Monthly archives:April 2013

  • mediabox.com is for sale

  • After many years of holding onto this great domain name, we are selling it!  We are hoping to capitalize in years of having used this valuable URL and we are asking readers and friends to please let anyone they think might be interested to know about the sale. A bit of a six degrees of separation if you will, from those who would really want to capitalize by buying this domain name ¬ We are doi[...]
  • Responsive email design

  • According to a study of over 250 million opens worldwide by email analytics providers Litmus, 47% of emails are now opened on mobile devices. It’s only natural then that users expect email to evolve and accommodate their needs when interacting with smaller screens and touch interfaces, just as websites have with responsive designs ¬ Developers and designers have already begun forging the p[...]
  • Art is the mind; design is the brain

  •   My thesis is that the vast majority of non-designers don’t actually understand what a designer’s real role is. This often translates into frustration for both non-designers and designers alike, and has a negative impact on the outcome of any design project ¬ In order to understand a designer’s role, we need to know that design and art are not the same and sometimes, are not [...]
  • Cross Linking is On

  • Cross Linking, also called Reciprocal Linking, refers to the process of linking between two sites ¬ This is a good SEO* practice, often done for the purpose of increasing the sites’ popularity with search engines. Following links is a way in which search engines find and crawl web sites to index their information. In other words, this activity helps open doors to search engines, and helps [...]
  • You know too much

  • At MediaBox, every project starts with a design brief which helps us set a direction and understand the objectives for each job. In these briefs, we include information such as the project’s intended target audience ¬ Because it is easy to forget that typically we are not the target audience for our projects, in this post I want to highlight the value of forgetting preconceptions when anal[...]
  • Defining good design

  • How does one define "good design"? There are many ways to separate good from bad design. Although some people will say it's all rather subjective -really, it isn't ¬ Design can be analyzed and evaluated; in fact it should be. Good design can be recognized by  applying some simple rules- rules that are not difficult to learn and which you will come to appreciate when you are next evaluating[...]
  • I want your feedback, please

  • The “.ca” after MediaBox is a new address for us, and it comes with a new Web site. While the portfolio section will continue to be populated with many of the hundreds of jobs we have completed over the years, and this blog will be filled with interesting posts overtime (I hope), I need your feedback to “get it right” for you, our client ¬ Here’s my dilemma – and please – don’t stop me[...]
  • DLSC Dashboard App.

  • The first review has come in and the Drake Landing Solar Community app. gets five stars out of five! One single review does not make that much difference, we know, but having a user — ultimately our true client — give us a thumbs up, is always very rewarding ¬ We welcome awards; strive to satisfy all our clients’ wishes... but ultimately the proof of a job well done is when the end user[...]
  • DLSC Dashboard app.

  • The Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) app. grew out of another MediaBox innovation, designed and produced originally for DLSC's Website ¬ At DLSC, a community of 52 houses in Alberta, Canada, solar energy provides much of their heating needs. Sensors monitor activities that range from current climate to the functioning of water pumps, through to the amount of sunlight energy stored for [...]
  • Artists Wanted Poster

  • Posters have been described as "a scream on a wall".  It is hard to accomplished that level of impact when you also have to deliver a great deal of information. However, with a careful consideration of information groupings and bold use of colour and illustration, the result is a poster that both delivers on the details and also makes “a yell of a splash” ¬ Part of a series of communicatio[...]
  • Industry Canada

  • The design constraints for the development of Industry Canada's corporate display system products, were challenging, but the solution we developed was pleasingly elegant as well as functional ¬ It was required that the imagery conform to an established common look (“three rounded corner squares”), be sufficiently flexible that the same identity could be applied from one display system to a[...]
  • Founddesign Web

  • Founddesign is a furniture store in Ottawa, carrying original mid-century modern furniture, objects & art, which carry items from manufacturers such as Knoll and Herman Miller, and designers ranging from Charles & Ray Eames to George Nelson and Arne Jacobsen ¬ The Web site, shown here in it's second iteration, was designed to reflect the style of the items they sell and the information Fou[...]