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@riodesign-blog
Email Marketers Respond to Responsive
Website Magazine, May 2015: Email conversion rates saw a significant jump last year – and that’s because more marketers embraced mobile. A new benchmark report from Yesmail reveals that brands’ use of mobile-friendly strategies, such as responsive design, paid off with mobile email conversion rates jumping more then 70 percent year-over-year. During the same period, consequently, desktop conversion rates dropped by 4 percent.
Is Your Website Responding?
With more websites being accessed from various mobile devices, the user experience is critical. This is where "Responsiveness" come in! Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors). At Rio Design we are incorporating this technology into all our current websites so that our customers are meeting the informational and visual needs of their customers.
Rio Design Creates Cover for Latest Lucado Book
Rio Design, was tapped once again by Thomas Nelson Publishing of Nashville, Tenn., to create the cover and supportive art for another book by renowned San Antonio pastor and author, Max Lucado.
Lucado’s latest book, “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine,” was released on September 11, 2012, and has already received wide acclaim. The publisher reports that the book can be read in a single day and adds, “New believers will develop an understanding of grace and mature Christians can appreciate the reminder of all that God has given to us. If you are not a Lucado fan already, you will be after you read “Grace.””
John Tafolla, owner and president of Rio Design, says, “Thomas Nelson wanted a pure graphic simplicity for the “Grace” cover, along with a complimentary approach with “Shaped By Grace.” Rio Design has enviable track record with both Lucado and Thomas Nelson Publishing having designed covers for three of Lucado’s best sellers.
He says, “It is truly an honor and a blessing to be visually assisting Max who is so gifted and regarded for painting heavenly images with his words.”
In 2005 Tafolla had designed an outreach campaign for Oak Hills Church which caught the eye of Thomas Nelson. The publisher adapted it for Lucado’s book, “Cure for the Common Life.” Rio Design also designed the cover for Lucado’s biggest release, “3:16 The Numbers of Hope,” which sold more than one million copies on its first run.
2011 Poteet Strawberry Festival Picked as Best Commemorative Poster by the Texas Festivals & Events Association
The Texas Festival & Events Association awards the Poteet Strawberry Festival with Best Commemorative Poster for 2011. The poster, produced by San Antonio graphic design studio Rio Design and illustrated by local artist Judy Payne Korge, was created to commemorate the 135th year of the Poteet Strawberry Festival. The original painting Judy created for the poster is entitled, "Winds of Change."
“We wanted this poster to really stand out and asked Rio to design a poster that not only commemorated the history of Poteet but would also be a keepsake piece” said Carol Rivera, Executive Director for the Poteet Strawberry Festival. “To be recognized by the Texas Festivals & Events Association as best in the state for 2011 was a wonderful confirmation for everyone involved that we succeeded in creating something special.”
Rio Design has been providing branding and advertising to the Poteet Strawberry Festival for over 10 years and along with Poteet Strawberry Festival marketing partner, the Emjay Company, has also been recognized in past years by the Texas Festivals & Events Association with other awards including Best T-Shirt Design and Best Other Merchandise.
The 2012 Poteet Strawberry Festival is scheduled for April 13, 14 & 15. http://www.strawberryfestival.com/
In Praise of the Lowly Sitemap
Most restaurant patrons don’t stop to consider the recipe that led to the epic meal. Or moviegoers the storyboard for the action-packed blockbuster. Or the training plan that resulted in the swimmer’s Olympic Gold medal haul. No, they’re in the background. Essential but unseen. So goes the sitemap.
Sitemaps optimize search engine optimization and help navigate a site’s content. But the real benefit of the sitemap is to save everyone time and money and pain in the web design process. And that’s a good thing.
Like most intentions though, it always starts out good, but then begins to fade. With the excitement of the website concept the sitemap starts sliding to the back burner. Design begins to replace diligence and it’s OK for a while. Then suddenly the 12 page website now looks more like 20. Then 30. And budgets begin to swell.
Rewind to the beginning of the project. Kick things off with a big bang that saves time and control costs. Map out the site in all directions. Review. Revise. Forecast how big it could go and document. Then begin crafting the content, even if it’s rough, you expect to include on the pages. Revise again. Have someone else on your team review and propose additions or deletions. Get it 80% right, and now you’re ready for the design process.
And double bonus – not only does the sitemap help managing your project, but sitemap and planning creates a blueprint of your website and allows you to map out how a user interacts with the site, so you can also identify problem areas earlier. This allows you to solve them as early as possible and in the end create a better website experience for everyone.
This level of background gives the designers a good idea of the scope to create and bid, and keeps everyone on the same page (literally!) as the framework now takes on a face. Sure there will be tweaks here and there, but if the framework is good, the site will be great.
Locked Up and Liked It!
While most folks talk about being chained to their desk, Rio Design founder John Tafolla took it a step further – and spent Thursday, August 11 behind bars. All for a good cause though. John was a volunteer fundraiser for the San Antonio chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and got himself locked up to benefit MDA.
John spent a few hours on Thursday in the Boudro’s Vault while he waited for Rio Design studio friends, family and staff to bail him out. He made good use of the time in the slammer. He friended several guards and worked on his license plate-making skills.
He eventually raised over $650 to benefit MDA, and this combined with his very good behavior, had him back on the streets that afternoon.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to John’s release! If you didn’t get a chance to make a donation to the MDA you can do so at the link below.
https://www.joinmda.org/2011sanantoniotelu/john
This Concept Sounds Like a Great Idea!
David Caulkins had an idea. We love stories that start this way. David is another friend of Rio Design and recently returned from a 2-year stint teaching English in Japan. For his next career stage he wanted to apply his Communication degree from Texas A&M class of 2008 (whoop!) and launch a new company. The question was – “What kind of company?”
David wanted to bring something to market that had an emotional impact on people; really left an impression; and could be a conversation piece. Well he literally achieved all three when he landed on the idea for Bespoken Art.
With Bespoken Art, David creates Sound Portraits of customer voices. He creates a recording of their voice speaking a phrase like, “I do” or “Happy Birthday, Grandpa” or a distinctive sound like a baby laughing, and then converts the person’s unique sound-waves into a voiceprint that's distinctly them. David prints the graphic on high-quality canvas and uses gallery-quality framing to create a piece of art suitable for any room in the house. It’s beautifully personalized art and an excellent conversation piece!
We helped David with the launch by developing the Bespoken Art website and then watched him take off. To date he’s had over 400,000 visits to his site and starting to build sales momentum. We look forward to continuing to help spread the word about this new product, and one more very special feature of his company – for every smile these prints create, David will use the sales to create smiles across the world. He partnered with Smile Train, a non-profit organization that provides cleft-repair surgery to children around the globe. For every canvas he sells, he will donate 5% of the revenue to Smile Train.
That's something worth talking about! Check him out at http://bespokenart.com
New Niche Company Brings Fine Art Process to the Workplace
Rio Design friend LaRhesa Moon contacted us in 2010 about a new venture she was exploring. She had an idea to introduce a strategic approach to the corporate art acquisition process. She explained that many companies don’t know how to go about adding art to their organization. They have the desire to create a visually pleasing environment for staff, and to be a good corporate citizen and support the arts, but most companies don’t know where to start. It may be assigned to an individual with an interest in fine art, or left to a committee of staffers drawn together to make decisions without any criteria and little direction. Either way it can create challenging and/or curious results.
LaRhesa and her partner, Patricia Ruiz-Healy, owner of the Ruiz-Healy gallery in San Antonio, believed there was a better way. Their idea was to help companies approach fine art like they would a key company project, by incorporating project management principals to what is usually considered an emotional purchase.
The result is the launch of their new entity – articulate aesthetic communication. articulate ac assists organizations in identifying and acquiring fine art for their facilities. What makes this new company so unique is that articulate ac brings a business sense to the process; due to the experience LaRhesa and Patricia bring to the table.
LaRhesa’s career experience as a VP of Corporate Communications helps companies identify how the art can align and communicate company goals. Patricia’s insight as a gallery owner and art historian assists the organizations with sorting through the range of mediums, styles and artists available in the marketplace and acquiring the fine art that’s most appropriate for the client.
We assisted articulate ac by, uh, framing, the company identity with a logo and website to introduce the organization. We’re now looking forward to seeing how businesses worldwide also come to appreciate this great concept!
Congratulations to articulate ac on this new venture! www.articulateac.com
San Antonio ADDY Award for Incredible African Ministry
Villages of Hope Africa (VOHA) is a ministry based in San Antonio and Founders David and Dana Mann have been friends of the studio for years. Their passion to serve the Lord led them halfway around the world to Northern Uganda, and Acholi Sub Region, the site of a disastrous civil war between the government of Uganda and The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The war started in 1986 and lasted for more than 20 years.
During the war, tens of thousands of children were forced to commute every night to town centers like Gulu to escape possible LRA abductions from their home villages or IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) camps. Their nightly journey was documented in the video “Invisible Children” in 2003. In addition to the impact on the children, thousands of families were also displaced from their villages and forced to move to IDP camps for safety.
With the onset of relative peace brought on by the Juba Peace Talks in 2008, the government began encouraging people to move back to their rightful land and homes. But after 20 years, most of their villages were uninhabitable. David and Dana saw firsthand the tremendous need in Gulu Town, the IDP Camps and in the countryside for assisting this transition back to the Achioli villages.
The Mann’s created VOHA to help the people resettle in their homes and villages. VOHA assists the resettlements by drilling deep bore holes for permanent water supplies and providing seed “investments” to help the Acholi people begin growing food for sustenance and commerce. The funds for this initiative are raised by the Mann’s from individual and church donations.
We were thrilled to assist the ministry and design the VOHA website to communicate their message. Since launching the site in 2010, it’s been an effective tool to help the Mann’s share the stories and the needs for the Acholi people and encourage others to support their cause.
In February, the VOHA website was recognized by the San Antonio Advertising Federation with a Bronze ADDY award for website design. We’re excited about the award, but more excited that this will bring greater attention to this incredible ministry, the needs of the Acholi’s and how people can help.
Follow the link to learn more about Villages of Hope Africa.
http://www.villagesofhopeafrica.org/
Grammy Memories for Mingo
With all the buzz about the Grammy awards on February 13th, we were reminded to highlight one of our clients who was nominated for Grammys in 1992 and 2003 - Mingo Saldivar. We worked with Mingo’s daughter and manager, Tricia Saldivar, to create and launch the official website for Mingo, or as he’s also known, "The Dancing Cowboy".
Mingo is a Texas treasure and a legendary conjunto/tejano accordionist. He hails from South Texas and lives in San Antonio today. He and his band (Los Tremendos Cuatro Espadas) have performed their dynamic fusion of conjunto, country, polkas and rancheras from honky tonks to the White House. And Mingo’s energetic, low-slung style of dancing and playing the accordion has entertained audiences around the world for over 50 years.
In addition to his Grammy award, Mingo has also been recognized with NEA National Heritage Fellowship, and played for the Clinton presidential inauguration. Oh, and his Grammy nominations were for the releases I Love My Freedom, I Love My Texas in 1992 and A Taste of Texas in 2003. Both available through the website!
Take a minute to follow the link to Mingo’s website to meet him and order one of his CD’s. They’re tremendos!
www.mingosaldivartx.com
It's a wrap...sort of
The new site is up...and still in process. But that was the plan from the beginning. Our new site is going to be a "living" space, so to speak. So we'll always be adding to it. We plan to post the new work regularly and use this blog feature to let you know the story behind the project.
The portfolio we're posting today gives you a good cross-section of our work, but we're really excited about several projects currently in progress and plan to have those up as soon as we can.
Until then, "Welcome to Rio!" Take a look around. Let us know what you think. And if you have a project you'd like to talk about, connect with us through the Contact page.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Be on the lookout for the new rio site!
We are in the middle of finishing up the new site, so check back soon!
You can also get the latest on our new facebook or twitter page!
"To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master."
-Milton Glaser