Dylan, the prodigal son of Workshed’s owners, did this all on his own, using the magical powers of Elf Yourself. Happy Holidays from Workshed!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/6zZCQJ9CNSxQPxAAHxS7

Sometimes it’s hard to separate the signal from the noise. We get that. Technology is constantly changing at a rapid pace and what’s this week’s hot new tool for marketing your business may be entirely different than last week’s (or more likely, it’s a different representation of the same thing from last week).

When presented with all of the new hotness that you’re told to use by numerous pundits on all things technically hot, it’s important to look at your business model, your customers and your overall web strategy and decide whether or not it’s a good fit.  Sure, Twitter is a great tool for concise and quick updates and sharing of information, but are your customers likely to have Twitter accounts? Are they likely to want to follow you? Have you created a compelling reason for them to follow you?

The new business model as it relates to newer Internet technologies requires a certain amount of transparency with your business, and if you are not prepared to offer up some of that transparency (let your customers get to know you, to see inside, even to take part in making product and service decisions) and also to keep those updates flowing, chances are Twitter may be relegated to your hallway closet, along with that old Thighmaster and those dusty old LPs.

The same goes for social networking platforms like Facebook, MySpace and even LinkedIn. Make sure you are prepared to take on the extra time and labor commitment necessary to keep those profiles updated and keep in touch with your customers.

Your best strategy is to have a strategy for your online presence. Find out about your customers, figure out your business needs and see where they intersect with available web technologies and trends. Taking a broad overview of such needs and capabilities can help you focus your energy and decide what options are most crucial and which ones are as destined for the Goodwill donation pile.

I can speak from experience — we’ve set up several profiles for Workshed, some of which are updated more than others. The other rub of Social Media is that it can take time to quantify the results of one’s efforts. We recently had a new client lead who stated they found us on Facebook. I’ve heard of other people getting some big ticket development jobs via Twitter.  But it takes time and dedication to reap the fruits of one’s labors. And patience.

Also, one must decide how much they want to leverage these technologies. Do you want to become at the top of the heap in your industry or market? Or do you want to simply build a stronger bond with your customers? It helps to  have a strategy in place so one can build a schedule and guidelines and stick to it.

Great news, folks! We just got word that we’ve won the Gold award for the 2008 Create Awards competition in the Interactive: Weird/Wacky/Oddball category—and what category would be more fitting for us than this one, I ask.

For those of you who may not remember, the Forward Thinking Museum is a project we co-produced with Andy Harrison at MacTechHelp.com on behalf of JGS, Inc., which is a philanthropic photgraphic arts non-profit founded by Howard Stein, considered the father of the Mutual Fund.

It’s a surreal, wacky virtual world where photographic exhibits are featured in a space where goats talk, giants ride elevators and social hot topics are discussed in an immersive virtual space.

Thanks to Andy Harrison for bringing this project to us and entrusting us with his clients’ vision, for helping to co-creative direct the project and also for managing the project from the client side, as well as his design contributions. It’s been a pleasure working with him and if you’re in the market for a Mac, he’s your man.

I can’t let this post go without also giving credit where it’s due, and that credit lies largely with our Design and Programming team on this project, which consisted of Jason Bennett on overall art direction, production design and Flash development, as well as Chris Nelson, who developed the content management tools and PHP/Data/XML integration for the project.

A press release and official award icons are soon to follow.

Workshed has partnered with local businesses, Joseph Graves Capital Management and T3Sixty to create the web site cwskatepark.org. This site is focused on improving the skatepark situation in the Camas/Washougal area so the kids (and adults) have a viable place to skate. The current skatepark is sadly deficient and lacking in worthwhile skate options for kids. If you are a skater, or even a parent of a skater, please get involved, donate some money and help with the cause.

Workshed is proud to announce the launch of another new web site, this time for Zookbinders, a manufacturer of quality, hand-made photo albums for professional photographers. We programmed the site build out and programming on behalf of our Seattle agency partners, SDM Marketing and PBR Design, who did an amazing job on the marketing direction, graphic design, creative direction and content.

The site makes use of several current technologies, such as AJAX, Javascript/jQuery, PHP, MySQL and Flash. The site also makes use of our own content management tool, Pegboard, so the client can keep their content up-to-date without the need for a web developer.

Check out the site:

http://www.zookbinders.com

Last week, a close friend of the Workshed family lost her battle with cancer. Diana Rice Bonin was not only a talented artist and a wonderful person, but she was also a former neighbor to me and my family, an honorary grandmother to my son and a valued family friend.

Diana was the first artist to show her work at a Workshed First Friday event and we had planned to have her and her daughter, Jessica, do a mother-daughter show in the future.

For those of you who knew Diana, you know what we’ve lost and can mourn with us. For those of you who did not know her, I invite you to read her obituary below, investigate her art blog and send her family kind thoughts.

Diana, you’ll be missed. Pat, Jessica and Joe; we are so very sorry for your loss.

Workshed will be featuring some more of Diana’s work tonight at our First Friday event, so please stop by to view and take solace in a small portion of the prolific legacy of art work she has left behind.

DIANA RICE BONIN
February 15, 1955 - May 29, 2008

Diana was born in Seattle, Washington to Cecil Rice and Olga Alexyevna. She resided in the Pacific Northwest, and most recently, in Camas, Washington. Diana grew up in Bellingham, Washington, where she met and married her husband of 30 years, Patrick Bonin. Her two children, Jessica and Joseph, who reside in Portland, Oregon, were her pride and joy.

Diana’s passion for art began early in her life and resulted in a highly successful career. As an artist for Alaska Silver and Ivory Corporation, she learned to do scrimshaw, the traditional art of sailors and native peoples. After leaving Alaska Silver and Ivory she continued in scrimshaw as a freelance artist. She became well known for her depictions of Pacific Northwest wildlife, with work in collections all over the country and world. Her more recent accomplishments include 20 published children’s books, an extensive portfolio of original paintings, drawings and illustrations, corporate art, layout and design, and a variety of projects with service organizations. Her commissioned work includes publications for the National Parks Service, Clark County Historical Society, and the Clean Water Foundation. Her latest work, “A Joshua Tree Named Lily”, was commissioned by the Joshua Tree National Park and includes 38 full color illustrations by Diana. In recent years she made the leap from illustration to fine art. Her paintings depict the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and its wildlife, and can be seen through her internet site: http://www.dricebonin.blogspot.com

In addition to her love for all types of art, Diana enjoyed collecting early American pottery, antiquing, animals of any kind, listening to music, motorcycling with her husband Patrick and their friends, and was an avid community volunteer. Most of all she loved her little cabin on Lake Merrill where she gardened and shared her love of nature and art with her family and friends. Her beauty, strength and compassion for life drew people to her and she had a huge fan club of friends. She was fondly nicknamed “Lady Di” by family members.

Diana is survived by her husband Patrick Bonin, two children Jessica and Joseph, her mother Olga Alexyevna, her great aunt June and uncle Earl Hendrickson, her brother Steve, sisters Carol and Karen, and many nieces, nephews and their children.

Memorial Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church, 401 East 33rd Street, Vancouver, Washington, Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. followed by a reception.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Clark County Humane Society.

Please sign the Guest Book at www.columbian.com/obituaries.

It’s been truly inspiring to see how much downtown Camas has changed and grown since my family moved here five years ago. When we moved here, there was very little to do in Downtown Camas, and we spent most of our time over in the Fisher’s Landing area when we wanted to eat, shop or relax at a movie.

Fast forward, and now we have a burgeoning city center, full of high-end shops, excellent eating establishments and a great group of friendly people staffing them all. This is something we should all be thankful for.

Unfortunately, whether it’s due to the economy or just a lack of interest, we are losing some businesses down here lately, and that makes us very sad here at Workshed. We see these people every day, we are their customers, friends, associates and supporters. To see one of our own close their doors and call it a day is like losing a close friend. Not only that, but it strikes a chord among all of us—are we next? Will our business slow down too? Will we have to close our doors?

Unfortunately, I think we’ve all felt the sting of the down economy at some level. Nobody wants to call it a recession, but it if looks like one, talks like one and acts like one, chances are it is one. We’ve noticed some of this trickling down to us during our sales process as of late, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t concern me. At the same time, I understand and can empathize with these people. How can one justify spending money when money isn’t being entirely forthcoming?

I don’t have any answers. Sure, I can tell you to spend money with us on marketing and a fancy new web site and all of your ills will be fixed—but that’s not a promise I’m willing to make. These are unpredictable times, and there is no cut and dry solution other than the pursuit of survival. Do what you feel you need to do to keep your business afloat.

The one thing we can all do is to spend money with local businesses. Make a weekly trip downtown, buy a trinket or new article of clothing at a shop, catch a movie (it’s cheaper and cozier than the Regal multiplex) and buy a great dinner. In the grand scheme of things these purchases are small, but on the whole, they add up enough to maybe help someone keep their doors open long enough to weather the storm. A community isn’t just the people who live in it, it’s also the businesses who make life more convenient for its residents, who give back to the community and who provide jobs to its residents. We are all responsible for the success of local businesses on some level.

Our sincere thanks to the businesses who have closed their doors recently or will be closing them soon. Your presence downtown made our days better and we are better off for having served in the business trenches with you. You will all be sorely missed.

The term branding is one that is loaded with questions, preconceptions and common misunderstandings. In fact, one of the frequent questions we get is, “What is branding?” This is almost always followed up with, “And, why do I need it?”

Think of branding as a conglomeration of marketing strategy, corporate identity design and good, old-fashioned market research. The purpose of branding is to help your business figure out who it is; to define a place in its market and a personality that exemplifies it. This personality takes the form of your company’s logo, colors, typefaces, messaging, copy writing style, the appearance of your offices or stores, how your staff interacts with its customers and even the physical personification of the company itself.

In fact, you probably already know what the end results of branding are. Think Starbuck’s, McDonalds, Apple, BMW, Google, Yahoo! and many other large corporations whose names invoke instant recognition and feelings.

Your brand is simply who you are, inside and out. And the best part? You don’t have to be a large corporation to benefit from great branding.

If you walk into a Starbuck’s anywhere in the world, chances are, you know what kind of experience you are going to get. Not just in terms of customer service or coffee taste, but also in terms of the store’s decor, design, layout, merchandising and general atmosphere.

Branding is focusing your efforts, fine-tuning your message and bringing it to life in all aspects of everything you do. There’s no reason a small business can’t have the same level of recognition and consistency. And more importantly, there’s no reason a small business shouldn’t.

Great, so now you are still wondering about that second question: why do you need it?

It’s no secret that being in business is no picnic. You are trying to build a product, service or selection that will keep your customers coming back—and convert potential customers to new customers. You want customer loyalty. It can be a challenge when your competition is cutting prices or they always seem to be one step ahead of you. How do you stand out and differentiate yourself from them?

That’s where the branding process comes in. During the process and research that drive it, information is gathered that helps you pinpoint what your strengths and weaknesses are, how you differ from your competition, how you perceive yourself, and how your business is perceived by your customers and employees. Additionally, your target market is defined and the best ways to reach that market are also determined. It is from this information that a brand personality is developed.

What are its traits? What does it look like? What does it sound like? Is it your best friend who always has the right thing to say at the right time? Or is it a long-time trusted adviser who offers sage financial advice? Does it take care of your needs quickly and efficiently? Or does it take time to do things slowly and methodically? Maybe it’s a wise-cracking tour guide or a silly character.

Once the branding is established, you should be able to walk away from the process with a brand style guide. This is essentially a document that tells you, and your graphic designers, sign makers, interior designers, copy writers, web developers and advertising agency how to represent your brand in all media channels.

The end goal is to create a high level of consistency, credibility and distinction in everything your business does. People will know what to expect when they set foot in your door for the first time and they will be impressed by the professionalism of your organization. Our society is a very image conscious one, especially as younger generations become young adult consumers. You have only a few seconds to make an impression on a potential customer. Simply put, businesses who have a clear, focused and consistent brand and image will gain an advantage in the marketplace.

If your company needs help branding or would like more information on this topic, don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation.

As much as the opening headline to this sounds like an infomercial, I promise that I am entirely serious. Your web site should be much more than a brochure. It’s more than an online menu, some contact information and your logo arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner. It’s more than a business requirement.

It’s your calling card. Your brand. It’s your 24×7x365 salesperson. It can take messages. It can greet potential customers. It can welcome back current customers. It can even persuade customers to use your products and services instead of your competition. Or vice-versa. It can answer questions. It can track and manage inventory. It can reach out to search engines to get itself more traffic. It can even tell you how people are finding it. Did I mention it can sell things 24 hours a day?

Your web site is you.

The fact is, the web has entered an era where a web site can—and should be—a primary part of your business model. Consumers shop based on the professionalism and comprehensiveness of a company’s web site. Consumers investigate businesses online before stepping foot in a retail establishment or office. Consumers reach for a search engine more than they reach for a phone book.

With this in mind, here are five questions to ask yourself about your own web site—and these apply whether you have a site already or are planning on making one:

1) How can your web site make your job easier?
Sometimes, it’s as easy as putting up a Frequently Asked Questions page to help cut down on phone time spent answering common questions. Sometimes it’s a more complex solution, like e-commerce, real-time inventory tracking, an extranet or something built around your business model. Even something as simple as a customer forum can be huge in terms of letting your customers help one another. Remember, your web site works 24 hours a day. What can it be doing for you while you are at home with your family, enjoying a good movie?

2) Is your web site easy to use?
Actually, don’t ask yourself this question. Ask your customers. Ask your mother. Your grandmother. Next time you’re at your in-laws’ house for dinner, ask them to sit down on your web site and perform a specific task, such as finding a certain product, locating some specific information, or just surfing through it. Do not intervene. Just watch quietly and note where the stumbling blocks are. For your customers, send them an offer to get a 10% off coupon if they test your site and provide answers to a questionnaire about your site. You will begin to notice commonalities in the feedback you get, and those are where you want to start.

3) Does your web site really represent the business?
Your business is your brand. Did your web designer design your site for your brand, or did they design it for your logo? There is a difference, and your customer experience needs to be reflected equally in-person and online. A customer should feel as warmly welcomed on your site as they would walking into your store. They should have an instant feel for what your establishment looks and feels like inside.

4) Do the search engines like your web site?
Many web sites that have withstood the test of time were written with code that is more often becoming outdated and search-engine prohibitive. In the last few years, standard HTML has been deprecated in favor of cleaner and more flexible XHTML and CSS site layouts. Many search engines will index content and site structures more easily when the underlying code is written in clean, validated XHTML and CSS. While the old standard HTML will still render properly in most web browsers, it is often less efficient to render and makes it harder for search engines to separate content from code.

5) How are people finding your site? How are you finding them?
Once your site is up and running, you must not rely on search engines alone for traffic. There are a number of things you can do to help drive traffic to your site, many of them being quite simple.

Start a business blog, making sure to keep it updated with real, useful information and content related to your business or industry. Make sure your blog has a link back to your site and vice-versa. Make sure your content is not just selling your business, but is useful and keyword-rich.

Get linked to (and link to) other sites. Google likes this and will ultimately increase your search rankings. Using Google Local and Yahoo! Local can help a lot to this end, as well as getting yourself listed in legitimate online business and industry directories with links back to your site. Avoid getting into any arrangements with SPAM directories.

Cross-pollinate with other sites like MySpace, YouTube, Digg and Zwinky. More and more businesses are creating profiles on social networking and Web 2.0 sites. These profiles can ultimately act as another springboard to get more traffic to your site and to help you appeal to entirely new demographics.

Track your traffic. Take advantage of Google’s Webmaster Tools. Their Analytics product is simply amazing. And free. You can track your web site traffic, sources of traffic, paths users are taking through your site and even set up conversion goals to see how many people are following through with specific purchase paths. Did I mention it’s free?

So that’s it—a great starting point for you to use as a barometer to make your web site not only more useful to your customers, but also to you. If you would like a more in-depth consultation on how your web site may be able to help your business more, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Working in a creative industry, one comes to realize that true inspiration is not something one can force. Creativity is best when it’s driven by such inspiration, but sometimes as creative professionals, the bolt of inspiration doesn’t always strike us right away. It’s usually at this point where we sit, we stare at our monitors, we become overcritical of everything we try and we begin to lose hope. The deadline is looming, the client is checking in with the project manager who is checking in with us, and that’s when the panic sets in: How can we coax that brilliant idea out of our heads before we have to resort to something we’re not proud of—and ultimately is not what the client wants or needs?

The following ideas are ones that I have found to be helpful when a reboot of my creative processors is much-needed:

Try using something other than the computer. That’s right — get the pencil and paper out. Dust off your paint brushes. Try a style of design or writing you aren’t used to. Build something with your hands and tools. Scan some objects in. Just try something to break up your standard routine. Oftentimes a new technique or tool is all one needs to get a creative boost and create something completely unique.

Look at other creative work for inspiration. First, we are not advocating plagiarism at all. Sometimes grabbing a copy of Communication Arts, or hitting LogoPond, or even watching a movie or reading a well-written blog or book can help revive your inspiration. Chances are, these other creative folks were in the same spot at some point, and they managed to overcome it and create something really cool. Let their inspiration be yours.

Ask for help. Yes, I know, the creative person often is a proud person — too proud to ask for help. I can’t tell you how many times one of my design team has been stuck on a project when they come to me seeking guidance. Sometimes a simple suggestion or twist on one of their “failed” ideas can set them off in the right direction. Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes, so don’t write off the ideas of others to get you moving in the right direction.

Look at your creative clock. Creative people often do their best work in bursts. Sometimes it can seem that when we are in relapse mode, we have lost our mojo. We feel dejected, frustrated, defeated and lost when we are in this phase of our creativity. The simple fact is, sometimes ideas just need time to breathe and grow. I’ve always believed that most of my creative work is done in my head, way before I begin mocking anything up. It can be hard for clients to understand this, but it honestly can take form as ideas that are mentally refined for days before being put onto a screen. This is why I avoid rush projects at all costs, as not only is it a disservice to the creative process, but it is also a disservice to the client. Generally speaking, great creative work is not born on the spot. Even though the actual production may come in a late-night burst of inspiration, the actual planning of that burst can often take place for hours, days, weeks or months before the hands hit the keyboard. When we can all understand and learn to accept this, the downtime will become much more tolerable — and understandable — to all parties involved.

Do something completely silly. That’s right, abandon all of your serious artistic aspirations for a few hours. After all, when was the last time you really did something fun and care-free with your tools and skills? My own personal anecdote of this involves being at home with my kids on a rainy afternoon. They were bouncing off the walls and I had endured a particularly frustrating day at the office. We all needed to blow off some steam. So this is what we did: We made a movie. That’s right, our very own feature film, clocking in at just under four minutes. It took us about three hours to shoot and edit it and it ended up being a great time for all involved. I returned to the office the next day with a renewed outlook and level of happiness, and can’t stress enough how much this recharged my level of inspiration.

Take a break. You’re not doing any good staring at your monitor, checking your stock ticker and IMing the grocery list to your significant other. Take a walk, see a movie, do something other than being creative. Sometimes we just need to get away from the distraction of our stress.

Those are just a few recommended techniques for recharging our creative inspiration. What are some of yours? Leave us a comment and share them!