July 21, 2009 by Blair Winans
I just read an interesting article on how Google thinks downloadable App stores (like Apple's) are not the future of mobile development, and that eventually all mobile applications will be web-based once bandwith increases. It's pretty interesting, but not really unexpected coming from Google, whose future is really based on this playing out.
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June 17, 2009 by Blair Winans
The big marketing buzz word this year is social media. Unless you've been living under a very large and cavernous rock, you've probably heard about the benefits of connecting with your customers via sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to name a few. And you've also probably thought to yourself, "How can I use social media to boost sales?... How can I cash in on this piece of the pie?"
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May 31, 2009 by Blair Winans
There are enough things to worry about when running a successful restaurant. Let's face it-worrying about your marketing usually comes so far down the list that it's easy enough to ignore, and often is, until those sporadic bursts when you realize you should probably be doing something. Plus, if things are going well, why bother, right?
Not exactly. While the keys to a successful restaurant are often out on the floor and back in the kitchen, keeping a keen eye on your overall brand and some careful planning/promotion can really help boost your bottom line on the days/nights where turnover is light-i.e. where you stand the most to gain.
Here's some easy-to-implement, affordable, and smart ways to start building your overall restaurant marketing without too much time and effort. Some of them may fall in the "common sense" side of things, but they are important to mention as they seem to go unnoticed more often than not:
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March 12, 2009 by Blair Winans
We are putting the finishing touches on a new branding campaign for Amherst Brewing Company. We went in and noticed that there was a lot of inconsistency in how they were branding themselves, as well as their need for a website that they could update frequently with timely information. We came up with a great new consistent look and feel that brings them back to their brewpub roots. Let us know what you think!
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March 5, 2009 by Blair Winans
It's coming up on a year since our last site update, and a lot has happened. Thankfully, the reason that our site got neglected for so long is that we have been really busy churning out some fantastic work. We welcomed Fred Bliss to the office as our web architect, and he and I have been busy putting the finishing touches on our beta eCommerce project, code named "Isotope". We hope to be rolling out the beta in a few months, which is designed to truly bridge the gap between CMS and eCommerce apps and make simple, effective online store management a reality. Stay tuned for more as we unveil bits and pieces...
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May 29, 2008 by Blair Winans
Recently we have been asked to pitch more projects that include a "market research" component. While as a creative boutique we don't specifically offer market research ourselves, we have partnered with a few companies in order to develop the preliminary findings and sifted through the data. Interesting, yes, but I find that most of it usually comes down to common sense. Plus, as a brand-conscious-designer, I find that our goal is more often to shape public perception rather than to bend to it, so these projects have really got me thinking about the actual value that often pricey market research holds.
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May 1, 2008 by Blair Winans
Well, we recently decided to submit a client piece to an award show, and we came back with a silver at the Summit Creative Awards for our mini-site for The Colonnade Hotel, which you can view at http://www.reinventedhotel.com. Our goal was to reintroduce the hotel and its multimillion dollar renovations to its past clientele, and do so within an interactive environment that encourages exploration of the actual rooms and bathrooms.
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February 29, 2008 by Blair Winans
Flash is a great web development tool. It's interactive, animated, integrated, and has the potential to accomplish a whole lot more than other web technologies. As someone who has been working in Flash for over 10 years now, I have seen it evolve into something extremely powerful. From its beginnings as a simple interactive web animation tool, it has since become a robust application development platform, with broad support for dynamic database integration, video and audio publishing, and a host of other features that make it a joy to use for both designers, developers and marketers alike.
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January 15, 2008 by Blair Winans
For those of you not familiar with the years old debate of CSS layouts versus table-based website design, here's a quick recap. Tables, which are the same rows and column-based ones you use in your word-processing program, have been a staple in website design since the dawn of web pages.
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January 1, 2008 by Blair Winans
So you may notice that we have done a complete website overhaul for 2008. It's been a long work in progress, but it's finally here. We went back and forth on some design decisions for a while, and honestly it was a challenge to complete because we have had so much other work going on.
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