Plaid™

Here's where you get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how we do what we do at the
world's most Plaid design and branding firm.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

GPS tracking all set for Plaid tour

Brian's setup the GPS tracking, so that you can follow the Plaid van on tour. Every step of the way. Keep an eye on us, to make sure we stay on track, stay on schedule, and stay away from casinos.

We'll be incorporating the GPS feed into a Google maps mashup, and it will track the van in real time. Since it's still four weeks until the tour kicks off, Brian's been testing the system on Plaid employee cars. We think he caught someone going to a strip club at lunch the other day.

Can't wait to see this live.

Labels: plaid, plaid summertour, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:16 PM 0 comments

Friday, May 11, 2007

New website is live!

Last night at around midnight, we launched our agency's new website, and VIA is now officially known as Plaid.

This is a first stage launch, and there's so much more that we'll be adding in the coming months - but for now, this is a wonderful representation of who we are, and what we can do for clients. Special props to David and Paul for loads and loads of last minute content and design adjustments.

Meanwhile, we'll continue blogging about everything happening behind the scenes at our firm, here on the ThinkPlaid blog, at it's new address, http://blog.thinkplaid.com. There's some pretty fun developments coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Special thanks to all of the ThinkPlaid readers. (YOU!) For what I believe is the first time in history - a design and branding firm's brand has been directly impacted and changed based on real input from others in the industry, and the general public. Gotta love blogging.

Have a Plaid day.

Labels: collateral, plaid, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:47 AM 1 comments

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Adjust your feed!

We're launching our new site tonight, at this url!

This blog will continue, in all it's Plaid glory, at a new address: http://blog.thinkplaid.com.

We'll continue with fun posts about what's going on at Plaid. And there's a load of cool stuff coming up -

+ Plaid Summer Tour
+ House of Plaid
+ Plaidcasts

Here's the deal...if you're reading this from an RSS feed, you may have to re-subscribe, or adjust your feed. Those readers using Feedburner should be fine (in theory) but other RSS feeds might require a re-subscribe.

Again - this blog will continue at it's new address, http://blog.thinkplaid.com. We'll be posting additional news tomorrow, so please check your feed!

In the meantime, please enjoy our new site. Coming to this url in a few moments...

Labels: plaid, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:28 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 7, 2007

redirection for old site

Once we launch, we'll need to redirect all of the ongoing traffic from our old site.

Here's what we'll put in it's place. I figure that we'll keep this live for about six or eight months, dependent on traffic stats, and then eventually just auto redirect the old url to the new one, here. Sounds more confusing than it is.

Labels: collateral, plaid, via, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 12:06 PM 0 comments

website almost complete. we've gone blog crazy.

Paul's making fab progress on the coding for our new site. When launched, the site will incorporate THREE blogs.

1. We've organized our portfolio in a blog. Works really well. Not at all traditional, but if you think of the typical blogger tools, like tags and posts, they work great for a portfolio.

2. This blog. We intended this to be a temporary project - to share the behind the scenes of a re-branding. The original plan was that the company's site would replace this blog, when launched. But we didn't expect the kind of popularity that we've achieved here - so we'll be integrating this into the site, and keep updates to what's happening at the agency.

3. Brand Flakes For Breakfast. Our company's primary blog is now enjoyed each morning by over 100K super smart readers a month, so we'd be fools not to feature a feed in the new ThinkPlaid site, too.

Labels: collateral, plaid, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:20 AM 3 comments

Monday, April 23, 2007

resetting of the clock

We changed our countdown. Actually, Giuli did. Late last week, as the clock chimed down to eight days - eight days until the launch of our new site, it was pretty obvious that we had more than eight days of work left.

One nice thing about your own projects, is that (more or less,) the deadlines can be moved around. Of course, that's also a curse. Since the website is the foundation of all of our promotional materials, we can't begin to get the word out (aggressively) until it's live.

We've brought in some additional freelance help (thanks Rob!) to assist with the overload, and will be devoting hard time to it. This time, we're sticking with the clock.

Paul is coding up the home page, and Eliza and I are working out the remainder of the copy for the site. Meanwhile, David is finishing out the additional pages while we pull together pieces for the online portfolio.

Eighteen days, as I type this...seems so far away...

Labels: plaid, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:06 PM 0 comments

Monday, April 9, 2007

new website conceptual design

The first stage conceptual design for what will become our new website is pictured above. (The site this will replace, for reference: www.viaworldwide.com)

The top panel (with the bobble heads) will be an animated Flash program, which will showcase a couple of A-list projects, or whatever we think is hot at the moment.

The column on the far left will feature copy detailing our core service offerings. The middle column will feature recent developments or things we need to shout out loud.

The panel on the far right will include flexible promo areas, that we can swap out, dependent on what mood we're in at the moment.

None of the copy has been written yet - but will be in our typical dumb-ass style.

Navigation is simple, short, and runs across the top bar. Logo is placeholder for now, as we're still working that out.

Overall, you'll see a lot of flexibility, which is key, so that we can grow into this, not out of it. We only have time for a redesign every couple of years. ;)

Labels: plaid, via, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:41 PM 5 comments

Friday, April 6, 2007

revised home page wire frame

David's updated the wire frame for our new home page, to reflect the more recent discussions we've been having about content and organization. Can't wait to show you his conceptual work.

Labels: plaid, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 2:20 PM 0 comments

Thursday, April 5, 2007

new website wire frame

We've completed (mostly) the planning phase of our new website design. The wireframe for the home page is pictured above.

For clients and noobs: A wireframe is a tool we use for planning and organizing a website design. This allows us to understand content hierarchy, and how the page will be structured.

David's already knee deep into the conceptual design based on this wire frame, and we'll share his ideas as soon as he's comfy with them. We're hoping to get to an in-house critique of his work on Monday.

Labels: collateral, plaid, website

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:32 PM 0 comments