Gene and I come up with great ideas all the time. One of them is to have a Houston rap artist inspired taco truck. What an awesome opportunity to do some fun branding and logo design.

Here’s another example of an updated food truck idea called Cool Haus. I wish there was one of those in Houston.

Bad WordPress Logo/Good WordPress Logo

I’ve been using WordPress for a little over a year, and feel like I’m just beginning to get wholly familiar with its parts. WordPress is what is called a CMS, or Content Management System. What a CMS does is store and format all of your content in a single, easily accessible, web application. I like to compare it to a webmail program like Yahoo or Gmail, that stores all your emails online and manages sending, receiving, and search functionality, all from your browser.

There are a few different CMS programs, but we’ve decided to focus our efforts on WordPress in particular for a number of reasons. Here are a few that I feel are compelling.

1. WordPress makes it easy to add content.
If you use something like an online email system, WordPress is just as easy to log in and start using. The interface is intuitive and maybe takes a few intensive days of use to get the hang of, taking into account you’re already familiar with using web applications. It was originally constructed for blogging, which heavily informed its organizational design, which has, in turn, geared the application for general, regular people use rather than something for a web professional. It’s software built for regular people.

2. Changing the look of your site in WordPress doesn’t affect your content.
The theme of your WordPress site is what dictates how a vistor sees your site. Theme templates are available in many places online, and are easy to switch-out. Themes are surprisingly maneuverable, and has little to no affect of the content inside the CMS, which makes it incredibly easy for a site refresh or simple tweak. The entire look of your site can be changed in seconds.

3. WordPress is open source.
We are of the philosophy that the more sets of eyes on something, the better. The benefit of having your software open source allows for a lot ingenuity, and that’s where plugins are a huge help to your website. You can download plugins developed by people who saw a need or lack of functionality in WordPress, for nominal fees or even for free! Want a better way to display images on your site and use some flash that might be over your head to code? Get a plugin! Want to have your posts in WordPress to automatically update your Twitter account and Facebook page? Get a plugin! There are so many options and most of these plugins display user reviews and ratings so you can be sure you are getting the right one.

Among these simple three things are the virtues of using something like WordPress, like security, reliability and good aesthetics. If you’re someone looking for a way to update your site painlessly and simply, a custom template and CMS like WordPress can get you where you want to go.

An alternate logo I worked on.

For any kind of designer, the collection of materials that you put together to represent yourself are your resume. The type I choose, the colors I use, the spacing, are among thousands of other choices that I make when designing, and they are all representative of what I can do professionally. If I’m not expanding my skill set as a designer, I fail at my job. And if I’m not communicating the value of those skills, I also fail at my job.

It is with these things in consideration that I decided to add our new blog, SIMPLE IS SIMPLE, to our site. Jenny and I both feel that a blog goes a long way towards communicating the value of our design.

Design, and web design in particular, is a trade that can often be obscured by technicality. This blog will allow us to explain our process and technique in a way that people unfamiliar with design and web technologies can understand.

What we do is not magic. We place graphics and text in an attractively on paper and on a screen, and promote the flow of information from information producer to information consumer. SIMPLE IS SIMPLE is our effort to better explain our work, for the benefit of our ourselves and our customers. It is an extension of our effort to better communicate design.