Blog: November 2006

Hey y’all! We’ve Launched Sure Shot Productions!

November 22, 2006

Screenshot of Sure Shot Productions Sure Shot Productions is owned and operated by Sally Bishop, a third generation rodeo and wild west performer. Sally is also a stuntwoman for film and television. As a performer, she specializes in bullwhips, trick riding and a nifty four-horse Roman Riding.

When it came time for Sally to expand her business promotions to a wider area, she came to Hop Studios.  We’re known for our trick HTML code riding, and a nifty bullwhip we use to keep things moving on schedule.  Well, maybe not.  But we are known for great design and implementation, and we rustled up a site that really suited her Western theme and captured her personality as well.

Now Sally has a fantastic promotional site, with all the details that someone would need to get a sense of who she is, and what kind of a show her company can put on.  With Hop Studios, Sure Shot Productions plans to round up and lasso a whole new set of opportunities.

Posted by Travis Smith at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

AJAX Programmer Needed This Week

November 20, 2006

We’ve got a project that calls for a few hours of AJAX programming this week, mostly the front-side Javascript part, not the back end SQL part.

Though of course you’re probably very smart and can do both.

If we end up working well together, we’ll have more AJAX work to share with you.

Contact Travis if you’re interested.

Posted by Travis Smith at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)

We Can Take No Credit for These Bestselling Books

November 20, 2006

Several of our recent clients have made the top ten list of book sales at Amazon.com in the past month. Specifically, Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards have done great—though they might not be in the top ten right now. We also have high hopes for Barry Glassner’s next book: The Gospel of Food.

We can take absolutely no credit for these successes.

They’ve written some very interesting, engaging books, and they’ve got great marketing support from their publishers, and they’re great authors.

That said, we’re pretty happy for them, and we’d love to do additional books sites.  Let us know if you’re interested!

Posted by Travis Smith at 5:31 PM | Comments (0)

Think Salmon!

November 20, 2006

Screenshot of Think Salmon Think Salmon. It’s good for the enviromnent, it’s good for you, and it also happens to be a good Web site.

We were (and are) the development team responsible for Think Salmon, a site devoted to “inspiring individuals and organizations to contribute to the best possible conditions and environment for British Columbia’s Pacific salmon.”

You can read more at the site itself, but there are two really interesting aspects to Think Salmon that set it apart from other sites we’ve done.

First, every bit of information in the site is mapped; that is, it’s given a latitude and longitude and integrated with Google Maps to be ultra-slick.

The other great feature, is the story sharing system.  They’re encouraging people in many ways to come to the site and share a salmon-related experience, piece of art, video, photo, observation or question.  The site grows through user contributions and participation.  And it’s really starting to shape up.

ThinkSalmon.com, backed by the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Fraser Basin Council, is a learning resource with great scientific information, but it’s also a wonderful gathering point for people who care about salmon, and I have to tell you, being relatively new to B.C. myself—these people care a whole heck of a lot about salmon.

Oh, and yes, there’s nothing wrong with thinking salmon while you eat a delicious cedar planked salmon fillet.  It’s a mighty tasty fish!

Posted by Travis Smith at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)

Find an American Studies Journal

November 11, 2006

There are at least 25 journals worldwide dedicated to the field of American Studies.  And now, there’s one Web site that you can visit to stay on top of the latest information from each of them: American Studies Journals.

Hop Studios built this meta-journal site with a few goals in mind: Each journal’s editor should be able to log in, add their own abstracts and journal details, and highlight their best material.

Using Expression Engine, the site provides an easy collaborative environment for 31 editors in 17 countries.  Expression Engine can also be used as a communication tool between the editors; private messaging and mass emails are built in to the system. And for the site’s visitors, the search engine provides an alternative to the various browsing methods (alphabetical, geographical) we also incorporated into the site’s functionality.

Oh, and for the techies out there: the site uses sIFR so we could make dynamic, non-standard fonts as headers while still degrading gracefully for older browsers.  Say it with me: Ooooooh.

Posted by Travis Smith at 1:44 AM | Comments (0)

Christopher Noxon Reinvented

November 7, 2006

noxonblog_old.jpgChristopher Noxon, narrative journalist, cultural commentator, author, and all around great client has returned to that calamitous collection of code called the internet.

Christopher was thoroughly enjoying the practice of blogging on the site Hop Studios created for his wonderful book Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes and the Reinvention of the American Grown-Up, and wanted to leverage some of that excitement into a new personal site for his journalism work. His old site, a simple list of past articles, lacked a personal touch and Christopher had new features as well as a collection of television and radio appearances, interviews and commentaries under his belt that he wanted to promote.
noxonblog_rough.jpg
Using Christopher’s own photography Hop Studios was able to design a unique site for him. Integrating aspects of a blog, a back-catalog, self promotion, and his own personal flickr, Christophernoxon.com is shaping up to be an ever expanding feast of great ideas, fantastic writing and fun images. Expression Engine allows Christopher to be in complete control of his digital analogue, leaving us free to troubleshoot and appreciate!

Posted by Matt Gardner at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Talking to Other Dummies Authors

November 4, 2006

I’m in San Francisco for the first ever Dummies Authors Conference. There are about 50 Dummies authors here, and the day is packed with discussions about marketing books, the uses of agents, and general Dummies best practices. It’s going to be an interesting day! You can check out the agenda here.

There’s been a bunch of press already, but the most exciting news of the day is that the conference is up for being featured on the Evening News with Katie Couric. In fact, you can actually vote to send Steve Hartman to the conference tomorrow by going to http://www.cbsnews.com and clicking on Assignment America. We’re up against some guy who can talk really fast and a California prison program to send female juvenile delinquents to finish school ("Can etiquette, fashion and dance really set a girl straight?"). Wouldn’t you rather get the inside scoop on the For Dummies books? Of course you would. Go vote.

And, if I haven’t convinced you already, check out the other press coverage today:

Here’s a nice quote from the SFGate.com article:

The “dummies” label could be the weirdest aspect of the whole franchise, as the authors are not really supposed to assume their readers are dumb, just uninformed. The publisher, in an official statement on the matter, calls it a “term of endearment.”

Posted by Susannah Gardner at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)

Hop Studios Gets an Air Kiss from Movable Type

November 1, 2006

Movable Type featured Hop Studios in a very nice blog entry yesterday about Rose Levy Beranbaum’s blog: Real Baking with Rose.  We’re mentioned because we designed the site for General Mills, who commissioned it.

Movable Type’s summation of the year-long experience Rose has had with her site is dead on—the blog entries themselves are great stories, and great recipes, and it helps to extend and humanize Gold Medal flour (and now Harvest King flour, too). However, the best part of the site are the comments that people make and the way Rose handles the responses. She shares her kitchen successes, and her personal strife as well.

We made Rose’s own comments show up highlighted, and so each blog entry becomes a doorway into a conversation with one of America’s great bakers.  Some of the stories people share are wonderful—like the woman who made her own wedding cake 15 years ago using one of Rose’s recipes, and then made it again for her 15th anniversary.

Or what about the fellow in India who loves sour cream but cant get it there? Rose has the answer to that, too.

We had a good time building the site, but what’s made it succeed is the personality and dedication of Rose, and that’s true for every blog.

Posted by Travis Smith at 5:02 PM | Comments (0)