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Smalling Studios recently completed a website update for www.gofloridahomes.net while working under contract for Noble Communications.  While the design itself is based off a template, Smalling Studios was able to customize the design by incorporating an external CSS Style Sheet and jQuery scripts. These additions allowed the designer access to formatting and scripts that weren’t previously available in the hosting solution chosen by the client.

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted to my design blog and for good reasons. First, I’ve been working as a teacher for Osceola County teaching all things digital and web. It’s been a fun process teaching the students and a challenge figuring out how to communicate many years of knowledge in small, digestible formats. Along with teaching I’ve also been taking classes at Valencia College to earn my teaching certificate – I’m finishing the last five classes as I type this. Now that summer has arrived it’s time to get caught up in my own business. Most of the projects I’ve done as of lately have been web updates, so unfortunately I don’t have much to share. I did just complete a website for an engineering company under an advertising agency I team with. With all of this said, it’s time to pick up business once again.

Smalling Studios just completed the design of YRA Design’s new website.  YRA design is a high-end residential and commercial architecture firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida.  They’ve won countless awards for their designs and they needed a website to reinforce their abilities to their clients.  The site was designed with iPads in mind, as there is no flash on the site.  Be sure to check out the website: www.yrainc.com

Check out the AiInsite website for an article about crowd sourcing.  I’ve been vocal in the past about crowd sourcing and how it’s changing the creative profession.  I can understand both viewpoints, but I think it really hurts the designer in the end – both those working for the crowd sourcing sites and those trying to run a successful practice.  It teaches our clients that design is nothing more than a commodity that can be bought cheap.  My view of design is that I’m a creative problem solver; here to offer my clients 12 years of professional experience and explore ideas they may not have considered.   Here’s the article.

Smalling Studios recently launched a new website for the College Park Family Practice and Baxley Center for Executive Health.  Both are located in College Park, Florida, just outside of downtown Orlando.  The Baxley Center for Executive Health specializes in complete on-site physical for busy executives and professionals who don’t have the time to go visit the doctor.

Would you believe this isn’t straight out of the camera?  Of course not!   We’ve all seen the power of Photoshop from places like the Dove Evolution Campaign to the Photoshop Disasters blog.  The above image came out much different from the RAW image in the camera (see below).

As you can see the image is a lot flatter, this provides a wider range between the light and dark areas of the photo and allows me to creatively adjust the lighting.  The red light in the foreground was from a red LED street sign, it was flooding the parking lot with a strong red light.  A simple GOBO would have been ideal, but this was a quick shoot between rain showers.  Also, there were several lights out on the building, easily replaced in Photoshop.  Finally, the client requested the drop off to be removed from the image.  So, as you can see, it takes some time and work to make a truly presentable image.

Although I don’t offer wedding photography as a service, I had to share this image I made last week.  My cousin, who recently got married in Athens, Georgia, wanted an image wearing her wedding gown on the beach.  After some begging and pleading I obliged, and this is the outcome.  The moon was at the perfect height and an off camera flash provided the perfect light source.  The veil was held down by two cousins and released as the image was taken.  Something different!

This postcard was designed for Roman Packaging, a company that specializes in creating custom packaging solutions. Normally I don’t show off smaller projects like this, but once I saw the final printed piece I knew I had to share.  It’s an over-sized 9″ x 6″ postcard, with a bright red that grabs the viewer’s attention and demands them to view the piece.  It’s being used as a select mailer to their industry groups, and as a hand out at their trade show appearances.

Last month Marisha and I took a long weekend to Roanoke, Virginia for my cousin’s wedding.  On the way we stopped overnight in Savannah and enjoyed a nice dinner at the Fiddler’s Crab House on Bay Street.

The next morning we took off early in the morning and started the drive towards Roanoke.  The view along the road was gorgeous, especially when we got up into the mountains.  By late afternoon we arrived in Roanoke and found our way to the Hotel Roanoke right in downtown.

Once in Roanoke we got a chance to explore the downtown area.  Marisha and I had a wonderful breakfast at Tudor’s Biscuit World and then we walked through the farmer’s market and enjoyed the architecture in the area.  Of particular interest was the Taubman Museum of Art with it’s contemporary architecture designed by Randall Stout.

If you’d like to see more, please visit my Flickr Page.

Check them out, the new business cards are finished for the studio.  I went all out this time and printed them on a 16pt card stock with a “soft-touch” aqueous coating and rounded the corners.  The next step is starting an email campaign and building the client base.