Trade Show Provides Insight on Social Media & Blogging Best Practices for Banks

Shortly after implementing social media to K4’s marketing mix, I began to like & follow all of our current clients and prospects and became interested in their social media strategies.

Since Internet Marketing is my passion, I naturally began to wonder if social media and blogging could be additional services we could help our clients with.  Since we are already spearheading the design of their exterior & interior spaces, could we assist with print and digital marketing as well, creating a complete branding package and total consistency of the message?

Prior to attending the Indiana Bankers Association Mega Conference last week, while perusing the event agenda, I found many educational tracks being offered on marketing, social media & blogging.  Clearly, this is what our clients want to know about!   I became excited to attend the tracks to learn more about how we can advise our Banking clients in their branding efforts.

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Design, Discipline & Professional Problem Solving

Each year, as a new DAAPworks exhibition approaches and quickly passes, I can’t help but reflect on my own capstone experience and how it prepared me for a career in Graphic Design.  It seems like just yesterday I was stressing out over designing, printing, and building my project.  The blood, sweat, and tears that go into every senior’s thesis are really evident in the final product.

Grania Frueh capstone image

Grania Frueh capstone image

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The Craft of Architecture

In 2013, it seems out-of-date to discuss architectural practices of hundreds of years ago.   But when you experience Michelangelo’s Piazza Del Campidoglio or climb Brunelleschi’s dome, anyone, not just the architecturally trained, can see that traditional architecture celebrates craft.  “To craft” is to make or manufacture an object with skill and careful attention to detail.  The traditional approach that so closely links art and craft within architecture instills the basic, but invaluable principles of form, shape, proportion, and scale that are inherent to successful design.  Incorporating these skills, through a hands-on approach to your study or practice, strengthens the understanding and appreciation for the craft of building design.

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Brunelleschi’s Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore & Michelangelo’s Piazza Del Campidoglio
Image Source, Image Source

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7 Awesome Apps for Architects

Here are my recommendations on 7 Awesome Apps for Architects.  Please let me know if you have any additional apps to recommend or add to this list.  K4 is always on the lookout for tools to enhance our job performance.

1.  AutoCAD WS 

  • This App is from Autodesk, the developers of AutoCad.  It works on both the iPhone and iPad as well as Android devices. It lets you open and edit AutoCad drawings on your mobile device.  Files are transferred to the App using AutoDesk`s online service here.  The files are then stored locally on the device, and you can set maximum file storage size.  Because of this, you can edit drawings even if you are not connected to WiFi or the Internet and the changes will be synced back up when you have an Internet connection. The app is most useful on an iPad with its bigger screen size.

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K4’s Approach to Website Design for Successful Internet Marketing

K4 recently underwent a website redesign.  The new website has been live since December 1st and we hope that you like it!  The pressure was on, being designers, to not just design something beautiful and functional but to design a website that was built and poised for successful Internet marketing.

Today’s website has two audiences – readers AND search engines and unfortunately the two have very different and distinct tastes.  So our new goal was to create a visually appealing, user friendly and engaging website for the visitors, while at the same time making it search engine friendly; ultimately satisfying the needs and wants of both audiences.  Also, multiple versions of the new website were needed – traditional, mobile and tablet.

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Place Making: Turning Our Communities Into Places We Are Proud Of

In one of those totally unpredictable shifts in sensibility that occur when least expected, it is the landscape architects who are re-engaging today’s radically innovative aesthetic with human needs and social functions; this is where the essential connections with the human condition are being made. And just in time, as architects, seduced by celebrity and technology, engaged in a dead-end contest in egos and engineering, have become more fixated on object making than place making, more removed from the intrinsic social purposes of their art.

-Ada Louis Huxtable

How do we turn the places we inhabit into the places we want to live in, work in and play in?

Have you ever gone on vacation to a historic city, perhaps Charleston, Missoula, Savannah, St. Augustine, or Williamsburg and wished you lived there, or wished simply that where you did live was more like those places of character you love to visit? Our images of those places, how we identify with those cities, are by the districts, neighborhoods and public space venues that define them.  New Orleans is branded by Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, and of course, the rich musical history associated with that region. New York City has many cultural and identifiable districts from Central Park to Times Square, Chelsea and the Highline to Battery Park, and of course the rich ethnic boroughs beyond.

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Total Solutions Branding

When one thinks about the brand of an organization, they typically first think of the company’s logo such as the Nike Swoosh, the McDonald’s Golden Arches, or the Apple icon.

The companies mentioned above have all invested in a well-rounded branding package, going beyond the logo and thus are able to enjoy brand recognition and the sense of familiarity that consumers associate with their logo.  When you think of a logo, it should evoke thoughts of the entire interaction with the company itself – the product, the packaging, the marketing, AND the in-store experience.

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Gaining the Confidence to Place Yourself in the Path of Opportunity

In college, I feel like I didn’t come into my own until my third year of school.  I was so busy with DAAP work and my sorority events that I totally missed all of the great opportunities I had in front of me.  I decided that I wanted to get serious about getting involved and making a difference on our campus.  The University of Cincinnati has so many diverse groups, clubs, and organizations that elevate the ordinary college experience.   It’s just a matter of finding one that works for you and provides inspiration.

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How to Create Award Winning Design Details

On November 9th the Cincinnati Design Awards celebrated design as a variety of firms across Cincinnati were recognized from an interdisciplinary jury representing architecture, interior design, graphic design, landscape design, and the local community. This year there were 91 entries submitted and K4 Interiors received an Honorable Mention in the Open Distinguished Detail category for ESD Pediatric Group.

We were so honored to accept this award because of the countless hours spent developing a great design concept into real-life design features.  We’d like to share with you the work that was behind these award winning design details.

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How to Get a Job in Architecture in 2013

Congrats to all recent School of Architecture graduates!  Finding a job, especially one right after you get out of school, is not always as easy as you might have hoped.  Despite now being happily employed as a Designer at K4, I initially struggled with the transition from being a student of architecture to beginning a career in architecture.  I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2009 and when I found the job search a little more challenging than expected, I decided to pick up and move to Boston.  If I can’t design buildings and cities – I might as well explore a new one!  The following are a few tips I learned while unemployed and trying to navigate the professional realm of architecture.

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