Fresh

The folks who work at eROI are known to be people who work hard, and play even harder. We like to have fun, express ourselves creatively, and act a little goofy from time to time.

This year, at the annual eROI party, our theme was “Release Your Alter Ego”.  The idea behind this theme was to push our creativity — how did we want to express ourselves to each other? Are you a sinner, or a saint? A beauty queen, or a goth chick? Trust me, it’s not as easy as you might think to identify your own alter ego.

Check our our stellar party invitation:

eROI Alter Ego Party Invitation Email

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We love our neighborhood here at eROI.

Nestled in between downtown Southwest Portland, and the ever-classy Pearl District, Old Town / Chinatown remains one of West Portland’s neighborhoods that has held on to some of its history and gritty peripheral personality while it has changed over the years. It’s one of the last few neighborhoods where you might see a screaming crazy person, a crowd of folks eating at a fancy restaurant, and a DIY art gallery opening all within a few blocks of each other, and its residents take pride in this edgy diversity.  It’s a happening sort of place, and a lot of creativity and progression take place right under our noses, even if we might not be aware of it every day.

Image courtesy of Portland Ground

It is in this light that a committee of people who work in Old Town banded together in 2009 to create the Old Town Block Party. The concept was simple: to get businesses, restaurants, and all of their patrons and employees out in the open, share their work and culture with everyone else, have a few beers, and enjoy some good music – all for a charitable cause.  2009’s inaugural Block Party was a big success boasting over 3,000 attendees throughout the day and donating money to resurrect the historic Hung Far Low Cocktails sign, and this year’s party promises to up the ante. Killer food, drinks, and bands are only part of the reason that this free (What?! Free?!) event is going to rule this year.

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One of the most interesting things about working here at eROI is the variety of clients in which we deal with on a regular basis. On any given day we work with large national brands, and then turn around and help a start up company grow from the ground up. In both cases, it has become essential to have a comprehensive style guide for several reasons:

For the larger brands, it is a simple way for a client to communicate the essential elements and rules as they apply to their brand in a concise document. A large brand may have multiple agencies working on projects at any given time, and this ensures consistency across the board. This is especially important when working on projects with tight timelines; there is little time for brand misinterpretation. A good style guide will cover all of the major elements, which allows for a Creative Brief to be more focused on the project at hand.

For smaller companies, a style guide is equally important as it becomes the blueprint from which the brand evolves. A small company may not have the resources to employ a marketing/brand manager, and so a style guide needs to work that much harder.

While many companies are already familiar with brand guidelines that include things like logo usage and brand statements, I want to focus instead on what specific elements should be considered for the digital space and the screen.

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My contributions to this blog have all fallen into the category of inspiration – sharing the artists, designers, and even the tunes that drive me to be a designer and part-time aspiring artist. It all adds fuel to my fire, and I’m kind of a pack rat when it comes to saving images, bookmarking portfolio sites and subscribing to RSS feeds. Taking it all in helps me put out more creatively even though this process is quite the time-suck.

In this light, I am going to continue to share this time-suck with all you Fresh readers.

This post is a spotlight on Los Angeles-based designer, art director, artist, entrepreneur and skateboarder, Michael Leon.

I have been keeping up with the guy’s projects, brands, and aesthetic for the past few years, and am constantly inspired.  He has the ability to design simply and boldly while maintaining a certain whimsical feel-good quality, leaving me with a smile on my face and a warm, fuzzy feeling in my gut.

He captures fun, skateboarding, California, drawing, and all of the youthful energy that inherently comes emotionally packaged with these things into each piece. It’s honest and original — two of the hardest things to consistently embody as an artist or designer.

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I’m proud to announce that after almost 2.5 years at our 5th and Couch location, we have finally completed our street level signage and entrance design. When we relocated from the Alber’s Mills to Old Town, it had a profound effect on our company. We became a part of a growing neighborhood with a unique energy and flavor that paired well with our company culture. Old Town isn’t your average Portland neighborhood. It’s one of the few places in Portland where I actually feel like I’m living in a real city. It’s fashion, youth, small business, food, and art. All of this juxtaposed with a dodgy past makes for an interesting few blocks. When it came time to design a sign for our new office we wanted to make sure to acknowledge the roots of the neighborhood while adding our own piece to the mix.

When we first began concepting ideas, we needed to clearly define why it was we even needed a sign. After all, we aren’t a retail space or a restaurant where people are walking in off the street for their next online campaign. Most people that come to our office know who we are and are simply looking for a clearly marked street address. It’s more way-finding than anything. We had to take into consideration things such as public transportation and parking, so we could position the sign in a place that made sense. Once people found us they needed to be buzzed in, so we also included an integrated call box into the entrance.

Initial sketches

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Recently, I walked around the office with my Flip camera and asked the eROI team about ecommerce sites. We talked about the ones that we liked, what could be improved, and what people should think about when creating an online shopping experience. Since we work in the digital marketing industry, it should come as no surprise that we’re highly critical of things like overall brand experience, way-finding, and ease of use.

Two things that are critical to address at the onset of any project are the measurable business objectives and analytic goals. In our design process at eROI, these things are kept at the forefront of every project; these two things guide our designers as they begin creating their web designs. By always referring back to the objectives and goals, and making creative decisions that strive to directly impact these things, we’re setting our clients up to succeed on those two fronts.

Our process helps to ensure that these things don’t get overlooked or forgotten about as a project evolves. I’ve visited other ecommerce sites before, however, where the functional and transactional experience is incredibly poor, and I end up leaving the site feeling disgruntled, confused, and/or frustrated. I’m sure that all of us have experienced a site that left us wanting more or saying to ourselves, “This site could be better if they’d only [insert awesome suggestion here].”

What are some of your favorite ecommerce sites and why?

We’ve been doing weekly yoga at eROI for over 3 years now. As a company, we strive to provide a return on investment (ROI) to our clients. In that same sense, weekly yoga has been able to provide an ROI to the employees. It’s a way for us to unwind and de-stress from the day-to-day workweek. The time we put into the practice provides us with a healthy mind and body that, in turn, helps us in our efforts at work. We’ve had 2 amazing instructors, Tanya and Michele, through Recess Wellness. They offer great corporate yoga packages and wellness options for the community. There are many health benefits directly related to doing yoga. Some of them include: better posture, reduced stress, a strengthened immune system, and more energy. Additionally, WebMD mentions that “yoga can help improve relationships at work.” Yoga is a wonderful part of our company culture, and its a great way to promote health and well-being.

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With some of the anticipated features of HTML 5 already being supported by major browsers combined with the lack of support for Flash on popular new interactive devices like the iPad and iPhone, the future of Adobe’s Flash has never been so uncertain. Is it time to cut and run from Flash? Steve Jobs would like you to think so. High-powered opinions aside, Flash’s indelible place in our browsers has definitely come into question.

How HTML 5 is encroaching on Flash’s turf

HTML 5 will be the next version of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and with it will come some of the biggest advances in HTML’s relatively young history. The proposed new standard will change the way websites are built and looks to minimize the need for proprietary browser plug-ins like Adobe Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight.

Some of the biggest impacts will be in how HTML handles audio and video without the use of rich media plug-ins such as Flash. This new functionality will be handled with new tags <video> and <audio>, while still aiming to be backward compliant with older versions of HTML.

This has led many to believe that Flash’s days as an interactive industry leader are over and that there will be a day when you won’t need to upgrade your Flash Player ever again. Don’t hold your breath.
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A recent study conducted by Kaiser research on media usage has uncovered some surprising results. They found that 8-18 year old’s average media consumption has reached an astounding 53 hours per week. I was simply blown away when I read this.

The figure seems especially high considering that teens spend the majority of their day in the classroom, where things like texting and gaming are not allowed. Where do they even find the time? The influx of mobile devices has definitely had a huge impact on the accessibility to media, but at what cost? There are so many serious social implications that arise when a face-to-face interaction is regarded as inconvenient and that much time is spent detached and distracted. In some case it’s downright dangerous.

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Some people may think that St. Patrick’s Day is a time to remember and honor the patron saint of Ireland. Others may use it as an opportunity to drink green beer, dance an Irish jig with reckless abandon, or eat Irish-inspired food they might not normally eat.

Here at eROI, we see St. Paddy’s day as an opportunity to celebrate the color green. We love all the colors of the rainbow, so having one day a year where anything green rocks is kinda awesome. Check out some of the green from around the office.

Enjoy!

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