Posted by
utopian – July 8, 2010
Scott Hull Associates
Scott Hull Associates first called on us nearly two years ago for the construction of a multi-artist, multi-author site highlighting their respected agency. When the time had come to rethink, refine, and reinvent the site’s visuals, Scott rang again.
Bringing us together once more with Penelope Dullaghan, a frequent collaborator and popular editorial artist from Scott’s stellar stable, the project called for a design that would maintain a similar feel in a simpler, cleaner, and more concentrated form. Penelope delivered a layout we were as excited to develop as Scott and company were to green-light. We added some clever programming on a tag-based quick search feature that prospective Scott Hull customers can use to sample the styles, manners, and methods of the illustrators Scott represents.
The new site puts a honed focus on the work Scott’s team of talents produces for a diverse group of clients — from Jamie Oliver Magazine spreads to award-winning Starbucks campaigns, from the mural helping set the mood for your meal at Panera to Cincinnatti’s Great American Ballpark.
Posted by
utopian – May 13, 2010
In the Wish Studio
Mindy Tsonas’s Wish Studio covers a lot of ground: hands-on instruction, inspiration, guidance, tips and techniques. Touching on topics from motherhood to arts and crafts, the site helps nourish artistic sensibilities with a group blog, a forum and discussion board for the Studio’s authors and fans, and the latest on the activities and passions of this very creative community.
Working with another standout visual design from Darling Design, we implemented a custom theme and plugins on the WordPress-MU platform, and added to the site visually and functionally integrated discussion forum software. Exclusive subscriber/member content is delivered in subdomain sections like the Sky Studio, and information about Wish Studio seminars and events is front and center throughout.
Posted by
utopian – May 13, 2010
The new RUCS, Inc. site
A recent Utopian.net collaboration with our friends at Darling Design put their vision for client Rick Unvarsky Consulting Services, a California commissioning, LEED Management, and electrical and plumbing design firm, through our Leitmotif process. We worked with Darling Studio and the Unvarsky team to develop and deploy the company’s new site, which keeps clients and partners up to date with project news and a file upload/download facility for exchanging documents.
Posted by
utopian – May 13, 2010
Updates at Dancing Elephant Studio
With a new book in the works & her usual array of irons in the fire, Jenny Kostecki-Shaw wanted a light redux of border, logo, and header elements for her Dancing Elephant Studio site. Working with her designs and art elements, we delivered a new WordPress theme back in March (and we’re a bit late in noting it here). Check out Jenny’s upcoming Same, Same. But Different! in the books section while you’re inspecting the new looks.
Posted by
utopian – January 8, 2010
Penelope Illustration, 2010
Friend and frequent collaborator Penelope Dullaghan wanted a fresh, ever-simpler redux of her minimalist and popular personal/professional/portfolio site. With her elegant designs in hand, we developed a lightweight custom theme revision that sharpens the focus on Penelope’s prolific and varied work.
Sidelight: As mentioned on her blog, Penelope is the featured artist in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Communication Arts magazine. Check out the interview and image collection in a bookshop near you!
Posted by
utopian – December 25, 2009
From us here at Utopian.net to all our friends & your families, very warmest wishes for whatever you’re celebrating this time of year.
Happy Holidays from Utopian.net
Posted by
utopian – December 10, 2009
For only the second time, we’ve redesigned our web site: http://utopian.net. With a new look and feel, expanded information, and a fresh organizational structure, the site should make finding out about and getting started with Utopian.net services easier than ever.
You can sign up for hosting, request project quotes, get in touch, and learn about accessing and operating service features, as well as learn a little bit about the people and places behind our business.
Enjoy, and let us know what you think!
Posted by
utopian – October 17, 2009
Saturday morning Pacific, there was unscheduled downtime on some of our web servers beginning at 02:18 PST and lasting until 03:48. It is an unprecedented length of time for any Utopian.net services to be down[1], and clearly it’s unacceptable. There was no loss of data, and web services resumed normally and completely by 04:00 PST for those sites that were affected.
We’re sorry for the trouble, intent on resuming our excellent uptime record (even if we can’t recover the mathematical average for some time to come), and continuing to investigate not only the minor issue that was the original source of the problem, but also our contingency plans for dealing with problems of this kind at the rare times they do arise.
Thanks for your patience today while we got things working smoothly again.
[1] 2009 uptime for the relevant server(s) prior to today’s incident was 99.99% by our internal statistics, with a hasty and not yet thorough verification against sampled pingdom numbers having just been conducted. 0 minutes of downtime were recorded by pingdom during the preceding month, September 2009.
Posted by
brianna – October 6, 2009
Kate's Latest Penguin Art
Kate Garchinsky’s design, illustration, and art works are front and center in her reorganization and visual redesign of her long-standing PenguinArt.com. With a look and feel from Kate’s drafting table atop a WordPress core and custom theme and plugin development by Utopian.net, the site presents work archives and personal projects, along with notes, tales, and updates on Kate’s blog.
Posted by
utopian – August 18, 2009
VonGlitschka.com - Glitschka Studios/Utopian.net 2009
Von Glitschka raises the curtain over his Glitschka Studios site today, with a new design, new hosting, and a new platform for managing updates, edits, and uploads of Von’s latest exuberant and distinctive work. Renovated in collaboration with Utopian.net’s Brianna Privett, vonglitschka.com uses the open-source WordPress content engine with a Leitmotif custom theme. The new site will keep clients in the know about goings-on at the Studios, while minimizing maintenance to keep Von and Co. doing what they do best: creating inventive Illustrative Design for ad agencies, design firms, and corporate art departments.