The Umbrella Blog

Now Members of the Better Business Bureau

By Aaron Ortega on October 28, 2009

BBB

We deal with a lot of clients from all over the country, many who have been burned by designers that are only giving their work a part time effort. That provides a challenge that is unique to this industry, the challenge of giving our potential clients a reason to trust that well deliver the results we promise and be there for them when they need us.

When I thought about this challenge, I was reminded of a story a good friend of mine told me. His truck was giving him trouble and he took it in to the local dealership. I asked him if he realized that he could take it to a mom and pops shop and have it fixed for half that cost and he said “Yea I know, but it all comes down to accountability, and I want to know that if something goes wrong with my repair, someone is going to be there to fix it.” It all comes down to accountability.

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Pop’s Shop, LLC Launch

By Aaron Ortega on October 27, 2009

Pops Shop, LLC In September we were hired by Pop’s Shop, LLC to design and build them a website to showcase the various bikes, cars, trucks and ATVs they design. We had previously designed their logo and business cards for them back in the spring of this year.

Pop’s Shop, LLC is located in Gatesville, Texas, right outside of Waco, Texas. They specialize in custom bike work. They don’t stop at paint jobs, they’ve actually created custom parts to really set their clients apart from the rest of the packs that we see at bike weeks across the country.

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Rock Band For iPhone Hands On!

By Michelle McGonagle on October 19, 2009

If you’re a Rock Band fan like me, then you’ll be happy to hear that there is FINALLY an app for the iPhone that allows you to play Rock Band anytime, anywhere! If you’re a guitar player, drummer, or singer of your Rock Band, this app allows the same console experience right to your phone to enjoy on the go, including a multiplayer option. Too good to be true? Well, there have been some downfalls to this app from testers.

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Apartment Ninjas Launch

By Aaron Ortega on October 10, 2009

Apartment NinjasIn late August we were hired by Apartment Ninjas as consultants to help get their apartment locating website off the ground and bringing in money. The company had worked with other design and development firms in town and frustrated with the solutions they had received. We were able to map out an entire redesign, both back-end and front-end, and implement the ideas. These ideas included a more streamlined apartment entry admin tool, Google Maps integration, a new SEO strategy, and a completely fresh site design. As of this week Apartment Ninjas has began going live, with features still rolling in on the backend.

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iPhone Remains in the Lead in the Smartphone Race

By Michelle McGonagle on October 9, 2009

According to a recent survey posted by Marketing survey firm J.D. Power and Associates, iPhone Ranks Highest among Both Consumer and Business Smartphone Owners.

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Center an Absolute Position DIV

By Aaron Ortega on October 8, 2009

So you have information in a div, and you have its position set to absolute, and you want to center it on your page. Seems impossible to do, but with a little thinking we can pull it off.

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It looks like Microsoft has finally got it right. Walt Mossberg, posted an article today that has the tech world buzzing

In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That’s no longer true. I still give the Mac OS a slight edge because it has a much easier and cheaper upgrade path; more built-in software programs; and far less vulnerability to viruses and other malicious software, which are overwhelmingly built to run on Windows.

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How to Create Web 2.0 Reflections Like a Pro

By Aaron Ortega on September 4, 2009

Create Web 2.0 Reflections Like a ProReflections are one of the bread and butter tools of a lot of Web 2.0 designers these days. You can see examples of it all over the web. It really does wonders for a simple graphic, and its really not that difficult to accomplish. For this tutorial I will be using Photoshop CS4, but since there is nothing too exotic going on here I think it should work well for earlier versions.

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