openbox9

avatar

michael's Archive

“Elevating the role of design and marketing on the Web since 1996 has been both rewarding and a thrill. My passion involves a mixture of social anthropology, sociology, cultural trends tracking, and the hunt of what is relevantkool (I also invent words). Solutions are nothing without a mission, and mine is to apply my passion to aiding organizations with a cause. Making their mission, my mission.” — Michael Schafer

Outside of quoting myself, Michael (me) lives a charmed life with a saucy wife, two vibrant daughters, and outstanding friends. View LinkedIn page


Job: Website Designer

June 11th, 2013 // // Topic: , ,

Join a team that puts creativity in the center of our work. We need your problem solving skills and your quirky novelty that inches towards being considered a disorder. Ideally you are a personable and creative type who can collaborate with team members and clients to produce an effective fundraising or advocacy website. Designers at [...]

openbox9 goes to the White House

January 15th, 2013 // // Topic: ,

We had the privilege to meet with the troops behind the White House communications efforts which included our friend and Designer Ashleigh Smith, the content editor, photographer, website creative director and the videographer. Fascinating work this team is up to as everyday posses a new urgent need to speak with the citizens — fast copywriting, [...]

Who Killed My Creative Buzz?

December 18th, 2012 // // Topic: , , ,

The Creative Process What better expression of rebellion than to sit and wait for creativity to strike and subsequently, what better expression of robotic jive than to methodically labor through a process. It’s the age old battle of wanting to be free to create but knowing one’s role as designer is to solve all sorts [...]

5 Pages I (really) Read Today

October 24th, 2012 // // Topic: , ,

Books are great but can a book smash you through 5 subjects in 15 minutes? Below are not my favorite reads, nor do I recommend reading them, but they are the real things I read this morning to prepare for a day of work. More CSS? Yes, please. Responsive Comping: Obtaining Signoff with Mockups. Oh [...]

5 Reasons Spec Design Work is Not Considered

February 14th, 2012 // // Topic: , ,

For some the term spec work is foreign slang that may lead to guessing its about sweaty people exercising their spec muscles. Actually it is designers exercising their sweaty mouse fingers — its short for “speculative” work — free work in hopes of getting paid for it. I understand the motivation for potential clients to [...]

openbox9 takes Manhattan

December 14th, 2011 // // Topic: , ,

Outside of Washington DC there is the nice (lesser known) city of New York that hosted the recent Global Leadership Awards Dinner. openbox9 had the pleasure AND honor to attend. We primarily traveled to celebrate the host, AICGS, but an added perk was the chance to check out the design work we did for the [...]

Making of the Baking the Cookies

December 7th, 2011 // // Topic: , ,

This time, tasty design became edible for a recent Christmas card design for our friends at 9Marks… for those out there that want a July 4th card I have an idea using deviled eggs!

AIGA’s Lightning Strikes… strikes Nov 17

November 8th, 2011 // // Topic: , ,

We were honored to help-out our local chapter of AIGA with a visual campaign for an upcoming “night that will awaken your mind with inspiration and creativity.” Imagine what mischief could happen if your mind was woke up… with volts of pecha kucha (20 slides in 20 seconds).

The ideal chair for humanity

October 25th, 2011 // // Topic: , ,

Some would consider this post “epic” and paramount to the survival of the sedentary human. I would not, but some will argue for my chair design proposal.

Summer of Launches

September 27th, 2011 // // Topic: , ,

As summer officially ended last week, a summer where we received news of NASA never launching a shuttle again… I thought I’d cheer us up about celebrating our launches this summer. There were many for us astronausigners to float on about (in no particular order) Ethnotraveler Experience the crossroads of culture from your livingroom.  www.ethnotraveler.com [...]