March 31, 2006 @ 3:04 PM
Holistic Web Design and Design Eye for the List Guy, were two among several panels that got a group of us really excited about starting a collaborative design group. Even 4 weeks after SXSW, we’re still all hopped up on Jim Coudal and Jason Fried’s opening remarks (listen, listen, listen!) about starting a business on-the-side.
We see several examples of collaborative business models already - Neubix, Happy Cog, Pixelworthy and the like. All successful studio arrangements. But we wanted to tie together a band of full-time designers, developers, and creatives, who could work together from time to time on special projects; collaborating from great distances.
MethodArts.com is an “open source” creative consortium. A virtual studio consisting of 4 Principals and any number of contributing members. Membership is by invitation only. The site will function as a group portfolio for projects we collaborate on, a group blog about our collaboration, and links to each member’s personal site. We’re thinking of it as an “un-company”.
This group is a way for us all to do more of what we do best as individuals, and learn more about the things we don’t. We’ve found collaboration always to be the fastest way to learn new things. Books, classes, and tutorials are all great resources, but there’s nothing faster (and more memorable) than hearing it from an expert with whom you’re working on a project.
The Principals already work with a pretty extensive network of talented freelancers. This is a way to organize them, provide a unified front, while promoting them as individuals at the same time. (Yes, very Muskateers.)
We rally around these common goals:
1.) Do work we are proud of.
2.) Profit.
3.) Learn.
...and yeah, pretty much in that order.
So we all agree we have no time and no money to start a business. Let’s see how Jason Fried’s “no functional spec” model works in practice…
We’ve identified 3 of the 4 principals, written a no-nonsense business plan, and began imagining how the site would work. So far it’s required very little time, and even less money. Then we installed my free copy of ExpressionEngine (thank you pMachine!) on a virtually free web host. I’ve put about 9 hours of design time in on a site map and concepting (an hour every morning before the client calls start). And we expect by sometime in May to have our site launched - as well as our first collaborative project completed (It’s a REALLY good one!).
More updates soon…
Comments
I love the way you pull of the worn look. It really looks...authentically dirty. Not like you just took some grunge brush to it. Good job.
Consider my interest piqued. I shall be eagerly awaiting the promised "updates".
Great idea! Are you releasing the names of the principals yet? {;o)
Maybe they'll comment here. We're "no one you've ever heard of". 
(that oughta do it!)
I'll be posting about this shortly - Bixby beat me to it. I'm one of the Method Arts principals playing the part of CSS CrimeFighter. Hello.
Yeah, I like to think of Brian as "the one who knows what he's doing". I don't think that's gonna fit on the business card though.
You had me with the name. Can't wait for May and all the businesses you'll help launch. Cheers.
Hey Mark, congrats on diving head first into a collaboration like this - it sounds amazing. Can't wait to see what you put out.sidenote: we met at SXSW, bowling, and as it turns out I had been reading your blog for a month. Crazy how an RSS reader can abstract away from the identity of a site.
The truth is we're a group of kindred creative types, who are burnt out on the traditional employee model of organizational charts and cubicle farms. "Been there. Done that." Over the years we've introduced some really 'out of the box' ideas to clients (and employers); some of whom were too risk adverse to take a chance. The one's who dared, gave us the confidence to follow this path. That's why "Doing work we're proud of." is first on the list.
The "open source" distributed network is the only model that made sense to us as creatives and as business people.
- Principal
Hey Mark, congrats on your new venture! I hope it goes well for you and the other principles involved
Gorgeous looking site Mark. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing!
Best of luck! Collaborating with trusted friends is the best way to go.
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