The History

While my interest in web page development began in college (on an Apple Performa 6320), the real groundwork was laid as I had to find something to occupy my time while my wife studied during medical school. During that time, I had a freelance web design business under another name (iMall adVentures) which didn't actually transact any business but did lay the groundwork for much of what Firebrand Media has become.

Firebrand Media, LLC is the result of having an encouraging wife in medical school.

The first site that I developed that actually had an audience of significance was TheShortShoot.com, which is unfortunately no longer available but was built on a FortuneCity.com free web server that I used at the time. That site, dedicated to my favorite hobbies at the time, NASCAR, NASCAR for Mac racing and Apple Computers, is hard to look at now, but at the time was the best, and most frequently updated site I had ever developed.

The first paying customer for Firebrand Media was Morgantown Mitsubishi. See goofy image right.

Since that time we've changed our business structure (from sole-proprietorship to Limited Liability Corporation Partnership), gone through three four coffee makers, retired a number of computers, learned the importance of designing with web standards in mind, learned to hand code HTML and CSS, became convinced that a website doesn't have to look the same in every web browser - thank you Andy Clarke and An Event Apart - fell in love with ExpressionEngine, fell in love out of love with Adobe products (except Illustrator, that, I still love) and have concentrated on solving problems through design for businesses in the small to "I want to be bigger" range.

In January 2006 we were thrilled to have a piece of our work displayed in Layers Magazine. We were also featured on the front page of the business section of The Martinsburg Journal on January 22, 2006.

The Name: Firebrand Media

The word firebrand, which means "A person who stirs up trouble or kindles a revolt.", has stuck with me since I read it in Proverbs Ch 26 v 18:

18 Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows 19 is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I was only joking!"

In this context, firebrand obviously has a different meaning but for some reason it stuck in my head. When it came time to name the business, Firebrand Media seemed like a natural fit.

The Logo

The importance of the logo was generally lost on me when I started the business. To the far right, you will find the first version of the Firebrand Media Logo that was developed and used when the business was a sole-proprietorship.

The second version of the logo (left) was developed three years later when the business became a LLC Partnership.

The first version of the logo had no real meaning; flames were simply added to the M in Media. Not real creative, in retrospect.

The current version of the logo maintains the flames, which you would expect from a business named Firebrand Media, but has meaning beyond "Fire, Good."

The three flames of the logo represent the three types of services that we offer, Print - Design - Marketing

While each has its own requirements and services offered, each are connected through the principles that make up the foundation of Firebrand Media.

In mid-2005, a new typeface was chosen to represent Firebrand Media. The original typeface (first), Myriad, was replaced with the sans-serif typeface, News Gothic.

The Reason (we do what we do)

We enjoy it. We like helping small to medium sized businesses make money on the internet. We like to stun them with work that rivals that of large businesses in their sector.

v23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians Ch 3: v 23 - 24

More importantly, we feel that this business is an extension of our Christian walk.

Colophone

• The Short Shoot - http://members.fortunecity.com/theshortshoot/start.html
• The Short Shoot via Internet Archive - http://web.archive.org/web/20061016073747/http://members.fortunecity.com/theshortshoot/start.html