Photography by Ocular Offerings

www.jessepodunk.com

One of the things i really like about this business is the fact that working doesn’t actually cost me any more money than not working.  I have no material overhead (although i do regularly invest in my computers and pay rent), no employees, and unlike a builder or fabricator I don’t have to buy metal just to try something out. The structures that i build are essentially conceptual. So, if i have the time i like to fill it with creative projects.

As such i can reach out to some of my friends and offer them website services, flexible rates, and graduated payments (assuming i have work at my normal rates to pay the bills). It’s awesome for me because i get to work on projects that really inspire me and are a lot of fun to complete. And It’s awesome for them because when i get into a project i tend to do more than i promised. This brings me to Jesse Podunk, a friend i made on my first job in Austin doing remodeling services for rich home owners.

Jesse Podunk is so stupidly talented that it grates me to think how bad our mainstream media is, how much money a pop musician makes, and how much more deserving he is of fame and success than, say, Brittany Spears. After working with his material for several days straight making the site, i fell in love with his music.

I designed his site, with my experience booking and managing the 999 EYES website, to be an ideal artist website for fans or promoters. Clarity of design and accessibility of information is key for something like this because there are simply so many bands out there and viewers have so little patience. Some don’t like hearing this, it seems that most people don’t want to read a web site and would rather absorb information with their eyes and ears. I knew from the get go that i wanted minimal writing and a simple link structure with a dependence on multimedia.

The first challenge was simply that Jesse had a very small collection of high quality photos and I feel strongly, that for many projects, good web design starts with good photography. So i hooked Jesse up with my good friend Fernie, with Ocular Offerings, and they took a field trip to the junk yard with a camera and some beer and made a day of it. The results were fantastic, i picked my favorite photos of the bunch and made them central elements of the design.

The other challenge was making a site that integrated well into Jesse’s social networking, had the functionality needed for a band, and was easy to upkeep (so he could spend his time making music). The Answer came through integration with Jesse Podunk’s Reverbnation page. Reverbnation allows Jesse to automatically update to his Facebook and Twitter status from one place. Also, it allows him to maintain a Blog Feed, Sell Music, stream music, post a schedule of live shows and more. Reverbnation had all the functionality we wanted on the website plus sit allowed us to create widgets that we could embed into his site. Now Jesse can update all his social networking accounts, including his website, directly from one page on the internet.
I hope you enjoy the site as much as i enjoyed making it.

www.jessepodunk.com

Tagged: AWESOME, blacksmith, business, east Austin, facebook, indie folk, jesse podunk, Link, metal, plu, social networking, twitter, web sites, websites