About Restless Bee

Need a sharp and professional new design? An easier way to update your content? A blog to keep in touch with your users? Better Google results? Improved accessibility? Restless Bee can help!

What I Can Do For You

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND WIREFRAMING: I've worked on large web applications, including the University of Chicago's online admissions application, and am well-versed in the practices of wireframing and interface prototyping.
GRAPHIC AND INTERFACE DESIGN: I favor a simple, modern approach that puts the spotlight where it belongs: on your content. Need a professional look? I can do that. A fun, playful site? Sure thing. Have a look at my portfolio for examples of my design work.
FRONT-END CODING AND DEVELOPMENT: I hand-code HTML5 and CSS3, and am as meticulous about crafting beautiful code as I am about creating gorgeous designs. I know my way around jQuery, which can be used to add rich interactivity to your site.
CMS (CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM) AND BLOG DEVELOPMENT: I work primarily with ExpressionEngine, a system that is simultaneously powerful and user-friendly. I've also done WordPress and Movable Type implementations. Whatever the system, I'll make it easy for you to update and maintain your site content, training you thoroughly and providing a user's guide.
MOBILE-FRIENDLY DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: Where appropriate, I practice responsive design to create sites that adapt intelligently from large monitors to small smartphone screens. More on this below.
…AND SOME OTHER THINGS
- Search engine optimization: Restless Bee sites are coded to be Google-friendly
- Accessibility: My background as a university web designer and developer means I'm well-versed in best practices for site accessibility
- Google Analytics: I'll set up Analytics for your site so you can see who's visiting, where they're visiting from, and about 1000 other data points

Design for a Multi-Device World

Responsive design. Mobile-first. These are more than buzzwords: they describe a fundamental shift in the way websites are designed and built. Until recently, one could code a site to a fixed width, relatively confident that it would be viewed on a large monitor or laptop screen. Then came the explosion in smartphones and iPad usage. Research firm Gartner has predicted mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013. You risk alienating your mobile users if your site doesn't adapt to the this revolution.

Restless Bee is an example of a responsively designed site. Whether viewed on a full-sized monitor, an iPad, or a smartphone, the site adapts itself intelligently. To see this adaptiveness in action, resize your browser window and observe the changes that occur, or view the site on your smartphone. One of the key ideas behind responsive design: this is all one site, one codebase to maintain. The "mobile site" is not separate from the "full site;" it's an alternate view of the same content and images.

Is a responsively-designed site appropriate for you? We'll discuss this early on in the process, taking into account the importance of your mobile users.

My Process

Every project is unique, but here is an overview of the general steps I follow from project inception to launch:

The Requisite Biographical Sketch

A librarian, an I.T. guy, and an English major walk into a bar… Well, let me start from the beginning. Born and raised in Wisconsin, I spent my childhood poring over Ed Emberley books and my brother's skateboard magazines, getting my first inklings of graphic design appreciation. But not quite clear yet that there was such a career as "graphic designer," I went to the University of Wisconsin and double-majored in English and psychology. Post-college came a move to Chicago, where I took on a job as your classic I.T. guy, spending my days troubleshooting misbehaving PCs and my nights going to rock shows. Realizing that I enjoyed working with computers but wanted to do more than manage and fix them, I decided to get my master's in library and information science from the University of Illinois. My plan was to be a librarian/technologist, but along the way in grad school I caught the web design bug hard, teaching myself how to hand-code HTML and CSS.

I devoured books on web design, graphic design, typography: anything I could get my hands on. Redesigning a divisional library site snowballed until I was on the committee charged with redesigning the entire UIUC library site. Upon graduation, I stayed in town and worked a year as a librarian/web designer. The siren call of Chicago proved hard to resist, however, and I took on a position as a web designer at DePaul. From there, I went on to become a designer and front-end developer at the University of Chicago, where I had the ridiculous good fortune to be the lead graphic designer for the redesign of the main university site. After this project and a redesign of the College Admissions site, I decided I was ready to strike out on my own. Restless Bee was born in fall of 2008—hardly an auspicious time, what with the economy collapsing and all, but I made a go of it and am lucky to be able to continue making a go of it. As for the punchline to the opening joke, I still haven't thought of one, but maybe the bartender says something like, "You three might make an all right web designer."

Happy Clients Make Me Happy

“After Erik developed my website my business increased significantly. And the website continues to attract new customers. I often hear from tourists that they chose to visit my shop because they were so impressed with my website. Erik has continued to be a source of help with advertising, email communications, and various marketing initiatives. He has been consistently great to work with—always offering patient, thoughtful, creative guidance.”

Nina Rubin
Owner, Nina: A Well-Knit Shop

“Erik was a wonderful partner and collaborator who listened carefully to our vision and successfully transformed it into a website which presents our program in the most positive and engaging way possible. He created a site that is both visually striking and helpful to its users. We could not be happier with the final product. It has received rave reviews from our entire spectrum of colleagues and clients and we are certain that it will contribute to a rise in our enrollment.”

ANDI MEISELES
DIRECTOR, NORTH AMERICAN OFFICE FOR INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC AFFAIRS, AMERICAN ASSOCIATES, BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

“Erik has transformed the University of Minnesota’s ePortfolio website into a clean, highly professional, easy-to-use application within a matter of months. This is a tall order for a website that is used to manage very large amounts of information.”

PAUL TREUER
DIRECTOR, KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DULUTH