Create Communications  

"When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty, but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Create is a multi-disciplinary design studio specializing in creative concepts and thinking. Using design & technology we assist companites to market, grow and optimize their business. We develop Internet Business Solutions & Software that allow our clients to market, and communicate effectively with consumers and business partners.

We have 10 years of experience developing tourism and real estate related web products for clients from Toronto to Vancouver and our home in Whistler, Canada.

» January 14 , 2007 Sea to Sky Premier Properties website launched.

Sea to Sky Premier Properties is a leading Real Estate Agency targeting the affluent buyer of residential real estate in the Vancouver to Whistler region. The new website dynamically displays properties daily from the Tarasoft Matrix® database application [ view website ]

Examples will open in new window

We build solutions to let you use the internet to share, learn & communicate effectively; Creating powerful web-based tools for partners and customers that communicate with applications and e-commerce; Developing tools that allow employees to centralize, organize, and share information; manage documents; and enable efficient collaboration.

	» Whistler.ca {Design / CMS / Newsletters / Ecommerce} We use Joomla Content Managment Solution to power the new government website. Staff are able to add, update and delete pages and sections easily.
	» Myseatosky.com {Design / CMS / RSS / Database feed} RE/MAX of Whistler Real Estate portal allowing site visitors to search in a variety of ways to access real time real estate listings for the corridor.
	» Maggithornhill.com {Design / CMS / Dynamic Listings} Whistler's top selling residential real estate agent uses dynamic listings to showcase her properties.
	» Fairmont Chateau Whistler {Design / Golf Newsletter} We developed an engaging and easy to update newsletter template for the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club. We employed Bronto EMarketing to deploy the newsletter.
	» GinaMaeSchubertDesign.com {Design} We developed a rich and sophisticated website to showcase the services of an interior designer targeting clients with a contemporary and chic personality.
	» HamptonInnVancouver.com {Design / CMS} A new website for the successful Vancouver hotel destination. Using engaging photos, strong positioning and friendly design we help them capture the long term business stays.
	» Automobileyear.com {Shopping / Ecommerce} We developed the shopping cart and payment gateway for this annual publication on automotive design, trends and news. Want one?
	» Araxi.com {Design / CMS / Newsletters / Flash Interaction} Whistler's most awarded restaurant and restaurant of the year for the past 7 years.This website features flash animation and tools to allow staff to update content daily.
	» Delishcatering.com {Design / Shopping / Ecommerce} We developed the name, brand, design and strategy of this successful Whistler Cafe.
	» Musicinthemorning.org {Design / Shopping / Ecommerce} We developed the look and feel of the new website and provided a shopping cart facility for members and ticket buyers to purchase tickets for musical events via the internet.

We nicked these from The BBC web standards but they capture our thoughts perfectly.

1. Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards.

2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly.

3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people's content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.

4. Fall forward, fast: make many small bets, iterate wildly, back successes, kill failures, fast.

5. Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don't restrict your creativity to your own site.

6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.

7. Any website is only as good as its worst page: Ensure best practice editorial processes are adopted and adhered to.

8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.

9. Remember your granny won't ever use “Second Life”: She may come online soon, with very different needs from early-adopters.

10. Maximise routes to content: Develop as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks & time as possible. Optimise your site to rank high in Google.

11. Consistent design and navigation needn't mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they're on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won't ever get lost.

12. Accessibility is not an optional extra: Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users

13. Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site

14. Link to discussions on the web, don't host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale

15. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent: After all, it's your users' data. Best respect it.

LiveSoftware

LiveSoftware is a suite of web enabled software that allows you to take control of your web site. Easily update the contents of your site without learning complicated web programming or hiring a web designer.

LiveSoftware products integrate seamlessly into your current site design and are updatable through a web browser. More information wil be coming online shortly about our suite of products.

Random readings & sites we like

» http://www.ajaxian.com/

» http://www.brandspankingnew.net/

» http://www.springwise.com/ideas/

* thanks to mootools