Photo Shoot Sneak Peek

Last week we had a fun opportunity to soak in a little sun and partake in a studio photo shoot.

Not only did the weather cooperate for the outdoor portion of the shoot, but we were also able to stretch our legs and explore the City we know and love.

There are more pics where these came from. We will post more updates and photos soon!

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e! team taking selfies at the Post Alley gum wall.

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Bill catching the e! team in action.

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Lisa at the Kong mural. 

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Thanks to Bill Wright for capturing the e! magic and Anna De La Paz for catching the behind the scenes photos.

Welcome Back!

We love reconnecting with old friends and clients – one in the same. Our friend Ken Coleman, President of Compass General Construction recently gave us a call. We originally designed the logo for his NEW company over 14 years ago.

 

Needless to say, we had a little catching up to do. They have been doing some wonderful projects over the years that are transformative in their industry. We look forward to working together once again and helping them with new marketing efforts and website redesign.

A New Website for Arctic Club Hotel in Seattle

Sometimes a "brand".com site just isn’t enough to promote the true character of a hotel. This is when a Vanity Site is the right choice. The Arctic Club Seattle - a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel is an exquisite hotel that combines the grandeur and spirit of the 20^th century men’s club it once housed.  The Arctic Club Hotel’s eclectic interiors and first class amenities serve even the most discriminating business and leisure travelers. Our challenge was to capture the elegance and style of the hotel within a classic yet modern framework that incorporated content management tools and important social media features.

  

The result is grand, featuring large, glorious photos, hotel historic facts, easy navigation, all within a responsive web solution that scales gracefully from desktop to tablet to mobile device. We invite you to visit the site at: www.thearcticclubseattle.com

Going Mobile

Global mobile traffic data grew 159% in 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row.* Capture your market share with a website designed by Effective Design Studio. We develop responsive web solutions that maximize our client’s marketing reach. A responsive website is a web solution that elegantly scales to the format of the viewing device–desktop, tablet, or mobile device — with striking results.

Our latest web launch is a new responsive website for Seattle Dances!, a Plymouth Housing Group annual fundraising event now in its third year. With a 397% increase in mobile device usage over last year, the Seattle Dances website needed redesigning to improve access anywhere, anytime. The new responsive website maximizes online donations and voting opportunities for fans supporting their favorite dancers — all from their mobile device. Additionally, the website is built on a WordPress platform with built in content management tools, allowing Plymouth staff to make ongoing updates throughout the event season.

Before you begin developing your new website, talk to the professionals at Effective Design Studio. Responsive web solutions for the growing Mobile market.

* Cisco Report

What do CNN, Lollapalooza and Volkswagen all have in common?

They all use WordPress. What started as an open source blogging tool and publishing platform is quickly becoming the tool of choice for Content Management Systems used for everything from the coffee shop on the corner to major news outlets. Not to mention Katy Perry and Jay-Z.

As it turns out, here at e! we are on the cutting edge. We've been busy creating custom web solutions using WordPress for clients for the past few years. Check out our lastest project for Plymouth Housing Group's Seattle Dances. It's even optimized for mobile devices!

Contact us to find out how we can help you build your business through the Web.

5 Reasons Why Websites Still Matter

We came across a great article on why websites still matter.  Check out the article below.  Here at Effective Design Studio we not only do great website design, we can give you a complete content management system that allows you to keep your website up to date yourself.  Contact us today to learn more.

Five Reasons Why Websites Still Matter
by: Mikal E. Belicove

Source: The Daily Dose blog

You know you must leverage Facebook, Twitter and word-of-mouth marketing to increase awareness of your brand. But the fact is, websites remain infinitely more popular with consumers than all of the business pages on social media sites combined.

Only 22 percent of those of us online in the U.S. visit a branded social networking page such as those found on Facebook, while 62 percent of us regularly visit branded websites, according to the latest Global Web Index report. If you were starting to let your site become outdated or haggard, consider a refresh. After all, as these figures note, websites still matter.

Here are five reasons why you shouldn't ignore yours:

1. Branding: Since it's your site, you set the design, which affords you the flexibility to optimize the user experience in ways that directly support your business model and brand-related goals. There's no competition on your website, just a branded experience that you direct yourself.

read the rest of the article here.

Building Your Multi-family Brand

With the uptick of new apartment buildings in the Puget Sound region, competition for those signed leases will be high. To capture your market share, there are a few things you should know about renters.

Apartment renters are historically fickle, moving to the latest hip new apartment at the end of every lease. They love the carefree lifestyle of renting – and enjoy being a part of what is new. Consequently, apartment marketing must appeal to their gypsy souls. This is where the fun begins.

Start building a brand with the right name and brand identity that differentiates your apartment community from the competition. Each community has its Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This might be building amenities, location, transportation access, architectural style, luxury, sustainability, views and more. We dug into our archives to share a few favorites that really delivered on their USP.

The Bravern — modern luxury lifestyle
Island Square — classic Mercer Island style
Equinox — South Lake Union living
Site 17 — funky, old time Belltown vibe

Great branding and design as the foundation of a robust marketing program quickly delivered signed leases for these communities.

Who is the one-stop design firm for naming, branding, web design, mobile sites, SEO, social media, blogs, online ads, eblasts, newsletters, and events? It’s Effective Design Studio! We are creators of robust marketing programs that get the word out and the renters in. Find out more by contacting us today.

William Wright Photography: Beautiful Images Demand Simplicity

In his search for an online solution that reflected his brand, and provided content management tools, Bill Wright turned to Effective Design Studio.

Having recently designed the new brand identity for William Wright Photography, our team understood the company's core values and personal style. It was also important that the design solution be simple yet rich, to provide a neutral background to display his award-winning images. The result is outstanding. His collections of exceptional photography can be viewed at www.williamwrightphoto.com.

Keep it current: Now more than ever, a company's website needs to allow for fluid content. Keeping your company's latest work and news on your website allows for more opportunities to connect with clients in a meaningful way. Read our blog article on how integration tools can allow clients to manage and update their websites themselves or contact us for more details.

Keep It Current

Static HTML sites are becoming a thing of the past. Clients now frequently want the ability to update content on their own schedule without having to go back to the site’s original designer for each and every change. We can't blame them. Clients who make changes as often as they need to can keep overhead lower, and keep content more current. Who doesn't want to do that?

CMS Solutions
There are more options for CMS (Content Management Systems) solutions every day. They are becoming lighter weight, easier to install and more non-tech friendly. The types of CMSs vary widely from software such as Adobe Contribute, blog-based software like WordPress, to more robust systems like Joomla or Drupal — not to mention all the options in between. Custom systems can also be designed depending on the needs of the client.

The CMS system you choose depends on what you need it to do for you. For example, one company might want to be able to add new articles to their blog and have them appear on the home page, while rarely making changes to the rest of the pages on their site. This was the case when we worked with Plymouth Housing Group and William Wright Photography. Other companies might want the freedom to change just a few pages but with high frequency, as Urban Visions did for their vacancy listings. Finally, some need control of the entire site in order to keep up with an ever-evolving event, like Plymouth Housing did for their "Seattle Dances" fundraising event. Here at e!, we were able to work with each of these clients to customize their CMS solution.

Customizing the Look
Maintaining the client's brand and messaging is top priority. But as designers, we know that the design and content need to look great to get visitors engaged and spend the maximum time on your site. The longer they stay, the more great content they will find delivering your message. So, even moreThe good news is that in addition to becoming easier to build and update, these tools are also becoming easier to customize for the look and feel.

Getting There From Here
Do we have you intrigued? Interested in a new web solution or Content Management System so you can have control of your web site? Contact us to find out how we can help you find the right solution to for your web presence.


Article sources:

• Content Management System
• List of Content Management Systems
• How To Choose the Right Management System