Blog: December 2007

Planning Means Mixed Media

December 28, 2007

Site planning on the new Hop Studios site continues. A long discussion about project categories resulted in this post-it note monstrosity. It may look like a mess but it resulted in a much cleaner category list and come clever ideas about how to present ourselves. Notice the Hop Studios Christmas card in the lower right.

Whiteboard Image

Posted by Matt Gardner at 2:45 PM | Comments (0)

Hop Planning

December 14, 2007

In an effort to shed some light on the inner workings of Hop Studios, We have decided make public one of our secret tools - the office white board. This week’s edition is loaded with planning for the Hop Studios Web site redesign.

Whiteboard Image

Posted by Matt Gardner at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)

Need a Christmas present idea? How about “Blogging for Dummies, 2nd Edition”?

December 6, 2007

The Book CoverThe perfect gift for anyone in you life, this Dummies book in the classic yellow and black will is packed with juicy details, tips and examples. And it’s the perfect price at Amazon, pre-order yours today for only $14.95.

Shane Birley (Left Right Minds) and I started our writing in August, and finished the last of the editing in early November, so you just know that the information in the book is going to be up to date.

We really put our hearts into creating a thorough, detailed book, so you’ll find a chapter on podcasts, one on sidebar widgets, and of course a whole chapter on how to start a blog right now. Throughout the book, you’ll find screenshots of some of our favorite blogs used as examples—thanks to everyone who agreed to be featured!

I’m working right now on a companion Web site for the book, which will have a sample chapter, the complete table of contents, and of course, a blog.

What are you waiting for? Go order yours right now!

Posted by Susannah Gardner at 4:36 PM | Comments (1)

A Brand New MovieMaker Site

December 3, 2007

moviemaker_thumbnail.jpgExciting news! Hop Studios has just completed a major project: the migration, redesign and relaunch of MovieMaker magazine’s Web site. MovieMaker is the nation’s leading magazine on the art and business of making movies and the most widely read magazine on independent film in the world, plus it’s based in New York, so you know it’s hip. They’ve had a Web site since at least 1996, and it’s gone through a lot of changes in that time, from long pages to flash navigation and popups and more.

What a relaunch this is! I can’t tell you how much pizza and how many sleepless nights were undertaken in the cause of independent cinema journalism. Well, I could tell you, but then you’d think we were some sort of super team of super heroes, when we’re just regular human Web site designers.

MovieMaker’s new site design is, in the words of those who’ve seen it: striking, fresh and easy to navigate (thanks, Mom!). The forums are rejuvenated and integrated with articles, as are the regular polls. There’s commenting. There’s tags and share icons. There’s a very complex system of ad serving that targets advertisers to exactly the articles and other content they relate to. There are individual staff biographies and contact pages. It’s all a bit like coming down Christmas morning with a surfeit many gifts under the tree.

The front page now features a large alternating promo spot that looks gorgeous, and can be used to promote not just articles, but blog posts or anything else that the site’s editors wish to highlight. Parts of the site’s interactive effects are powered by jQuery, and other parts by home-programmed JavaScript. The site overall is much easier to update, despite there being many more ways for the editors to put content online.

Now that it’s relaunched, the hard part is definitely done, but the development isn’t over. There are many more new features planned that will be rolled out as part of the ongoing development. These new features will build community and make MovieMaker an even greater resource for the independent cinema community. We’re looking forward to helping grow MovieMaker’s site over the coming years.

Posted by Travis Smith at 6:10 PM | Comments (0)