The good news is: we can’t help it. …Of course, I’m referring to the fact that the general web-surfing public ‘judges the book by its cover’.  No doubt, if the capabilities of the Internet continue to expand at the current rate, we might just be nestled into our Wall-E style hover chairs by the end of this year.

The old-fashioned way of getting to know the people behind a product or service is becoming obsolete. Sad as this may be – we can’t go back; and understanding how design affects your desired audience’s ‘rapid decision making,’ may mean the difference between sinking or swimming.

IT’S ABOUT DESIGN!

As humans, we rely on our senses (sight, taste, touch, smell, feeling) to make judgments and decisions. Surprisingly, our decision-making is based on the feelings conveyed, rather than on the actual information presented. The way something is designed causes an almost involuntary reaction in our brains. This reaction determines how we feel about said thing, and thus heavily (HEAVILY), weighs on our decision-making process.

This is why people are willing to pay more for ice cream packaged in round containers than in square, why Coke always beats Pepsi (even when blind taste tests have proven Pepsi to be the tastier beverage), or why a single gas pump can be seen as solely responsible for all of the oil in the Gulf…

Even when that one gas pump has clearly been obeying the rules and just wants to help give you gas to get where you’re going.

GETTING THERE…

And speaking of getting to where we’re going… All this matters because (in such a fast-paced market, where you only have a few seconds to grab your audience’s attention) DESIGN is our/your only chance! Don’t doubt that the hover chairs are coming; and if your presence on the web doesn’t convey your value (VISUALLY), you can be sure they’ll zoom right past, filled with consumers watching YouTube and enjoying a tasty beverage (probably a Coke).

COMING SOON:

EVERYONE ON THE WEB IS DISOBEYING THEIR MOTHER: PART 2

-OR-

A DESIGNER’S GUIDE ON MAKING YOUR AUDIENCE DISOBEY THEIR MOTHERS

Here’s a look at our trifecta of award winning efforts:

HADAKI

The website we designed for lifestyle bag manufacturer HADAKI is a great example of ecommerce at work.  The site looks beautiful and displays the wide variety of high fashion bags and accessories HADAKI has to offer, but the most important thing about that particular website – and the reason I think it won a bronze medal – is the integrated checkout feature.

Application developer Michael Misshore implemented the latest ecommerce technology to make sure the site’s checkout feature was seamlessly integrated into every visitor’s experience.  After all, any retail outlet is only as good as its checkout line.  In the online world, there really isn’t much use for an ecommerce website that doesn’t make it easy for a customer to actually purchase products online.

Over 50 percent more visitors have checked out HADAKI’s site since we revamped the shopping cart, evidence that this site has become more profitable as well as award winning.

Ursuline Academy

Ursuline Academy’s website has the honor of being recognized as the best school website in the New Orleans area.  I think this is true primarily because of the level of customization our designers and developers were able to bring to the site.

Although we chose WordPress as a CMS to allow for easy content updates, you’d never be able to tell because of the specifically tailored design. Visiting Ursuline’s website is just like visiting the school.  You get the same up-to-date information that you would find on a bulletin board in the hall outside the office on Ursuline’s Uptown campus.

The website features a traditional design, good functionality, easy navigation, a surplus of current information and really shows off the school’s personality and culture.  The news feature combines the immediacy of daily announcements with the wide reach of the Internet.  Alumni, supporters and parents have an convenient way to keep up with special events, sports championships, reunions and announcements.

Choose Ochsner

The Choose Ochsner online ad campaign for Ochsner Health System was a success on a number of levels.  Working in conjunction with Bohan Advertising, our graphic designers, lead by design manager Ashley Segari, created a successful ad campaign featuring four custom ads and a landing page designed by Mudbug Media.

We also ran a host of analytics on the campaign to monitor its direction and determine overall effectiveness.  Media and Analytics Strategist Chris Cook determined that the initial phase of the Choose Ochsner ad campaign generated over 18 million impressions in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas between its January debut and April finale.

Since it opened in 1942, Ochsner Health System has become one of the most widely recognized healthcare providers in the region, but they still need to keep the public updated on technological advances and new options as they become available.  The Choose Ochsner campaign was created to highlight the wide range of specialties and services that support this familiar brand’s motto, “Healthcare with Peace of Mind.”

Taking Pride in our Work

All three of these awards represent outstanding online achievements for our clients, but my favorite thing these awards bring to light is the impressive span of our service offerings.  We have in-house solutions for all your ecommerce, design, development, analytics and marketing strategy needs right here at Mudbug Media.

We didn’t need to outsource a single bit of code, design or development to complete these outstanding and award winning projects.  I think that just goes to show the depth and breadth of the talent, creativity and ability of our team.  I congratulate everyone on their excellent effort, creativity and passion for their work.

Mudbug Media truly understands what it means to be an interactive agency.  We’re not your father’s ad agency.  We’ve always been online and we know what it takes to integrate the online world with traditional media.  If you’re looking for someone to truly get your message across all of today’s media – from newspapers to iPads – give us a call, send an email, a tweet or write on our Facebook wall.  We’d love to win some awards for you.

A plain looking website is fine if it functions primarily as an information distribution platform. But if you really want your business or personal website to stand out and stay modern, few things work better and more intrinsically than an inventive and stylistic font.

The ability to successfully implement custom fonts has evolved over the years from a basic concept that didn’t really work to a seamless technology that can be added to any website.

Evolution of Online Fonts

In the late 90s, Internet Explorer began allowing custom fonts that were translated into the proprietary EOT format.  The problem was that it was insanely difficult to actually put a font into the EOT format because Microsoft’s EOT tool never worked and there were licensing headaches. Designers were basically taunted by an option that remained just out of reach.

That started to change in 2007 when Apple’s Safari web browser began to support custom web fonts using traditional TrueType and OpenType formats, but with a 2 percent market share, that still meant the Internet still looked pretty uniformly bland.

About five years ago sIFR came out, a font replacement technology that relies on Flash to generate custom fonts.  The next step was Cufon, which uses Javascript, but both technologies were slow to load and often a pain to work with.  With the performance problems and complexity involved, these two technologies didn’t budge the web very far from its uniform font beginnings.

In 2009 Firefox and Google’s Chrome browser finally decided to join the party and support TrueType and OpenType fonts – opening the doors to widespread font customization – but there are still lingering problems.

Licensing Speed Bumps

It’s been one year since 100 percent of the browsers finally achieved web font (aka @font-face) support, but there are still licensing problems.  While there are countless fonts made by an absurdly large number of font foundries, few of them are licensed for embedding.

Embedding fonts used to just mean distributing them in files like PDFs, but now it also means you can’t distribute and provide them to a website viewer.  The licensing agreements for the vast majority of the fonts out there were drafted when the web didn’t even exist.  So in the 80s and early 90s, only being able to use a font with the ultimate goal of printing on paper wasn’t a big deal.  However, as viewing content shifted from paper to the screen, this limitation proved to be a huge stumbling block for everyone in the creative industry.

So the progress on the font front over the past year has really been made in licensing. One of the biggest advances came when Adobe approved all of their licensed fonts for web use, giving designers everywhere a grab bag of font options to immediately begin using legally.

A website called Font Squirrel popped up shortly thereafter, offering an online conversion tool that lets you convert any font that you have a license for – or any royalty free font – into a format that Safari, Chrome and Firefox can use.

You can also export the font to a format that Internet Explorer can use, finally making good on the promise of the EOT format.

Typekit

The last piece of the puzzle is Typekit, which came out in September 2009.  Typekit went to all the big font foundries out there and worked out licensing deals with many of them – the first big push of commercial fonts online. In other words, Typekit led the charge in updating licensing agreements from a pre-web world to the modern world.

Not only did they handle all of the licensing issues, but they also hold all of the fonts on their servers all around the world and distribute them from their end.  So now designers have all these fonts to use and the licensing has been worked out. There are servers set up all over the world to distribute the fonts so the load time and performance are quick to the point where you finally don’t see delays or performance issues.

So now there really is no reason to stick with the same boring fonts website after website.  There are far too many options out there and everyone has the ability to create custom fonts, so the variety can be truly endless.

Seasoned Greetings!

It felt perfect; it incorporated our Mudbug identity into a traditional holiday phrase with a little fun. To drive it home visually we decided to brand a crawfish boil pot with the Mudbug logo, because after all, our logo is gorgeous.

I was tasked with designing the actual card that would be mailed out. This project was right up my alley, so I decided to get a little crazy with it. The final product is a card with a pull tab, encouraging the lucky recipient to pull the crawfish pot up and reveal little crawdads inside of the pot. The card brings warm wishes and also reflects Mudbug Media’s focus on creativity and interactivity.

When the cards were printed, we decided to avoid getting the pot tops cut by a machine and to do it ourselves. The arts ‘n crafts aspect added a personal touch to every card. We ordered lunch and had a party, cutting and folding as a team. It was truly a group effort, and they came out even better than we imagined.

I had a ball working on this card, and hope it brings a smile to your face! Happy Holidays!

]]> http://mudbugmedia.com/blog/2009/12/18/seasoned-greetings-making-holiday-cards/feed/ 0 http://mudbugmedia.com/blog/2009/09/15/tulane-prc-the-feel-good-guide/ http://mudbugmedia.com/blog/2009/09/15/tulane-prc-the-feel-good-guide/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:39:33 +0000 Vanessa Herbert http://mudbugmedia.com/blog/?p=316 Tulane’s Prevention Research Center launched the Shop Talk Program as part of a study designed to gauge public opinion on health issues, ease people into productive healthcare conversations and raise awareness about serious concerns. Shop Talk’s Feel Good Guide, the accompanying booklet put together by Mudbug Media, explains how 10 small dietary and lifestyle changes can make a big difference in health.

When I was told I would be designing a 24 page book with colorful illustrations, I was ecstatic. I figured, “children’s book!” Then my creative director said, “Oh, by the way … It’s not a children’s book. It’s going to be about colon cancer and high blood pressure. Good Luck!”

The project consisted of designing pieces – a booklet, a poster, and recipe cards to be displayed in social gathering places like barbershops and beauty salons – for adults about serious health issues and brought some interesting challenges.

Design Challenge #1: Captivating the Readers

How do I design an informational booklet with content about colon cancer and diabetes that’s interesting and fun to read? Fortunately for me, the illustrations (beautifully drawn by Walter Wade Welch) are upbeat and colorful. So even on a page discussing the effects of smoking, the pictures are always a pleasure to look at.

Design Challenge #2: Targeting the Audience

How do you make vibrant and colorful illustrations target adults and not children? I struggled with this issue, and found my solution in fonts. I went back to basics and stayed far, far away from overly decorative fonts. Because I didn’t want it to be too stern, I chose Bodoni (which has a combination of thick and thin lines) and Interstate. They both say, “Hey, I’m serious, but not too serious”.

Design Challenge #3: Page Layout

The Feel Good Guide is loaded with information, but rows and rows of text lose readers quickly. So, I worked to break the page up without giving up organization. I used a different background for each health issue to make certain things stand out. I used orange numbers and bullets for lists. The illustrations help break up the text, too.

The Shop Talk Program has received good reviews from the public, the Times-Picayune, and City Business for its novel approach to tackling health-related concerns in urban areas. To learn more about the study, download a copy of the Feel Good Guide or get healthy recipes, log on to Tulane’s Prevention Research Center.

Be healthy and feel good!

Better idea? Make it mobile. Dynamic content is why web browsers entered the mobile arena. Also, wherever an emergency occurs, someone has a cell phone in a pocket or purse. You don’t have to walk away from someone who’s injured or wait for a computer to wake up. Instant info gives instant help.

The trick to building effective mobile versions of existing web pages is to cut out everything except what people need for mobile use. For Ochsner’s ER page, we focused on the widget and minimized images to provide a quick-loading page with exactly the information needed in case of an emergency. We kept the address, phone number, hospital photo and link to Google Maps for directions.

The Google Maps integration works with any mobile browser. On an iPhone, clicking “Map it with Google” loads the Maps application and gives you directions. On other mobile phones, Google Maps loads within the page. Either way, you’re on your way.

We’re hoping you never actually need this particular feature. We’d like it to go entirely unused. Just in case, though, bookmark ochsner.org/er on your mobile browser so you can check wait times without any hassle or delay.

Let’s be careful out there.

Incorporating original artwork is something that is characteristic of my personal design style. Usually for a project using Illustrator I would hand-draw the image, scan it and then trace over it to get a copy of my original. Retracing could take me hours to set each point exactly right. Now, the new Wacom tablet allows me to create more accurate drawings on the computer significantly faster than I could before.

My first foray into the World of Wacom involves creating cartoon figures of people for an online game we’re currently developing for a client. My task is to take photos of doctors, draw them on Illustrator and give them a few different facial expressions. The new Wacom tablet opens up Illustrator  and Photoshop to a whole new set of features that makes the Creative Suite a lot more interesting and robust. For this particular task I can quickly draw shapes and adjust the points if needed. There’s also the new sensitivity feature that gives me a lot more control over the weight of the stroke. It takes some getting used to, but once I caught my stride with the stylus everything fell into place.

Overall, this exciting new addition to the Mudbug office has made me want to live and breath illustrations. I’m not kidding.

I think it’s also exciting that nearly everyone in the office works by natural light streaming in from big windows that reveal a spectacular view of downtown and the Mississippi. Aside from being a personal preference to overhead lighting, a naturally lit office helps us minimize our carbon footprint and helps clear my mind whenever my computer monitor gets a little daunting. The shapes, colors, movements and sounds of the world inspire my designs, and my office here is definitely any designer’s dream.

Everything about the Mudbug Media offices fosters development and creativity. Considering the relaxed culture, imaginative designers, and skilled programmers doing amazing work, I think I’ve stumbled upon something great. I’m happy to have joined a company that can help increase my skill set, and I’m excited to see what I can accomplish with the opportunities that arise.

Over the last five years, Amanda has done incredible work for Mudbug. Some of her most recent bragging rights: Tulane’s School of Science and Engineering has a redesign and fresh, new look. Stryker’s direct-to-patient website, aboutstryker.com, is simple, clean and more functional than ever. Mudbug Media has a great new website that highlights our winning personality with a focus on our expanded professional services.

All good things must pass and we’re fortunate enough to pass this torch internally. One of the great things about promoting from within is that you’ve already seen how very good someone is at what she does.

Our new creative director, Shannon Betti, has been with Mudbug for three years. We’ve had the chance to see her skill and experience put to good use on some high-profile projects. Going forward, Shannon will be overseeing all aspects of design and coordinating the rest of the talented Mudbug design team to continue creating exciting identities and websites for our clients.

The transition thus far has been smooth and seamless; giving everyone full confidence that Mudbug is in good hands. I, of course, have no doubts.

Kudos, Shannon!

Safe Travels, Amanda!

I recently had the privilege of designing for Tulane University’s School of Science and Engineering (SSE). Every design project brings new and interesting challenges. Here are a few I faced:

1. Create a new branding for a subject (science and engineering) that I knew little about.
2. Administer the new branding across a website, handouts, brochures and other print materials.
3. Design within Tulane University’s standards and guidelines while effectively creating a new look for SSE.

Being the art chick that I always have been, I’m sad to admit I didn’t really pay that much attention in Biology 101. Design is much more than color and font choice. My issue for this project: I had no idea how to visually represent “Science and Engineering.” Good, old-fashioned collaboration is often a lifeline for a designer. Luckily for me, the president of Mudbug Media has a Biomedical Engineering degree from Tulane. He and I were able to collaborate on imagery that would address not only science but engineering as well. After my science lesson, it was much easier to create something dynamic and contextually correct.

Tulane University has very organized standards and guidelines, which makes it easy on a designer. They are specific about how they want their logo to be implemented, but I was allotted much freedom with choosing how to implement SSE’s new branding. I was given a foundation of colors to use, with a little creative room to branch out as well. Overall, I chose to stick with Tulane’s blues with the accent of their lime green and steered clear of their main forest green color to give SSE a feel of their own without looking totally disconnected from the school as a whole.

I established SSE’s new branding while designing their website homepage and some print materials. Bringing the web design into the print pieces opened up a world of paper choices, font choices and a need for more of an editorial layout. I was able to take elements used on the home page and change them up for use on the print pieces. I incorporated the rounded edge of the main picture on the home page into the print designs and used bold, all capitalized, titles in both web and print. I also carried through blue monochromatic science imagery in both the print and web pieces.

Overall, these Tulane University School of Science and Engineering pieces made for a fun and exciting design challenge. The staff at SSE is also a pleasure to work with, making any project more enjoyable.