Imbue designed and built a new WordPress content managed website for local nonprofit FACT Bucks County. The new website is easy to update via a web-based administration area and includes featured areas for events, photo galleries, social media sharing, and PayPal integration for donations. Check it out at www.factbuckscounty.org.

Using a Mac app called Reflection to demonstrate how a website renders on an iPad

It’s Friday already? Just looking at the number of meetings on my Outlook calendar for the past week makes me wonder how I got anything done! I’m happy to say that we’re gearing up for what looks to be a beautiful spring weekend here in Bucks County, PA. If only the pollen count would go down around here so I could breathe….

Here’s a rundown of what else went on here this week:

• Eric and the development team made a lot of headway on several website development projects. We can’t wait until they’re done so we can show them off.
• We put the finishing touches on a new website for a local nonprofit, which is going to launch early next week. Stay tuned…
• Wendy continued to churn out sophisticated scientific poster layouts. Spring is our busiest season for this type of work. She also worked on a new project that will utilize the post office’s new “Every Door Direct Mail” service.
• We met some great new people this week who have contacted us for various upcoming branding and website development projects.
• We held an online meeting from an iPad using Fuzemeeting’s iPad app (which we thought was pretty cool).
• Thanks to the creators of a Mac app called Reflection, we were able to demo how our web-based publishing system looks on an iPad during a screen sharing session with a client. The Imbue Publisher system will now format a publication’s website for desktop browsing as well as for tablets and mobile devices without the need for a separate mobile version or app.
• And we finally got our K-cup coffee collection organized so you can easily find a Hazelnut or Decaf without having to dig.

Enjoy the weekend, and Happy Mother’s Day to all of the great Moms out there.

The 18^th Annual Communicator Awards Announces 2012 Winners, Bucks County Firm Wins Award of Distinction

New York, NY (May 7, 2012) – The winners of The 2012 Communicator Awards have been announced by the International Academy of the Visual Arts and New Hope, Bucks County, PA creative services firm Imbue Creative has received an Award of Distinction in the print design category. With thousands of entries received from across the US and around the world, The Communicator Awards is the largest and most-competitive awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals.

The winning entry is a recruitment brochure designed for the Texas Regional Office, a full-service insurance broker in Coppell, Texas. “The Imbue Creative team is delighted to be recognized by The Communicator Awards again this year,” said Michael Piperno, President and Creative Director of Imbue Creative. “We designed the brochure to be an effective-communications tool for our client, and the fact that it has been selected as an award-winning design by our peers is a true honor.”

The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 550+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current IAVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: Condè Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, HBO, Keller Crescent, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Tribal DDB, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, Yahoo!, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information.

“The pool of entries we received for this year’s Communicator Awards serves as a true testament to the innovative ideas and capabilities of communications and marketing professionals around the world. Each year our entrants continue to amaze by reinventing the ways we communicate and market in an ever-changing industry” noted Linda Day, executive director of the IAVA. She added, “On behalf of the entire Academy, we congratulate this year’s Communicator Award Entrants and Winners for their passion and dedication. We are humbled to be given the opportunity to recognize such amazing work.”

For more information about The Communicator Awards, please visit www.communicatorawards.com, email The Communicator Awards at info@communicatorawards.com or call us at (212) 675-3555.

About Imbue Creative
Imbue Creative (www.imbuecreative.com) is an award-winning marketing, design, and advertising agency located in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The firm is a division of Imbue Communications, LLC, a marketing and design consultancy founded in Bucks County, PA in 2004. Other Imbue Communications companies include ScientificPostersOnline.com, a graphic design service providing professional scientific and research poster design and layout for medical communications companies, hospitals, and clinical researchers; and Imbue Digital, a web design, web development, and internet-based marketing company serving small and mid-sized organizations.

About The Communicator Awards
The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. This year’s Communicator Awards received thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world. Please visit www.communicatorawards.com for more information.

The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. Please visit www.iavisarts.org for a full member list and more information.

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Wendy and Eric with their iPads at Imbue Creative

I’ll admit we’re a little tech-obsessed here at Imbue. This week I finally made the move away from paper notes and cleaned up my desk thanks to my new favorite iPad app Noteability and an iFrogz Stylus that I got from Staples. It’s funny, but this 99 cent app and ten dollar stylus really did change my life! Meanwhile, Eric mapped out our office with his new favorite app Magic Plan. Anyone looking to make floor plans with an iPad 2 or higher needs to check this one out!

We were also quite busy from a work standpoint. Here’s a recap of what else went on here this week:

• Wendy and I laid out 6 scientific posters, whew!
• We met with a local retailer to discuss a new e-commerce website.
• Eric trained our friends from a local nonprofit on updating and managing their new WordPress website (check back next week to see the new site).
• Eric and I designed and developed a touch screen presentation for a trade show booth.
• Eric finalized a website design for a large website we’re working on, and started getting the nuts and bolts of the content management system ready for implementing the design.
• The entire team worked on information architecture for a large initiative for one of our medical communications clients that has us all totally geeked out (which we love). It involves a website, an iPad app, and more. We’re very excited.

Oh, and last but not least we won a Communicator Award this week for a brochure we designed for our friends at the Texas Regional Office.

We hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yesterday, the Bucks County Playhouse held a press conference to announce the upcoming season’s shows. At the event, they also unveiled their new logo, designed by our team here at Imbue Creative!

In this additional short video you’ll see Broadway producer Jed Bernstein unveil the new logo at time marker 1:28 (and at time marker :28 through :34 you’ll catch a glimpse of Michael and Wendy). You can also see the logo on our website and on our Facebook page.

The Bucks County Playhouse is undergoing an exciting revitalization. Check out bcptheater.org for updates and to support the Playhouse by becoming a member and purchasing a subscription for the upcoming Summer 2012 season.

1) Recycle plastic, glass, and paper whenever we can

We have recycling buckets in our kitchen and workroom and a recycling dumpster by the parking lot. We can recycle paper, mail, cardboard, magazines, catalogs, boxes, glass, shopping bags, metal containers, and even, oh no!, brochures.

2) Dispose of batteries, printer cartridges, and electronic equipment properly

We have quite a few gadgets because techno geeks are we. Batteries power many of our gadgets. We take our used batteries to our local UPS Store® where they are disposed of properly for a nominal charge. Thank you, UPS Store, New Hope! When the Imbue printer went on the fritz, our local Staples store was able to take the printer and make sure that it was disposed of without harming the Earth. Staples disposes of printer cartridges too! The Earth loves you, Staples!

 3) Save gas and keep the air clean

“All that I need is the air that I breathe,” sang Albert Hammond in 1972. We try to do as much as we can to save gas and keep the air clean in 2012 by keeping travel for on-site visits to a minimum through web training, conference calls, and videoconferencing.

4) Communicate with our clients and vendors electronically

In addition to email, at Imbue, all our client invoices are sent electronically saving gas and paper. Most of our bills are paid through online bill payment. We edit documents using track changes and sign our contracts and work orders digitally. Not only is it more convenient, but also there are hardly any wasted resources.

5) Use a programmable thermostat

We use a programmable thermostat that regulates the temperature at the Imbue office when we’re here, not here, summertime, and wintertime. We definitely save money and reduce our power consumption. It’s one of the most important things we do for the environment. If we only could agree on what the correct temperature should be while we’re here, we would have it made.

 6) We’ll improve even more

We turn off the lights, even during the day when no one is in the kitchen or the sun is streaming through our conference room windows. Imbue has been tardy, however, in replacing our light bulbs with those earning the Energy Star, even though they last longer and save money. Hey, that’s what our Earth Day resolution should be: replace at least one of our incandescent bulbs with an Energy Star qualified light bulb! We can do that and even more.

Learn more about Earth Day by visiting the United States Environmental Protection Agency Earth Day web page.

1) Plop in content, then style it

By adding your text content first, then images, and then styling the text with header tags, you’ll get the best results. Why? The CMS is writing code in the background when you insert your content. Putting the content in without any styling or images first allows the system to write cleaner code—and can help you avoid unexpected results when you preview the page or make the page live.

2) Unlink your images in your pages and posts

Are your page and post images linking to themselves? Try clicking on an image on your live site. If you end up seeing a window that includes just the image you clicked on, then the answer is yes. WordPress automatically links placed images to themselves, so you need to tell it not to when you add each new image. So, when you add an image into your page, be sure to unlink it by selecting “None” in the Link URL field.

3) Optimize your SEO with quality URLs

Is your URL clean and easy to read and bookmark? As you create new pages, notice the permalink. This is the actual URL for the page you are creating, and it is used when others tweet and share your page link on other social networks. Is your permalink clean and concise while still being descriptive of the page’s content?

Also, don’t forget that if you add a new page with the same name as a previous page, the system might add a “-2” as part of the permalink. Simply change the permalink to text that is relevant to your page’s content. A previous page’s permalink cannot be duplicated.

4) Preserve your search site’s page indexing

Google, Bing™, Yahoo!^®, and other search sites index your web pages and store the data in their databases so they can quickly serve up relevant results to searchers. If you change a page’s name, or change how it’s accessed by moving it, you will break your valuable index history with the search engines. All of Imbue’s sites include re-indexing features which will help you avoid losing rankings when you change page names or move pages to new locations. Be sure you remember to make the appropriate redirects every time you change a page name or link.

5) Upload images that fit

Yes, you can scale your images and crop them within the CMS; but if you upload high resolution images from your 8 megapixel camera, you are adding a lot of large files onto your server. This makes your file uploads slower and will make your backups take longer. So, it’s in your best interest to scale your images to 72 dots per inch (dpi) and to the actual pixel width that is just the size you need for your page, post, or banner image. You can scale and crop images in Photoshop^®, Photoshop Elements, Apple’s^® Preview, or any other image editor.

The State of Small Business Report, 2011 Survey of Small Business Success, sponsored by Network Solutions®, LLC and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business found that technology investments by small businesses are on the rise once again. The survey also found that a slim majority, 56% of small businesses, have a website yet only 31% use social media. A smaller number, 27%, have a search engine optimization plan and most have not yet embraced mobile marketing.

Imbue Digital will help small and mid-size businesses make sense of the variety of digital tools and tactics available to connect with their audiences and develop strategies for growing their businesses online. Imbue will provide these clients with customized digital solutions from content-managed websites to comprehensive integrated campaigns spanning both the traditional- and digital-marketing landscape.

The division will offer services in five broad areas: web and digital design, web development including content management systems, internet and search marketing, digital content development, and mobile websites. Imbue Digital clients will ultimately be able to manage most of their own digital solutions if they choose, which can lead to significant long-term savings. Websites will be built on a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, Drupal™, and Joomla!™, that allows a client to make edits to the text content of the site through an easy-to-learn web-based interface. The CMS also permits online adjustments to the search engine optimization strategy as clients learn more about the performance of their website. Imbue will guide clients to leverage and engage in social media dialogue as a complement to other methods of communication.

“The digital age can be complex, daunting, and confusing to businesses since web development and internet marketing options seem to grow everyday,” said Michael Piperno, President and Creative Director of Imbue Creative and Imbue Digital. “We think Imbue Digital is the ideal partner in this age of overwhelming choices and considerations since the Imbue team is well experienced in the new media and our solutions are customized for each of our clients.”

About Imbue Communications, LLC

Imbue Communications, LLC, is a marketing and design consultancy founded in Bucks County, PA in 2004. Other Imbue Communications companies include Imbue Creative, an award-winning marketing, design, and advertising agency; ScientificPostersOnline.com, a graphic design service providing professional scientific and research poster design and layout for medical communications companies, hospitals, and clinical researchers; and Imbue Digital, a web design, web development, and internet-based marketing company serving small and mid-sized organizations.

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With the recent good news that New Hope retail vacancies have dropped, and with the revitalization of the Bucks County Playhouse underway, we thought it was a perfect time to remind our neighboring businesses of some free ways you can get yourself more exposure.

1. Google Places

If you haven’t claimed and updated your Google Places page, bookmark this article and go do it right now. Make sure your information is accurate and try to make the listing as robust as you can. While you’re at it, create a coupon offer for visitors of your Places page.

2. Bing and Yahoo Local Listings

Similar to a Google Places listing, you should also create a listing for your business that will display on Bing and one for Yahoo.

3. Yelp

We love Yelp.com — it is a great network and offers some nice free business tools that you can leverage as part of your free account. Get yourself a free business listing on Yelp and then check out how their offers and other tools can work for you.

4. Press Releases

Write a press release about a new product, service, or other announcement and submit it to all of the local media outlets. For a wider reach, submit your release through a service like PRweb (there is a fee for this, but they have very reasonable rates for the exposure you get).

5. Social Media

Twitter and Facebook are great tools for businesses when used correctly. If you have not claimed your space on those two social networks, do it today. Then evaluate how you might use them effectively to participate socially with potential customers. The object here is to participate by offering helpful information to others in your network and sharing content that your followers will find interesting and will be likely to share with their friends and followers. Google Plus is another good site to check out to see if it’s a good fit for you. We’re really into Pinterest lately too. This new social sharing site is addictive and fun. Sign up for a free account and start “pinning” images and watch as your friends share them like wildfire.

6. Page Titles and Descriptions

When it comes to getting found online, simply having a gorgeous website is not enough. First you need good text content. Then you need well written page titles and descriptions for every page on your site. This process is part art and part science. You need to first understand the types of search terms people are likely to use to look for a business like yours. Then you need to craft page titles and descriptions that target those terms.

7. Link Building

One way to help increase site traffic and give your site more credibility when it comes to search engine indexing is to have other sites linking to your site. Be careful here… you don’t want any ol’ site linking to you. The best inbound links are those that come from sites that are related to your site’s content. Ask other businesses that offer services that complement yours for a link exchange (you link to their site and they link to yours). Free and paid directories for your type of industry are also a great source of inbound links. For example, if you are a bed and breakfast, get yourself listed in as many of the popular online B&B directories as you can.

8. Blogging

One great way to create regular content on your website is to start a blog. You can keep your current customers updated about what’s been going on within your company, provide commentary on current events as they pertain to your products or services, or simply provide free, helpful information and tips to your customers. The best company blogs are updated frequently and provide good information that their current and potential customers will find useful.

All of these tactics are free and can help you increase exposure online. You’ll just need to invest your time to set them up and in some cases, generate content. If you don’t have the time or technical skill to go it alone, we’re here to help.

• Dynamic slide shows
• Dynamic landing pages
• Sidebar Widgets
• Database for Classes, Staff, and Workshops
• News posts
• Blog
• and more!

“QR Code” is an abbreviation for “Quick Response Code.” It is essentially a two-dimensional barcode that contains data which can be decoded at high speed. This code was originally created to track vehicle parts for an auto manufacturer but is now being used all over the world in many different industries.

Users with a smartphone that is equipped with a QR Code reader application can scan the QR Code using the phone’s camera. This scan accesses information that can take you right to a specific page on a website, download a PDF, connect to a wireless network, instantly display contact information, or even make a phone call!

The use of QR Code technology is exploding—you can find QR Codes in print ads, retail store displays, on business cards, buses, tickets, product labels, t-shirts and more. Basically, anything that can be printed on can be used as a vehicle for a QR Code to link a user to more information.

The use of QR Codes is license free. The patent rights on QR Codes are owned by Denso Wave, but they have elected not to exercise them. Anyone can create a code by using one of the many free online QR Code generators. QR reader software is available for most mobile platforms. As a matter of fact, many smartphones now come with QR readers already installed.

Standard QR Codes can store data containing between 1,817 and 7,089 characters depending on the type (numeric, alphanumeric, binary, and kanji/kana). Regular bar codes have data going in only one direction while QR Codes contain information in both vertical and horizontal directions, thus enabling them able to store more than twice as much data. There is also a Micro QR Code which is a smaller version of the standard for applications that can’t handle larger scans. The most these can hold is 35 numeric characters.

The myriad of ways to use this technology in every day life is exciting! Large corporations down to tiny volunteer organizations are using these instant links from an object to cyberspace (aka hardlinking) to their advantage. The ways your company can utilize QR Codes is limited only by your imagination… or Imbue’s. Will it be on your next set of business cards, company t-shirts, or promotional tote bags; sending the reader to your website? Or maybe an informational brochure with a link to a video containing a live demonstration! Give us a call to discuss ways for your company to ride the next wave of marketing innovation!

*QR Code is registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

Now you might be thinking, “but it’s a picture of the Brooklyn bridge… that’s a public place!” And you’re right, it is a public place—but the person who took that photo owns the copyright for that specific photograph of that landmark. And you can’t use it without permission. 

So, how do I find images that I can use in my marketing materials and on my website? Good question, and the answer is actually quite simple. If you are working with a design firm or creative services agency, ask them to find images for you. They know where to look for the best images, and will also know where to look for images that suit your budget and usage requirements. Because they also have a lot of experience licensing images, they can often negotiate better pricing than you could on your own.

If you’re from the DIY school, you can research images on your own by visiting sites like gettyimages.com and veer.com. Here’s a short summary of the most common types of licenses available.

• With “Royalty Free” images you pay once and have rights to use the image as long as you want (typically the only main limitations are if you use it in print and do over 500,000 pieces or use it on a website with an extremely high volume of traffic, you need to pay more).
• “Rights Managed” images are much different — these types of licenses mean you have to license an image for a specific use (brochure cover, for example), and at a specific size (1/4 of the page, for example), for a geographic region where it will be seen, and for a specific time frame. This type of licensing can get complicated, and costs significantly more than Royalty Free, but if exclusivity is important, they’re well worth the cost. We often use Rights Managed images when a client doesn’t have the budget for a photo shoot, but wants an image that’s not as likely to be used by other companies at the same time.

There are many other scenarios including special licensing for items that will be resold, and licenses that allow you to use images for personal or limited business use—but the two above are the most common.

As a creative services firm, we understand copyright law better than the average business person. While we certainly don’t claim to be as knowledgable as our favorite intellectual property attorney, we do know enough to help our clients stay out of copyright trouble.

One final thought… beware of images on the internet that claim to be in the public domain. It’s still your responsibility to check the copyright of any image you use, even though the person or website hosting it claims it is in the public domain.

The content management features of the new website allow OPT4 Group to continually deliver relevant and current content to their visitors. Check it out at www.opt4group.com.

For Immediate Release

THE 17th ANNUAL COMMUNICATOR AWARDS ANNOUNCES 2011 WINNERS — NEW HOPE FIRM WINS AWARD OF DISTINCTION

New York, NY (June 7, 2011) — The winners of the 2011 Communicator Awards were announced by the International Academy of the Visual Arts today, and New Hope creative services firm Imbue Creative has received an Award of Distinction in the interactive media category. With thousands of entries received from across the US and around the world, the Communicator Awards is the largest and most-competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence for communications professionals.

The winning entry is a custom website designed and developed for Maximuck’s Farm Market (www.maximucks.com), a family owned and operated farm and market in Doylestown, PA. According to Eric Rounds, Imbue Creative’s director of digital media, “Our firm is very proud of the Maximuck’s Farm Market website, especially because there are a lot of enhanced features ‘behind the scenes,’ including: a customized client administrative area that allows the Maximuck family to edit the site anytime they choose, a store hours display that automatically changes each day, and feature areas for highlighting seasonal specials.”

The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 550+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current IAVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: Condè Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, HBO, Keller Crescent, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Tribal DDB, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, Yahoo!, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information.

“As we continue our mission to honor Creative Excellence for Communication Professionals, we were once again amazed at the high level of work we received for this year’s Communicator Awards. With this year’s entries we found an increased awareness and reflection of the digital world in which we live, and our entrants always seem to find new and creative ways to push the envelope of possibilities across all mediums” noted Linda Day, director of the IAVA. She added, “We are honored to witness the amazing work being done throughout the industry and want to commend and congratulate this year’s Communicator Award Winners and Entrants for their hard work and dedication. On behalf of the entire Academy — Job well done.”

For more information about the Communicator Awards, please visit www.communicatorawards.com, email the Communicator Awards at info@communicatorawards.com or call us at (212) 675-3555.

About Imbue Creative:
Imbue Creative (www.imbuecreative.com) is an award-winning creative services firm with over 20 years of expertise in marketing, branding, advertising, print design, website development, and interactive design. Located in New Hope, Pennsylvania, the firm develops targeted creative solutions for local and national clients, and has specific expertise in the financial services, healthcare, medical education, travel & leisure, meetings & events, and publishing industries.

About The Communicator Awards:
The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communication professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. This year’s Communicator Awards received  thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world. Please visit www.communicatorawards.com for more information.

The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. Please visit www.iavisarts.org for a full member list and more information.

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The short answer is “No!”

Why? Because sending unsolicited email is actually against the law in many countries — you need permission from all recipients in order to send them email campaigns. Plus, you don’t want your domain being labeled as a “spammer” — because that causes all sorts of ugly problems.

So, who can you send email to?

• People who have specifically signed up, via your website, to receive email from you
• People who have completed an offline/printed form (like a survey) and indicated they wish to be emailed
• People who gave you their business card and asked to receive email
• Customers who have purchased something from you in the last 2 years (even though this permission is implicit, we still think it’s a nice idea to specifically ask them)

Who can’t I send email to?

If they don’t satisfy at least one of the criteria from the above list, you can’t send them email. For example, don’t:

• Use lists or email addresses received from a third party (including any list you bought or rented, or received from a membership organization)
• Collect or “copy & paste” addresses from the Internet to build a list
• Mail to addresses you haven’t emailed in the last 2 years

Email is an excellent business tool. Just be sure to get permission before hitting “Send”!

Apple recently announced the new iPad 2. Wow, it’s been barely a year since the first iPad, and Apple has delivered a more-evolved version. Tablets are the thing now. Motorola’s Xoom, Research In Motion’s Playbook, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab are all vying to compete with the iPad.

Why are these devices so important?

The way we consume the printed word is changing—again. Amazon turned the retail landscape of book selling on its side with the Kindle and now sells more digital eBooks than printed copies. Thanks to the Nook eBook reader, bn.com (Barnes & Noble’s online store) sells more eBooks than printed books as well.

As interactive media in the 90s blossomed with the introduction of the CD-ROM in personal computers, these new tablet devices offer an amazing amount of similar interactively. Add to that the ability to interact with content by touch, and you have a whole new experience. Imagine the possibilities:

• Interactive children’s pop-up books
• Magazines with dynamic content and advertisements
• Location-aware content for books, brochures, and catalogs
• Embedded video training for products or services

What does all this mean?

Let’s face it—tablets and eBook readers are here to stay. This means that the next digital media revolution is already taking place. It’s time to dual publish your catalog, magazine, book, or multi-page company brochure as a digital document for tablets, such as the iPad and Xoom.

What can Imbue do for you?

Let our team of print and digital media experts help you:

• Dual publish your printed piece in digital format
• Convert previous print or web publications to a format suitable for tablets
• Provide your readers with new and innovative ways to interact with your stories, articles, or reports
• Help create that “Next Big Thing” you’ve been dreaming about for years….

Now’s the time!

The City of Coatesville has enhanced its accessibility and made itself available to residents and visitors twenty-four hours a day. The new website allows Coatesville to quickly edit content and upload important documents to keep pace with changing needs and new requirements. Check it out at www.coatesville.org.

You already know how passionate our team is about our work. This Valentine’s Day, we want to make sure you know how thankful we are that you help us make it all possible. So, today we celebrate passion… for our work, for good design, for cool new technology, and for our great clients (and the work that they do)!

Okay, enough about us, what about you? What is YOUR passion? We want to know. Share your love of your work, your hobbies, or anything that you feel passionately about.  Just make a comment below!

Mr. Rounds has over 15 years of experience in interactive and online media including web site design and development, 3D animation, multimedia design, and graphic user interface development. His experience in digital media started at the beginning of the “dot-com” era of the mid-nineties, and since then, his work has influenced the evolution of web design and development for businesses and communities nationwide.

“Eric’s expertise in all things ‘digital’ is an exciting addition to our firm,” said Michael Piperno, President and Chief Creative Officer of Imbue Creative. “His notable experience, infectious energy, and true passion for user-centric design will greatly benefit our firm and our clients.”

Prior to joining Imbue Creative, Mr. Rounds was the creative director at AIM Web Designs in Doylestown, PA. He has also served as a digital marketing consultant and art director for various companies nationwide.

About Imbue Creative: Imbue Creative is an award-winning strategic communications company with over 20 years of expertise in marketing, advertising, and graphic design. Located in New Hope, Pennsylvania, the firm develops targeted creative solutions for both local and national clients and has specific expertise in the healthcare, medical education, financial services, travel & leisure, meetings & events, and publishing industries.

THE 16^th ANNUAL COMMUNICATOR AWARDS ANNOUNCES 2010 WINNERS AND NEW HOPE AGENCY WINS AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

New Hope, PA (June 4, 2010) - The winners of The 2010 Communicator Awards have been announced by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, and New Hope agency Imbue Creative has received the program’s top honor, the Award of Excellence, in the corporate identity/logo category. With thousands of entries received from across the US and around the world, the Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence of communications professionals.

The winning entry is a corporate identity/logo design created for Athena Education Group, a Lambertville, NJ-based medical education company. According to Michael Piperno, Imbue Creative’s president and chief creative director, “This award is a great honor for our agency. We are especially proud of the Athena Education Group logo because it strongly establishes a memorable visual identity for a small business that is doing important work in its field; and one that we feel is made up of truly terrific people.”

The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 550+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current IAVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: Condè Nast, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, HBO, Keller Crescent, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Tribal DDB, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, Yahoo!, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information.

“As we continue our mission to honor Creative Excellence for Communications Professionals, we were once again amazed at the high level of work we received for this year’s Communicator Awards. With this year’s entries we found an increased awareness and reflection of the digital world in which we live, and our entrants always seem to find new and creative ways to push the envelope of possibilities across all mediums” noted Linda Day, director of the IAVA. She added, “We are honored to witness the amazing work being done throughout the industry and want to commend and congratulate this year’s Communicator Award Winners and Entrants for their hard work and dedication. On behalf of the entire Academy — Job well done.”

For more information about the Communicator Awards, please visit www.communicatorawards.com, email the Communicator Awards at info@communicatorawards.com, or call (212) 675-3555.

About Imbue Creative:

Imbue Creative (www.imbuecreative.com) is a strategic communications company that brings over 20 years of design, branding, art direction, production, and creative/marketing strategy experience to every project. Located in New Hope, Pennsylvania, the firm develops targeted solutions for clients both locally and nationally.

About The Communicator Awards:

The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards is an annual competition honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. This year’s Communicator Awards received thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world. Please visit www.communicatorawards.com for more information.

The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. Please visit www.iavisarts.org for a full member list and more information.

The en dash (–) is wider than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash (more on this in a moment). The most common use of the en dash is for ranges of dates, time, or numbers. For example, ‘July 21–28′ or ‘ages 5–8′.

The em dash (—) is wider than an en dash. The most common use of an em dash is to indicate an abrupt change in thought, or a pause where a period is too strong, but a comma does not indicate a strong enough pause. For example, ‘I am sure of it—absolutely and complete sure of it!’ or ‘He said he would be here on time—forget it, I’m not waiting any longer.’

Now don’t get me started on the minus sign….

Today, the fonts we use in our word processors are variable width fonts. They are designed to handle the beginnings and ends of sentences without that extra spacebar tap. In fact, adding that extra space these days is actually distracting for a reader, especially when reading text on screen.

When you are ready to develop marketing materials, or any other creative project, here are some things to consider before your first meeting or telephone call. Having thought about these items ahead of time will give your designer or agency a better overall picture of your project, and will result in a more accurate estimate from the start:

1. Content: What do you want to say, and how much text do you think you’ll need to say it well? Is the brochure content short enough to work in a tri-fold format, or do you need a larger brochure with a pocket integrated in the back for sell sheets? If it’s a web site you’re trying to launch, how many sections will it have and how much content will fit under each section? In addition, will you write the copy yourself, or will you need your creative partner to write the copy for you?
2. Audience: Who is your target audience for each specific piece? What are their particular needs and desires when looking for the products or services you provide? Does a piece cater to a specific audience independently, or does it need to encompass all of your target markets?
3. Design: Do you have an existing “look” (logo, color scheme, fonts, or other design elements) that you want carried throughout this new material, or does a new look need to be created from scratch?
4. Photography: If the project will require photography, is stock photography appropriate, or do you need to hire a photographer to capture the shots needed? What portion of your budget are you willing to spend on images?
5. Budget: If you know what you want and what you have to spend, don’t be afraid to let your designer or agency know your budget range up front — especially if you already have a relationship with them. When a client gives us information about their budget requirements, we are able to provide an estimate with different options at different price-points that all fall within their range. If their budget is larger than what a project would normally cost, then we recommend additional components or features that compliment or enhance the core deliverables. And, if their budget is lower than what a project would normally cost, we offer cost-saving modifications to their specifications and requirements that can allow us to meet those budget requirements.

The bottom line is that the more information you can provide up front to your designer or agency, the more accurate your estimate will be. Plus, you’ll ensure you get a final result that you love to show off, and that makes a significant positive impact for your business.

For those of you who use Twitter, you can check out TweetBeep (tweetbeep.com) to monitor what’s being said about you or your biz on Twitter too!

Don’t delay, list your business today. Not technologically inclined, or don’t have time? Imbue Creative can set up your listings for you — call or email us for details!

Think of it like buying a new car. (Of course, good brands last much longer than most cars, but stay with me here). You know up front that it will need maintenance over the years—and that some day it may become a classic, especially if well cared for. If you don’t maintain it well, it will give you trouble, and will eventually fall apart. Your brand needs tire rotations and a new set of brakes every so often too. Consider these tips when developing a “maintenance plan” for your brand.

• 1,500 Mile Service: After launching a new brand, bring it into the garage after a few months and see how all the new parts are performing. Is there anything that needs adjustment? Refine those little things now before you waste time and money promoting something that’s not working.
• Inspect Tires Every 6,000 Miles: Take the time on a regular basis to evaluate your audiences to asses their current and future needs. If one of your strategies is looking a little worn, replace it. While you’re at it, balance it out by implementing a new strategy which targets a new audience as well.
• Change the Brakes: Don’t let a weak set of brakes land you in trouble. If something is not working, fix it. This sometimes means you need to make a drastic change in your core visuals or messaging. It hurts, but it happens. Evaluate any weaknesses thoroughly, and fix them, pronto, so you don’t whizz by opportunities that you should have been poised to capture.
• When you Need a New Transmission: Even if you’ve planned well from the start, sometimes your business changes so significantly over the years that your brand no longer fits. If you reach this point, it’s time to rework the brand, and maybe even rebrand the company from scratch (which doesn’t have to mean completely abandoning the old brand). Don’t go it alone. Seek the resources of a professional agency or branding consultant to lead the way.

Think about when you arrive home after a hard day’s work and begin to sort through your mail. I know when I go through my stack, the only items I read right away are those that aren’t jammed packed with text. The text-heavy stuff goes in a pile… and unless it’s a bill or a magazine, it will probably end up in the recycle bin within a day or two (without being read).

When it comes to making a quick and memorable connection on a marketing or advertising piece, less is more. Make your text strong, clear, and memorable. Let your clever headline, accompanying imagery, and the design of the piece grab the reader’s attention; then present a few relevant details and a call to action. Finally, include contact details and you’re done! If you have more to say, direct the reader to your web site or give them a phone number to call to learn more.

And we’re not just talking about postcards here — the same holds true for other promotional pieces like brochures, advertisements, billboards, and more. Avoid being a “text heavy turn-off” and don’t try to fill every inch of a piece with text just because there’s room!

• Make your subject line mean something. We all get a lot of emails every day, and a descriptive subject line is important when you want your message to get attention over other messages the recipient deems less important. In addition, a subject line that includes the main topic of a message will be much easier to find in the future when you or your recipient needs to search for it.
• Refrain from replying to an old message when you are actually sending a new message. Replying to a message about “last week’s status report” when you’re really sending a new message about “important changes to the web site” can easily cause your new message to be overlooked. This goes back to the item above about subject lines… “Re: Status Report” seems much less important than “Important Changes for Web Site.”
• Use the “To:” and “Cc:” fields appropriately. The “To” field should be reserved for recipients who are directly affected by the message, or who may need to take action as a result of reading the message. The “Cc” field, on the other hand, is for those who only need to be aware of the message, and who are not expected to reply or take action.
• Use the “High Priority” feature sparingly, and only when truly needed to communicate an urgent issue. Individuals who always mark messages as “High Priority” quickly wear out their credibility and are less likely to have real “high priority” messages viewed as such. Using good, descriptive subjects are more effective in getting your message noticed when they are not true emergencies.
• “Reply to all” has its place. Avoid “replying to all” when you’re just sending a note back to the sender that nobody else needs to see. Your friends and coworkers will appreciate it.
• Set a schedule. If possible, try to set a schedule for reviewing your new messages — maybe every 2 hours, or 4 times a day. The point here is that you’ll be more productive if you don’t let every arriving email message take you away from the current task at hand.
• Sometimes a phone call beats an email. Not everyone checks messages as soon as they arrive, so if your message is truly urgent, it’s a good idea to follow-up with a phone call. In addition, some conversations are better had when you can hear the other party’s voice… for example, when talking to clients about their ideas for a creative concept, we can often have a 10 minute call to accomplish what could take 8 to 10 back and forth messages via email (saving both parties a lot of composing and reading time). In addition, not everyone expresses themselves well in email – so when your message could be misconstrued or you’re not understanding what the other party is trying to say, give ‘em a call!

While there are a variety of methods for increasing hits on your web site from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, there are a few basics that no web site should overlook.

• First, make sure you have some relevant text on every page (not just images) and never create an entire page out of an image (search engines can’t read text that is part of an image). Well written text is the first step in generating traffic from search engines.
• Second, ensure your web designer or agency puts appropriate key words in the page title (the part that shows at the top of the browser window) for every page.
• Lastly, ask your  agency or web designer to make sure there is relevant and descriptive text in the “Description” tag for all of your pages. The Description tag is hidden to site visitors, but is very important to the search engines that are deciding whether or not to show your site.

There are many more ways to help increase traffic from search engines, but these basics will ensure they can easily find out what your site is all about. After all, search engines want to make finding information easy for their users — so we need to make it easy for search engines to understand what our sites offer a potential visitor.

Now through January 31, 2010, you can earn a $50 Visa Gift Card for every qualified referral* of new clients to Imbue Creative! Simply let your colleagues and friends know about what Imbue Creative has to offer, and tell them to mention that they were referred by you when they contact us – that’s it!

* A qualified referral is one that results in at least $500 of paid business from a new client within 3 months of the initial contact. Initial contact must occur on or before January 31, 2010 to qualify.

• Longer passwords are better passwords
• Use both upper case and lower case letters, along with numbers and symbols to increase password strength
• Invest in a password manager (which is also password protected by a strong password). Two of our favorite password managers are SplashID Safe and 1Password.
• Make commonly used passwords easy to remember by using the first character of each word in a sentence to construct them. For example: “I used to eat 8 Starbursts at a time, but now I stick to 2 Twizzlers” would be “Iute8S@atbnIst2T”. Now that one is hard to crack!

Sometimes, slight color variances are not a problem; and sometimes tweaking color at press time will achieve good results from press run to press run (if you’re willing to spend the time and money). But when your orange needs to be “spot-on” and you don’t have the time to adjust on press – use a spot color instead. And remember, you can’t proof color on a computer monitor! You need to see a physical proof, or a spot color swatch book, to really see how color will look in print.

Jpegs, gifs, and in many cases pngs (pings) taken from web sites and/or embedded in Word documents are usually not suitable for print. The reason being that they are purposefully compressed for optimal screen viewing. On screen images only require a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch) to look great on screen. To get a crisp, high-detail image in print, you need 300 dpi or higher. And, once an image is compressed or resized down to 72 dpi for screen viewing, there’s no turning back!

Now, this is not to say that a jpeg never works for a print designer. In many cases a high resolution jpeg, like those licensed from a stock photography web site, has enough image data in the file. It’s provided as a jpeg just so the file size is manageable for electronic delivery, but when we unpack it, the image is actually very large when it comes to its resolution. We then save it as another, “lossless” file format before we do our final editing and prep work to make the image shine in print.

You’ve invested time and money building the perfect web site — and it is very effective in communicating how your products and services can help potential clients or customers. But are you maximizing your exposure? Do the search engines even know you exist?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) done right will drive more traffic to your site by improving your rankings on today’s most popular search engines. With Saturate™ from Imbue Creative, a thorough analysis of your site, audiences, and goals will lead us to a SEO/SEM strategy that will improve search engine saturation and keyword penetration, as well as other important factors that have an impact on your rankings — ultimately helping you gain the traffic your web site deserves.

Want to learn more? Contact us for a free Saturate™ consultation.