In the kitchen area here at Zoom HQ, we had under-cabinet lights which helped us see the food we prepared for lunch. There were nine 10 watt halogen puck lights. They had a few problems. First, they were always falling apart. Just bumping a light would make the innards fall down and dangle from the short wires. Second, the bulbs were very expensive, hard to find in stores, and only seemed to last for a few weeks before burning out. It was a rare occasion to have all the lights lit at the same time. Also, they were hot. Not fire-hazard hot, but hot enough to be uncomfortable if you get too close.
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Posts Tagged ‘zoom creates’
High Fives for Efficiency, Elegance, Ease, and Cost Effectiveness
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010First Annual Rainbow Day
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Rainbow Day was brainchild of the Tweedles, inspired by the Jimmy Dean Ad campaign and a line up of brightly colored shirts. The plan: everyone would sign up for a color and then could wear a top or dress of your chosen color for the day. (Note: your color had to appear solid from 3 feet away, no plaids allowed!) We brought in treats in a rainbow theme and we even caught a snapshot of the Zoomers in full rainbow attire, complete with Kurtis as the pot of gold! I don’t think you could get anymore bright and cheery then this colorful group!
If you haven’t already caught the Jimmy Dean ads on TV, you should head on over to YouTube and check out our very own rainbow inspiration.
One page websites: love ‘em or leave ‘em?
Friday, June 18th, 2010I ran across this article on D-Lists the other day and then I got to thinking of different one page websites I’ve run across and how I felt about the user experience. A growing trend in web development is one page websites. Rather than lead viewers to different pages, usually it involves information being displayed in a drop down format. Although I’ve included screen shots, be sure to check out the actual sites to get a feel for how they display information. Do you find it to be user friendly? Do you prefer information to be displayed on different pages? Whaddayathink?
IndoFolio — this site uses an especially unique method; when a navigational link is clicked on, information scrolls side to side. I like the idea, but I don’t know if it’s actually easier or harder to take in information. I can see how the horizontal scrolling could be distracting for some sites. For creative sites (like this one) I think it adds to the experience. For a site that is heavy on information and text, I would prefer to see it displayed in the standard format. Additionally, unless the site scrolls seamlessly, I can see how it would detract from the overall quality of the site.
Zoom Creates Cache
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Our geocache is now live. On the first day, six people found it and logged their find on geocaching.com. The first-to-find gift, a prize for the first person who finds the cache, was a TorkScrew, compliments of BellaSvago.com. Also included in the cache at the time of launch was one of our trackable Zoom Creates Coin geocoins, Pink Noise stickers, Google laptop sticker, pink dice, Zoom coasters, a TorkScrew coaster, and a C3P0 Pez dispenser.
Before you are given the cache coordinates, you first must solve a slide puzzle featuring Hoss and Pepper – the same image of the dogs as on our geocoins. The next challenge is to find the camouflaged cache.
The puzzle and cache has been very well received. So get out your GPS receiver and come find it! To get started, go here: Zoom Creates Cache.
Zoom Creates Geocoins
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
If you haven’t heard of geocaching yet, you must be living under a rock. So crawl out of there, then look behind it because there might be a geocache hidden there. Then go to http://geocaching.com to find out what it is.
In our attempt to take over the world, we’ve decided it would be fun to hide a geocache. But to make it extra special, we designed up and had 100 geocoins cast. We just got them back from the coin makers.
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The Tasting Panel featuring BellaSvago and Zoom Creates
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010BellaSvago™ and Torkscrew™ are two brands that we at Zoom Creates are extremely proud of. From inception to product name to brand/identity to voice and messaging, we’ve been there from day one. Two beautiful logos, one lovely e-commerce website, to-die-for product packaging that’s sure to impress and a plethora of printed materials, including business systems, marketing sell-sheets, advertisements, large format and tabletop signage, as well as point of purchase concepts. These are just some of the fruits of our labor over the last 7-8 months. Each and every Zoomer had some part in this and we all feel very close to the project for many reasons. The first is that the inventor of Torkscrew (a fabulous all in one screw cap/corkscrew/champagne/beer bottle opener) is our very own Leisa Bates, one of four Zoom Creates principals and our finance extraordinaire. (You can read more about Leisa here and Torkscrew here.)
If you combine a super cool kitchen/wine gadget with an idea that sprung out of a great mind that we know and love… you can imagine the heart and soul that went into this project. Long story short: Torkscrew and it’s parent company, BellaSvago, is growing and making their mark on the world. Enter The Tasting Panel magazine, whose May 2010 issue features a full page editorial outlining the Torkscrew Story and touches on the minds behind the brand (that’s US). Please enjoy.
Photoshop: a design tool or design for tools?
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010After many months of subscribing to the site PhotoshopDisasters, I can no longer hold in my true feelings. I eagerly await the arrival of a new disaster each day on my Google Reader. Some of them are hideous (what was that designer thinking?), some are difficult to spot (although once the error is spotted, I can see nothing but that) and others are debatable (maybe not a disaster, after all).
Let me back up a little… there is a time and place for everything, including Photoshop. For someone like me who lives in the world of Account Services, I don’t use the program everyday and when I do, it’s to remove crow’s feet from a close up shot or possibly to fade out someone in the background of a candid group photo. I recognize, however, that Photoshop is a glorious tool that can have (and always does at Zoom!) magical results. I’ve watched our creative team do wonderful things with this software, but it’s all within reason, or in good humor. However, the examples I see on PhotoshopDisasters are far from reasonable and perhaps the only thing they are is laughable. I am amazed at the damage that is done to these images, and then even more amazed when I see that the image was actually used in a catalog, on a billboard or as part of a multi-million dollar marketing initiative. Perhaps I’m spoiled by the level of quality I’m used to seeing here at Zoom, but I just cannot imagine any member of our creative team allowing something so obviously wrong to go out the doors with our name on it.
Without ranting for too long, you get my point. Here’s what I have come to know over the years: design is an art, far more than a software application. It is an eye for aesthetics, an image that evokes a feeling and a professional trade that goes further than just “making things pretty.” I am confused as to who is designing in such a way that their “best work” ends up on PhotoshopDisasters. Are they allowing children to edit the images or maybe they are just too busy to properly QC the work…. either way, it’s unfortunate that Photoshop is being abused in this manner.
Here’s what I can personally assure you: Zoom Creates features the highest quality designers who know how to use Photoshop, not Photoshoppers who try to design. Enjoy the disasters below!
Things seem to look a little elongated perhaps?
Hugs and Kitties for everyone!
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
This week we celebrated Greg’s birthday. And in preparation, as has become tradition, the rest of the design team searched the internet for just the right image to Photoshop Greg’s face onto for his birthday card from the Zoomers. All week we had been threatening Greg with a “Kittens and Hugs” party instead of the “Pizza and Pints” party he was hoping for. So, you can imagine how excited we were to find this image to “Gregify”. Of course we had to add some additional kittens, just for good measure. As we put together the card we couldn’t help but browse the images from the last few years. We certainly got a laugh out of them, so I thought I would share. Enjoy!
Zoom Creates a Self Promo—For Reel
Thursday, February 11th, 2010Yesterday our amazingly talented, patient, smart, nerdy, impatient, committed, ingenious, thoughtful, creative, resourceful and brilliant development team put the finishing touches on the Zoom Creates self-promo reel. These guys are absolutely unbelievable. We described our vision for the reel and they told us: “That’s impossible. You can’t do that. The technology doesn’t exist. You cannot change the laws of physics. We will need super-computers, expensive software, years to write code, more chips, salsa and milkshakes than you can afford.” Then, five minutes later (slight exaggeration) came back to us with a solution–an ingenious solution: open-source software. The only hitch was they had to teach themselves how to use it. And that they did. They figured out how to use Blender for the 3d animation and Kdenlive for the video post processing. Sprinkle in some Flash and great ideas of their own (watch the mouse pointer jump from one panel to the next and the animated atom) and there is no stopping these guys.
They even used math! Lots of math. That was the most mind-boggling thing I witnessed. I like math and all but if it were me putting this thing together, I think I would have approached it more organically, finding the music then individually timing and positioning the pieces. Not these guys. After the look and feel/animation comps were completed, they looked at the music, the number of pieces and the frame rate etc. and gave each piece a number and had it all laid out on a table with little pieces of paper. Independently, Kurtis worked on the music while Kris positioned all the pieces and when they put them both together, it was like magic. The animation synced up with the music almost perfectly. It was unbelievable. These guys know what they talking about. Well done, lads.
This entire project has been such a great team effort. Everyone here at Zoom Creates contributed. The countless hours of concepting, discussing, designing, scheduling, production, learning, listening, laughing and collaborating have truly produced a project to be proud of. Not only does it show off some of Zoom’s best work, it is a portfolio piece in itself.
Winning At Working: Workplace Heists
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
It’s that time of the month again, when I receive my enewsletter from Nan Russell, author of Winning At Working. Her articles are typically well written, easy to read and communicate a specific concept related to success in the workplace. I find them to be good food for thought and I hope you do too.
Seated in the courtyard of a sports bar during a playoff game in the home city of one of the teams, it was an energetic crowd that Sunday. While we’d come for a quick bite to eat, we caught a glimpse of a play now and then as home-team enthusiasts roared their approval during the first half.
When a man sat down next to us with two friends, ordered a pitcher of beer and maneuvered around to glimpse the game, we barely noticed. But when he hassled the waitress every few minutes trying to intimidate her into getting him a table closer to the TV where none existed, his rudeness and her apparent discomfort, drew our attention.
What happened next surprised me. Growing increasingly agitated at not being able to watch the football game from inside the bar, the man stood up, ordered his colleagues up, and walked away without paying. I don’t get it. He came well after the game started. Why would he think he should be entitled to a great seat over others waiting in the wings? (more…)
