Guido's Corner

Well hello there! Long time no bark. It's still summer and there's still time to take some quick day trips from Seattle. Since I visit Yakima a lot (my Mom's from there) I thought I would share some of my favorite stops along I-90. I really like riding in the car so when the folks say "let's go bye-bye" my tail starts wagging and I'm ready to rock.

One of my favorite towns along I-90 is Snoqualmie, just a 30-minute drive and you're there! It's so close, yet feels so far away. I'm not allowed to go to the Falls there but you should check them out, I hear they're amazing! If you can splurge a little why not do lunch at Salish Lodge overlooking the Falls? There's also a casino nearby and don't forget to check out downtown Snoqualmie, it's quaint and loaded with shops and restaurants to browse. With Mt. Si nearby there is also tons of hiking in the area.

A little further east along I-90 and we find ourselves in Roslyn. This town was made famous by being a filming location for Northern Exposure back in the day, but it's so much more than that! With the recent addition of Suncadia Resort nearby you can golf, dine, shop and play in this very small town. Don't leave without stopping by The Brick, Washington's oldest operating bar!

And finally, have you been to Yakima lately? It's booming! Stop by the visitor center when you get there, but here are some fun ideas: winery tours, a visit to Ummelina Day Spa, lunch at Geppetto's, shopping at the Farmer's Market, dinner at Gasperetti's, float the Yakima River, and more! The fun things to do there are plenty and the sunny days last well into the fall.

Gotta run, I think I hear the car starting up!

Good Examples of Responsive Web Design

We love responsive design -- sites that adjust the layout according to a user's screen size, platform and orientation. It means that the site looks good and is easy to read in practically every scenario.

Here are some examples that we like.

Three Column - Standard computer

Two Column - Tablet in portrait orientation

One Column - Phone

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One Column - Phone 

Three Column - Standard computer

Infographic about Facebook Interactions

MoonToast brings us a fantastic infographic about the anatomy of a Facebook fan. It clarifies the capabilities for each tier of connection and demystifies how Facebook determines what is "Top News."

Click on the graphic to see the full version.

Read the original post at MoonToast.

Thinking of starting on your Annual Report for 2011 - is yours pretty enough?

We found the following study quite interesting. The design of your Annual Report does matter!

via the University of Miami School of Business website:
A Prettier Annual Report Makes Investors Value a Company Higher, Says Study from University of Miami School of Business
As firms begin the 2011 annual report process, which many do at this time of year, they may want to pay closer attention to the way those reports look. A recent study out of the School of Business Administration found that investors, regardless of their experience, place a higher value on firms with attractive annual reports than they do on those that produce less attractive reports. The study found that annual reports that utilize more color are perceived to have at least one percent higher annual revenues than those with lackluster designs.

“The role of aesthetics in consumer goods like those you’d find on store shelves has been widely studied, but our research is novel in that we look at this effect in the extreme context of financial decision-making and what we find is just how boundless the role of aesthetics can be,” said Claudia Townsend, assistant professor of marketing at the School of Business, who conducted the research with Suzanne Shu at UCLA. “Better-looking documents produce increased pride of ownership for a company, and this pride increases valuation. People are not aware of the effect of aesthetics on their financial decisions and we found that when their attention was drawn to this issue they were able to overcome the bias and make wiser investments.”

Researchers conducted a series of three studies: one with finance students, one with members of the general population, and one with more experienced investors. Respondents in each study indicated that the design of a firm’s annual report would be of little significance in their valuation of a company. But after reviewing the first few pages and/or a sampling of annual reports, participants rated firms with more attractive reports higher than those with less attractive reports.

Specifically:

In the student study, in which participants were given the first three pages of two annual reports with the same financial information, the students priced the stock shares of a firm with the more attractive annual report nearly 70 percent higher than shares of a firm with the less attractive report.

In the general population study, respondents gave the product of a company with a more attractive annual report an average rating of 5.08 on a seven-point scale versus a rating of 4.79 for the product of a company with a less attractive annual report.
In the study involving experienced investors, in which participants were asked to rank companies based on how likely they would be to invest in those firms, the findings suggested that including an additional color throughout a firm’s annual report would have the same impact on an investor’s firm ranking as a 20 percent improvement in revenue from the previous year.

“The implications of these findings should point firms in the direction of good graphic designers,” added Townsend. “After all, it is a lot easier to add color to a printed piece of paper than to add revenue to a company’s bottom line.”

The research paper can be found online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740810000677.

Here is the Annual Report e! recently designed for Plymouth Housing Group:

Contact Effective Design Studio today with any Annual Report design needs.

Just for Fun - Bumbershoot Ads

It's not everyday that we get to design something that resembles a rock poster, so when Polygon NW asked us to create an ad for the Bumbershoot guide we were thrilled. We had fun coming up with ideas that would catch the attention of the concert-goers and be appropriate to the event. 

Here are some of our comps, starting with the the winning design. Enjoy!

All images © Effective Design Studio

Leave it to Apple to create the coolest projector yet

Image: Patently Apple

Just the other day, the e! team was discussing ways to capitalize on new technology to improve our presentations. Like many of our clients, we still rely on traditional means -- projectors or LCD monitors powered by a laptop -- but we want to use a handheld device, like an iPad, to wirelessly run the show. This conversation spun off a flurry of research within our office that will undoubtedly help us improve our presentations.

But that was last week. Yesterday, a patent was uncovered that gave us a glimpse into what Apple has planned for our future. It appears that they're integrating a projector into their iPhones and iPads, which is great, but not really newsworthy since other devices are already doing that.

The headline to this story is that the projection will recognize gestures. Not the device, but the projection. You could interact with your projections by enlarging an area of an image or moving elements. Basically, whatever you could do on your touch device would be possible on the projected image.

This advancement could help us improve the quality of our presentations, but it could also enable us to collaborate in a more meaningful way. Our brainstorming or critique sessions could take on a whole new life if multiple people could interact with the projected digital elements.

Now to hope that Apple develops the technology quickly.

If you want more details about the Apple patent and the projector technology, check out Wired.com's coverage of the story.

Our logo design is moving on up...

...to reside, in a deluxe data center in the sky.

Several years ago we designed the Intergate logo for the Sabey corporation. Since then the logo has been on the move and can be seen on all their data centers across the nation. Recently Sabey acquired the principal interest in 375 Pearl Street in Manhattan. This Effective Design Studio designed logo is moving on up!

This new data center will be repositioned as Intergate.Manhattan, a one million square foot technology focused commercial tower. To read more about the project, please view Sabey's press release here.

Here's a little more of our graphic and signage work from the past. This is the monument sign we designed for Intergate.West which is the headquarters of Sabey Data Centers. Congratulations to Sabey on their growth and here's to the e! designed logo spreading across the nation!