Atomicdust

Atomicdust Bowling Day…

Last Friday, we spent the first half of the day reflecting on the past year of our business, discussing ways to keep us going and growing. Then, after stopping for lunch at Houlihan’s, we took over lanes 29 and 30 of Tropicana Bowl in Brentwood. Enjoy some photos below of our day. Like usual, Billy, Katie and Michael outshone everyone else’s combined scores with their pro-like pin-smashing. And while his bowling may not be the best, Mike’s skills at the Claw Game are unmatched. He ended up taking home a record 8 stuffed animals that he grabbed over a 20-minute period.

Thank You To Stephen at Macsolv

Though most Mac users are problem solving vigilantes by nature, when it comes to server issues, donning the “Trouble-shooter” hat isn’t always the best idea. Yet, those of us who have built a Mac-based workflow have at times had to double as our own IT department. This is, in part, due to the absence of truly dedicated Mac specialists in the St. Louis area. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly those who can sell them, many of us who are quite proficient at using them and some who can tinker around enough to provide a quick fix on occasion. This lack of expertise has for some time led us (and likely many others) to get creative in ways other than those we pride ourselves on as a design agency. Recently we had encountered an issue with cirumstances larger than what we were prepared to handle ourselves. We needed an expert. Enter Stephen Alison. Stephen is new to St. Louis, but quite seasoned when it comes to Mac environments. He runs a small, specialized consultancy called Macsolv. Take note: This is no PC guy in disguise. This is a bona fide Mac guru with the chops to prove it. Stephen is a former Systems Engineer for Apple, Inc., having held the ACSA certification since its introduction in 2003. He has also achieved ACTC 10.5 Certification and is an Apple Certified Trainer.  He has helped us with our needs in a fraction of the time that it has taken anyone else (including ourselves). If your workflow depends on your Macs running as efficiently as they can, we highly recommend you contact Stephen at Macsolv.

Atomicdust Celebrates 7 Years of Design

In June we celebrated our studio’s 7th birthday with our annual office bash. It has taken a lot of support from a lot of people to reach seven, so we wanted to show them all our appreciation (Plus, it was a good excuse to give out more Atomicdust pint glasses).

To fill the place, we put together an interactive invitation that allowed people to customize their RSVP and set the tone for the evening. Recipients were directed to a website that encouraged them to complete the line “At the party we’ll ____ and ____.”  Responses were collected and flowed into an animation that ran on the site for all to see. Likewise, this year’s glass allowed guests to express themselves by filling in the blanks. Some ‘grazed’ and ‘giggled’ while others ‘wanged’ and ‘chunged’, but all had a good time. To bring it all together we brought in a photo booth that helped everyone capture the evening.

We’re proud of having seven years under our belt, and look forward to celebrating many more. Many thanks to the guys at PhotoboothStL, our friends at Portabella and to everyone who came out. We had a great time! Check out some photos of the event.

The Benefits of Having a Patio

In this rare glimpse of the patio attached to our office, witness Atomicdust staffers devour a defenseless watermelon!

This Week at Atomicdust: July 13-17

Here are just a few things we worked on this week…

1. Our design for the Florsheim Work website is currently being coded up. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to explore more about each of the boots they offer as well as purchase them from the site.

2. Logos School is having their 22nd Annual Auction & Dinner October 3 and we’ve begun work on promotional pieces for it, using their theme this year of the “Successes of Logos School.”

3. We’re putting the finishing touches on redesigns for art and framing stores Deck the Walls and The Great Frame Up. In the next few weeks, new main sites will launch as well as individual franchise owner sites that offer areas for personalization about their specific location.

4. This week has been all about boots! In addition to our Florsheim Work site for Warson Group, we also began creating a new site for another one of their brands: Rockport.

5. We entered several Business-to-Business projects we’ve created over the past year into 2009’s Targeted Advertising & Marketing (TAM) Awards put on by the Business Marketing Association of St. Louis. We’ll let you know how we do!

Good Ol’ Fashion Name Calling

Over the years we’ve been asked numerous questions about our name…where’d it come from, what does it mean, how many words it is. Telemarketers call us and question it, giggle, ask us what we do, or just shout “BOOM!”

Anyway, we thought we had heard every possible misuse of it, until this package arrived at our office and we were in tears laughing…

An Atomicdust Baby!

Congratulations to Carrie and Jesse who welcomed baby Miller James McGowan in to the world July 3. Weighing in at 7 lbs. 10 oz., he’s healthy and doing great…and starts on Monday. He really takes after his father…what do you think?

Atomicdust’s First Baby Shower

We recently surprised Atomicdust Studio Manager, Carrie McGowan, and her husband, Atomicdust Senior Account Manager, Jesse McGowan with a baby shower at the world famous Mahogany Bar in the first floor of the Omni Majestic Hotel….of all places. After food and presents, we cut into a personalized cake that declared, “Just have it already!”

Carrie is due any day now and everyone is anxiously awaiting to find out if the baby is a boy or girl.

If you’re interested in becoming the new Studio Manager at Atomicdust, please email me. Just kidding Carrie! Congratulations guys!

This Week at Atomicdust: May 25-29

While we have large campaigns and projects we’re working on throughout a given timeframe, we also have a bunch of odds and ends we do each week. Here are a few things we worked on this week…

1. We’ve begun working on the idea and invitations for our 7th anniversary party, which is rapidly approaching. Like last year’s invitation, this year will also feature a short video. So clear your schedules for June 18th with more party details to come.

2. The Mosby’s Nursing Suite campaign’s direct mail element launched this week with the first postcards mailing out. As a result, we’ve seen a huge spike in traffic of people taking the Confidence Challenge at www.confidenceconnected.com.

3. Bellefontaine Cemetery is celebrating 160 years all throughout 2009. We’ve been updating their site with new content as well as some additional events taking place. To find out more about this fascinating St. Louis historical location, visit www.bellefontainecemetery.org.

4. As part of ongoing work, we’ve been prepping and updating screenshots and other imagery for a video demo we’re recording this week. The goal is to create a demo that showcases how the product works in an engaging way while still showing instructors and students the benefits of using the system.

5. Having recently launched the Logos School website, we’ve been creating additional headers and graphics for other areas of the site as it continues to grow. Check it out here.