The Imagination Factory

News: Inspiration or Desperation?

October 15th, 2016 by Ted Bailey

time for changeChange happens for usually one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.

Clients wanting to have us design that first website are generally inspired, sometimes desperate to finally get online. Re-designing an existing site is often an act of desperation over a failed site or sometimes is inspired by positive changes in the clients’ business.

BTW, we look at a bad website not necessarily as a failure, just an educational experience that might not have turned out so well.
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News: What’s the ACA Have to Do with Your Website?

October 1st, 2016 by Ted Bailey

ACASo you’ve probably heard of the ACA (Affordable Care Act), right? What about Section 1557 regulations and how it could affect your website?

Who knows that the deadline to have the required non-discrimination taglines, statements and notices (in the top 15 languages unique to YOUR state) posted in your office, on your primary marketing materials AND your website was October 16th, 2016?
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Tradeshows: Brides and Tattoos

September 30th, 2016 by Ted Bailey

Print DesignOne of our clients, CTMAX, has been expanding their practice to include non-invasive cosmetics. After much research, CTMAX acquired a highly specific (pico-second) laser for reducing blemishes, scars and spots in a shorter time with less pain. They also discovered that the same device excelled at also removing tattoos with the same benefits.

As a result, they have found themselves taking booth space at bridal shows and tattoo conventions such as Tommy’s with the need for various tradeshow and promotional item materials.

Naturally they called on their long-time designer, IFI (since ’95). We rose to the challenge by designing/producing these large scale posters and banners for their shows along with promotional items including engraved bottle openers, can koozies, etc.


News: Threemendous

September 20th, 2016 by Ted Bailey

power of threeToday’s news update is brought to you by the number three. We hear many times that a whole lot of ‘things’ come in three’s.

Celebrities seem to die in three’s

Religion has the Father, Son, & Holy Ghost
 
In writing, things that come in three are funnier, more satisfying, more effective.

  • Three Little Pigs,
  • Three Musketeers
  • Friends, Romans, Countrymen

And a few of you may even remember, the cold war slogan Duck, Cover and Roll.
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Site Launch: Andy Mast Greenhouses

September 19th, 2016 by Ted Bailey

Andy Mast Greenhouses grow a wide range of high-quality bulbs, spring plants, mums and poinsettias to help homeowners beautify their homes and gardens year-round. Not available directly to the consumer, the product of their tender loving care can be found in Kroger supermarkets throughout the United States.

That said, when thinking about developing their first online presence, they wanted to serve two distinct audiences – their retailers as well as the consumers – both with different reasons for visiting their site. The retailers want merchandising assistance while the end user can benefit from care and feeding information.

Andy Mast came to the Imagination Factory for a creative online way to meet the needs of both groups PLUS allow their staff to tell a climate-conscious planet their ‘green’ story. We designed an easily managed site w/ a searchable and categorized seasonal product catalog and blog categories of direct interest to both groups.


Site Launch: Groom Team USA

September 1st, 2016 by Ted Bailey

GroomTeam USA, Inc. is a non-profit organization which encourages professional pet stylists in the United States to maximize their grooming education and skills, and offers them the opportunity to represent the U.S. at World Team Competitions.

Many of the stylists in GroomTeam are members of the award-winning, Learn to Groom Dogs site, which IFI launched a little over a year ago. The team knew that we could make a site that would tell their story and inform their followers about the team, their events and ways the public could help.


Site Update: Meyer Music

August 29th, 2016 by Ted Bailey

IFIblog_MMI_smMeyer Music first came to the Imagination Factory back in 2005 to have their first web site built. Over the years there were variety of changes and enhancements to benefit their customers, but mobile technology accelerated and in 2014 it was ready for a substantial overhaul to make it more mobile responsive and set the foundation for future enhancements.

Meyer Music has completed revamped its internal operations and has added another physical location, so this site update integrates the public facing web site to a secure portal where Meyer Music clients may not only rent musical instruments (as with the old site), but also access their account balances and pay online. While the site aesthetics haven’t changed a great deal, there is more horsepower underneath the hood.

This latest update meant not only getting the various computers to play together nicely and securely, but to make the aesthetics match as closely as possible across different computers, operating systems and applications.

Come visit the NEW Meyer Music site, today.


Site Redesign: Kawasaki Precision Machinery

August 22nd, 2016 by Ted Bailey

IFIblog_KPM2_smKawasaki is a leading manufacturer of hydraulic systems and components. Kawasaki’s technological leadership and customer-centered philosophy is well-known around the world.

Originally designed back in late 2009/2010, the KPM-USA site had served this client well, BUT was showing its age a bit. Built before tablets & smartphones became a predominate method for surfing the web, this site needed both a facelift and some structural changes to make it more mobile responsive as well as reflect Kawasaki’s industry leadership. Besides mobile-responsiveness, the new site adds an interactive distributor locator for North & Central America as well as a private distributor only area.

To see the new look and capabilities, visit the NEW Kawasaki USA site.


Site Launch: Cutting Horse Training Online

August 9th, 2016 by Ted Bailey

IFIblog_CHTO_smSimilar to a previous client, Simone & Duncan, owners of Cutting Horse Training Online (CHTO) out of Texas had built a successful online video education program that was functional but had outstripped the underlying design and technology of their current partners.

Having seen the transformation the Imagination Factory for the other client, they asked what was possible. CHTO had a few more things happening in their site, so once again we spent a lot of time investigating their specific needs, researching current technology they were using, and especially discussing the shortfalls of the current site – for both the owners and the users.

The result is a subscription-based, members-only, ecommerce, mobile-responsive site with hundreds of streaming videos & podcasts from multiple sources and by numerous training partners and grooming experts from around the world. Additionally, this site also needed to tie into third-parties InfusionSoft & Click Funnel for extensive email marketing campaigns, Dartfish for private video critiques, and SoundCloud for Podcast streaming. The site allows members to search and view streaming categorized videos on their desktop, tablet or even smartphone. In addition to basic ecommerce for books, DVDs and apparel, the site also needed to support an event calendar/ticketing system for clinics and workshops. Members may subscribe monthly, quarterly or annually to one of three different membership levels via several payment gateways to gain access to videos that are searchable by category, by training partner, by title.

This one raised the bar, yet again, on the built-in functions and capabilities that we’ve been asked to design into a site!

Mosey on over to the NEW CHTO site.



The Imagination Factory • 15 Ionia Ave. SW, Suite 220 • Grand Rapids, MI 49503 • phone: 616.356.CLIK (2545) • fax: 616.356.2546 • email: Contact Us Online

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