. We started in the spring of 2009. So, we thought we’d take this opportunity to tell you a little more about the person behind EPD and his reasons for starting the company.

“I have been working at creative agencies for over 3 years. I enjoy the work, the designs, and working with the clients. However in the late fall of 2008 I realized something. The prices for websites were getting out of hand. Most companies cannot afford a five thousand dollar site. So my cognitive gears started turning. I came up with the idea for offering sites to companies at incredibly low prices; however, to accomplish this, I would have to cut overhead.  So, in early 2009 I left the creative firm where I was currently working to found Escape Plan Design.”

Simply put the reason for EPD is to save the client money. While this is the primary goal, it never comes at the cost of sacrificing quality. We still maintain the top-notch code and design while providing you with the lowest possible price. It is almost never necessary to pay what bloated design firms charge.  Escape Plan Design is streamlined, and that’s why we keep costs low.

How many times do you find yourself staring at your desktop wondering where a file (or link is)?  If this is more than 0 times per day, then something is wrong with your workspace.  Just like a physical desks, it helps immensely to keep your virtual desktop clean.  You don’t have to adopt all of these, but I have found that doing so drastically increases productivity.

Ditch the Icons

The number one thing that you can do to clean up your desktop is to get rid of the icons. All you have to do is right click on the desktop and uncheck “Show desktop icons”. It’s a simple step that will quickly clear off your desktop.

If you are hesitant about getting rid of icons, consider cutting the number back and using the free tool Fences to organize them.

Hide the Notifications

Now that your desktop is cleaned off its time to address the system tray.  If there are more than 3 icons in the system tray, then there are too many. Use the Action Center to remove any unnecessary notifications.

Launch!

Use a free launch program such as Launchy to quickly access files and programs. Launchy runs only when you press Alt-Space, then simply type the name of your program and hit enter. These programs get smarter and smarter as you use them so you should be able to type less as time goes on.

Make it Pretty

Once you clear off your desktop that pixelated picture of a cat laying down with a dog just isn’t going to cut it. Try using online resources such as Smashing Magazine or Sxc.hu to find cool looking, productivity boosting wallpapers. For best effect, switch out every couple days (or weeks).

Escape Plan Design is a Christian owned and operated business.  Because of this,  we believe that we should be mindful of the world’s needs.  Matthew 25:34-40 says:

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Escape Plan Design is excited to announce a new way in which we are giving back.  Through Kiva, the well known online micro-loan organization, EPD has begun lending to small businesses in Africa. These loans are motivated by the need to build up Africa’s economy. We hope that in the years to come we will be able to make a substantial impact in some of the poorest places in the world. The beauty of lending through Kiva is that it is in fact a loan and it will be paid back, this means we can continue to support entrepreneurs over and over.

How can I lend?

There are many ways that you can lend. The first is to visit Kiva itself by click the link below.

The second is to do business with Escape Plan Design.  While we are a for-profit business we are committed to giving back to the world.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to drop us a line or give us a call (or comment below).

At Escape Plan Design, we don’t only design websites.  Although they are our specialty, we also work with other designs as well.  We have experience with business cards, logos, wallpapers, etc.  If you need any of these, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Business Cards

Often the first piece of design work that a potential client/customer will see is your business card.  You hand them out in meetings, on the street, at the coffee shop. Just about anywhere you get the chance.  So, does that business card reflect your business accurately? Are you proud to hand it out, or do you feel a bit ashamed?

Logos

Ah the logo. The quintessential design for every company.   The logo is with out a doubt the most important design that you will ever have for your company as it is what your company is recognized by (think Apple, IBM, Nike).  Whatever the rest of your designs look like does not matter nearly as much as the quality of your logo.

Wallpapers

While not an obvious means of company promotion, it does not hurt a retail stores and offices alike to have a uniform company wallpaper. Besides it saves that awful talk with employee Bob about removing his inappropriate wallpaper.

If you have any question, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Every website out there wants to stand out. They want their visitors to step back and say, “wow, that is an awesome website”.  Now this is all fine and well for some sites out there, but the majority of sites don’t need to stand out that much. In fact most websites should blend in.

Now I don’t mean that they should blend in in the quality of the design, the images, and the code… but they should blend in in places like, the location of the menu, the fonts, etc. No one wants to visit a website where the clicking is forbidden (http://www.dontclick.it/) and people really don’t want to visit a website with 50 bottles strewn all over the place and a man talking out of the side of your screen (http://www.mrbottles.com/).

The majority of website visitors want a degree a familiarity.  They want the menu in the same location, the links to stand out, and they want to know right where to find the information they are looking for. The next time you redesign a website, make sure that a complete stranger would be able to find information on your website quickly, and easily.  Remember that the easier information is to find, the more likely a visitor is to stay on your site.

The Good

Email is a wonderful tool. It allows us to correspond quickly and (for many phone users) on the go.  For most people the service is free and offers a reliable way to keep in touch.

The Bad

Email is sapping the life-blood out of us. We spend hours each day sifting through junk mail looking for those 5 legitimate messages we get a day.  Our inboxes are bloated with message that we felt were important 10 years ago, but somehow never got around to archiving. Email must be fixed.

The Not So Ugly

Personally, I hate email. However as a creative professional I realize that I must use email to connect with my clients. At the current time I use Thunderbird 2.*.*, but this afternoon I will be upgrading to Thunderbird 3.0. The new Thunderbird introduces some revolutionary ideas in the managing of emails. You can check them out over here:

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/features/

If Thunderbird 3 delivers, I might change my mind about email. However until then it is definitely a necessary email.

Sometimes the client is wrong. And here is my top five list of things on which the client is wrong (most of the time).

5. Animated Gifs

Never, ever, ever use animated gifs. Ever! They are outdated, ugly, and tend to annoy your visitors

4. Music on page load

I often browse websites late at night with other people around me trying to sleep. I often forget to turn my speakers off.  Music on page load = awake, annoyed people.

3. Stereotypical images

Believe it or not, every business does not need a stock photo of a puzzle with a piece missing on their website and for that matters neither do they need a picture of businessmen shaking hands.

2. Cursive Fonts

I hate cursive fonts. Most of the US population hates cursive fonts as well, even if they don’t know it. I hate them for this one reason if no others:

They are hard to read.

1.     No White Space

One of the essential parts of website design is white space, leave it out and your site feels cluttered and bulky.  You do not need to fill up every pixel of space.

Thank you for reading my rant (so to speak), I hope that you are not offended and that you learned something from this article. Even if it was just how cranky web designers can be.

There is an old saying, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”. But admit it, you do judge that cover. We all do.  After all, who can take the time to read every book that we see? And for that matter who can do business with every company that they find on the internet?

Like it or not, when visitors come to your website they are judging the site.  When a potential client picks up one your brochures they are judging the design. In fact many people won’t pick up an ugly brochure or read the first two lines of a poorly designed website.

Chances are you have done this before and it is possible that you do it every day.  You pull up that website, see the gaudy yellow background and the garish green text and immediately hit the back button hoping that you did not catch a virus. Sound familiar?

Take a moment, become a potential client. Then, pick up one of your brochures; take a look at your website.

Are you hitting the back button?

After a year of building sites with the state of the art content management system Wordpress, Escape Plan Design has decided to walk the walk.  A new design has just launched that is built on this system that we recommend to the vast majority of our clients. Besides being, open source, actively maintained, and thoroughly tested, Wordpress also allows us to quickly update content (a constant woe of ours), and to maintain a blog about the happening here at EPD world headquarters.

Along with an updated design and built in content management system, escapeplandesign.com is now built with the cutting edge technology of HTML5. This, the successor of (X)HTML, along with the upcoming CSS3, will allow us to continue to build modern websites and web applications for years to come.

Before I forgot, I would like to thank our clients who, over the past year, have graciously used EPD for your design and development needs. We look forward to working with you in 2010!