Jeff Wagner Interactive Blog

Minnesota electrical company receives new web design

Jeff Wagner — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:31:05 +0000

Local Minnesota company, Electrical Builders Inc., came to JWI looking for a fresh web design to better represent the professionalism of their company. Not only did we come up with a great look but we helped improve their search engine optimization with better programming and visible content.

One of the requests by EBI was to have a much more visible site with a lot more pictures of the different electrical services that they offer. With their being so many different areas of electrical construction having photos of the different services gives users & visitors a better idea of their capabilities.

Both Electrical Builders and JWI are extremely happy with the new look and improved online presence.

Outdoor Excursions in Costa Rica

Jeff Wagner — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:26:12 +0000

My wife and I were in Costa Rica over the past two weeks for our honeymoon and we had the opportunity to go on a few outdoor excursions with two very highly recommended companies…Wave Expeditions and Sky Adventures. Needless to say these two companies were fantastic, very professional and they just flat out love their jobs.

With so many different excursions to experience we decided to try the following:

Canyoning – (Wave Expeditions)
White Water Rafting – (Wave Expeditions)
Zip Lining – (Sky Adventures)

My favorite excursion that we tried was Zip Lining. I had always wanted to do it and finally I got the chance with Sky Adventures. These lines were about as extreme as you can get. They have 8 different runs that you go on that work their way down the mountains of Costa Rica. The longest and highest line was about 1000 ft. high and about 1/2 mile long, we also got up to speeds of about 55 mph. We had one of our guides take a video of the run with our camera after we had all gone across (see below). Our guide went across with a boy who was a little nervous about going alone. You can see the active Arenal Volcano in the video as well. At the end of the trek across you’ll notice my wife and I in the back of the group waving at the camera. You must try zip lining if you’re ever in Costa Rica, it’s absolutely amazing.

The second excursion we tried was Canyoning (repelled) down 5 different waterfalls and 1 dry (rock) wall. All repels were at least 80ft high with the highest being around 125ft and of course it had to be the first one. We would’ve be lying if we said we weren’t nervous but after the first time down we really couldn’t wait for the next repel. Transportation, lunch and snacks were also included in the expedition. I highly recommend anyone to try this even if you have a slight fear of heights. Make sure to bring your cameras because they do have dry bags for them to go in. We made the assumption that ours would get wet and left it at home.

The final excursion on our list was White Water Rafting. We actually did this and canyoning as a 2 part excursion package with Wave Expeditions. All I can say about this adventure is “fricken fantastic!” My wife and I had always wanted to try rafting and I am so glad we did it. We tried a class 3 river that’s on a scale of 5 with 5 being the hardest. The whole run lasted about 2 hours with a short break in the middle for lunch. It also had rained a lot the previous couple of days so our guide said the rapids were probably ranked at about 3.5-4 with the higher water levels. Not only was this a crazy fun ride it was also a great workout, you paddle constantly even in the middle of huge rapids. This is an absolute must try for anyone.

We had an amazing time and Costa Rica is truly a fantastic place to visit. I’ve included some pictures from our adventures below to give you an idea of the excitement we had. Enjoy.

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JWI helps local Minnesota outdoors men with new website

Jeff Wagner — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:40:55 +0000

Jeff Wagner Interactive was very fortunate to partner with Winter Ranch on a new website project called The Loon Room, which features beautiful art of our state bird the Minnesota Loon.

The Loon Room is the creation of Simone Schara, who with her father, Ron, have developed several nature-related businesses including Ron’s unique outdoor information calendars (outdoorcalendars.com). If the name is familiar, you may have seen Simone on the Pheasants Forever Television on Outdoor Channel, which is hosted by her father. Ron also is regularly seen on Minnesota Bound, a popular outdoor show on KARE 11, an NBC affiliate in Minneapolis, Minn.

Jeff Wagner Interactive created the logo branding and all of the Web Design work for this project and along with Simone, Ron and Winter Ranch we think the website turned out great.

The Loon Room also features a great e-commerce engine that allows all the wonderful works-of-art to be sold right from the website. If you’re a Minnesota Loon fan then The Loon Room will have a loon product that’s sure to please.

JWI would like to thank Simone, Ron and Winter Ranch for allowing us to be a part of this great project.

iPhone 4 = Amazing

Jeff Wagner — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:18:08 +0000

I was one of the fortunate people to receive the new iPhone 4 last Thursday and after a weekend of playing with some of the new features let me tell you…it’s fricken amazing. Apple really made this a solid upgrade over the 3Gs with a new look and a boat load of great features.

So where do I begin with these features…here’s a few that I really like thus far:

Retina Display
The screen clarity is ridiculous. Icons, movies, photos, apps all look so much better.

Speed
The processing speed and reaction time to your finger touch is so much faster than previous models. A few of my friends told me that since upgrading to iOS4 on their 3g and 3gs’ the processing time has been reduced quite significantly, not so with the iPhone 4. Plus, download and upload speeds are way off the charts compared to older models, check out these iPhone 4 speeds.

Camera / Video Camera
Such a great improvement in clarity and picture quality. The camera comes with 5x zoom which is fantastic and the video is so clear that it blows your mind. Love the front facing camera as well, will be fun when buddies and colleagues get there new iPhones so we can use the video conferencing tool.

Digital Compass (actually introduced with iPhone 3Gs)
Augmented Reality will be a whole new world with this feature and I can’t wait to see what the app world comes up with. With the increased processing and download speeds this feature will be able to work to its fullest potential. If you’re not familiar with Augmented Reality…here’s a quick tutorial.

Folks, if you’re with AT&T I strongly suggest upgrading to this beauty. Apple has came through again and am looking forward to all the amazing possibilities that this phone is going to bring.

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Market your company with great looking apparel

Jeff Wagner — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:55:54 +0000

So how are you marketing your company these days for all the world (or your target market area) to see? Recently, I had a bunch of Jeff Wagner Interactive hats made up for my softball team. I did this because we were having a very hard time finding a local business to sponsor our team.

I started thinking why wouldn’t a company want to advertise themselves on our jerseys and/or hats? It’s such a cheap form of advertising and you’re getting your name out in the public 16-20 weeks throughout the summer. Also like most teams, we usually go out after our games and grab a beverage and dinner…just more time that you’re company is on display.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I went to J & J Atheletics in Buffalo, MN for my apparel, they were great to work with and they completed my order in less than a week. I went with flexfit hats that have mesh backs to help keep cool in the summer months. I think that the hats turned out great, as you can see below.

The hats were very inexpensive to have made, I believe they came out to be about $14 a hat. I think the average Twins hat at Target Field is about $25-30. Not only did the JWI hats look great on the field they’ve already caught a few eyes. I’ve already received many comments about the hats, which have led to conversations about what my company does, which has led to handing out business cards. I have a good feeling that the hats will be paying for themselves and then some in the very near future.

So, the next time a sports team asks you to sponsor their squad you might want to really think about the impact this cheap form of advertising might have on your company. If you do the numbers, one referral from the advertising will probably pay for your sponsorship and then some.

I’ve included a few more action pictures of my squad wearing our new hats.

jQuery Effects, and pure Awesomeness

Jeff Wagner — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:56:24 +0000

If you aren’t using jQuery in some form or fashion with the websites you’re developing then you are most certainly missing out on some very cool effects. I’m using jquery scripts primarily because there are so many cool transitions or effects that work on most popular web browsers.

I’ve put together a great collection of jQuery links & demos to so many effects I garuntee that you’ll wanna tie into your websites.

Take a look and check them out, if you know of any others out there let me know. I’d like to add more to my personal collection.

Emerging Print and Web Designers

Jeff Wagner — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:53:21 +0000

Recently I attended an AIGA meeting (The Professional Association for Design) that was focused on tools for “Emerging Designers” to help them with their portfolios and web presence. The meeting was held at Mono, a very well known and renown agency in Minneapolis, MN.

The AIGA provided three very creative and very informative speakers
Carl Schultze, Evan Stremke, and Aaron Shekey. Each speaker talked about a few tools that they use on a regular basis that helps promote some of their work.

Carl Schultze, an extremely talented print and web designer, shared with everyone a tool he uses for his own personal online portfolio called Cargo Collective. Cargo Collective is a very simple web publishing (CMS) platform that allows designers to upload their work to the web and use a variety of different templates to display their creativity. Cargo allows for some customization as well if you’re handy in HTML and CSS. I thought it was a great tool for those you aren’t too comfortable creating their own personal portfolio and to upload a new project takes literally seconds (I timed Carl and he did it in 52.8 seconds).

Evan Stremke, our second speaker, is a huge fan of Cargo as well and uses it regularly. He also talked about a very slick print publishing tool called Issuu. Issuu will take your print designs (pdf’s) and publish them in a very nice interactive flip magazine online. You can then embed the code for your publications on to your website or your Cargo Collective account. Evan also mentioned that he was a fan of Tumblr, a very easy to use service for blogging.

Aaron Shekey, the final speaker, a young and very creative web designer talked about his love with WordPress. Yet another CMS (Content Management System) that is very popular as a blogging tool but is very exandable and can be used as a complete website management tool. WordPress has such a following of developers that create so many different templates and plugins that you can use. It’s really, I feel, the best option as a free CMS. Aaron also shared a very cool plugin called Flutter. Flutter is a feature rich WordPress CMS plugin that focuses on easy templating for the developer and simplifies content management for the admin by creating custom write panels that can be fully customized (radio buttons, file uploads, image uploads, checkboxes, etc).

After the presenters were done AIGA provided pizza and refreshments for everyone and gave us time to mingle with the speakers, Mono staff and other designers that were attending. If you’re a member of the AIGA you really should be taking advantage of these meetings. Even if you aren’t a member, like me, you’re more than welcome to join at a very small fee (this one was $15). I had a great time and I look forward to attending future AIGA meetings.

For more information on upcoming events sponsored by the AIGA checkout their website at: http://minnesota.aiga.org/events

Ignite Minneapolis Recap

Jeff Wagner — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:41:19 +0000

The Ignite Minneapolis event last night at Bedlam Theatre was a blast. The speakers were great and the free beer tickets were pretty solid as well. I was able to take a few pictures of the peeps and some of the speakers during the night, try not to criticize because the photos were with my iphone. Click on any of the pics for a larger view.

The entire event, like last year, was a crowd pleaser. There were lots of laughs and I have to say my favorite speaker on the night was Julie Kucinski giving us a lesson on why “Chicks are the New Dicks.” Hilarious.

If I had one suggestion for Ignite Minneapolis is that they should go bigger on their venues. From the amount of people that were wanting tickets and all the others that were tuning in online there seems to be a high demand to attend. Even if you charged $5 a ticket you could easily sell out a venue that would hold 300-500. Just a thought.

Well done Ignite!

New JWI Business Cards

Jeff Wagner — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:50:41 +0000

I recently put together a new look for my business cards. I wanted to keep the branding of my logo the same but I was looking for the high glossy and very polished feel. I couldn’t be happier with the results when I got them from the the printer yesterday.

I worked with a wonderful printing company called W & C Printing. They were great to collaborate ideas with and I think the printing quality speaks for itself. Below are some of the printing options we used:

High Gloss Paper
UV Protective Coating
Digital Press Printing
Rounded Corners

If you’re in need of a new design for your business cards send me an email at jeff@jeffwagnerinteractive.com. If you’re looking for printing services send an email to Amy Storm at W & C Printing, she will walk you through all your printing needs.

3D Web Design Experience

Jeff Wagner — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:02:38 +0000

I finally got around to taking in the
3D Avatar digital experience over the weekend and the movie did not disappoint. I, like everyone else, was completely blown away from the CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) creativity that was put into this movie. When James Cameron creates a movie he does it really big and he is sure to be rewarded for his efforts when awards are to be handed out. The 3D designs were outstanding and really gets the crowd more involved in the movie when animals seem to be running/flying out of the screen right at you.

As I was walking out of the movie theater I
started thinking of 3D website designs, off the
top of my head I could only come up with a couple that really stuck out. Why weren’t there more that came to mind? One of the reasons probably is that I rarely build fully Flash websites because of my obsession with usability, accessibility and simplicity. You lose most of this when building in Flash but you do gain amazing 3D possibilities. So, I went out and did a little looking around and found some sites that have great 3D web experiences and 3D Photoshop tutorials that I wanted to share with you.

3D Websites

3D Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorials
Here is a great collection of 3D tutorials (by Smashing Magazine) that is sure to add some great 3D depth and creativity to your web designs. I use a lot of these types of elements in my designs to help the user more willingly engage and interactive with my websites.

If you know of any other 3D websites out there that are worth mentioning please share them in a comment below.