Here’s a short video Compendium created to demonstrate the before and after, as well as showcase some best practices of our BlueLock blog redesign:
Template Best Practices by Compendium from Compendium on Vimeo.
If you’d like to read more about this blog redesign and the results of our work, check out our case study.
Brand Factor, our latest branding presentation at the Reach Leadership Series, has been featured on the SlideShare.net design page. It may only be there for a few days, but you can also catch the full presentation below. Enjoy!
Does your firm understand the benefits of using an architectural photographer to market first-class designs and projects? Susan Fleck, of Fleck Photography, provided the March Marketing FUNdamentals audience (hosted by Mike Worley at Eastern Engineering in Fishers) with some very helpful insights into architectural photography.
“We want people to know us as the best photography studio in town. We also want to build on the equity of being in business since 1964.”
…So said the fine folks at StudioThirteen.
Our job was to make it happen.
Just before the New Year, I was thinking about all of the “little tweaks” I wanted to make to milesdesign.com. At that time, our current website design was only about eight months old. Although I didn’t intend to generally alter the look or feel of our site, I couldn’t help but see opportunities for improvement. A few hours later, those “little tweaks” turned into a full-scale redesign.
I moved into “rapid prototyping” mode, quickly exploring grid and layout options within the existing brand identity system, landing ultimately on a new 6-column grid.
Here’s a quick rundown of many of the design changes we made, why we made them, and some of the technical improvements achieved by redesigning our own website. Continue reading…
As a design and branding firm, we’re excited anytime our brand identity designs get published.
But we were more excited than usual to learn that 18 of our logo designs were going to be published in the first annual iheartlogos book, iheartlogos season one. This competition is cool because it’s very different than the typical design competition. In this competition, everyone who enters one or more logo submission gets to vote (heart or not heart) for every logo submitted. Entries came from a variety of international locations, with Antarctica being the only continent not represented. Continue reading…
We thought the new color palate was to blue and failed too compliment the stationary design.
Ever since the early days of advertising, when art and copy were handled in separate departments, it’s been a long-running joke that graphic designers can’t spell. Well, like most jokes, there’s probably a little truth to that. And, of course, with the prevalence of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogging, the evidence of designer spelling deficiencies has expanded. In my opinion, in a world of auto-correct and spell-check, it’s not the traditional “typos” that designers struggle with today. It’s the homonyms (sometimes more correctly referred to as homophones). These are words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently. The issue isn’t typos, it’s the use of correctly spelled words in the wrong context.
So, just in time for the New Year, we’ve provided our top “designer vocabulary words” as a creative community service to help our fellow designers figure out which (or is that witch?) word they actually mean to use.
Continue reading…
Happy holidays. Share the love.
The 2010 holiday cards are here! 7 cards. 7 designs. 7 chances to spread holiday cheer with friends, family, or clients. We’ve been busy elves here at Miles Design, and we’re each excited to share our finished designs and inspiration with you all. Enjoy!
Card 1 of 7 // Imagined by Brian Gray
My card was inspired by childhood memories of all the great patterns on wrapping paper. When you’re a kid, nothing is better than ripping into a perfectly wrapped present. I wanted to create a nice, wintery pattern and style it to an old-fashioned feel. The lyric I chose not only reminded me of the fun, commercial side of Christmas–but also the true reason for Christmas: the birth of Christ.
Continue reading…
Christmas is just around the corner, and it’s been a busy holiday season here at Miles Design. The 2010 holiday cards are in the mail, and we’re excited to finally share them with you. We’ve been hard at work (while having fun), and here’s a peek into the process and progress over the last month or so.
(The fourth article in a four-part series)
Now that your professional services website is attracting searchers, passing the two second test, and has valuable content, your next online engagement goal should be to encourage repeat visitors.
Think about the sites that you routinely visit. I’m guessing that seldom updated, bland, self-serving sites aren’t very high on your list. Most people only frequent sites that offer entertainment value, the opportunity to learn something new, or regular updates. Of course regular doesn’t have to be several times per day, but it helps to be consistent. Daily updates are difficult to maintain, but once a month may not be enough to encourage repeat visits. Find a pace that works best for you.
Blogs and other social media updates are often the easiest to keep up with on a regular basis, but let’s consider more than the type of content you post–let’s think about the other ways to remind visitors to return. RSS, email subscriptions, and social links are other great ways to notify your audience when your site has been updated.
Bonus: A Little Help From Your Friends.
Don’t feel like you have to do all of the work yourself. Social sharing features make it easier for your visitors to share your site with your friends as well. Consider using Like This, Share This, Send to a Friend, and ReTweet features in your next site update as well.
So there you have it. The four levels of engagement for your professional services website.
In case you missed one of the earlier articles, they’re linked below:
Level 1 – Be found.
Level 2 – Pass the Two-Second Test.
Level 3 – Provide Strong, Compelling Content.
Level 4 – Keep Them Coming Back.
What are the best methods you have used to foster engagement on your website?
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