Consider the similarities in creating a website and putting together a piece of music.
In both cases, you start with a structure. Then within that structure, you add the creativity - in music, it's the rhythm, melody and lyrics; in a website, it would be the topics, words, and pictures. And of course, in both instances, your goal is to reach out to people, give them a message, and try to pull them into your realm.
So it's no surprise that Brian Ewing, the mind behind
Bold Statement Web Design, has an award winning background and a continuing career as a musician.
He agrees the two skills have an artistic resemblance. "You're building on a base structure, and you're adding flourishes," he said.
Ewing turned his music background, which includes playing in a band, Messerly and Ewing, and a decade as a disc jockey on various radio stations in Cincinnati, into a successful gig in the corporate world, where he helped create and maintain the website and intranet for Fifth Third Bank. Then, some three years ago, he decided to go it alone.
He saw an underserved niche - small businesses and non-profits that needed a web presence, but had neither the time nor the talent to create, build and run their own. So Ewing started his own business to do just that for small business owners and non-profit organizations.
He's now up to some 40 clients, and is adding a few more every month. Among those he's designed and maintain websites for include groups as diverse as the Northern Kentucky law firm of Brooking & Halloran; the Cincinnati gardening company, Outside; a local catering group, Green Eats; and a Cincinnati organization, Green Bird, which focuses on bird watching and related products.
Many of the Cincinnati organizations Ewing works with are in Over-the-Rhine, which allows Ewing to focus on another of his passions.
"I really believe in Over-the-Rhine as a community that has a good business foundation," he said.
"It gives me an opportunity to work with non-profits and with small-business owners who are out there, but aren't reaching everyone they could. They don't want to do (a website) themselves, and they need a professional, but they're getting multi-thousand dollar bids. For a lot less, I can give them what they want. It's not a big upfront investment for them, and while they're not going to get all the bells and whistles, they don't need all the bells and whistles."
For each group, he said, he tried to give them something unique that fits their image, is easy to look at, and is simple to maintain and update.
"Bold Statement creates custom web sites," Ewing says on his own web page. "You are not limited to generic templates, like you are with the do-it-yourself products or even some web design companies."
Writer: Paul Long
Source: Brian Ewing, company founder.