Jaan Orvet
About: I am a web strategist and entrepreneur with a strong belief in cutting out complexity, doing away with “extras” and turning a blind eye to “feature rich” in favor of clarity and simplicity. Doing “better” rather than doing “more”.
I am ridiculously passionate about building web-based businesses and apps. I have worked in the web world since 1994 and never enjoyed it more than I do right now. These days I help startups get off the ground and more established companies take their next step.
In the works right now is a book, a new agency venture, and a few other things.
Twitter Stream:
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A clean slate of mind
--Once in a while I have to stop and clean out my work space. Not just the physical one, but the digital one too. It’s a fab, simple and quick ...
Side projects have massive upside
--We’re all busy working and delivering like crazy. Drafting, coding, pitching, launching, testing, writing, planning… This is why itR...
Noded. Better.
--Noded. Better. Coming in September.
Guidelines for online success
--A few weeks back I picked up Taschen's "Guidelines for online success - The Do's and Don’t’s of the Internet from the best interactive agencies aro...
Social media reveals underlying poor understanding of online communication
--Businesses all around the world are interested in making social media part of their external communications. Unfortunately the understanding of wha...
Being upfront about (re)sources
--In all my different work roles I like using examples as much as possible: an image, or a site, a photo or a scribble. Anything goes as long as it h...
Top 5 client misconceptions
--Top 5 client misconceptions...
Information design
--Information design is one of those work-related things that gets me very excited. I can talk about it for hours...
Yes, I’m co-authoring a book
--The cat is now officially out of the bag and I can confirm that I am indeed co-authoring a book. Quite a few people have asked about this, thank yo...
Call it by its real name
--A fab example of calling something by its true name. This building site is next door to Tate Modern in London.
The Gray White Black site is live
--The site for new San Francisco based agency Gray White Black is live. More about the company and my association with it at a later date. For now I ...
Sit back and enjoy the ride
--Andreas has some great visual examples in his post about design that allows visitors to lean back instead of leaning forward when visiting a site. ...
Great site, too bad about the web shop
--There are hardly any companies out there today that don’t know the importance of a solid, on-brand, frequently updated, easy to use site. At ...
Two under-reported great things about the iPhone 2.0 update
--I need to get a word in edge wise on the whole iPhone 2.0 update. But I won’t fret over the glitches or hype all the fab new stuff (but I rea...
BBC Sport’s fantastic olympics promo by Hewlett and Albarn
--You are tasked with promoting the 2008 Summer Olympics for your network. You have two options: Either you create a standard, run of the mill promo ...
Project start-up info 101
--I firmly believe in having the following info ready to share whenever I call a project start-up meeting (i.e. the first meet after a project has b...
Doane Paper is almost a dream come true
--I am always on the look out for the perfect notepad. In my world of building stuff on the web making quick draft notes and sketches is part and par...
Ask more questions
--The best project managers, designers, business leaders, account managers, and entrepreneurs ask a lot of questions. That’s how they find out ...
SF Beta
--I’m off to poke my head through the doors at 111 Minna and see what’s on at SF Beta’s Midsummer Night’s Beta. I know Sponge...
Social media is not a delivery mechanism
--This past Tuesday I attended SocialMediaCamp here in San Francisco. I missed a few of the morning sessions but I’m glad David Cohn was there ...
Simply true
--“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” Albert Einstein . . . . . .
Firefox 3 needs some browser.urlbar tweaks
--After working with Firefox 3 for a little while now, I can safely say that I too loathe the Smart Location Bar. If you haven’t upgraded to FF...
Why edited is always better
--The best movies, blog posts, collections of holiday snaps, kitten videos, feature articles and so on are all edited. Editing is what sets “go...
Today: SocialMediaCamp, Mashable party
--Today is a fun, networking, learning, being out-and-about kinda off day. First, SocialMediaCamp during the day, and then Mashable’s SummerMas...
I don’t do long reports
--When I wrap up a consultancy gig I never deliver a long wordy report. Supposedly one is supposed to do that, at least according to the line of thin...
An observation
--Sitting in the United Airlines Red Carpet Club at Chicago O’Hare waiting for my flight home to San Francisco. Of the 7 people sporting laptop...
I talk about social media in Geneva
--Note: This post originally got stuck in drafts, I choose to (re)post it under it’s intended publishing date. Earlier this week I held a back ...
Fredrik at Autoquake is hiring
--Are you looking for a gig as Head of Marketing Communications? Fredrik and his team over at Autoquake in London are hiring. There is a full posted ...
Writing for the real world
--All MUNI buses here in San Francisco have these stickers on their rear doors. I like them because they teach an interesting lesson in writing. As t...
Relentless passion
--There are people around you that will never appreciate your passion and all the other “extras” that you bring to a project. They are pe...
Higher resolutions, narrower browser windows fit rise of Vertical Point Media
--The mainstreaming of wider screen monitors, with higher resolutions, seemed to herald the long awaited departure from narrow site widths - the bane...
The language of copy
--Like many of my fellow Swedes in the web strategy/communication/development biz I write a lot of site copy, marketing copy, and briefing documents ...
Congrats
--I am just now catching up on the Webby Awards and realized that Starring, my old friend CG Neumann’s agency netted a well deserved award for ...
HR and IT departments are a drag on your business
--Here is a post mostly relevant to those of you who work in large corporations. When was the last time you applauded the work of your HR or IT depar...
333 Mother
--For some reason my late 90’s favorite London club 333 popped in to my mind. Had a look at the site (now 333 Mother). Instant laughs, instant ...
Citywide wifi screens
--File this under very very geeky, but I think it’s sort of fun to collect welcome screens from citywide wifi networks. Below Mountain View, CA...
Boagworld and other recommended podcasts
--A recommendation? On Sharpenr? No, surely not! I know, weird huh? This is not normally the blog that “recommends” things left right and...
The new Orbitsville site is live
--The new Orbitsville site launched while I attended the Web2.0 Expo. Great job by everyone involved, and there’s more goodness to come!
Belated Web 2.0 Expo wrap
--Much has been written about this years Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and I will keep my contribution short. Not least as I’m kinda’ lat...
More noise, less signal
--Over the past month or two I’ve been getting less and less interested in following Signal vs. Noise. Yes I know, that’s like the crazie...
The cat is out of the bag - almost
--The cat is almost out of the bag on the thing that Andreas and myself have been working on. Almost, but not quite. More soon-ish. From Andreas̵...
Does your OS affect your output?
--It strikes me again and again how different the output (general design, UI) from a Mac based Art Director can be from a designer working in Windows...
Review info that matters
--The Macbook Air review in the April issue of Japan’s MacFan has all the usual specs, close up pix of ports etc that we have come to expect. T...
Fantasy Interactive makes it clear what you get for your money on SAS
--The Scandinavian Airlines website is a sorry sight. Illogical navigation and non-functioning tools lead the way for my favorite airline’s onl...
Take a break with Aaron Sjogren
--The other day I didn’t have time to go out for a walk amidst all the deliverables that needed to get…delivered. I still needed a break ...
Set lots of goals
--To move your new venture forward you need to set lots of goals. In fact you probably already do. But I bet they are pretty big; long term strategic...
Why a blackboard beats a whiteboard
--Blackboards (or ‘chalkboards’) bring out the creativity in us. People are less apprehensive about writing on blackboards. Blackboards b...
Proof of passion
--Every day during 2008 designer Jonas Buntenbruch will spend 30-60 minutes to create a new piece for his DONE site. He calls it his “daily d...
“We don’t innovate”
--Discussing web strategies is very rewarding when a client knows that they need to move in a new, better direction. Usually we talk about innovation...
“Now” matters the most
--David just posted a piece over at SvN called “Optimize for now!“. “One of the easiest ways to shoot down good ideas, interesting ...
Starting up #5 – Either way you win.
--This is the fifth post in my series on starting up a web based business. Previous entries: Focus on one thing, Pick the right people, Picking a CM...
I like Citizen Space
--Last week I popped in to Citizen Space in San Francisco, a place that a friend had suggested I might like. And yes, I certainly did. This co-workin...
Commenting problem solved
--The pesky commenting problem has now been resolved thanks to Hannes, the Berlin based member of my extended Sharpenr family. Thank you!
I want less stuff in my Backpack
--Over the weekend I read Andrew Park’s Wired story “The Brash Programmers at 37signals Will Tell You: Keep It Simple, Stupid“. Sin...
Starting up #4 - Who is your decision maker?
--This is the fourth post in a different kind of series on being a web entrepreneur. My goal is to show why making decisions in context will make a w...
Comments
--It seems commenting is not working properly at the moment. I am very sorry about that and will get it fixed as soon as I possibly can. Until then, ...
Wireless equals results
--Overheard on the train from London to Oxford last week… Designer 1: “How are you liking your new job?” Designer 2: “Brillia...
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Shadab Farooqui (mutual) want-to-meet |
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Stowe Boyd (mutual) friend |
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Scott W. Clark (mutual) want-to-meet |
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Asif Khan (mutual) want-to-meet |
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Jonathan Dugan fan |
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Andreas Carlsson (mutual) friend |
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Niclas Bergstrom (mutual) friend |
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Tiffany Jonas (mutual) friend |
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Eero Leppänen (mutual) want-to-meet |
Comments
Hello Jaan
I like your approach!
Looking forward on meeting you.
Hi man, looking forward to see you in SF to catch up!