6 reasons why Team Up OKC is helping OKC Public Schools

By Emily Spirek on October 17, 2011 at 12:20 pm in General,non-profit

Many people know that in September, 2011, Edmond, OK was voted the #1 suburb in America by CNBC. One of the biggest factors contributing to this is the school system. Edmond Public Schools are ranked higher than 59 percent of all other U.S. public schools. (The Edmond Sun)

Fantastic news, and now we know we’re capable of great schools in Oklahoma! But why is the school system in the capital of our state suffering?

Oklahoma City Public Schools facts

The statistics are absolutely shocking when it comes to the Oklahoma City Public Schools, and honestly quite depressing. Here are six of many reasons why we are reaching out to them.

  1. In 2009, OKCPS became the largest school district in the state.
  2. Of the 42,457 enrolled, 38,310 students live at or near poverty. That’s 90%!
  3. 1,719 students are homeless.
  4. 1/3 of the students don’t even graduate high school.
  5. Of the ones that actually go to college, only 28% earn a degree.
  6. 1 in every 3 teacher spends more than $1000 of their own paycheck on school supplies every year.

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to start revolutionizing the OKC Public School system.

How Team UP OKC is helping

In 2008, 3,000 misprinted pizza boxes were donated to The Foundation for OKC Public Schools. Within days, all boxes had been picked up by teachers for art projects and more.

The need was apparent, so The Foundation for OKCPS introduced the TEACHERS WAREHOUSE, a program providing free classroom supplies and equipment that teachers can order, once a month, from an online catalog.

Because of Comtech Print & Design & Panera Bread teaming up with some amazing organizations, Team Up OKC launched last year in 2010. Here are a few other sponsors to give you an idea of how many people are supporting the cause.

Sponsors

These organizations are donating time and/or money in order to make the school supply drive a success. The supply drive will occur November 1-15th, and all of the supplies will benefit the Teacher’s Warehouse of The Foundation for OKC Public Schools.

How you can help

You can donate needed materials at one of the appropriate drop off locations. Even if you think it’s simple and cheap, those supplies will be put to use! Backpacks are one of the most needed items, along with paper, pencils, crayons, etc.

If you’re near Oklahoma Christian, T&S Web Design is a drop off location! Here’s the map.

Donating school supplies may not seem like we are changing the world, but in order to educate the younger generation, we need resources. Education is so important, and I think the smart thing to do is focus on our children in order to provide them with a more positive future!

Team Up OKC Website :: Facebook :: Twitter

Feel smarter. Be trendy. Use QR Codes.

By Emily Spirek on August 8, 2011 at 11:40 am in freebies,General,Mobile Web

Yes, QR Codes are the new buzz in technology land. The question is, are you one of those smart people buzzing about it?

First, a lesson about what it is. Then, a lesson about what it is to you.

What is it?

QR Code = Quick Response Code. And they do mean quick.

It’s a simple 2D code that you generate (for free) and people scan it with their extremely intelligent, camera-enabled phones. Immediately after they scan the code, the application will direct them straight to your website.

Typing out a domain name? Psh. That’s in the past.

It can be used for other things as well, including, virtual business cards, phone numbers or even sending a text message.

We all know how creative the young generation is, and they will find plenty of uses for these codes. I even read an article about a guy putting a QR Code on his mother’s tombstone, which directed people to a memorial website he created for her. Weird, yet extremely innovative.

What is it to you?

1 in 2 Americans will have one of these super awesome smartphones by the end of 2011.

Meaning, people will have the ability to use these QR Codes…everywhere. Make it easier on your current and potential clients/customers – who doesn’t want instant gratification?

Karan Ediger, General Manager of the Edmond Business Times, wrote an article about this new phenomena. She admits that she’s “no genius when it comes to digital technology,” but she’s been quite impressed with this new fad.

She has great tips for incorporating the QR Code into your business’ marketing. She says to ask yourself, is it to:

  • Increase awareness about a new product or introduce a new service
  • Announce a big sale
  • Increase efforts on a charity fund drive

Decide your goal, and the QR Code has great potential to aid in the success of your business.

If you think the code is a bit ugly and would make your designs lose their snaz, remember, there is some room for experimentation. Check out these awesome business card designs (as well as ours pictured above). It might give you a little hope.

Consider this!

Once you add your QR Code to your business card, flyers, etc., think about what you’re directing your clients to. Most people are scanning these codes with their smartphone, meaning they’re navigating your website on their phone too.

Consider getting a mobile website design, which is a simplified version of your full site. One-touch calling and map functions are ideal for on-the-go purposes. Scan our QR Code above to check out the mobile version of our website!

If you subscribe to our Ezine in the bottom right corner of our site, we will give you a free business card design with your sparkly new QR Code! Just purchase a mobile website (starting at $595) by August 31st, and we’ll design you a new business card (200 awesomely-printed cards included).

There you have it. Two birds with one stone.

 

 

Updated look for the new year

By Emily Spirek on January 24, 2011 at 12:15 pm in General

img_4415So by now, everyone knows how T&S is a comfortable, laid back and overall awesome environment, but something was missing in the office. Even though we knew this, it was a mixture of not knowing the solution and also the lack of time to figure it out.

Over Christmas break, our new Admin Assistant, Keri Blumer, took the liberty of drawing out a detailed plan for the rearranged office and pretty much moved all of it herself (even when Tim said he’d help). We can’t tell you how much we appreciate her innovation and even more so her execution. We LOVE the new look and it finally conveys our personality. She’s pretty fantastic. (Check out the pictures below).

We still have a few robot paintings and posters to hang, as well as adding some new storage bins to the bookshelves, but it’s on its way to a style we love. Oh, and Tim bought a big screen TV…which topped off the new look. It’s pretty amazing how a different style can affect your mood in the office (Fung Shui is awesome).

Probably one of my favorite details is the couch pillows. I’ve wanted those since day 1 in the new office, but you know, takes time. We thought about purchasing the Adobe pillows with Illustrator, Photoshop, etc., but why do that when you can have an employee make them from scratch? Elyssa Dolinger was a designer for us for about a year-ish, and she handcrafted those babies. We adore them.

Oh, and we want people visit us, so stop by and check out all the new stuff. And if you know of anyone who has some artwork that needs some love, we definitely have some extra wall space and wouldn’t mind having it on display.

We hope everyone has a blessed new year!

All this talk about non-profits

By Emily Spirek on January 7, 2011 at 4:17 pm in General,non-profit

Yes, it’s true. This is the third blog post in a row that we’ve spilled our guts about non-profits. We might go as far as saying we love them more than oranges. Say what? That’s a big deal.

non-profit-graphic

Anyway, since we’ve done all this talk about them, we thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of some of the organizations who:

  1. We’ve completed websites/design work for in the past
  2. Are currently in the website process
  3. Have recently signed with us

These are some great organizations, so please check them out. Also be sure to keep your eyes peeled for updates of newly launched sites!

Here they are in chronological order:
Aug 1, 2003 – Cherokee Hills Church of Christ
Sep 1, 2003 – OKBEST Robotics
2005 – Akron Baskets of Love
Jan 4, 2005 – Mission Nicaruaga
Jan 4, 2005 – Heavenly Harvest Coffee
Mar 1, 2005 – North Pointe Church of Christ
April 1, 2006 – Trek to the Troops
Apr 15, 2008 – UR Special
Apr 29, 2008 – First Christian Church of OKC
Jun 23, 2008 – Sylvan Hills

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Jan 19, 2009 – Edmond Mobile Meals
Feb 23, 2009 - Diabetes Solutions
Mar 29, 2009 – MPI Oklahoma
Apr 30, 2009 – Teen emPower
Jun 1, 2009 – OK Women’s Coalition
Jun 2, 2009 - Victim’s Impact Panel of Oklahoma

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Jul 15, 2009 – Edmond Lacrosse
Jul 29, 2009 – The Kids’ Place
Sep 2, 2009 - Paint-A-Smile

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Oct 29, 2009 – Chosen OKC Adoption Ministry
Nov 2, 2009 – Xenia Institute
Dec 11, 2009 – Custer Avenue Church of Christ
Jan 26, 2010 – Angel’s Foster Family Network
March 30, 2010 – Give Kids Games

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Jun 4, 2010 – Biblical Institute of Central America
Jun 9, 2010 – Children’s Hospital Foundation
Jun 15, 2010 – Oklahoma Bar Foundation
Jul 14, 2010 – Project READ
Sep 10, 2010 – What God Has Joined

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Sep 28, 2010 – Summit
Oct 27, 2010 – Lakehoma Church of Christ
Oct 27, 2010 – Safe Kids Oklahoma
Nov 9, 2010 - Simply Serving Christ Clothing Ministry

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Nov 10, 2010 – Real Spirituality
Nov 11, 2010 - Faith Village Church of Christ
Nov 11, 2010 – Nueces Canyon Church of Christ
Dec 9, 2010 – Oklahoma Railway Museum
Dec 26, 2010 – Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association
Jan 4, 2011 - Sooner Youth Camp

…and many more to come. If we missed you on the list, be sure to let us know!

Die Mother Printer, Die.

By Emily Spirek on September 24, 2010 at 9:18 am in Fun Friday!,General,Video

After being a faithful printer for several years, our HP all-in-one slowly failed us until a power outage finally took its life. By that time, we all resented it anyway, so we made a little video to show our disdain.

Many should recognize the reference to the Office Space printer scene, but we had Erick Alexander Music create a custom and more appropriate song for our video.

We definitely have no regrets and it was actually quite liberating. In fact, we’re thinking of framing the bat and hanging it in our office. Also, please don’t try this at home (we had highly trained actors).

Check out our latest website launches!

By Emily Spirek on August 20, 2010 at 4:59 pm in Client Plug,General

Angels Foster Family Network OKC

We had the pleasure of working with Jennifer Abney, founder of the Angels program in OKC.  She is an extremely kind-hearted and admirable woman, and we’re so thankful for her hard work in developing the OKC branch. Please read more about this organization because so many children are waiting for a loving home! Angels will be with you every step of the way with training, information and more. Thanks Jennifer!

Visit Angels’ website and Facebook page

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Land Enterprises

Land Enterprises is not only worried about quality of work in roofs, but they truly care about their customers. Brian Land founded the company in 1996, and his company has been booming ever since! Brian’s genuine personality is what sets them apart, so you will be taken care of no matter what! Check out Land’s in-depth roofing process explained on their new site. We guarantee you’ll have a wonderful experience with them!

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Launch Baskets!

When we design a custom site for a client and launch their new site (like Angels and Land), we want to send them a little piece of our appreciation:

  1. CD with a copy of their website
  2. Thank you card
  3. Candy/treat
  4. T&S pen
  5. Personalized rocket for their “launch”
  6. A custom labeled T&S Jones soda bottle

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Thanks to all of our clients, and we look forward to more website launches coming soon!

Thursday, July 15th = cake, ribbon cutting and new office

By Emily Spirek on June 30, 2010 at 2:18 pm in General

screen-shot-2010-06-30-at-25428-pmSo, we would like to show off our new space…and feed you cake.

Here are the details:

When: Thursday July 15th, 2010 @ 4pm-7pm
Where: T&S Office – 2801 E. Memorial Suite 137 | Edmond, OK 73013
What: Reveal of new studio, cake and finger foods, ribbon cutting with OKC/Edmond Chamber. All combined….the best open house you’ve ever attended.

We know you want to see where the website magic happens. The ribbon cutting will be at 4pm, and food/fun will be throughout. We’d love to see you there!

Find us on Facebook to RSVP, we appreciate it!

37 feet…continued

By Emily Spirek on June 9, 2010 at 4:40 pm in General

Here’s an update on the progress of the new office. If you compare the pictures to Elyssa’s post below, you’ll see quite the transformation.

Elyssa and I will be doing some paintings this weekend for some of the decor, and we’re in the process of buying the rest. Still have a ways to go, but it’s definitely an improvement from the last post. If anyone has some awesome paintings they want us to hang, we’d love to take a look!

We’ll be having an open house next month for everyone to see our new space. Although it was mentioned in the last post, let me remind you: our office grew from 185 sq ft to 1100 sq ft. So yes, we want to show it off.

Why Acrobat is better for printing and our story behind it

By Emily Spirek on April 19, 2010 at 10:57 am in General

Adobe Acrobat vs. Preview (on a Mac)

Yesterday, our power glitched while Tim was in a meeting, and when he came in the office to make a copy, we discovered the printer was fried. In all attempts to turn it back on, we still failed.

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Fried Printer

So, even though we had been researching color laser printers the past few months, we didn’t realize we’d be forced into buying one.

We made our trip to Staples and came back with an HP Color Laserjet. So pretty…

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Brand New Color Laser printer

Anyway, now we are testing the printer to see if it’s worth keeping, and we noticed a lot of detail was missing in the printouts (when printing from Tim’s computer). Of course, our first thought is to blame the printer and consider getting a refund, but then Elyssa (one of the designers) printed from her computer, and it looked perfect in detail and color.

After more experimentation, I finally came up with the solution: different applications were being used to view and print the PDFs.

You can see the comparison below:

Adobe Acrobat PDF – screen view (left)

Preview PDF – screen view (right)

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Notice the detail in the calculator is missing in Preview.

Adobe Acrobat printout (left)

Preview printout (right)

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The printouts show even more problems when using Preview:

1. Detail in the calculator is still missing
2. Colors are muddy
3. Lines in text and images are jagged
4. The entire document is larger

Preview’s default is to scale the images so it fits the screen. This throws off the proportion of the document and leads to other problems.

Through more experimentation, we found that Adobe Acrobat takes longer for the documents to print, but rightfully so. It obviously pays closer attention to detail and prints more accurately. I’ve yet to research the technical details as to why Acrobat is better, but so far we just have the proof.

Along with all of the other features included, like: password encrypting, print production features, electronic fillable forms, etc. (in Acrobat Professional), I’ve finally decided to switch to Acrobat as my default PDF viewer. It may take longer in some cases, but accuracy in printing makes it all worth it.

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