Studioblog (n): a blog by Studiobanks about design, marketing, internet, business, Charlotte and more.

Winestore Earns BOB Award

Banks 0 Comments

The accolades continue to pour in for Studiobanks' client Winestore. In just a short year after opening the store, Winestore has been featured in numerous articles highlighting their unique approach to selling wine. In the latest issue of Charlotte Magazine, Winestore was named the "Best Place to Buy Wine in Charlotte," winning one of the magazine’s coveted BOB (Best of the Best) Awards.

Best Place to Buy Wine: Winestore.

This is a simple, well-organized place that doesn’t overwhelm you with thousands of bottles. Instead, winestore has a carefully selected collection of excellent wines ranging from affordable to very expensive. With an urban, chic, hip design of glass and steel, finding a good bottle is easy with categories like Dinner Party, Girls Night Out, Making Up, Loose Change, and Tax Break. It also has a fantastic method of sampling wines for sale. It’s an automated dispenser that’s activated by a wine card you purchase at the counter. Each sample is one ounce and costs $0.70, which is a great value—especially if you’re wondering if the $50 bottle you’re considering is any good.

Top 10 Most Commonly Used Passwords

Banks 4 Comments

PC Magazine’s May issue lists the top 10 most commonly used passwords online:

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

Most sites now require both letters and numbers when creating a password, in an attempt to force users to select a secure password. This effectively prevents users from using the list's top 3 most commonly used passwords. I guess "password1" made the list by people who are dead set on using an unsecure password.

The Web Design Survey, 2007

Robbie 0 Comments

Do you make websites? If the answer is yes, be sure to go take The Web Design Survey 2007 from A List Apart. The goal of the survey is "to increase knowledge of web design and boost respect for the profession."

(New Project) Southern Comfort - Custom Home Builder

Christy 0 Comments

Studiobanks has become known for creating strong brands. With our latest project, Southern Comfort, a local custom home builder new to the market, we will have the opportunity to create their entire brand - including logo, marketing materials and, of course, the website.

With so many builders in the market, our challenge will be to create a memorable brand that sets them apart from the rest.

ExpressionEngine Redesign

Robbie 0 Comments

Last month, Digital Web Magazine published an article about the redesign of EllisLab’s ExpressionEngine site by 31Three. In the article, Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, the man behind 31Three, walks through an abridged version of his entire design process. From a change in work environment to wireframing to design exploration, Bennett-Chamberlain provides some great insights for designers to reference and apply to their own process. As evident from the finished product, the attention to detail put into the project is admirable. The gist of "It Doesn’t End Here," the closing remarks, is one of the most important ideas contained in the article.

In that regard, a website isn’t a static design, and once it launches, it’s not mine anymore—it’s a living, breathing entity that will change as others interact with it, and as it grows.

Designers and clients alike would be better for making Bennett-Chamberlain's sentiment their mantra; our work is never done. Not only are projects that continually change and grow more successful, but they end up staying relevant longer and out of that undead state too many projects slip into.

Bobcats the Butt of Joke on Entourage

Banks 0 Comments

It appears the Bobcats are not only the butt of jokes here in Charlotte but on the national scene as well. In the latest episode of HBO’s hit sitcom Entourage, Ari (a Hollywood super-agent played by Jeremy Piven) showed what the rest of the country must think of our hometown NBA franchise.

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Pixel Tools in Flash

Will 0 Comments

It's kind of surprising that with every new version of Flash released a set of pixel based drawing tools hasn't been added to Flash's toolbox. It's a logical addition. Pixels are the unit of measure for the web; why not make a set of tools that conform to this standard?

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Timepost Gets Noticed

Banks 1 Comments

At Studiobanks, we use Basecamp extensively to manage projects. The setback to Basecamp being the application requires us to log project time manually. We previously used DesignSoft's Stopwatch and TimeSheet Manager for its timer feature, but this did not solve said issue.

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(New Project) Zobo.tv

Christy 0 Comments

After a couple of meetings and many emails, we are very excited to announce our latest project: re-designing the Zobo.tv website! Zobo.tv provides uniquely-packaged and simple home theater products and services. You may have visited one of their stores by Carolina Place Mall or North Lake Mall. Our first step is to have a kick-off meeting at the store. There we'll meet to discuss the brand, the overall creative direction of the project and watch an installation demo. After mocking the current Studiobanks stereo system, they promised to upgrade our speakers! I see lots of fun, new electronic toys in the very near future! I'll let you know how things go, stay tuned.

Building Trust in a Brand

Banks 0 Comments

Successful marketers know that you must build trust with consumers before you try to sell them anything. Often times when working with our clients we suggest placing customer testimonials on their websites to help build trust, like we did on Meineke’s Franchising website. If a customer can see that others have trusted your company and had a good experience, inherently they will be more likely to trust you as well.

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