February 6, 2006

An Uplifting Experience

One of the reasons I love my job is that I get to work with a lot of different companies and organizations. It's fun and I learn things. And even when it's not so fun, I learn things. You can't make an effective website without learning your client's business. I find this to be true even when I'm hired just to write markup and CSS. By working with the copy and viewing the pages again and again, I absorb the information. Every company, every website is different, and yet my thought, mid-project, is always the same: I couldn't have learned these things any other way.

My current group of clients is typical in its diversity:

• an international nonprofit focused on women, peace, and security
• a large, Brooklyn-based human service agency
• a one-woman graphic design shop
• a Texas conference center

And then there's the site I launched today, which as much as any other has opened a new world for me. I refer to the world of bras.

That's right, bras. My client's company is called Bra*Tenders. (I'll give you a moment to take that in.) Bra*Tenders supplies bras and other undergarments to wardrobe supervisors and costume designers working in film, television, and theater. They've been in business thirty years, and their client list includes a slew of A-list Hollywood actresses, including Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, and Kate Winslett (who by the way is a 36-B—this being the kind of information one never quite knows what to do with).

But here's what really hooked me: Most women are wearing ill-fitting bras. Who knew? Well, I suppose a lot of bra-wearers must have known, but for me it counts as new information. The Bra*Tenders site includes a feature called Good Bra/Bad Bra, which shows the right and wrong way to wear a bra. (Looking for an obscure fact on which to base your next bar bet? Straps account for only 20 percent of bust uplift; the cup and underband do the heavy lifting, as it were.)

I collaborated on the Bra*Tenders site with designer Andrew Boardman of MANOVERBOARD, whose project it was. The client brought in a first-rate copywriter, Lisa Chudnofsky; I handled the markup and CSS and contributed to the information architecture. It was fun and I learned things. Also, the client is pleased with the site, which is always nice.

Mainly, though, it was all about the bras. From backless to strapless, push-up to padded, I learned more about bras in the last few months than, well, I ever knew existed. But here's what interesting: It's always like this. Even the worst projects include one or two merry widows—my new term for things you can only learn in the making of a website.

Published in Clients, Luminous