It is a good feeling to see Artifice Studios or our work featured on other websites and blogs. I just want to take a quick moment to thank them and list them out for your viewing pleasure and check out the rest of their content.

Fazai38’s Inspiration Blog (featuring our Artifice Studios business card)

Freelance Switch (featuring Artifice Studios’ business card)

Abduzeedo (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

Techcrunch (featuring our client Quub)

Creattica (featuring our Artifice Studios business card)

Creattica (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

Screenalicio.us (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

1st Web Designer (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

Web Design Dev (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

Blog Design Lab (featuring Artifice Studios’ blog)

Stationary Style (featuring Artifice Studios’ business card)

CSS Based (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

Most Inspired (featuring Artifice Studios’ website)

Thank you all!

To me, the hotel business intrigues me because they can essentially create a different world for you to experience. And I will admit, I love staying at hotels. When I stay at a hotel, I want to see and feel the aura of the hotel through its design and presentation. I would expect a small taste of that aura on their website to feel compelled to book a reservation. Unfortunately, well designed hotel websites are scarce. Through my research, I was astonished that I was barely able to find 10 good ones. Some of the top hotels in the world had some websites that my dead retarded dog could do better.

So here are ten hotel websites that made it to my standards:

1. Clift Hotel

2. Hotel Bel-Air

3. Hotel Victor

4. Bellagio

5. Hotel Vitale

6. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel

7. Montage Hotel

8. Sheraton Hotels

9. The Venetian

10. Hotel Carlina

And as a side note, I have visited four of these hotels

So the saga continues with the random messages on the Artifice Studios voicemail. Same guy from last time too.

Listen to Voicemail #2

Listen to Voicemail #3

So the guy left two more messages looking for mom. It’s funny that he always calls when we’re not around though, which either sucks or very amusing so we can learn a little more about this family.

This is what I have gathered so far:

• The guy’s name is Greg. Not Barry.
• Based on the number, it is coming from Arkansas.
• Greg got a letter from Mom.
• Mom loves Walmart.
• It was the birthday of some baby.

I started Artifice Studios as a one man army over a year ago. I wore all the hats, from pitcher to developer to designer. Suffice to say, I was on the verge of going insane (more so than I already am). I am going to say it right now: if you want your business to grow, you cannot do it alone. I applaud those that are running one man shops and they’re successful. But they are either taking less jobs, offering more specialized services, or they’re just superman.

We are only Humans

At Artifice Studios, we are selective with our projects and we only like to work with the web. But at the end of the day, we are still only human. There is only so much you can do within a day. Aside from doing the work, there is the whole business aspect which is no fun task. The brain needs time to rest and to enjoy life outside of the business. I have to practically force myself away from doing Artifice work or I would just keep working nonstop. Even if I did keep working nonstop, there would never be an end. Sure, there are completed milestones along the way and projects launched, but you move on to the next. It is the nature of the business. It’s like World of Warcraft. There is no end! It just keeps going and going and people keep playing because of it.

Ideas are Collaborative

Brainstorming ideas on your own is like humping a doorknob. It has disaster written all over it. You may think you have a great idea, but everyone else might think it stinks. You need others to keep your feet on the ground and vice versa. Sure you can brainstorm ideas with the client, but most of the time, the client just wants to see the end result. They don’t want that busy work of “thinking”. That is our job as creatives. The client just wants to say “thats it, thats what I want”.

Doubts

A client want’s to feel like they are being taken care of, that their business is in the right hands. Dishing up the dough for an expensive project and giving the whole task to one guy sounds pretty ballsy from a business standpoint. What if the guy gets sick? What if he dies! Not only that, this one guy runs a business. He has other tasks other than the project at hand. How will he manage? These are the kind of questions businesses think of when working with one man armies. You do not want to be doubted. I started off like that. And people did doubt me at first, but it took more effort to convince clients than it does now.

The Right Team

Here’s the catch though: it takes the right team to make a great team. Artifice Studios is basically two guys and their alter egos (Antonio the Great and this one guy named Jake). But we have built a network with contacts that are local in case we need to bring them in for the right job. People have also come and gone under the Artifice umbrella as “one of us” but it is hard to find the right personality and the right work ethic that has become our Artifice Standard. If you have what it takes, we want to get to know you.

So if you have not found the perfect team to build your business, then keep doing what you are doing solo until you do. Just keep it in the back of your head though.

Don’t be the renaissance man. It isn’t worth it.

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You know, sometimes we hear some random voicemails on our machine here at Artifice. This one is from Berry calling mom. We do have a greeting saying we are Artifice Studios though…

Listen to Berry’s Voicemail