Website-Design-Blog

New Website for Double A Audio's New Album Release: 'Double A Buffet'

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:13:00 GMT

We're honored to have been selected to design a new website for Double A Audio's new album release: 'Double A Buffet'. As the name implies Double A Buffet contains a wide variety of songs and, as such, the website required flexibility for visitors to purchase one song, or an entire album. In addition, Double A Audio wanted to allow visitors to sample each of the songs as a way of offering a preview of musical genre before making a decision to purchase.

The Double A Buffet Project was a ton of fun because we worked with Double A Audio owner, Alan Atkinson, who shares a passion for both the music and the user-experience of his website. Double A Audio wanted to use their website as a tool to not only encourage album and song sales, but also as a means to advertise their high-tech studio used to help aspiring musicians create and record music. In addition to using our Content Management System for easy and efficient website content management, we integrated both a Sound Cloud audio player (a Flash-based application for desktop web users), as well as a jQuery/javascript player for mobile users. By offering both alternatives, Double A Audio is able to maximize their audience base and provide the most predictable experience for their visitors and customers

Through our Content Management System, Double A Audio is able to easily update their site content with little to no HTML, CSS contact us or call: 919-285-1450

New Website, Corporate Identity and Business Cards for Shellpoint Partners

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:27:00 GMT

We're honored to have been selected to design a new corporate identity for Shellpoint Partners and develop a website within our Content Management System to make future updates and maintenance simple and efficient.

Shellpoint Partners is a specialty finance company focused on the U.S. residential mortgage market. One of its primary goals is to provide additional liquidity/options to borrowers who do not fit the existing underwriting criteria for government backed mortgages. Together, Shellpoint Partners and Studio RTP worked with a professional photographer to find just the right photo to reflect the integrity of the firm and their belief in a transparent partnership between the borrower, the originator, and the institutional investment community.

Redneck Scientific Launches New Website

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:48:00 GMT

Studio RTP worked with our pals at Redneck Scientific to create a unique website for their custom designed smokers and grills. Jerry and Liz Stephenson, owners and purveyors of custom smokers and grills are located in the center of southern barbecue - Raleigh, North Carolina.

These connoisseur of fine barbecue were a blast to work with and offer an outstanding product to their followers. This is one of those products that you have to see to believe because it makes smoking food as easy as igniting the coals and returning eight hours later to meat that falls right off the bone. We highly recommend checking out their video so you can see for yourself. We were able to play with the creativity that inspires Redneck Scientific by bringing past corporate t-shirt illustrations to life with a mix between watercolor paints, our Content Management System (CMS) technology, and a lil' duct tape.

Using our Content Management System, changes will be as easy as logging in and updating the raw content in the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that functions very similar to the most popular word processing tools. In addition to easy site content maintenance, installation of a newsletter signup module, a search module, and a blog with a 'recent post module' for the home page was a snap. Using our content management system, Redneck Scientific is positioned for expansion as they have a short-term plan to offer their products online for eCommerce purchase. We'll post an update when that is ready to go!

And, of course, we had to do a little quality control of our own to see how this product works. We like to call this a little bit of R & D. Sometimes working around our office can be tough work :) Here are some photos of our 'Research and Development":

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Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:49:00 GMT

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New Logo for Quarter Note Music!

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:49:00 GMT

Though logos are small and appear to be simple, often they can be one of the most time consuming projects for any designer. A good designer will recognize that a logo takes creativity, will be used to represent a company for many years to come, and, most importantly, must meet the needs of the client.

The three comps shown here are the initial phase of our brand development for Quarter Note Music and Instruction. As we continued to refine our designs, working with the client, we combined elements and continued to work on spacing and arrangement of the features within the design. Once we agreed on a final design, we created some color studies by applying colors to elements within the composition. After comparing each of the studies, we were in agreement that the final design should use color modestly in the design to bring some life and extra attention to the instrument being played by the character in the logo. To the left is the final approved design for Quarter Note Music & instruction. We look forward to helping the folks at Quarter Note Music & Instruction in their future strategic marketing efforts as they launch their new business in Apex, North Carolina!

So, what do you think? Comments, suggestions, feedback? Please leave a response below!

Logo design for Quarter Note Music

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:11:00 GMT

Studio RTP is working with Quarter Note Music and Instruction in Apex, North Carolina to design their new company logo. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to develop many logos that can be printed at any size while still offering an effective and distinctive brand recognition for a variety of companies in a variety of industries. Though logos are small and appear to be simple, often they can be one of the most time consuming projects for any designer. A good designer will recognize that a logo takes creativity, will be used to represent a company for many years to come, and, most importantly, must meet the needs of the client.

The three comps shown here are the initial phase of our brand development for Quarter Note Music and Instruction. We're always looking for feedback, both positive and negative, on the designs that we create to ensure we provide the highest quality and most recognizable logo for our clients. If you have any feedback that you would like to provide, please comment below!

The logo on the far left plays off of the shape of a saxophone and works well when replicated large and small. The hope with this logo is to click in the viewers mind and trigger brand recognition along with relevance to the company's services and products. In addition, the letter "Q" can be used in the future as a "stand-alone" logo for certain applications.

The logo in the center plays off of the shape of a quarter note and incorporates another potential figure that can be used as a stand-alone element in future marketing efforts. Using a character to bring a bit of fun and animation to the brand will offer many different marketing strategies going forward.

The logo on the right brings more attention to the saxophone shape and adds the element of the quarter note within the fonts used to spell "Quarter Note". Again, this offers the potential to use the saxophone as a stand-alone element in future marketing pieces.

So, what do you think? Do you have a vote? Comments, suggestions, feedback? Please leave a response below!

New website donated to Tres Dias!

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:30:00 GMT

Studio RTP recently donated a new website to the folks at Tres Dias Cleveland. Tres Dias Cleveland is an active tool of church renewal that offers individual weekends that are sponsored and coordinated by local chapters which have been chartered by the national organization. By nature, Tres Dias Cleveland depends heavily on volunteers who serve the group by assisting with a broad range of activities, one of which, updating the group's website. Studio RTP offered to donate the design, content management system integration, and content transfer from their existing site to their new home using our new content management system.

In addition to making updates by volunteers easier and more manageable, Tres Dias Cleveland has taken full advantage of a new blog, secured zones using usernames/passwords, the content management system, and much more. In addition, the members at Tres Dias are forecasting a use for the eCommerce functionality that is offered as part of the standard package through our content management system. Using the new tools that are at their fingertips, the members at Tres Dias Cleveland have the funtionality of our feature-rich content management system to use for all of their member interaction, database management, content management, and much more.

To learn more about our content management system, check out our feature video!

Do you have a use for our content management system? Would you like to discuss implementing your online business using the tools provided by Studio RTP? Have any feedback that you would like to share on the design of Tres Dias Cleveland? We would love to hear it! Please comment below or contact us for more information!

Pharmadirections "tableless" homepage

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:15:00 GMT

Studio RTP has had the privilege to work with Pharmadirections on another project to help update their website. In order to keep up with the fast pace of modern browser technology, we have worked with Pharmadirections to reduce the amount of Flash animation and html tables used to create the homepage on their website. Using "tableless" html and css, we were able to create a new look to their homepage that offers more functionality in internet browsing devices used on computers, cell phones, pda devices, and more. In addition to offering more consistent functionality, Pharmadirections can count on a more consistent and controlled display on the many different browsers and screen readers that are available to their customers.

Pharmadirections decision to move to a tableless XHTML and CSS layout will also help to improve their website's search engine optimization (SEO) by providing more relevant HTML text for today's search engines to sift through and index. In addition, users with disabilities will have more success accessing their information using screen readers and other browsing devices that make searching the web a more useful experience to those who cannot see the content on the screen.

For more information on how we can help remove tables and convert your website to a standards compliant format, contact us or post a comment here!

Bay Tree Lakes SEO and CMS

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:16:00 GMT

Bay Tree Lakes and Studio RTP have been working together to enhance an existing website designed to provide information regarding available waterfront property and home sites at Bay Tree Lakes in North Carolina. Having already invested a lot of time and effort into the design of the website, Bay Tree Lakes was looking to improve search engine optimization (SEO) and make the website more informative, resourceful, and efficient.

The folks at Bay Tree Lakes offer available waterfront property and home sites around North Carolina's 2.2 square mile (1,418 acre) Bay Tree Lake. Bay Tree Lakes is a unique gated lakefront community that is surrounded by Bay Tree Lake, Horsepen Lake, and more than 4 miles of interconnecting waterways. To see more about the feature-rich community of Bay Tree Lakes, click here!

Our first step in improving SEO was to go through each page and add relevant page titles, meta tags, and meta descriptions, add alt tags to all of the images, and align page titles and meta tags with headline text. Second, we added the "Bay Tree Lakes Blog" to the website. Bay Tree Lakes' new blog will work as a resource engine, offering posts about current events, news, weather, available waterfront property, resident stories, and much more. Not only will the blog offer Bay Tree Lakes better SEO results, but it will also provide a helpful resource to current residents and potential waterfront property home owners in the great community at Bay Tree Lakes.

In addition to improving search engine rankings, we have moved Bay Tree Lakes into our content management system (CMS). Through our CMS, Bay Tree Lakes is able to more efficiently update the site with little to no html experience, incorporate the new blog seamlessly using custom templates designed around the look and feel of their website, create custom web forms, and use the client management database tools. To look through the full list of features through our content management system, click here.

We look forward to our new relationship with the folks at Bay Tree Lakes. We still have a ton of ideas and work to do in our efforts to increase the search engine results of the Bay Tree Lakes website. Stay tuned for an array of additional content, including property listings, new home construction referrals, information about the community and much more!

If you are interested in our content management system, please comment here or contact us for a free estimate. We can work with you to find a solution to fit your budget. If you already have a website design, but would like to have the features of our content management system, let us know and we'll show you how easy and affordable it is to move your design straight in!

Tour Our Content Management System

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:07:00 GMT

Studio RTP is continuing to develop and enhance information about the new content management system we have to offer. Our recent addition provides a long list of features, tools, and options that are incorporated into our content management package. Our content management tour page offers a detailed overview of our content management system's dashboard, website management, blogging, forums, RSS, web apps, bookings, web forms, customer management, custromer case management, products and catalogues, order management, campaigns, lists, custom report creation, website reports, email marketing reports, and advanced customization. This new resource page provides an overview of the content management system and all of its features. The information is displayed using a series of screenshots so you can see exactly how each feature functions, and all of the customization options that are available to you.

In addition to our content management system tour page, you can also check out our content management system information page and our content management features page. Each of these resource pages offers a bunch of information on what our content management system offers. In addition, our content management system information page has a video that walks you through some of the important aspects of the content management system. The video does an excellent job of explaining how feature-rich the system is!

We will continue to create more detailed information to provide existing and potential clients with the tools that are necessary to operate a successful online business. If there is anything that you don't see here, or if you have any questions on any of this information, please feel free to comment below, contact us, or call us at 919-285-3316!

Happy Easter!

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:51:00 GMT

We designed a new Easter theme for the Studio RTP website. I want to dedicate the design and watercolor illustration to my niece Arianna and my nephew Davey. I hope you both have a wonderful holiday!! My wife Jess and I love you both, miss you, and look forward to the next time we get to visit. Have a great Easter! And that goes out to everyone who celebrates Easter - Happy Easter!

Changing the theme of the website for Studio RTP was an excellent example of the power of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and our content management system. If you would like more information about how we can help to make a website that is customizable, easy to maintain, and powered by a state-of-the-art content management system, contact us!

Have any comments/questions/feedback abou the new Easter Theme/etc.? Please, leave some comments and feedback below!

Saparilas Law Has a New Website!!

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:29:00 GMT

Studio RTP had the honor to continue to work with Nick Saparilas and his law office staff to create a new website for his defense attorney firm located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. A few months back, Saparilas Law asked Studio RTP to develop a logo that used elements of the city of Raleigh, not only because his firm was located downtown, but also because it is where he grew up. In addition, Nick Saparilas earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985. Nick Saparilas continued his education, earning his Juris Doctor from Oklahoma City University School of Law and continues to fight for the constitutional rights of his clients.

Nick Saparilas also wanted to take the elements of his logo and his practice and create a website that was clean, organized, and simple. We derived at our solution by incorporating blues and grays, similar to those found at the University of North Carolina, while incorporating the acorn (Raleigh’s symbolic representation as being known as “The City of Oaks”), and a faded skyline of the great city or Raleigh, North Carolina.

In addition to a simple and clean design that incorporates elements of the city of Raleigh, we optimized the site to provide high-quality search engine optimization (SEO) and usability on multiple browsers on multiple platforms. Using the latest in web standards, the latest coding practices using CSS/XHTML compliant code, and keyword targeting, Saparilas Law should soon begin to experience better search engine rankings and site usability.

Have comments/questions/feedback/etc. about this latest project by Studio RTP? Please leave comments below! Interested in how we can help your business with a logo design, website design, or other marketing material? Contact us!

Don't Miss IE6's Funeral Today!!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:28:00 GMT

Please take an opportunity to view the funeral invitation for Internet Explorer 6. Aten Design Group is hosting a "funeral" for the developer-hated browser at 7pm on March 4th, 2010. These guys are taking it so serious that more than 100 individuals are actually going to dress in black and are going to eulogize about the incredibly frustrating past times spent hacking well-written code to perform on the non-standards-compliant web browser. Take a look at some of the hilarious comments left by those who chose to leave "memories" of the browser. We're with the rest of the web design and development world in saying good riddance! (even though we'll all reluctantly admit that we will still have to destroy our well-written code to work in IE6 as it's still proven to be a widely used browser (we have no idea why)).

New Postcard Design for Iannelli Autocars

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Studio RTP recently collaborated with FastBlvd on a project for Iannelli Autocars. The folks at Iannelli were looking to send out postcards to segmented lists of drivers who may be interested in their top-notch luxury car auto service. For this project, we wanted to show Iannelli’s expertise in three different categories of luxury automobiles; Mercedes, BMW/MINI, and Audi/Saab/Volkswagen/Volvo. For a solution, we decided to customize each of the three 6” x 11” postcards to car drivers who fit into each of these categories. Each postcard was printed on 14pt. cardstock and received a high-gloss UV finish for added shine and mailing durability.

In addition to catering to each customer based on make of automobile, Iannelli wanted to inform customers that they are within close proximity to many well-known landmarks in the Cleveland, Ohio area. The addition of a map on the front with estimated minutes and miles of drive time to select location assisted in relaying how convenient the dealership really is. We also made a point to draw attention to Iannelli’s unprecedented 2-year, unlimited mile warranty. Using visual cues throughout the postcard, it’s easy to see why Iannelli is a good pick when choosing a location to have service performed on one’s vehicle!

To see more examples of past print design from Studio RTP, please visit our portfolio. As always, your feedback is much appreciated - let us know what you think by commenting below!!

Thanks for your support!

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:59:00 GMT

We did it! We met goal one of our Facebook page fan base - 100 fans (101 to be exact). A huge thank you to all of our current and future supporters! Your patronage to Studio RTP has provided us with the ability to participate in partnerships to improve our services, and engage in opportunities to give back to the community and make contributions to the environment.

Just last month, Studio RTP re-applied for our membership with 1% for the Planet in which we committed to donating 1% of sales to environmental organizations around the world. Last year, we made contributions to the Hawaii Wildlife Center and the Hawaii Nature Center. We are excited to start researching the organization we will contribute to this year.

In addition to our ability to contribute to the community, we have also experienced an increase in referrals from clients. Without the help of our customers, family, and friends, none of this would be possible. We appreciate all of your help and support and look forward to a strong and successful future!

~Ryan Given