In the beginning of  2008 I decided to cut my losses for a time and see what the world of the creative agency had to offer. I was rather surprised to find myself in a new position very quickly after my search began. At the time I was living in Globe, AZ (a likely part of the difficulties in freelancing) and moved back to the Phoenix valley. We managed to sell our house in Globe at a profit and moved almost literally overnight.

I got hired at Sitewire, an interactive marketing agency in Tempe, as their sole graphic designer. After about a year working there, I moved into the Creative Director position managing what I was hoping to be a quickly growing team of designers. While I was there I worked with some very well known brands, brought in a lot of new and fresh ideas into how a interactive marketing can be, and really grew into my own as a creative.

The time has come and I have decided to go back to full time freelance. Only this time, I am going to be doing it as my self rather than as a business front. Box-seven Media LLC will still exist and will work as the business end, but I have realized that in the past several years using tools like Twitter and getting as integrated in the community as I have, there is zero recognition for Box-seven, but people know who I am.

And so. Boxsevenmedia.com is now directing to Austinbaker.me. This is my site.

note: When boxsevenmedia.com was purchased, boxseven.com was an unavailable domain. It was a great surprise that it became a Japanese porn hub. This I am sure has caused tons of confusion for people trying to find me and I would like to end that battle.

CLIENT: Philosophy
AGENCY: Sitewire
PROJECT: Top Gifts Landing Page

In 2008 Oprah chose a handful of products to feature in her magazine as the “Best Gift’s for Under $100.” This landing page was created to have a offer an emphasized view of the  special that was being featured in O Magazine. I chose to focus heavily on imagery that made a strong declaration of their brand, exemplified by their package design.

Functionally the pages used a sliding jquery deck that was navigated using the top navigation.

A large majority of projects out there start without an actual objective or a proper way to achieve that objective. I have found that many clients and agencies can get lost in the details of how tactics can be lumped together to reach a common goal. I started creating the strategy map as a way to visualize all of the major elements of any given campaign or website to help gain an common understanding of prioritization and importance.

Older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.

The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tongue, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.

Once very year they forced him, sobbing & protesting, into Endless Night. During the journey he would stand near every child in the world, leave one of the dwarves’ invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.

He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punishment was harsher.

Ho.

Ho.

Ho.

A 100 word short story from Neil Gaiman. Not mine is any way.

Santa Claus has always been a very endearing part of my childhood but never a major part. I remember waking up for the month prior to Christmas every morning hoping that the day had come early and checking my stocking eagerly. When it did come it was always exciting but the reality is that Santa is just the vehicle for which gifts were given. He is the proverbial tortilla chip to the salsa of gifting. And even then he was only one chip as he only filled our stockings and did not give us larger wrapped gifts as he did in some families. So I think I am okay playing the game with my children though I appreciate that my parent’s did not make a larger deal out of him than they did.

Santa is okay in my book.