Also some good points for any type of partnership:

But before you rush out and offer part of your next job to your closest web-working buddy, there are a few things that you need to consider. Here are four of the biggest pitfalls to watch out for.

Number one and four are especially good:

1. No Handshake Deals - If you’re going to bring on a subcontractor, make sure you both sign a contract laying out what the job is and how much you’ll be paying. I’ve sung this tune in the past, and I’ll sing it again: a contract won’t prevent all possible disagreements, but it will eliminate many and give you a basis for resolving the rest. If you ever have a job go completely sour on you, to the point where your client won’t pay, then you’ll be happy to have a contract spelling out your responsibilities in place.

4. Choose Subcontractors Wisely. I won’t say that you should never work with friends, but I’ve seen far more relationships busted up by going into business together than I’ve seen strengthened…

Here is a quick summary for those of you who don’t want to read the whole article:

1. Always use strict doctype and standards-compliant HTML/CSS
2. Always use a reset at the start of your css
3. Use -moz-opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Firefox, and text-shadow: #000 0 0 0 in Safari
4. Never resize images in the CSS or HTML
5. Check font rendering in every browser. Don’t use Lucida
6. Size text as a % in the body, and as em’s throughout
7. All layout divs that are floated should include display:inline and overflow:hidden
8. Containers should have overflow:auto and trigger hasLayout via a width or height
9. Don’t use any fancy CSS3 selectors
10. Don’t use transparent PNG’s unless you have loaded the alpha

But you should go ahead and read the whole article (via WebAppers.com).

The irony of creative change (via Forty Media):

The irony of creativity is this: people want to be creative without change. They want innovation with no risk. They want a new result with the same exact behavior. They can talk for hours about how passionate they are about creativity, but when it comes to actually changing anything, they’ll find a way to repeat the same thing again and again. That’s why books, seminars, courses and lectures on creativity rarely translate into much actual creation. No one can make change happen except the person who must accept the fears, and consequences, of change.

Why we don’t skip Photoshop:

3. No clients. This is a big one. 37signals is not a client services company. Rather, they build products. 37signals is a small team of people who all understand the web and web development very, very well. It’s easy for them to visualize things and move on — but it’s not so easy for many of our clients. A big reason we do visual comps at Blue Flavor is to facilitate communication and sign-off with our clients.

This is exactly what we thought when we first read the 37signals blog post. They can afford to skip comps because they don’t have clients, they have customers. It’s a subtle difference but an important one.

We will be unavailable from May 11th through May 20th for a much needed mini-vacation. We will respond to your e-mails upon our return.