Grant Blakeman is a freelance designer and developer living in Boulder, Colorado. His clients include Carbonmade.com and The Autumn Film. He has posted a lot of incredible creative and tech content on his blog recently. The blog is one of my top reads, so you absolutely must add him to your weekly reading.

I’d like to call-out a few recent items from Grant:

1. A prototype for an HTML5-based Video player. It’s great to think that we’re only a year or so away from offering video without the use of Flash or Silverlight plugins. On a related note, at the end of January Google announced that they would no longer support IE 6 for Google Docs or Google Sites.

2. Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain’s design work. Jesse did some top-notch work for the redesign of Campaign Monitor in 2008-09.

3. The CGI work of Alex Roman (via IS050)

Grant is featured on my “Best of” list on Twitter — that list is always evolving, but I will quickly say that he would be the last person I’d remove from the list. Lastly, after all of the linkage above, you will more than likely appreciate his office space.

Grant Blakeman's office (photo by Grant)

It’s Saturday. And I am unemployed. And that’s kind of awesome. Okay, I’m employed. Technically.

I build stuff. I create stuff. And life’s too short to not be building and creating every day.

Soon I will step into a new position as Interface Designer at Garmin (GRMN), a position with their online user experience team. Since my early days in college, I’ve always been provoked to design for users, not clients. Working on the Garmin team should allow me to balance the challenge, tact and necessity for addressing the needs of both parties. Strategy, thought, design, user-testing and front-end development are all things I want to do daily. All are essential to the job description.

Budgets restrict good thinking.

To re-think how customers interact with your brand only when marketing dollars are allocated to such a project is the wrong way address business needs. Unfortunately, this is a side effect of the client-plus-ad-agency model. Inside of recession, less marketing dollars equates to less agency-driven thought and strategy in driving sales. Time and money should always be allocated to the effort.

Time well spent increases sales.

With this in mind, the best fit for me is a team where questions are continually asked of design and user experience. The primary budget is one of time. The primary question is, “Does this initiative merit our time?” Making sales is important to any company. When you’re ringing the cashbox for a company like Garmin, the products sell themselves.

Garmin's Forerunner 305, a watch for runners.

Grady tells me that Olathe means “beautiful.” It’s fitting. Well, not the suburbia part. Suburbia is beautiful to some, but I’m more of a midtown Kansas City guy. The opportunity to design for potential and existing Garmin consumers is direct and immediate. And that’s beautiful to me.

Friends! I have news for you.

This Friday is the last day I will ride the elevator to the ninth floor at 4600 Madison Avenue and step into the hallways of Bernstein-Rein’s creative department. Soon I will make my last flavored latte at the coffee bar on fifteen. It’s been a great three (nearly four) years at the Kansas City ad agency.

Hours upon hours of time with mentors and friends.

My experience at BR has been deeply rewarding both personally and professionally. So many team members have mentored me — I don’t know where I could possibly start or finish, so please understand that this paragraph isn’t comprehensive:

Anthony has shown me that creativity doesn’t exist merely on-screen, but it’s everything we live, sing and do … from day one Adam believed in my work. He also taught me how to create practically for clients in Photoshop. He’s great at communicating ideas and strategy from the creative perspective, while addressing tough client problems … Nathan’s approach to asking questions and creating design solutions has stayed with me … in my earlier days at BR, I continually studied HTML/CSS solutions from Brandon and Bobby … And Travis showed me that coding things from scratch and meticulous attention to detail aren’t silly concepts, but rather essential craftsmanship for those that want to be the best.

Bernstein-Rein’s work for household brands like McDonald’s, PetSmart and Hostess Snack Cakes will continue to receive recognition within the national ad community. The agency is capable both digitally and analytically – they dig deep to understand both consumer and marketplace. Most importantly, BR is a place full of great ideas that drive retail sales. I am blessed to have played a small part in our last few years of work.

So what’s next for me?

The ad world has been great, but the best fit for me is a position where questions are primarily asked of design. I have something lined up. More to come!