Top Notch Ceilings is a microsite for a start-up that produces custom coffered ceilings. Using simple materials and an ingenious grid system, TNC produces a ceiling, for basements in particular, with not only a sharp look, but access to all the ceiling utilities (pipes / electric) often covered up with a traditional build. I was charged with creating everything short of the logo itself. It’s been recieved very well by their clients and has been producing results since its launch. An expanded and more refined version is already in the works.

CoolGreenFish.com is a proposed business that will concentrate on selling organic, healthy, “green” products. I was asked to illustrate a logo and create a single contact / info page that would entice users to sign up for their newsletter, in actuality polling/testing for interest in this sector. The response has been very successful and the site plans are evolving into a full blown ecommerce store.

More news and additions to my folio coming soon.

Adobe’s has produced a FAQ document on their new initiative to help search engines index the dynamic content of SWF’s. While they don’t go into detail, Adobe explains.. 

Google uses the Adobe Flash Player technology to run SWF content for their search engines to crawl and provide the logic that chooses how to walk through a SWF. All of the extracted information is indexed for relevance according to Google and Yahoo!’s algorithms. The end result is SWF content adding to the searchable information of the web page that hosts the SWF content, thus giving users more information from the web to search through.

According to the FAQ, Google has already begun to roll out the Adobe Flash Player technology and should begin showing up in search results. Yahoo is still determining the best way to implement the technology.

I was most impressed with the fact that the technology is backward compatible to previously created SWF’s and Flex derived RIA’s. This is a huge savings to long time developers of flash and their clients.

However, it also raises the question — if it’s so (seemingly easy to be) backward compatible, why did it take this long? Did it take the powerhouse prowess of Adobe to push for this to become reality or even though this is a long debated downfall of developing in Flash, is this a Macromedia initiative finally coming to fruition? I’m sure we’ll get the scoop on that sooner or later.

At any rate, this is good news in Flash land. I can’t wait to start testing on my own and looking to the SEO’s who undoubtedly already have to find the limits and come up with best practises for SEO within SWF’s. More on this later, I’m off to poke around and see what results I can (and cannot) get back from Google.

A site with a great intro page was at one time the mark of a great website. Since, we’ve learned intro pages are bad for accessibility and bad for business overall since your visitors are looking for content, not an intro page upon each landing of your dot com. Google is taking a step further, and offering your visitors a chance to blow past the intro page — whether you believe intro pages are good or not.

June 30th marks a new chapter in my professional career, I will no longer be employed with P2i Newspapers. 

P2i, “From print to the internet”, started as a catalog company, moved to newspapers, and has grown beyond — over the years servicing mega clients from Avon, Brooks Brothers, J.JIll to LA Times, Newsday, The Chicago Tribune and far to many more to list. I have evolved with P2i over the last 8 years - some hard, some disappointing, but overall great and invaluable years. P2i as a company has grown right beside me — merging, acquiring and building itself — all the while not only educating and adding to my experience but relying on my talent and skills in both print and web disciplines. P2i will always hold a spot in my heart for the opportunity to strengthen and flex my creative muscles as a director, designer, and front end web developer.

The time is here to move on and expand my career. 

I’ve read and heard through casual conversation, many times over, “as one door closes, a new, bigger door opens” and I believe this to be 100% true. As proof to this theory, this site is a completely new and fresh face for my career’s history and future. It adheres to updated, yet proven traditional practices while employing cutting edge web design technology. Stay tuned, you’re in for a treat!