We began by condensing the main navigation options and re-organizing the flow of content throughout the site to be more user-friendly. We removed unnecessary content that was cluttering the site, such as weather widgets, a search bar and event specific menus that were more confusing than they were helpful.

Once the site map was worked out, we developed a wireframe that was more suitable to the functionality we were looking for and began thinking about the design. A style was created that blends the formality of the catering company with the friendly, laid-back BBQ cuisine they are best known for serving.

We limited the color palate, focusing on blending formal event catering with casual backyard BBQ. The majority of images on the site were replaced with impressive photography that represents Great Caterer’s style and selection. We kept the interior pages clean and accessible, with text that is easy to read and graphic elements that enhance the user experience.

Overall, we feel that the site better represents the company, while functioning in a way that is easy for users to find the information they need and get in contact.

Working with the existing 3-dimensional red W that, strangely enough, seems to be the only red W anywhere in the hotel. We created an illustrative graphic element that captures the essence of the hotel’s water features and wraps all five sides of the acrylic box. Visitors to the W are now welcomed by a serene splash of purple and blue, accented by a pop of red! You can see the dramatic transformation in the before and after pictures above and below.

On the new Dos Gringos website, you’ll find it’s easier than ever to find exactly what you’re looking for. Trying to find directions to the closest Dos Gringos location? Curious if they’re pouring your favorite drink specials this evening? In the mood for some late night grub? Want to scope out the menu with your co-workers before lunch? Or perhaps you need to setup a party for Larry’s 30th birthday after work on Friday? All this and more can be accessed with just a couple clicks and a few minutes of your time.

Complete with a super easy, “my Grandmother could do it” content management system, Dos Gringos can now access their site and update it from any computer, anywhere. This permits both the marketing personnel as well as the owners to make changes to specials, the menus, photos, and more, all with a simple internet connection. A huge asset indeed for such a fast-paced company.

The biggest hurdle with this project was determining the best way to organize the content. While every Dos Gringos has a happy hour, serves food, and pours tasty beverages, every location doesn’t offer the exact same specials at the exact same times. After doing some research and beating up a few layouts in house, we determined it would be most effective to post an all-inclusive specials page, along with some location specific tidbits that went into more detail… And judging by the analytics over the first couple weeks, it seems patrons are now easily navigating through the site to find the content they want.

All in all, we were able to have some fun with the design and content, and it was a pleasure bringing the new site to life. The hardest part was fighting off the day-dreams of being on the patio at Dos, munching some nachos, and sipping on some coronas. Damn distractions, no wonder it took an extra week to complete

Let us know your thoughts on the design and navigation in the comments below. We’re always open for a good rogering.

This year, Twestival is aiming to highlight eight areas which are preventing some of our poorest youth around the world from going to school and getting the education they need and deserve. Events hosted on the same night around the world will be selecting a specific area to donate to, and Phoenix has put its best foot forward to aid in the building of schools to help those less fortunate.

As part of our sponsorship, we whipped up a couple new snazzy t-shirt designs that Brand X will be printing and delivering to the event. Big thanks to Charles for setting up the online shopping cart so attendees can “pimp” out their shirts with a custom Twitter handle.

Along with the shirt designs, we’ll also be hooking up some signage for the event to show the sponsors some love, and a large and in charge step and repeat banner to capture the moment for attendees.

Twestival is a 100% volunteer organized event, and wouldn’t be possible without great folks like Chris Lee, Wesley Novak, Heather Lee, Jenny Carnie and many more. Everyone has really chipped in once again to help with the logistics of the event as well as raising donations. We’re slowly inching our way towards the goal of $7,500, and hope to beat out Twestival San Francisco after the night of the event. It’s going to be a close one, so all the help we can get is greatly appreciated!

I mean, could you think of a better way to use social media for social good? I sure can’t

How it works:

Once your digital billboard space has been purchased, you’ll need some eye-catching creative to ensure your message gets out to the target audience. On the Phoenix outdoor network, each billboard has eight rotating advertisements at eight seconds each. As with printed billboards, you’ll want to keep your message short and sweet as viewing time is at a premium. After getting the design aspect squared away, your outdoor ad can be up and running in as little as 24 hours. So not only are printing costs wiped away, but the ability to get your ad displayed is no longer restricted to a monthly basis. Want your ad displayed one day per week? One week per month? Wednesdays at 5pm? A great example is the way various television stations use the medium from around the valley. Got a hot news segment showing on the nightly news, or does Oprah have a special guest on today? As the advertiser, this is about as flexible as it gets, and you can even switch out an ad during the course of the campaign should you feel the results are below targeted expectations.

While some may argue that digital billboards aren’t all I’m cracking them up to be due to exclusivity issues, it all depends on how you approach the situation. Who ever said the advertiser could only buy one eight second spot? With eight spots, each running eight second ads, couldn’t one purchase all eight spots on a billboard? I think so, and with those eight spots, you could display eight different messages that are not only branding your company, but highlighting several important factors of your campaign… And for all my stats people out there, even with 1 spot every 64 seconds, at 17 hours of up time per day, that’s 187,376 spots over the course of a 4 week period. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Digital Billboards in Phoenix, Arizona

All this being said, we recently finished an outdoor digital billboard campaign for London Gold. Being that this is still a somewhat new technology, we were excited to experiment with different color contrasts, and make those diamonds “pop” off the screen as so many clients request. We worked with London Gold to create a variation of ads in order to keep the consumer engaged. Just think, you can hit drivers with variations of the message all while strengthening your brand and gaining exposure. It truly is the new era of outdoor advertising.

I’m just waiting to see when animation will come into play on digital billboards in Phoenix. Is animation something digital billboards can support? If so, are there state and federal laws against motion graphics due to motorist distractions? When I spoke with a rep at Clear Channel, I didn’t really get a definitive answer, and when conducting a search on Google, I came up empty. If you’ve got an answer for me on this one, I’d love to hear it.

Several months later, Chris contacted me to see if we’d be interested in helping out with other Phoenix events including Twestival Local. Without hesitation, we jumped on board and look forward to making a difference by providing support to Twestival Local and the St. Mary’s Food Bank. To get started, Chris wanted us to give the logo a little Phoenix love… So I fired it over to our lead designer, Patricia, and turned her loose.  Switching out the tree with some traditional Phoenix attire (cacti) and rearranging a few elements, our first mission was complete. As we get closer to the event and get more sponsors locked down, we’ll be providing design and printing for signage along with other materials that will be on display and distributed at the event.

Event Info – Save the Date!

Twestival Local (Phoenix) will be held the evening of Friday, September 11^th 2009.

According to the Twestival Phoenix website, the hosts of various Phoenix Friday Night events have graciously offered to combine efforts and make this event one to remember.

Twestival Phoenix Local will be a tweetup for everyone complete with food, drinks, raffle and silent auction. This will be a great opportunity to meet new people from all over the Phoenix valley and have some fun, all while supporting a local charity.

Sounds like a win-win situation if you ask me. If you agree, show your support by adding a “twibbon” to your avatar. You can do so here.

While the event location is still up in the air, you can follow Twestival Phoenix for updates, or check the website for more information as it becomes available.

As a designer who works mostly in static media, I’ve always wanted to delve deeper into understanding Flash and the ActionScript involved in creating dynamic visual elements. This week I began my exploration into learning basic Flash elements to improve our client’s ability to communicate in an increasingly web-centric market.

I am starting with a basic knowledge of how Flash works, but I also understand that what goes on behind the scenes is a much more complicated thing. If you’ve ever tried to learn another language as an adult, you know my frustration in learning ActionScript for the first time. I know what I want to say, now I just have to figure out how to say it in AS! My first assignment was to develop a basic Flash image gallery with scrolling thumbnails. This is an element that many companies with a web presence could find useful, from displaying examples of their own range of work to showcasing event photos, etc. You can see my work below!

What is astounding is the amount of scripting that goes in to something that, on the surface, seems so simple. I’ve pasted below only a small portion of the language that sits behind the visually pleasing surface of this basic Flash gallery.

If you are unfamiliar with any sort of web development, this might surprise you. (If you are familiar, go easy on me, I am just starting out!) In any case, creating Flash elements is, to say the least, a time consuming endeavor. If you are in the market for something like this, be sure to expect a legitimate turn-around time if you want your message to be exceptional. One lesson to take away is that there is a lot more than what meets the eye when it comes to moving messages!

After joining the Tempe Chamber at the beginning of 2009, we’ve had the pleasure of networking and meeting quite a few cool people at round table discussions, lunch mixers and after hours gatherings. While looking for new ways to get involved, I met Kari Sliva, V.P. of Communications and Special Events, and the next thing I knew, our first project was underway.

This Thursday, May 21^st, marks the 14^th Annual Women in Business Conference and Trade Show at the Buttes Resort in Tempe, Arizona. After meeting Kari, we sat down to determine how both parties could benefit the most from Splinter getting involved. We decided on a trade sponsorship where Splinter would provide design and production services, giving this year’s marketing materials and event signage a more cohesive look... And that’s just what we did

The Program Design:

Kari mentioned she wanted it to have a more feminine look and feel than the previous year, but other than that, she gave us the creative freedom to make it happen. After we had the layout and content established, it all boiled down to getting our hands on high res photos and vector logos in order to ensure a clean and crisp printed piece. Thanks to Kari and Brands of the World, we were able to make sure no company had a case of the fuzzy print blues… And I’ll never get tired of hearing her response, “the program is soooo cool.”

Signage Design:

Once the ground work had been laid and the final program design approved, it was time to hammer out the design for the signage. Kari loved the way we integrated slight touches of the vector art used on the program, and after minor revisions, we were ready to move forward with production.

Digital Ads:
Last but not least, the Tempe Chamber had a last minute sponsor jump on board, and they needed a digital ad designed to be put in place asap. As usual, we didn’t cower in fear, we put on the cape and took care of business. Thanks to DCSI, this is being displayed all over town.

Am I missing anything? Ohh yeah… As part of the sponsorship, Splinter has some space to exhibit… But you’ll have to show up and take a peek for yourself to see what it looks like

For starters, the Arizona chapter of “Water for People” needed assistance with the design of a flyer and entry form. I mean, you gotta have the basics in order to get groups interested and signed up for a fun filled day of golfing, drinking and eating, right? Needless to say, they weren’t too picky about the free help, and gave our designers the freedom to do something awesome when putting together the flyer. To the right is what @patty_cake came up with… Pretty killer, no?

The ladies and gents over at Water for People were stoked. Now they had the initial marketing piece that would allow them to start hustling and make the 13^th Annual Tourney one to remember. The only things left were to finalize the sponsors and get some golfers signed up. If you are interested in becoming a part of the event as either a sponsor or golfer, please contact Queenie Tsui by clicking here.

According to their website, Water for People helps those in developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting and developing locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education programs. You know, the stuff we all take for granted on a daily basis.

What came as a shock to me, is the over 800 million people across the world who don’t have access to the clean nectar of Mother Nature, and more than 2.5 billion that don’t have a sanitized place to take care of business. Add those together, and you’ve got about 6,000 people per day that are losing their lives to water-related illnesses… most of them being children. Pretty sad, terrible and unacceptable if you ask me

So without giving you the hard sell, if you’re looking to take some co-workers out for a day of fun in the sun, or you want to schmooze/impress some clients, look at this as the perfect opportunity to help others, escape the office and support a great cause in the 13^th Annual Water for People Golf Tourney.

If nothing else, you get one of these super cool t-shirts to sport around town letting others know you’re down with helping those in need. Seems like a good enough reason, no?

With over 1 million users and 3 million tweets per day, twitter alone is the perfect little tool to market your product or service, meet new people, gain a few leads, or land that next big job. They key is beefing up the profile information with intriguing content that gets others to engage in conversations and learn more about you. Just make sure you have that oh-so-important link to either your Linkedin profile (an online resume for you job-seekers), personal or corporate blog, or directly to your company’s website. Not only can this drive traffic to your business or free lance expertise, it helps educate those starving to obtain more information about you online. No point in making those juicy details hard to find, now is there?

Once you’ve got the content locked down, and you’re keeping pace by actively participating in the ever changing conversations that are happening online (tweets, blog comments, status updates, etc) it’s time to give your profile a professional look and feel. However, for reasons unknown, I see more and more users and businesses that aren’t taking advantage of the impact a custom designed twitter background provides. With some basic contact information, a rad color scheme and a couple cool photos or illustrations, you or your company can have a stronger presence in your social network and stand out from the crowd. Just get creative (or hire a creative, cough-cough) and make the most out of your online wardrobe.

The ultimate goal for any type of networking is to get out there and make more connections in the business world, but until Obama changes the length of a day to 36 hours, many of just don’t have time to hit every networking event we would like. Thus why having a unique online appearance, sharing your story, connecting with others, and engaging in the conversation gains trust and credibility from others (which is what building a brand is all about). So while you may have ¾ on lock down, keep in mind that an interesting look conveying your personality traits and/or a little bit about your business, can gain more qualified followers and friends then you ever imagined (click on image to see a custom background we did for @charshaff). Who knows, maybe you’ll even become the next big twitter star!

Just remember to stick to the basics – whether you’re marketing online, in person or through print, a cohesive look is the key to “great success!”