It’s not the first time we’ve redesigned hotdesign.com in the past 17 years, but we think the newly re-launched Scott Design website is one of our best upgrades yet. The latest version of the Scott Design website features more rich content, cleaner navigation, and a bold new design.

When we design websites for our clients, we put ourselves in the shoes of potential customers and determine what visitors are looking for on the site. We did the same when we started to redesign hotdesign.com. We figured visitors to the Scott Design site want to know who we are, find out what we do, and get a good look at our portfolio.

Scott Design’s home page features our tagline, a description of the type of work we do, and some information about our history of success. Our Flash-based interactive portfolio is featured front and center on the home page. On one page, potential clients can find out about us in seconds.

The interactive portfolio was designed to allow visitors to watch the portfolio as an animated slide show, flip forward or backward through the portfolio, and open up the window to find out more about individual projects. Updating the contents of the portfolio is easy, as the Flash was designed to pull images from a folder and copy from a simple text file. Changing the portfolio doesn’t require any programming, just a quick update of the contents in the folder.

The home page also includes ways to learn more about Scott Design. There are links to the blog, more information about Scott Design, social networks, and our e-newsletter sign-up form. And every page features a quick contact form so clients can contact us with questions or new projects.

Since we know that folks are often looking for information while they’re out of the office, we created versions of our site for mobile devices. Mobile visitors are automatically redirected to a version of the site that is optimized for their device. And we’ve carried the new look and feel over to all of our online pages, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, our blog, and online landing pages.

The process of updating a website is never easy. You must figure out what’s working, what needs updating, and what your site visitors are going to be looking for. You then must roll it all into a clear, effective web design. We think we’ve accomplished just that with the new Scott Design website.

We hope you’ll take a look and let us know whether you agree!

P.S. To see the Scott Design website as it has appeared over the past 17 years, check out our Hotdesign.com through the ages photo album on Facebook.

Last month we got the opportunity to help Adobe celebrate the 20th anniversary of Photoshop, and this month we’re helping Adobe get the celebration going for the 10th anniversary of InDesign.

Scott Design just launched the new anniversary page for InDesign, the design and publishing software that all the designers at Scott Design have been using since it was first released. Before that, we all got our start using Aldus PageMaker at the very beginning of the desktop publishing revolution, which was the precursor of InDesign.

Take a look around the InDesign anniversary page, download the commemorative book, and take a look at how far desktop publishing has come since the early days!

It’s great when you get a chance to help a longtime friend celebrate their birthday. And that’s what Scott Design got to do when we were asked to create a special landing page celebrating the 20th anniversary of the creation of Photoshop.

The designers at Scott Design use Photoshop, some since the first version came out in 1990. We use it every day for designing and producing web and print work. So it’s kind of fun to help highlight all the cool stuff about one of our favorite design tools.

Take a look at the finished page, including the interactive timeline we created. There’s information about the history of Photoshop, the people who made this great piece of creative software, and the evolution of the interface and packaging.

It’s a fun learning experience for folks new to Photoshop, and a nice trip down memory lane for those of us who have grown up with Photoshop.

With so much being published about the use and misuse of augmented reality (AR), we thought it was time to remind people of the most important thing about new technologies: the fun that you can have with them!

What is augmented reality?

Augmented reality is the combination of real-world video with virtual computer-generated imagery. Using a webcam, an AR app can capture an image on video, recognize objects in the real world, and let you interact to with the application through your video camera. The results are a mixture of the real world and a virtual world, or, an augmented reality.

We have had hours of entertainment sticking our friends’ faces on dancing elves with Elf Yourself. We’ve been mesmerized by AR projects, such as the GE Smart Grid and tobi.com’s Virtual Dressing Room. But at Scott Design, we wanted to create an AR app where you could combine video of yourself with something fun and beautiful.

Introducing the Augmented-Reality Snowstorm

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Augmented-Reality Snowstorm, where you can put yourself or your family in a virtual snowstorm. Instead of just adding yourself to a piece of art, or playing around with a business app, you can add a peaceful (or not so peaceful, depending on your preferences) snowfall to your life.

All you have to do is download an AR marker, visit the Augmented-Reality Snowstorm, and hold the marker up to your webcam. Your video camera shows your image and picks up the image of the marker and it begins to snow on you. You use the marker to control the snowstorm by twisting and turning it, plus you can add more flakes or make the snow fall more quickly by using on-screen sliders. When you’ve got your snowstorm just how you want it, put down the marker and just enjoy the snowfall.

Don’t have a webcam? No worries!

If you don’t have a webcam, you can still have fun with the Virtual Snowstorm. Instead of using the webcam and marker, you change the snowstorm using a series of on-screen sliders.

More holiday fun

When you’re done making it snow on yourself, you can go back inside and visit the Scott Design Holiday page and play with the Snowflake Designer, curl up by the Virtual Fireplace, try your hand at Snowbash, and send out your holiday greetings using Special Delivery. They’re all part of our collection of online apps designed for just one thing: having fun!

We wish you happy holidays and a prosperous new year!

The Scott Design Team

This month, we’re celebrating Scott Design’s 16th birthday. Launched on August 1, 1993 with a handful of Silicon Valley clients, we’ve grown into a firm that serves businesses across the U.S. in a range of industries.

In celebration of Scott Design’s 16th birthday, we’re going to treat 16 lucky winners to a couple of sweet sundaes at Baskin-Robbins. The drawing is on Sept. 1, 2009, so enter today!

And, thanks for sixteen sweet years!

The International Academy of the Visual Arts and the Communicator Awards have selected Scott Design as winners of two Awards of Distinction in the 2009 competition.

The Draper Fisher Jurvetson website was awarded an Award of Distinction in the Website Structure and Navigation category. The LogLogic website garnered an Award of Distinction in the Computer Hardware Website category. Both sites were redesigned by Scott Design and each has won numerous awards since launch.

The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. This year’s Communicator Awards received  thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

The DFJ website also earned an Interactive Media Best in Class Award, a Summit Emerging Media Leader Award, a Gold International Marcom Award, a Silver ADDY Award, a Silver W3 Award, and two Silver Davey Awards.

The LogLogic website also received a Silver ADDY Award, a Bronze Horizon Award, and two Silver W3 Awards.

For the latest information on recent awards, visit the Design Awards page.

An international panel of judges notified Scott Design on Monday that we have won a pair of Bronze prizes in the 2009 Horizon Interactive Awards competition.

Scott Design was recognized in the Business to Business category for its work on the LogLogic website and in the Self-Promotion/Company Identity category for its  Scott Design Special Delivery Interactive Web Page Maker.

The Horizon Interactive Awards is a prestigious international competition that recognizes outstanding achievement among interactive media producers. This year’s competition included entries from 32 countries.

These awards showcase the technical expertise and creativity that we bring to every job. They also show our versatility. The LogLogic project is an example of our team’s serious, driven approach to helping a client set itself apart. The Special Delivery rich internet application shows our fun side. Special Delivery is something we provide free online so that people can mark occasions year-round with really cool online greetings.

Scott Design’s Special Delivery web application also won a Platinum International Marcom Award, and Emerging Media Innovator Award, a Silver Davey Award, and a Bronze ADDY Award. Special Delivery was a semifinalist in the 2009 Adobe MAX Awards.

The LogLogic website also received a Silver ADDY Award, a Communicator Award of Distinction, and two Silver W3 Awards.

For the latest information on recent awards, visit the Design Awards page.

Scott Design is proud to have received certification as a Monterey Bay Area Green Business for taking steps to ensure that our business operates in an environmentally friendly manner.

We have adopted policies to ensure that we:
- Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Reduce toxics
- Purchase environmentally responsible products
- Conserve resources
- Educate our employees and clients about sustainability

Scott Design Inc. is committed to creating a positive environmental and social impact by incorporating sustainable design practices into all of our work. We work with our clients to ensure that projects are environmentally and socially responsible, as well as profitable. We hope to help advance the understanding of sustainability issues, and we ask all of our employees to engage in conversation with every client and co-vendor about integrating sustainable alternatives in their work.

The Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program is a successful partnership of environmental agencies, utilities, and nonprofit organizations that assist, recognize, and promote businesses and government agencies that volunteer to operate in a more environmentally responsible way. To be certified “green,” participants must be in compliance with all regulations and meet program standards for conserving resources, preventing pollution, and minimizing waste. The program offers motivated businesses and agencies an easy-to-use framework for improving environmental performance. For more information, visit the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program website. Scott Design and 37 other Santa Cruz businesses were recognized by the Santa Cruz County Supervisors for going green.

Scott Design is also a member of The Designers Accord and Design Can Change, both dedicated to helping designers promote sustainability practices. You can read more about our environmental commitment and Scott Design’s Designers Accord membership.