Watch and enjoy. Gary is a driving proponent of increasing the hustle,  doing what you love, and finding a way to monetize it. We agree with Gary. Let us help your business focus the passion, and spread the word.

If you’re a frequent Dirk+Weiss visitor, you probably noticed something new and potentially striking about our typography. Yes, it’s true, we’re using Georgia in conjunction with our tried and true Helvetica. This combination creates a fresh and sophisticated dialog of type.

You’re looking at the brand new Dirk+Weiss website! This layout and structure is much easier to navigate and hopefully feels a little more approachable (we’re really nice guys… really). We’ve moved our blog to the front page to confront our core traffic and we have also revamped some of our copy to be a faster read and perhaps more concise. We’ve incorporated YouTube and HTML5 in various locations of the new architecture. That pesky, proprietary, and non iOS friendly Adobe Flash format is simply too clumsy.

We are using and recommending to our clients the use of the most current web standards and various JavaScripting libraries including JQuery and MooTools.

We hope that all these things will make for a more efficient, and enjoyable Dirk+Weiss experience.

Matt+Brian – DW

About a month ago, we received a free $100 credit for Google Ads. We deposited our free coupon, and in return, have landed a client on the other side of the world.

These Google Ads are the ‘Sponsored Results’ that appear when you see search results, on the right side of the page. The way it works is quite simple. You decide what search phrases pertain to your business, and decide how much per day you would like to spend. The more you spend, the more visibility you have.

In our scenario, we decided to just try it out, and spend only $1.50 per day. So after about 60 days, our credit will have been spent. So far, we have only spend $45 out of the $100, and we have had some great results.

Pocket change in the world of advertising. We are planning to ramp up or daily allowances for Google Ads, to increase our visibility. Even if we deposit $1,000, it is still considerably more cost effective and efficient than taking out an ad in the newspaper or printed media.

The other upside to Gooogle vs. Printed Ads is the turnaround. It takes time to create and publish printed media, and the ads that live there. With Google, your ads are up in minuets, and tracking happens in less than 12 hours, with millions of potential clients to see your ad.

This method landed us an India based client, that found us via Google, and loved what they saw. We are currently working on a new website design / development, and a re-working of their branding elements.

This type of advertising is manageable and accessible from small to large businesses, placing many competitive businesses on the same playing field.

We can work out a strategy with you and your business to set up a Google based advertising model.

We recently completed a new website and branding for Speed Club Inc. Speed Club Inc. is a Minnesota bases chopper motorcycle website, forum, store and blog. The website’s focus is on Yamaha chopper (custom built) motorcycles, and chopper culture.

Dirk+Weiss created both the Graphics, layout and programming for this site, and included some great add-on’s for increased Search Engine Optimization.

“Manufactured in the Midwest, Speed Club Inc. is dedicated to all things speed. We’re talkin’ about that blow your hair back, demon on wheels kinda speed, man. We’re talkin’ about gettin out and choppin it up. You get it? Speed Clubs’ for people like that… people like us. See, It dont have to be pretty but it’s gotta be fast. Bob it, chop it, cut it, twist it. Your job is to live it. Speed Club Inc. is here to document it.”

The site and brand is fresh, updated daily, and receives about 100 views a day, and is growing each week. If you are into motorcycles, or speed, visit Speed Club Inc.

A quick sketch to visualize the concept of ‘Our Design’, and the focus of a working theory on creating value based design.

Dirk+Weiss practices ‘Our Design’, and believe that value does lie in knowing that what we are designing and developing, actually is working. This working theory focuses less on (but does not disregard) the upfront, aesthetic design process, and approaches every project with the assumption that design has a formula, yet is not formulaic, and is calculable.

Click the image to enlarge!

graphic copyright 2010 – Dirk+Weiss / www.ourdesign.us