In its present incarnation, the consultancy carries forward the same high production standards and emphasis on clarity, creativity, reliability, and value.
In the early 2000s, when the web still felt like the wild west, I tried many different methods to build sites and experimented with a mind-boggling range of technologies: exquisitely handcrafted microsites in a Flash environment; early data-driven sites using a homegrown CMS I co-developed with a frequent collaborator; and of course plenty of static HTML/CSS sites built in the Macromedia (then Adobe) creative studio. . . or just coded by hand.
With the ready availability of powerful, open-source CMS platforms in the 2010s, I came to believe that WordPress offered the best combination of capability, usability, and cost. This is because the inchoate visual language of the web during the late 1990s and early 2000s has coalesced into well-understood conventions that most general-purpose websites should follow, or at least acknowledge and build upon. Part of me regrets the fading-away of the freedom to explore and shape a brand new medium that I was part of during the web’s early years. That said, the consultant responsible for recommending reliable ways to meet clients’ goals is grateful for the emergence of a dependable structure that can be leveraged in less risky and more directly rewarding ways.
Now virtually all of the websites I build have a foundation in WordPress, and although I’m comfortable working in others, it’s hard to imagine a project where I’d want to recommend anything else. I’m not the only one to come to this conclusion: about 25% of all websites (approx 60-70% of all CMS-driven websites) are now in WordPress, and the long-term goal is to reach 50% over the next ten years.
As I approach twenty years in this field, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many great clients, many of whom I’m still in touch with, whether their projects are ongoing, or we’re still working together, or not. Some of these are:
4:52 Design (graphic design)
Dante Anzolini (classical music conductor)
Rosalyn Driscoll (visual artist)
Derek Fowles Photography
Granary Books (publisher, limited edition artists’ books)
Ned Gray Photography
Joan Griswold (visual artist)
Barbara Johnson (visual artist)
Ruth Kjaer (visual artist)
Silas Kopf (studio furniture maker)
Nathan Margalit (visual artist)
Memoir Café (memoir writing group, instruction)
Stephen Petegorsky Photography
Pivot Media (photography & digital imaging)
Rust Avenue Studios (visual artists)
Daniel Stern (Philadelphia restaurateur)
John Van de Graaff (photographer)
Cecilia Vicuna (visual artist, performance artist)
Bruce Watson (writer)
Ray Wisner (woodworker)
Wright Architectural Millwork
Richard Yarde (visual artist)
Easthampton City Arts
Five College Consortium
Hampshire Bird Club
Heckscher Museum of Art
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Library of American Landscape History
Mark Shaw Photographic Archive
Nora Theatre Company
Smith College Museum of Art
Summer Institute in Art Museum Studies
Visual Resources Association
Wistariahurst Museum
BAND Center, LLC
Cedar Chest
City Councilor Rebecca Lisi (Holyoke)
City of Easthampton, Massachusetts
Concussion Center of Massachusetts
Conservest
Crooked Stick Pops
Dufresne’s Sugar House
Forest Products Associates
Guild Art Supply
I DO Wedding Consulting
Jess Dods Coaching
The Klein Company
La Siroc
Llenrock Group, LLC
Northampton Athletic Club
Philadelphia Real Estate Council
Purely Elizabeth
Quonquont Farm
Raylon / Art of Business
River Valley Tae Kwon Do
Stay In Touch Center
Survive the Drive
[ art you can click ] reflected my roots in working for artists and arts organizations, which later grew to encompass other kinds of museums and cultural nonprofits, and creative individuals working in other forms.
Over the years, I heard a number of theories about the name, but it was actually derived from a Fluxus slogan “Art you can lick,” which I saw on a button in the gift shop of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 1994. I thought the name would inspire a knowing chuckle in some percentage of the artists, curators, etc. that I’d work with, and I was right! That percentage: zero. Yep, in 18 years of operation, not one person ever mentioned it. Oh well.
There’s no whimsical tale about where tuman.design came from: it’s my name.
– William Tuman, 2017
Although websites for artists, museums, and other creative people aren’t my sole focus these days, I still love to work on that kind of site, and they’re some of my favorite and most memorable projects.
If you’re an artist in any medium, or involved with a cultural nonprofit or other organization that supports creative work, by all means get in touch!