The New Website Redesign, and Why It Matters
First of all, welcome to the new DeaneOgden.com. I'm really excited about how this new website came together and I would like to thank the people who put up with my crappy CSS skills and vast lack of Pantone knowledge: Amy George, Mike Petrie, Jai Meghan, and "Silkboi". You guys all reign supreme!
The New Website Redesign
I liked my old site. My team liked my old site, too. It did everything it was supposed to do to effectively market my business as a film composer. It was written in the third-person (because that's what all SEO "experts" say you should do). It was packed with graphics of my projects, images of me doing my thing. It contained a lot of slick headers that quickly grabbed your attention. It was pretty, it was fresh, it was professional, it was black, white, and cobalt blue (my favorite colors), and...
...It just wasn't me.
What is me? Minimalism and simplicity. Ease-of-use and clear navigation. Clean lines and 7-point rounded corners. Neat typography and CocaCola Slurpees.
Why It Matters
My career is moving in directions greater than I ever thought possible. I'm embarking on some of the kinds of projects that I've always wanted to be involved with. I'm writing more music than I ever have before. I'm also speaking and coaching Creatives more and more all around the world. I've been really super focused on stretching myself creatively with projects that are both in and out of the realm of the typical Hollywood faire. I'm pretty happy and excited about everything that's unfolding, but it's meant that some things needed adjusting. Some of the changes are subtle, some are macro. That also goes for my promotional materials, including my website.
You'll notice that some of things that were here before are still here now—they haven't changed at all. For example, there is still a lot of "third-person" text on the site, but that's because Google's indexing robots don't know what to do with words like "I", "me", "we", and "us". It needs specifics. Also, my shit-eating grin is still featured on a lot of these pages. That's because if you ARE new to me, I want you to know what I look like in case are ever in close proximity at an event. Faces to names are always good, I think.
As for business stuff, I won't ever stop promoting my special sauce of music, filmmaking, and creative collaboration... but I also want DeaneOgden.com to serve another purpose. I don't just want it to be about the thrills, spills, and dollar bills of the film music and record industries. You can visit SCOREcastOnline.com and Billboard for that stuff if you are interested. My secondary goal here is to make DeaneOgden.com a resource that pays forward to the greater global creative community. I want it to become a place of trust: A place where emerging artists can come and get some information that will hopefully save them much time, frustration, and false starts on their path to full-time creative entrepreneurial freedom. I want to use DeaneOgden.com to create, develop, and share genuine relationships with people from all over the world who want to grow as business leaders and creative firestarters. I've discovered that the global creative community is really where all the true and exciting action is. Positioning myself relationally in Los Angeles, southeast Asia, the UK, and South America has been one of the smartest and most effective career moves I have ever made. It has brought with it a creative and entrepreneurial richness that I want to share with all of you.
Changes for the Better
To me, the idea of fostering community is the really where the rubber meets the road in even having a website to begin with. With that in mind, you'll find a few new things here like a regularly updated blog and a thriving community that I created a while back called The Conversation. The group of people who subscribe to The Conversation are some of the biggest thought-leaders in the world of creative arts, and the micro-community surrounding that newsletter has blown me away in terms of sheer collective wisdom and resourcefulness. It's a worthy investment if you want to learn and grow from some of the best. SCOREcast links and details will still be in the same spot, and I'll keep my speaking schedule and all of the details on my events on the new speaking page. I'm also going to be posting lots of video and audio as I travel the world in search of the best this planet has to offer us as artists and Creatives. It's going to be a lot of fun. Very dynamic and different.
The new site is redesigned to be easier to read and quicker to move through. It is now a living place that is aspark with new ideas, new creations, and fantastical new future plans... like a Resources/Downloads section and a place for people to be able to watch several of my talks and presentations to Creatives. We'll always be adding things from the Musicave, so watch out for updates often.
Thank YOU!
Thank you so much for visiting and supporting me. Keep coming back. Your support of my art and music means a TON to me. I do not take it for granted for a single second. As a supporter moving forward, the biggest thing you can do for me is to SHARE anything you find relevant or interesting on this website. There are Share buttons everywhere, and there are also ample ways to Like, Recommend, or +1 any piece of content you want to your Facebook wall, Twitter stream, or Google+ circles. You can also participate in the ongoing discussions at the blog by leaving me a comment below this post and on others as they are posted—I'd love to hear from you personally, and I'll work hard to respond personally to each one. If you don't want to let anything slip by you, sign up for free email updates (in the upper right of this page). If you hate email and prefer instead to read your daily news in an RSS reader, you can add my daily feed. I'm always posting resources, ideas, thoughts, and vibes from my own journey as a creative artist to that RSS feed—sometimes even exclusive things that don't make it to the website. (Speaking of resources, if you don't have an efficient and worthy RSS reader in your toolkit, check out Reeder—available at the Mac App Store. It's literally changed the way I start my mornings every day.)
I couldn't be more excited about where it is all headed. I hope you'll come along with me on this new leg of the journey. Thank you, again, for being willing to come this far with me.
