2011 Year End Recap
- Jan 18 2012
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By Stephen Landau Creative Director
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Looking Ahead, News
Holy cow. It seems like 2011 just started and here we are in 2012. A lot happened at Substance over the last twelve months, so without further ado, we present the Substance 2011 Year End Recap. (Fanfare!)
Works of Substance
Travel Oregon Food & Drink Mobile Experience
After developing an award-winning site for Travel Oregon’s Food & Drink-inspired travelers, our next task was developing the mobile experience to help travelers in Oregon find nearby flavors to experience.
Read more: The Travel Oregon Food & Drink Mobile Experience (or a case study on “Three Words You Should Never Have to Read”)
Bar Gelato
Starting with the brand messaging, we determined what the feel and the voice of the Bar Gelato brand would be. Once establishing that, we brought in hand-drawing expert Mette Hornung Rankin from the Bureau of Betterment to help craft the visual identity. The end product was the creation of the visual language, packaging concepts, the website, and display materials.
Visit the site: bargelato.com // Read more: Truth in Flavor: Bar Gelato
Jeld-Wen Field
Part of going to see a Portland Timbers game involves the “going” part. To that end, we worked with the Portland Timbers to create a site for people coming to Jeld-Wen Field. From game schedules to directions and public transit options to the location of concessions and restrooms, the site is geared around the experience of going to a game.
Visit the site: jeld-wenfield.com
Ride Oregon Ride
Two years ago, Substance and Travel Oregon set the gold standard for cycling travel and tourism with the Ride Oregon website. Since the initial launch we’ve had an incredible response, a lot of great feedback, and the opportunity to evaluate where we were successful and where we could do better. The result is the new RideOregonRide.com.
Visit the site: rideoregonride.com // Read more: Ride Oregon – Lessons Learned and Applied
Timberline Heritage
In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the lodge as a “testament to the workers on the rolls of the Works Progress Administration.” Fast forward to the end of 2011 and you arrive at Timberline Lodge’s 75th anniversary. To celebrate, we worked with the team at Timberline to create an interactive heritage experience, built to educate on the beginnings of the lodge, the disrepair, the rebirth… all the way to the present day.
Visit the site: heritage.timberlinelodge.com // Read more: Happy 75th Anniversary, Timberline Lodge
Arakawa
We love having the opportunity to revisit some of our earlier work, seeing what worked, and what can be improved. This was the case with the Arakawa site that we launched a few years ago. Based on new content needs, visitor behavior and changing business goals, we reworked the site to put the focus on hanging applications and products.
Visit the site: arakawagrip.com
News of Substance
Things happened at Substance this year beyond site launches. We did some thinking and writing on the way we work (Why Designers Should Care About Content Strategy and Interaction is Brand, for example). We were recognized for our work on the Travel Oregon Food and Drink site. We ate some burgers.
2011 also gave us the honor of adding four employees to the Substance team roster in 2011. Without Brandon, Jewel, Nicole and Isaac – in addition to our all star “old timers” Cory, Erin and Eric – there would have been fewer people to congratulate on doing an awesome job and fewer opportunities to go and get burgers with others. Welcome one and all.
The big news from August until the end of December was the Substance World Headquarters Move of Twenty Aught Eleven. It’s true, we moved to a new office space that is twice as big as our old office. Much of our free time has been working on the space over the last months of 2011. Here’s a glimpse into the new SWHQ…
The Future of Substance
Only three weeks into 2012, we’ve already been busy. For one, we added another employee (welcome Shawn!) who just missed the 2011 window. And we launched a new site for Oregon’s Adventure Coast – oregonsadventurecoast.com.
In the upcoming months, we’ll have a bunch of huge projects that will launch before the snow stops flying on Mt. Hood, so we’ll let you know when those are available for public viewing. We’ll also be at SXSW so hit us up if you want to chat in person in Austin – email us at sxsw@findsubstance.com. And there will probably be another office improvement project or two going on at the new Substance World Headquarters.
Last but not least, we will have the distinct pleasure of marking FIVE YEARS in business on January 19th. It seems like only yesterday that Substance was born, and now we’re old enough to head off to kindergarten. More on this in a separate post, but we absolutely, positively, could not have made it to this point without all of you: our friends, family, supporters, co-workers, and clients: thank you so much for being with us.
Here’s to 2012, the next five years, and all the years after that. Do better.
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