Meetup.com is an extremely powerful resource for people in all industries looking to collaborate on a wide variety of topics in a relaxed meeting setting (the groups often get together monthly or bi-weekly).

Skybox Creative recently attended a Meetup for Refresh SD, a group that includes web developers, internet marketers, techies, etc.. The topic: discussing client management and client requests – yes, a complicated matter. This topic often comes up in the web design and branding industry, because it is important to clearly define project scope and rounds of changes before starting a project that has been estimated out.

A few good tips and resources:

• Give clients a questionnaire prior to starting a project (Skybox uses a Branding Analysis Questionnaire, which discusses demographics, target market, competition, look & feel – and more!)

• Project Management tools can be key to balancing work flow – Action Method is a good one, VUE is a good way to describe logic or the development of a back end system

• OfficeTime is a great tool for tracking hours

• Clearly define client deliverables (copy, photos, feedback)

Skybox Creative, an award-winning San Diego web design firm, was recently listed on Connectory, a nationwide, web-based buyer-supplier network that was started locally in El Cajon. The network links U.S. businesses together and also includes profiles of other critical assets in addition to companies including federal labs, university and private research centers.

Although the profile you have to fill out is rather extensive to become part of the Connectory, the potential for acquiring business is worth taking the time. Some of the key points of the service include:

• A unique way to connect with companies and other assets by understanding their capabilities

• Powerful means for government, large company, and institutional buyers to identify sources of products, services, technologies, capabilities, and capacities

• Detailed capabilities and capacities for companies at every level of the supply chain

• Focus on manufacturing/technology companies and their supplier chain including wholesalers/logistics, technical services, construction, agribusiness, and mining

• Showcase for tens of thousands of US companies at NO COST to them

• Geocoding and interactive mapping feature for locating assets/resources

• Internet speed/powerful search engine combined with in-depth company database

• Commitment to usability, coverage, quality, and continual updating distinguishes it from any other available database

• IT platform on which Communities of Interest (COI) can segment the Connectory database within Portals, specified by geography, industry, or other COI criteria

Check it out here!

Check out how large and small companies are reinventing their brand image at http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/

This site is a great resource for learning about what some of the corporate mega companies are doing to modernize, elevate and sustain branding supremacy.

To find out more about building a brand for your company, contact info@skyboxcreative.com or call 619.381.3825

Skybox Creative is an award-winning web design and branding firm in San Diego. Specializing in all things graphic design, Skybox works hand-in-hand with companies to create lasting, clean and distinctive imagery for your company in the medium of web, print, email, trade show + more.

When creating a new website, a key item to keep in mind while organizing your brilliant brainstorms is a sitemap. That illustrious tool – the sitemap – is a representation of the architecture of a website (according to Wikipedia). It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a website, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.

Sitemaps are especially useful in planning your site. By formulating what each page should be and what should link to where, you’ll be able to streamline some of the web design process. Just like starting a business, starting a site (most definitely if it’s sales driven) requires a detailed business plan so that it can start working for you!

But even if you are just creating your own blog, you’ll want to figure in a sitemap. (Do you want a photo gallery, archives, links to related/sites?) After all, a blog or personal website is a reflection of yourself.

Don’t miss out on the big sale or lose your dream clientele because you didn’t strategize your sitemap.

View some modern sitemaps: http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/modern-sitemap-and-footer/

Contact Skybox Creative if you have your sitemap in hand and want to create with us. (619.381.3825)

Google is usually really great about launching something exciting.  Wow Рthey had people excited with chrome.  A comic book release and some gorilla marketing never did so well for a company as it did for Google Chrome.

Then they dropped the ball.  Google has this incredible arsenal of tools that they give out to the masses for free.  They include, but are not limited to:

Custom buttons
Send To
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
Enhanced Search BoxGoogle
Safe Browsing
Google Safe Browsing
AutoFill
WordTranslator
Auto Update
Bookmarks
Google Account Sign-in
Subscribe to Feed
Send with Gmail
Custom Layouts
AutoLink
SpellCheck
PageRank Display
Highlight Search Terms
Word Find Buttons

And how accessible are they in the new Google Chrome browser?¬† Well… they aren’t there.¬† As a matter of fact, there isn’t even a toolbar.¬† Well, I am sure the browser is totally awesome and has lots of great features just ready to emerge when the open source community gets going on it.

Well Google – I could have been using your browser to write a nice blog about you today, but alas, I am let down.

The Styx, for the time being

The Styx

For the time being, until a name is rightfully given to our office mascot, he shall be known as The Styx.

At our 2 year anniversary party/networking mixer event you will have an opportunity to give this little guy a name.  For a small donation you will be able to suggest a name, which will be chosen at random the following day, and posted here.  The more you donate, the more likely you are to have your suggested name pulled.

He may be ugly now, but just wait till he looks like his Daddy-O Howard

If you donate $1, there is one chance… $100 gives you 100 chances.¬† All donations will be given to WWF in the name of Skybox Creative and the naming winner.

This is your chance to support a great cause and become a permanent member of the Skybox office!

What else can I want about here?  Oh, yes, how about a nice little backlink to the breeder.  Screameleons is the place to go to learn about and eventually buy a chameleon.  They have many various chameleons available, and you can find out more about them if you visit.

Sunny San Diego, located in Southern California is the home of the hottest design firm Рever. The proof is in the pudding.  In order to understand the greatness of the hottest firm in the area, one must understand РWhat is California?

Aside from being the land of some of the most interesting people outside of West Virgina – California is known as being as hot as an oven.¬† Don’t believe me?¬† Where do you think the origin of the name came from smarty pants?¬† Well, before I give you the goods, I must first spew some propaganda.

Skybox Creative is not only the hottest design firm, but now, with the hottest SEO firm in California, if not the world.¬† Sure, we have clients from all over the North America.¬† Sure we have put out the craziest designs in the history of crazy… but mostly we are the hottest firm because we happen to have the sexiest lizard of all time!

Father of The Styx

Actually, he is only on order right now, and we are going to need a name for him – so if you are coming to the 2 year anniversary party/mixer on Sept. 24th – You will have an opportunity to name it for the low donation of $1 per shot, which will be donated to the WWF (not wrestling!) Learn more about the Madagascar Outreach.

The Nosy Be Chameleon is from Madagascar; this is the only place in the world where panther chameleons are found in the wild.  It is also home to other animals that are not found anywhere else.  The problem is that the forest is being burned down at an alarming rate.  The only way to protect an area now is to discover a new species in the area to be protected.

Anyways, I digress.¬† Now that you have suffered through my babble – I will give you what you came here to learn…¬† What is the meaning of California.¬† According to Wikipedia:

Some suggest that the word California may signify that a place is “hot as an oven” (cali > hot, fornia > oven). It may be derived from calor de forn, Catalan for hot furnace, expression attributed to the explorer Gaspar de Portol√†, or it may come from calida fornax, Latin for hot furnace.

Another possible source may be kali forno, an indigenous phrase meaning “high mountains”. There is no agreement among scholars.

A theory that directly links the name California to a Vedic myth has also been suggested. In Hindu mythology, the sage Kapila is said to have burnt King Sagar’s 60,000 sons to the ground on being accused of abducting their horse. This incident is said to have taken place at “Kapilaaranya” – derived from Kapila Aranya or Kapila’s Forest. The link between the Paatala-loka (literally underworld) which is where the horse allegedly ran off to and the situation of America on the earth directly opposite to India, or in other words “beneath” it, has been noted by proponents of this derivation of “California”. The existence of an Ash Mountain Park in California and a Horse Island in Alaska seem to consolidate this possibility, although few authorities have voiced any opinions regarding the Kapilaaranya/California mystery.
Hope this helps your next game of Trivia with the fam!