Station Four, Inc. has been selected as one of three finalists for the Microsoft PhizzPop Design Challenge, a national competition that pits design-agency Davids and Goaliths against one another. Some of the best agencies from around the country submitted proposals for redesigning the web presence for the Boys and Girls Club of America. The team that worked on the entry for Station Four, Christopher Olberding, Christopher Lahey, and MacRae Grossman, will present their proposal in front of a live audience and a panel of esteemed judges at the Mix’10 Conference at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on March 15th, 2010.
Christopher Olberding, Station Four’s Creative Director, said “Being selected as a finalist is an honor and an amazing opportunity. It gives us the chance to showcase some of the great work that’s coming out of Station Four in terms of both web design and overall strategic planning capabilities for meshing software development and social media marketing.“
This year’s PhizzPop Design Challenge asked agencies to create the best web design solution for the Boys & Girls Club of America including strategic planning, web design compositions, and innovative uses of Microsoft technologies including the Microsoft Web Framework and Silverlight.
The Championship Round will be held at the Mix’10 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday, March 15th and will end with one of the three finalist taking home $50,000 and a trip to New York City for the 14th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 14th, 2010.
The judges for the Championship Round of the PhizzPop Design Challenge are Chris Colborn, Chief Experience Officer, EVP; Lori McLemore, Director, Marketing & Web Strategy, Boys and Girls Club of America; David Pescovitz, Co-Editor, BoingBoing; Nicolas Roope, Co-Founder, Poke; Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research; and Jaime Endreny, Executive Director, Center for Architecture Foundation.
By Chris Lahey
Thursday, March 04, 2010
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We found out today that we are one of three finalists for the Phizzpop Design Challenge, a national design competition aimed at the incorporation of the latest and greatest Microsoft technologies into a redesigned web presense for the Boys and Girls Club of America's national website.
We will be at the MIX'10 conference in Las Vegas from March 14th to March 17th to give a presentation and hopefully will come out on top of our competitors.
Even if we do not win the grand prize, it is truly an honor to be selected as a finalist against many competitors on a national scale. If you'd like to meet up, Tweet or email us.
See ya!
The Station Four Team
By Admin
Monday, December 14, 2009
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Station Four owner Chris Olberding was quoted in an article in 904 Magazine about marketing strategies for the upcoming year.
On the cost effectivness of online advertising Chris said, "It's a lot easier to 'buy' business at a loss through paid search than it is to generate a profit. With more business jumping in the search marketing game, this has lead to steadily rising costs on a per-click basis."
On the search engine friendliness of Flash-based websites: "Search engines, notably Google, have gotten a whole lot better at indexing Flash-based websites. [However], just because search engines can index Flash, doesn't mean that they do it particularly well, and there are still a host of technical challenges to creating a Flash-based site that will rank well in search engines."
Check out the full article at http://904mag.epubxpress.com/link/ninmag/2009/nov-dec/28?s=0
By Chris Olberding
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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Station Four is growing. We're currently looking to bring in two people over the next couple weeks - a graphic designer and a web design/production intern. Our primary goal is to expand our capacity (so many projects, so little time). Second, we're looking for someone who wont just allow us to process more work, but can add something to the company. The job descriptions are intentionally vague - you bring the raw talent, we'll teach the rest.
Please contact through via email (info@stationfour.com). Only applicants who provide a portfolio will be considered (digital/pdf is okay).
Designer (Print & Web)
Primary responsibilities:
- Develop web design compositions in Photoshop from provided wireframes/layouts.
- Work with clients on print design and branding/logo projects.
- Work on internal documents, print materials, and presentations.
Requirements:
- A great eye for design, must have at least one web design under their belt that demonstrates talent
- Experience in managing print projects
- Ability to work in a team and to communicate clearly
- Discuss design in a professional and analytic manner
It would be nice:
- Background with illustration
- Comfortable in a PC environment
- Basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and web standards
- Interested in learning more about web and user-experience design
Web Design Intern
Primary responsibilities:
- Create design prototypes, including graphic design, site navigation, and layout of content for client websites and internal projects
- Ensure that the layout of the content is accessible and logical; recommend improvements if necessary.
- Create visual concepts that match the content and the image wanted by the clients
- Build websites using HTML/CSS according to web standards in the ASP.NET development framework.
- Perform maintenance and updates to existing websites when requested by clients.
- Perform research and preparation of blog posts on various topics.
- Work on internal documents, print materials, presentations.
Requirements:
- Experience in web design producing table-less, XHTML, standards-compliant cross browser, and gracefully-degrading code
- Advanced knowledge of XHTML, CSS, and of digital imaging and illustration with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, formal training is an asset.
- Comfortable in a PC environment
- Very good spoken and written English
- Ability to work in a team and to communicate in a clear way
- Experience with print design a plus.
Intern will learn about:
- Managing web design projects and client expectations
- HTML/CSS best practices
- Working in ASP.NET as a designer
Experience or familiarity with ASP.NET is not a requirement.
By Chris Lahey
Friday, April 03, 2009
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We just launched our new website yesterday evening. Launching is always a frantic event. No matter how much you pre-plan, it always seems to be a frenzy of last minute To-Do's that make a launch an especially stressful event. It took us about 6 months from the moment we decided to do a redesign to get it launched. Take into consideration that we were doing client work concurrently. The standard "cobbler's family with no shoes" syndrome.
More...
By Chris Lahey
Friday, June 13, 2008
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Life has a very ironic way of balancing things out. Just as Station Four had found our dream designer (The Beastmaster) our lead designer and internet marketer met his demise... by being eaten by a mechanic on Battlestar Galactica. Oh cruel world! WHY!!?? WHY-HA-HA-WHYYYYYYYYY!!!!!?????
By Chris Lahey
Friday, June 13, 2008
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Life has a very ironic way of balancing things out. Just as Station Four had found our dream designer (The Beastmaster) our lead designer and internet marketer met his demise... by being eaten by a mechanic on Battlestar Galactica. Oh cruel world! WHY!!?? WHY-HA-HA-WHYYYYYYYYY!!!!!?????
By Chris Lahey
Thursday, June 12, 2008
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At long last, and after hours of tirelessly searching, Station Four has finally hired.... The Beastmaster.
By Chris Lahey
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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Lately, we've been hitting the Silver Strike at our local pub fairly regularly. There is just something about good beer, good friends, and some good ol' fashioned fake bowling. With Chris O (COG) and myself (CML) rapidly upping our scores we knew it was time to try our hand in some real bowling!
It's been years for both of us but don't let that fool you, we're sharks!
Now, you already know we've been getting pretty good at throwing the football left handed and as it turns out, pretty good bowling left handed as well.
Notice the fine form there. Not too shabby.
And here is Chris O. Keep your eyes on the prize Chrissy.
A day later and we're feeling the pain. Who knew real bowling was so hard?
By Chris Olberding
Thursday, February 07, 2008
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The Station Four team has been quite busy in 2008. So far the first part of the year has been pretty intense compared to strenuous days of too much food and cat naps that were the holidays.
On the 17th of January, Chris Olberding and Chris Lahey attended an AIGA sponsored business roundtable with the owners of a number of other firms in the Jacksonville area such as Jeff Harrington of Harrington Design and Carl Smith of nGen Works
In the interest of making achievable resolutions for 2008 the team here has resolved to be able to throw a football well with their off hand. After battling through some initial soreness and ugly throws I'm happy to report that the progress has been good on that endeavor.
Station Four is also ramping up a number of internal projects. We are currently developing a backend system for our clients to track their projects and associated files, manage approval of deliverables, and other good stuff. We’re also talking with gallery owners and artists researching the viability of a community based social network for visual artists and galleries with the goal of fostering the Jacksonville art community.