Some might say ugh, why would you want to continue to maintain a clients website? Especially if you have build it with a CMS for them to manage it themselves. But let me mention the OH SO VERY COMMON experience of designing something great that you deliver to the client, only to check back a few months later to find it an almost unrecognizable HOT MESS. Yeah, we know! It happens often and it is really upsetting. Here you have taken such care to create something beautiful and now you are almost embarrassed to have your agency portfolio link to the live version. So THAT is why we are thrilled to continue managing the editorial & art direction of the Juniverse. Continued creative direction, continued development, continued improvements & continued ideation.

There are a few ingredients that make this type of client relationship work:

Trust. A client/agency relationship that is based on trust. Clients that micro manage the process will not foster productivity.

Passion. You have to love it to do it. In our case a number of our staff have a tremendous passion for fashion making the development of editorial & art direction something that they continue to put their heart and soul into.

Collaboration.  When you are working this closely with a client on an ongoing basis, you must collaborate productively. When the agency is put in a position that they are simply order takers and not encouraged to bring new ideas to the table ongoing, the project will go stale.

Honesty. Your client has now become an extension to your team, you must be completely honest and direct with each other. Leave the politics, illusions & dangling carrots elsewhere. When you have complete transparency as to the clients budgets, business needs, aspirations & frustrations you WILL be extremely productive. You will avoid wasting your energy on concepts and initiatives that are never going to come to fruition. That will lead to the destruction of all of the above necessary ingredients to a healthy client/agency relationship.

So this seems almost painfully obvious, but at the same time any agency folk reading this will say “yeah wouldn’t that be nice, not gonna happen”. So why I am writing this blog post? Well, it does happen & it can happen! And at BBTF we believe it MUST happen. No matter the size of your agency or client account, it is important to instill your core values into your client/agency relationship. You do not need to work in a vacuum, you do not need to play the constant guessing game to where is their motivation lives, you do not need to operate that way. There is a window of time at the start of every client relationship that determines the ongoing dynamic, take that opportunity to embed Trust, Passion, Collaboration and Honesty into your agency team and your clients. You will find the experience as satisfying as we have found be a part of The Juniverse.

You are floating in the still blue waters.  The sun is shining and everything is going smoothly.  The work has launched and everyone is happy.  Then, like a bad Jaws sequel, a rogue client comes out of nowhere, teeth gnashing, stirring up sand and scaring the fish away.  Relentless and unstoppable this type of client is a rare occurrence – which is why I compare it to a great white shark attack.  When they appear they can wipe out all the accomplishments you have made throughout a project, the final product you have delivered,  and the relationship you have nurtured over the course of months with someone else.  The client that was lurking in the darkness now has a direct line to you – and the floodgates are opened.  What you aren’t prepared for is the way this client operates.  Someone who has no knowledge of the scope of their project (that they could look at any time before it launched), insinuates you’re incompetent, calls or emails every fifteen minutes and has zero communication or professional skills.

The sparkling surface belies the potential bloodbath underneath.

What a situation like this does is put your peaceful existence at risk, is a serious threat to morale, and siphons your energy from servicing other clients.  Do you throw your staff into shark infested waters or do you keep on sailing?  Your first reaction would probably be – dunk them in the shark tank, suck it up, this is part of agency life, it puts hair on your chest!  Well, you know and I know, that’s what you tell your colleagues, your leadership, and your staff.

I’m sharing this story because there is a choice.  Small agencies are often the victims of these senseless attacks because the perception is that we’re small, we need the business or association with the client brand, and therefor we’re willing to be abused at the hands of a client who likes to threaten, throw their weight around and believes that acting out of control is the best way to get what they want.  However, let’s get practical here.  If you do the math and support a client like this you may eke out half your rent on a monthly basis and forget about turning a profit since they will be so high maintenance they will expect (and get) more than they paid for.  It’s just not worth it.

You may say what if they’re a big client, big opportunity, big money?  Then it’s worth looking into and staff your most thick-skinned people on it – make sure they can take some extra vacation days, they’re going to need it.  This comes with a warning: taking this type of client on will change the dynamic of your agency culture, guaranteed.

It is important to understand that you may need to be drastic in order to protect your ecosystem and that means the agency taboo of firing a client. If you have done your job, delivered what you were asked to, you do not have to take on the dysfunction of an unhealthy relationship.  Saying no thank you is completely within your right and it’s OK.  It doesn’t mean you’re terrible at your job (or as a person), that your agency “will never work in this town again!”, that you just missed out on the best thing that’s happened to you.   It’s not arrogant to say, sorry we’re not interested in this kind of client/agency relationship.  You have to do what’s right for you, your staff and your other clients so that you can happily sail off into the sunset.

30 Pixel perfect websites

June 28 2011
by Awwwards Team
Category: Webdesign

We know how easy it is to buy a template change some colors, put an icon here and there, add a logo, some pictures and voilà, you’ve got yourself a website. But we also know good design takes time. Making a design that’s not only good but great can be a tedious work, but you can tell when something has been made for an specific purpose. That’s what happens when you strive for pixel perfection, it shows. Making a website that is perfect to a pixel level requires time and effort, but your work will surely look more professional and have a personality of its own. In this article we have compiled 30 great examples of pixel perfect websites. Remember, everything is in the details.

Built by the Factory is honored to be featured on this blog about being Pixel Perfect and having our own agency website included. Being pixel perfect is extremely important to our agency and being recognized for this is an honor!

• Solo
  

  http://www.thrivesolo.com/

• Engarde
  

  http://engarde.at/

• Love of my life
  

  http://withoutyouitsjustnot.us/

• Instagallery
  

  http://instagalleryapp.com/

• Stella
  

  https://www.blamestella.com/

• VW Buses, beers & volkswagen enthusiasts
  

  http://www.busesatthebrewery.com/

• Simple as milk
  

  http://simpleasmilk.co.uk/

• Hungarian Wine Society
  

  http://www.hungarianwinesociety.co.uk/

• Cholo la Design
  

  http://chocoladesign.com/

• MailChimp
  

  http://mailchimp.com/

• Pointless Corp.
  

  http://www.pointlesscorp.com/

• 1000 WP Themes
  

  http://wp1000.envato.com/

• Chris Thurman
  

  http://www.christhurman.com/

• Evening of Inspiration 2011 – Islamic Relief USA
  

  http://www.eveningofinspiration.org/

• Developi
  

  http://developi.ca/

• Tapp3 Media
  

  http://www.tapp3.com/

• PixelResort
  

  http://pixelresort.com/

• Gatget-o
  

  http://www.gadget-o.com/

• Dab Ogborn
  

  http://www.danogborn.com/

• Inflicted
  

  http://www.inflicted.nl/

• Docteur Chantale Bourdon
  

  http://www.docteurbourdon.be/

• ParkBud
  

  http://www.parkbud.com/

• World of Ehab Aref Design
  

  http://www.ehabaref.com/

• The threepenny editor
  

  http://www.threepennyeditor.com/

• Built by The Factory
  

  http://www.builtbythefactory.com/

• Quiip
  

  http://quiip.com.au/

• Nestlette
  

  http://www.nestlette.com/

• WeGraphics
  

  http://wegraphics.net/

• Youzee
  

  http://youzee.com/

• Pixel2HTML
  

  http://pixel2html.net/

#1 Chatelaine Magazine

#3 Maclean’s Magazine

#7 Canadian Business Magazine

#10 MoneySense Magazine

#11 Sportsnet Magazine

#13 FLARE Magazine

We all know there’s brand value, brand equity, brand awareness, brand loyalty and so on.  Brand integrity is the only type of “brand _______” that is solely the responsibility of the brand/agency.  The audience is not part of the equation.  Maybe that’s why we see embarrassing executions that don’t make sense – because the voice of the consumer is negated. Were they planning on fans sharing toilet paper horror stories?  Did they think the toilet paper was a social beacon of light saying “send me your poor huddle (m)asses”? This has been talked about ad nauseum yet I still see it happening.

If you don’t make sense, you chip away at your brand integrity. Sure, you may not feel the impact immediately but over time, with compounded lack-of-interest, you lose the opportunity to engage.  So why do brands waste opportunities to make sense?  Because they are too focused on getting the attention, getting in the “game”, and seeing measurements.  What they don’t factor is the long term loss in brand integrity.  You get one shot to do it right, so why not do something that makes sense.

It’s a hard thing to be brutally honest in the face of someone so earnest ( and with a pen ready to sign a scope ) but it’s a core philosophy of BBTF’s to push clients to think harder and more deeply about what it is they want. It’s important to distinguish between what’s the right thing to do and a client’s desire to do something cool ( for cool’s sake ).  We believe in this though, enough that we’ve had to tell clients “We love you, but no.”  We’ve seen so many campaigns that were just bells and whistles and had no meaning or motivation or foundation to them.  I’m sorry but the audience is smarter than that.  Do something useful, do something with purpose, even if you have to take a risk and say NO to get it. Your client may not be happy about it, or you may lose business over it – there are plenty of “Yes men” out there that will do whatever the client asks them to do.  It’s your job to do work that not only elevates brands but engages the audience.  It’s your job to make sure that the digital landscape is not filled with crap.  It’s your job to save clients from themselves, your agency reputation depends on it.

Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)

Our work at Built by the Factory has been so heavily driven by the innovation and creativity of Apple & Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder and longtime leader of Apple, has passed away at the age of 56.

To honor his memory, Apple.com now displays a full-page tribute to the man that helped reinvent computing, entertainment and mobile. Apple has also posted a short letter. It reads as follows:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Apple is also asking for those who would like to share their thoughts or condolences to email remembersteve@apple.com.

We are thrilled to have our 3rd successful launch for Rogers Publishing highly anticipated NEW title Sportsnet Magazine. Earlier this year Rogers announced they would be launching a brand new sports magazine that merged TV, Radio, Print, Mobile and Digital with a fully integrated re-branding expansion to the Sportsnet brand. This launch is especially exciting for us at Built by the Factory because the iPad app launched in the same week the first Sportsnet Magazine print edition hit the newsstands. This is part of a much larger tablet initiative we have been working with Rogers on, by the close of 2011 we will have many exciting launches under our belt.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sportsnet-magazine/id466951957?mt=8

TV – Sportsnet and Sportsnet World

On October 3, the new name of the network becomes Sportsnet (abbreviation SN). The on-air presentation will have a new logo, font, theme music, graphics and animation package. Sportsnet has added three new sets, refurbished three studios, and built two new studios – the BlackBerry studio at Rogers Centre and the Sportsnet 590 The FAN TV studio. Setanta Sports Canada, which Rogers Media launched in 2007, will be renamed Sportsnet World on October 3, and will employ the same on-air package as Sportsnet.

Digital and Mobile – sportsnet.ca, Sportsnet Mobile, Sportsnet iPad app

Building on the new tagline, Fuelled By Fans, the Sportsnet digital platform is re-launching with enhanced, fan-focused interactive features, such as a rich companion viewing experience that includes live data and fan chats for every Canadian NHL team game; an immersive fantasy hockey experience that allows fans to trade their team picks throughout a live game; and calls for story contributions from the same sports fans that fuel our coverage. Regular text, video and podcast contributions will be delivered by Sportsnet’s industry-leading contributors Stephen Brunt, Michael Grange, Mark Spector, Shi Davidi, Jeff Marek, Nick Kypreos, Mike Brophy, Joe Ferraro, Paul Jones, Perry Lefko, Jim Lang and many more. With a renewed commitment to original content across all media platforms and the new, united look, there are many reasons to rediscover sportsnet.ca, Sportsnet Mobile and the Sportsnet iPad app.

Print – Sportsnet magazine

Sportsnet magazine, Canada’s first bi-weekly sports magazine, launches today with columnists and contributors Stephen Brunt, Michael Grange, Scott Feschuk, Shi Davidi, Gare Joyce and Mark Spector, arguably the most thought-provoking and insightful sports writers in the country. Add in Bob McCown, Canada’s No. 1 sports radio personality, and Sportsnet 590 The FAN morning men Greg Brady and Jim Lang, and the magazine promises to be a must-read. The magazine, available on the iPad, will also employ the same graphics package as the other Sportsnet platforms.

Radio – Sportsnet 590 The FAN and Sportsnet 960 The FAN

Sportsnet radio stations have been rebranded as Sportsnet 590 The FAN and Sportsnet 960 The FAN. On October 3 at 6 a.m. ET, the Brady and Lang morning show on Sportsnet 590 takes to the tv airwaves, making history as the first nationally-broadcast all-sports morning radio show on television in Canada.