About: Erin has been a client for a good number of years. She is an excellent freelance writer from Minneapolis, specializing in personal finance and personal interest stories. This is the third or fourth redesign/update of her site I have done for her. A couple years back I talked her into the WordPress platform – as she is savvy enough to take care of basic text updates on her own. She contacted me recently to give her site a clean refresh and add some widgets. She’s smart. She’s cool.

Client: Erin Peterson; erinpeterson.com

Project: Web (re)Design using WordPress CMS, updated theme, customized CSS, widgets, graphic design.

About: House builder and consumate craftsman Andrew Long started a new home renovation business in 2010 called Worth Design Build. He asked me to build his web site. He had a good sense of how he wanted the site to look and work. We quickly decided WordPress would make a good base for him. After I did the initial WP software/plug-in install, we set to work creating content and tweaking a theme design that would be appropriate for Andy’s business. Andrew wrote up the initial content, which was edited by several people including myself. All of this was facilitated by the WP backend, which is about as user friendly and collaborative as you could imagine. I pulled the photography together and implemented the graphic tweaks where necessary. Voila: A new web site for a new business. Andy is happy. We continue to dial it in and make improvements.

Client: Andrew Long, Worth Design Build LLC | web site

Project: WordPress based web site. Photography by Studio Laguna. Web and graphic design by JJ Weizel.

Google has developed another useful tool for as part of it’s Site Performance web master tool suite. This one is all about speed: Page Speed. This one is good for everyone, no matter what type of site you run/own/manage. You simply type in the appropriate URL and ba-da-boom: it gives you a report on page load speed for the entire site. In a nutshell it tells you how to make your site faster by pinpointing high, medium and low priority improvements you can make to your site.

It’s pretty sweet. Everyone should run the test, if just to see your overall score. (I scored 84/100 for this very site). It’s interesting to make a few tweaks and see if you can score any better. Having trouble implementing the changes Google advises? Give me a shout.

Meet Jim Appleby.

Jim has been an avid outdoorsman for all of his life. He also happens to be a tinkerer and a gear hound. Put these traits together and you get a guy with plenty of ideas for creative new products for the outdoor enthusiast.

Enter Appleby Outdoor Products.

I met Jim on a winter camping trip near Ely, MN last February. He brought along a nifty little invention of his he called the Toilet-Tree. It’s basically a little toilet seat you hang between two trees (like a hammock) to use as a comfy, lightweight backcountry toilet. It works great.

Jim has this one primary product in production at the moment. He needed a way to sell it online, and get it into the hands of the customers he knows are out there. Jim had already taken care of the basic business stuff, ordered his product from a manufacturer and got a gear rep. He came to me to get him organized and to get his product online.

Jim’s budget is basically nil. So he needed free-to-low-cost solutions for selling his product.

I set him up with a logo, business cards, a google web site, an email account, a Facebook page, a craigslist account, a shopping cart through PayPal and an Ebay account where folks can buy his merchandise. Then we set to work on packaging his product appropriately and organized a system for delivery.

It’s very satisfying to help someone take an idea, turn it into a product, and help them to get it into the hands of their customers. Time will tell if Jim is able to retire early in the Bahamas, but it will be a pleasure to watch his business grow and know that I had a part in it.

About: Over the past 44 years Hostelling International Minnesota has established itself as one of the premier bicycle event organizers in the state. The Minnesota Ironman Bicycle Ride, the longest running century ride in Minnesota (and one of the top in the country) generally attracts 5000 dedicated cyclists each spring. 2011 will mark the 45th anniversary of the ride. I am honored to be part of the 12 person organizing committee for this event since 2005.

It’s an incredible amount of work to pull off a successful (money making) cycling event of this size. It also takes an army of 300 volunteers. Without the volunteers, an event like this would never make any money as a fundraiser.

We decided to establish another fundraiser bike event for HI-Minnesota in northern Minnesota to highlight the Mississippi Headwaters Hostel and the beautiful roads in and around Itasca State Park. 2010 was the second year of the Tour De Pines Bike Ride and it proved that the event has some real legs. We nearly doubled the number of cyclists from 170 to over 300. We showcased a beautiful cycling destination and brought a lot of public awareness to Itasca and the hostel. We even kicked it up a notch with a homemade meal afterwards for the riders. It was a resoundingly successful event and became the second largest fundraiser for HI-MN in FY2010.

Client: Hostelling International Minnesota

Design: Communication/Marketing/Print and Web design by Jeremy J. Weizel

Project: Event marketing, advertising and management, web site design (WordPress CMS) HTML formatted email newsletters promoting ride and informing registered riders utilizing Constant Contact online email marketing software.

Download: To read the newsletter (PDF format) click here.

About: New logo and web site (wordpress CMS) for Pilgrimage Bike Shop in Minneapolis.

Client: Pilgrimage | Richard Meredyk

Project: New logo design – taken from a photo Richard took while mountain biking in Utah. New web site to replace his slap dash original – with social network plug-ins and google advertising. We also established a Facebook page for his bike shop.

Tools: Illustrator CS4 for logo design. WordPress CMS with customized CSS theme.

http://pilgrimagebikeshop.com/

About: Web site redesign for Tortugal – a marina and hotel on Guatemala’s beautiful Rio Dulce. The client sought a refresh of the Tortugal web presence – one which would highlight the beauty of the area with the wonderful photography of Steve Jost. She wanted to incorporate new web technologies which would simplify the updating process and make it easier for her staff to communicate with guests. We improved Tortugal SEO, incorporated a Tortugal Facebook page, and implemented Google Ad Words.

Design: Jeremy Weizel (concept, content writing, design, implementation)

Photography: Stephen Jost Photography

Client: Tortugal, Daphne Becker | www.tortugal.com | Facebook Page

Project: CMS (WordPress) based web site.

About: Rikk Keobounpheng owns an architectural hardware store in suburban Minneapolis. He asked me to put together a logo and a web site to highlight his wares. Unfortunately in the economic slump of the last few years, Rikk had to vacate his store. He now runs the shop out of his home and hopes to have a web store up and running soon. Stay tuned on that note.

Client: Rikk Keobounpheng | knobsandmore.com

Project: Logo design, web site design (HTML)

About: Mattox Roesch had established a screen printing business in his home basement. He used to be a drummer in a rock n roll band so he had a lot of connections in the music industry. He built up a huge client base of musicians who would print their tour t-shirts through him. He came to me looking for a logo, a new web site and peripherals.

Matt has since sold the business and moved to a small village on Norton Sound in  Alaska.

Client: Mattox Roesch | Screenarchy.com

Project: Web and graphic design, brand identity