About the Client

John H. Brown recently published his first book, Augie’s War, an extremely impressionable memoir that focuses on his experience in the Vietnam War. For many years, publishing a novel about his Vietnam experience was the first item on John’s bucket list. As a public relations professional and previous owner of Brown Communications (now owned by his son, Bryan), John knows the value of a well-designed website that is easy for anyone to navigate. He didn’t have to look long and hard to find Jamie at Bricks Without Straw.

The Design Process

Jamie was referred to John and Bryan several years ago. They tasked him with publishing a newsletter, which eventually became a website. Both men were comfortable working with Jamie, and they were impressed by his work. Over the years, John and Bryan referred Jamie to their clients who needed websites, and they always received great feedback on Jamie’s quality work. John’s choice of a designer was an easy one. “When I finished my book manuscript, the first person I called on to create my website was Jamie.”

Consulting entirely by phone and email, John and Jamie worked together to plan the overall look and feel of the website. John had visited other author websites to get ideas, and he was able to give Jamie some fairly specific color and layout preferences. “As a writer, I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn’t have the technical expertise to display it nicely on my website. So, Jamie and I worked very closely on the design and content.” 

The Value of Communication and Service

Their collaboration gave Jamie all that he needed to produce a completed initial design. As his work to finish the website progressed, Jamie included many additional elements he thought were needed to make the site more robust and functional for visitors. 

While one might think that never meeting face-to-face would have real shortcomings in the design process, John’s experience working with Jamie was positive and very productive. As he puts it, “One thing I’ll say about Jamie is that if you email him, he gets back momentarily, and he’s very quick to respond to any questions. This was really helpful to me because I like to get things done!” John uses two words to summarize Jamie’s service: professional and responsive.

A Dream Realized

Thrilled to have manifested his dream of publishing his personal story in book form, John now also has a website that beautifully showcases his accomplishment. “This was a very important project for me because it’s the first novel I’ve ever written. I wanted to make the website look as good as possible, so I thought of Jamie first and he did an excellent job.”

John stays busy marketing his new book – posting on social media, making local appearances, obtaining reviews and being featured in various news stories. “I give my website address to everybody, and I’ve had tons of people tell me that they really like it and that it’s easy to use.” Jamie is still on board updating and maintaining the website, which makes John’s life much easier these days. 

One can easily say that John’s book venture has been an all-around dream come true.

Bricks Without Straw is a digital agency and design agency based in South Charleston, WV United States and Ota, Tokyo, Japan.

We offer a range of web design services including: web development, e-commerce services and email marketing. We also offer a range of graphic design services including logo design and exhibition stands.

We love working with clients of all sizes in a range of industry sectors, creating and implementing inspiring and hard working concepts and campaigns for business-business and business-consumer clients.

Valicia Leary

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Carol Fulks

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Patti Hamliton

Bricks Without Straw is bringing our association into the 21st Century! He brings us ideas and innovation for our web site and other tools of technology that help us enhance our image and our message.

Rebecca McPhail

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Bill Raney

Jamie is one of the most committed and energetic professionals we have ever worked with over the years. He seems to work all the time with full 24-7 accessibility and immediate response. Bricks Without Straw has raised our collective confidence for maximizing opportunities in today’s world. We simply could not have done it without them.

Jan Vineyard

The demands and responsibilities to our members mandate that the online presence of our associations and our internet capabilities are reliable and seamless. Add creativity to that mix and one gets the complete package with Jamie Summers-Brown and his staff at Bricks without Straw.