Listen to this quick Englund Studio Commercial featuring my 4 year old daughter Alina!

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I have a side business that sells t-shirts to emo girls (how’s that for an opening sentence?) My wife and I and two other partners started this in July thinking we’d be selling to teen boys and girls who fancy themselves emo (short for emotional) If you never heard of emo then google it, it’s a very interesting culture, anyway over time we realized that 90% of our customers were female so we’ve been marketing to our fan-base by using teen girl language on our site as well as our FaceBook page. Immersing ourselves in this sub-culture has been eye opening; from the fashion, to the language, to the way they see the world…it’s all been a wonderful experience!

So I’m writing this blog in response to an interesting phone call I received the other day, it turns out that the owner of Glogster has been searching for companies like ours to advertise on his website….85% of their “gloggers” are teen girls and 90% of them are emo!…so naturally I had to check out Glogster and boy was I surprised. The “G” in Glogster stands for “graphic” as in “graphic blog” these girls make posters that include mp3’s of their favorite songs, they can add video to their glog, upload graphics and add text of their favorite poems…you really should check it out (I’m in my 40’s and I was glogging in no time – very addicting) My first experience visiting Glogster.com was not unlike discovering MySpace or FaceBook only waaaaay better (listen to me!) I was off an running designing my fist glog, you can even type sideway, and they give you tons of backgrounds and themes and graphics to get you going, I know I sound like I’m promoting the site – and I guess I am (but not being paid) anyway, when I get excited about something – I simply can’t keep it in. So check out Glogster and let me know your thoughts!…and yes, we ARE going to advertise on their site!!!

-Dave Englund

I was reading this at Smashing Magazine (great blog) and thought about passing it on.

#1) Splash pages display disclaimers or warnings which are supposed to restrict access to content such as pornography, advertising, or gambling (as is required by law).
#2) It is necessary to draw visitors’ attention to an important message such as approaching deadline, critical update, latest release, news, slogan etc.
#3) Visitors are supposed to select the language they want to use or the country they come from — to direct users to the appropriate version of the site.
#4) Visitors can choose between a low-bandwidth version (HTML — Dial-Up) and high-bandwidth version (Flash — cable, DSL). Sometimes one can also choose the “accessible” version containing only text without images.
#5) The designer informs visitors about site requirements such as used browsers, screen resolution as well as used Flash, Java, Quicktime etc. and suggests to choose the “right” configuration and download plug-ins for “optimal” site presentation.
#6) Visitors can select the preferred view mode – for instance, standard mode and fullscreen mode.
#7) Multiples sites share the same domain. Or a large site tries to communicate its most important sections directly.
#8) Splash page is supposed to include hints for browsing the site and explains the main sections.
#9) Designers use splash page trying to awake excitement for the actual content of the site.
#10) Sound is announced. Visitors are asked to turn on their loudspeakers to enjoy the Flash-show or Midi-experience (yes, apparently Midis are still alive).
#11) Splash pages are used as an additional form of advertising.
#12) The decision to use a splash page is design-driven and realizes some designer’s idea.

I’m just getting over the flu, big reason why I didn’t post a blog on Wednesday. Wow, first week into the new blog and I already blew it!…I’m sure you understand. So I’m feeling better, my energy is coming back and work is starting to pile in..this is all good. I wanted to mention something that happened to me while the flu was in high gear (it might have happened to you as well) when you have a foreign alien bug traveling around your body the mind can come up with some weird things…here’s my flu inspired idea that found it’s way to my head last week….ready?….DogBook!

I must have been dreaming of FaceBook when my mind went there…so think about how many dog owners would create a profile of Miffy and Fido? what would their updates be; “just woke up and ripped through a fresh garbage bag in the kitchen” How would they connect to other dogs?, imagine the videos, imagine the clubs (“1,000,000 dogs can’t be wrong” or “Bark if you like Obama” or “Pugs Rule”) heck imaging the ads! Purina, PetCo…this is BIG MONEY people!…what’s my point?…we should all get sick every now and again, it might make you RICH!……as for now I’m feeling better and have to find new ways to inspire myself…talk soon!

-David Englund