New Developer!

Harlo has added Nikita Kozlov to the team. He brings with him stellar back-end development skills, as well as a passion for disc golf, science fiction books, and Magic: The Gathering. We just gained a few nerd cred points too.

Payday for TFG

We are thrilled to hear about the continued success of our long-term client and friends at TFG Card Solutions. Featured in the Portland Business Journal, these guys are making waves in the paycard industry.  Paycards allow ‘unbanked’ employees to collect paychecks electronically — a win for employees, employers and the environment.  Keep up the good work guys!

New Kid on the Block!

A big welcome to the the newest Harlo addition, Joe Condon. As QA Specialist, Joe will be our very own “web warden”….And did we mention he can grow a very masculine beard overnight?

Interview: Ryan Anderson, Lead Developer

Q: How did you find yourself at Harlo Interactive?

A: I initially knew Chip [Truex, Creative Director], through my roommate. I talked to him and I heard that they were in need of a developer, so I let them know I was interested in doing some contract work.  They brought me in and I worked for a month or two and then their developer at the time left to go back to school. I was interested in a full-time position, and they liked what I was doing and decided to hire me on.

Lounging at the Harlo Office

Q: Can you describe your role at Harlo?

A: Yeah, I’m the lead web developer, so I am in charge of front and back-end development. I program using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP/Codeigniter, and MySQL. I’m also in charge of managing the other developers and contractors that work for us by making sure their projects are coded properly and scheduling work between however many developers are working at the time.

Q: What accounts are you working on at the moment?

A: Right now I’m working on a project called Salon of the Dames, it’s an eCommerce website that allows its members to sell vintage clothing, accessories and other items. I also do maintenance on the myriad of other accounts we manage: MyHotelGuy, Nikon Hunting, and Oregon Zoo Foundation just to name a few.

Hard at work.

Q: What is your favorite thing about web development?

A: It’s kind of like a puzzle. With every project there’s something new to figure out and learn. Each project has different requirements and needs so I have to solve each problem in a different way—it’s really interesting and fun to me.

Q: Do you have any tips for aspiring programmers and web developers?

A: Work on actual projects as you learn. The way I feel I learn best is by doing, and by working on a project where you have a specific goal in mind. Working on tutorials or watching videos can sometimes just slide through your brain because you’re not actually trying to solve a problem, you’re just watching and trying to learn what they’re telling you. If you have a specific goal to aim for then you can find the best solution yourself. You’ll get a more thorough knowledge of it that way.

The official midday pick-me-up of Harlo Interactive

Q: What are your projects or hobbies outside of work?

A: I don’t really have any web-related projects.  I went to school for graphic design, which is what I was initially planning to do when I was in college, so I occasionally do design work for friends or family.  Right now I’m working on a logo for a party planning business for my sister-in-law.  I also make music, I play piano and the guitar and I’m into electronic music so I try to make some of that sometimes.

Q: How do you maintain your signature faux-hawk?

I use American Crew Forming Cream and Redken 23 Hairspray.

Team Lambda!!

After an excruciating 5 mile uphill trail run, an ass-whipping obstacle course, archery, keg toss, and tire flip race, team Lambda Lambda Lambda prevails in the Hybrid Adventure Games.

Still smiling after 3 hours of hard work and cold weather

The calm before the storm

Decker destroys the keg toss

Puddy and Ryan flipping it like an egg!

K-Station wins site of the day!

We are ever so pleased to announce that Harlo’s web design and development skills for K-Station earned us a spot in the Awwwards Site of the Day category.  If Awwwards is new to you, definitely have a look; they strive to be “a meeting point where web developers, designers and agencies across the world can share experiences, inspiration and knowledge.” We feel very honored to be featured alongside some of the most talented folks in the industry.

We were also featured on CSS Awards, a repository of inspiration full of high quality CSS designs from around the world.

Interview: Chip Truex, Creative Director

The man behind the creative

Q: What do you do here at Harlo Interactive?

Pretty much any kind of design work that comes through the shop, I end up handling. I do everything from identity and print design through to web design.  That’s typically what we focus on, so it’s mainly doing layout and overall concepting for websites… And a little bit of information architecture, a little bit of navigation structure, and wire framing as well – I help project managers out with that a little bit.  So, I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades, I do a little bit of everything.

Q:  How did you find yourself working at Harlo?

I moved to Portland about three years ago, I’m originally from St. Louis Missouri.  I interviewed with Danny [Decker] when I first moved here, but he didn’t really have a position available – he liked my work but they just didn’t really have the capacity to take me on.  So I got a job at another agency here in Portland and I worked there for a couple years.  It wasn’t going too well, I ended up becoming basically just a Flash developer for them; I was working a lot of hours and I wasn’t really enjoying it, and it was wasn’t very creative.  I bumped into Danny at lunch one day, he asked how things were going and I told him I was kind of looking for a change.  He said he wanted to bring me on and a couple months late I ended up getting hired on at Harlo and I’ve been here for about a year now.

Q: What projects are you working on right now?

We’ve got a lot of projects in the mix. I’m currently working on home page design layouts for a specialty salt and chocolate retailer called The Meadow. Another major project I’m currently working on is for Point West Credit Union.  They’re basically doing a whole new identity so we’re revamping their logo, all their marketing materials and collateral, and their website.

One of Chip's projects

Q:  Do you have any tips for aspiring designers?

One of the main things I would say is do your research and really understand your subject matter.  I think that the most important thing you can do as a designer is really understanding the content and what you’re trying to represent with your design.  You can make things pretty – it’s easy to do that – but really understanding where you’re coming from, where your clients are coming from and what they’re trying to accomplish is going to be really important.  Having that historical background to really help solidify your design is incredibly important.

Q:  Where do you look for inspiration?

I think a lot of it just comes from researching the market that your client is in, looking at examples of competitors, looking at other sites within the market that do a good job from a design and functionality perspective.  Then looking at the business they’re in, what that business is about.  Really understanding it, knowing the business that your clients are in better than they do is really important.  Immersing yourself in everything that goes on and understanding the history behind it and then researching previous examples of things that were in that industry or were related.  As far as actual inspiration I tend to look at a lot of different sites.  Pretty much any of the big design aggregator sites like Behance and Dribbble, I tend to kind of look at those for up-and-coming trends.  Also a lot of design books, books on typography, historical reference.  I go to the library pretty often and take a look at stuff that’s related to clients there as well.

Dixon Ticonderoga: Chip's preferred drawing implement

Q: Do you have any interesting projects or hobbies going on outside of Harlo?

Well, I do have one thing that I’m working on.  I’m working on an app, it’s in the very early stages, but basically it’s an all-encompassing restaurant management app.  It’ll handle everything from taking reservations to managing tables, to managing wait-staff, to managing kitchen orders, doing billing, pretty much the whole gamut.  Everything you can think of that you’d want to do with a restaurant, just trying to make it so that the cost of for doing that is much lower.  So, really trying to help startup restaurants with managing things and not having to buy these big, expensive, proprietary billing systems and seating systems and kitchen management systems, and having to monitor all their staff’s time and everything else.   Just making it really easy and having this one central thing should be pretty cool.  That’s what I’ve been working on in my spare time.

New Intern!

Introducing Katie Boyd, the newest intern to grace the Harlo office.

A few quick facts:

• Katie currently studies Digital Marketing & Internet Design @ PSU
• She loves fashion, especially thrift-store & local PDX designers
• Enjoys reading books
• Can often be found soaking up the sounds of P-Town’s amazing live music scene
• Is currently working on her first iPhone app…stay tuned for more on this……

Subjot Test-Drive

I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m addicted to Twitter.  I participate primarily as a consumer of content, and while I enjoy being exposed to the collective stream-of-consciousness in a way that only a Twitter feed can offer, the variety can be overwhelming at times.  The problem of “Tweet Overload” seems to be what Becky and Chris Carella had in mind as they developed the topic-driven microblogging site Subjot.  After a post on TechCrunch piqued my curiosity, I decided to check out the new kid on the social media block.

Here is what I learned after spending a morning with my new friends on Subjot.

What’s New

There are a few fundamental divergences from Twitter that make Subjot special:

Twitter

• follow the user, see posts on all topics
• Create lists to organize the accounts you follow by maintaining different lists
• Retweets and @Mentions allow users to comment on each other’s posts

Subjot

• follow a specific topic that the writer posts about
• Writers identify the subject of each post, which are then funneled to the appropriate users
• Each post has its own comment field

As founder Chris Carella puts it in his interview with Betabeat:

“The problem with Twitter lists in my opinion is that I have you on my tech list, but then you start posting about your son’s little league game. And only one of those 2 things I’m really interested in.”

Here is a peek at our Subjot feed:

The Good

Loving the UI Design – The navigation menu is so much simpler than maintaining an up-to-date Twitter list.

The Bad

Profiles don’t include bio information. I find myself going back to Twitter’s search to find details on the folks I’ve started following on Subjot.

It will be interesting to watch Subjot grow; it is still in its infancy at this point.  Competition from other content-sharing platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook will probably play a role in defining Subjot’s niche.  I plan to keep an eye on a few different topics, including tech, web design, social media, and mobile.  At least until someone creates a Beyonce tag.

// Katie Boyd [intern]

Harlo signs Bellissimo!

Coffee lovers, we have exciting news. Last week Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup, the world’s most recognized coffee-business consulting firm, selected Harlo as their digital agency of choice. For the next 3-4 months the Harlo and Bellissimo strategic, creative and development teams will be joining forces to re-define and develop an all-encompassing digital presence to market Bellissimo’s extensive education, training and consulting services.

For the past 25 years, Bellissimo has been setting standards in the specialty-coffee industry providing expertise in all business functions (marketing, finance, operations, roasting, etc.), benefitting both domestic and international business owners at all levels, including: small business and independently run owner/operator cafes and drive-thru coffee bars, through to major coffee chains around the country. Through their Portland based training school (The American Barista & Coffee School (ABCS)) and 2,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility, Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup and ABCS provide a hands on approach to starting and running a specialty coffee business. Don’t believe me? Taste their brilliance for yourself at Water Avenue Coffee, Bellissimo’s very own micro-roaster.

So if your still not sure why we’re excited to be working with such a distinguished company, in such a dynamic and growing industry, you really need to read these fun facts (kindly provided by Bellissimo employee, Darryl Feldman)……

• Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, next to oil.¹
• Coffee is grown inclose to 80 tropical and subtropical climate countries.¹
• The entire Harlo team consumes an average of 8 coffees p/day. It’s true, I didn’t just make that up.¹
• More than 400 billion cups of coffee are consumes each day, making it the most popular beverage in the world. Funny enough.¹
• Americans consume 400 million of those daily cups, equaling 4,500 cups per second.²
• The United States is the larges coffee consumer, drinking close to 3 billion pounds of coffee each year.¹

Sources – (1) www.coffeemarvel.com, (2) Coffee Research Organization and National Small Business Development Support Center.