Hello everyone….

I recently visited ClickZ and found an article that interested me entitled “Advertiser Directories: The Key to Successful Online Ads”

Now let me start off by being completely honest here… Online Advertising is an area that I am just getting my feet wet in and as such some of the concepts and terminology are a bit alien to me.

Having said that, somewhere around paragraph 10 the “light went on” and I went back and re-read the whole article. The basic idea was to take the concept of Advertiser Directories which are typically found in magazines, usually in the latter portion of the magazine there is an area which list advertisers and which keeps the advertising in the “main” portion of the mag to a minimum thereby allowing the reader to enjoy the content much more, and apply the idea to online advertising.

One of the ideas that was provided was the Marketing Web Site set up by Architectural Digest, which features not only straight forward online advertising, by mini articles which link to advertisers sites as well as contest and sweepstakes.

At first blush I think that this is a tremendous idea. Personally I am not a big fan of the current “crop” of online advertising offerings which seem, at least to these eyes, to be focused more on “glitz, animation and annoyance” then anything truly informative. Also, I had to chuckle when I read the article authors comment:

“If only I had a dollar for every time I caught a glimpse of an interesting banner just as I was clicking off a page, to search for it in vain (curse tight frequency caps). I can only imagine consumers are doing the same.”

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a banner ad that I was actually INTERESTED in, just as I was clicking off the page only to sigh and resign myself to the knowledge that it would take an eternity to go back and rapid click in the hopes of finding that same ad again.

While I haven’t sat down and thought through all of the ramifications of online advertiser directories, it just seems to me setting up a directory system where you have access to all of the advertisers that a particular site or company wants to promote and that would be topical to the site would be incredibly well received.

I can imagine a situation where you would have a site that is lighter in advertising content and heavier on topical content but included links (via the banners etc) to the Advertisers Directory portion of the site (or a separate site in the case of the AD example) where visitors could view all of the adverts together. Not only would that be more convenient for the visitor, but advertisers would know that, when a visitor clicks on the directory link, they are in the mindset of wanting information on a product, in other words…. they are there to buy a product or service rather than trying to find the clickable area on the latest popup banner that will CLOSE the window!

Take care everyone,

Skip

Affordable Web Design in the San Francisco Bay Area

Graphic Design and Web Design Portfolio

Well… it’s near midnight on a Sunday and I’m about ready to start a new work week here at the studio.

I just finished my last assignment for my current class with the International Webmasters Association…Legal Issues for Web Designers and Content Managers. This was a great class, and one I have been looking forward to taking as I think that the legal aspects of web design is something that many designers do not consider fully during the course of a project and I want to be able to add that to the list of services I offer my clients.

I’m going to keep this post short and sweet as I am… very……… nearly………. falling aslee…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HUH, WHAT??, WHAT DID I MISS?!?!?! oh…. my I hate that. In any event, for those who may be interested, here is a course summary that I put together as a sort of week-to-week class journal…

Legal Issues Class Summary.

Take Care everyone… I’m for bed!
Skip

Okay, first a disclaimer:

This will be a thread of posts that is not directly related to web design, graphic design, illustration, photography, animation, drafting, technical illustration, branding, email marketing, search engine optimization, small business ownership or the current political situation in the tiny Republic of Alviso…

However, this is one of those things that I like to do periodically because it is so vital to keeping my creative spirit, sense of wonder and child-like adventurous spirit (careful now… I said “child-like”, not childish) nurtured.

But I digress…

The background:
Right before my children were born and became my passion, I said good-bye to my then current passion; gaming.  Specifically, miniature wargaming.  The entire lot went up on ebay and, while it did fetch a good price, I was sad to see it go.

(sigh) at least I still have the pictures:

Since then, my life has centered around my children, my job (I still had my day job at that point) my new business etc, etc.  Not much room for cool toys and whimsical hobbies.

So, here I am, 3 years later.  The kids are growing, I’ve left my day job, my business is doing well and I seem to have at least some sense of settling in to a much more predictable day-to-day life (predictable, but far from boring).  I find myself with some discretionary gray matter which I can reserve for “fun”.  So I came up with the idea of putting up a shelf in my office which will contain “fun” stuff;  toys, statues, reminders of my childhood etc.

A quick trip to IKEA brought me home the shelf I needed and it was installed the same afternoon.

And so here we are… my shelf is up and is already populated with such things as my Lord of the Rings Statues (Gollum, Minas Tirith and the Argonath:

I have been enjoying the idea of researching vintage toys from places such as Amazon.com where I have my wish list and look forward to adding more and more to my collection, catering to my whimsical fun side and childlike sense of adventure and wonder (once again, for those of you keeping score, I said CHILDLIKE, not CHILDISH)

And so begins “The Shelf Chronicles”…

Hail the Recreational!!
Skip 

As many of you may know, the name Shadowbend comes from a small cottage somewhere on Gist road in the hills south of Los Gatos.  Ever since I was a toddler my family has had a tradition of going to the Four Winds Christmas Tree Farm in the Santa Cruz mountains.  We would take the winding road up to Skyline Blvd and on the way, pass a cottage on a tight bend in the mountain road.  There was a small sign outside that just read “Shadowbend”.  For some reason the name resonated with me I have kept it in mind for years.  When the time came to name my business, it did not take long to come up with “Shadowbend Studios”.

During the Autumn of 2006 I took a few “photo junkets” and in September I headed south to Santa Cruz, over to Fresno then back up through the Gold Country.  On my way down highway 17 I decided to take a detour up Black Road to see if I might be able to locate that old cottage.  I had not been on that route in years but I knew it as if I had done it the day before.  It was strange how familiar it was after so long.  After a few miles up on Gist road I came to a hair pin turn and there it was… right there in front of me.

I knew the house instantly even though the sign was not there anymore.  I parked and took a few shots of the place and even went so far as to walk up to the front door and knock to see if anyone was home.  I was actually going to inquire as to whether they were the same owners and might still have the sign stored someplace! I must have stayed there in front of the cottage for the better part of a half hour… just taking it in.  It was a wonderful experience to reconnect with the place that held memories for me and helped me create the spirit of my new business.

Happy New Year to you all,Blessings,Skip

Well, it’s just a few days until Christmas…  The shopping is done, the presents are wrapped, the lights are up, the tree is decorated and I am busy tonight wrapping up some projects for clients before the holiday.

I wanted to take a moment to share with you all a video that my friend Lewis Nowosad of the Bay Area Paranormal Association  turned me on to.  This is one of those things that defines a person’s character to others :)  Either you “get” the humor or you will come away, head askew with a “tsk tsk” look on your face, wondering where my parents went wrong.

In any case…. enjoy!

Happy Halloween one and all…
I typically learn something from every client I have the pleasure of doing business with, but with the launch of Aesop’s Editions- The Art of Sharon Augusta Mitchell, I was treated to a very unique educational experience.
Sharon is a tremendously talented artist located in Lafayette and Berkeley. She works in digital an traditional media but her hallmark (in my never-to-be-humble opinion) is Mezzotinting and Aquatinting.
I know…. most of you are slowly shaking your head…. Mezzo-what?!?! I did too during my first meeting at Sharon’s exceptionally cool studio (which intertwines, ivy like, throughout her home). So for those of you who are interested I will direct you to Sharon’s comprehensive article on Mezzotinting located on her website, rather than having me butcher any sort of definition on the technique.
Working with Sharon was not only very enjoyable (we seem to share the same wry and somewhat disturbing sense of humor) but also extremely educational, we have shared tips and experiences on everything from software and Mac’s vs. PC’s to practical jokes and the “angst” of fine art students!

That’s all for now… time to take the kids out to reconnoiter some sweets!
Blessings,
Skip

Shadowbend Studios has once again made it’s presence known in the Great State of Wisconsin. After working with Robin LeGrand on the website for her folk’s Nursery, LeGrands Gardens, I was contacted by Eileen Hammer Housfeld to work on a project for the Museum of Wisconsin Art. I was delighted to meet with Eileen and take on the project with her. I must say at this point that I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the people I have met and worked with from Wisconsin. Eileen; my contact in California, Darryl; the campaign manager in Wisconsin and Kyle Tuska of the Hoppmann Group who handled the printing were all extremely easy to work with and genuinly nice, pleasant people. Now every project has it’s snags and obstacles but even considering this, working with this team was very smooth and enjoyable.

The museum is currenty embarking on a project to fund the building of a new facility and it was our job to design the presentation package to be sent to potential contributors. We ended up with a 16 page presentation complete with the new floor plans, a beautifully embossed cover and a nice amount of representative work by Wisconsin artists.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my 6 month involvement with the project was my continued exposure to Adobe InDesign. I had previously only used the program for smaller projects but I got a really good workout with InDesign CS3 and I am now completely devoted to the program! I can now produce projects that I previously would have done in either Illustrator or Photoshop much faster, with more accuracy and flexibility in InDesign. And with the new features of the CS3 package I could not be happier with the product.

I am very proud of the contribution I made to this project and I look forward to working with Eileen in the furture (or at least meeting for coffee at our usual table in Starbucks!)

Every day is a blessing,
Cheers,
Skip

Motivated,  professional and on point.  That’s the way I would describe the team over at Accountability Advertising.  It was a pleasure working with Rich, John and Jackie and they helped make the design process very smooth indeed.  I managed to achieve one of the fastest turnaround times for a redesign project and still kept the result clean, professional and stylish.  This was due in no small part to the fact that the Accountability Advertising team knew what they wanted, gave me a definitive “yes” when they saw what they liked and not only let me know when they did not want a particular element but had suggesstions for changing it. I look forward to a continued relationship with everyone at Accountability Advertising.

Time to call it a night!

Skip

It’s a warm evening here at the studio (thank god for air conditioning and ceiling fans).  I was tooling around on a Flash project tonight and had an opportunity to reference a tutorial that I had saved from an excellent online resource for learning Flash so I thought I would take a moment and share it with you all.

Before joining the International Webmasters Association and taking their excellent series of Classes I began my “formal” training in Flash at the website of Jay Dyke, called ”Cartoon Smart“. Jay has an amazingly cool site and, even at the point where I am about to begin my Advance Flash ActionScripting class, I still go back to his site to pick up pointers. His downloadable tutorials are very well priced, easily downloaded and extremely fun. His informal style makes you feel as though he is sitting right next to you but the information he provides is very useful.

I highly recommend this site to anyone interested in furthering their Flash skills.

Cheers,

Skip

I was doing some investigative research today on an HTML problem I was having when I came by this really nice article on web design psychology. Almost seems like a small bit of required reading for web designers as it hits on some important points regarding basic web design philosophy. Kudos to the people at Stylegala for the excellent information they provide. As web designers, we need to be cognizant of not only of the technical nature of our trade, but also the intangibles; good design flow, artistry and design impact. Well done to Andy Rutledge at NetSuccess on his article.

Cheers,

Skip