All your database are belonging to us

There's a very different sort of project I've been working on fairly steadily for about a year, on and off. I haven't brought it up here or really spoken about it much at all because I figured it had very little to do with design, but I've changed my mind on that score: it represents design on a number of levels: interface, printed output, and work-process.

It's a database for a client who manufactures a gazillion little plastic parts. The database started as a way for me to stay organized when laying out their catalog. Then I realized that with Filemaker I could use the database to generate PDF files of the catalog information, put it in some InDesign formatting, and be done with it. The next time the catalog came out, all I'd have to do is modify the database, re-output, and there you go. I even gave them the database so they could update it themselves, and from there it started to grow in complexity and function. Now it is used in providing quotes, costing for parts, phone orders, etc., and they are going to roll it out to a web based store.

I'm mentioning all of this for two reasons: It's my primary project right now, and it illustrates one of my favorite types of client relationships, the slow build. It starts with a simple organizational method for one small project and branched out into so much more. It allows me to become very familiar with the business of the client, so I can make better decisions and recommendations for them. It also lets me look like something of a miracle worker when I can make the computer do a lot of the figuring and complex relationship tracking that was driving them up a wall.

I've used Filemaker to help run my business for years, tracking time, materials, and invoicing. I'm very fluent and comfortable with it, but it never really occurred to me to sell that skill set, and yet it is what is keeping gas in the tank as I write this. If lessons are to be learned from it, it is don't be afraid to try new things, and play to your own strengths.

The client is very happy with the work I've done, and they keep asking for me to make the database do more things, which is a godsend in this tight economy. And lastly it meets one of my favorite definitions of good design: It all seems obvious in retrospect.