Feb 01, 2012 by Derek Balmer
A couple months ago we met up with our good friend, Zach Wear, from Revert Photo. Zach and his wife, Michelle, are really talented photographers and starting to incorporate video into their services. After a few pints we thought it would be fun to make a short video for Hold Fast Creative to show a bit of who we are and how we work.
The end result is now live on our about page and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. This final cut, however, is a big departure from our initial, brew-influenced, concept of the “Digital Lumberjack”. The basic metaphor was we were honest, hard working guys that tackled big problems by chipping away at small tasks. Our studio also resembles a cabin, so there’s that too.
The lumberjack idea didn’t quite pan out but we ended up getting some pretty silly video and it was fun to spend a day in the hills. Here’s a rough cut from the original concept.
Oct 20, 2011 by Derek Balmer
For the past several months Dan and I have been completely immersed in one rather large project. We’ve partnered up with a fellow Colorado company by the name of Zometool to redesign their existing corporate website and develop a custom application that will allow their International customer base to collaborate and interact in a new and exciting way. Zometool is an interesting company with some seriously passionate, fun and savvy folks behind the wheel. Their flagship product, Zometool, is a collection of specialized struts and nodes that can be used to model, well, the Universe. Yeah, that Universe.
Obviously, their product is a unique one; but it’s also difficult to market appropriately because their user base is so vast. It’s literally a “K–PHD” group of people ranging from young children to professional chemists, mathematicians, educators and researchers. It’s a toy, a tool, a culture, an obsession – it’s Zometool. We can’t share too much of what we’re working on right now since it’s still in development but here are a few squished page templates of what’s to come.
Oct 20, 2011 by Derek Balmer
Recently we got to team up with the smart folks at RoundPegg to create some custom icons for their Human Resources software applications. RoundPegg has developed an interesting suite of products to help companies hire employees that will best fit within their own unique culture. Or, as they put it, “Scientifically Ensure Every Employee You Hire, Develop, and Engage Fits Your Culture”.
Generally, when I hear words like “human resources” or “corporate culture” I immediately have flashbacks of cubicles and emotionless HR personnel with an affinity towards Comic Sans and fuzzy sweaters. I think it’s safe to assume I’m not the only one who feels this way. What’s really cool about RoundPegg, as a brand, is their understanding of people and culture. They use friendly, human elements throughout their site and really focus on keeping things fun and inviting. The awesome video on their homepage is a great example of this. When you go through their site or use their products nothing really feels like “work” it’s just friendly and engaging. Which is precisely the experience you hope to deliver for someone that’s filling out an online company culture survey.
Part of their process is assessing which style best fits a person across three unique segments: culture, personality and communication. RoundPegg developed a clever system to communicate this visually through branded icons that could be used individually or in a group to create a custom badge that would easily identify a users culture, personality and communication style. Culture types are designated with various types of headwear. Personality is displayed through unique shirts and outerwear, and communication is defined by eyewear. All together there are 14 unique icons to represent a users own culture, personality and communication styles.
This was a really fun project and we’re really excited to see these icons in production when RoundPegg launches their redesign later this fall.
Sep 11, 2011 by Derek Balmer
I always get excited when it’s time to design a fresh run of business cards. This last go around we paired up with our favorite letterpress/design ninja, Jason Wedekind of Genghis Kern, and decided to try something a little different from our previous cards. We talked through a few ideas and ended up going with a duplexed Lettra with a blind HFC logo on the back, 1 color impression on the front and a PMS 021 painting along the edges. As usual Jason knocked it out and we couldn’t be happier with the end result!
Apr 13, 2011 by Derek Balmer
The other day Andy Clarke introduced a new “tiny screen first” boilerplate extension which contains four CSS3 Media Query increments: 480, 768, 992 and 1382px and can be used as an extension to HTML5 boilerplate or as a stand alone kit. I generally avoid packaged HTML/CSS frameworks and roll with my own project files. I do this for two simple reasons: I have my own style for building websites and prefer to work within my own conventions, and I like keeping things lean as can be. That being said this 320 and up extension looks really interesting and feels like a great tool for “responsible” responsive design, as Andy calls it.
What’s really cool about this extension is it’s built for the mobile first design process and prevents mobile devices from downloading desktop assets by using a tiny screen’s stylesheet as its starting point. More on 320 and up at Stuff and Nonsense and the project page.