Our logo for 2424 Studios has now become part of the landscape at 2424 York Street in Fishtown, Philadelphia.
 
Beautifully crafted by Bill Curran – it accentuates the industrial-period influence of the building, originally the home of Jacob Holtz, a manufacturing and distribution facility for metal casters and stampings, now a work studio community and event space.
 
Click here to see the full size image. To see sigONE’s portfolio of logo design click here.

WordPress is a robust (important) and feature-rich environment offering client-control and an enhanced end-user experience. WP developers make constant improvements that keep pace with the rapidly evolving state of web presentation.  The open source architecture of wordpress eliminates the need to incur the heavy costs of a developer (or a team in the case) to build a comprehensive site structure/CMS from scratch– it’s already “in the box” (as they say at Apple). It’s the classic separation of form and content.

This grants a client much more functionality, expandability and control then they can have with a custom build. A custom build outside the scope of a flourishing development community– like WordPress– isolates the client’s options.

Most WordPress themes comes with a number of native “widgets”, which are a type of plugin, sort of like quick-start features that are already integrated into the wp  architecture (but can be easily de-activated like plugins, doesn’t require coding).

This is not only an affordable solution because the development of this application is done by a team of specialists in an open source environment, but they are robust builds because these are developers working specifically on WordPress, constantly improving the quality and security of the product.

Sometimes a client is not blessed with a sufficient allocation of resources for design costs. They might need quick, fast and cheap. But the end result MUST NOT LOOK IT. Ideally, I’d love a marketing budget which would enable a client to feed a small army of designers but it’s getting rarer these days. We’re moving into the age of Hat Stacking.

When it comes to website development and the desire for animation, competent SEO, database management and so on, and, of course, all within a robust architecture, you’re generally talking about “cha-ching”. And plenty of it.

It dawned on me how much clients could not care less about our (the design community’s) ethical dilemma or how it reflects on the creative, as my experience in promoting WordPress to prospective clients, as a possible cms solution, has deepened.  WP, the application this site is built in, has continued to expand and improve, but not by accident. The open source architecture of WordPress, the tireless support it receives from developers contributing their own time, saves the client who uses WP mucho deniro in development costs. The benefits of a CMS (content management system) are too many to note here, but one can’t escape the fact that when elaborating on cost benefits that the alternative, to create such systems, total custom-based environments, requires a costly investment. How costly? Could be an arm, a leg and another arm and leg, and so on. And the economy is, to carry the metaphor, maiming companies left and right so open source is a logical destination for acute relief.

Maybe I’m mixing apples and oranges, open source is, well, “open” to everyone whereas premium templates come at a price (albeit a price at a ridiculous fraction of “from scratch”), but as a designer I sometimes feel this like this is inheriting a build from a previous designer and it’s now up to me to re-brand.

For the client with a limited budget, exacerbated by the current economic climate, templates and pre-built apps are a growing go-to solution. My job as a designer, when placed in this situation,  is to customize these to the degree that the underlying build of a template remain just that: underlying. The visual component really should be thoroughly neutralized and relieved of any noticeable “templateness”.  At the end of such a process the product should visually belong to the client. So the creative challenges still exist. And the reality is that well-done templates and themes can actually have a positive creative influence and inspire creativity.

But the debate rages on. As it should.

I co-own and operate signatureONEgraphics in Philadelphia. The body of work on display here represents my long commitment to the area of design and graphics. I am a graduate of AIPH and member of the NAPP and  bring the better part of 20 years experience working with diverse companies such as Campbell’s, Verizon, Knight Ridder, Weichert Realtors, Yellowbook, Miles and Generalis, Variety Club, 806 Capital and more.

A published illustrator, I’ve displayed my work at numerous shows, including the famed Stone Pony of Asbury Park and have received the honor of having my illustrations selected as a featured site image (voted on by contemporaries at istockphoto.com and artwanted.com) as well as contributions to wmgk’s charitable art auctions. I also created the Photoshop training guide for Yellowbook’s studio artists.

Free time is spent with my wife, Bobbie and kids Griffin and Sara. I’m the co-founder of the music groups Arkeopterix and Mohenjo featuring Chuck Mattern of the legendary Philadelphia avant garde act, The Stickmen.