A few weeks ago, Carol decided that we needed some greenery in the office. Instead of buying plants for the office, she slowly consumed several avocados at home and one-by-one brought us each a couple of seeds for us to grow our own plants on our desks.

So for the past few weeks, each of us has cared for at least one and up to three seeds in either shot glasses or plastic cups. We have had a few comments from clients walking through seeing shot glasses everywhere, so I just wanted to set the record straight that we are just experimenting with some low-level horticulture.

Here is the progress so far...

The best of my three...nice split, but been pretty lack in activity the last week or so...

Carol's = first to show solid green

Chad has nice splitage and some sparse downward growth

Erick's has some narrow splitage, but solid downward root growth

Steve's has some amazing curling root growth, however, I think he needs to upgrade from the shot glass

Waller's for sure has the most impressive root structure...might be time to start adding soil

So what does this have to do with web design? Nothing, but perhaps eventually we'll have our clients over for some home-made guac.

We have some wall space that we've been trying to fill for a while. I had a brainstorm and thought it would be a nice break from sitting in front of a monitor all day to be able to paint a little. So I bought our office a blank canvas and here are the rules:

• Paint anything
• Respect what others have painted
• Only paint over someone else's stuff if you are able to play off it
• All skill-levels welcome

We'll see what happens over the next few weeks, I'll post updates as I see things develop. 

Today it was Waller's birthday, Carol baked a cake and Chad got some Transformers birthday hats along with some superhero temporary tattoos. The plan: when Waller ducks out for the first time to go to the restroom, we would all hide in the conference room, put on hats, light candles, and surprise him when he got back.

However, once setup, Erick decided to open the door himself to go throw away the cellophane from the packaging and the whole master plan failed. Oh well, we got some killer cake and all was well.

Happy Birthday Waller.

To continue from my previous post about "Affordable Quality" when it comes to our web design business, I would like to touch on some points of what the Quality part of that sentence means:

Design to Web Standards

We stay up on our game when it comes to following industry trends and standards to make the web more accessible. This translates to our product looking great on all kinds of browsers (both on desktop and mobile browsers), being search engine friendly, and to screen readers for people with different accessibility needs.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Whenever possible we use technologies that already exist and have been well tested. This way you aren't paying us to explore new territory and taking risks. For some, they might want the newest eye-catching thing, but for most businesses and organizations we come across, they want the web to just work for them and be cost effective. Big corporations can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on risky ventures, we find our clients enjoy working with tried and true processes that work the first time.

Knowledge Share

A lot of web companies rely on outside contractors, freelancers, and offshore (and cheaper) labor; we don't. We find this directly impacts the quality of our work because our team is very in tune with each other as well as we constantly share new knowledge through daily conversation, lunch n' learns, and specific team presentations. We keep an in-house knowledge base of various solutions that have come out of tough problems - when an issue comes up that one of us hasn't seen before, they can always check the knowledge base prior to asking if anyone has come across it before. This saves time and allows for expertise to flow freely between our team.

Attention to Detail

We think in pixels. What the heck does that mean? It means that after building a couple hundred custom designed websites, logos, brochures, and other design assets, our vision has been permanently altered to seek out the tiniest matter on the screen. We work to make sure that our sites are clean, aligned, balanced, and easy on the eyes. 

When we hired our first full-time designer, Steven Waller, 4 years ago, I used to give him a hard time because I would look at proofs and comps and find little things that were a pixel off here or there - he was always bewildered that I could pick that stuff out at a glance. Now he keeps our newer staff in line with the same hard eyes. This same attention translates to how we code, how we architect, and in general, every task we do throughout the day.

Project Management Software

Keeping track of revisions, requests, input, and project communication can be tough. We use a well known piece of software called Basecamp as well as Backpack and Highrise to manage information between team members and clients. This makes sure that we don't have to double-communicate and that small tasks and to-dos are not overlooked in the hustle.

Dedicated Support System

Making sure that you get responses to your support needs is very important. That is why we have a dedicated support email address for our clients, emailus@hotpressweb.com. Anytime a client emails that address, our team is notified and the next person available can jump on it. They can easily assign the task to another team member and all communication regarding that issue is tracked in our ticketing system. This allows us to monitor performance and make sure that we are meeting our clients demands.

So those are some of the ways that we ensure all of our projects are produced at the highest quality possible, yet still stay affordable for growing businesses and organizations. 

We first came across the Cunningham Foundation in 2006 when Steve and I were officing out of our house across the street from Strings Restaurant. They were the very first organization that we ever said, "hey, why don't we donate you a website". So we did that in 2007, ended up going to Ethiopia with them that year and then again in 2008, and helped put together their first Hope Ball in 2009.

So many of the connections, experiences, and friends that we have now can be traced back to us making that decision to give back 4 years ago. That brings us to 2010 - we just wrapped up the 2nd Hope Ball event and it was incredible.

The collaboration that took place to get 180 people in a room together all dressed up to learn and support the Cunningham Foundation was absolutely magical. We had about 10 artists that donated works, Colorado Ballet gave us tickets with a backstage pass, Accommodations Vail donated 2 nights and a spa package in Beaver Creek, and countless other giving folks contributed items. 

Governor Bill Ritter made an appearance and emphasized how important the work Noel & Tammy are continually doing as well as the ripples of inspiration and change they have made by inspiring others.

Yours Truly, Tammy Cunningham, & Governor Bill Ritter

We flew my close friend Max Dean (college roommate now famous) and his girlfriend Brenna Whitaker to perform, wow. Vesta Dipping Grill, Jing, Strings, 240 Union, and d Bar Desserts all provided the deliciousness for the evening. 

I could go on and on about this great event, but at the end of the day, I just want to say thanks to all those that made it happen and that we dearly appreciate your support.

Myself and Steve getting some appreciation