cultureblog

We’re pleased to announce the launch of  our latest client website at www.flipnfit.com for    Flip N Fit, a San Diego-based designer and manufacturer of gymnastic, cheer and dance apparel. The client came to us to utilize a MIVA Merchant shopping cart to generate greater sales and overhaul their previous design to better showcase their unique, hand sewn products.

We gave Flip N Fit a fun, energetic design to attract their young, female demographic and easy-to-use navigation to make finding products and checking out a breeze! Since Flip N Fit does not have a retail storefront but sells to gymnastics centers and dance studios in the greater San Diego region, they wanted an efficient way to track referrals and offer personal discounts. We employed a variety of MIVA modules, including one that would allow the client to track how the shopper learned about the company.

To create the retail-store experience for Flip N Fit’s customers, we customized their MIVA Merchant cart to allow for color swatch options, related products, a detailed size chart, and easy shipping options. The result? A virtual storefront that Flip N Fit was missing. Flip N Fit’s new online home is the perfect way to have a face in the community—both online and locally.

In late November, one of our longstanding clients, Harvest Farms, approached us with a  challenging proposition. By January 15, 2010, could we create a custom-designed database application on their existing website that would allow their customers to “build a box” of food products and tally each nutritional value? Needless to say, Durrani happily rose to the challenge.

Harvest Farms supplies a variety of food products on a weekly basis to numerous institutions throughout the country. The food products offered include boxed meals—customized based on dietary and budget requirements, sandwiches, sliced lunchmeats and cheeses. But instead of ordering these boxes via the standard phone call or e-mail, Harvest Farms wanted to make building a box fun and interactive for their customers.

After compiling the nutritional values and photographing over 70 products that would go into the boxed meals, we swiftly moved into development. The database, built from scratch in PHP and MYSQL, allows the user to select one product from each food category, creating the meal of their choice. All the while, the total calories, fat grams, carbohydrates, etc. of each item are being added together. The user can view the total nutritional summary along the way and then submit their boxed meal to a Harvest Farms account rep.

Now Harvest Farms’ customers are able to build their food boxes and obtain the nutritional value for not only an individual product—but the entire box—within moments. Check out the new “Build-A-Box” application at Harvest Farms.

Congratulations to Encinitas Foreign & Domestic Auto Repair! Their website, at www.runcarrun.com, has just been named one of  the Top 10 Automotive Repair Web Sites by industry leading magazine Auto Inc.

The Auto Inc. “Top 10” contest includes submissions from companies all over North America, and the results were just published in the January edition of the magazine, in an article called “Cream of the Crop.” The start of the article reads, “As usual, we were overwhelmed by the number of entries we received this year for Auto Inc.’s 12^th annual Top 10 Automotive Repair Web Sites awards,” and goes on to say that the sites were evaluated using the following criteria: First impression, visual design, appearance, navigation, consumer friendliness, technical, objective/ purpose, innovation, credibility, interactivity, and encouraging action.

The EFADAR site was designed with user-ease and interactivity as a top priority. Aesthetically, we created the graphics with EFADAR’s neighborhood, the southern-California beach town of Encinitas, in mind. “Very unique-looking site,” said one of the contest’s judges. “Nice use of color and design to reflect the surrounding community.”

EFADAR co-owner Julie Macaluso said, “Our Web site combines innovative design with user ease, large iconic buttons, easy-to-understand graphics and all vital information at the customer’s fingertips. We had a lot of fun with the redesign and are extremely happy with the results.”

We would agree – this redesign was a particularly fun and rewarding one. The Macalusos found Durrani through the Encinitas Chamber of Commerce, and they came to us seeking a complete overhaul of their online presence. The thing that made their project so fun was that, after discussing their goals and branding, they stepped aside and let us go to work – no interjections or rounds of massive edits. They hired us for our expertise, and they took full advantage of it. Too often, a creative agency becomes a captive of a business-owner’s own personal creative ideas, and the whole reason behind hiring an agency is lost. Design can be seen as subjective, but marketing-driven design is a finely-tuned science, and the EFADAR website is a perfect case study of what can happen when a client trusts the experts.

We are honored to be a part of the EFADAR family and to count them among our clients, and we’re excited that their website has been chosen for this award. Check out the full article online at: www.asashop.org/autoinc/jan2010/topten.htm

Call us cliché, but we think that with the coming of the New Year comes an opportunity to look back on the year that has passed and forward to the year ahead… to realize the things that we have done well and the things we could do better.  On this last day of 2009, each of us at the Durrani office has named one or two of their New Years Resolutions:

I really want to improve the "no reason" surprise gifts and spontaneity so my wife knows how much I love her.  I also want to get in the water and surf way more than I did in ‘09 and just get in better overall shape so I can keep up with my new little girl.” – Matt Harding

My New Years Resolution is about more quality and focus personally and professionally.” – Elise Harding

My new years resolution is quite simple, workout and be active. I did a lot of sports growing up and into high school, but in college for 5 years I didn’t do anything.  Now I want to get back to being active, whether it be sports, karate or working out.” – Tyler Boettcher

Budget, body and burrito detox!” – Michaela McNamara

I’m not shaving my armpits for a whole year.  Just kidding!  I’m not dyeing my hair for a whole year – seriously!” – Brooke Kellestine

In 2010 I will try new things, meet new people, and go new places.” – Carrie Sinclair

Delegate more, work less, and start cycling again.” – Joe McDonald

We’re excited for what the New Year holds… All the best to you in 2010!

We are excited to announce the launch of the new First Aid 2000 website at www.fa2000ca.com!  First Aid 2000 is a local company offering first aid and emergency preparedness supplies to all kinds of businesses and schools.  (Look around your office… do you have a first aid kit handy?  If not, you should probably give them a call.)  As First Aid 2000 realized that their industry was becoming increasingly reliant on the web to gain new business, they came to us to create a website to showcase their company’s services and inventory.

First Aid 2000’s inventory is nothing to sneeze at – with hundreds of products in dozens of categories, the organization of products with their correct product codes, descriptions, and images was quite the feat.  It required a massive product spreadsheet and close monitoring, but the end result is a successful and organized listing of the First Aid 2000 inventory, so that existing and potential clients can view all offerings.

We built the First Aid 2000 website on a WordPress platform; Even though the client isn’t going to utilize the traditional “blogging” functionality of WordPress, the content management system (CMS) that it provides will be invaluable.  If a product code changes, if offerings change, or if new features need to be highlighted, those edits can be made quickly and easily – minimizing the effort of upkeep for the site.   

We’re thrilled about another successful local partnership and the opportunity to take First Aid 2000 into the world wide web. 

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the newly redesigned The Brittle Company website at www.lavacrunch.com! The Brittle Company, whose website is named after its star product—a light and crunchy macadamia nut brittle—produces gourmet candy and is distributed in fine specialty food shops nationwide.

If it hadn’t been for the 2008 economic meltdown on Wall Street, Lois Basiger may have never found her passion in the brittle business. The abrupt halt in the corporate finance world, where she had worked for 30 years, gave her the chance to explore other business opportunities. Namely, the specialty food business! Together with her friend Judy, they formed T.U. Roberta (Thank You, Roberta), named after Judy’s mom and the creator of the delicious LavaCrunch and Gold Country Crunch recipes.

Lois came to Durrani to redesign and develop a site where existing and potential wholesale customers could come to learn about her product and buy her products through a MIVA Merchant shopping cart. We gave The Brittle Company a new logo, applying a wooden, Old West theme and integrated a design that reflected the warm colors of her existing branding. The global footer illustrates the company’s two products—the foliage represents the island-themed LavaCrunch, while the golden foothills represent the Old Western-themed Gold Country Crunch. The site structure is easy to navigate, and incorporates a unique restricted area for wholesalers to access pricing and additional materials which remain hidden from competitors and the general public. But Lois is so pleased with her new site, that she’s already thinking of expanding her e-commerce store to include a retail section to capture a wider audience. We like that!

Have you ever been to a tradeshow, corporate event, or retail shop and marveled at the creative and innovative designs surrounding you?  We certainly have… and that’s only one of the reasons that we’re thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Durrani client family: DisplayWorks!

DisplayWorks is a premier exhibit house with over 30 years experience, an award-winning portfolio, and client list of high-profile companies spanning a wide range of industries.  They create custom-designed themed environments, including tradeshow exhibits and booths, interior environments for retail and corporate spaces, and event decor.  DisplayWorks operates under the motto Listen. Analyze. Create. which drives their service-oriented approach to each client and each project. 

DisplayWorks came to Durrani to redesign their website, and  we are excited to create the new site to be an online showcase of their extensive portfolio as well as a tool to show potential clients all of the services and experience that they provide.

Durrani Design + DisplayWorks.  We think this will be the beginning of a beautiful partnership.

Our very own Durrani Design website was recently chosen by the website Reencoded.com, which is a resource for web designers and developers, as an example of great background design!  At Durrani, one of the things we’re proud of is our intricate, detailed background images.  And as Reencoded.com notes in their post, “background images are one of the core features in web design that help  make a website design visually interesting.”

We’re excited to be recognized for our design, and to be a part of this collection of great websites.  Check out the article at http://www.reencoded.com/2009/08/23/website-background-images-examples-and-implementation/

Want more business?  Of course you do.  What better time to focus on taking your business to a new level than a new year – and a new decade?  Read on, and make it your resolution to follow these tips in 2010:

1.  Be your own editor.  Read through your site.  Does it contain statements that are outdated?  Is your sales pitch lackluster?  Are your product descriptions descriptive enough?  How about the Copyright date… at the very least, that should changed to 2010.  It shows your visitors that you’re on top of your online presence.

2. NEW NEW NEW! New banner graphics, promotional boxes, and details on your website will show your audience that you’re investing back into your business, and it will keep them coming back for more!

3.  Start (or ramp up) your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.  At Durrani we say that having a great website without SEO is like throwing a huge party and not inviting anyone.  The goal of Search Engine Optimization is to capture your target market and lead them to your site – SEO gets people to your party.   In 2010, invite more people to your party.

4. Put your email account to work.  Email campaigns are one of the most effective and inexpensive marketing methods out there.  With a professional, branded design and targeted, concise messaging, an email campaign can create a sustained connection to your audience, and get the word out about important news, offers and promotions.

5. Here, take my card…  Even in an era dominated by all things digital, there’s still something to be said for strong print marketing.  Consider business cards – being able to hand out a well-designed, branded business card adds credibility and makes a good impression.  And print collateral – including brochures, one-sheets, and postcards – gives your target market something tangible that will remind them of your services.

6. Everyone loves a “deal.” You know it’s true, we all love a good promotion.  Getting something for free is even better.  We encourage our clients to offer incentive, especially for e-commerce business.  Promo codes in an email campaign, free shipping, or even a referral incentive program can go very far in getting that business that’s been sitting “on the fence”.  

7. Blogging: not just for the young folks anymore.  When a blog is built and maintained properly (read: often, but not too often), it can be instrumental in Search Engine Optimization efforts as well as steady viewership.  It can also give your business an easy and quick outlet for your press releases, news, and promotions – one that you can update yourself.  Durrani can create a blog that is fully integrated with your existing website design, so that it looks professional and thoughtful – and we can be as hands-on or hands-off as you’d like in your blogging adventures. 

8. Get social with your media.  Whether you love them or hate them, social media outlets are here to stay.  LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr… they can be used to your advantage in business, if they’re done specifically and surgically.  We can help you assess which of these avenues would work for you, and help you get started.  At the very least, one media outlet that every business should utilize is press releases.  Press Releases help with SEO as well as public perception, and we can handle the writing and release for you… no-hassle PR!

9. Educate yourself.  What’s new in your industry?  Are you keeping up with the metaphorical “Joneses” or are your website, your branding, and your marketing falling behind the times?  It’s always a good idea to keep a finger on the pulse of your business in relation to your competition – and to know when to make changes or additions.

10. Give your brand a facelift.  Every company needs a good makeover once in awhile.  Is 2010 time for yours?

Overwhelmed?  Don’t be… Durrani is here to help!  We want to assist our clients in growing and expanding their businesses.  That could mean designing a new marketing piece, launching an SEO campaign, or re-branding… it could also mean sitting down and creating an effective marketing plan involving many of these pieces.  We want to make 2010 the best year ever for our clients!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the newly redesigned Sauvage Swimwear website at www.sauvagewear.com!  Sauvage produces some  of the world’s most elegant and glamorous swimwear for women and men.  They came to us to produce an online showcase for their brand and a rich online experience for their customers.

We started by designing a clean user interface that focuses on showcasing the products in an effective and eye-catching way.  It can be difficult for design teams to create a website that is restrained and minimal, but when the products are as intricately designed and the photography is as stunning as Sauvage’s, those aspects must always take the center stage.  So with that in mind, we applied a classic look with a black, grey, and white palette and pinstripe lines as separators.  We used large images to maximize their effect, and let the products do most of the design “work.”

We applied this design in several ways to create a rich user experience for Sauvage.  The site begins with a Flash introduction, and then employs a javascript-based gallery, a MIVA Merchant shopping cart, and a WordPress platform for the company’s news and media features.  The result of using these different components is a multi-faceted experience of the Sauvage product line.  Customers can view products in a gallery without the additional information that a storefront provides, and they can then move into the MIVA shopping cart component of the site to learn more about the product, see additional views, and make a purchase.  As the customer moves from one area of the site to the next, the design elements remain the same to create a cohesive and seamless transition.  Our goal in constructing the site was to create an experience that was as close as possible to being in the front row on the runway and then walking right into the retail shop.

To create the retail-store experience for Sauvage’s online store, we customized their MIVA Merchant cart to allow for large imagery with a zoom option, alternate images, related products, products with several cuts that can be purchased as separates, a detailed and prominent size chart, a “favorites” section for shoppers, hassle-free shipping options with an order tracking feature for customers, and the ability to offer promotional codes at Sauvage’s discretion.  The result?  A comfortable shopping experience with a high level of detail.

It may be December, but it’s always swimsuit season with Sauvage.