Blog: July 2008

Come Learn at the ExpressionEngine Roadshow, Sept. 26

July 31, 2008

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Hop Studios loves its ExpressionEngine content management tool. So much so, that we’re going to evangelize just a little bit.  We’ve pooled our enthusiasm with Boxcar Marketing and Venn Communications to host the EE Roadshow: an ExpressionEngine training event. Here’s the pitch:

  • If you’ve ever wondered how to make ExpressionEngine work better for you in your job, this is the event for you.
  • If you’ve ever wondered how the other developers make EE jump through hoops and roll over, this is your event.
  • And if you also happen to wonder what EE developers look like in person, well, don’t miss this.

The EE Roadshow is an event for ExpressionEngine users and developers. It is part training, part brainstorming, part networking and all wonderful. ExpressionEngine’s online community is friendly and productive and supportive, one of the best on the Internet. The EE Roadshow is our way of bringing ExpressionEngine users and developers together in a real-world way.

The Details
Friday, September 26th
Vancouver, BC
1-5 p.m. (then stay for the part-ee!)
$50 per person

That gives plenty of time for you out-of-town folks to arrive, and gives the folks in town a great way get out of the office early.

Other training events can cost hundreds of dollars. Our low price: $50. That’s just the price of one cup of $50 coffee! Why wait? Register today!

Check out the eeRoadshow sessions. We are covering everything from basic EE setup to developing your own custom module. And there’ll be special guests from EllisLab (the folks behind ExpressionEngine), as well as interesting prizes.

About EE Roadshow

The first ever EE Roadshow is brought to you by Boxcar Marketing, Venn Communications and Hop Studios, three passionate EE development companies who want to help bring ExpressionEngine to every Web site in the world.

Posted by Travis Smith at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)

Closed for B.C. Day

July 30, 2008

One of the nice things about working in Vancouver is that on the first Monday in August, we get to celebrate B.C. Day by taking the day off.

Did British Columbia earn independence somehow? No.  Is the province particularly noble or triumphant? Not really.  But the first weekend in August here does tend to be glorious, and the government had the good sense to recognize that, and we plan to spend Monday recognizing that as well.

See you back here Tuesday, Aug. 5. (We are working Friday, August 1, but we may sound a little wistful when we answer the phone.)

Posted by Travis Smith at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)

Why We Like EllisLab’s ExpressionEngine

July 21, 2008

As you may have noticed, we at Hop Studios tend to create the bulk of the projects we work on with EllisLab’s ExpressionEngine. It’s a system Travis and Susie have been working with for many years, long enough to become a pair of EE experts of sorts. Because I am new to the team and not as familiar with ExpressionEngine as they are I asked the pair why EE has become their favorite blogging and general web site management tool. Here is a list of reasons why they like ExpressionEngine:

1) It’s a really good tool for publishers because the versioning of entries and templates keeps track of changes to content. Any edits made are kept on record, and can easily be referred back to. This in turn encourages experimentation and quick edits, because you know you can roll back easily.

2) EE has the ability to create different user groups and administration levels, so you can place control of how various people can access and use features of each site.

3) There is a discussion forum module available for EE and it integrates with the existing membership of the site, which means only one login for users.

4) It’s like a Swiss Army knife.  In addition to being a CMS, it’s a mailing list tool, a photo gallery, a wiki, a multiple site manager, and a commerce module.  Well, the beginnings of a commerce module.

5) The mark-up language is well thought out and logical. EE tags are very consistent.

6) Web sites built in ExpressionEngine don’t have a common look, the way many Wordpress sites and Drupal sites do.  It’s not that you can’t customize those other tools, but EE really gets out of the way when it comes to design.

7) EllisLab, the developers of EE, is a small company with personal service. It’s the kind of place where you can know many of the support people by (screen) name.

8) There is a high quality of support in the ExpressionEngine forums, and it’s not just the staff who are responsive about providing assistance when a problem comes up.

9) The support documentation available on ExpressionEngine is thorough and up-to-date, especially compared with other CMSes.

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 2:01 PM | Comments (1)

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Blog

July 17, 2008

blue moon fiber arts blog logoTina Newton of the Rockin’ Sock Club recently had the web site of her business, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, redesigned and launched. Because she has had so much success with the Rockin’ Sock Club Blog she decided to add a blog to her company site, created by Hop Studios.

The design is based on the existing site with minor tweaks to give the blog its own look and feel, and is built in ExpressionEngine. Tina wanted to do the usual stuff with a blog—post text and photos—but she also wanted to find a way to feature some of the photos she uses for design inspiration when creating new yarn colors. The result is an extra large photo header on the blog that she can change as she finds new photos and use to refresh the look of the blog at the same time. We paired the photo with a fun logo of a crow with some knitting needles and yarn to differentiate the blog from the rest of the site.

We launched Blue Moon’s new blog yesterday, and Tina’s first entry has already received 22 comments. Way to go, Tina! 

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

Above and Beyond!

July 14, 2008

At Hop Studios, we’re proud of the Web sites we build, and we’re also confident that you’ll enjoy working with us from start to finish. We recently decided to add a new section to our proposals called the “Above and Beyond Bonus.” The idea is, if our clients think we’ve done superb work and been an excellent partner in the process of designing and developing their web site, if they think we’ve gone above and beyond what was expected, then they have the option of paying the suggested bonus listed on the last page of our proposal.  If they think we’ve only done a decent and respectable job, they pay the basic invoice and nothing on top. It’s like a completion reward, but for truly remarkable work.

Really, it’s entirely up to our clients, and it’s up to us to earn it. And we do our best to do just that.

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 5:57 PM | Comments (0)

The Art Center Film Department Gets Its Own Site

July 9, 2008

film department logoThe Art Center Film Department is one of the many programs available through the Art Center College of Design located in Pasadena, California. Class sizes for the program are kept small in order to foster mentoring relationships between faculty and students, and to ensure students receive individual attention. The Film Program already had a presence on the current Art Center web site, but staff and faculty felt the program could be making more impact on the Internet with its own site.

When they approached Hop Studios with the idea of creating an independent site for the Film Department it was important to note it was intended to supplement the program presence on the Art Center’s web site, retaining the style of the Art Center identity, but using web technologies to build something more interactive, fun, and exciting. They needed something of their own to showcase and promote the program’s strengths and features, as well as to target an audience of students past, present and future.

The design has a unique look of its own and features a Flash animation in the right sidebar created from photographs taken of students and faculty of the film program.The new site is built in ExpressionEngine because staff needed a tool they could use to maintain the site without being web experts. There is both an easily updateable news section and a showcase section to highlight and feature student work.

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

Hot Dog Day at Hop Studios

July 8, 2008

This is our second Hot Dog Day so far this year.

Sausages on the Grill

Each one is better than the one before.

Posted by Travis Smith at 4:02 PM | Comments (0)

The Candy Blog: Now with Forums

July 8, 2008

Cybele May, the creative mind behind typetive.com and the popular (and very yummy) Candy Blog, recently contacted us about adding a forum to her Candy Blog site. Cybele hoped the addition of a forum would increase traffic to the site, improve general communication from and between readers, as well as contribute to fostering the community’s growth.

Candy Blog Forums logo

The Candy Blog is a very popular blog with a few thousand drive-by visitors per a day, and a smaller but very vibrant community of avid readers that communicate through the comments on the blog. Cybele wanted to take things one step further and give visitors a place to interact, get to know one another and share information about CANDY! There were two ways to do it - incrementally by doing a small amount of customization now, or by building all at once and starting with a big finished online space for users to play in. We suggested the latter. But because this was something new for Cybele and she wasn’t sure how well it would be received by the audience she chose the former.

So she started out by modifying an existing ExpressionEngine template instead of doing a full unique forum design, and Hop Studios has done minimal integration of forum posts and topics with the rest of her blog. This kept costs down but still provided the basics for her ardent readers.

The forum has been live for about two weeks now and already there is a total of 234 registered users and 169 posts. I’d say that’s a good sign the forum has been well-received!  Some of that interest is coming from the contest the Candy Blog is running:  a contest where people can win “an exceptional package of summer-safe candies shipped right to your door” just by registering. Please see the Summer Candy Giveaway for further details.

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 1:51 PM | Comments (10)

Leaving Las Vegas in a Camper Van

July 3, 2008

Leaving Las Vegas Camper Vans logo Ginger and Doug Bellamy met on the road while they were both visiting Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in 2002.  Their mutual love of travel eventually led the couple to marriage, and then onto starting their own company based around the all-American road trip.

Leaving Las Vegas Camper Vans is a brand new company with a brand new website designed and implemented by Hop Studios. Over the three-week timeline for the project, we assisted with selecting an appropriate domain name, setting up hosting, installing ExpressionEngine, and creating a fun design. Colour was an important feature of the design because we wanted to convey the vibrancy of Vegas and of travel. The banner features an altered version of the famous Las Vegas welcome sign with the company name inserted, and adds a spark of fun throughout the site. We installed ExpressionEngine to manage the van reservation system, and integrated a Google map featuring points of interest recommended by the company.

If you are looking for travel ideas for the summer, why not contact Leaving Las Vegas Camper Vans and have yourself a fun road trip. smile

Posted by Rachael Ashe at 12:18 PM | Comments (2)