Early in their development process, Hawaii-based Sprout Inc. hired OCUPOP to design their corporate ID and provide some much needed design and development support as they ramped up for some very high profile product launches and demonstrations…

Simple means to sophisticated results - SproutBuilder™ is an intuitive web platform for designing, building, and publishing rich media widgets. With an integrated suite of Flash-based templating, editing, assembly, and content management features, SproutBuilder™ is a supremely adaptable application appropriate for amateurs and professionals alike. So, whether you are a musician promoting your first album or a politician launching a multi-faceted campaign, or anyone in between, Sprout is a great tool for getting your message out on the web.

A winning combination of fantastic product design, optimized user experience and solid brand direction has resulted in major successes at DEMO and the Adobe Engage event as well as tons of positive buzz on ReadWriteWeb, Technorati, ZDNet and TechCrunch to name a few.

Copy writing is generally something that we do as a value-added service of sorts…that is, most marketing and design projects necessitate at least some advertising copy.  From headlines to mission statements, we tend to fold our writing services into the execution of some greater marketing initiative - whether it be a catalog, a poster, a website or a trade show booth.  But every once in a while an opportunity comes along where there is nothing else to fold the writing into, the project is the copy…and well, yeah, we do that too.  Most recently, the great people at Trek Travel hired OCUPOP to re-write and optimize all of their web copy as well as compose the content for their beautiful printed catalogs.  Order one up today - but be warned, once it arrives, time wasted day-dreaming may increase exponentially.

Our good friend Tony at Hexbreak did the site design.

Some ID work from the last few months that we have not had time to share…

Eventually some of these highlights will evolve and make their way into the featured projects on the right, but for now, here’s a taste of some identity work we’ve done lately for Burton/Midwest Represent, TOTORADCO, Brian Parker, and Kai Cuts. A couple more are in the pipeline for next month, so keep your ears on. Enjoy.

I am trapped in LA…while the situation is not ideal, I would like to commend the LAX Four Points Sheraton on a number of fronts…

On my way home from the Adventure Travel World Summit in Whistler Canada and flights are a complete mess…so long story short, I am now stuck in Los Angeles while the dust settles on a number of cancellations to Hawaii. In the shitshow that was yesterday, I frantically booked a room at the Travelodge LAX because of a MUCH lower advertised price at the airport - even though some fellow travelers encouraged me to consider the Sheraton…well, needless to say, I should have listened. Outside of some dog-hair-covered mountain lodges, the Travelodge was one of the most terrifying hotel rooms I have ever stepped into.

Jump to a half-hour, some serious slick-talking, and a ten block walk later, I was safely checked into the Four Points Sheraton LAX (for thirty bucks less per night than the Travelodge no less!). While certainly not as nice as the Gateway down the street, but at almost a third the cost (105 vs 269), I was pleasantly surprised by the rooms…and the obvious style guide adherence throughout the establishment was nearly as refreshing as the newly improved memory foam mattresses. Now let’s hope I can get home tomorrow.

Former Wisconsinite and painter and designer extraordinaire, Cody Hudson is currently being profiled on Fecal Face.

When you are done there, take a look at the Struggle Inc site for more work.

We were there when our good friends at Fox Tax signed the lease on their new office/gallery space, and the transformation is incredible. It turns out that Mark and Alyssa are not only tax/accounting wizards, but they can get those ten-key hands dirty with fantastic results as well…we suspect illegal elfin labor of some sort…

Though we were of no real help in the actual work part of things, OCUPOP consulted on layout, color, and space planning, in addition to designing the wall systems, window artwork, and awning.

Once we get the chance to get Eric (who also shot the invite image) over there, we’ll get some real pictures, but for now, a few that were pointed and shooted below the invite here…

Very interesting interview with Robert Deodaat Emile Oxenaar – or Ootje, as his friends call him. From 1966 until 1985, Ootje worked for the Nederlandsche Bank on a series of banknotes that many consider to be the most beautiful money in the world.  Check it out, the design and artwork on this currency is absolutely incredible…and some unbelievable quotes in there:

On the 1000 guilder note, it became a “sport” for me to put things in the notes that nobody wanted there! I was very proud to have my fingerprint in this note – and it’s my middle finger! It was too late when they found out and though the director saw it he said he wouldn’t stop the whole production.

How can you not like a guy named Ootje?

via

Impressive flickr set of classic video game scenes captured in LEGO.

Almost better than the real thing.

Almost.

Vitamin has a feature entitled Real World CSS Zen Garden for Your Site which focuses on a few extra steps to take when marking up semantic xhtml to ensure the most painless redesign in the future.

I started scanning the article expecting nothing more than a rehash but definitely picked up a few things to consider the next time I am redesigning or starting a new project.

Patterns is a series of professional observations about package design practices within specific categories prepared by the NYC agency R. BIRD.

I can’t get enough of stuff like this. Long live the internets.