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

Support Details

Will 2 Comments

Last week I stumbled across Support Details – which is a simple, single serving site by Imulus that tells the user the operating system, screen resolution, web browser, browser size, ip address, color depth, if JavaScript is enabled, the version of Flash installed, and if cookies are enabled on a user’s computer. The site even allows the user to take their results and export a PDF, export a CSV or email their results to a desired recipient.

It shouldn’t be hard to see how a service like this can be particularly useful when attempting to debug issues with less computer-savvy clients who are unsure how to acquire any of this information. If you find yourself attempting to address a similar issue with a client, I’d recommend using Support Details.

LiveSurface Layered Image Templates

Mike 0 Comments

I came across this really cool resource today called LiveSurface. It is like a stock photography site but for product, environmental, and packaging mock ups in both isolated and real life situations. While the price per image seems kind of high ($29 per image) you not only get the image but also a photoshop file with the usable area pre-masked, lighting effects added, and perspective applied automatically. They also have tutorials to give you step-by-step instructions on how to do various effects within the templates. Let me know if you guys ever use this resource. I'm curious as to how well it works.

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Click-Copy & Paste

Mike 6 Comments

I recently ran across this website called Copy Paste Character. It is a extremely user friendly site that allows you to easily click on one of the characters to copy it, then go into your text field and paste it by either hitting ⌘+v or right clicking and clicking on 'paste'. It is a great resource for webdesigners because it has all of the pesky characters that you have to either memorize or hit random buttons on the keyboard until you finally find what you are looking for.

As far as I've tested, the characters work with webfonts, and most fonts in design software (if the font has that character in its arsenal). I've only worked with the site a little bit in Firefox 3.0 and Safari, so try it out on other browsers and let me know if you run into any problems. Enjoy!

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CityBlackBook.com: Coming Soon!

Studiobanks 0 Comments

Five years ago, we noticed a website in Charlotte that was creating a lot of buzz with its online nightlife resource guide. However, the website was horribly designed and even harder to use. We decided that there was an opportunity there to create something along the same lines, but with a much improved user experience. Now, five years later, CarolinaNightlife.com has become a household name amongst the city’s party goers.

We are happy to announce today that we are at it again. On May 21st, we will launch the beta version of our latest internal project, CityBlackBook.com, for public use. The idea was born from the distaste for other large city-based resource guides like CitySearch.com, CityGuide.com and YellowPages.com. About a year ago, we decided we would build a lean, easy-to-use, clean-and-simple city-based resource guide that wasn’t so bloated. Basically, we wanted a guide that would be actually useful.

In the coming weeks, we will release sneak peeks about what we have going on and what will make this resource guide unique. So, bookmark the City Black Book Blog to keep up with the forthcoming launch.

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