3 things we’re looking forward to in 2014

2013 was a big year for us here at 3thought. We launched our revamped website on January 1, purchased the latest and greatest Adobe software in the fall, and even purchased new hardware too. We spent a lovely summer with our intern Laura, and began the prep work to expand our staff in 2014. 2013 was hands down our most successful year to date. We saw the most profit, worked with a ton of great clients (new and old). We even found a few weeks to take a much needed vacation.

2014 is fully upon us (along with a “Polar Vortex“), and despite the bone chilling temps, we dare say it’s shaping up to be another great year. In the spirit of new years lists and our favorite form of blog post “the listicle” here’s our short list of 3 things we’re looking forward to in 2014. Enjoy.

Pantone Swatch Book

1. New Pantone Books (Check)

This was easy and we didn’t waste a lot of time to check our first goal off our list, so I guess you can say we’re looking forward to using our new Pantone books. For those of you unfamiliar with Pantone swatch books, they’re kind of like the swatches you get at the paint department at Lowes or Home Depot, but they come in two varieties. First is the chip book which contains tiny chips of color we give to clients. The second form is a swatch book which is a rainbow of colors along with the CMYK, RGB and Hex mixtures of colors. They serve the purpose of helping us pick accurate and reproducible colors. These books are like a designers bible for how things are going to look when they’re printed. You must have faith in your swatches. Our old books certainly had great personality, but we weren’t ready for a long term commitment. When we were young and starting up, FREE Pantone books from our generous friends certainly didn’t go unappreciated, so thank you to the kind folks that got us through the first few years.

2. New iPhones (Partial Check)

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.Being excited about new phones sounds kinda dorky but our iPhones were our babies when we bough them, and yeah, they’re getting a bit long in the tooth these days. But they’re still a key part of how we work from phone calls, to mobile directions to previewing client sites on mobile devices. To be honest, we’re only giving this a half check because Shea retired her 4s for a 5s. However for the first time in recent history, Matt is patiently waiting to see what’s next. If we were to request one new feature from Apple it would be the ability to conjure hot drinks on demand Star Trek replicator style. Tea, earl grey, hot.

3. Hiring a Full-time Front-End Developer (TBD)

This is what we want the most. It’s something we’ve desired since we began the company, but there’s a lot to do before you bring on your first employee. Sure, we’ve dabbled with interns and part-time folks, but never a full fledged “change the way you fundamentally work” employee. We have a pretty good idea of what we need, and that’s someone with a skill set that compliments our own skills. Someone who’s excited to help us grow the business. Someone who can jump right into the workflow and take that load off our shoulders from day one. Having a full-time front-end developer on staff would let us get back to doing the things we enjoy doing most, which is designing, not coding. So, if you know anyone with front-end skills and looking for a new gig, let us know! They can use our handy “Set up and interview” form, right here on our website.

Now you tell us… What are you looking forward to most in 2014?

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