Be Sparing

Posted by Shaza Hakim on January 21, 2010

“Don’t tell all. Keep something back.”

Shaza Hakim’s earliest memory of books was when her dad took her to her first book fair on his hip Scrambler bike. It was a noisy piece of metal but it was yellow and she loved it. Shaza is the Creative Lead at Stampede.

Where others have gadgets and tutorials to help them get better with design, I have books. The Elements of Style has a permanent place among the few books I have on my desk. In more occasions than I can remember, I have found in it my very own personal guide in design.

Do not explain too much.

It is seldom advisable to tell all. Be sparing, for instance, in the use of adverbs after “he said”, “she replied” and the like: “he said consolingly”; “she replied grumblingly.” Let the conversation itself disclose the speaker’s manner or condition. Dialogue heavily weighted is cluttery and annoying. Inexperienced writers not only overwork their adverbs but load their attributes with explanatory verbs: “he consoled,” “she congratulated”. They do this, apparently in the belief that the word said is always in need of support, or because they have been told to do so by experts in the art of bad writing.
p.109, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

The same goes for design. Don’t tell all. Keep something back. Let the design speaks for itself without the need to anticipate interpretations. And don’t do things because you have been told to do so by the experts in the art of bad design.

Good design does not need a supporting story.

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The Bull Retrospect

Posted by Shaza Hakim on January 20, 2010

“If you know Stampede, you know that our team is a big deal to us.”

Shaza Hakim swears it was pure coincidence that Stampede had a blast throughout the Year of the Ox. Shaza is the Creative Lead at Stampede.

It’s still January. Let me see if can get away with writing about the old times.

I have been hitting Google hard this month planning for another Stampede team vacation this year. We went to Bali in 2008 (was that trip awesome or what?) but missed our window last year with a pace that I can only describe as a speed that will leave you shaking in the aftermath if it doesn’t break your neck already.

2009 was the year that we take in new clients, bigger projects and better work relationship with our existing clients. It was also a year of big commitment from everyone in the team. We now have a full-time project manager who just loves her job, a front-end developer with faster support and we have just added a new web developer to the bunch.

I have been active on Twitter, so does Anita and Shaiful. Dov is yet to be convinced about social media – a pity because his witty remarks would warrant more followers in a day that any of us would.

There were high-profile projects that we can’t mention, smaller projects that turned out huge and picked up by design galleries. We were also honored to work on the UI of JomSocial – Joomla’s own social networking extension. There were also a few big projects we had to decline in earnest because they didn’t feel, well, Stampede material.

And so just like that, 2009 wooshed by.

If you know Stampede, you know that our team is a big deal to us. We’re very protective of their interest. Their challenge and passion are big factors in mapping our growth. And we don’t plan to grow insensibly. But above all, we value the perfectionists in them.

2009 was the year that we recruited most and unfortunately had to let most go too. Call it incompatibility or us being singularly selective, but the truth is a great team is only as good as the weakest link. I believe in investing in our people but I also learned that when the chemistry is not right, you will know it early.

We also extended support and guidance to our people who left to venture out on their own. You don’t work with us and leave without a footprint.

As naive as it sounds, you CAN have both a professional and personal team. I am very proud of our people. If the nurturing and foundation is right, they will have the foresight to do good job and be creative with their own work. Nudge them to the right direction once in a while, then watch how they raise their own bar higher. Once you strip down a company to its bare essentials, good people truly is the best asset you can have to reach new heights.

And we plan to do just that this 2010.

(photo by Questionmarc and I support cool act of creative vandalism any given day)

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White Sails and the Sea

Posted by Syazwan Hakim on January 17, 2010

“There’s so much to do, but there’s award ceremony and partying every night at different locations too!”

Syazwan Hakim writes about his first experience with The Royal Langkawi International Regatta. Syazwan is the Front-End Developer at Stampede.

There are so many people with different quirks passing by while I’m enjoying my Expresso Ice-Blended under the Starbucks green canopy. I’m here surfing the web while waiting for the wind. The very first race of Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2010 should have started this morning. But the wind is envious of us. No wind, no sail.

So here I am in Langkawi to cover this event, my first on-site gig since I joined Stampede in May 2009. The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club has been working with Stampede since 2004. Besides design and development for their web presence, we also provide maintenance to their websites all year round. But it all builds up to this 6-day event.

It is exciting to meet our good client and participants to this yacht race. Renee Chung, who is currently responsible for maintaining the yacht club’s website is going to hand over everything to me this April.

The Regatta is an annual, prestigious yacht race with entrants from all over the world. There are 8 different categories: Racing, IRC, Sports, Sports under 25, Multihull, Club Cruising and Ocean Rovers. We have our own Malaysian favorite, the Navy with their racing yacht “Zuhal”. See them all in action in the Regatta photo gallery.

I am stationed at the yacht club itself, in the Regatta’s office. There is a constant blur of yacht owners and volunteers going in and out of the office. Most volunteers are expatriates who live in their boats anchored at the club – some were editing photos of the day, others are preparing newsletters for distribution and those idle ones managed to sneak some time playing games on their laptop. Zack, the Club’s manager, is busy collecting race results while drinking blue can of Revive.

Once the results are all in, Zack will hand them over to me for immediate online updating. The Regatta website is unique because real-time results need to be fed from another system into the website. All kind of media and press from all over the world will refer to the official result that we released. It is very crucial for it to be done accurately and on time. The website maintenance itself doesn’t seem too stressful because it was built on Joomla. Occasionally, new designs are introduced to some part of the website based on client’s request and it is also my responsibility to transfer this design into XHTML and CSS templates that will later be read by Joomla.

During the event itself, my task is to wrap up the day’s race. When the result is confirmed, the newsletter prepared and photos edited, they will all be handed over to me and I will update the website accordingly. There’s so much to do, but there’s award ceremony and partying every night at different locations too!

But until the wind comes, I am happy sitting here, enjoying this cold drink with white sails over blue blue sea in front of me.

(photo courtesy of The Royal Langkawi International Regatta)

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