The event was hosted at the University of Washington and was attended by around 300 people. There were 14 speakers, each a specialist in their field ranging from best SEO practices, to creating a great website theme, to proper coding techniques.  It isn’t every day you get to meet one of the actual WordPress developers (who flew in from Washington DC) so it was a real treat that he was giving a lecture on best coding practices.

Trina Packard, Skyla Grimes, Kailey Lampert, and Brad Doss split up to attend the following lectures:

• Tools for Tummeling
• Using AJAX in Plugins and Themes
• Making Custom Theme Options Easy
• Writing Better Plugins for a Better Web
• Theming for the Masses
• WordPress SEO
• Best Practices for Plugin Development

WordCamp was also well documented on Twitter using the #wcsea hashtag.  That is one great thing about a room of 300 “geeks” – using social media to communicate, coordinate, and share information!

With the WordPress platform, 9 Cranes Inn hosts will be able to:

• Manage their entire website with a single login.
• Find everything easily with the very friendly WordPress user interface.
• Make quality blog posts with the #1 blogging platform on the web.
• Add, modify and delete pages, text, blog posts, images, galleries & albums.
• Enjoy easy Search Engine Optimization control.
• Access stock images and custom WordPress photos, recipes & specials plug-ins.

Congratulations to Shelley and Mike on the launch of your new website, and for running such a charming Bed and Breakfast in Seattle, WA!
Visit 9 Cranes Inn

The team behind the Driftless website and tourism is a collaboration of folks representing Kickapoo Valley, Crawford county and Vernon county; Pete Knapik from the Inn at Lonesome Hollow in Soldiers Grove, Marie Cimino from the Westby House Bed and Breakfast in Westby, Eric Frydenlund from the Crawford County Tourism Council, and David Boyer from the Kickapoo Valley Association. Pete and Marie had enjoyed their experiences with the Wisconsin bed and breakfast association site we designed, and asked if we couldn’t make something similar for their unique and beautiful area of the state.

The site contains an abundance of information about the area. Users can read about the unique geography and the history of Driftless Wisconsin.  Explore the farmlands and vineyards as well as quaint, friendly towns and Amish communities. There are numerous attractions and things to do in the area: find the best places to go fishing, hiking, or camping. See the historical sights and landmarks, take a tour of the Amish and farming communities, or check out the Suggested Itineraries to plan a day trip.

Browse the Business Directory to find various businesses, places to shop, find lodging, restaurants, and services offered. Take a look at the Events Calender to see what’s happening in Driftless during your stay, or to get an idea for the ideal time to visit. And be sure to revisit the blog to keep up with the latest news and information!

We welcome you to experience Driftless Wisconsin.

New rack card design for The Croff House in Hudson, NY.

The Croff House is a Victorian home with a beautiful and comfortable updated decor. Owners Duncan Calhoun and Russell Gibson worked with InsideOut to create a great web site that captures the contemporary feel of the inn and showcases its luxurious amenities. With the web site completed, it was time to create a print piece that could do the same job in a much smaller space. Again, they turned to InsideOut — this time, for the design of their 4″ x 9″ rack card.

Strong branding with matching marketing pieces:
Print designer Jennifer Lozada transferred the logo, colors, fonts and layout of the web site to the much smaller 4″ x 9″ print format. Rather than cramming the space with text, she let the photos do most of the talking. Open spaces (“white space”) in the layout draw the eye to the most important information. White space is key if you want to convey elegance and sophistication. Even with the “blank” space, text and photos, there was still room for a helpful locator map. Good feedback from the owners helped refine the map, text and photo selections.

The result: The web site and rack card are a match, conveying a consistent message. The owners decided on a quantity of 5,000 cards. InsideOut managed the printing to ensure quality, affordable cost and speed of delivery.

“It’s perfect!!!!” – Duncan

“The rack card looks great.” – Russ

Rack card and business card designs for Garden House, Key West, FL

Catering to the Key West crowd
Key West is a favorite spring break destination and Garden House has just the right vibe for this fun-loving crowd. Garden House owners John and Connie Manasco worked with InsideOut to create a great website that’s fun and easy-to-use. Next, they needed print pieces for visitors to pick up and keep. They turned to InsideOut to design a rack card and business card that matched their site.

For the rack card, the 4″ x 9″ size was the perfect choice since it fits both standard display racks and no. 10 envelopes. Plus there’s just enough real estate for useful information and photos while still fitting easily into a purse or backback. Using standard sizes for the rack cards and business cards (3.5″ x 2″) also kept print costs much lower than custom dimensions.

Matching the web site for strong branding
With a few adjustments, print designer Jennifer Lozada was able to transfer the horizontal web design to the vertical 4″ x 9″ print format and the small business card size. She kept the tone very casual, using the same sunny beach and ocean colors, cutout photos, fun pattern and handwritten font. Text was kept to a minimum; only the most important information was included. As a result, there was room for a few good photos plus a simple map to help visitors find the inn and to illustrate its convenient central location.

Garden House’s marketing pieces, both online and in print, have the same relaxed party-friendly look. Matching these pieces keeps a consistent picture in prospects’ minds. There’s no jarring difference in quality between the cards and the site.

The result:
John & Connie were happy with the designs and quickly approved them. They selected a quantity of 2500 rack cards and 2500 business cards which gave them an excellent per piece cost on printing. InsideOut oversaw the print management, ensuring high quality printing and fast, no-fuss delivery.

We like to post case studies so that folks get an in-depth take on how we go about the various aspects of new Web site creation. There are many steps involved in the process, and, to quote a great mind here in the office “our work on a website is never truly finished”.

We when design a client’s new Web site there are some key aspects to our design process: A cohesive look must be created throughout the web site and print materials. This is called “branding”.

We like to create a website that will give visitors a feel for the inn before they ever leave their computers. Whether it is a sophisticated Victorian home, a mountainous country ranch or a tropical island paradise, our designs will transport you there.

Another aspect of our design process that is oh so important is our built-in search engine optimization. When we design a website, we make sure that body text, titles and meta tags already contain a structure that will allow for great search engine placement and make it easy for further improvement by our promotion team. We are careful to maintain links to the old site in the newly designed site so that page rank and ever so important link building is not lost.

WARNING: Our designs are known to infiltrate the subconscious, you may be dreaming of your new web site after visiting one of our case studies!

The resort is minutes away from Cape Flattery and Tatoosh Island, the furthest NW Point in the United States. Since so many visitors make the journey to Cape Falltery the resort is sure to see steady business through out the year. We were able to find videos online that past guests had taken and where able to incorporate those into the site. Please visit Hobuck Beach Resorts web site at http://www.hobuckbeachresort.com

We love referrals and Hobuck Beach Resort was referred to us by our good friend and long time client Mike Reichner of Purplehaze Lavender.