Blog articles written by Jeremy Girard, Rhode Island based web designer

Pumpkin-King.com - the portfolio and writings of Jeremy Girard

My Articles

There was a time when "art-directed blog articles" were all the rage, and I enthusiastically jumped aboard that ship. While that trend has long since passed, I found that I enjoyed writing and designing in this way and I have continued to do so ever since. Select an article to read and see more.

: I Helped Create a Failed Web Design Workshop and it was Awesome.; Back in the Summer of 2014, I worked with Peachpit Press in San Francisco to create an interactive web design workshop - only the final product was never released. Here's what I learned during this experience.; Read this article

: Christmas Eve with Aunt Stella; Traditions that I hold dear, including Christmas Eve at my aunt's and my annual holiday-themed blog article, come to an end this year.; Read this article

: The Halloween Box; Existing resources can be helpful in both web design and Halloween costuming, but sometimes you need to break away from established conventions and try something new.; Read this article

: The Good News; A lesson from the Christmas edition of The Woonsocket Call newspaper about putting positivity front-and-center; Read this article

: Stormtroopers Don’t Wear Jackets; Every Halloween, kids everywhere have their costumes ruined by mothers insisting they wear a jacket. Similarly, many website designs are destroyed by last minute change requests.; Read this article

: This Is 40; I turn the big 4-0 this year. It's interesting how my perspective has changed since I saw my own father hit this birthday milestone.; Read this article

: Shared Experiences; A look at the joys collecting toys with my son or connecting with fellow web professionals in my career.; Read this article

: Snow Day; Complaining about clients' questions is like complaining about New England getting snow in Winter. It's a pointless exercise.; Read this article

: Leading The Way; Released 50 years ago, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer forever changed holiday television and is a lesson in innovation at its finest.; Read this article

: Admiring The View; What do I love so much about hiking? It’s the view - and I don’t only mean the perspective from the top of a mountain.; Read this article

: A History Lesson; Each October, I read Ray Bradbury’s classic tale, The Halloween Tree, to get me excited for the season and also to remind me of the value of a history lesson.; Read this article

: Building Puppets For Father’s Day; How building puppets with my family on Father's Day is a lesson in how ads and websites can speak to a wider audience.; Read this article

: Ukulele Shopping; My recent decision to take up ukulele reminds me of how overwhelmed many clients feel when they price out a new website.; Read this article

: 5 Peeps + 1 Guitar = Great Web Content; What we can learn from the band, Walk Off The Earth, about building an audience by creating great Web content.; Read this article

: Reviewing the Webydo Web Design Suite; My thoughts on the exciting Webydo "web design platform", including what it does great and where it could still use some improvement.; Read this article

: Great Expectations; Dickens' classic tale of an orphan named Pip reminds me how important it is to be nice to the people that we meet in life and in business.; Read this article

: The Long Cold Winter; I hate the Winter - but this year, I'm fighting back!; Read this article

: I’ll Be Sick For Christmas; This year for Christmas, Santa brought my family a stomach bug.; Read this article

: A Christmas Carol; A love letter to my favorite holiday story, "A Christmas Carol", and how the Ghosts of the Past, Present, and Future can help us in web design.; Read this article

: Art Directed Articles: Then and Now; A look at why I still use an art directed article approach on my site and what has changed in that approach over the years.; Read this article

: The House at the End of My Street; Growing up, Halloween was a big deal in our neighborhood and there was one house that went so far above and beyond that it became a legend for trick-or-treaters.; Read this article

: Welcome to Version 10; My site has hit the double digits. Here's a look at some past versions of the site and the reasons for this latest redesign.; Read this article

: Folding Squirrels; The New Year brings a new semester of teaching at URI and a new hobby for me - the art of folding origami.; Read this article

: Robots Under The Tree; My son wants a robot for Christmas. This year's yuletide-themed article looks at setting appropriate expectations for clients and Christmas lists.; Read this article

: Waiting for the Great Pumpkin; For my annual Halloween-themed article, I take a look at Linus' unwavering belief in the mythical Great Pumpkin and how similar it is to some of the companies I speak with about their outdated websites.; Read this article

: How Designing Websites Prepared Me to Play the Violin; I recently decided to start playing the violin and discovered, to my delight, that lessons in web design could also be applied to learning this instrument.; Read this article

: What Being a Dad Has Taught Me About Web Design; For Father's Day, I thought it would be nice to take a look at what lessons in web design I have learned from my role as "dad."; Read this article

: Reviewing The Smashing Book #3; "The Smashing Book #3: Redesigning the Web" has just been released. I was lucky enough to get an early copy of this great new book. It's like Christmas came early.; Read this article

: In Disguise; For my annual Halloween themed article, I wonder why so many companies want to wear a mask on their website instead of being real.; Read this article

: A Match Made in Tatooine; A tale of true love, Star Wars, and how finding the right match matters whether you are seeking good client relationships or a companion to a galaxy far, far away.; Read this article

: The Wisdom of Mom; Inspired by Mother's Day, I take a look at some life lessons my Mom taught me to see how they relate to lessons in website design.; Read this article

: Knowing Your Audience; It pays to understand your audience - evidenced by the fact that my daughter wants a baby doll that poops for Christmas.; Read this article

: Of Tricks & Treats; A look at the similarities between awesome Halloween costumes and awesome browsers, and the treats that they each deserve to receive.; Read this article

: Adding Action Features; I like my toys to look cool, my sons likes his to do cool things - to have some WOW to them. Kinda reminds of some clients’ opinion of what makes for a cool website.; Read this article

: In Praise of Sushi; An article about my absolute love of sushi and how trying new things is critical to success on the Web.; Read this article

: Product of the Environment; Appropriate design can help make great content event better, evidenced by the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular’s 2009 return to familiar surroundings.; Read this article