I am a student of web strategy. I design around it, write about it, talk about it — but most of all, I watch it. And someone needs to, because the web is like that kid in the restaurant who can’t sit still. One minute he’s over here, the next minute he’s over there. Before you know it, he’s dumped a bowl of macaroni and cheese over his head (or yours).
When I talk about strategic design for the web, most of the time I get blank stares. “Like online advertising?” “Like those sleazy mile-long pages that almost always end up with me buying some crap that I don’t need?” We’ve got a lot of ideas about what marketing is, and most of them are negative.
And it’s no wonder — we’ve been marketed to since we came out of the womb. Not only are we ad-blind, but we’re skeptical of anyone who tries to sell to us.
But then there’s the other side of it — we LOVE to talk about crazy-amazing people, products, and services. When someone adds true meaning to our lives, we spread it around like wildfire. We like to know the best-kept-secrets, but there’s so much noise that we don’t know where to find them.
Enter me and my crew at S.Joy Studios.
I’m Sarah J. Bray. I know the J sounds ridiculous, but I’ve been known as @sarahjbray on Twitter for so long that everybody calls me that. I am the biggest nerd you have ever met when it comes to strategic web design. I believe that design is useless if it doesn’t make things happen. I’m a sucker for well-thought-out online strategy that allows people and companies to be a gift to the world instead of the garbage we wish we could kick to the curb.
Then there’s my girl Julianne Carson (she’s @juliannecherie on Twitter). She is a creative genius who does things like melt down Starbucks gift cards to create art on a whim. Julianne is a talented film director, production designer, photographer, graphic designer, and pretty much anything else creative that you could dream up. I am lucky to know this woman, and you will be too.
The third musketeer around here is the lovely Leah Shaver (you may know her as @leahcreates on Twitter). She is the most helpful, thorough coding wizard that I know. We’re trying to convince her to move to Virginia Beach, but unfortunately she climbs rocks, and we have none. Next on our agenda: to convince Virginia Beach to make Mt. Trashmore just a little bigger and more death-defying. And then persuade Leah to move here. Quite a bit of chocolate is involved in that plan.
There are a few other cool people that help us out on a regular basis. Like my husband John Bray who does all of our 2D and 3D animation, edits our films, and puts together paperwork (I don’t know how I cajoled him into that last one). And then there’s Jeff Dear, who besides having the coolest name ever, is an extremely talented cinematographer who will talk your ear off about color theory. And make you like it.
Some of the cool things that we do:
- Dream up, strategize, and do cartwheels around online strategy
- Design and develop content-driven websites from-the-ground-up
- Create and customize cost-saving LiteSites
- Write, create art, and produce films to help you make your website love you back
- Develop products to teach and inspire you to implement the principles that we talk about
- Teach hands-on online courses that equip you in a practical, paradigm-shifting way
- Collaborate with like-minded people and organizations to make a more meaningful web
So that’s us.
How about you? I’m convinced that you were made for something great. I’ve got some questions for you that will get your gears churning. Go ahead and answer them, press send, and you’ll get a copy emailed to you to get you going on your journey. We’ll get one too, so that we can continue to dream up ways to help you get where you want to go. (You won’t be added to any lists or anything like that. This is purely for you.)