Apple had done it again. They created software for the creation of iBooks that’s easy to use and produces excellent results. We tried it out the day it was released and found it to be an excellent alternative to the more complex Adobe products. It’s designed for the textbook market, but obviously it can generate iPad-friendly projects of any type.

The iBooks Author interface is simple and intuitive

Download our first test here:

deckerdesign.ibooks

Instructions: Download the file (a .zip file) then uncompress it. To view the book on your iPad, make sure you have the latest free iBooks 2 app and iOS 5, and do the following:

Drag the book file (with the extension .ibooks) to the iTunes window and sync the book to your iPad. For more information, see iTunes Help.

Web design and development is a massively time consuming and complex process. From initial concept, to wireframes, to functional spec, to layered psd files, to database programming and population, testing, and launch. Then again, some clients just do not have the time. We did the whole project, including language translator in one weekend. Here’s how…

First of all we develop in WordPress, which streamlines the process tremendously. The client provided all art and copy. That helps. We registered the domain and set up the hosting Friday night. We designed the logo, site layout and processed the photos on Saturday. We installed the Thesis theme on to the server, customized the CSS, then installed a few essential plugins including WP Touch, which converts our pages into iPhone style navigation for mobile users. The custom CSS includes use of one of Google’s new web fonts, Cardo—which looks like Garamond. Say goodbye to Georgia and Arial. We populated the pages with text and metadata, set up Google Analytics, added photos to the NextGen Gallery plugin, built the complex application forms using Fast Secure Contact Forms plugin, and then registered with all of the major search engines. By Monday the site was tested and visible to the search engines.

Visit the site and check out the amazing language translator

Graphic design was transformed by Steve Jobs/Apple. We owe him a huge debt. In 1989 Postscript allowed desktop computers and printers to accurately render colors, designs, images, and most importantly, typography. This innovation led to a paradigm shift in the creation of marketing materials, videos, and interactive media.

My first professional setup was a Mac IIcx, an Apple Laserwriter, a Radius 19 inch monitor that weighed about 200 lbs., a 14.4 mbps modem. I paid $25,000 which included a service contract an a few other bells and whistles—and I was happy to pay it. We transmitted our ads and page layouts to a service bureau in New Jersey by dedicated modem, and received monochromatic Linotronic output pages the next day by messenger. It reduced our typesetting costs by 10 fold overnight.

Cahill is a large Wall Street law firm serving mostly institutional and banking clients. While many law students had heard of Cahill’s Floyd Abrams who is the most sought-after First Amendment attorney in the country, the firm still has a low profile.

Cahill Recruiting Brochure Cover

Much of the recruiting process takes the form of on-campus interviews and other social events. Once a law student hears about the firm’s important wins and dramatic cases from an associate or partner, they are more likely to get excited and pursue a career with Cahill. We proposed this design to literally “start the conversation.”

One of our favorite unpublished designs. Firm: Ross Culbert & Lavery, Inc.

Studio Gramercy recently completed a consulting assignment for one of the metropolitan area’s largest health care institutions.

Lutheran HealthCare Poster Series

After a lengthy focus group study, it was determined that the Rehabilitation Practice was a potential area for increased profits and that LHC non-rehab personnel needed to be educated about the full range of services available at LHC rehab care. Accordingly, we created a four-pronged approach — first targeting the 800+ LHC physicians not affiliated with the rehab practice — then the in-house case workers, the patients and their families, and the local community.

To reach these diverse audiences we created a universally understood name, visual identity, and marketing theme.. Our recommended campaign “ TLC: Total Lutheran Care” is easy to understand in the languages of the neighborhood: Chinese, Spanish, Russian, and Farsi and the simple, colorful design is visually arresting and memorable.

Our plan includes an custom image library, color palette, publication grid, e-newsletter templates and graphics library which will enable their in-house art department to produce marketing pieces going forward. Below are a few examples of the design recommendation.

Lutheran HealthCare Website Prototype

Total Lutheran Care Rehabilitation Uniforms

Total Lutheran Care Van Transportation

Click image to view the site www.murrayhill.com

We spent the last few months creating a large, database-driven website for a New York owner, manager and broker of commercial real estate. We designed the site, wrote the content, took all of the photos and built out the backend.

The site features a robust content management system which allows the in-house staff to update the site’s content, add blog entries and add and subtract pages and sections—all from within their browser. Our team provided 18 how-to video tutorials for the staff to use for training and for reference in the future.

The client had an extremely limited budget, so we utilized the powerful WordPress framework. This solution allows for very complex interactivity without the cost of custom programming.

Here’s a summary of the features and benefits of our innovative, low-cost solution.

Feature: Mobile site standards
Benefit: The site renders extremely well on smartphones and iPads.

Feature: Full search engine optimization on EVERY page
Benefit: Google, Yahoo! AOL and Bing search results at the top of page

Feature: Twitter feed on the home page
Benefit: A quick way to increase followers of current MHP news & opinion

Feature: Facebook “like” button on the homepage
Benefit: A quick way to increase followers of current MHP news & opinion

Feature: Share This buttons on every Blog post
Benefit: An easy way for a reader to email, or share a post, which increases the site’s visibility

Feature: News Blog
Benefit: MHP is one of the first commercial real estate companies to use this powerful publishing tool—which increases their site visibility

Feature: Browser-based editing
Benefit: In-house staff can add pages or update content from anywhere. Skill level required: low.

Feature: Print / Create PDF button on every page
Benefit: A powerful plugin that creates compact printer-friendly pages. The file can be edited before you print, saving paper.

Feature: Multimedia Box on home page
Benefit: Allows in-house staff to quickly add case studies, news items, promotions, videos, or other special content to the home page of the site.

Feature: Automatic software updates
Benefit: WordPress and the community of open source plugins / widgets are constantly being improved. The site framework provides one-click updates.

Feature: Comment moderation
Benefit: Best practices for Web 2.0 two-way communication with your audience includes a method for moderating the public’s comments on the site. That functionality is built in.

Feature: Portable and scalable
Benefit: MHP owns the files and serves them from their own server. If they want to move the site to another server, that is a simple, one-click export. The original site map called for 20 pages. As we developed the site, it grew to 65 pages. The software can grow with you as your organization grows.

We recently designed the January cover for Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association.  Firm: Shostak Studios

Bob's No Problem Website

A highly illustrative homepage for a highly unusual product line. We wrote, designed and programmed the site which features a powerful content management system and a full function shopping cart with inventory management. The display font we used is IM Fell, a new release from GoogleFonts featuring the ability to embed the actual font on the fly. Visit the site here.

Bob's No Problem Label

We recently completed the brand identity for Bob’s No Problem, a gourmet specialty foods producer based in Boca Raton. The first line of products will be a Bloody Mary Maker. It’s delicious. We’ll re-post when the e-commerce website is finished so you can order some. The map art, based on an 18th century original, is by William Bevington. This design is a variation of the original we did back in 1985.

NEW WORK

Aron Design recently completed an annual report concept for TDI Power, a manufacturer of power supplies for the military and airline industry. We focused on their recent implementation of lean manufacturing techniques which originated with Toyota in the late seventies. Each spread featured a regional manager photographed on location in China or the U.S. coupled with a sidebar describing the specific lean manufacturing concept utilized in their respective sites. (Firm: Decker Design)