In the five years I've been at Computech, we've totally refashioned the way we market + position the firm.  For example, when I joined the company from New York City in July of 2005, we had a rudimentary site that essentially offered a phone number and a few project descriptions.  Don't believe me?  Check out the Way Back Machine.

Since than, we've established a pretty healthy pace for refreshing content -- while amping up our online aesthetic.  If you've been on the site recently, you'll find a beta version of our most recent creation.  While more content-rich than our previous sites, I'm excited to share that our new homepage design goes live later this week.  Here's a sneak peak at what it will look like:

In case you're interested in our online evolution, here's something of a story board of the previous three designs.  The top left version went live in late '05, the "paper tree" in '07 and the panoramic in the fall of '08.

While just one piece of our overall marketing program, computechinc.com is our most visible + widely available way that we engage with customers, employees, prospective clients and future staff.  Take a look at what we're working on; I'd certainly appreciate feedback on what works for you -- and what might be improved.

As a follow-on to my earlier post, a few additional clicks from Sunday morning.  Some subtle; others, like the one below, a bit more preening.

With a tip of my cap to Scott Schuman (better known as the Sartorialist) and his exceptional blog, I'm posting a few pix I took during my three-day jaunt to New York City.  Each captures a certain "on-the-street" design that reflects my creative side.  Having cut my teeth in this city (from '99 to '05), coming "home" feels great.

Now, I love living in D.C., especially as government continues to spend big money to stimulate the economy -- which in turn, attracts really smart, dynamic and opportunistic people and companies to the mid-Atlantic area.  But try as we might, this city remains the heartbeat of east-coast culture, design and innovation.  Here's a few things that caught my eye as I braved the last few days' bone-chilling weather wondering around Soho, the West Village and the Meat Packing District.

I'm the first to admit that my technical skills just scratch the surface when stacked up against some of my more senior colleagues at Computech (*technical skills, that is, not technical understanding).  Now, a lot of people in the IT space love to converse in three-letter acronyms (GIS or RIA anyone)?  While I appreciate that some look to master a particular discipline, what really intersts me is how these technologies can be used today -- and where they point us tomorrow.

To this point, I spent the weekend thinking about a number of comments + presentations made last Friday during the Smith school's CIO Forum - maybe none so much as one offered on the future of the mobile consumer and the evolution of computing devices.  Why my interest?  Let's see... To design innovative offerings and develop relationships in this digital age requires the alignment of an organization’s goals, people, resources, and culture.  From brand communication strategy to social media marketing, it strikes me that the adoption of a "good" or "novel" idea often hinges on how quickly that idea can be brought to life.

As all the world (apparently) goes mobile, how do upstarts create, develop and implement interactive brand experiences?  This question sent me scurrying to established online players (TechCrunch) and incubators (Y Combinator -- kudos to @ of Inkling for reminding me of the name) to get a better grip.  As I get a better sense, I'll be posting bits & pieces to DCSpring21.  In the mean time, if you've got an idea, please feel free to add a comment below!