The Stairwell

We just completed for highschoolsports.net a new series of banner ads and Flash-rich video promotions for their clients that include such national brands as Nike and U.S. Army, adapting their existing marketing campaigns for online audiences serviced by highschoosports.net. The banners we developed contained a nifty Flash code that allowed for a chronometric countdown to registration deadlines, regardless of where the ad was being displayed. And the U.S. Army promotional contained some state-of-the-art video viewers. Even better, BD turned these requests around in under a day and one weekend respecitvely. Thanks RN, AH, TB, and DM.

Congratulations to everyone at Hyatt Corporation who contributed to the successful completion and launch of an all new Catering and Events web site system for properties all over the United States. The site is an easily updatable Flash-based application that can be customized for any property's offerings and venues. It features original music scores, FlashPaper menu viewers, Chef bios, and a multitude of fine photography. Thanks to KC, RN, TB, CS, PT and SM. A number of these sites will be going live in the coming weeks.

Like many other major mail inbox providers are already doing, Yahoo! announced in February that their beta version of the Yahoo! Mail will block email images by default. This is important news to email marketers who rely on wide email broadcasts that contain imagery.

Of course, subscribers can still change the default to allow for images in emails, but most users don't change their settings unless they know something is wrong. This means that the most important thing email marketers must do is ensure their message and from information contains what they want their customers to understatnd. Relying only on an image to convey a sale, special or service could result in much poorer response rates.

For more on this important development, read the latest article by Ken Magill in Direct Magazine online.

Congratulations to Hyatt Mumbai Rental Residences in Mumbai, India who recently have taken delivery of their new web site! Though they considered choosing an agency based in Mumbai, they instead chose to go 'offshore' to the U.S., Chicago and Billups Design. Now Hyatt Mumbai boasts a dynamic, usable, Hyatt-branded web site that allows them to market their properties and services to target audiences around the world. The new site features floor plan blueprints, an extensive interactive photography gallery, complete virtual tours of all rooms and facilities, and more. Thank you to everyone who helped complete this project successfully - UD, LB, CS, RN, SB, TB, VRX Studios and the entire team in India!

Hyatt Mumbai Rental Reesidences

You've got to admire someone who thinks their way through to a place we scarcely imagined for the benefit of all mankind. A moment of thanks for Johnny Chung Lee. We smell a Nobel.

Wii's Potential Unlocked

For the price of a new Sentra, or 1-year's tuition at that fancy private school for your kids, you could get this and declare yourself a web 2.0 video share site-guy entrepreneur. You really can get ANYTHING on EBay, including, it appears, a life. Note to self: make video of me buying this web site and put it up on same. But wait! Paul Anzarotti has beaten us all to it. Congratulations, Paul.

YouareTV.com Ebay 'for sale' page

Billups Design is looking for an agile, intelligent, exerienced Interface Developer. If you would like to work with like-minded professionals on challenging projects here in downtown Chicago, you should apply! We'd love to meet you. For more information about this position, click here.

Walmart has made several marketing blunders in the last 12 months. Most noted is their attempt to go 'upscale' in their advertising and product lines. But few observers noted that their web presence was a bubbling cauldron of customer discontent. The problem: accessibility.

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If you've got a few friends who happen to be in good shape and want to do some urban exploring, you've got to turn them on to Pac-Manhattan. Essentially, the game is played on the streets of any city or neighborhood. Simply by holding a cellphone and receiving orders from a controller in 'headquarters' who is watching a gps display of all the participants, players move about trying to avoid each other (or chase each other). The object is to capture an area or object in the enemy team's city territory and avoid other players who are getting directions from their controller over their cellphones. Sounds complicated, but just imagine PacMan.

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Okay, so this one isn't cutting edge news - but I'm still excited to see that multi-touch computing interfaces are straight out of movies like Minority Report and The Island are happening at the consumer level. The ability to control an interface at this level is very appealing for artists - hopefully it's open source (ha ha ha, yeah right).

We are pleased to announce the addition of another talented and unique designer to our team. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge about XML-based Flash, UI, and digital branding. His presence will further reinforce our creative resource base here in our main Chicago office and will surely bring an exciting new voice to all of of our accounts. We look forward to making the most of all his talents on behalf of our clients. Congratulations and welcome, Ryan!

The web has gone mad. Pigs are flying! Safari on Windows.

http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Thanks, Michael!

Packaging Corporation of America will soon launch its new Jiffy File Box web site. Thank you to everyone who helped make this project go smoothly and turn out beautifully. MT, PD, TB, SM and MB. We look forward to working with everyone at PCA again very soon.

It's been a busy month and there's a lot to smile about. Thank you to everyone at Hyatt for their help in bringing to blossom 4 new property sites.

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XIX Restaurant, a Hyatt Property and internationally awarded restaurant, has just launched its new web site for 2007.

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He's expected to be reporting in from the ISS (International Space Station for all you newbs).

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Just in time for their new fundraising campaign, Investing in Justice, The Chicago Bar Foundation has launched its new web site. It is everyone's hope that, in its own way, the new site makes possible more money raised and more awareness for the importance of providing legal counsel to all communities and classes in our society so that there is equal access to justic for all.

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We're happy to announce that the new Billups Design web site is here. We've put together an experience for our friends, colleagues, customers and prospects that we hope highlights our technologies and puts a little focus on the kind of design and marketing strategies we put together for our clients every day. So, enjoy yourself while you're here and drop us a line if you want. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who contributed - MB, PT, TB, CS, and JH.

Billups Design has successfully designed, developed and delivered the new viral video contest site for Pontiac and High School Sports.net called the Pontiac Peak Performance of the Month. The contest will be running throughout the Chicagoland high school area in support of area Pontiac dealerships, offering $1,000 monthly to local schools with the most popular highlight videos, and will serve as a model for other contest sites in local markets throughout the United States.

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The Chicago Bar Foundation recently invited Ted Billups to join its Advisory Committee as a media and web development / marketing advisor.

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Congratulations to the home town team. Everyone at Billups Design (in 4 different countries!) will be pulling for you on Sunday. Bear down...

We had the pleasure of working with Dentsu America's fantastic creative team on a great philanthropic site this January. We helped them hammer out some wireframe templates for an entire site redesign and rebuild. Wow, that was fast! Thanks, Dentsu and Tom W. Let's do it again soon.

Billups Design has just completed production and design of an exciting new concept site for HighSchoolSport.net and Pontiac.

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This week, the Chicago Bar Foundation announced that it has hired Billups Design, Inc. to handle its 2007 complete site redesign.

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Just a merry moment to greet all of our readers and clients and to say, "Happy Holidays from all of us here at Billups Design, Inc.

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We're grateful this season in part because Hyatt Worldwide has selected us to once again create a strong web presence for a concern within one of their properties. The new site will feature Flash navigation, moving content elements and extensive descriptions and services - all combined to create an elegant, inviting atmosphere. Thanks to everyone at Hyatt and RL Design, and happy holidays!

Daniel Jalkut has an excellent blog which describes a computing world where the user selects the resolution - no longer being bound to the 72 dpi world. Vector graphics are already found all over the Macintosh OS and Microsoft Vista, so why wouldn't the web also need to upgrade? To me, this is the real web 2.0 - a true world of blended vector and raster graphics. They could call it "RV" :-)

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In the never-ending debate over how 'hot' web and multimedia designers are in their respective country's labor markets, there are no definitive answers. We've been the hottest kids on the block with plenty of slaps on the back, to the spurned drop-out who no one in the family thinks "will add up to anything." Are we making a comeback?

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Congratulations to Blue Duck Tavern on their new web site. Blue Duck Tavern is located in the Park Hyatt Washington D.C. and boasts a lineup of some of the world's most renowned chefs.

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Congratulations to everyone who helped launch the new Mark Shale Holiday catalogs and web site. Erin, Russell, David, Steve, Scott, Michael, Josh, Joseph, and everyone at Kozak & Kristi Studios who gave their talents. You know who you are!

Visit the new site and get some great clothes while your at it: markshale.com.

The International Academy of the Visual Arts in Hollywood, CA has announced the winners for its annual W3 Awards and Billups Design scores again.

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Advance apologies to all our readers, but I couldn't help myself. The 2006 Chicago Marathon is over and yours truly was a part of it all! Congratulations to everyone who finished (and even had the courage to start). The weather was wicked - 35 degrees, snow flurries and 30mph winds, but there's no re-scheduling this one for a sunnier day, I suppose. Don't worry, I won't post my split-times.

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Internet Explorer for Mac is no longer being supported by Microsoft. Additionally, we've seen instances where it is unable to perform basic security and browsing tasks. Here's the official Microsoft page.

HighSchoolSports.net is the country's leading high school sports and statistics site. BD will be undertaking some redesign initiatives in several areas, including home page, promotional ads and banners and shopping cart. Thanks to everyone at HighSchoolSports.net for their confidence in our growing firm. More details to come...

We're happy that hyatt.com has chosen us to help them implement a microsite for one of their valued partners, Blue Duck Taverns. We look forward to working with the Hyatt team on this project. Thanks to everyone involved. Now let's get to work!

A change of scenery is sure to help the creative juices flow, they say. And we believe it, because we've just completed our (major) move to Lincoln Square in downtown Chicago and boy are we feeling inspired.

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Congratulations to Mark Shale on its launch of the new Fall Collection web site. Thanks to Steve, Josh, Ted, Russell, Erin, Sid, Atiq, Rick and everyone else (too many to name) who contributed to another monster project completion.

Why not shop at markshale.com while you're surfing?

Novack & Macey, LLP has chosen Billups Design in conjunction with Wide Computer to redesign their corporate web site in 2006.

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We are proud to announce that Jenner & Block has engaged Billups Design to provide usability and redesign consulting for its web site.

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We're excited. Billups Design is looking to move into newer, bigger offices. By locating at this new central location, we'll be better than ever at handling our clients needs quickly and effectively.

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The International Horizon Interactive Awards for 2006 have been announed and BD is among the winners. We'd like to thank all the partners, from Wide Computer to Mark Shale's talented staff who helped us achieve this distinction.

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Morton Suggestion, the Mt. Prospect, IL-based incentive gifts company, hired Billups Design to give their portal-type home page a complete redesign.

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Today, WP Global Partners announced the launch of its new web site at www.wpglobalpartners.com.

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Art Iron announced today that it has chosen Billups Design to handle its extensive re-branding and online marketing efforts in 2006. The company's headquarters are in Toledo, OH and operations range as far as China.

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Mark Shale has launched its Spring web site.

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We love to help not-for-profit organizations expand the good work they do online. This one was our pleasure. Thanks to everyone at Immaculate Conception School who helped on this project: John, Greg, Joe, Father Pat, and Katie, the school's beloved principal.

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We're now using Basecamp (from 37Signals) for our project web sites. We're especially excited about the milestone, time tracking and file sharing capabilities - all wrapped up in a fast little web 2.0 bundle. So, what does this mean if you are an existing or new customer of Billups Design? Well, you'll experience a refreshing level of transparency and control throughout each project we begin and finish for you.

Thank you to our friends Matt Linderman and Jason Fried at 37Signals for their amazing product.

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Congratulations to Precision Plating Company on their new site redesign.

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We'd like to thank Silver Wings Plus for choosing Billups Design once again for their upcoming 2006 web site. This new initiative promises many improvements in the Silver Wings online marketing program and we're excited to get started.

We web designers have been arguing all along that how a site looks aesthetically has a huge impact on the success of that site. Online visitors, we pleaded, make quick judgements about your credibility and desirability based solely on your 'look'.

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Billups Design would like to welcome WP Global Partners to our growing list of clients.

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Congratulations to Command Transportation, Inc. After several weeks of hard work the new maiden web site is live this week! Command is not your typical transportation company and neither is their web site...

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The success stories for online sales this holiday are plentiful. The factors contributing to this increase are also many and still being analyzed by economists.

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Congratulations to the attorneys at Torshen, Slobig, Dragutinovich & Axel, Ltd. torshen.com is now live.

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According to Forester Research, this upcoming holiday season promises to be joyful for online retailers.

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United Air Lines has announced its retention of Billups Design for its 2005-2006 online help initiative. We're looking forward to helping millions of United customers get the information they need with minimal effort. Look for more news on this exciting project in the weeks and months to come.

In this month's issue of Multichannel Merchant, columnist Heather Retzlaff explores the reasons behind the success of Sierra Trading's online web site. What's amazing: adding zoom and color swatch technology to their online store, they increased online sales by 30% and overall revenue by 25% in 2005.

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We're thrilled to announce that Command Transportation has chosen Billups Design from a group of potential agencies to concept, design and build their first web site.

Is it just me, or is this country getting even weirder lately?

The FEMA Rap

Congratulations to everyone at Mid-American Printing on their new web site.

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Parlano has chosen Billups Design to create a set of user interface design elements for its exciting collaborative software. The goal is to enhance the user experience visually using iconography. A series of emoticons (partial sample at right) as well as a complex set of function and status icons will be developed and incorporated into the final product.

This amateur photo of Katrina as it rolled into Alabama is circulating on the net right now and it's a real eye-opener, especially to a land-locked fool like me.

The new Mark Shale Fall 2005 online store launched yesterday. Please pay a visit if you want to be the best-dressed person around, or if you want to check our work! Is there anything new with regard to technology, you ask? Indeed, the site plans to launch it first blog, entitled "Dress Code" starting 09/14/05.

http://www.markshale.com

Heading into the busy fall advertising season, many b-to-b marketers are planning to increase budgets and launch new campaigns to promote new products, services or positionings. "We are seeing a lot of movement toward the branding side, not just product advertising," Gangi said. "There is more confidence to do more brand communications as the economy improves."

B2B.com article by Kate Maddox.

We celebrated our 2nd year of success by traveling to Lousiville, Kentucky to take on the (already) legendary golf course at Valhalla.

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We're proud to announce a new client in the BD stable: Torshen, Slobig, Genden, Dragutinovich & Axel, Ltd. This prestigious law firm, founded in 1963 and located in downtown Chicago, practices in all areas of the law. Look for the launch in late August!

Thank you to everyone at Indigo who gave us the opportunity to design a new site interface from scratch and help improve their bottom line.

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We'd like to say 'thank you!' to everyone at Mid-American Printing Systems for choosing us to design and execute a more comprehensive online marketing program.

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MIT Labs and Nicholas Negroponte launch the $100 laptop initiative

Thanks to the hard work and creative brainstorms of our entire team, the brand new web site for the prestigious law firm, Anesi, Ozmon, Rodin, Novak and Kohen, Ltd. is live.

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Mark Shale's new Summer 2005 web site is live! Thanks once again to every one who helps make the Mark Shale online store a success - Wide Computer, Kozak & Krysti, Schawk, Ltd., and of course, Mr. Baskin. This time around we introduced new navigation functionality for the online catalog, added more new products and designed a complimentary email broadcast, alerting registered users of the new launch.

Mark Shale Summer 2005

Get yourself something really nice while you're at it - you deserve it.

Billups Design is proud to introduce Mark Shale Spring 2005, which features the ability to view products in multiple colors.

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Though no one officially has admitted guilt, the Board of Directors of the now-defunct MarchFirst Corporation have recently settled a class action law suit against them.

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Now that three weeks have passed and the story begins to disappear from media headlines, it is important to continue supporting the efforts of everyone in South and Southeast Asia to put what's left of their lives back together.

If you have been meaning to help tsuanmi victims, but haven't done so yet, here's another chance.

• American Red Cross
• DirectRelief International
• Disasters Emergency Committee, UK

Think the online world is crazy? The real world's got it beat still.

Weird Headlines of 2004

Not everyone can say they asked their boss to unemploy them, but yours truly did just that today :-)

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