10k Apart is a new contest co-sponsored by Jeffery Zeldman’s An Event Apart and Microsoft’s MIX Online team. The idea behind it is to see who can create the best web app in less than 10 Kilobytes.

Our challenge was to design, write, and code the website in a very tight timeline and get people excited about joining the contest. Our solution was to attend to every little detail—from web copy to font to logo refresh—to create a succinct, nearly single-page design that extends the iconic A List Apart / An Event Apart brand and reflects at the work we’d done earlier in the year for MIX Online.

As for results, so far so good—the contest gathered nearly a hundred web app submissions in the first week.

“A Website Named Desire” is a poster that illustrates the messy, complicated process of web design. Our goal was to design and build a website around the poster.

In the beginning, we focused all our energy on the content—deciding what would go on the page, and how to make the poster compelling.

From there we wrote copy and designed the site. The result? A clever, bold design that showcases the poster and proves how “less can be more.”

Jurkowitz & Co. is a marketing and communications agency run by Amy Jurkowitz. Our goal was to create a simple site that established the business, showcased J&C’s work and services, and breathed life into the brand.

We started with strategy and naming, producing over 30 names before settling on Jurkowitz & Co. In content strategy, we decided how to describe Amy’s services and display and categorize her work.

We worked with logo designer Adam Bognar to produce a modern, minimalist logo with a vintage flair. Then we extended our art direction into a simple but bold and modern visual design.

We finished the whole thing off with WordPress CMS Development.

Microsoft’s 10k Smart Coding Challenge is a contest (sponsored by Mix Online) that lets thrifty developers see what they can create using only 10 kilobytes of code.

Our job was to create a bold new architecture and design that created a feeling of openness, encouraged people to participate in the contest, made it easy to vote for entries, and funneled participants to the Mix10 Conference site.

We extended the brand using Wexley School for Girls’ logo and focused on telling a clear, engaging story about the 10k Smart Coding Challenge. The new design is way easier to use, and more fun and modern. We finished it all off with squeaky-clean HTML/CSS.

When the Mix Online team asked us to fully rethink, rebrand, rewrite and redesign their community-based site, we jumped at the opportunity. Our goals were to grow and maintain readership, showcase long-form writing, and be bold with the look and feel.

Starting with content strategy, we defined content requirements, key themes and messages, and copy goals. We got experimental with design, asking lots of strategy questions and borrowing elements from old jazz records and 80’s bicycle ads. Then came in-depth and iterative copywriting, design, and templating phases (handled by headerfooter.com).

The end result is a totally new look for Mix Online (and Microsoft), and a site that better reflects the team’s brand and business model. Response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive—the design even won Drawar’s site of the year.

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) came to us looking for a visual refresh of pba.com. After a thorough research & discovery phase, we created a flexible new design that fits with PBA’s new branding package, is modular for further adapting & expanding, and works on all platforms (Firefox, Safari, and IE 6-8).

On the technical side, we used lightweight jQuery to slickly present images & video and wrote a clean, consistent and modern set of standards-based templates. We also managed to keep the page size small, despite all the information that needed to be displayed.

PBA is happy with the results, and we got two shiny bowling balls out of the deal. Win win.

Harvest is a popular web app that helps businesses log expenses, track time, and invoice clients. We use Harvest for our own operations and can attest to how sleek, intuitive, and fast it is.

Iridesco (the company that created Harvest) asked us to rethink the site’s front page, with the sole purpose of increasing conversion.

We created an effective, clutter and distraction-free design that shuttles users directly to the big, green “buy” button.

Layne Christensen is a world leader in (non-oil) field drilling and manufacturing, with more than 50 offices and 3000 employees. They also specialize in water resources, mineral exploration, geoconstruction, and energy services.

With 100+ unique pages of text, Layne’s original site was difficult for clients to navigate and make sense of. Our role was to re-think content strategy, as well as design and build a new site prototype using Wordpress.

We worked closely with Layne to clarify their marketing messages, and used great IA and design to make the website leaner and more flexible.

Subvert is a leading UI design firm based out of Whitehorse, Canada. They’ve helped dozens of clients across the country design solid user experiences that meet customer and business needs.

Founder Geof Harries contacted thingsthatarebrown to re-design the visual identity of subvert.ca. Things got off to a great start — we discussed the design and visual mood of the site like old friends trading music for a mixtape. Within just a few days, we both had a great initial design. Geof handled the ExpressionEngine buildout himself, using my handcrafted HTML templates.

Nick Finck is an information architect, user experience professional, speaker, and community cultivator from Seattle. He runs Blue Flavor, a small design agency.

Everyone who knows Nick (which is pretty much everyone) loves him—so we built the site around his identity as an approachable web veteran. A big, friendly picture of Nick on the front page sets the tone. Juicy calls to action and a soft color palette give the site a friendly, no-nonsense appeal.

We also integrated features like Twitter and Flickr and prioritized Nick’s speaking gigs and blog posts, to make the site more social and fresh.