Ever wonder about the people behind Ohno Design? Wonder no more. We've launched Ohno Mojo, where we let you inside our heads. Come check it out. It's not as scary as you'd think.

It's been an amazing year at Ohno. We've doubled our staff (if you don't count Beemer our security dog). And we are getting worried about having to move out of our little Victorian parlor office when we add even more talent. Good concerns to have.

 
Misty often comments about the sheer diversity of what comes through our door and how that mimics our old newspaper days. It's true, we never know what we may be doing next at Ohno Design Studios and that's a blast!
 
One thing is for certain, we have enjoyed working with all of our clients and getting to know all of you better.
 
May you all have a successful and surprising 2011!

We were thrilled to be in on this "flash mob" surprise and enjoyed the show while putting together this video for the Front Porch Renaissance Group. Howard, Justin and Cynthia were great to work with. Front Porch is doing some exciting work in Bay City. Stay tuned for more surprises from them!

We just put together a site for one of our favorite new clients - Susan of www.preciouspagesbysusan.com. Susan is an incredible scrapbooker and makes some of the most creative scrapbooking pages and albums that we have ever seen. Susan also makes one mean batch of cookies. If you get a chance, drop by her new site and check it out.

The homepage of Anne Trahan's site gets a rotating slideshow.

We had a lot of goals in mind when we redesigned photographer Anne Trahan's website this fall:

• Make it a showcase for her photography
• Make sure it was Search Engine Optimized
• Make it easy to navigate
• Highlight all the services she provides

But the biggest goal that Anne tasked us with was the ability to make future changes to the site herself. We hear that from a lot of our clients these days. Clients don't want to call someone to update or make a change on their website. We have to agree. That's why we build our sites with the ability for clients to log in and make changes themselves.
 
Every site we create is built on a Content Management System. CMS setups can handle a wide range of sites, from those for small businesses to the largest corporation sites that have hundreds of pages, like the site we created for the Flint Institute of Music (www.thefim.org).
 
Here are a couple more pages from Anne's site. Check it out at: www.annetrahan.com

New site

We have enjoyed working with the team at McMartin, Wasek & Associates, who contacted us about redesigning the company website, at right.

That project has led to a complete makeover of the McMartin Wasek brand. We incorporated the blue pinstripe from the website into business cards, brochures and other literature for a cohesive and classy appearance.
 
Check out the new site at
www.mcmartin-wasek.com.
 
If you are in need of touchup, we would love to talk to you. 
 
 

With the colors turning and the last few weeks of nice weather flying by, the Ohno Design team decided to take a day and shoot some nice images of our families. No better place than Dow Gardens in Midland. If you haven't been there lately, now is the time to go. The trees are at their peak, which makes for great backdrops. 



The Garcia Family



The Gower Family



The Robb children

Kirby Creek Lodge in Breckenridge, Colorado. Two time zones away.
 
There’s nothing like waking up at 5 a.m. to video conference with a client who was in a time zone 13 hours ahead in South Korea. The client owns Kirby Creek Lodge ( www.kirbycreek.com ) in Colorado, which is two time zones away from us in Michigan. We chatted for about an hour on how to increase visits to the lodge website, what features should be added to the site and about developing a marketing strategy for the future. If you're looking for a place to stay in one of the most beautiful spots in the world, Kirby Creek is that place.
 
A couple of hours later, we were sharing our desktop with a potential client in Kentucky, demonstrating some of our sites and explaining how a Content Management System could help keep her business website active.
 
We would love to work with this client since her business combines two of our favorite things — beer and baseball. It doesn't get much better than that.
 
Today's tools let us work with anyone anywhere. What can we do for you?

One of our favorite clients wanted to freshen up her book that was originally published in 1998. Alan and Tammie worked on redesigning the book.

We wanted to make sure that the new cover (at left) didn't depart too much from the original. At the same time the new cover needed to convey that the book was about special needs children. Something that the first cover didn't do very well.

If you have a child with special needs or work with children with specials needs this is a must read book.

You can purchase a copy of "I Am the Child" on Lulu today.