eMusic Doesn’t Like Their Customers June 11, 2009
Well that’s what it feels like anyway. After striking a deal with Sony records they informed me my 50 songs a month plan was getting cut by 20 songs for the same low price! What a deal! I have been with Netflix for 3 times as long as eMusic and the only thing they have done to my plan was lower the price. I guess that says more about Netflix than eMusic, but anyway you cut it the move was enough to make me cancel my plan. With more digital music outlets available everyday I will gladly spend my dollars elsewhere. This is a perfect example of a company thinking they know what their customers want when in reality it was enough to lose my business forever.
Finally… June 10, 2009
The new 14th and Grand Salon website went live today after what felt like a really long time. Actual development was probably a couple months but could have been done much faster under different circumstances. In the end I think it turned out pretty well. There is a lot of style, some decent content, a desktop widget to download, and a whole lot of flash. I’m happy with the performance we’re getting by externally loading each section. And best of all the client loves it.
What’s up Tacoma… March 31, 2009
Mary’s Burger Bistro, the hot new downtown Tacoma eatery, saw it’s website (first phase) go live today. I think the site does a good job of capturing the homemade goodness that Mary’s is all about. The second phase should be launching in a few days and will bring online ordering into the mix for those looking for a downtown Tacoma power lunch. The highlight of this site is the custom food shots we had taken. I think the pictures add a ton (definitely over stock) and really show people the quality of food they can expect from Mary’s. This one’s going in the portfolio…
And another one… March 6, 2009
After a couple slow weeks we’re churning them out now. CDAEvents.com has been around in some way shape or form since December but we finally launched a more full featured version of what we’d like it to become. Putting together all the diverse entertainment options offered by the Coeur d’Alene Casino in a web friendly package has not been without it’s challenges. Hopefully this new site, as it grows and evolves, will be able to rise to the challenge and become a valuable resource to the Casino’s patrons.
It’s the ultimate… March 4, 2009
The Ultimate Motorsports Expo and Swap Meet website went live today along with a teaser TV spot and probably some radio. We should be adding to it here and there in the coming weeks heading up to the event.
The event itself should be cool if you’re into cars, motorcycles, BMX, wakeboards and such things. The swap meet is paterned after a similar event in Portland that’s quite successful so hopefully this year will be something they can build on in Spokane (it’s their first year).
The babes are back in town… February 9, 2009
The House of Fury at the Coeur d’Alene Casino hosts several professional boxing matches a year and this site was developed to help spread the excitement. The upcoming bout between Orlando Lora (22-0-1) and hometown favorite Favio Medina (20-1-2) is for the IBA World Jr. Middleweight Championship and should be a really good fight.
This site features two streaming flash videos including my favorite “House of Fury’s Greatest Hits” (which I edited), photo galleries of boxers and ring girls, video ecards from Moe, and a flash boxing game if we can get our act together by Friday.
Overall this was a really fun site to work on and I think it captures boxing culture perfectly – and so did the client.
It’s alive… January 19, 2009
The economy may be in the toilet but interactive design is hot, hot, hot. We’ve got a lot of work lined up at Q in the next few months and one big part of that is the new “30 Salads in 30 Days” website for Litehouse foods. Litehouse has teamed with Weightwatchers.com to spread the word that salads don’t have to be terrible (I’m a vegetarian so I’m on board).
The “30 Salads” part of the site features a customized version of the highly awesome 3D Wall Pro. Developing within the component was definately a breeze and we barely touched what this thing is capable of. The site that is live now only serves as phase 1 with an additional 30 salads being added in a couple weeks as well as other interactive features. There’s even talk of an iPhone app but it’s merits are still being debated…
Spokesman-Review Gets with the Times December 18, 2008
This week the Spokesman-Review unveiled their newly redesigned website (still officially in Beta). I think it’s fair to say this is one of, if not the most visited local website serving Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.
Their old site was a mess – bloated, slow, 4 plus columns, small pictures – did I mention slow? I installed the Firefox Adblock extension just for this site alone to try and speed up my morning news fix.
So how did the redesign turn out? Excellent. The design is much cleaner, the site runs much faster, and the news is organized in a way that lets a traditional “slow” daily newspaper compete in the world of 24 hour news cycles and hyper-blogging (I just made that up). The result is a vaguely MSNBC look which I think is appropriate and serves their needs well.
Like all daily newspapers accross the US the Spokesman has been laying off staff like it’s going out of style. I would assume this new website is something they hope will allow them to do more with less but only time will tell. Keeping tabs on all the local media sites during this record breaking snowstorm has exposed the fact that the TV stations by their very nature are able to get more content out there more quickly than the Spokesman can.
Overall I think it’s an excellent redesign that performs much faster than the old site (thanks to Django and new servers no doubt) that should serve the newspaper well over the next several years.
New Work and other such things… December 13, 2008
My holiday job search has ended after landing a position in the interactive department of Quisenberry Marketing & Design. So far it’s been a fantastic change of pace from my last gig and seems to just keep getting better.
One of my first projects to go live is this New Year’s Eve microsite for the Coeur d’Alene Casino. Being a microsite, it’s designed to quickly brand the event, build up some excitement, and grow the number of attendees via the snazzy e-card invititaion feature. It’s maybe too early to start thinking about such things but if you’re at all interested in what a “New York Style” New Year’s eve entails, you better check it out.
