Impress Potential Clients with a Custom Portfolio Website

May 2nd, 2013

Optimus Architecture Website Design

CHALLENGE Optimus Architecture specializes in large-scale healthcare projects throughout the Hudson Valley. Their existing website didn’t reflect their comprehensive portfolio or their expertise in designing spaces that optimize work flow and improve the patient experience. The website had no meta data to help search engines find the site. Optimus wanted the ability to modify the site inhouse to keep it up-to-date.

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FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Full Deck Design created a super clean, contemporary site that showcases Optimus’ impressive portfolio. A home page animation allows Optimus to quickly demonstrate the breadth of their work with quality images of their best projects. Potential clients get a real sense of their design and planning skills by reading detailed project descriptions and reviewing project photos on individual project pages. The entire site was expertly built by Next Step Digital using WordPress, a free open source content management system. The custom projects component that NSD built allows the Optimus team to easily add projects with multiple images and descriptions. Full Deck developed a focused meta data plan to improve Optimus’ site ranking on key searches and set them up with a Google Analytics Account to track future site traffic.

Step-by-Step Social Media Plan

February 15th, 2013

CHALLENGE Figuring out how to use social media has been the marketing challenge of the past few years. How much participation makes sense for your company? How much time should you plan to establish and maintain a presence?

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Intuit posted a wonderful 12-month plan to build and manage a social presence that I think breaks what can seem an overwhelming task into bite-size tasks spread over the course of a year. And, cool infographics to boot!

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Our creativity and original thinking can wake up your business image, too. Give us a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how.

 

Manage Social Media the Easy Way in 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]
via: Manage Social Media the Easy Way in 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Cluttered Design Can Lose You Business

January 15th, 2013

CHALLENGE Royal Carting has been a local leader in developing recycling and waste management programs. Their innovative, community-minded business ethics weren’t being conveyed through their website. Information was overly dense on many site pages and hard to find if you didn’t discover the secondary navigation area—see the old home page below.

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FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Our first step was to develop a tagline that reflected Royal Carting’s environmental commitment—Planet-Friendly Waste Disposal Services. Next, we developed a new site map that broke the content into quickly readable, search engine-friendly chunks. To visually engage visitors, we created custom illustrations, shot some new photos and selected good images from Royal’s existing photo library. Two of the illustrations have interactive rollover functionality with pop up eco-tips explaining how to improve waste and energy use. The illustrations are fun—everyone loves pushing buttons—and further highlight Royal Carting’s commitment to give back to the environment.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Our creativity and original thinking can help your business reevaluate your website, too. Give us a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how we wake up your business image!

Brochures with Emotional Appeal

December 19th, 2012

CHALLENGE Behind closed doors, an estimated 30,000 acts of domestic voilence occur every year in Dutchess County. Grace Smith House supports and empowers women and their children to live free from domestic violence. Neither the look nor the content of their printed materials adequately targeted the women they serve or the donors who support their vital services.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Echoing their open door logo and tagline, Full Deck Design used a photograph of a purple door to brand the look of a suite of brochures. Powerful photographs of women were inlaid in the door panels to best appeal to three different groups—women and teenage girls involved in violent relationships and potential donors. By creating three separate brochures, GSH was able to develop content to address the distinct needs of each group.  The widespread dissemination of the brochures and complementary flyers will hopefully help spread the word that GSH is a safe haven and powerful resource in our community. Please consider including Grace Smith House in your charitable plans this holiday season and in the coming year.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Our creativity and original thinking can help your business develop impactful promotional pieces, too. Give us a call at 845-266-3852 or email us -  to see how we wake up your business image!

 

A Website For Women Who Want To Be In-The-Know

September 25th, 2012

CHALLENGE Women’s Leadership Alliance Co-Directors Carol Gordon and Irene Andujar wanted to reenergize the group and the first step was to overhaul the website. Different sections of the website were developed at different times by different volunteers giving it a pieced-together look and making it very hard to locate information.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION As the newly appointed Co-Chairs of the WLA Public Relations & Website committee, Jeanine Agnolet and I developed a sophisticated, well-organized site. A photograph of a high-heeled business woman walking briskly communicates the often hectic life of women juggling careers and families. For the feminine touch, I tinted parts of the photo with pastel shades; for the corporate touch, I added a classic gray pinstripe background. Jeanine’s words set a welcoming, professional tone. I anticipate that the resources area of the site will become an active conversation place for women to share information about books, articles, favorite movies, health issues, financial tips, thought-provoking speeches and womens’ events throughout the Hudson Valley region. If you want to be in-the-know about the latest women’s issues, subscribe to the WLA RSS feed by clicking the orange icon at the top of the screen.

Develop Reports that People Want to Open

August 15th, 2012

CHALLENGE MAP engaged Idealware to research how commonly used technology could help the more than 500 nonprofit organizations they service in Minnesota. Printed and web versions of the resulting research report were going to be widely distributed and MAP wanted to ensure that it was visually engaging, supported its technological theme and conformed to their existing brand.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Full Deck’s cover design features a team of professionals visually and figuratively looking forward. A modernistic arc that leads the reader into the report and the background circles lends the tech-y feel they wanted. MAP’s branding was supported by making their logo the main cover focus, using their corporate colors and a rectangular band on the cover.

Each interior section opens with a large photo of people working in situations typical of MAP’s client base. To further maintain visual interest in the report’s interior, Full Deck created colorful charts, selected key points to feature as callouts and designed a distinct look for Case Study pages. If you’d like to read the full 44-page report, please visit  www.mapfornonprofits.com/innovation.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Our creativity and original thinking can make your next report something people save, too. Give Full Deck Design a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how we wake up your business image!

Make It a Pleasure to Drive Around Your Website

June 15th, 2012

CHALLENGE The clunky navigation on Meyer Contracting’s old website made it a several step process to see a project which discouraged people from looking at multiple jobs. The home page featured a jumpy animation with small images—some of them obviously stock photos—that didn’t convey the breadth and quality of Meyer’s work.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Our main goal for  Meyer Contracting‘s new site was to make it easy for visitors to browse through their projects. To do that, we changed the site map completely. The new navigation features the different types of construction projects in Meyer’s portfolio. Separating the projects into distinct categories also helped target the Search Engine Optimization. Secondly, drop down menus under the main categories allow viewers to quickly see all projects in a single category. Third, FDD created a projects page with thumbnails of all projects. And fourth, viewers can scroll forward and backward through all project detail pages.

To immediately engage visitors to the site, FDD created a home page animation featuring Meyer’s best projects and created a ‘building’ tagline to go with  it highlighting their strengths—We build. We build within budget. We build long-lasting relationships. We build with quality craftsmanship.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Consider having us review your company’s website. Our creativity and original thinking can help you, too. Give Full Deck Design a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how we wake up your business image!

Print Marketing Materials Can Go Viral, Too!

May 15th, 2012

Inserts for College Planning 101

CHALLENGE Stephanie Mauro, President of College Planning 101, helps high school students develop a plan for college. She  works with a testing agency to evaluate student interests, assists with the application process and helps families figure out how to pay for college. Stephanie needed professional marketing materials to hand out at seminars and different information depending on the audience—students, parents, financial institutions and special interest groups.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Initially, Stephanie approached FDD to design a brochure. After reviewing College Planning 101’s presentation, however, we felt a better approach was to develop a series of inserts that could be mixed and matched depending on the audience. We also felt that including worksheets to help students gather, organize and evaluate necessary college prep information would be an invaluable tool. The final package included 3 informational inserts and 5 worksheet inserts. Parents and students will no doubt share these inserts with friends and when they do, College Planning 101’s contact information will be right at their fingertips. If you’ve got a high schooler getting ready for college, be sure to attend one of Stephanie’s free seminars and consider hiring her to help guide your family through the college craziness.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Consider having us review your company’s marketing materials. Our creativity and original thinking can help you, too. Give Full Deck Design a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how we wake up your business image!

A Beautiful and Affordable Ecommerce Solution

May 4th, 2012

CHALLENGE Morgan Motors of New England is the largest Morgan parts dealer in the U.S. The company’s initial website was set up not long after they opened their doors in 1983. Designed and maintained by a dedicated employee who took on the burden of learning how to program, the site had become difficult for customers to use, didn’t have good results in many Google searches and was built in sections like a house with multiple additions.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Our first hurdle was to reevalute how the store was structured. After investigating how other auto stores categorized their parts, we developed a table of contents for Morgan’s inventory. We proposed a new site map making the most visited pages quick and easy to find. The British and U.S. flag, red-white-and-blue design celebrates the heritage of the British-designed car and the American-based business. To boost search results, we developed relevant key words, descriptions and titles for site pages. Because they sell thousands of parts, the cost of purchasing an updated ecommerce package was sizable. We opted to work within the existing ecommerce package and were able to make it work despite the “vintage” interface. The result is a clean-looking, organized site that shoppers find a pleasure to visit.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Consider a fresh look for your company’s website or estore. Our creativity and original thinking can make your customers happy, too. Give us a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how we can wake up your business image!

Develop A Plan To Maximize Online Sales

May 4th, 2012

 

CHALLENGE Half Time wanted to increase holiday sales with an enewsletter campaign that targeted each of its three main profit centers.

FULL DECK DESIGN SOLUTION Half Time uses a software system that handles instore cash register as well as online sales. FDD recommended trying the system’s promotional email capability which had not been fully tested. The first challenge was to create a complete database of email addresses from all sources. FDD then developed an HTML template using the built-in email component including a promotion code to track sales for each campaign. We kept text and images separate so that people could read the message even if they have the image download feature of their email sofware turned off. Finally, FDD developed a series of fun emails to target holiday gift-buying customers with varying degrees of beer knowledge as well as a series of emails rewarding customers who had made online purchases within the last year. The results—a stunning increase over 2010 sales.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? Consider developing an enewsletter campaign to increase your company‘s sales. Our creativity and original thinking can help you, too. Give Full Deck Design a call at 845-266-3852 or email us to see how we wake up your business image!