Eleven3.com and I’mThere.com
Two websites I have to give props to: eleven3.com and imthere.com. Both sites were designed by great friends of mine in Portland, OR. It’s been at least 3 1/2 years since I met George Huff, a terrific con who made himself out to be an XML guru, and rockstar Jeff Reynolds who surprisingly knew a lot about skinning the Winamp players. The two guys inspire me with their strong work ethics and visions to become millionaires, nay, billionaires someday.
Eleven3.com
First off, eleven3.com has really evolved. It was once a simple little Wordpress blog used as an experiment to test codes and such on, but now has evolved into a great blog that I check quite often. George creates some very interesting articles on topics such as the design process, web and blog design, Ruby on Rails, and his own record label’s festival Home Skillet Fest. What inspires me about George is that about three years ago I was laughing (silently) at some of the things he showed our design team at eROI. His portfolio was a bit outdated and just lacked polish. However, soon after hiring George, I saw that this kid was moving fast. Every time he saw something that was progressive in the web world, he adapted to it and learned about it.
Well, I can say after three years have gone by I am a bit jealous now. George has created some amazing work which has appeared on tons of CSS award sites. Here’s a few of my favorites:
ImThere.com
My other friend Jeff, originally from San Diego, CA worked with me at eROI as well. I saw some amazing Photoshop work come out of this kid I tell ya. I first understood his amazing skill when a client had an "revolutionary" idea which revolved around Harley motorcycles - actually, I think it was Jack Klugman’s son. Anyways, it wasn’t the greatest of concepts for a project. However, in a night or two, Jeff had created this 3-dimensional, Harley-themed web comp for the client that blew my mind - It looked like something a Pixar artist created. The client ended scrapping the idea and I was really disappointed nothing came of the great website.
We’ll many, many great projects later, Jeff is now involved in a social event participation website called ImThere.com. The site was featured in Tech Crunch last month and is building a great community of people who want to broadcast and participate in events. The site goes far beyond just posting and participating in events and interests. Make sure and give it a gander. I’m really hoping people adopt this social website as I would love to use it as a 3d party application inside Facebook, MySpace, and more someday!
Anyways, those are my two good friends working hard in P-town. Have any friends that deserve a shout-out? Post your comment below and give’em some credit!
