Armadillo Studios Inc.

What Does Armadillo Studios Do?

On August 31st, *Armadillo Studios Inc.*, will celebrate the beginning of our fifth year as a web design outfit.

Calgary Web Design - What Does Armadillo Do?

Over the past five years we’ve had the pleasure of working with a “variety of great clients”:http://www.armadillostudios.ca/our-clients/ on a whole spectrum of projects in Calgary and across North American. We’ve built online identities for a range of different businesses, partnered-up as consultants with our Drupal and WordPress expertise and even worked as social media consultants to help kick start some very successful campaigns. We’ve also lent our skills to a variety of non-profit causes; from the “yycPhotobook project”:http://www.yycaphotobook.com to the “yycapps.com project”:http://www.yycapps.com to the SXSWiseasy campaign to helping the “DCFoodForAll project”:http://dcfoodforall.com/. But in the busy and hectic world of web design, as an organization we have never really explained *what we do*. (Read More…)

Stampede Wallpapers 2011: Carnies Edition

It’s well known that Team Armadillo is unapologetically proud to be Calgarian. So with the 2011 edition of the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede officially kicking off today, we thought it was time revive our much loved *Stampede Desktop Wallpapers*.

This year we’ve kicked our designs up a notch.

Instead of two we now have four brand spanking new designs (including a Twitter design for the #yyc crowd) and we also have iPhone/iPod Touch compatible designs. Similar to last year, the designs leverage “Veer’s amazing Calgary Font”:http://www.veer.com/products/typedetail.aspx?image=UMT0000326 (Civic pride for the win?) and “GoMedia’s Western Vector Pack”:http://gomedia.us/arsenal/#set9.

So for your enjoyment here are The 2011 Armadillo Stampede Wallpapers!

Stampede Wallpaper - The ZZZZZIPPER

The zzzZipper! Built by Carnies… Held Together By Love!

Download: Zip File All Formats
Download: 1600 x 1200
Download: 1920 x 1200
Download: iPhone

Calgary Stampede Wallpaper 2011 - Scewdrivers at 8am.

Screwdrivers at 8am… GIDDY-UP!

Download: Zip File All Formats
Download: 1600 x 1200
Download: 1920 x 1200
Download: iPhone

Calgary Stampede Wallpapers 2012 - Bolo Ties...

Bolo Ties… The Original Hipster Accessory!

Download: Zip File All Formats
Download: 1600 x 1200
Download: 1920 x 1200
Download: iPhone

#YAAAHOOO #yyc

Download: Zip File All Formats
Download: 1600 x 1200
Download: 1920 x 1200
Download: iPhone

*A very special thank you goes to Jamie Rennie & Louis Ducharme for their great suggestions this year. We changed them up a bit, but to thank you we’ll be send you a batch of our brand spanking new stickers!*

Happy Stampede Everyone

Mike’s Bloggity Blog Enters A New Era

“Mike’s Bloggity Blog”:http://mikesbloggityblog.com is easily one of the most popular Entertainment blogs in Canada. Winning numerous awards for his posts covering the ever growing Canadian television and pop-culture landscape, Mike’s Bloggity Blog reaches more than 20,000 readers a month. (and growing)

Earlier last year, we had the fantastic opportunity to work with Mike on the first redesign of his site. It was the first step in the site’s continuous evolution, one in which the site transitioned over from it’s humble roots at Blogger.com to a self-hosted professional entity. And now this week, we’re happy to showcase the second iteration of Mike’s Bloggity and a new era for this fantastic site.

Mike's Bloggity Blog - Welcome Landing Page

(Read More…)

ToMarket.ca & Smartsealer.tv Open Up For Business

Over the past few months, Armadillo Studios has had the great pleasure to work with the fantastic team from *ToMarket Inc.* on a variety of projects. And now our collaborative efforts have come to fruition with the _almost_ simultaneous launches of “Tomarket.ca”:http://tomarket.ca and “Smartsealer.tv”:http://smartsealer.tv.

ToMarket.ca

The new web site for ToMarket.ca was designed to introduce the world to the company’s new online identity and to showcase the multifaceted extensions of their business. This new web site promotes all three elements of their company, which includes Concert & Speaker Promotion, App Development, and Direct Response Marketing.

Built by utilizing the WordPress Content Management system, Armadillo Studios developed a simple, yet elegant site, which shows the multiple facets of the company. We created simple illustrations to create an instant connection between the user and each element of the company’s business. We also rounded out the development with an easy to navigate footer and also a simple contact form.

Smartsealer.tv

The second site Armadillo developed was for the direct response marketing campaign for “The Smartsealer”:http://smartsealer.tv.

This simple, yet robust, single page site acts as the sole purchase point for the product’s North American campaign. Using the products already existing branding and the infomercial developed by ToMarket, this new site showcases the product to customers across the continent.

In addition the site also features the key elements of the product. It showcases high quality images of the product in action and a detailed list of the products functionality.

We also created a customized theme for the robust UltraCart e-commerce system. This system, while matching the branding and feeling of the Smartsealer.tv web site, also acts to sell the product to online customers. Through our development work with the site and the UltraCart system, we are able to provide a secure and intuitive method for potential customers to quickly order this new product.

We wish the ToMarket team all the best with these two new releases. It’s been a pleasure to work with them and we look forward to continuing this great working relationship.

Armadillo’s Visit to Coworkyyc

Earlier in January, I had the wonderful pleasure to finally go and visit Calgary’s only Coworking Office – “CoWorkyyc”:http://www.coworkyyc.com/.

!http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5211/5487606475_e92446b626.jpg!

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Coworking, it is essentially a shared office environment which individuals (or small businesses) can rent out in monthly or daily rates. It’s a collective place which allows small businesses and individuals to move away from the isolating confides of their living rooms to a shared space with like minded individuals. The concept is not new by any stretch of the imagination, but it is becoming quite a “popular trend for consultants, freelancers and up and coming tech companies”:http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/employees/article.jsp?content=20100426_10026_10026.

!http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5134/5488201896_a71eb97f02.jpg!

As mentioned, after numerous failed attempts, I finally got the opportunity to visit CoWorkyyc in the heart of Inglewood’s growing design and technology centre. Two of three owners, Quienton and Jeff, were my hosts for the day and showed me around the operation. After talking with them for much of the day and spending a very productive day of work, I was throughly impressed. I have been a major supporter of the project since I heard about it’s inception, but had never had the chance to check it out.

Luckily everything lived up to it’s billing and more.

The CoWorkycc office is a warm and inviting space with a bevy of open desks near the front. Near the back a selection of more private spaces for some of the more long term tenants are available. Nestled in a corner at the at the front is a comfortable round-table, which is perfect for that all important client meeting or conference call. At the very back of the space is a kitchen containing the critical coffee machine and a private shower, for those looking to bike to the office. And last but not least, a trip to CoWorkyyc wouldn’t be the same with out admiring the fantastic paint job which adorns the brickwalls. _You may need to ask Quienton and Jeff, about that portion of the tour_.

!http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/5488201854_808e5eaf02.jpg!

Anyways, if you haven’t had the opportunity to check out CoWorkyyc or just looking to find a productive work space, please do get in touch “Jeff and the rest of the team”:http://www.coworkyyc.com/start/, you definitely won’t regret it.