21 Tales Of Tastemakers: Edwin Morris

I owe most of my money to Tastemakers. Not really (to Kyle’s dismay), but in the sense that I couldn’t have gotten it if I hadn’t joined the club as a fresh faced husky last year. I came to Northeastern with web design experience and a desire to work with others and make a name for myself ‘€“ maybe take some classes. I remember going to the Curry Student Center during welcome week to browse around all the different clubs. I picked up a lot of random publications, cards and other miscellaneous paraphernalia; once I got back to my room, I laid it all out and searched around the internet for more info. Tastemakers seemed like a cool club and I wanted to get involved with the graphic design team, so I emailed the address listed on the handout ‘€“ in response I got a general rundown of all the ways to get involved with Tastemakers. It all started with that last entry:

“Web Design – Anyone with experience in wordpress, html, css, etc. is encouraged to guide the creation of our new site! Jacob – moyers.j@gmail.com – would be glad to tell you more about this.”

It was perfect.

I sent my qualifications to Jake Moyers, who resigned his web director e-board position to me this year, and was immediately asked to join the web team (which then consisted of Jake Moyers’€¦ and now consists of me). Within a few weeks, I got to work on the new website. While the final result wasn’t the most aesthetically appealing website I had ever made, it implemented wordpress and laid the foundation for Tastemakers’ now impressive online presence.

After my first iteration of the site, I admittedly got a little lazy and didn’t do much besides fixes over the course of a few months. As summer started approaching, I decided that I would re-design the site to have better search engine results, a richer reading experience and a generally nice look. I got down to work, with not much else to do during a four month break, and cranked out a wordpress theme in a week or so. The new site sat around, somewhat unvisited, accumulating articles until September. Since the school year started, we’ve posted hundreds of amazing articles, photos, and even magazine issues, all made by students who devote a sizeable chunk of their free time to making it happen. We’ve been getting twice as many hits as last year ‘€“ I’ll spare you all the geeking-out, and just say that we’ve got other great statistics that all reveal a good user experience. People come to the site and read through our posts, they enjoy themselves, and that’s the most satisfying result I could wish for.

Actually, I lied. The most satisfying result is when people pay me to do other projects because of my work with Tastemakers. Since the start of the school year, I’ve been getting a fair share of emails asking about my availability and rates for freelance work ‘€“ all thanks to Tastemakers. I thought the website would be a good addition to my portfolio, but I never anticipated it would be the greatest reference I’ve ever had. I even owe my co-op next semester to Tastemakers.

Through all the different versions of the site and all the various events, I was introduced to the great community that creates this magazine, easily the coolest organization on campus, and I’ve been holding onto it ever since.

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