Workshops 101

We're running a phenomenal program at Squarespace that you may not have even heard about yet: Workshops. This program of interactive, online seminars launched 6 months ago, born out of a desire to provide an environment where customers would be able to participate in a classroom-like setting and get the in-person guidance they wanted. Oh, and they're free. 

Before joining the team, I attended my first workshop as an observer. It seemed like an effortless production. It wasn't until after I joined the ranks that I witnessed all it took to make that workshop happen. Behind each workshop are a couple of monitors, mic stands, sound panels, multiple applications running, not to mention the memorization of 45 minutes worth of content.

In addition to all of those moving parts, a workshop is a constant stream of information-sharing. While one customer care team member (usually me) actually presents the material, another team member answers questions in chat. That means anyone can ask any question at any time. We also make sure to leave a few minutes at the end of each session to talk through the questions asked during the workshop, so that everyone benefits from each other's questions. 

At least 5 times each workshop, we see the lightbulb go off for a customer. For some it might be a sequence of questions and for others it might be just one. But it's the exclamatory thank you that comes afterward that gets me fired up, thinking about what this means for the customers—people are making progress and experiencing the potential of this product we all love so much. It means that another person is better able to do what they set out to do. 

Since we launched Workshops, we have not only seen thousands of people attend classes, but the size of the team running the program has tripled. Several other support team members (Paulina, Gavin, Will, Alex, and Shon) have joined me and we've grown the syllabus to include 6 topics, with plenty more in the pipeline. Our vision is to have an ever growing library of workshops that address the possibilities of publishing your site with Squarespace, whether you're a beginner or have been using Squarespace for years.  

For more information about the classes and a full schedule, visit our Workshops site. The classes we offer are:

• Getting Started with Squarespace
• Next Steps with Squarespace
• Beyond the Blog
• Search Engine Optimization
• Building a Portfolio Website
• Custom Domain Mapping 

Next week we're offering several sessions of Getting Started with Squarespace, and many of the other topics in the weeks to come. I look forward to seeing you in class!

How Do You Squarespace? UPPERCASE

UPPERCASE founder, Janine Vangool, does it all: graphic design, blogging, magazine & book publishing, and even some party-planning. And she does all of it with an impeccable eye for beauty, style, and whimsy. Though most people know her now as a magazine publisher and blogger, Janine began her career as a graphic designer, specializing in print design for arts and culture clients. It was in 2005 that she made a few key decisions that would ultimately land her where she is today.

The first of these was moving her business out of her home and into a studio space in downtown Calgary. The studio lease came with a hitch, which Janine remembers:

At the time, the mandate of the building was to promote the arts and each tenant was required to have a space open to the public in some way. So I started UPPERCASE as a side project—it began as a gallery, bookstore, and paper goods store. I was mostly selling products made by other companies, though I quickly started making things of my own to sell as well such as notebooks and greeting cards. Folks could wander in and see a graphic designer at work.

Opening a store would have been enough of a challenge, but 2005 also marked Janine's venture into blogging. While many of us now first associate Janine with her gorgeous magazine, her blog actually predates her entry into print publishing by several years. She's the reverse of many others who begin in print and transition to web to keep up with changing trends.

It was really the combination of opening a gallery/store alongside running an active blog that eventually led Janine to consider print publishing as well. For her, print was the logical outgrowth of online publishing: 

As my blog readership grew, so did the desire to develop my own products. I could see that I had a nice loyal following who loved print and paper as much as I did, and so in 2009, I launched UPPERCASE magazine. My hope was that if just a modest percentage of these people subscribed, the magazine could do alright.

Janine's gamble was a success and her readership has grown steadily in both media — she recently published issue #12 of UPPERCASE, and now has over 2000 subscribers worldwide. With growth in both arenas, she is a true believer that print and web are integral to one another. "I don't think you can have a periodically printed paper magazine or newspaper without supporting it online," she says.

Janine also believes that each type of publication fills a separate need. "Readers expect a lot," she says. "They want the immediacy of a blog to get a daily dose of inspiration but they also want the more sensual experience of holding a beautifully produced print production." By having a blog, Janine can also gauge readers' interests as she develops content for print—many issues of UPPERCASE have themes that emerged from trends she's seen online. For the next issue, she's even asking for reader contributions on a theme: the weather and how it impacts creativity.

Seeing everything she's done, we're so pleased that Squarespace has been Janine's platform since the very beginning. We're even happier the feeling is mutual. "One of the best things about Squarespace is how steady and robust it is," she told us. "My site contains an incredible amount of information from all these years, and yet Squarespace is always there... It has been great to be able to adapt the site configuration as my needs change, especially since my business has evolved so much."

We've also had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Janine personally over the last few months, after the Alt Design Summit wisely paired her up with us to plan a party at this past weekend's conference. Her work on the concept, decorations, activities, food and drinks for the party was simply phenomenal. (See for yourself in this gallery.) We're incredibly grateful, and if we've learned anything by working with her, it's how right she is when she says: "If you're making something special, there will always be people who take notice."

To find out more about Janine, read the UPPERCASE blog, subscribe to UPPERCASE magazine, or follow her on Twitter. 

End Piracy, Not Liberty

The celebration of creative expression sits at the very core of Squarespace’s values. For the last eight years our team has strived to build a service that gives people the ability to share their ideas, their opinions, and their imagination on the web. Congress is now set to consider new legislation that poses a serious threat to web publishing as we know it and has the potential to not only censor the web, but undermine the very structure on which it’s built. 

Squarespace stands in strong opposition to the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and joins millions of other online services and individuals in protest. We encourage all members of the online community to learn more about how these two bills will impact the web and to take action immediately.

Please take a moment today to do your part by signing a petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it’s too late. 

Take action.

NYC Dribbble Meetup: January 26th, 2012

We love Dribbble and everything it does to connect and promote designers. So we're thrilled to be hosting another NYC Dribbble Meetup on Thursday, January 26th at 7PM.

We're especially excited that Dribbble's co-founders, Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett, will be joining us this time. So please stop by the Squarespace office for an evening of networking and refreshments. RSVP here so that we'll know how many people to expect.

And don't forget to check out our design team on Dribbble: Tyler, Stephen, Michael, Krystyn, Grant, Mikael, Billy, Eric, and Davy.

We look forward to seeing you!