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

Shenanigans: Book of Lists

Robbie 13 Comments

A little late to the punch on this one, but I couldn't let it slide without offering up my two cents:

In Charlotte Business Journal's 2007 Book of Lists, the listing of Web Design Companies ranked Charlotte companies by number of websites designed locally in 2006. Quality is purely subjective, so that's really the only quantitative, non-biased criteria by which Charlotte companies can be ranked. I get it.

That said, I call shenanigans on pretty much the top four companies, based solely on their reported numbers. For brevity's sake, I'll just break down the numbers for the company ranked first on the listing—I'll refer to them as Company X.

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Muzak Expressions

Will 1 Comments

This year for the 2008 GlobalShop (the world's largest annual retail design event) Muzak created a unique multi-faceted marketing campaign based on the concept of expressions.

The Muzak booth featured hundreds of photos of people expressing angst, desire, elation and pride on 14 high-definition plasma screens with custom music programs that evoked each emotion. Booth attendees became part of the experience by being professionally photographed expressing one or more of those four emotions, then seeing their own photos added to the visual display throughout the event.

Expanding the experience into the web, Studiobanks created a micro-site for Muzak Expressions, allowing users to casually browse through the hundreds of photos Muzak took over the course of their campaign.

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New Studiobanks T-Shirts are Here!

Studiobanks 0 Comments

At last, our new t-shirts have arrived! We will be giving them to our clients, but have also decided to sell them to anyone else who might want one here on our blog.

The shirt features a design we hired Bloo Empire's Keeley Carrigan to create for us. The design depicts a large Studiobanks robot bashing in a computer monitor with elements of the internet flying out. Along with the rest of the internet, our various Toolbox packages and a bird (since we often code name our redesign projects after birds) pop out.

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Studiobanks Receives 7 ADDY Awards

Studiobanks 5 Comments

The ADDYs are the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, recognizing and rewarding creative excellence. This year more than 50 Charlotte-area companies submitted over 375 entries of work to the Charlotte ADDY competition. Only 135, or roughly 35%, of those entries were honored with an ADDY Award. We are happy to announce Studiobanks received 7 of those ADDYs. We snagged 5 of the 12 ADDYs bestowed on website development. Studiobanks was the only shop to win a Gold ADDY for web development.

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(Project Update) Bouvier Kelly Website Launched

Banks 0 Comments

We were recently asked by a Greensboro advertising agency to help redesign their corporate website. Bouvier Kelly is a agency built on solid marketing fundamentals and strong creative. They must be doing something right, they have been around since 1974. Without any internal web design capabilities they were looking for someone to create a website that would better represent their current direction and quality of work.

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Bourbon Boards - Next Big Thing Article

Christy 1 Comments

As you know, we recently launched the Bourbon Boards website. There's a great article in today's Charlotte Observer by Doug Smith about their business, which just opened it's new showroom at Interiors Marketplace (designed by our good friends over at Eye Design). Thought we'd share!

The Old Crow Distillery near Frankfort, Ky., shown in this photo, is being dismantled for its vintage heart pine, brick, limestone and other materials. Charlotteans John Vieregg (from left), Jubal Early and Monte Ritchey bought salvage rights to the 14-building complex and are marketing the reclaimed materials through a South End showroom. Their company, named Bourbon Boards, shares space off South Boulevard with Interiors Marketplace.

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We're ADDY Sponsors!

Will 1 Comments

For this year's ADDY® Awards Studiobanks created a web campaign playing off of their "Call For Entries" print material.

We were then presented with the opportunity to be one of the event's title sponsors. So on March 6th at the ADDY® Awards you can keep an eye out for our ad in the event program (shown above) and our logo animation playing during the awards ceremony. Both feature the character design of Bloo Empire's Keeley Carrigan.

Here's a little sneak peak of the logo animation we put together this week:

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(Project Update) Bourbon Boards Website Launched

Banks 0 Comments

Bourbon Boards is a new company that is selling authentic Heart Pine wood from an old bourbon mill in Kentucky. Board by board they have reclaimed over one million feet of this beautiful wood.

Longleaf Pine ecosystems were once among the most plentiful during the 1800s. American settlers used the sturdy and decay-resistant heart of these trees to construct homes, factories, breweries, & distilleries. Unfortunately, habitat loss and degradation have made this resource extremely rare.

Our friends at Eye Design Studio did all the branding work for Bourbon Boards and we did the website design and development. We just launched the new site to coincide with the opening of the their showroom on South Blvd. Perhaps we should update the Studiobanks site background with some authentic Heart Pine jpegs.

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"Plastic Soup"

Mike 1 Comments

I stumbled across this article talking about a sea of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean nearly twice as big as the continental US. Plastic products, packaging, and trash that have been dumped into the sea are gathering in a "trash vortex" nearly 10 meters deep, and is responsible for killing "more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food."

The plastic waste poses a threat to humans as well. Every year, millions of plastic pellets (the raw material used to create plastic products) are lost at sea. These pellets act as a chemical sponge, absorbing man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT, which are then eaten by marine life, that could possibly wind up on your dinner plate.

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Asana Holds a Media Night, Launches New Website

Banks 1 Comments

Last night, Asana Activewear held a Media Night. It was a PR event that catered to local media, in efforts to make them more aware of the new activewear apparel store. Owner Gary Schwake, spoke in front of the media to describe his vision and goals for the store. He explained how Asana is more that a store that sells clothes but is a hub for the active lifestyle community. Partnering with local yoga studios, gyms, and fitness centers Asana is able to offer their customers with more than the latest fashion trends, but with valuable information about the happenings throughout the active community. It was this unique community hub concept that was the inspiration of the Asana logo we designed.

Later in his presentation he announced the launch of AsanaActivewear.com a website we recently designed. The website offers a directory to find local studios and trainers, a community calendar that you can either post events on or search to find other local fitness events. Also, each month Asana picks a “Hero of the Month”, an instructor or trainer that helps to motivate people to live an active lifestyle. We built a section that highlights these Heroes and gives them their due recognition. Of course the website also allows users to learn more about the store and the brands they carry, but it is the community aspect that Gary is most proud of. Check out some photos we took at the event.

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