In our second year producing an AR for Burst Media, we’ve had the opportunity to create a design scheme that reflects the vibe of the company and presents information in a graphic form.

[ more ]

We had the opportunity to work with some great clients and produce some results-driving work in the first five months of 2010.  Big websites, small websites.  Videos.  Photos.  Annual Reports.  New identities. Branding programs.  Executive speech support at major events.  It has been pretty busy, in a good way.

One motivator during that period: a ping pong table.

[ more ]

In the beginning man created the telephone, and it was good. It was too good, in fact, to stay on kitchen counters and living-room coffee tables; we wanted our phones out in the streets, portable, ready whenever we were. We gave them booths on the corner, we wired them into car consoles, but it wasn’t enough. We wanted to plug into the world without plugging into a wall, and cellular technology was the answer. Today, these mobile multi-taskers seem overqualified for the jobs they were first intended to do. They’re still phones, yes, but they are also GPS-powered maps, morning alarm clocks, handheld gaming systems, music repositories, cameras, and now, more and more, personal computers - complete with internet access. But how ubiquitous is mobile browsing? At the moment, not very. But it will be.

[ more ]

When Macromedia launched the first versions of Flash in 1996, no one knew it would grow into the uncontested multimedia standard. The internet was young, Adobe and Apple were friends, and cell phones were still, well, phones– no GPS, cameras, games, or apps in sight. Fourteen years later, Flash is under new management and at the heart of a back-and-forth that has prompted debate about everything from closed versus open systems to anticompetitiveness and corporate image. As the heads-of-state at Apple, Google, RIM, Palm, Microsoft, and Nokia weigh in, Flash’s domination of desktop internet may become a flashback in the age of mobile browsing. But here’s the thing: it’s not that serious.

[ more ]

CareScout®  is an innovative service firm focused on helping people make intelligent, informed decisions about eldercare.  Founded in 1997 and acquired by Genworth Financial in 2008, the firm continues to grow and expand.  A rebranding initiative was kicked off in 2009 to launch CareScout as more modern and approachable for consumers; we were selected to assist them with this effort.  The CareScout rebranding story is a good example of the way we work and the results we like to deliver. It’s a matter of process, visual continuity and product.

[ more ]

In a recent Graphis article, Doug  Oliver of Douglas Oliver Design
makes the point that the AR designer is not simply a print designer,
but someone who “sees the big picture, and that’s vitally important
when it comes to successful messaging, regardless of whether it plays
in print or on the web.”

[ more ]

Yes – we are iPhone-crazed and Apple-philic. Of course we want to make all of the websites we do look great on a 27-inch iMac, an iPad, and on an iPhone – and we want them to look good on Androids and other Smartphones. But a site created for a desktop or laptop is not optimal for a Smartphone sized screen. It takes extra effort to adjust the content and design, and to deploy and measure. At what point does it make sense to go that extra distance?

Here’s five things to consider.

[ more ]

CYCLE Kids is a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, MA, that
promotes healthy eating and exercise among children. Their
bicycle-based curriculum covers riding technique, road safety, and
nutrition to give kids a big-picture understanding of the benefits of
an active lifestyle.

[ more ]

These days, content-managed web solutions are the norm. Few, however, can easily integrate with pre-existing corporate databases. We worked with our client Brooklyn Law School to create a custom solution which transparently integrates CMS content with information from two internal school databases.

[ more ]

So is the new iPad just for innovative media companies like the New York Times and innovative booksellers like HarperCollins, or can you use it for your business?  I am thinking primarily of business communication content than business utilization.

[ more ]