In what was a rather challenging year, a few good notes have surfaced. A few sites I worked on while at the Horn Group in San Francisco were recognized in the 2009 W³ Awards for creativity and innovation in web design.

Altimeter Group | Visual Design Lead

The first site was Charlene Li’s Altimeter Group (.net). I acted as the visual design lead for Charlene, a social media thought leader, co-author of Groundswell and former Forrester analyst.

This was an exciting opportunity to work with a recognized industry name and I gained a ton of respect for her strategic, big-picture mind. She demonstrated the “I get it,” personality by responding to abstract ideas and presentations with questions and ideas for the next step rather than the practical application that would eventually occur. An open mind early in the project life cycle made this a very enjoyable experience.

Sirona Fuels | Creative Lead, Brand Design, Video Post Production

The next client was SironaFuels.com, a bio-fuels company using local recycled grease products as well as crops from Haiti and other economically depressed areas of the world. In turn, they offer fair prices to the communities to build orphanages and community centers with internet access, books and other necessities.

I acted as the creative lead and client contact from the get-go on this. As proud as I was to work with such a noble company, I don’t usually show the resulting work. Due to a trade show, the company’s brand, site, videos, trade show display and other projects were fast-tracked. Personally, I would not have approved the time-lines or much of the work but the decision was made above me. However, the work is getting some recognition and I may have to rethink its success.

Horn Group | Team Designer, Video Editor

Finally, Horn Group’s site. I had some minor design and video editing roles on this project but was very fortunate to work with the Design Rebel himself, Arthur Osmonov. His obsessiveness for visual perfection and the technologies needed were invigorating. It was quite a bummer when he went on his way to travel and study dying languages in world…

Overall, all three projects were perfect experiences in their respective challenges. A technical benefit was gaining a better familiarity with the Final Cut Pro studio for web applications. Personally, being able to work in all levels, from account creative lead to just picking fonts to compressing video was a rare character builder.