At least that’s what I’d like the title of this blog to be. See, Marie is a San Franciscan. While I know all the reasons why I <3 SF, she has even more and she’s introduced me to another great one. Brian Barneclo.
Brian Barneclo is not only a cool guy but an inspiration for dreaming big. His latest endeavor, the Systems Mural Project, could be San Francisco’s biggest mural ever and Switchblade wants to make Newsom part of it.
See, we know that Gavin Newsom is also a fan of Barneclo and that he’s just received the democratic nomination as Lieutenant Governor. For all that America’s Most Social Mayor has done for the great city of San Francisco, we’d like to see the mural go up in his honor. The Systems Mural Project is about inter-connectivity, a concept Newsom understands and is clearly supportive of.
Furthermore, Systems Mural Project’s proposed location is on 7th and Townsend adjacent to the Crescent Cove Apartments, a project of the SF Redevelopment Agency whose members have all been appointed or re-appointed by Newsom. Newsom’s attention to the plight of homelessness in and redevelopment of San Francisco is beyond the call of duty, it is a true testament to his understanding of the city’s needs.
In the end, the Systems Mural Projects asks us to explore the most complicated systems of all, our systems of belief. This is where I pick up on what makes Newsom another SF favorite. In high school, Newsom played basketball and baseball where his childhood friend Derek Smith recalled Newsom as “one of the hardest working players on the team who became a great player because of his effort, instead of his natural abilities.” (Source: Wikipedia). Newsom’s belief in himself never ceased and he continues to support independent ventures, much like Barneclo’s and similar to how others have supported him.
The principals of Newsom’s success can be exemplified in the Systems Mural Project and, we at Switchblade, look to gain his endorsement to secure the additional sponsorship required to see this mission through. At an estimated $75,000 to complete the project, and with a generous donation from the Adobe Foundation, we still need to raise $65,000 to meet our goal. If you have any ideas, know of any potential sponsors or have the ear of Newsom’s publicist, contact us at getcut@switchblade-studios.com.
In what appeared to be a 60/40 split between actual industry professionals and droves of goober, *oops*, I mean uber-gamers, the 3-day videogame tradeshow E3 has left LA… But not without plenty of online content for those who could not attend, provided by those privileged and/or crafty enough to enter the pearly gates of gamer heaven.
Who won the console war? While I desperately wanted to cheer for my former coworkers at Sony, I’m still trying to figure out which feature to consider “the big news” out of their 2-hour press conference. I hope it wasn’t the 3-D software titles that required the funky glasses because Nintendo’s 3DS does not. Was it all about accessories and the very phallic PlayStation Move that functions an awful lot like the Wii released 4 years ago? Yea, it is said to have a better reaction time BUT requires more peripherals (and expense) to even work. SMH. Was this supposed to extend the life of the PS3? Did they really not know about Xbox’s controller-less Kinect available in time for holiday 2010? One good thing that came out of that press conference for me was discovering Jesper Kyd, composer for Assassins’ Creed (Ubisoft). This is the kind of music that builds excitement, not 1994’s “I like to ‘move’ it, ‘move’ it” that accompanied the sizzle reel for PlayStation Move.
As for the convention center floor, I couldn’t see myself standing in hour-plus lines for anything. I appreciated the booth babes (maybe not exactly in the same way as the boys did) and I gave them what they wanted – a friendly smile after a vertical scan of their goods. Thank you Spike TV for capturing the E3 booth babes and getting down to the important issues (how to successfully approach a booth babe).
I would have stood in line for Activision’s concert featuring Eminem, Travis Barker and Rihanna (is this stuff really just for the trade?). I’m upset I missed Russ, Red and Meth for their Def Jam/Konami mash up announcement and performance. I was happy to have my first experiences with the iPad though Josh and I were both perplexed by the ported iPhone apps that were clearly not optimized for iPad’s larger screen. Moreover, how not fun are digital comics that don’t optimize the technology – even the open pinch zoom so that the comics would actually be legible? : X
Until next year, we move on to celebrate another Laker victory (oh yeah) and we’ll add our cool E3 photos to the Switchblade Flickr stream.
If you know Switchblade, then you know that we are avid supporters of Muttville Senior Dog Rescue. If you visit the San Francisco office, there is always at least one Muttville foster dog hanging out with us.
Rachelle Phillips, a USF student studying media and film, created a wonderful short documentary that captures the essence of Muttville beautifully. Switchblade’s Marie Macaspac was interviewed as Muttville’s Online Marketing Director. Phillips premiered the film last Friday, May 14, to the public. Muttville will likely host a screening for its volunteers and supporters.
“My heart is in all the work we do for Muttville, ” said Marie. “We’ll always do anything we can to support this group and the work they do.”
The Situation: A new line of pet safe, socially conscious, designer clothes for dogs were being prepared for mass production and distribution. Team Waghearted knew that they not only wanted to keep their Twitter followers and Facebook fans updated with newly designed products but they wanted to share great stories of good dogs doing good. The site needed to exude the love and energy that is Waghearted and be easy to update.
Switchblade Solution: Design a site that incorporates the core product line icons, a CMS that is easy to update/manage by the client, and 2.0 optimization.
The Results: A vibrant, interactive site complete with a blog and both “follow our profiles” and “share” links! Wonderfully fun accents that liven the site even on a limited budget – Notice the scrolling text and slideshow on the landing page; the mouse-over textual descriptions and on-click pop-up pictures on the product page; and the Twitter feed on all pages
What we learned from this experience: There were many potential design images associated with the product line. We were able to narrow down the images by incorporating icons onto the static portions whilst still providing a feature area to highlight seasonally changing products. Furthermore, the social network profiles have played a significant role in driving traffic and vice versa, the prominently placed icons to follow Waghearted have increased fans/followers thereto.
The Situation: Independent filmmaker requires a living, breathing online marketing tool that promotes DVD sales and rentals for the award-winning documentary about displaced animals from Hurricane Katrina. The site needed to be branded consistently with the DVD and more importantly, easy to update with breaking news and updates to eliminate ongoing web maintenance fees
Switchblade Solution: A professionally updated website built in SquareSpace that promotes the sales and rentals of the DVD version of the movie.
The Results: A well-organized site that can be constantly refreshed because the content management system utilized is user-friendly for the site owner.
What we learned from this experience: We <3 SquareSpace for its easy to use interface and allowing us to customize many of the site’s elements without tinkering with the CSS code.
If you’re using Twitter and not finding the results you were hoping for, optimize your profile with these 10 to-the-point, actionable steps:
• Consider changing the placement and increasing the size of the social network profile buttons on your website
• Add a link to your Twitter profile on all marketing collateral including your email signature (ask your staff to do so also) – WiseStamp.com helps to professionally display all your social media profiles
• Join directories like wefollow.com, justtweetit.com, twellow.com, geofollow.com and tweetfind.com
• Follow relevant organizations and possibly their followers, or whomever they’re following
• Develop a schedule/grid of tweet topics to be executed throughout the week (i.e. event announcements on Monday at 2p, notes from the CEO on Tuesday at 11a, inspiration quotes on Wednesdays at 9a, industry statistics on Thursday at 10a, etc)
• Create a bank of tweets, information that can be released throughout the week (don’t underestimate the time it takes to find relevant content!)
• Consider originating tweets from Twitter versus another catchall program so that the tweets are not cut short (140 characters)
• Engage in Twitter conversations by retweeting relevant posts, @ mentioning/responding to others’ tweets
• Comment on trending topics when applicable, locally or worldwide; highlight associates/organizations on #FollowFriday
• Personalize the profile with a photo of an actual person as the profile picture, or an event with people as the background; don’t forget to allow a little personality to show in your tweets with mantras, mottos or pictures of every day life
Adobe User Research will be conducting customer visits to collect feedback on Photoshop from graphic designers in the San Francisco Bay Area April 15-22nd. Ultimately, our goal is to understand more about the designers workflow with PS and share some future concepts for Photoshop with the designer to collect their thoughts/opinions. All participants will need to agree to sign an NDA to participate.
A website “case study” sounds boring. How about “see how fun and professional come together on a website about a family movie featuring dog dancing, filmed in San Francisco“? Hmmm, too long. 123 characters + bit.ly… it’ll work. We’ll stick with that.
The Situation: Independent filmmaker requires an effective yet evolving online presence that creates buzz from production through release. The producers wanted to showcase the concept to sponsors, investors, partners, cast and crew to raise capital, as well as excitement and participation.
Switchblade Solution: A professionally updated website thoroughly injected with promise that the film will be successfully produced and distributed.
The Results: A site that captures the wit, inspiration and character of the film.
What we learned from this experience: Professionalism need not be sacrificed when producing/promoting a quirky product. A product website and its associated social media profiles must exude a common theme, perspective and relate to its intended audience.
Switchblade Creative Studios proudly organizes a Photoshop Users Group hosted right in the Adobe offices in San Francisco! The meet-ups are intended for users novice through expert levels and speakers (sometimes Adobe engineers) are authorities in their field. We share insight, get sneak previews to unreleased software and lucky attendees walk away with valuable prizes.
On Thursday evening, February 4, 2010, Marine Leroux of Bamboudesign Inc. will show how to efficiently design iPhone apps with Photoshop. Through a step by step method combined with tips for smart user experience design, she’ll guide you from sketching an app interface to designing it in Photoshop, building libraries and template files to expedite the design process. She’ll define Apple’s design requirements and the workflow between design, development, and publishing of an iPhone app to the App Store.
As managers of the 
