Bored with the commonplace/typical “Process” or “How We Work” sections found in most studio or agency websites, our creative intent was twofold: To defy convention and to demonstrate our process in a way that is creative, amusing and downright unique.

Jam3 is known for work that is elaborate and visual, so collaborating with the very talented Dean West to transform our process into a series of over the top, epic photos was natural. Each person depicted in the Process collection is employed at Jam3. This is an important representation, as our people are the most integral part of the wonderful work that we produce.

Our Process collection aims to attract the people who understand the concept; who get our creative style and who want to be a part of the worlds we create.

Last Thursday, we invited a couple hundred of our clients and industry friends to launch the collection of photos and consume some alcohol at a sweet event space on King West. (Photos and video of party to come soon)

Check out the whole series in higher resolution here.
(Be sure to click on the photos to zoom in and see them in full detail).

We’ve never spent a dime on advertising and we continuously rely solely on our own SEO techniques and word of mouth referral to elevate ourselves to the top of search results rankings. The result? Jam3 is the number 1 Google search result for “Flash Development Toronto” and “Flash Web Toronto.” We can also proudly tell you we are on the first page of results for “Flash Toronto”, “Web Design Toronto”, “Web Development Toronto.”

This is no accident. We practice what we preach when it comes to SEO; we know what and how often we need to update content to enhance traffic and drive viewers to our site.

While  there is no silver bullet in SEO, you can create hundreds of “meta shrapnel” embedded in your site both on the surface and within the meta layers of the code. Since we’re not knowledge hoarders, we want to share our findings and tips with you. Below you’ll find common causes for poor search result rankings and six tips for turbo charging your SEO.

Common Errors:

• Keywords not being used properly in page meta titles and copy structure.

• No or even miscoded image alt tags as well as missed opportunities for photo caption text and unrealized organic search potential.

• Poor usability, information architecture and misleading web copy that can also in turn create user confusion and lead to ‘bounces’.

• Missed opportunities to communicate one thing: bad design, poor writing.

• Site credibility factors: little items such as terms and conditions, legal and up to date copyright years.

• To make matters worse, many web sites simply are not doing the basic ‘passive’ search engine optimization techniques.
• Having a non-existent site map to facilitate crawling and navigation.
• Overdoing anchor text. You don’t want all your inbound links looking the same, because it looks like automation. Google isn’t kind to automation.
• Depending on Twitter and Facebook alone to boost inbound links. Google robot ignores them.

SEO Tips:

• Use WordPress as a blogging platform. Google loves WordPress.

• Take the time to employ best practices in page optimization – adding captions and permalinks for pages.

• Recommend verbose folder and page nomenclature to improve click-throughs and semantics

• Be sure to name your images accurately and use natural keyword placement. Just don’t overdo it keyword stuff. That’ll get you red flagged in no time.

• Add opt-in RSS feed onto the main page for all consistently-updated content.

• Make the effort to review site activity quarterly to monitor analytics and make necessary changes to keyword, meta-data and media feeds.

Hopefully these suggestions help you beef up your search results ranking, and if you’ve discovered any tricks we didn’t include, share them with us. We love to learn.

Producing interactive that is non linear without the need for an “end”.

Earlier this week I wrote an article for Mediapost Daily but thought we’d bring it into our blog and also gussy it up with a sweet,sexy image.

“Digital narratives” is a term mainly used by people in the entertainment industry who create longer, immersive and interactive content online. I want to point out that if you’re coming from the advertising world this post is equally applicable as we continue to see the rise of some fantastic microsites with high budget video experiences.

If you’ve heard me speak at events or programs on the topic of producing digital narratives (aka interactive storytelling — or any other creative combination of the two buzzwords) in the past year, you would have heard me refer to something I like to call the “2 / 20 rule” – which deals with the fact that every visitor is different and that their attention spans will vary considerably. To compensate for this, the idea is to design your site and narrative so that the content can be consumed effectively by people who are going to spend 2 minutes on your site, or 20.

Every site has a goal. Whether the focus is advertising, entertainment or documentary, each site has an intended message that visitors are meant to take away. Since time is precious and another site is just a click away, it’s important to remember that users shouldn’t have to go through an entire site to get the overall message. To allow users to see the content which interests them the most, remember to segment content into smaller sections by creating a narrative that is non-linear. In a non-linear setup, visitors don’t have to go through A-B-C-D to get to E allowing them to “direct” their own experience instead of holding their hand and dictating the flow.

Some of you who produce, direct or design might find this ideology a bit off-putting, especially a film director who is used to creating 90 – 120 movies. However, you must keep in mind that even though a visitor loves your site it doesn’t mean that they’ll go through the entire site and see everything. The reality is that a larger number of them won’t. A site with a lot of depth and content available gives fully engaged people with more available time the opportunity to see as much as they like, but its also equally important to design the site so that the user with limited time can also enjoy the experience. This concept is equivalent to the ‘short chapter’ approach in books — If the content is split into smaller chunks and you know it will only take 1 minute to go through it, you’re more likely to click to subsequent pages than if each page takes 5 minutes to consume. By presenting your site this way, you ensure that all visitors to the site will quickly get to the point – and regardless of which page they exit from, they’ll have gotten the message.

Take the multi award winning interactive documentary “Waterlife” (http://waterlife.nfb.ca) we created with the NFB as an example of the non-linear approach. We started with a homepage interface where visitors could essentially click anywhere to enter one of the 23 sections. The site was designed without a beginning or an end in terms of content. Each section would begin with an unavoidable and poignant message in the preloader, and then a section of the site would load featuring beautiful background footage, overlaid by voice overs, music and plenty of textual information and facts. The narration, short clips of video and large headlines appeal to the speediest of users who will absorb only the essential information, while those taking their time can continue to read through all of the research and consume the full breadth of informational content.

There will always be those who can cite examples or cases of amazing sites told in a linear fashion that amassed millions of visits where the visitor payoff may have been in the end, or the entire experience may have taken 40 minutes. I certainly recognize that there are a million ways to skin a cat and the “2 / 20″ rule may not be the definitive key to interactive success, but it is a great way to communicate messages effectively to a variety of different types of visitors. It is important to realize how wide the differences in your user base can be, and to be able to tailor the experience for everyone regardless of how much time they can or want to invest.

This position is open to those outside of Canada and willing to relocate to Toronto.

Super sweet bonus points awarded to:
- experience with After Effects or 3D programs
- experience in other design fields (art, illustration, print design, branding)
- those who create personal works in spare time

You will be:
· Collaborating with creative and art directors on concepts
· Assisting senior designer in complex interactive designs
· Designing smaller websites, promotional artwork and logos.
· Creating style frames, branding guides and mood boards
· Communicating ideas by means of pencil sketches, wireframes and mockups
· Always advancing your skills and learning new ones.

You already:
· Understand composition & typography and colour theory
· Have an eagle’s eye for attention to detail
· Have a rock solid knowledge of Photoshop & Illustrator
· Know and understand Flash
· Know about new technologies like HTML5, Unity and Molehill
· Are driven to push yourself, your work and aren’t satisfied with mediocrity

Jam3 Offers:
· Benefits (Dental, Medical, Long Term Disability, etc)
· Opportunity to work on advanced interactive projects outside of just advertising microsites (interactive documentaries, tv & music industry, motion graphic videos & applications)
· Non repetitive work through a varied client list and collaboration with top agencies at the international level
· An office filled with awesome people who can do unbelievably amazing things in digital
· A vintage Coke fridge stocked full with imported beers
· A standup arcade filled with 150 classic games (including every version of Street Fighter ever made)

Send an email to workwithus@jam3.com with a link to your portfolio (or works) and an explanation outlining why you think you’d be the right fit for us.

Anyone who uses Twitter extensively knows that the amount of content and information coming through can be daunting and overwhelming. Yesterday we launched a beta version of our mobile app called Tweedless that will help power Twitter users sift through their many tweets and view the content they want to see in a quick and efficient way. Right now it’s available on the brand spanky new BlackBerry Playbook tablet and it’s a full featured Twitter client that includes a range of tools and filters that allow Twitter users to better manage their feed. So the idea as we like to say is that you “Read less with Tweedless”.

Check out some preview images here

The beta version of Tweedless includes a number of capabilities all designed to make using Twitter easier. We’ll be adding all sorts of new filters shortly but right now BlackBerry Playbook users who download Tweedless and link with their main Twitter account can immediately:

• Quickly set or disable filters that are extended from the main feed through to mentions and direct messages
• Isolate multiple users to easily follow conversations with simple taps
• Toggle content filters to determine what types of tweets (links, images, videos) and messages are in view
• have messages sorted based on who you interact with most

So if you’ve got a Playbook try Tweedless out for free via the BlackBerry App World. We have lots of plans for the future with additional filtering capabilities in the months ahead and will be extending the app to the Desktop, Android and iOS devices.

www.tweedless.com

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Most people are aware of the wonders of WordPress, the popularity of Drupal, and the extendability of Joomla, but what happens when your wrench, hammer and screwdriver don’t do what you need them to? We love WordPress especially, don’t get us wrong, but sometimes these solutions seem a bit like driving your car to get the end of your street.

For the last 3 years we’ve been continually expanding on our own CMS nick-named “Peanut Butter”. What makes it so special is that it is completely tailored to the content it manages. It does anything and everything that you would expect from a CMS: uploads images, edits rich-text, orders content, associates tags with items, manages users, publishes previews and writes XML. But the best part is that the codebase scales itself to do only what your custom web site needs quickly.

Many would take this for granted. Your CMS shouldn’t require training. It should just make sense and as a bonus it should look like it was designed just for you. You’ve just launched your new custom web experience and you need to control it. Et voila! a matching custom control panel without breaking the piggy bank.

Most people know us for the immense pride that we put into the front facing side of our work and for the backend this is no different. DDB’s brand new site is a wonderful example and a testament to its power and scalability.

It was an honour for Pablo to join the others speaking at this event:

Thoughts from Pablo Vio:
“The transition from the broadcast world to interactive is still quite an obstacle for traditional producers. It was surprising to me after our discussion to learn how many writers, directors and producers are still trying to grasp the intricacies of working along side an interactive shop. Some of the questions lingering were:

It’s imperative that we continue to have these discussions to bridge that gap between broadcast and interactive. Traditional production companies need to concentrate on finding a true partner that is not just a service partner but a true collaborator. They must work side by side to create the best experience for the end user from all angles. It’s all about bringing the best partners to the table. The two worlds of broadcast and interactive can learn so much from each other.

It was important to have had representatives of grant-giving organizations Francesca Accinelli and Andra Sheffer, as mentioned above, on the panel. They were very straightforward and helpful in answering a lot of the questions and uncertainties that we all have when confronting this new world of funding.”

This time we didn’t find any twitter comments on Pablo’s resemblance to any handsome celebrities like last time, but all in all, a fun and successful talk at an extremely helpful event with an awesome organization that supports women in screen-based media (film, television and digital media) to build, advance and sustain their careers nationally and internationally.

More on Women in Film & Television at their site – www.wift.com

I wanted to mark my first day with a post releasing the first of some backgrounds for desktops and the iPhone and iPad that we’ve been working on. It gives our designers an opportunity for a little bit of creative outlet while also promoting the Jam3 brand.

Joon Kim designed this one which is rad and (not) coincidentally my current desktop background! Just click the image to open in a new window and control click to save, but I don’t have to tell you that, right? I kind of assume anyone reading this site can handle this bit of technical mastery, but you never know.

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This year the company is not just attending and volunteering en masse we are speaking in three separate sessions. Mikko is speaking on Monday at 2:30pm “Radiohead Thinks This Stuff is Cool” and again at 10:50am Tuesday at “The Cool Shit Hour”. At the same time on Tuesday, Adrian’s session “Standing out in a Sea of Interactive” will be across the hall.

Be sure to check out the sessions, there is something for everyone creative and developers alike.

See you at FITC, and welcome to Toronto!

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Case Study #1: Adrian Belina’s presentation will discuss Jam3’s recent award-winning website for the NFB’s Waterlife and the development of past & recent projects, including Autotopsy.com the stand-out web-extension of the TV series, Crash and Burn.

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Radiohead’s House of Cards was made entirely out of Voxels, they must be cool right? What on earth is a Voxel? During this presentation Mikko will go into more detail on the Voxel Engine he built called Fancy Engine, which will also be featured during the “Cool Shit Hour”. Along with voxels he will delve into the technical side of Jam3′s latest award winning projects Waterlife.nfb.ca and autotopsy.ca. While getting down with Voxels Mikko will be talking about the following: Inspiration for the Fancy Engine, Under the hood of the Fancy Engine, Datasets and Parsers, Optimization optimization optimization