Why Djohan-Stevens Design and Why Now?

I don’t know when elementary schools started assigning homework. We didn’t have it when I was growing up, but it is now a daily ritual. Luke is entering 4th grade, and has been doing homework since kindergarten. That’s the easy part, because Luke is smart and once we get him off the iPad he can complete the homework on his own. The homework that was killing us was the parent homework. Seems like every week is another heritage doll, international potluck, flat Stanley, school spirit day, field trip permission slip, volunteer driving, fun run donations, and of course teacher appreciation week. Maile is still in pre-school, but “same-same.” And we were always the parents dropping off the kids and saying “we forgot it was (fill in the blank) day today.”

Living in the Bay Area basically means both parents work. If you are lucky one parent can work from home, maybe as a contractor, real estate agent or YouTube celebrity. Or one parent can have an easy, stress-free job or work part-time. But that was not the case for us. We both had full-time jobs that included nights and weekends, and it just wasn’t working. The kids grow up fast  and we were missing it. Any of you parents out there know the routine with board games – the kids try to make up rules to make the games last longer and the parents enforce new rules like you don’t have to roll the exact number to get home this time (Trouble). Instead of enjoying a family game we were thinking about how to end it early to get back to work.

Something had to change. My wife loves her job, and her night and weekend “work” usually involves Giants games, Warriors games and winery concerts. So when we finally decided to make the move, it was obvious I would be the one going solo. I had done it before—after Sun Microsystems was defeated by the Evil Empire—and it worked out OK. As I prepared to go back into freelance mode, a really nice thing happened. The company I was leaving wanted to keep me on as a part-time contractor and I immediately had a great client. But for legal reasons I had to set up a separate entity as a sole-proprietor or LLC to make it work. I chose Djohan-Stevens Design LLC, set up the homepage and began looking for contract work in silicon valley and the Fortune 500, where I had spent most of my career.

Then another really nice thing happened. A couple email transactions led me to some local entrepreneurs who wanted help with startups. One was a consulting firm that was still in the conceptual stages and needed help with everything from logo design to website design to content development, even choosing the right service provider. The other was a hypnotherapist who wanted to create some online video programs to help stop smoking, lose weight, deal with anxiety issues, etc. I was suddenly working at the local level with individual owners on long-term, ongoing projects. The turnaround times became weeks instead of days (or hours) and I have to admit it actually made me feel good to think my graphics and animations might help someone quit smoking.

So now we have Dave Stevens who can contract on the corporate level, and we have Djohan-Stevens Design to provide services on the local level. Oh, one last thing – Why Djohan-Stevens Design and Why Now? We’ve covered the Why Now, but not the Why Djohan-Stevens Design. Djohan is Luke’s middle name, and he is starting to show some design skills. I may consider taking him on as a partner at some point.

Meanwhile, a SEO copywriter needs some graphics, design, art, illustration, photoshop help on his website, brochure, whitepaper, document, advertisement…