Azul 7 Blog Posts

Avatars brought to life!

donotreply@azul7.com (Annesteja Macedonio) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:21:57 -0500

This dreary Friday brings back memories of a great Friday past, last Friday to be exact. We attended Social Media Breakfast at Deluxe Corp. and it was a blast. The sun was shining bright, and so were the smiles. It was fun to see Twitter avatars materialize in front of our eyes, chat with old friends, and also make a few new ones. The topic of last week’s gathering was how small businesses are using social media.

The panel was composed of small business owners who discussed which social media they use, and how they use them. A common trend they saw was that Facebook is a place to connect with their regular customers, while Twitter was a place to reach out to a broader group, and really personify their business.

The reoccurring question of how to tweet (as the company, or as the business owner) arose. None of the panelist said they tweet strictly business, and often infuse their own personality to create their own unique tone online. A good point was made; people like people, not organizations. Simple. Want to start a conversation? Speak like a real person, and let the tweets roll in.

It’ll be hard to top the huge outdoor tent at Deluxe, but we can’t wait for the next Social Media Breakfast!

Soccer Fever Strikes Again

donotreply@azul7.com (Annesteja Macedonio) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:29:52 -0500

Although the world cup has officially wrapped up, we still have soccer fever here at Azul 7. Our office soccer expert, Paul Toman, is a very proud father, as one of his sons is off in a far away land (Europe) participating in a couple of pretty large international youth soccer tournaments. Playing on an international stage, is no easy task, because according to Paul, each continent, and sometimes each individual country has it's own style of play, making a physically demanding game even more difficult.

Paul’s son, Nick, ran, kicked, and headbutted his way through the tryouts to earn his position as captain of the team in the Dana Cup No.1 (Denmark) and the Gothia Cup (Sweden). Nick has been playing organized soccer since before he could spell his own name and has been the top scorer on every team he has played for. Talk about impressive. Follow his trip and meet the team here.

When we asked Paul why soccer is the best sport ever, his reply was, “Where do I start?” followed by a laundry list of reasons. We’ll sum it up be saying that soccer is awesome because it’s a fast paced team sport, highly physical, and also requires a great deal of strategy. But you probably know all of this after watching even a snippet of the World Cup action this past month.

(Nick is the player in white, wearing glasses)

Battle of the Brackets

donotreply@azul7.com (Annesteja Macedonio) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:40:05 -0500

The World Cup 2010 is drawing to a suspenseful end! If you have been following the most popular sporting event in the world, you will be one of over a billion people watching the final between one of the favorites to win the entire tournament, Spain, and an underdog, Netherlands.

At Azul 7 it has been a vicious battle of the brackets to see who is left standing. The summer interns have steadily held the top ranks, along with project manager and soccer extraordinaire, Paul. Currently Paul is tied for first with account intern, Annesteja. Paul has been playing, and coaching soccer for over 38 years, while Annesteja hasn’t touched a soccer ball since 6th grade gym class back in 2000. Who will win? Or will there be an amicable tie? We’re not exactly sure, as sport bracket math is confusing, but I’m sure Paul will let us know.

The final is Sunday, July 11th, 1:30pm (CT) you know we will be closely watching.

Free the Geeks (in you)!

donotreply@azul7.com (Annesteja Macedonio) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:09:39 -0500

Last week we attended "Being Digital": Five key tactics for modernizing your organization and ideas, held by MNAMA, and hosted by Fallon. Aki Spicer, Director of Digital Strategy at Fallon, presented his digital media insights, supplemented by some pretty cool examples of Fallon’s recent work.

One of the key points that resonated with us was the concept of “Free the Geeks(in you).” This is the idea of “normalizing technology across more of your organization.” We certainly strive to do just that at Azul 7 where the developers, designers, and account executives sit within 10 feet of each other. This allows for collaboration, and relationship building that you just don’t see everywhere. We strive to normalize technology everyday by constantly learning about new technological developments, and sharing stories with one another. Here at Azul, we’re not scared to let our geek out because that is not only how we bond, but also how we continue to learn.

Sausage, the Latest and Greatest Networking Tool

donotreply@azul7.com (Tierney Krienert) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:34:22 -0500

Last week two female Azul-ians attended a Sausage Party. Yep, you read that right; it really was a Sausage Party! Now, get your mind out of the gutter, it wasn’t that kind of Sausage Party! This Sausage Party was an event hosted at Fast Horse, Inc, and thrown by Young Professional Communicators – Twin Cities. There were delicious Kramarczuk sausages served and networking connections were made all around.

Forbes recently named the Twin Cities as one of the top metropolitan areas to offer the best chances at success for college graduates in a tough economy. This was based on affordability, good job prospects and larger-than-average incomes. In addition to performing well in those metrics, the Twin Cities has some great trade organizations around town; Young Professional Communicators is one of them, hosting networking events monthly.

The Sausage Party was a fun event for Young Professionals to meet and mingle with like-minded people. Much shoptalk was heard in every direction and great local brews were consumed.

http://mnstructures.com/

donotreply@azul7.com (Chris Cortilet) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:08:31 -0500

M&N Structures has more than 20 years of experience, supporting projects from thousand dollar remodels to multi-million dollar design-build projects. Their comprehensive process, hands-on experience, and technical knowledge can support any structural steel engineering and fabrication project. http://www.mnstructures.com

Apple Launches New iPhone 4

donotreply@azul7.com (Chris Cortilet) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:35:37 -0500

People have been dreaming about video calling for decades. iPhone 4 makes it a reality. With the tap of a button, you can wave hello to your kids, share a smile from across the globe, or watch your best friend laugh at your stories — iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi. No other phone makes staying in touch this much fun. http://www.apple.com

Senior interactive design position open

donotreply@azul7.com (Tiffani Cantu) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:14:35 -0500

Azul 7 is looking for a Senior interactive designer to approach ideas and design the same way you approach life...with fun and curiosity.

 Got Skills?

• Full understanding of Photoshop & Illustrator (experience with After Effects, InDesign, Flash a plus

• Idea generation and brainstorming skills

• Possess a strong knowledge of usability standards

 • Keen eye for layout, typography and color theory

Credentials?

 • 5+ years of design experience in an interactive/digital agency or team-based environment  

Other distinguishing attributes?

 • Curiosity, charm and plays nicely with others

 • Ability to articulate design ideas to clients

 • Ability to manage multiple projects & deadlines 

• Passion for the latest web technologies

• Experience working/concepting in motion 

Send resumes and portfolios to info@azul7.com (No phone calls please).

Senior Account Executive Position open

donotreply@azul7.com (Tiffani Cantu) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:20:59 -0500

Azul 7 seeks smart, savvy Senior Account Executive with 5-7 years of account/strategy experience

We’re looking for someone to manage interactive projects and develop healthy customer relationships to help grow their business. The right person for the role must understand the interactive design and development process in addition to having a strategic viewpoint focused on solving a client’s business challenge. Knowledge of and experience with online media and/or social media is a definite plus. It also helps to be a fun person. We love fun people (and so do our clients!)

In this position, you will be responsible for managing and developing ongoing client relationships within a variety of vertical markets, growing new business and mentoring other Account Executives. The person best suited for this position will work to develop their skills (and the skills of the team), to meet personal and organizational goals and become an Account Supervisor.

The essential functions of the position include:

Act as primary contact for execution on assigned client projects, serving as primary point person for client contact on a day-to-day basis

Develop strategy for clients working with design, technology, community and media components

Work as a client advocate with internal Azul 7 teams

Have an interest in learning more about our clients’ businesses

Work with partners to develop new business and repeat business with existing clients

Write new business proposals

We are a fast-paced organization that is looking for the best and brightest to join the team. We were voted "Best Places to Work" and offer a flexible working environment with all the bells and whistles.

If you’d like to join the Azul 7 team, please send your resume and related work examples to hr@azul7.com (no phone calls). Or, you can surprise us with your creativity and apply however you’d like!

Cheers to Lawyer Marketing by FindLaw on their Website Redesign!

donotreply@azul7.com (Allison Pankow) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:58:17 -0500

We are happy to celebrate with Lawyer Marketing by FindLaw this week! Yesterday LawyerMarketing.com launched their website redesign. We are thrilled that we had the opportunity to create a fresh, new website for this wonderful group.

The site has a new, crisp clean look, easier navigation, and added functionality. Visitors to the site can easily find tools that will help law firms get up to speed with the latest in lawyer marketing.

Services are clearly presented and award-winning work is now easier to locate. It is a great site, if we do say so ourselves! Take some time out of your day and see for yourself at www.lawyermarketing.com.

Get Your Geek On!

donotreply@azul7.com (mike limberg) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:39:35 -0500

One of our exceptional developers Robert Broneak recently attended Flashbelt, an annual conference here in Minneapolis that brings together designers and developers to “get their geek on” and learn more about the growing world of possibilities online. Here are his thoughts on the event:

Well,

Flashbelt 2010 is done and if you are a programmer/developer it held a great amount of inspiration, creative concepts, and reasons to work hard. None of the speakers received their titles as "experts" simply from being talented; instead they earned them through very hard work and determination. When you see and hear such people speak it is a wonderful reminder that if you want something bad enough, you can get it.

On the technical side of Flashbelt; yes it is about flash, but all of the speakers are not talking about and demoing flash. There was a broad range of programmers there discussing programming environments, work flow and code libraries. Further, it seems as though there is a large focus from the programming world to reduce the time it takes to get results from your ideas. This is made possible by implementing code libraries and open source code. It is exciting when such a high level of knowledge is created and openly shared.

There was chatter concerning the longevity of flash, however, no in-depth statements were made. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out; remember, we are at a very early stage of the internet and things are going to be awesome! If you want to talk with me further about anything specific, just give me a holler.

Thank you all for the patience and opportunity that allowed me to take part in Flashbelt 2010!

Hey Christopher, Its your Birthday!

donotreply@azul7.com (Tiffani Cantu) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:04:03 -0500

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today we honored one of our best, Chris Cortilet, in celebration of his birthday. To be polite, we won’t disclose how old he is now. But we will say that he was 48. The team at Azul 7 treated his sweet tooth to a Dairy Queen cake, and his design tooth to the cake’s Azul 7-themed custom frosting. “Happy Birthday” was sung, candles were blown out, and party poppers popped. Cheers, Chris. Here’s to many more.

Delicious cake:

The Greenest Way to Commute? Ride Your Unicorn to Work

donotreply@azul7.com (Tierney Krienert) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:23:29 -0500

Kermit the Frog once said “It’s not easy being green,” but I don’t think he ever had the chance to meet the folks at Azul 7. We know a thing or two about being green, and it’s not such a tough gig. We are a group of people who, for the most part, choose to bike or take mass transit to work. Many of us make this choice because it is not only environmentally friendly, but also because we loathe sitting in traffic.

After an informal survey, we found that 25% of our office drives to work, while 75% chooses to walk, bike, or bus. The bikers are by far the craziest bunch of the crew. When our lady Allison is riding, she loves to use her bell to give shout outs to passerbys, or warn anyone who might wrongfully cross her path. There was also one member in the office who didn’t quite fit into our survey; Bobby chooses the smoothest, most green friendly mode of transportation that exists, his unicorn. No need to worry as his commute is only one and a half miles, so the beautiful beast doesn’t get too tired, and he’s pretty fun to play with during lunchtime.

This week we have been extra aware of our commuting choices because it is Bike Walk Week here in the Twin Cities. What does that mean? Well, it means that from June 5-11 the cities are putting on events all around the metro to celebrate people and their bikes. After diligent information gathering and number crunching, we found that our office’s carbon footprint is 17.29 metric tons of CO2 per year. Compare that to the national average of 20 tons of CO2 and we look pretty good.

Being one of the most bike friendly cities in the country, it’s not a challenge to get on the ‘ole bike or hoof it to work, the store, or your favorite hangout spot. So grab your bike, put on some comfy shoes and enjoy all the local events of The Twin Cities Bike Walk Week 2010.

For more info, check out www.bikewalkweek.org where you can find a local bike or walking event near you!

Lisa Helminiak wins Women in Business Award 2010

donotreply@azul7.com (Leah Tran) — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:14:39 -0500

The Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal annually recognizes a select number of women for their leadership and business acumen. Lisa Helminiak is named one of 25 Women to Watch. She joins fellow honorees such as Lisa Foote of MixMobi and Diane Schmidt of Koch Industries.

As one of Azul 7's co-founders, Helminiak has helped grow the client base to include Thomson Reuters, Deluxe Corporation and Hazelden. Previously, she has held positions at space150 as director of strategy and at Larsen as vice president of the interactive group. (This means she has a lot of gray hairs.)

Congrats to all the honorees! Lisa, we are so proud of you!

The bad, the badder and the baddest

donotreply@azul7.com (Leah Tran) — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:28:21 -0500

We didn't think it could get any worse, but it did. The finalists for I Hate My Website Contest are now posted.

See the results of the latest collaboration between Azul 7 and Deluxe Corporation at www.ihatemywebsitecontest.com.

(Warning: Your design sensibilities may be scarred for life.)

In-DEED: Azul 7 Announces MN Dept. of Economic Development Project

donotreply@azul7.com (Lisa Helminiak) — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:57:38 -0500

Jobs are out there, and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is helping dislocated workers find them. Azul 7 is making it easier with a website that helps workers understand how their skills from prior jobs can transfer to new careers.

We are helping DEED by designing a new user experience for the job search – going beyond job listings to help people better understand the idea of skills transference. DEED has amazing data, which we will feed through a user interface and experience that helps visitors gauge and understand their options. Features will include a skills analysis that identifies strengths and gaps, and guides visitors to present and future opportunities where their skills are most needed; directories of programs that can help workers augment their skills; and information that will help workers make good decisions about their next opportunity, such as average-wage data, flags for green industries, and whether the new position is in a growing or declining category or sector.

We’re thrilled to be working with DEED again. We’ll let you know when the site is live.

Azul 7 + 2

donotreply@azul7.com (Eric Gilseth) — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:44:46 -0500

We’re loving our two new Creative Techs (art + engineering types who rock our front-end design and development): Bobby Broneak and Mario Lopez. Their creativity, problem-solving, interactive-design and production-experience chops are outstanding, sure. But what we’re most excited about is that Mario, who also DJs and has a music studio, is helping us change up our office Pandora stream; and year-round hockey guy, Bobby, is our in on decent ice time.

Keep up with Mario at @arturo20 and Bobby at @me_bipolar.

Design Position Open: Interactive Designer

donotreply@azul7.com (Tiffani Cantu) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:32:38 -0500

Azul 7 is looking for an interactive designer to approach ideas and design the same way you approach life...with fun and curiosity.

Got Skills?
• Full understanding of Photoshop & Illustrator (experience with After Effects, InDesign, Flash a plus)
• Idea generation and brainstorming skills
• Possess a strong knowledge of usability standards
• Keen eye for layout, typography and color theory

Credentials?
• 2+ years of design experience in an interactive/digital agency or team-based environment

Other distinguishing attributes?
• Curiosity, charm and plays nicely with others
• Ability to articulate design ideas to clients
• Ability to manage multiple projects & deadlines
• Passion for the latest web technologies
• Experience working/concepting in motion

Send resumes and portfolios to Tiffani Cantu (tiffani.cantu@azul7.com).

Geek Wanted (Part II): Front-End Developer

donotreply@azul7.com (Leah Tran) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:36:05 -0500

Azul 7 seeks a front-end developer who is interested in making designs pretty for the Web and joining a team of like-minded interactive aficionados.

Do you speak the language?
• Skilled in XHTML and CSS with a knowledge of JavaScript.
• Possess a strong knowledge of the latest Web design and Web standards, in particular with respect to concepts of full separation of content from presentation using CSS/text-based layout, accessibility and cross-browser compatibility techniques
• Ability to code, test and document; determine specifications; modify and expand XHTML templates to work across a network of sites

Snazzy credentials?
• 2+ years of work experience hand-coding Web pages
• Thorough understanding of XHTML, CSS and experience with JavaScript
• Knowledge of Photoshop is required for slicing, cutting and optimizing Web graphics for speed and performance
• Quality assurance and/or testing experience
• Familiarity with principles of AGILE development

Other distinguishing attributes?
• Curiosity, charm and plays nicely with others
• Flash/Flex/Action Script experience
• Experience with other Web technologies such as PHP
• Experience building HTML e-mail campaigns
• Experience concepting, customizing and adapting open-source content management

Send resumes to Tiffani Cantu (tiffani.cantu@azul7.com).

Geek Wanted: Interactive Application Developer

donotreply@azul7.com (Leah Tran) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:03:19 -0500

Azul 7 seeks a geek of the interactive application development persuasion. This person will be responsible for building, testing and maintaining cutting-edge Web solutions and will be joining a team of like-minded interactive aficionados.

Can you speak the language?
• Develop and maintain websites, microsites and Web applications
• Proficiency in PHP, MySQL and Drupal customization and module development.
• Knowledge of CSS, JavaScript (DHTML/Ajax), database architecture and information architecture.
• Architect code and database with an eye towards best practices, scalability, flexibility, maintainability and efficiency
• Develop well-documented, clean and error-free code
• Proactively engage in technical problem solving
• Actively stay abreast of current interactive technologies and best practices

Snazzy credentials?
• Degree from an accredited program
• 2+ years PHP and MySQL development (LAMP architecture)
• Proficiency in Drupal customization and module development
• 2+ years JavaScript (DHTML/AJAX) experience
• Quality assurance and/or testing experience
• Familiarity with principles of AGILE development

Other distinguishing attributes?
• Curiosity, charm and plays nicely with others
• Experience with other Web technologies such as J2EE, XML/XSLT and Flash
• Experience with Content Management Systems
• Experience developing e-commerce solutions
• Experience with jQuery and jQuery UI

Send resumes to Tiffani Cantu (tiffani.cantu@azul7.com).