Well, yesterday evening was a sad day for the world as we marked the passing of Steve Jobs. I consider myself a huge Apple fan and own just about every product they make. I have been fascinated with Apple computers since the first time I worked on one. I saw a piece of hardware and software that felt user-driven. It worked the way I thought. Since my first Apple in 2001 I haven’t looked back. I only hope and pray that Apple’s spirit and drive for design won’t be lost with Steve Jobs.

More importantly though in the passing of Steve Jobs is the realization of who he was as a human being. A man born to a mother shunned for being pregnant out of wedlock and forced to be put up for adoption. He was an entrepreneur who started one of the world’s most successful companies in his garage. He had an uncompromising spirit for quality that carried all of his endeavors and businesses to amazing heights. I like to think of him as a true techno-romantic. Someone who had a special place in his heart for things that were intuitively human. I think he tried to make things that made life easier, not just a product that made money. We can learn much from Steve Jobs in the way that when we do what we are passionate about and give care to the work of our hands we can make amazing things happen.

Steve Jobs you will be missed by us here at Crucé Design.

Come visit 2504 Creative for “A Night of Relief” on Tuesday, June 28th from 6pm-8pm for fun, food and fundraising! Coffee, calendars and paper products available with all donations going to the following causes. We will have amazing coffee and espresso drinks provided by Café Cohen as well as other paper products and calendars from the Southern Life Collection. My charity of choice is a mission/work retreat held every summer for youth of Acadiana to help those in impoverished inner city areas. Crucé Design will be collecting donations that evening as well as donating a portion of all new projects for the month of July to the retreat. So please help us provide those less fortunate in Acadiana with funds to put on this worthy retreat.

You can check out the Facebook Event as well here.

Charities to Benefit from Donations

• Joplin Tornado Relief
• Hope for Kids (Haiti)
• RISE Mission Retreat

Timing

The first step to consider before a website project even begins is to discuss the intended “go live” date. Maybe you have an event or marketing push planned in your business that would coincide well with a website launch. One way to get attention for your new site is to use an event that you are already planning to be the official launch party. Also take into account what else is going on in your industry or local area. If there is a huge festival happening the day you launch, you are competing with someone else for attention right out of the gate. It could mean waiting a couple of weeks with a finished site to make sure you don’t miss the best window of opportunity!

Promotions

When you launch a new product or service in your business you want to tell the world! You print flyers, brochures, banners, and billboards letting your current clients or potential new customers know that you have something NEW to show them. Why not put the same effort into your new online marketing piece? Contrary to popular belief, print is not dead! It will definitely pay off to create a print ad campaign to announce the site. Something as simple as a postcard given to customers can pay off big in the long run with traffic and visibility.

It can also be useful to involve the press or local social and professional clubs to announce your growth. Newspapers are constantly looking to show that businesses are building back up from a down economy and your business could be the next hot topic!

Site Updating

Keeping your site updated and current is equally as important as promoting it. There is nothing worse than telling people go check out “my new website” that hasn’t been updated in a month. Nowadays with systems like WordPress that make content updating super simple, there is no excuse to not keep things current. It might be as simple as spending 30 minutes to an hour every week making sure your site is up to date. Any changes can be news to your customers, whether you hired a new person or expanded your locations.Ultimately, a website is a great marketing piece, but remember it is just that…a piece. It should be an integral part of your marketing strategy, but you have to back it up with other advertising efforts to make sure it get the attention it deserves.

If you are looking for a total website and promotions package let us know and we can help you plan and execute a marketing strategy to successfully launch your website.

Dionne is a Senior in Graphic Design at ULL and also holds a degree in Psychology from LSU. She is a fan of coffee, likes scaring bears away, and laughs at all our jokes, what’s not to like! Dionne is a great addition to the team and we are thankful for her help.

Thanks to Jason Cohen for the quick headshot.

]]> http://crucedesign.com/news/our-office/feed/ 0 http://crucedesign.com/video/new-video-training-series/ http://crucedesign.com/video/new-video-training-series/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:26:51 +0000 Daniel http://crucedesign.com/?p=662 As we noted last week with the launch of WordPress there are a few simple little interface tweaks that make it lighter and faster.

We are now offering with all new projects free 30 day access to our extensive video training series (see screenshot below). The video library is kept updated automatically when versions or features change. We also include special video tutorials for site specific features or plugins. As an added bonus we include a written manual for the non-visual learners out there. If you are interested please send us an email and we will be happy to add the feature on to your site for a free trial period. As always with every website project we still provide our personal and in-depth training before site launch.

Thanks,
Daniel Kedinger, Owner/Lead Geek

Not many updates to WordPress have gotten me so excited as the most recent version. WordPress 3 has really amped up the CMS factor with many new features that previously were achieved with 3rd party plugins. Most of the functionality that I added onto my client’s websites are now built directly into the core of the system. I have been working on a few new sites that are close to launch that are built from the ground up with WordPress 3. There are over 1,217 bug fixes and feature improvements, I will spare you all the geekery and only  highlight a few here.

Custom Post Types

This feature expands upon the standard “post types” of posts, pages, and attachments. It gives users the ability to create a new section to categorize data. When this feature is implemented into a website it can really be tweaked to what ever dataset that needs to be displayed. The main examples used by WordPress to explain the functionality are things like a real estate listings, a podcast directory, or a book/movie database. But really you could do anything with custom post types. For instance you could use it to display store locations with address information, descriptions and more.

Menu Manager

This is a feature that I have included in many websites with the use plugins for quite a few years now, but it is finally a part of the core system. This allows users to create and modify their menu systems on the fly. If you want to have categories in the menu as well as pages you just drag and drop and you are good to go. It also allows the ability to make links that can point to other locations. This helps free up the need to create dummy pages with redirects.

Multi-Site Functionality

Previously this feature was known as WordPress MU, but it as well as been integrated directly into the system. WordPress 3 now lets you very easily manage multiple WordPress sites with one install. Another feature that when used correctly can be very useful. For instance a shopping complex that has one main website with multiple sub sites for each individual business, allowing individual control to all the users for their own site, but still connected and hosted in one location.

Other Features

There are countless features and many security fixes, way too many to note here. But they also did many little interface tweaks that help make things less cluttered and easier to just get in and write. If you host your site yourself make sure to update, you will be happy. As always we are ready to go with WordPress 3 and have already been playing in the sandbox with it for quite a few months. You can get more information on the new features here and for the geeks amongst us more details here.

For the project I sat down with them and developed a concept that was heavy image driven and a strong emphasis on brand recognition. The goal was to develop a design that harkened to the characteristics of their beer as a golden pale ale with “hoppy” overtones.  I presented a concept board (click here to view) to begin the project and knew that we would need some fantastic imagery to carry the site. We worked with Jamie Orillion Photography & Design to capture some amazing imagery of their beer, the brewery, and the brothers themselves. Check out more of his work here. I collaborated with Jamie on design and the site really shows a strong connection to their beer.

Below you will see my initial concept board as well as well as the final design and some of the imagery from Jamie. You can check out the site at www.bayoutechebrewing.com and can find their beer in a store near you here with our store locator feature.

Click here for for full concept board.

The Front Page, www.bayoutechebrewing.com

Store Locator, www.bayoutechebrewing.com

Photography by Jamie Orillion Photography & Design