The 100 show is an annual, juried competition that awards the top 100 pieces (or less) of design in the city and region. Winners are selected in five categories including Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, Interactive Media and Motion Design, all of which include both professional and student work.

3 Awards for 3 great 2011 projects

The 2011 panel of esteemed judges include David Kampa of McGarrah Jesse in Austin, TX,  Michael Cina of Cina Associates in Minneapolis, MN and Justin Fines of Brand New School in New York, NY.

The lucky winners:

• The Mayan Cafe
• Floyd Memorial Hospital
• VIA Studio- for our fancy letterpress business cards

To our wonderful team: Good job! To our wonderful clients: congratulations!

Forecastle Festival

• Best Music Festival (1st place)
• Best Annual Festival (3rd place)

Actors Theatre

• Best Live Theater (1st place)
• Best Performing Arts Group (1st place)
• Best Theater Production (Dracula) (1st place)
• Best Theater Troupe (3rd place)

Stock Yards Bank & Trust

• Best Bank (2nd place)

Lake Forest

• Best Place to See Christmas Décor (1st place)

SoupByCycle

• Best Delivery (1st place)

Ultra Pop

• Best Place to Buy a Unique Gift (3rd place)

Acme Ink

• Best Tattoo Parlor (1st place)

Louisville, KY – Actors Theatre of Louisville today announced that they have engaged the expertise of local online communication and branding experts, VIA Studio. VIA secured the bid following a search, initiated by Actors Theatre, for a company to drive the re-imaging of their existing sites aligning it with current visual branding and address consumer demand for interactivity, including increased integration of social and rich media content.

On VIA’s appointment, Marketing & Communications Director Kory Kelly said: “We are thrilled to have awarded VIA Studio this contract. We were looking for imaginative proposals that incorporated both a user-friendly interface with high functionality and that also took into account the versatility of Actors Theatre and the diversity of our programming and audiences. We were impressed with the creativity, innovation and capabilities, VIA presented to us. They demonstrated a true understanding of Actors Theatre’s unique on line and web requirements. VIA have the caliber, expertise and track record to breathe new energy into our website. We are excited and grateful of their commitment to support our on-going marketing efforts in their new role as Interactive Marketing Partners. ”

“We consider it an honor to work with a group as esteemed as Actors Theatre,” said Jason Clark, President of VIA. “We can’t wait to get to work. I have been a big fan for a long long time.”

In business since 1996, VIA is an interactive marketing and design agency led by Creative Director and President, Jason Clark and CEO, Sales & Marketing Director, Kelly McKnight. They’ve received numerous awards in local, regional and international competitions, including the prestigious AXIEM and Horizon Awards. VIA specializes in building, maintaining, and hosting websites and creating marketing and advertising programs to drive traffic to the sites they build. This includes combining traditional with new media like search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and mobile apps media.

Their client portfolio includes Stock Yards Bank, Purnell’s Sausage, Jefferson and Boone County PVAs, WhipMix, and Floyd Memorial Hospital.

Development on the website will begin shortly, with a new site tentatively due to launch in the Fall 2010. For more information about Actors Theatre, go to http://www. ActorsTheatre.org.

About Actors Theatre of Louisville

Marc Masterson, Artistic Director
Jennifer Bielstein, Managing Director

Now approaching its 47th season, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the State Theatre of Kentucky, has emerged as one of America’s most consistently innovative professional theatre companies. For over 30 years, it has been a major force in revitalizing American playwriting. Its annual Humana Festival of New American Plays is recognized as the premier event of its kind and draws producers, journalists, critics, playwrights and theatre lovers from around the world for a marathon of new works. Over 350 plays from Actors Theatre have been published, making them available to producers and readers, and creating a significant addition to the nation’s dramatic literature. Actors Theatre’s programming includes a broad range of classical and contemporary work, presenting over 500 performances each season. The company performs annually to nearly 200,000 people and is the recipient of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre: a special Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, the James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, and the Margo Jones Award for the Encouragement of New Plays. Actors Theatre’s international appearances include performances in over 29 cities in 15 foreign countries. Currently, there are 40 books of plays and criticism from Actors Theatre in publication and circulation.

Web Design, Graphic Design, Art and Branding

The Designer’s Republic Folds
TDR has long been one of my favorite design agencies. This post discusses why they are folding and also why it might not be a good idea for a small agency to become a big agency.

Rex The Dog – Bubblicious
This is awesome. I had to share it.

Web Design Trends For 2009

“We Web designers are a fickle lot. We love to experiment with things. We love to observe how people interact with our work. And we love to try out unusual design approaches that might possibly go mainstream and become a classic approach. As a result, new design approaches come up, and as more and more designers notice them and make use of them, new trends emerge.”

Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media

Root Domains, Subdomains vs. Subfolders and The Microsite Debate
We get many requests to create “microsites”. This post from SEOMoz explains why a microsite on a separate domain is a bad idea from an SEO perspective. It also explains when to use a subdomain and best practice for when a microsite is actually a good idea.

How Cook’s Illustrated thrives while others are dying
Just like the dot com demise of the 90′s made the web development world stronger, I hope that the current financial crisis will do the same for business.

How to keep bloggers from hating you
“Every week I receive a handful of emails from PR firms, wanting me to write about something they’re helping promote. I rarely do so for them, but it’s not that I wouldn’t. It’s just that their tactics suck. They sell their clients on the notion of “blogger relations” but in fact, they’re treating email like a fax machine. They send the same generic message out to a ton of bloggers, piss everyone off in the process, and then bill their client for doing so. (Nice.)”

A Short History of Marketing

Web and Web Development

Sprite Optimization

Reducing server requests is essential is speeding up the performance of a website. Mezzoblue demonstrates how Amazon and Google are using sprite optimization effectively.

Louisville and Kentuckiana News

Muhammad Ali to be honored at Inaugural ball

Miscellaneous

867-5309 is for sale on eBay

Scientist Action Figures
Too cute!

The Art of Money Getting – by P.T. Barnum, 1880

CafePress gets Dirty – Brand New

One of the worst rebrands I’ve seen in awhile. CafePress goes for the Grunge crowd.

The Smithsonian might buy Shepard Fairey’s Obama portrait - Supertouch

NO!SPEC
Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.

The Dark Lord of Logos – Viceland
Christophe Szpajdel is a 37 year old forestry engineer that only designs logos for Death Metal bands. It’s insane. Check out the logos. He’s designed over 7,000 of them.

Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media

The Inside Story: Facebook Marketing Strategies – SEOMoz
While I’m not an advocate of online social media for all my clients, I do feel it’s useful in certain circumstances. SEOMoz discusses Facebook’s Search, News Feed, and Advertising Platform.

Creativity under pressure – Church of the Customer
“If they were very smart, the CEOs would drive unreleased, next-generation cars that get 100 MPG. They’d stop in a half-dozen towns along the way and invite a newspaper editorial board writer to ride shotgun for a dozen miles. They’d update their status on Twitter. They’d write a few posts for the company blog. They’d shoot video on a Flip camera and talk about how they screwed up at their first appearance, how they’re selling their fleet of corporate jets, and their plans for the future. If they behave like real people instead of CEO machines, they might arrive in D.C. backed by some pretty good word of mouth.”

Why Companies are Investing in SEO During the Economic Downturn – SEOMoz
I couldn’t agree with this post more. The Internet still gives the most bang for the buck. We are seeing many of our clients moving their budgets from traditional advertising to improving their web presence, with SEO and other marketing tactics.

Web and Web Development

Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat – Gmail
Gmail introduces video chat through their popular Gmail browser. I haven’t used it yet, but I have heard good reports from those who have.

Louisville and Kentuckiana News

Papa John’s hits $1 million in mobile sales – Business First
Way to go for a “local” company to leverage the power of the web! I’m always amazed at how often a service could be more usable if I could just text/sms an order in, or at the very least use some kind of web form.

The Pink Door is for sale
Nice opportunity for those of you interested in buying a bar/restaurant with an established brand.

Economy forces layoffs at Zappos.com
And they may close their outlet store here in Kentucky. My wife won’t like that!