When it comes to web design, not to mention online marketing as a whole, the world would be a better place if this book, As Little Design as Possible, were required reading for every professional.

Written by Sophie Lovell, the book examines the design sense of a man named Dieter Rams, who ran the design team at Braun for nearly 50 years. And although he created real-world (what I like to call analog-world) products, the concepts Dieter follows work in any medium — even in 2020.

In a nutshell his philosophy is: “less but better.”

When it comes to websites, less distraction, less movement, less confusion, less noise = less, but better design.

Maybe I should rephrase that as mindful design, as there’s still design involved …

Sure, movement on a webpage may look cool to the developers on a web design team — but that doesn’t mean it’s best for the website visitor (in fact, it can be quite nauseating). When we look at the visitor — the potential client or customer — design moves away from what “looks cool,” or what’s on-trend, and becomes more difficult.

Why more difficult? Because it moves into the realm of what’s the best way to design this for the USER so they have an outstanding user experience on a website, in turn making it more likely they will ENGAGE …

In other words, websites need to be designed so they are functional, easy to use — and look good, too.

In this case form follows function, as opposed to form following design sense that’s not grounded in the user’s experience.

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Since January 20, 2013 Cuppa SEO has been helping businesses grow, succeed,  and get found on Google.

I AM VERY GRATEFUL.

Not too long ago, we moved into a new commercial space over on Enterprise Lane in Madison. I though it might be fun to show some before and after photos of the space to show you how it transformed. But before I do, I want to thank every client, as well as every colleague, friend, family member — and the Universe — for Cuppa SEO.

And now some before and after photos …

EMPTY SPACE (AND A COUPLE OF HELPFUL SONS), THE FINAL FRONTIER …
 

LOADING AND UNLOADING ALL THE STUFF, ENJOYING THE SMELL OF FRESH PAINT AND RUGS …
 

FIRST THINGS FIRST: SET UP COFFEE, AND A CHAIR TO SIT AND DRINK SAID COFFEE … 
PROGRESS (THIS COUCH IS MAX APPROVED!)…
 

MORE PROGRESS …
 

FINISHED!

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I love notebooks and I cannot lie.

It’s true, and I especially love pocket notebooks, which is why I’ve been highlighting outstanding pocket notebook companies like Field Notes and Story Supply Co, on my blog as of late.

But there are more notebook makers out there that deserve some time in the Cuppa SEO Spotlight Series, so today we’re highlighting Justin Ryan books, creators and sellers of handmade pocket notebooks.

In case you’re new to our spotlight series, it always highlights an amazing small business or designer that stands out from the crowd for their excellent service, products, creations — and all-around awesomeness. It’s a small way for us to “give back” to the brands that bring us joy, and help us accomplish our work.

Without further profusion of words on my part, let’s get to know Justin Ryan books …

1. Who Are You?

Our team is made up of myself, Justin, and my wife, Krystal. We lived on opposite sides of the country and somehow found each other, moved to Texas, got married and we now have two beautiful children, Owen and Evelyn. 

2. What Do You Do?

We sell a variety of hand-made pocket-sized notebooks and log books. I’ve been a graphic designer my whole adult life, so I use my skillset to design all of our products. From there, Krystal handles all of the production. She is keen to details and makes sure each book set is made perfectly. She also handles all of our social media postings and engages with our customer base. All of our notebooks come with specially designed covers with your choice of 32 pages of blank, lined, graph, or dot grid inner paper. They’re perfect for journaling, note-taking, doodling, and lists!

Our logbooks are what initially got us started! We have been avid collectors of a few different pocket notebook brands. We also, for years, have been pizza lovers. We combined the two and created a pocket-sized logbook that you can carry along to all of your fave pizza joints and rate them based on taste and atmosphere! From there we just kept branching out and now have a total of 7 food/beverage related logbooks. Our newest releases being The Wine Logbook and The Beer Logbook!

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?

Our small book business is our side passion project. We both currently work full-time jobs and as I’m sure a lot of the world can relate, we weren’t feeling inspired creatively a lot of times. We wanted something to fulfill our creative side, but also give us something we could connect and do together with each other! We spend our evenings each night coming up with new ideas together and working on fulfilling orders that came in during the day.

Our favorite part of what we do and what makes us love doing it, is we truly believe in and USE our products. We take our logbooks when we go out for dinner with our family and get our children involved in filling them out. We’ve inspired our oldest son, Owen, to use his creativity and come up with his very own ideas for logbooks he would love to see in our shop. He makes prototypes of his own for us all the time and we are currently in the process of making his very own creation, The ABC Adventure Logbook. Seeing his eyes light up when he sees his ideas come to life in front of him is ultimately why we love doing what we do!

4. How Does it Help People?

We believe our product can be useful in day to day tasks. Putting pen (or pencil) to paper is said to help with retention when compared to typing. Journaling can also play a huge role in helping those currently struggling with anxiety or depression. There are positive benefits to putting goals, plans, feelings, and thoughts on paper. We hope, at the end of the day, something as simple as a notebook can make a small difference. 

5. How do you find inspiration for the art you create?

I feel like inspiration can be found anywhere and everywhere! Our first books were born out of my love for pizza and the classic winking pizza chef. For our coffee books, I combined my love of coffee with my east coast roots and I heavily referenced the anthora, which is a hugely popular paper cup design that is used in New York City. A lot of what I do is nostalgia-based and can eventually be traced back to something from my childhood.

6. I see that you currently offer a “Coffee Log Book”

•  What’s YOUR favorite coffee?
  I love an espresso over ice, cold brew or – when I’m looking for something sweet – I like an iced mocha made with oat milk.
•  Any plans for more special coffee-centric art anytime soon?
  We definitely have plans to expand our offering in the coffee category. Currently, we’re in talks with a couple of shops around the country about offering custom books for them and we also have a custom cold brew book that we make for Cold Brew Crew from San Diego, California. In 2020, I hope to have more coffee offerings on the site, including more books, art prints, and other accessories.

If you’d like to get to know Justin Ryan books better, or buy some awesome notebooks from them (use coupon code coffee10 for a 10% discount), feel free to check out their website or their Instagram page.

(Note: Cuppa SEO is not an affiliate of Justin Ryan books, and receives no compensation for this article or for any purchases made on their website — we’re just big fans!)

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In this installment of our Small Business Spotlight series, we’ll be highlighting 

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights an amazing small business that stands out from the crowd for their excellent service, products — and all-around awesomeness.

Let’s find out a little more about Amanda …

1. Who Are You?

I’m a West Coast girl with a love for design, travel, and our natural world. I run a small business outside of my 4-day a week in-house design position selling my designs on stickers, patches, buttons, & stationery.

2. What Do You Do?

My background is in print & promotional design which I have over 15 years experience doing. 3 years ago I started my small business working for myself, experimenting, and having fun. It’s been amazing to experience building something of my own from the ground up. You can find my goods all over North America in small brick and mortar shops and online through my own shop. You might even recognize some of my designs on wood stickers if you’re browsing REI and MEC.

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?

Art, design, and entrepreneurship is something I’ve always been drawn to. There’s something pretty awesome about taking an idea, or something you can only see in your minds’ eye, and bringing it to life. Then being able to see it take on a life of its own with people who are interacting with it or sharing it. The best is when I can apply my design skills to the greater good; Bringing awareness to an important issue or working with companies that are making positive impacts.

4. How Does it Help People?

7. Any plans for a special coffee-centric art anytime soon?

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The one on the left is the former Peace Coffee packaging, while the one on the right is their new, drastically different packaging.

The new, minimalist packaging harkens to a design philosophy that is orderly, almost grid like in its hierarchy. For the design geeks out there, you might notice it’s something the Dutch designer, Wim Crouwel, might design. And, from a selling point of view, it also stands out on a shelf more than the old packaging because of its bright orange color.

The old packaging has more of a design feel that was popularized in the 1960’s and into the 1970’s. In other words, more psychedelic, and in this case chaotic, which causes a feeling of randomness in the design. This was the favored design style of designer Jan van Toorn, who was famous for his chaos-driven design sensibility (sorry, being a design geek again!). As far as theme, the old design definitely associates the brand name “Peace Coffee” with the peace movement of the ’60s.

In addition, on the old packaging Peace Coffee’s Turtle “mascot” is very prominent. On the new packaging, turtle plays a smaller role as the design becomes more clean, and coffee attributes are now present on the front of the packaging (they were formerly on the back). Even the coffee attributes are presented in a clean, easy to digest way — which supports this company’s desire to make the overall design more orderly.

The question is, is this new minimalist design so minimal that the brand has lost it’s identity?

What this has to do with web design …

When it comes to web design, if we hold onto old, antiquated designs, or try and say too much on a web page, the result can often be chaos, where disorder and confusion rules. Conveying more information is quite often NOT the best choice, as it’s simply too hard to digest. Focusing on what’s important, and communicating the most vital information clearly, is typically going to provide a better user experience for your website visitors. This better user experience is often accompanied by improved website conversion. That said, a brand’s identity still needs to shine through.

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… which is why we’ve started highlighting American-made pocket notebook companies like Field Notes, and now Story Supply Co., on the Cuppa SEO blog.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights an amazing small business that stands out from the crowd for their excellent service, products — and all-around awesomeness. It’s a small way for us to “give back” to the brands that make us smile, and help us do our work (yes, even web designers like using pencil and paper!).

As you’ll see, Story Supply Co. doesn’t just offer an exceptional product. They’re also using their business to help underserved kids in the highest-need cities and neighborhoods.

Let’s get to the interview!

1. Who is Story Supply Co. (SSC)?

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If so, what is it?

Is it affected by our emotions, thoughts, and/or the body’s physical condition? Or is it always the same color, but appears different to us depending on what we’re experiencing in the present moment?

When I initially asked this question, my first thought was simply: “white.”

According to Kenya Hara, one of Japan’s leading designers — as well as one of the world’s thought leaders on design, spirituality and emotion — “it goes without saying that colors can reflect our delicate feelings.”

I’d like to take that statement further to include thoughts, as well as what’s happening with our physical bodies (health, illness, youth, old age).

Mr. Hara goes on to say, “white can be attained by blending all of the colors of the spectrum together, or through the subtraction of ink and all other pigments. In short, it is ‘all colors,’ and ‘no colors,’ at the same time.” Which is why I perceive the color of now being white — before it is affected by an individual.

There is a word in the Japanese language, “kizen,” that refers to the latent possibilities that exist prior to an event taking place, which means white is the blank canvas (both literally and metaphorically) that becomes colored by the moment.

I find this concept interesting because it is a different way of checking in with ourselves to understand what we may be experiencing in any given moment.

It’s also an interesting concept to bring to our businesses — specifically to our web design, product design, and branding (online and analog).

IF our thoughts, feelings, etc. have a specific color — might some of the primal human experiences have the same color for most people? Blue for peace, red for pain/anger, grey for sadness, etc? And if this is the case, can we AFFECT the color of other people’s “now” — and in turn affect their emotions, thoughts, or even how they feel physically — by using a certain color or set of colors?

I’ve tested it, and I’ve seen that this IS possible.

Regardless of how much you buy into this concept, wouldn’t it be a good idea to examine your brand’s colors to see if they’re on par with the type of response you are trying to evoke from your customers and potential customers?

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Yes, we love notebooks, and we can not lie, which is why we’re honored to be able to spotlight Field Notes, a US-based company that creates pocket notebooks, notepads, journals, planners & more.

I sat down with Bryan from Field Notes over a virtual cup of coffee (he’s in Chicago) to gain some insights into the brand and mythology …

1. Who is Field Notes?

Field Notes (the company) started out when Field Notes creator Aaron Draplin (in Portland, Ore.), teamed up with Jim Coudal and ten more of us here at the FN Midwest HQ (in Chicago, Ill.). We used to be an advertising agency called Coudal Partners. We met around 2005, while Aaron was making Field Notes for friends, when we saw them, we decided to work together to share them with the world.

2. What Do You Do?

We make memo books and accessories inspired by Aaron’s collection of promotional memo books distributed by agricultural and industrial companies in the 20th Century. All of our paper products are designed and manufactured in the U.S.A. with domestic materials.

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?

At first, we were simply attracted to Aaron’s original design and wanted to get more of them out into the world. We were also hoping to do less client work, and do something more creatively rewarding. That all came to pass, we stopped doing client work several years ago. In the meantime, we’ve developed a huge base of users (and subscribers!), and seeing their reaction when we release a new edition is probably the most rewarding part of the job for most of us.

For me, personally, I just love working with new materials and processes and seeing the finished books; knowing we’re making something tangible that people can get excited about.

4. How Does it Help People?

The obvious answer is that we’re getting quality memo books into people’s hands so they can remember their big ideas, shopping lists, and their new boss’ kids’ names. On a deeper level, people tell us our books inspire them to be more creative and write more, and use their smartphones a bit less. On top of all that, there’s a subset of our customers that collect our books, so we’ve given those folks a hobby and the community that goes along with that.

5. Any plans for a special quarterly coffee collection in the near future?

Strange you would ask, ha, we started a big coffee-related project around the same time we started Field Notes. Field Notes took off pretty quickly, so we never got the coffee project off the ground, despite having ordered a pallet of coffee beans. We have done a few collaborations with Starbucks, and, if memory serves, we’ve made promotional books for a few local roasters. Personally, I don’t drink coffee, but everyone else here tells me it’s wonderful, ha.

Thank you, Bryan, for taking some time to share the Field Notes story. To learn more, or to order some Field Notes notebooks for your self, visit FieldNotes.com.

(Top) Joe, Jim, Erica, me (Bryan), Shea, Dawson, Michele; (Bottom) Steve, Matt, Trina

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Nearly every mobile device they’ve released since 2007 has had his fingerprints on the creation of it. So what will they do now that he’s gone? How will Apple’s design process change as a result of this news?

A New Relationship

While this departure seems like a significant shift for Apple, it might not be as big a change as people think. Ive will still be working with Apple, only now in a new capacity as an independent contractor, through his new company, LoveFrom. His influence will still be there.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that they plan on “working directly with [Ive] on exclusive projects.” This implies that, rather than his being a general advisor on all of their major projects, as in the past, he plans to concentrate on just a few individual projects and provide a more significant overall contribution to their design.

Searching for a Replacement

But what about the future projects that Ive doesn’t work on? Well, Apple still has the rest of their design team, which was largely built by Ive, and which still carries his influence. It’s likely that they will continue to work as they always have, and the changes to the overall process will be minimal.

At least until Apple names Ive’s successor. That’s going to be the major deciding factor in how Apple will evolve going forward. Who’s next to take the helm, and how will their design ideas be different from that of the great Jony Ive?

Not surprisingly, Apple has yet to announce a new CDO. Some wonder if they plan on filling the position at all, or simply have Ive perform the same basic duties he always has, only as an independent contractor.

However, Apple has begun the search for their new Chief Design Officer. They’re just not in any hurry to find one. This is totally understandable. Whomever they hire will have some big shoes to fill. They’d rather take the time and get the best person for the job than rush in and risk making a poor decision that could set their company back years. They need someone who not only has the right qualifications, but who will fit with their overall design philosophy—a philosophy which was largely created by Ive in the first place.

In the end, it’s hard to say for sure just how Ive’s departure from Apple will impact the company in the long run. For the moment, they seem to be fairly secure, and conducting business as usual. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next, and how they continue to deal with this major change going forward. Because while it may seem like business as usual on the surface, it’s clear that, one way or another, Apple will never be the same.

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