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Media Contour is proud to announce that we’ll be regular contributors to UX Magazine. Our series of interviews with industry leaders and innovators will be featured within the magazine. We’re incredibly grateful with such an honor, and very happy to be part of the UX Magazine family. If you’re not familiar with UX Mag, it’s an online magazine dedicated design excellence, usability, technological evolution, interface design and other areas.Our interview series has already included some big names. We have spoken with Jessica DuVerneay, Steve Portigal, Susan Weinschenk, Christopher Noessel, Alberta Soranzo and Maggie Hendrie and Don Norman thus far, and there are more slated.
Expertise.com scored 460 Web Developers in Los Angeles and Picked the Top 20: Media Contour is proud to have made that list. Congratulations team!
Our very own Art Director & CTO, Luke Swenson, was able to catch up with Steve Portigal at the Los Angeles User Experience Meetup & IxDA organized by Crystal Ehrlich. Steve was able to give us (and you, our readers) a great deal of information about user research, and if you’re not sure just how important that research really is, his interview is more than worth a few minutes of your time. User research is probably one of the least understood aspects of business, particularly when it comes to user design, or even product value and utility. Steve points out that just because you can make something, that doesn’t immediately mean that it’s worth making. Does it answer the needs or problem of the ultimate end user?
Los Angeles, Calif.- Los Angeles-based web design firm, Media Contour, has won the gold Communicator award for its design work on www.swytculture.com. Media Contour’s work for SWYT Apparel (pronounced “sweet”), a Los Angeles-based girl's footwear company, was ranked within the top 90% of submissions in the fashion and apparel category of over 6000 applicants. This is Media Contour’s 3rd Communicator Award and 10th award for overall web design in only 3 years. The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA). The IAVA describes itself as “an invitation-only member-based organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media.” Current members include acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms such as Time, Inc., rabble+rouser, Lockheed Martin, Pitney Bowes, Airtype Studio, and many others.
Audio patch bay manufacturers, Bittree, wanted to revamp their website to better match their recently updated brand and create an easier to navigate layout. Los Angeles web design firm, Media Contour, was tasked with creating a website that not only resonates with those interested in audio recording and engineering markets, but creates the easiest shopping experience possible. “At first, it was easy to get lost in the detailed specifications and notes for each product; so our first goal was to simplify it to create a better hierarchy,“ says Media Contour’s lead designer, Luke Swenson. “Patch bays by their very nature are very visual and easy-to-use tools and Bittree’s patch bays are labeled simply and easy to figure out.”
SWYT Culture, a ballerina flat company known for their creative designs and customizable patterns launched its website, www.swytculture.com, to both its consumer and wholesale market. SWYT, helmed by former Rock and Republic and Taryn Rose brand-builder, Maggie Finneran, SWYT teamed up with Los Angeles-based web design firm Media Contour to implement a multi-stage online strategy that is targeted towards females of all ages and wholesale buyers alike. Media Contour created an interactive lookbook page that features each of SWYT’s many designs in a quick, simple-to-use manner. Luke Swenson, the Media Contour’s Art Director and the designer of swytculture.com says “The lookbook serves as a fun way to present their different shoe patterns at trade shows and get customers excited about their product.” Small swatches of the shoe's patterns are featured on the left allowing users to click through these swatches and see a larger version of each shoe's style and pattern.
Along with creating an interactive site, SWYT also developed a blog and social media platforms to encourage further dialogue from their consumers and share their image as a fun, fashion-forward shoe brand for the creative-minded female.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.- Los Angeles-based design and marketing firm Media Contour was presented with the American Graphic Design Award from GD USA magazine for their contributions to the marketing efforts of Deadlines.com, Artisthead, and Advanced Swiss Precision. These awards were bestowed upon the Media Contour team for their logo designs for Artisthead and Advanced Swiss Precision; their overall design of the deadlines.com webpage was honored by the magazine as well.
GD USA describes its annual awards as their “four-decade-old flagship competition, and is open to everyone in the graphic arts community – graphic design firms, advertising agencies, in-house corporate and institutional designers, publishers and other media.” Each year, GD USA picks the top submissions and parades their work in their magazines and online publications that reach graphic designers and small businesses across the country.
Los Angeles, Calif.- Contractors looking for new solutions for managing their finances and improve profitability in this sluggish economy can find help, seminars and trusted literature at The ShinerGroup’s new website, shinergroup.com. Los Angeles web design firm, Media Contour assisted The ShinerGroup with their desire to develop a site that allowed them to provide news to their clients quickly and efficiently.
Media Contour is proud to be the winner in this year's Davey Awards Gold in the web design and promotion category! Congratulations team!We treated our website redesign like we would for our clients. We carefully reviewed the previous design then highlighted its strengths and eliminated its weaknesses. Most importantly, it was a team effort. Matt, our CEO and managing director organized the content and focused MC's selling points. Alex, Luke, and Victor designed and developed the final product. Gabriel came in at the ended and added his Javascript magic. The site is powered by SilverStripe's CMS.
Say hello to Think Insights with Google, a new site launched by Google where they will publish data-supported insights about digital marketing trends. It's goal is to allow users and marketers to learn more about how people use the web, and even includes research on lesser known topics like the Mobile web.
After watching the Google video "The Mobile Movement: Understanding Mobile Consumers" (see below) it is clear that Google also intends to promote their own services like mobile ads.
W3 Award Material deadline l May 14, 2010 WebAward Material deadline l May 25, 2010
Summit Awards International - Marketing Effectiveness Award Material deadline l June 23, 2010 One Show Interactive Material deadline l June 30, 2010, September 30, 2010 and December 31, 2010
Today it seems as though there is a race for businesses to get online. Sure, there are templates that allow you to “fill in the blanks,” add a few stock photos and throw up a website real quick. This is the cheap way to do it, but what most businesses don’t realize is that when you use a template that thousands of other websites have used, your business is also seen as “cheap.” Your website should be custom designed with your customer in mind. You have spent time creating a brand and image for your company. Why destroy that brand with a website design that a thousand other people are also using? By doing so, you are sending out the message that you don’t want to be unique and that you are not better than your competitors.
Choose a Website Designer that is Raising the Bar
When selecting a website design service, it’s vital that they not only fulfill your needs in the design aspect of web development but also ensure that your website is a direct extension and reflection of your business.
The right designer will assist you with:
Business Development – Your brand image, logo design, brand development, and even the training of your own webmaster.
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