Archive for May, 2009
Interruptive Marketing vs Invited Media
Posted by mark in Industry News on May 14th, 2009
Last Saturday my son called and asked if I wanted to go to one of the beach parks in Boca Raton for a couple hours. It was a beautiful day so I said “sure, sounds like a great way to relax and get caught up on some reading”. Upon arrival at the park we made our way down one of the nature trails until we found the perfect spot. It was located near a grove of palm trees that provided some shade and was elevated about 15 feet above the beach. There were only a few people at the beach so it was nice and quite and the view awesome. Waves broke into a white foam on the sand that contrasted with the brilliant turquoise ocean, birds were singing, the smell of the sea…PERFECT!
Then I hear an airplane, it gets louder and louder until it pops into sight towing a banner for McDonalds that reads “You Deserve a Break Today”.
Are you kidding me! I was enjoying a quiet break in paradise and McDonalds interrupts it with an old, polluting, smoking, noisy plane and sticks their message in the pristine blue sky and tell me I deserve a break!
It made me think about how old school, disruptive marketing tactics are dying because the internet has disinter-mediated itself into the equation. TV, outdoor, and radio advertising is down, newspapers are going bankrupt and people now do not have to buy into the old media of the past. Consumers are in charge now, effective marketing is invited marketing. That is why I am so big on Search Marketing. A customer searches for what they want and you deliver a relevant solution with a good Pay Per Click campaign or SEO strategy right at the time the customer is looking.
By the way McDonalds, I’ll pass on your offer and plan enjoy my breaks at the beach…
iPhone bookmark icon
One of my favorite things to do when completing a site is to create an iPhone bookmark icon. It’s a very simple and helps add to the brand experience of the site. It’s one of those minor things that most people don’t know about or do not bother to do.
All you need to do is create a 57×57 png file, display whatever logo or image you wish and save the file as apple-touch-icon.png and upload it into the root directory of the site. That’s it! When a user views the site and bookmarks the site to their Home Screen your new icon will display. It will automatically have the rounded edges and the glassy effect added.
Here are a few iPhone icons that we created.
Tutorial: How to Draw Circles to Impact Your Design
Posted by Jessica in Graphic Design, Tutorials on May 6th, 2009
Here are just a few examples on how unique circles can impact your design. Follow the tutorial below and start transforming your designs.
1. Open Adobe Illustrator
2. Go to File, New
3. The New Document Window open and here is were you can select/change your document size, color mode and raster effects, then press OK
4. Go to File, Save As and save to your specified location/folder, then press OK.
5. Now that your document is at the appropriate size and that you have saved it, select and hold the rectangle tool on the left hand tool bar. From the “Rectangle Tool” will be a drop down menu. Go down and select the “Ellipse Tool.”
6. To draw a circle, hold down the shift key and drag your mouse to the size of the circle desired.
7. To change the color of a circle, select the “selection tool” (top black arrow) on the tool bar
8. Select the circle and the circle will now have a blue outline
9. At the very bottom of the tool bar, there is a “Stroke” and a “Fill” option. To start with, select the “Stroke” option and double click.
10. The “Color Picker Menu Box” will appear. The “Color Picker Menu Box” allows you to select any color. Once you have selected a color of your choice, press “OK.”
11.To change the stroke of the circle, use the “Selection Tool” and highlight the circle. Go to Window, Stroke. A Stroke box will open and here is were you can change the weight of the stroke, the end point of the stroke (squared or rounded edge), or if you want a dash line and the size of the space.
12. To copy this circle, highlight it with your “Selection Tool” and hold down “Option” and drag the circle.
13. To fill a circle, by using the “Selection Tool,” highlight the circle, and double click the “Fill” palette at the bottom of the tool bar. The “Color Picker Menu Box” will open and select a color of your choice, press “OK.”
14. If at any time you would like to change the size of your circle, select the “Free “Transform Tool,” and a blue box will appear around the circle. Using your arrow, hold down the shift key and grab any corner of the blue box. This will allow you to shrink or enlarge the circle.
15. To arrange your circles, you have two options, one: is to create a small pattern and bring it into Photoshop and create a seamless background pattern. Second: to create your own pattern by placing the circles in any position you feel looks or works best.
16. If you want to use option one, create a pattern like the one shown. Copy your pattern and then open Photoshop. Once the New document window opens, press Ok.
17. Paste your pattern into Photoshop. A paste menu box will open and “Smart Object” is selected and press Ok.
18. Go to Edit, Define Pattern.
19. Name your pattern. Then press Ok.
20. Go to File, New. The New document window will open. Name your file, change your document size, resolution and color mode.
21 Go to Edit, Fill.
22. Under Contents-Use, select “Pattern.” Pull the “Custom Patter” drop down menu.
23. Select your pattern. And press Ok.
24. Now, you have a seamless background layout in Photoshop. Now, go to File, Save As. And Save to your specified location.
25. For option two: Go back into Illustrator and select the circle you wish to copy. (Hold down option and drag). You can now rearrange the circles as you wish as seen below.
26. Once you are satisfied with you design, go to File, Save As.
27. Now with either your Seamless Background Pattern or your Pattern constructed in Illustrator, you can now use them within your designs as needed.
Hope you have enjoyed the tutorial! Good luck! And have fun! 
Take Your Kids to Work Day
Posted by admin in Agency Web News on May 6th, 2009
Recently AgencyWeb was visited by two very special guests Tiffany(3rd grade) and Vicky(9th grade). On the “Take Your Kids to Work” day. Both guests were very excited to visit our agency and take an inside look at the processes and procedures of our Web Marketing Agency.
The goal: Create, design and implement a new business entity and marketing strategy.
Their first task was a morning meeting with our chief web marketing officer Mark Hughes and the creative staff here at AgencyWeb. During the meeting they discussed what their ideas were for their business was and came up with a creative concept and marketing strategy. Which included a new company name, logo and Pay-Per-Click campaign implementation.
Shortly thereafter the task of creating a new logo was brought into the graphic design department. As our guests watched the logo creation process they provided input on the new design.
Once the logo was completed, the next task was to meet with the Web Design department and create a website for their company. Their ideas and input on their company’s website design, layout, graphics and content was a great start for the web design team. With all this information gathered, our web design team went to work in creating a website for their new business Jewelry of Roses.
With the website design and programming completed. It was time to combine all the elements and take it to the web. With a domain and host setup our web design team quickly had their company online and ready for the next step, website marketing.
Our web marketing team fired up the Google analytics and Pay-Per-Click campaigns. Briefed them on the basics of a good website marketing campaign strategy and showed them their company’s Google ads online.
Putting it all together: With all the elements completed, AgencyWeb delivered a complete business package from idea to implementation, to finally web marketing. At the end of the day Tiffany and Vicky had a great appreciation for the opportunity to spend a day at
AgencyWeb and meet with the creative team that is the driving force behind it.
Spanish River High: “Pieces of Eight”
Posted by Jessica in Agency Web News on May 1st, 2009
At Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, Florida, young artists, graphic designers, writers and photographers are beginning their path for success. Lauren Horniker, a Creative Writing teacher at Spanish River continued the school’s 25 year tradition on designing and publishing a magazine called “Pieces of Eight.” This magazine is a collaboration of student’s photography, artwork and poetry. Ms. Horniker had over 100 poetry submissions and selected the 25 best. Nicole Walker, a student at Spanish River designed the entire magazine using student’s photos, artwork and poetry. When Nicole started this assignment, she knew very little about InDesign but because she was passionate about the success of the magazine, she learned the necessary steps and functions to accomplish the tasks. I had the opportunity to work with Nicole on a few production tasks to get the file ready to be printed. Overall, I was impressed with her interest in wanting to learn about graphic design, her skills she already knew about design and the challenge she took to complete such a large task.
Last night, I attended the debut/award ceremony for the magazine and had the chance to meet the very talented poets, photographers and other artists and their parents. The magazine that Ms. Horniker published taught students a lot about writing, designing, time management, team building and many other important skills that these students will take with them as they move forward on their path for success.
