A few highlights:

Culture.

Matt Chambers officially joined the team June 1 of 2010. With his help, we’ve gone from static and simple CMS-driven websites to complex applications and iOS development. While we enjoy designing and building content-driven sites, crafting the UX for applications is an entirely different challenge—one which we enjoy immensely.

After two enjoyable years of working from home, we found a sweet space in Pittsburgh’s Strip District to call our own. It’s only been a few weeks, but it’s hard to imagine life without an office.

In March, we made our first trip to the place the industry gathers once a year to listen to speakers hang out and talk, SXSW. Good times. We’re looking forward to going back in 2012.

Writing.

Writing is part of our DNA. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’re ready and willing to comment on any topic. We’ve had a few posts receive some attention during this time. The top five according to page views in the last two years:

1. An iPhone + Google Voice Solution.
2. The Withering Away of Flash.
3. Big Cartel Review.
4. In Defense of Comments.
5. So You Want to Make T-Shirts.

Or maybe you want to read all 329.

We also had the privilege of publishing articles on two popular sites. First, Typekit. We’ve pointed every client we’ve worked with to the Typekit blog  as the ideal company blog. They’ve got a smart, friendly tone and have a wonderful mix of product news and educational resources. We were honored to contribute a Type Study about our United Pixelworkers design and programming decisions.

Second, A List Apart generously offered to publish an article I wrote on crafting proposals. We’re proud of our process and glad to have had the opportunity to share it with the ALA audience. And, hey, it even got a mention on The Big Web Show #53 from Zeldman himself.

Happy Clients.

We started with one client. Since then we’ve had a dozen-and-a-half, some of whom can be viewed on the home page and several more that will be live in the near future. And we treat ‘em each the same. Respect, firmness, integrity. That’s what brings the next customer in the door and lets us sleep peacefully at night. We know who we are, and so do our clients.

On the Side.

In and around client work, we managed to build a few things for ourselves and our friends.

United Pixelworkers. We’ve been floored by the community’s response to the pretend union we dreamed up. There’s a real desire for solidarity among those in the greater web industry. We see it in the conference attendance, the Twitter and blog discussions, the Dribbble camaraderie, and the local meetups. It’s been a blast providing regional shirts that allow our colleagues to represent their home base and enable some exceptionally talented guest designers to flex their creative muscles. We’ve got big plans for the future, and we know you’re going to like them.

We also released Traceable, an iPad app that simulates a light table, and Two Letters, a mobile web application for looking up two letter words for use in Scrabble or Words With Friends. Neither earned us any money, but both were well worth the time investment. In the case of Traceable, the experience we gained designing and building an iOS application led directly to client work which will be in the app store soon. That’s a powerful testament to the value of pursuing interesting side projects.

That’s it and that’s all.

Two years. Full Stop has been a thing for two years. It’s fun to say it out loud. Two years ago we took a gamble on building a company in our image: insolent, dedicated, ambitious. That we’re still here (and thriving) is a testament not to misplaced confidence but the value of fanatical devotion to good work and good relationships. We can’t wait to see what happens next.

Really care about what you’re creating, not the fame or fortune you’ll get. You’ll succeed.

Word.

The following videos show the best goals in World Cup history as determined by the authors of The ESPN World Cup Companion.

1970, Jairzinho.

In 1966, England won their only World Cup. In 1970, Brazil would win yet another of its record five. They met in group play, with Brazil winning on the only goal of the game, Jairzinho from Pelé.

1978, Arie Haan.

A stunning long-range goal by Aarie Haan to vault Holland over Italy 2-1 in the second round.

1978, Archie Gemmill.

Nobody loves the underdog like we do. While it was ultimately not enough to push Scotland through to the next round, this goal against Holland was both a beautiful effort and provided just enough hope to make the loss painful.

1986, Diego Maradona

Labeled by some as the goal of the century, Diego Maradona single-handedly eviscerated the English defense. If we can’t be successful on the international football stage, we can at least take pleasure in watching our old frenemies go down in a sea of masochistic self-loathing. Final score Argentina 2, England 0.

Bonus: video of Maradona’s earlier “Hand of God” goal to make it 1-0 and Saturday’s “Hand of Clod” goal as England underachieves in drawing the U.S. 1-1.

1986, Manuel Negrete.

A lot of football confuses or bores us unenlightened fans. What’s so special about kicking the ball around the middle of the field? But a goal like Manuel Negrete scored immediately catches our attention. Anyone who has ever kicked a ball knows the high degree of difficulty in volleying it out of mid-air, magnify that by launching yourself in the air as well and suddenly we get it. Great goal.

1990, Roberto Baggio

The common denominator in hockey, basketball, and American football (among other sports) is the one-man, laser-focused, take-the-ball-to-the-hole play. We can’t get enough. So when it happens in the World Cup, of course we’re going to perk up. Here’s Roberto Baggio for Italy in 1990 against Czechoslovakia.

1998, Michael Owen.

Another thrillingingly selfish play with a double helping of schadenfreude for the U.S. as Michael Owens’ 1998 goal against Argentina wasn’t enough to help England move on.

1998, Dennis Bergkamp.

There is nothing that we can get behind more than the buzzer-beater. Witness: 1998, Holland v. Argentina, Quarterfinals, Dennis Bergkamp, 89th minute, 2-1 Holland.

There’s Bergkamp!

2002, Salif Diao

Pretty play by Senegal in 2002 to stun a pedigreed Dutch team Denmark. Appeals to our X’s-and-O’s. Allow me to quote the book: “It was the kind of play that coaches diagram in their dreams, a marvel of angles, spaces, and speed.” Watch:

2006, Esteban Cambiasso.

Magnificent ball control. Elegant goal. Football at its best, and something to which we true sports fans can hitch our wagons. Esteban Cambiasso of Argentina contributes to the 2-0 victory over Serbia and Montenegro in the first round of 2006.

That’s it. There are doubtless hundreds of highlight-reel goals to watch and perhaps even higher quality versions of these. Let us know in the comments. Hopefully this is enough to whet your football appetites.

1. “soccer”

The burgers are made to order — you can choose from 17 toppings. That’s why we can’t do drive-throughs — it takes too long. We had a sign: “If you’re in a hurry, there are a lot of really good hamburger places within a short distance from here.” People thought I was nuts. But the customers appreciated it.

— Jerry Murrell, “How I Did It: Jerry Murrell, Five Guys Burgers and Fries.”

We agree wholeheartedly. Do the right thing, success will follow.

Thus fullstopinteractive.com was registered. The first wobbly step had been taken towards a future partnership. Months of planning and prepping would still need to pass before we could finally unveil the newly formed company. LLC papers would need to be filed, a charter written, computers purchased, clients aligned, and projects from the old job wrapped up. Each passing day, however, confirmed that the path we had chosen was the right one. The economy was a mess, only the strong would survive. We couldn’t wait to get started.

This isn’t a look back at the first year, though, so we’ll get to the point. We’d like to introduce ourselves and lay out our core principles. Please enjoy.

A bit about Nate.

I have a reputation for … dissidence. This reputation is well-earned, I suppose. It is a predictable response to my personality³. I don’t hesitate to express my point of view despite the real and unfortunate possibility of hurting people’s feelings. This is not intentional. In fact, I work diligently to improve my interpersonal relations. Those who have known me a long time admit I’m less abrasive than I once was. Those who have just met me find that hard to believe.

While the potential effect of my intransigence is a wake of flaming bridges, the conviction that lies at its heart is real and unapologetic. I am arguing for truth and principle. (To be clear, it’s never personal and never petty.) We are in the arena of ideas, and to quote Richard Weaver, ideas have consequences. To concede a point in the interest of compromise or likability is to forfeit my role as advocate for your business, your audience, and your welfare. To accept your money and do anything less would be unconscionable.

Aside from being a cold-hearted freedom fighter, I’m also (subjectively speaking) widely-read, shamelessly egotistical, and no mean hand at HTML/CSS.

So when I had the pleasure of being bossed around for a few months by an older, wiser version of myself, I knew I’d found the ideal business partner. The unstoppable Jay Fanelli guides clients with ease from one mountaintop of euphoria to the next. He designs stunning interfaces that work. He upsets the industry apple cart with callouts and beatdowns. If only he could write more than 101-level CSS, he’d be a perfect ten.

That Jay kid.

Management and I never got along. Not at my first job, not at the one after that, nor the next one, and certainly not at my last one. By the time I’d reached my late twenties, I’d managed to piss off someone of import at nearly every interactive shop in Pittsburgh (along with a deli manager and the dean of a design school). At every stop of my career, I’d drop anchor and within weeks, start sniffing for the politics, the contradictions, the bullshit. I was unafraid to confront those in charge and suggest course corrections, the cumulative effect often leading to my eventual dismissal. After many misdiagnoses, I learned that I suffered from an acute and terminal case of “you’re doing it wrong”-itis. I hopped from job to job, sometimes industry to industry, hoping to find the employer that would reward me with a generous salary and comfortable working environment in return for my unveiled suggestions on the myriad ways they were ruining their business. I never found one.

It turns out, despite my altercations with the brass, I was quite competent at my job. I easily developed friendly, honest, and fun relationships with clients. My designs and creative direction resulted in portfolio-worthy projects. I endeared myself to my teammates by always being the one to step up and take the bullets. When I started meeting potential clients and winning business, I knew that I had the goods to run my own shop.

And when I met Nate a few years ago, a brash but alarmingly intelligent 22-year-old with a knack for bold—but thus far accurate—predictions about the future of the Internet, a young Jedi’s precocity for front-end development, and business guts to spare, I knew I had a partner.

Our heroes.

In no particular order, we’d like to thank the following people and companies⁴ for providing the intellectual scaffolding for attempting this uncertain venture. Go read everything they have to say. When you come back (in about twelve months), what we’re going to say next will make a whole lot more sense.

• 37signals
• Contrast
• Andy Rutledge
• David Sherwin
• Eric Karjaluoto
• Kathy Sierra
• Jeff Atwood
• Seth Godin
• Jeffrey Zeldman
• Clay Shirky

These are the talented voices of the web.  They are the leaders who balance words with action. Without their freely given advice and Internet pioneering, Full Stop would not exist, and the state of the industry would be poor indeed.

We’re about to pour a bucket of pink link paint in the next section and still miss half the bookmarks we would like to include. It might seem like overkill, but we want you to know something: these aren’t our ideas. They are the ideas of those who have come before us and paved the way. We respect them and want them to receive all the credit.

We owe them a debt that cannot be repaid.

A manifesto.

Whether you’re a potential client or an industry colleague⁵, we want to make a few things clear.

Full Stop Interactive is just that — a shop dedicated to doing online, interactive work. If it isn’t online, we probably shouldn’t be doing it. We think ahead in our use of technology, our visual design, and our user experience. Our intuition for what’s next and what’s worth doing is highly developed by years of experience and immersion. We eat, sleep, and breathe the Internet. I wish I could say that was an exaggeration, but it isn’t.

Your typical agency is a gaggle of titles interested only in a paycheck. We are the anti-agency. We are a small team of people who care about the web. We feel the pain, do the work, support the product. We aren’t invested in the status quo. Remember 37signals? The original 37signals? Ditto.

We write straightforward, compelling proposals that aren’t stuffed with fluff about sites designed and built by people who’ve long since left the company. Our contracts are in plain English, no lawyers necessary. We trust you, you trust us. (If you don’t inspire trust, we won’t be working together. It’s quite simple.)

We believe price signals to potential customers how to value our services. Low prices mean miserable projects, manipulative clients, and shoddy work. These are unacceptable. We price our services on a per client basis. What we charge one client may inform but not dictate what we charge another client for similar or even identical deliverables.

We focus on networked media because that is the present and the future. The potent combination of large, crisp, color screens and always-on data connections is transforming society. We choose to be at the forefront of that wave—not beyond the bleeding edge where mistakes are too easy to make nor well back with the dinosaurs where money may eventually trickle but relevance has been abandoned.

Digital bits and pieces are infinitely malleable, copyable, and, ahem, stealable. We understand that the code we hand off to you at the end of the project does not constitute the value we bring, it reflects it. Our work is not a commodity. Our value is our experience, our accessibility, our authenticity, our ability to diagnose your web needs and meet them. It’s true you have a website when all is said and done, but we trust the lesson in digital distribution does not go unheeded.

Social media is not a fad. The Internet has only enabled what people have always done: talk to, observe, and entertain one another. Twitter and Facebook may fade way. The act of sharing information with friends and strangers online won’t. The Internet is a community, and each site is a microcosm of it.

We interject our thoughts into conversations between industry giants. Our position as a small company in a small city has no bearing on the weight of our opinions. Arrogant? Sure.

Our primary audience is always those who will be using what we make. Those who pay us to build are best served by that commitment.

Before our work has even left our hands it is already old. We work with our clients to create fluid and lasting experiences. We do not print our work to be admired. We do not publish our work to rot on physical media.⁶ We teach and train those we partner with to understand the Internet’s peculiar rules and how to harness its immense power to delight their constituents.

Eighty-percent is not good enough. We do not overextend ourselves. Quality, not quantity, is what counts. We believe execution is all that matters.

We are not afraid to say no to projects. We demand respect, and we deserve to be paid fairly. We control the relationships with those we choose to work with, not because we are egomaniacs but because it is the only way to ensure the project is brought to its fullest potential and, well, we’re the experts. (To be honest, people we work with say we’re nice, so take that for what it’s worth.)

Although we are idealistic, we’re also realistic. Not every project goes according to plan; if there is a problem, we work to resolve it in accordance with our principles. The budget, the scope, or the deadline must shift to accommodate the new circumstances.

We do not compromise on what the client needs merely to satisfy what the client wants. Our expertise is unimpeachable, and we use it to steer the client toward the best possible product. If the client is intractable, we do not hesitate to part ways. We strive to avoid the appearance of condescension and arrogance. Though we believe in our principles, we avoid making enemies unnecessarily. Tact, diplomacy, and friendliness are the order of the day. We neither compromise nor shrink from a challenge. That said, we’re willing to admit when we’re wrong. The goal is to make a great website not prove a point.

These are our principles. They dictate our process, our relationships, the success of our projects. They are who we are in words. They are the end of the story, FULL STOP.

1. Incidentally, Full Stop was the first and only name we considered. It’s clear, easy to say, and communicates exactly who we are. You might as well skip the rest of this post.
2. Sadly for everyone else, we also had an itch to write long, tedious blog posts.
3. INTJ, remember?
4. Not even close to a comprehensive list. Perhaps subconsciously inspired by Contrast’s “My heroes…“.
5. Timeout to pimp Unit Interactive’s excellent brand synopsis.
6. But, you know, good for those who do. We love books and magazines as much as anyone. Newspapers? Not so much.

Fantastic. By far the best ad for Rework yet. Coincidence that this one was the least planned?

Which is why it pains me to say,

The requirement to tweet a pre-packaged message announcing our entrance in the competition to re-design the venerable Signal vs. Noise blog is beneath you.

I wish I could assume this was a mere oversight on your part, but by this time we know you too well. This was a conscious decision made with full awareness of the backlash it would provoke. 37signals would not be where it is today without proving time and again its ability to effectively market itself.

Let me be clear: we understand and approve of the contest rules. Requiring Pro memberships is your right. We respect that. The budget is fair and the Sortfolio product is worth the price of admission. We’re proud to have our little company listed amongst such giants as Happy Cog and Unit Interactive.

“Word of mouth is sacred.”

When I endorse something, whether it’s explicitly or implicitly, people assume I have no ulterior motives. By way of example, I can’t get enough of NFL RedZone, and I can count half-a-dozen people who have purchased Settlers of Catan because I can’t stop talking about it. There’s no kickback in it for me, except for the joy of a good board game or the communal celebration of an impossible 4th quarter comeback.

Like it or not, Twitter is the new water cooler, particularly for those of us who work outside a normal office, and what you’re asking contest entrants to do is spam their friends.¹ We’re sacrificing our good name to have a chance to win a job. That’s not right.

We are hereby petitioning you to remove the tweet requirement. A simple email to 37signals along the same lines should suffice. Your company deserves nothing but the most genuine, authentic Twitter word of mouth. Please don’t reduce your followers to soulless robots.

What happens on the Internet, …

We know you’re not trying to hide anything here, so we’ve decided to publicly track the success of your experiment. For those entering the competition, here’s a list of everyone who’s tweeted their desire to re-design Signal vs. Noise.² We’re also monitoring the number of Pro accounts on the site. Per your comment on the announcement post, there are “already around 170 paid Sortfolio members.” We’ll all be interested to note the final tally. As of this writing, I count around 183 Pro accounts. We wish you every success in signing up new members.

We want in, kind of.

I want to re-iterate that we have tremendous respect for 37signals, and nothing would please us more than the opportunity to work with them on the SvN project. In fact, we signed up for a Sortfolio listing shortly after finding out about the contest.  But we’re just not willing to participate until 37signals re-thinks their entrance rules.

Either way, we encourage you to follow along with the results. It ought to be a good marketing case study, at least.

1. Nathan Bowers, “Word of mouth is sacred (what’s wrong with 37signals’ job post)”
2. I am keeping this list up-to-date via an RSS feed for a custom Twitter search. If you find a tweet more than 24 hours old that I don’t have listed, feel free to email me.

I belatedly realized his purpose. The chance encounter wasn’t as unscripted as it appeared. He was looking to engage people. The business card he then handed me confirmed my suspicion: PVH International. You know what PVH International is? Nothing. It doesn’t stand for anything. It’s a generic name for a generic company that does generic things — if it does anything at all.

After eventually escaping the icky clutches of the “business consultant,”¹ I trashed his card and thought I had escaped mostly unscathed.

Until I received a call today. From Pat.

Pat wanted to talk to me about a business opportunity. Had he caught me at a bad time, he asked as I sighed deeply? Was I familiar with eBay and Amazon?

I need to pause the narrative right here. Mr. Business Consultant had just gone from wasting my time at a grocery store to calling me at home hoping to envelop me in an ill-conceived, barely disguised PYRAMID SCHEME. I, as you might imagine, was furious. This was not my first go-around with wholesale, percentage-based, recruit-your-friends scams.² While my first experience with this disgusting industry had been unbearably awkward (thanks to the semblance of a previous friendship I had hoped to maintain), I walked into this conversation with not only my eyes wide open but both guns blazing.

“Oh? And how is this not a pyramid scheme, Pat? When you confronted me at the grocery store, you didn’t think you knew me, did you? You were looking for an excuse to pitch me.”³ Silence. The conversation ended pretty quickly after that. Pat wished me luck with my business and hung up the phone. I’m not sure he realized what he was even involved in. He seemed nice when I first met him. It’s entirely possible he believes that he is helping people, that he deserves to get rich, and that he will get rich. It’s a sad story and I’m only repeating it because I want you to see this scam coming long before you waste even the paltry 30 minutes I did talking to the next guy. I wasn’t around when Amway was big, and I had never heard of Quixtar or LTD.⁴ Those who cannot remember the past, n’at.

The Point.

Full Stop Interactive has no sympathy for people that are in business just to make money. We refuse to work with people who are unprincipled. We hate compromise. We are committed to saying this as loudly and as frequently as necessary. We have, what some call, a “point of view.”

We require sincerity, openness, and a healthy dose of criticism. In short, we care about doing good work with good people. We structure our rates, our size, our design and programming decisions, our entire company around this idea: good work with good people. Period.⁵

If you are a big agency or a one man show and are willing to play ball with anyone, have fun. You will be burned over and over and over again. If you are a company that believes you can get the same caliber of work by hiring a cheap freelancer who will check off every box on your list or a bloated agency that is happy to tickle your ears and tell you how ingenious your idea to have a countdown on the home page is, good luck. If you are content to stand for nothing and hope your marketing fools someone into trusting you, we won’t miss you.

To those who are left, if what I’ve said resonates with you, let us know in the comments. If you own a company or if you run a school or a non-profit and you truly care about having a great website that makes a statement about who you are, contact us on our home page or email me. We’re eager to make your acquaintance. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, if you know what I mean.

1. The “social media expert” of the 1990s for those keeping score at home.
2. Read this expose by NBC News. Google some of the companies named when you’re finished.
3. I paraphrase.
4. Pat’s Amway subsidiary of choice: BWW. Please watch the video. You can’t make this up.
5. “Full stop” if you’re British.

A trailer for a book? Awesome. Count us in as 37signals fans.

Having proclaimed just 6 months before that we’d not participate in the swelling recession, we were severely challenged to either demonstrate our conviction or see it crumble in the face of concerns. Truly, for any not yet convinced, the next few months proved to us that uncompromising standards have a very literal monetary cost. Instead of gathering a host of new projects, we were compelled to decline most of them. Just when the waning season required that we gather a bounty in preparation for the distractions of the holidays, our scruples demanded that we turn down much of the largesse offered us. It was a bitter pill to swallow, yet we held fast and looked to our belief that we could craft our own destiny.

You tell ‘em, Andy. Full disclosure, discipline, and resolution are under-valued traits. Thanks for not sacrificing when the road got bumpy. Your example is invaluable to us. We (Full Stop Interactive) could not be more happy for you.

Unit Interactive 2009 Annual Report.