Wicked Cool Studios

About 2 months ago we decided to renovate our house from the very top shingle to the flooring. New paint inside and out, new kitchen new appliances… THE WORKS!  I am soooooooo freaking happy to say it’s almost over. The last tile and carpet should be laid Monday and then they do the roof and we are done! It’s been a long, hard, tiring and MESSY road, even a water pipe broke and flooded the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom the DAY they new tile was laid. But the results are awesome and well worth it. We will be posting pics soon, but the point is to say that we will be returning to our normal hours as of Monday, we can’t wait, when we started this we had NO idea how disruptive this would be, but we survived!

My Sister-in-law sent me an email today letting me know about this contest for Pammy J’s Boutique Clothing. In the end my sister sent in 3 designs. You could tell all these women really put alot of time and effort into these designs just like all the small business owners I’ve designed for over the years. So when you get a min stop on over and vote for one of these designs and keep supporting WAHM’s and the little man. Voting is until June 30th!!!

www.pammyjdesigncontest.com

Elsa Belle is a boutique filled with happy-chic clothing and accessories for babies and kids. (Think Mary Poppins meets Santa Monica.) They carry designers like Cach Cach, Mim-Pi, and Mish Mish. There project was a blast to work on and they should be opening there doors soon, be sure to check them out!

project included:

1. custom graphic design
2. custom web design
3. installation into cart/cms system
4. print design

Currently we have 4 emails that our clients can use to contact us. Over the next few days we are going to be dwindling this down to one sole email. Then we will be implementing a support/invoicing system. We have been having some attachment/bouncing email issues lately and this system will completely fix this. All client communication, proof mock-ups etc… will come through this system. You will have you own account you can sign into to contact us or even pay an invoice we have set up for services. This change will be taking place very soon so please bear with us during the switch and remember our sole email addy now is info @ wickedcoolstudios.com. (without the spaces)

On another note we are moving house! So our toll-free line will be unavailable during the next few weeks so please note to either email us at the addy above or use our site contact form. Thank you!

Kaleidesprout.com carries items for babys, toddlers, kids and moms! You can find a little bit of everything here from strollers, to fragrance free and hypoallergenic skin care! Renee came to us wanting a bright and happy feel for her store, which is where the bright color scheme came into play.

project included: 

1. custom logo/graphic design
2. custom web design: home and catalog templates
3. installation into cart/cms system
4. flash slideshow by Red Peach Solutions

This is a pre-made design that we created and that was purchased for Monogrammed Gifts Inc. This design deviated from our normal designs as part of the template is fluid and not fixed width. We had fun with this pre-made! ;D

design included:

1. custom vector logo
2. custom template
3. installation into cart

Whether you’re a professional artist, or someone that once took a few photos you think are rad, you should know about some new legislation facing Congress.

Currently before Congress stands the new Orphan Works Bill. If passed, this bill will adversely affect visual artists, as it would drastically affect copyright laws.

Right now, anything you create is protected by copyright, whether you register it or not (although if you don’t register it, you cannot later claim copyright infringement.) Under this new legislation, nothing you create would be protected unless you commercially register it. You would have to pay to own rights to anything you create, commercially or just for your own pleasure, so that other people cannot steal your work.

The idea behind the Orphan Works Bill is to “free up old work” from copyright owners who have passed away (currently copyright laws last through the owners lifetime, plus 70 years.) But what if you’re still alive and making new work? You basically get screwed. In a sense, it will “orphan” anything you’ve ever created. Unless you want to digitize all your work, or pay big bucks to register your creativity, you’ll want to check out more on this legislation. A good clearinghouse of info can be found HERE.

~ Article by Juxtapose Art & Culture Magazine - click HERE to view

We have added a new pre-made OOAK web design template to our store area. This would be perfect for any store catered to women such as clothing and fashion or even a high end pets boutique would be a great match. To view everything thats offered go HERE.

What is RSS and why should I care?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a fast easy way to share/receive news and updates. How many times have you been browsing the net and seen this? Probably more times than you can count. Say you have a few websites you visit reguarly to keep updated on. This can become a pain if you have quite a few you vist, we don’t always have the time to check out our fav sites everyday and see if they have new content.

Newsletters are a way to keep updated on sites, but the problem with newsletters lie in you aren’t updated each time content changes unless the webmaster is extememly diligent with sending out newsletters, and alot of time they arrive in your spam box. With RSS you can subscribe to a feed and use a feed reader such as google reader to keep track of all the news you can handle. Some RSS feeds even have the option to have the feed sent directly to your inbox. Though seriously, why clutter your inbox? Take advantage of the feed reader, you will thank me later!

So how do I get one of these fancy readers? If you have a gmail/google acount you can easily use googles reader, just sign into your account and go for it. I personally use googles reader and love it! Don’t have a google account, GET ONE! It takes five mins and they provide so may great services you really shouldn’t be missing out. There are many popular readers to choose from though, just do a google search for “RSS feed reader” and check it out!

So how do I subscribe to a feed? EASY! Just click on the RSS icon and follow the on screen steps, you can’t go wrong as there are only a few choices to make. But first be sure to get yourself a reader.

So how do I offer a feed on my blog? Again EASY! There are several feed services. Feedburner.com is the service I use and its very simple to use. Basically you create an account, add the feed code where you want it to show on your site for people to subscribe and BAM your done. With feedburner you can have your customers subscribe through a reader or email and you also can keep track of your stats straight through your feedburner.com account. For more info on feeds and feedburner.com go HERE.

Stencil Me In is a design and stencil company that specializes in primitive, old time designs. But, that’s not all. Coming May 1st SMI will be premiering there stencil customizer where you can create and save your own stencil designs! Tori from SMI was awesome to work with and we can’t wait to continue our collaboration designing custom stencil graphics for them. Be sure to check them out here!

project included:

1. custom logo/graphic design
2. custom web design
3. installation into cart/cms system
4. members area customization
5. flash gallery installation