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Ink Bleeds II: The Art of the Screenprint

11/3/2009

Ink Bleeds is back. It's is an exhibition sponsored by the Art Academy and AIGA Cincinnati featuring some of the coolest designers and printmaking studios on the scene. Intrinzic's very own Designer and Resident Illustrator Rob Warnick and Associate Creative Director Keith Neltner are co-curators of the event, and will be showing their own visual musings in rock n' roll. You may have seen some of their work, regularly featured in the popular music culture blogs like www.omgposters.com and www.gigposters.com. Just another way they stay connected to what's happening in the artistic community.

We're encouraging our colleagues in the ad community to check out this much anticipated follow-up to the 2007 show, Ink Bleeds: Prints on Modern Rock. See how Rob's playful explorations in optimism mesh with the textured, handmade, always-provocative and often-macabre ruminations of the mind of Keith Neltner. Can they top the whimsically morbid Cake poster that depicts a happy-go-lucky songbird frying up his own eggs? We suspect a Halloween-crazed chicken wearing a pig's face as a mask may give it a run for its money.

After the show, the melodic strains of the Kentucky Struts (featuring Intrinzic's most musical Art Director Todd Lipscomb) will funk with your eardrums. The Struts play around the corner at Below Zero Lounge, located at 1122 Walnut St.

Ink Bleeds II: The Art of the Screenprint Gallery Opening
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:00 PM
Art Academy of Cincinnati
1212 East Jackson St
Cincinnati, OH 45202

Renowned poster artist Jay Ryan from Chicago-based The Bird Machine print studio will also be featured as a guest speaker on Thursday night, November 19. If you can't make the opening weekend festivities, the gallery runs through December 18, 2009. Don't miss it.

Build a Better Web Site

10/6/2009

In today's fast-paced, information driven society, your customers, vendors, partners and candidates increasingly expect you to have a web site and you are at a significant competitive disadvantage if you don't!

But merely having a web site is not enough to maximize your investment. For a web site to achieve maximum effectiveness and generate maximum ROI, you need to define the "sweet spot" of your site, which is intersection where your visitors get what they want, while at the same time doing what you want. Depending on your audience and your business, this can be a daunting task, you have to think holistically and address many disparate but complimentary issues that span disciplines such as site design and aesthetics, usability, content, functionality and searchability.

The following is an excerpt of a 9/24/09 presentation made by Dave Hatter, Libertas Technologies, and Julie Lange, of Intrinzic. The presentation was designed to help marketers maximize the power in their digital communication.

The following best practices will help you work towards a site that has a large "sweet spot" that produces results for your business:

1. Understand your audience: If you don't understand the site audience, it will very difficult to give them what they want and consequently, you'll be unlikely to measure your return on investment! Design your site from the audience perspective and ensure that they can get what they want as quickly and easily as possible.
2. Usability is king: Simple, intuitive web sites are the most effective and generate the most traffic. For example, Google, E-Bay and Amazon are not beautiful works of art, but they are simple, intuitive and quick, which is why they have staying power. Think about how you use the web, if a site is difficult to use, how much time will you spend there? Studies show that you only have a few seconds to capture a visitor's attention, and simplicity, consistency, and copy written in the visitor's language are essential in that endeavor.
3. Quality content is critical: Site content (copy, pictures, etc.) is critical on two fronts, it not only explains your value proposition, when done correctly, it compels action, driving visitors to the "sweet spot". Copy should be concise, informative and well-written so that visitors can quickly determine if your products or services meet their needs. Most importantly, copy should be written in the language of the visitor and should have keywords and phrases embedded to ensure the best search engine rankings.
4. Form and function working together. Your site should be professional, aesthetically pleasing, and simple to use. But be certain that your digital presence also reflects your brand, as well as your benefit to your target. To reiterate the usability bullet above, your site doesn't need to be a work of art. Usability is every bit as important to your communication objectives, if not more so. Bottom-line, you should make certain your site works as hard as it can, by offering a high degree of usability as you maintain your branding.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Increasingly, people rely on search engines to find information, so good search engine placement can make or break your site. Organic SEO will get your site included in search engines and will also dictate your search result rankings based on on-site factors. However, search engines change their ranking algorithms regularly, requiring you to evaluate and tweak your site regularly for optimal results. Some simple key focus areas include: copy that contains keywords and phrases customers would use when searching, META tags that contain keywords and phrases, a and < TITLE > tag in each page that uses keywords. To determine the right keywords and phrases for your industry, consult a keyword tool like Google AdWords and/or review competitor's sites. Links from legitimate external sites (customers, vendors, etc) will help too; "link popularity" is a key ranking criterion under the theory that legitimate site would only link to your site if it provides value. You can also do paid search, also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC), where you bid for keywords, ensuring your site is listed before organic only sites in search results.
6. Analyze traffic and usage patterns: To generate the best ROI, you'll need web analytics software like WebTrends or Google Analytics to analyze visitor's behavior. These tools help you determine which pages are the most and least popular, how well your navigation works, how many visitors "deep linked" (followed a link from a search engine to a specific page), when you get the most traffic, how people find your site, how long people stay on the site, peak traffic by day, etc. Analytics tools will help you discern patterns and find areas of the site that don't work well and are essential for evaluating and improving your site over time.

When your site is designed with the "sweet spot" in mind, it will become a powerful tool to help you achieve your business objectives and maximize your return on investment. But you can't rest on your laurels, to achieve the best results over time, constant analysis of search and usage patterns along with adjustments to the site are required.

For additional information or a complete draft of the presentation, contact Dave Hatter or Julie Lange.

Intrinzic wins St. Elizabeth Healthcare website.

06/26/2009

Intrinzic has been named the interactive partner for St. Elizabeth Healthcare to develop a new website that represents the newly merged health system formed by St. Elizabeth Medical Center and the St. Luke Hospitals.

Intrinzic was selected from more than seven agencies, based largely on their combination of technical expertise and strong creative sensibility. Alex Rodriguez, Vice President and CIO of St. Elizabeth Healthcare comments, “We believe Intrinzic’s team will really bring our new brand to life and present St. Elizabeth’s vast services and capabilities to a diverse group of target users.” Another influential factor in awarding the business to Intrinzic was their strategic insight and ability to partner with St. Elizabeth Healthcare to help define the details of the engagement.

According to Sandra Sims, Director of Public Relations and Marketing Communications, “This is an organization-wide initiative for St. Elizabeth. Our website is a tremendous opportunity to communicate our new brand. We have formed a great relationship with Intrinzic, and we are confident they will be an invaluable partner for us as we begin working to redefine ourselves in the market.”

Intrinzic will partner with Libertas Technologies, who will provide back-end development and systems integration services. Dave Hatter, President of Libertas, welcomes the challenge of a website of this scope, “We’re looking forward to helping to support the digital strategy for St. Elizabeth Healthcare.”

Wendy Vonderhaar, President of Intrinzic, gives shape to her team’s enthusiasm about the new partnership, “Working with St. Elizabeth is a natural fit for us. We’ve always rallied around opportunities to make a positive difference in the community. This win just underscores our agency’s mission, which is to be better every day, to position our clients for success.”

…For our children.

04/30/2009

One of the most obvious expressions of our mantra of being better every day is the pro bono work we deliver for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati. When you step into one of their clubs, it’s hard not be inspired. These kids are natural muses. Our work simply reflects this inspiration.

We’re pleased that their national organization has noticed what we’ve been up to. Their Marketing and Communication Awards committee announced that the Greater Cincinnati Club’s 2008 campaign earned a gold in the publications category. But we’re even more stoked that our collective efforts are helping the kids in our communities who don’t get help with their homework, who lack hot meals at home, and who desperately need a positive role model in their lives. That feels pretty good.

We recently got to work on the ’09 efforts, which include a new website that goes live soon. We shot at several Club locations with Roman Titus, who was gracious enough to donate his time and talent to the cause. We captured some B-roll while we were at it.

Chaos Theory

02/05/2009

Chaos theory describes exponential growth or change due to a comparatively minor condition. When a butterfly beats its wings in the Amazon, it creates a small change in the atmosphere that ultimately causes a storm in Texas. Deterministic chaos means that future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements.

Chaos Theory, or The Butterfly Effect, visualize - minus Ashton Kutcher

Intrinzic is on the brink of deterministic chaos.

Our initial conditions are the solid foundation that has been built over the past decade. Today, we‘re just hitting the teenage years. And crazy stuff is about to jump off. There’s an energy here that‘s palpable. You can see the excitement. It looks something like Leroy‘s glow in The Last Dragon. It’s a force you can’t contain - you can only channel it.

“You are the last dragon. You possess the power of the glow.”

From the Intrinzic veterans to the newly acquired talent that‘s well-known around town, Jeff Chambers, Keith Neltner, Todd Lipscomb to name a few, we have a team that‘s doing great things. And we‘re just getting started. Look out for what‘s to come from Intrinzic. We‘ll even share some stories here.