A website flourished from a good friendship

The first time I saw Mariana, she crashed a brunch that was winding down, joined us for a petit café. We were at the TNB, the best brunch in Rennes, France. Our connection was immediate, our energy similar. We were both into music, and our values aligned. But it wasn’t until much later, when we weren’t living in the same country anymore, that we were to collaborate.

We often met at the Wednesday market in Sainte Thérèse, a feast of amazing cheeses, delicious cider, and affordable organic produce. She didn’t have to walk very far, and I would ride in with my bike. We would meet for a coffee at the local truck, and after our groceries were done, we would end up drinking delicious mint tea at the bar where no alcohol was served. Sometimes we would stay for the homemade Middle Eastern soup.

At some point we got together on Tuesday afternoons at her place, I would help her with her English and she would teach me the pandeiro and the berimbau (these are two of the percussion instruments that form the base of the music in Capoeira).

This website we’re now launching started off as a good friendship. That slowly brewed into a partnership.

At some point Mariana was scouting for someone to build her a web presence. With 35 years of experience in music, theatre and show business in general, it was time for a place online of her own, where she could display her most recent solo creations, her eclectic trio Bel Air de Forro and her thoughts about the industry and her work.

She called me up, trying to figure out if I would be up to the task. She was unsure. But fortunately our common, talented friend Ariane stepped in; “You should build it with Fred. You guys are going to be laughing all the time.” Merci, Ariane!

We set out to work. I initially advanced a proposal based on what I had seen and knew of Mariana’s work. A simple home page whose style would serve as a base for the remainder pages of the website. I never saw one of her theatre performances (need to change that soon), but I did have the chance to catch Bel Air de Forro live in Rennes. She rocked the stage, getting everyone to dance. And she was in great company, with the tight percussions of Marcelo Costa and the colourful accordion of Yann Le Corre.

Working with friends is tricky. There’s even a portuguese saying that advises against it, “Amigos, amigos, negócios à parte”. And we both speak Portuguese — albeit from different continents —, so we knew. If things go wrong and there are professional incompatibilities between the two parties, you risk ruining a friendship. And because building and maintaining a website is a project for the long haul, you’d be stressing yourself, the relationship, and the other person, even further.

Happily, Mariana possesses the rare combination of open-mindedness and assertiveness. She knows what she wants, while being open to directions and suggestions of a professional of the craft (aka, me). And as stated previously, we kept it fun during the hard work that is building a website from scratch (spoiler: it’s a lot).

So, I expanded the base design of the home page into the other pages that showcase her work and herself, added the videos, images and text for them, designed a top header with navigation, a footer, threw in a dash of code for the newsletter and contact form, and the result is plain to see. Our real-world empathy translated directly into our remote collaboration, we call it a success.

And we are still good friends.

Written on a train from Lisboa to Porto.

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In case you’re curious, here are some more of my ideas on working (on the web). For instance, here I expand on the idea that you should follow your “Happy Path” when picking a tech stack, the path that feels natural and pleasant to you.

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