We are proud to announce the addition of our latest team member, Michael. Before joining Studiobanks, Michael created internet applications for commerce, marketing, and support as a web developer for Comporium Communications. Michael is a graduate of USC-Lancaster. In just a couple of weeks here at the studio he has already started to make his mark and is leading the soon to be launched Zobo.tv website among other projects.
Being the music lovers that we are, Studiobanks is very happy to announce our latest project(s) with Muzak, who is a leading provider of business music. We'll be designing four websites for their various product lines. These are the folks that design, install and maintain the sounds that brand a company. For example, here's the audio architecture (the integration of music, voice and sound to create experiences designed specifically for your business) Muzak created for Ghiradelli Chocolate:
An older, credible, caring female voice delivered in a simple, formal style. No ornate production was needed. The voice is heard over music that could be performed in a jazz club. Brushes on a snare drum, a jazz guitar and a stand-up bass complete the experience.
You'll hear the sounds Muzak architects while shopping in a store, sitting at a restaurant, on hold or in a TV commercial. This is why I love my job, I'm always learning about new companies and what they do.
Here's the final logo picked by Southern Comfort Development Group. It was our favorite. We've just wrapped up the collateral design and are on to the website design. The client is working hard to gather up content, including photos of their properties and deciding what information they want to provide for each of their site's pages. This is always one of the hardest parts of the process. You would think it would be easy to just sit down and compose a paragraph or two about your company and its processes, but in fact, it's not so easy. This is why we have many great copywriters at our disposal to help our clients along while they gather content.
Just read a good article about brainstorming over at bNet. Brian Libby points out that the term itself
dates to the 1953 book Applied Imagination, in which advertising veteran Alex Osborn first articulated how a well-managed group could generate more ideas than the same number of individuals thinking on their own.
It goes on to show how the term has become a muddled catchall for anything related to creativity since the term became popular. Libby argues that over time Osborn's brainstorming's framework has disintegrated and that
many “brainstorming” sessions undermine his four key principles: focus on quantity instead of quality; allow no criticism; welcome far-fetched ideas; and encourage the group to improve ideas by combining them.
It's worth a glance and also points out how to avoid common mistakes and get the most out of brainstorming meetings.
As promised, here's a look at the newly launched Kubilins website. While this was a team effort, Clay knocked this out of the park with his design and Will truly showcased his animation skills, bringing the site to life one frame at a time!
With the launch of their new, hyrid XHTML/Flash website, MTV kicked off a new project called MTV Hats (aka Header Art Treatments). With some flexibility in the layout, due in part to templates from Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits, MTV is able to accept, approve and drop a variety of header artwork from artists and designers into rotation on mtv.com. Anyone that has ever watched MTV knows they've applied many different treatments to their logo over the years, so this project is not surprising. It is, however, very refreshing for the MTV Design Team to figure out a way to pull more designers and artists into their community. The MTV Design Team says it best though:
We love our logo. For real, we wanna take it out for an expensive candlelit dinner... TWO appetizers. Since MTV's inception in 1981 our brand's been the subject of countless artist interpretations by some of the world's most beautifully warped minds. We plan to keep that spirit alive with the new mtv.com and push it to the next level... YOU.
Early last month, Google launched a redesign and restructuring of their stats service, Google Analytics. The new look is the combination of Urchin, the acquistion that birthed Analytics, and Measure Map. Jeffrey Veen, formerly of Adaptive Path/Measure Map, lead the design team responsible for the complete rehaul. The focus was to take the daunting task of navigating the immense amount of detail in Analytics and make it more intuitive. Now, I'm not going to list all of the new features here (there are many lists already out there). The only point I want to make is to say that the Google Analytics redesign was successful, in my book. It's inspirational to see that a small team can take the amount of information generated by something as complicated as web stats and make it effortless, digestible and visually appealing. If anything, that success echoes the fundamental goals of design.
Now they just need to do something about that account home page!
37 Signals, the company that developed the project management software we use called Basecamp, was written up in TIME Magazine. Not only do we love using their simple, easy to use software, but we really love their "keep it simple" philosophy. In fact, I use their online to-do list, Backpack, for my own personal use. Anyone else using Basecamp?
This is our third client in the Morrison, located in South Park. First Winestore, then Asana Activewear and now Varji & Varji Salon.
We had our kick-off meeting yesterday and are very excited about the vision Max and Susan Varji have for their website. If you've seen the interior of their store, you'll have some sense of their incredible taste.
So, while Greg Biffle's business manager is coordinating a photo shoot and gathering the last of the content we'll need, we've begun organizing the sitemap. This blue print of sorts allows us to be clear on the structure of the site before we begin design. It also allows for the client to have an outline of the final content we'll need.
We work hard to receive content as soon as possible. This helps our designers visually tell a story and understand how much text and/or photos will be on a page. Since Studiobanks is known for very clean and easy navigation, it's important we know what we are navigating before we begin the design.
One of the goals of the Greg Biffle site is to show the personal side of Greg—what he's up to when he's not on the track. One of the ways to accomplish this is to show Greg in his street clothes versus his NASCAR uniform. We're looking forward to being at the photo shoot in a couple weeks. Should be fun.
is a small webcentric design firm producing BIG results! We have become known for producing memorable, high quality work that creates buzz. For each project, we bring a fresh creative approach and a keen attention to detail.
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