Not only will AlbertaTweets be providing CBC Alberta with customized stats and graphics for the evening coverage, but we will also be providing insight into the campaign with features during the pre-election show and the ever popular CBC Eye Opener morning show.

As you can tell we are incredibly excited about this partnership and we thank everyone for the support, retweets and comments about this little project since we started. We will also be launching our final infographic this evening and will be working on a recap of the election for later this week.

Lion’s Eye Catering

As one of our longest standing clients, we were ecstatic when the wonderful Miss Monica was looking for a reboot to the Lion’s Eye Catering web site. Since it was one of our very first corporate projects, we were more than happy to take a second run at the web site.

By taking the already existing WordPress Content Management system and the established elements of the site’s content, we set out to modernize the look and the feel of lionseyecatering.com. One of our main goals was to improve the overall usability of the site, while also making it a more attractive site to potential clients. We accomplished this goal through a series of new design changes. We implemented Web Fonts to provide for a more seamless and less image heavy design. We also created a bevy of new content, by taking Lion’s Eye Catering’s mouth watering menus and placing that information directly on the site. To help customers better understand the process for ordering, we also set-up a series of pages with easy to follow How To instructions and clearer payment option information.

Overall, with the new minimalistic design, lush photos and a more content heavy site, Miss Monica and Lion’s Eye Catering are seeing stronger search engine results and a new bevy of clients for this long standing business. As always, we have been humbled by being able to work with Miss Monica and we look forward to continuing to help her business grow over the next few years.

I Know Smart People

Started a couple of years ago, IKnowSmartPeople.com is the brain child of tech savant and crowd-sourcing guru Sarah Blue. The site features interviews with some of the most inspiring and thoughtful thinkers in the tech industry. Sarah has been a long friend of the company and was looking to take her popular site from it’s humble posterous roots to the next stage of evolution with a full WordPress install. She approached us to craft a unique look that would help showcase her unique side-project.

Using our hand-crafted WordPress blogging theme, we set about crafting a look that not only matched Sarah’s elegant personality, but also provided a subtle backdrop for her fantastic interviews. By using the power of the WordPress CMS and a minimalist design aesthetic, we have created something that will not only help garner new readers, but provide for stimulating discussion. As always, it was a pleasure working with Sarah and we look forward to continuing to help her fascinating project grow.

Unrest Magazine

Unrest Magazine is an online academic journal based out of Washington, D.C. Started a little over two years ago, the journal has grown from it’s humble roots as a vehicle for the students of George Manson University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution to an academic powerhouse for the field of International Conflict Analysis and Resolution. The site now features articles and postings from some of the fields most predominate thinkers on the subject of International Conflict.

The initial version of the site was powered by the cumbersome Joomla Content Management System and was not conducive for the journal to adapt or grow. Late last year, we were approached by the chief editor, Michael English, to assist in crafting a site that was not only easier for readers to navigate, but also provided a more fluid functionality to allow the site to increase it’s readership.

We set about this by migrating the current site from the Joomla CMS to the more user friendly WordPress CMS. In doing so we granted the editorial team with a stronger understanding and control of the backend, which in turn has already improved content creation. We also crafted a unique design and layout which now better represents the varying levels of content of the magazine, and now allows the magazine to offer up a more current flow of content. We also integrated the journals various Social Media outlets, including syncing the new Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts directly into the site, which in turn allows users to connect with the site on another scale.

As always, it was a pleasure to work with all three of these clients and on such diverse projects. We welcome all three of these projects to the ever growing family of Armadillo Clients and look forward to our continued partnerships in the future.

As avid data and political junkies, we had been contemplating doing a project which would involve twitter data and some sort of visual data analysis. Over the past two years, we’ve been attending a variety of conferences which have delved into the realm of web data and the political spectrum. Then as rumors of a provincial election started to surface, it seamed like the perfect timing. Hence the birth of AlbertaTweets.ca

As you can see by the about page, we plan on releasing a large set of infographics during the election that shows a variety of different information. We want to highlight online conversation trends and find out who is making the most noise. To make this happen, we’ve hand-crafted an online database which is capturing tweets using the specific hash tags and organizing them into clusters based on political group connections, topics and most retweets. We’ve also been tracking the online growth of the leaders and parties by tracking their online official party accounts.

Many people might wonder why we’re putting this much work into a project which is interesting, but may seam pointless. While from an outsiders perspective this many seam true, it’s been shown in various US political campaigns, that while Twitter and Facebook activity don’t necessarily win elections for candidates the online conversation is a great indicator of where the overall conversation of an election is headed. Many American based political institutes have started leveraging Twitter and Facebook conversational data to understand what the hottest topics are going to be during the election. And we think it’s about time that Canada (and to a greater extent Alberta) had a similar analysis and a set of tools.

Since launching AlbertaTweets.ca, we’ve already received some incredibly positive feedback. Not only from the online political community in Alberta, but also from local media with features in OpenFile Calgary and CBC Edmonton. We are incredibly excited for this new project and all the challenges it will bring. For Team Armadillo, AlbertaTweets.ca is a way to explore a new opportunity and to improve on our already growing skill set.

If you’d like to talk about AlbertaTweets.ca, web data or data visualization, contact us at info@armadillostudios.ca.

The team at WMS reached out to us a few months ago, looking for help building their online identity. As a boutique communications outfit based in Calgary, they were looking for a web design firm to come in and develop a unique vision for the company. They wanted a professional WordPress powered site that would not only catch the eye of potential clients, but also set them apart from the plethora of local competitors.

Our first step in the process was to research the growing, the communications market in the Calgary region. What we found is a subsection of the market with many similar sized outfits using common WordPress templates to create a soft and calming vibe. But with WMS Communications’ pedigree in the industry, we wanted to create something that was not only bold and eye-catching, but simple and intuitive.

Using the company’s logo and burnt orange branding, we devised a simple yet strong design. We leveraged a series of complimentary colours to represent the different aspects of the site and the company itself. The combination of the different hues of orange and blue create a contrasting aesthetic which is not only easy for the potential client to digest, but also memorable. We also leveraged the stunning Knockout font to give it a sense of modernity and confidence.

As with all of our projects, the new WMS Communicatons Inc., web site is powered by one of our custom hand-crafted WordPress themes. As one of the easiest and most user friendly tool on the market, the WordPress CMS allows the team at WMS to easily maintain the content of the site and to constantly update the site with their latest projects and industry blog posts.

As always, the team at Armadillo Studios was honoured to work with the great people at WMS Communications Inc. Not only do we wish them all the best with the new site, but we look forward to growing our current relationship and helping them out in the future.

And after a couple of months of hard work, we are happy to launch the newly minted TEKTELIC Communications web site.

Our first task for the project was to transition TEKTELIC’s old web site from a Flash-based infrastructure to the more flexible WordPress Content Management System (CMS). Using our years of experience with the WordPress CMS, we designed a versatile site that reflected the professional nature of this emerging company. From a design perspective, we crafted a theme and layout that leveraged the unique branding of the company. For each of the six elements of the site (Products, Solutions, News, Careers, About and Contact pages) we tied the pages to one of the unique colours embedded in the company’s logo. We also crafted a more approachable and open layout, which would be more inviting to potential clients.

In addition to the general design elements, we also levered many of the companies lush 3D product renderings to better highlight the skills and attributes of this unique company. We also incorporated a simplistic iconography to the overall site, which in turn will better help visitors understand the different elements of the site. We also integrated the company’s Social Media accounts into the site, by creating visible links to all accounts in the header and footer, while also featuring the companies latest tweets in the sidebar of the news section. We also leveraged some basic social sharing aspects, which allow every press release, news article or career posting to be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

In addition to the redesign of their web site, we also set out to refresh TEKTELIC’s Social Media accounts. Team Armadillo gave the existing Twitter account”:http://twitter.com/#!/tektelic a stylized face-lift by crafting a new avatar and a custom background. We also connected the team with our favorite twitter tool Hootsuite and provided the team with a plethora of information to better improve their brand experience on Twitter. We also took their existing LinkedIn profile and updated it by developing a series of product pages inside the company’s profile. Last but not least we revamped their Facebook account with detailed images of their product and a matching landing page designed to encourage users to like the page and get to know the company a bit better.

It’s been a fantastic few months working with the team from TEKTELIC and helping them to drastically improve their online presence. We wish the company all the best in future and welcome them in to the growing family of Armadillo Clients.

Miles Davison LLP., is a long standing and established legal firm within the city of Calgary. They are a versatile organization with a wealth of expertise, which pride themselves on their close-knit relationship with their clients. In 2011 they approached Team Armadillo to help create a new online home for the firm; one that would not only modernize their online presence, but also better reflected their corporate culture.

With that mandate set out with four main goals for the new redesign. The first was to modernize the look and feel for their new web site. The second was to streamline the navigation and make it easier for potential clients to find specific lawyers based on areas of expertise. The third goal was to create a site which was easy for the Miles Davison team to update on a regular basis. And the fourth and final goal, was to build a site that was more conducive for search engines.

Using the WordPress Content management system, we were able to craft a unique web site that better reflected the professional nature of the firm. We leveraged web fonts and their already existing branding palette to create a new minimalistic layout site. We also dramatically improved the navigation by incorporating a versatile search functionality and by adding a expanding accordion sidebar to allow users to jump directly to a specific lawyer or expertise area from any page of the site.

One of the other key aspects of the site that we redeveloped was the Lawyer profile system. We customized a layout which not only better showcases the expertise and skill set of their current roster of lawyers, but also provides potential clients with the tools to get in touch through downloadable v-cards. On the backend of the web site, we crafted a customized WordPress plug-in to allow for easy to update profile creation for the team at Miles Davison. By using the WordPress CMS and developing a robust set of content, we also crafted a site that was not only informative, but highly conducive to the search engine algorithms of Google and Bing.

As mentioned, we are thrilled to have worked with the team at Miles Davison over the past few months. It was a pleasure to work with such a well established firm in Calgary and we look forward to working with them again in the future.

Leveraging our vast experience with the WordPress Content Management system, we crafted a minimalistic, yet professional web site for Holtby’s team. While simple in nature, the site was developed with two key elements in mind. The first of course, is that we wanted to create a modern layout, but one that provided the quickest path for potential supporters and voters to find out information about the candidate. The second was to create a simple structure for the site, which would in turn allow the campaign team to quickly maintain and update through out the nomination season.

We decided to utilize a series of clean and crisp web fonts for the back bone of the site design. We also leveraged the already existing branding scheme to highlight important elements of the site, such as the site navigation, social media links and policy highlights. By keeping the site and design simple, we were also able to make the site easy for the campaign team to maintain and update. The team can utilize the exceptional WordPress’ user interface to update page content through any browser and also craft new releases for upcoming events through out the campaign.

The development of BrianJHoltby.ca web site, was an exciting project for us. Not only are we extremely proud of the look and functionality of the site, but we are excited to make our first official step into the political campaign web world… and we’re confident it won’t be our last.

And while it’s great news that SOPA (The Stop Online Privacy Act) has been shelved by Congress for the time being, it still doesn’t address some of the underlying threats towards the web industry in North America. It’s a step forward, but governments north and south of the 49th parallel must show a greater understanding of the importance of this emerging industry.

Why would a Canadian Company Take Part?

You may be asking, why would a Calgary based web design studio care about federal legislation in the United States? Simply put, the internet as a market place has no borders.

What happens in the United States, in regards to policy, ultimately influences policy and activity in Canada. In particular, elements of SOPA could effect our own clientele and our own business models. As a company, we have created numerous blogs and web sites across North America, with content who audience stretches across borders. We also utilize reliable shared hosting within the United States. But SOPA (and to an extent PIPA) gives authorities the power to penalize not only site owners, but web hosting providers for copyright infringement. And while we are definitely for the protection of Intellectual Property, let’s be honest good people do make mistakes. With this new legislation it is quite easy for a site on a shared hosting environment to accidentally break elements of SOPA and by proxy force a disabling of an entire array of web sites. It may never happen, but the threat of it is concerning to us.

In addition, we are also incredibly supportive of the emerging tech industry in general. In particular, the great start-up culture. Many start-ups in Calgary and across North America, are leveraging elements of the Social Web to create unique products. SOPA’s principals allow the the disabling of sites that distribute copyrighted material. Which sounds good in theory, but is also a large grey area of controversy and quite vague in it’s limitations. What constitutes the infringement on copyrighted material? Is it uploading and advertising of intellectual property or is it the misuse of property. Imagine a young start-up in Calgary, that hits it big with some sort of social web product, the next Flickr, the next Spotfy or even the next Evernote. Thousands of users suddenly using the service to connect with other people in ways not even imagined by the original start-up company. You have a small start-up of three to five people suddenly responsible for the activities of hundreds, possible thousands of users. You may have users suddenly uploading avatars of images they don’t own the rights to or sharing tracks of bands they haven’t paid a royalty to or sharing a funny video they found on the internet from a site that seamed legit, but was actually breaking SOPA’s rules. There a variety of ways in which a site or an application could be in violation of either of these acts, without their own knowledge.

Now, with SOPA or PIPA that start-up could easily be squashed in a matter of moments. Either through a shutting down of their site or thousands of dollars of legal fees. All because of something, that a single user may or may not have done on purpose.

And because both SOPA/PIPA are designed to cross across borders, as a web-based company, this frightens us.

But, Again What Does This Have To Do With Canada

Let’s be honest, Canada and the US are tied to one another when it comes to policy in regards to the Internet. What passes as policy and legislation south of the border, inevitably makes it’s way up to our neck of the woods. By standing with the SOPA Blackout, we want to challenge politicians at the Provincial and Federal level to start taking this emerging industry seriously. To be a proactive player in the development of Internet Policy and also to start a dialogue with the growing tech culture within our borders. Let’s build something that not only protects intellectual material and property, but also doesn’t hinder the potential of this growing industry.

So feel free join us in the holiday spirit and download our latest desktop. It is sure to get you in the holiday spirit and put a smile on your face.

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And with that we wish you and yours all the best over the Holiday Season and a fantastic 2012.

Your Friends at Armadillo Studios