Web Solutions

Web Solutions

We have designed hundreds of websites of all size and types.

Each site is designed for its audience. Some are high-design efforts, others designed to the content (lobbying, education, etc.). It is a combination of good content, appropriate design, and the right technology that makes a website work. There are hundreds of other sites that have come and gone over the years including ministry and political sites. But here's the key issue: All the sites work, stay up, are securely backed up daily, and can be easily found in searches. How about your site?

Please read the article Web Dev is Hard. There are dozens of 'build your own site' tools and free tools. But typically you won't get the results you expect. There's just a lot to know.

Follow the links to visit the sites.

Robot Mats Educational Design

In 2006, in response to the request of the coaches in our FIRST LEGO League robotics teams, I designed the first set of training mats. These mats are varying sizes, though most are the standard size of FIRST LEGO League tables (apx 4'x8'). There are other sizes for a variety of robotics systems. Each is designed to challenge students with consistent curriculum and challenges each year.  All of our mats are now licensed to and distributed by Geyer Instructional. 

Please visit Geyer to see our full line of mats. There are more than one hundred mats and variations. Some recent designs are shown below.

Over the years we have designed and reworked 100s of logos. Here are some from the past few years.

Logo work includes the creation of the logo, creating various useful variations, creating stationery, business cards, and a full corporate ID guides. Many companies we work with have never standardized colors and logos. And many have colors that do not work in a wide variety of output scenarios. 

What makes a good logo? Here are our simple rules for success...

• A logo only needs to communicate the single, key issue that is your business.
• A logo cannot say everything about your company.
• It must be legible and work at all sizes (poster, letters, business cards, or lapel pins).
• Unless you have billions of dollars to promote a swish, a logo should communicate immediately the name of your organization and appropriate, brief, descriptions if necessary.
• It must be able to be represented in one color, shades of one or two colors, or full color.
• It must accommodate the association of related information (URLs, phone numbers, etc.)
• It must be affordable to produce.
• It should be easily used in other applications (Word, PowerPoint, etc.).

See the full article in the Digital Truths Document.

Advertising In Print

Print ads, posters, and related items are still very effective.

Even though it seems like online media has all but nullified print, it is simply not true. There are local and regional papers that reach thousands of readers in all types of communities. Often these are free or controlled circulation pieces that reach nearly everyone in a community. These papers and other publications linger in homes, sometimes for weeks, and can be seen and read many times.

We have designed and managed 100's of publications ranging from simple one-page flyers to mailers, booklets, books, and documentation. Projects have included interactive books as well.

There is a huge difference between a simple word processing document and well formed publication. Issues like tables of contents, page numbering section numbering, internal page referencing, and image preparation, and more make a long for document, whether a manual, book, or report, manageable and predictable. Well-formed documents convert easily to Acrobat and other forms.

Same applies to flyers, brochures, and forms. Technically correct documents produce great finished products.

Visit our publishing site for more information:  https://paperclippress.com

We have developed custom Excel solutions for clients. Excel is great platform for testing and development and local applications.

There is so much more to Excel than just adding numbers. Using Visual Basic, macros, and range of advanced functions, one can create complete applications that produce great value.

If you have spreadsheets you use frequently to manage business processes, and you find they are hard to use or you can easily make errors then we help you standardize your work to produce useful tools that basic administrative users can use successfully to produce consistent and accurate results.

Current video technology allows the creation of professional, cinema quality video, with digital SLRs and compact equipment.

We have all the equipment needed to help you produce great corporate videos. Why is this important? YouTube is the most extraordinary free resource on the web for getting your message to millions. Every business should have at least one if not a number of videos on YouTube, most no longer than 2 minutes.

A well produced video, properly formatted and tagged in YouTube, can generate nearly immediate search engine results.

Custom PowerPoint backgrounds can make all the difference. The stock backgrounds work, but custom backgrounds make your presentation distinct. These are a few samples of the 100's of templates we designed over the years.

In addition, well formed PowerPoint templates, that are then used across and organization, make it easy to copy, move, and change content from presentation to presentation. Consistent styles and simple graphic standards ensure nearly 100% compatibility between presentations. In addition, this makes it much easier for staff members to develop good looking and effective presentations.

Here are some recent designs.

We have taken 100's of thousands of images over the years. This includes rallies, news conferences, marketing images, product images, and most recently, Google Photospheres.

It is easier than ever to take a picture (or thousands). But it still hard to make great, memorable image. We want images that put you in the moment, that engage you immediately to imagine the emotion, or circumstances of the photo. It's hard word and takes many years of practice beyond mastering the technical requirements. Below are some of my favorite images from the last few years. Click on the images for the full resolution versions.

Take a look at my 52 Frames Submissions for a wide range of creative solutions.

I encourage you to download and enjoy these for personal use. Commercial use and reproduction for sale or inclusion in photo sets or publications is specifically prohibited without licensing. Please contact me if you would like to use one of my images.

Google photospheres can be taken with the Google Camera for android (not available any more) or the Google street view app. You shoot a couple of dozen pictures and Google seams them together. It works very well for larger areas, not so well in close quarters. We use a professional system.

This is one of the hundreds of amazing products provided by Google companies. This area of immersive photography and video is rapidly improving with better equipment (expensive) and better techniques.

The Google photospheres give you a sense of what is ahead.

I have more than 130,000,000 views on Google Maps.
You can see all my Google Maps pictures here:
https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/113541788084055653910/photos/

Trade show and display design is very complex and involves design at a large scale with huge images and key spacing and template requirements.

Whether a display, vehicle, sign, or similar device there are dozens of technical considerations.

Materials, applications, services, portability, durability, and numerous other issues must be evaluated. And of course, cost and maintenance are important as well.

We have designed and managed many trade show and display projects including the displays and all supporting technology and publications. Here are some examples.

Finding a way to illustrate a premise or concept is one of the most challenging tasks of design.

This page includes some of the solutions we've developed for clients over the years.

Look around you. Everywhere you go you are confronted with images presented to inform, persuade, and educate. How many times have you purchased a product just because you liked the label? Or ordered a menu item because there was a great picture of the food? Or looked at a banner add because it had an engaging image?

This is all visual education and persuasion and it is hard work.

Custom Shirts Can Energize a Team or Organization

I have designed hundreds of logos and custom shirt designs for TechBrick Robotics and other clients.  You can see many of the team logos at the TechBrick site (https://techbrick.com/big-logo-gallery).  These logos have been applied to shirts and other items using silkscreen and direct print processes.

Need help creating shirts like this?  Please contact me today!

Here are some recent examples.

See my annual submissions:  2018   2019   2020  2021  2022

Download a photoshop template to make a personal header like I did. See my profile.

I am participating in a photo project called 52 Frames (https://52frames.com). And you should, too!

52Frames has a single mission: to turn you into a truly awesome photographer. We believe that the recipe for creating awesome photographers is actually pretty simple.  They call them the 3 C’s:

• CONSISTENCY: Like any skill worth having, learning photography takes practice. And hard work. And patience. That’s why the core of 52Frames is the weekly challenge. Every week we present a photographic challenge designed to stimulate your creativity, expand your expertise, and refine your personal voice. Don’t miss a week – the consistency is kind of a big deal. I even said so in a TEDx talk.
• COMMUNITY: You don’t become great all by yourself. (Well, that one guy did, but we can all agree he was a jerk, right?). It takes a community of support, motivation, and the occasional tough love to help someone grow. At 52Frames, that means offering great critique, sharing inspiration, or even just walking around town with some other eager photographers.
• CREATIVITY: And the 3rd, maybe most important C, and that’s creativity. Because at the end of the day (or week?) you are gifting yourself a slice of creativity in your otherwise busy life. In this chaotic world of e-mails, meetings, and diapers, we invite you to take a little “me-time.” To identify the beauty that surrounds all of us. To look through that viewfinder… to wait for just the right moment… and to click.

Each week more than 2500 photographers share their view of the weekly assignment. Please review my past submissions below!

You can see all my submissions for each year below.

Visit my profile at 52 Frames here:  https://52frames.com/photographer/enktesis

Click on any image to see a larger version.