Here are some key improvements made with the new design:

• Targeted service landing pages.
• More detailed “About Us” content.
• More attractive case studies.
• Stronger calls-to-action across the website.
• Clearly differentiating messaging on the home page.
• A slicker portfolio.
• Easier to read Blog and Business Learning Center.

Behind all of this design and content lies a powerful Content Management System that gives us total control over the entire website.

There are still many improvements to be made, and we will be conducting copious amounts of split testing to find ways to increase our conversion rates.

To learn more about our redesign, please take a look at this case study.

What’s a Stickybit? Stickybits Turns the Physical World into Digital Media

Nearly everything that used to be strictly phsyical has gone digital. Music has been converted into MP3s, people are represented by Facebook pages and status updates, places exist in Foursquare and Yelp. But what about “things”?

Well, here’s a solution: Stickybits makes “things”–the physical objects and spaces around us–digital by connecting digital media to physical objects through barcode stickers. Scanning a barcode with the Stickybits apps opens a portal to audio, video, photo, and text messages assigned to that “bit” (aka barcode). The Stickybits iPhone and Android apps let users scan barcodes (including existing ones on retail prodcuts), attach messages, and keep track of the stickybits left by their friends.

Creating & Installing World’s Largest Stickybit

Blue Fountain Media’s design department whipped up this fantastic custom Stickybits file (try scanning it right on screen!).

A Stickybit as big as Alhan

Is it straight?

Putting up the second half.

Lining up the second half. Almost there...

Fingers crossed that it scans!

Doing a test-scan. Success!

All done!

Zack, move out of the way.

Make Your Own

We created the biggest Stickybits barcode on the planet. Now you can make your own…

Download our FREE Custom Stickybits Barcode .PSD Photoshop Template — If you use our template for anything, all you ask is that you link back to this blog post or our homepage..

Where to get your giant Stickybit printed

We worked with Dali Vinyl Wall Decals to print our giant Stickybit. They did a fantastic job so we’ve reached out to them and worked out a 10% discount for the first 100 custom stickybits orders. Just use the code “dalisb10″ when placing your order. They have experience with our custom .psd and their expert staff prints and hand-cuts each custom wall decal.

More pictures

Photos by Alanna Francis

As the Founder of Blue Fountain Media, I want to wish our clients, our staff and our good friends a very Happy New Year.

2009 was a watershed year for Blue Fountain Media.  This past year saw us double in size, expand offices twice, and bring in many new areas of expertise.

The year saw us work with a wonderful group of clients- both old and new- on a variety of interesting and challenging projects.

Some of the highlights of 2009 include:

• Blue Fountain Media was awarded  a 5-Star Dun and Bradstreet Rating
• We won awards for design, marketing and e-commerce
• We earned recognition by the Web 2.0 Expo as the embodiment of “The Power of Less”
• We were singled out by About.com’s Google expert for our SEO expertise
• We successfully delivered sophisticated projects for clients like the NFL, OppenheimerFunds, Granite Transformations and the United Nations.

We are looking forward to ever greater success in 2010.

Again, wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year!!

Gabriel Shaoolian
Creative Director

Alhan, our Director of Marketing, is on a mission to cycle his way from New York City to Florida. He started last Thursday and is more than half-way done.

Where is Alhan now? You can track his progress with real-time updates from Alhan himself on his website.

He has gotten chased by dogs, gotten the inevitable flat tire, and has spotted wild horses in North Carolina. We wish him luck and look forward for his return.

(source: margolove)

New York and America in general, is a melting pot of cultures – which includes languages. Blue Fountain Media is no different and at time it feels more so. This is part 1 of week’s question to the BFM team is as followed; we will continue the post next week:

• Do you speak a foreign language? If so, which one?

• How long have you studied this language?

• Have you visited the country where this language is from?

  

  Lonnie | Designer

  I took a semester of Japanese in college out of curiosity and ended up loving it! So I took another two semesters after that. A few months after I graduated, I moved to Japan and taught English for about a year and a quarter. I’d love to find the time to start taking formal Japanese classes again, but I also plan on going to a meetup.com Japanese practice group with Ishmael, which I’m definitely looking forward to.

  I also  had to take Hebrew in school for many years, and I’ve been to Israel a few times, but I’ve unfortunately forgotten pretty much all my Hebrew. I can read it phonetically, but I don’t really remember any grammar or vocabulary.

  

  Gabriel | Founder

  I can speak and read fluent Martian, but I can’t write it. Just kidding (maybe not)!

  I can speak Farsi (the Persian language), and I can read Hebrew. Does that count for one full language? Hmmm…

  

  Joe | Analyst

  So I speak several foreign languages. I speak Farsi which is Iran’s language and that I learned it as a child, yet sadly I have yet to go to Iran and am illiterate. I’ve studied Spanish for five years and still use it today whenever in Jackson Heights or Corona. I went to Mexico when I was 12 but at that time didn’t speak any Spanish, though I would also love to go to Spain and test my Spanish when communicating with people of the Castilian dialect (they tend to lisp a lot in their Spanish).

  Also, after Going to Italy  when I was 13, I was intrigued by the language and how beautiful it sounded. When I was 17 took Italian for a year, and now use it only once in a while having very basic conversations (no where near as fluent as the Spanish but still enough to survive).

  Lastly, I took Mandarin Chinese in college for two years. After 9 months of intensive studying, I went to a small city in China for 3 weeks (I was 20 at the time) where no one knew English and used my Chinese constantly; people where astonished at the progress of speaking so well after so little time! I continued studying afterwards, and today just read Chinese books to improve my vocabulary and am constantly in Flushing (a heavily concentrated Chinese community here in New York) to keep my mind fresh for literacy. If I could I would like to go back to China every other year; so if not next summer perhaps the following summer I can make my joyous return.

  Like a good website, communication is key to getting around in this world.

  

  Asya | Account Manager

  I speak Russian fluently and was born there. I’m 100% Russian, so I have been speaking it my entire life. I was born in St. Petersburg, but have only been back once, for two weeks when I was 17.

  

  David | Marketing Intern

  French (fluent up until about three years ago):  4 yrs high school, 1 semester in college.  I have been to France and lived in Belgium for a year during college where half the country speaks French.

  Dutch (not nearly as well as French):  Studied for 1 yr in Belgium while in college and haven’t attempted to speak a word of it since.  While in Belgium, I went to Netherlands on numerous occasions where they also speak Dutch.

  Hebrew (even more rusty than my Dutch):  I grew up in a fairly religious home, but haven’t spoke much since I was 16 or so.  I went to Israel on a Birthright trip after graduating college.

  Note:  I’m not fluent in any of them anymore because I simply don’t have the necessity to speak them.

  

  Zack | Marketing Project Manager

  I studied French in high school and then spent six years in Paris, including undergrad, so I speak, read and write. I took Spanish for 7 years, but it’s still not as good as my French. I also did a few semesters of Italian and German, and I’m trying to learn Japanese and Serbo-Croatian on my own.

  

  Ishmael | New Media Strategist

  My first language is Spanish, as both of my parents are from Spanish-speaking countries (Spain & Mexico),  and I learned English from TV (Sesame Street) and from my nanny as a child. I took a semester of French in high school, but haven’t really pursued it – first I need to polish up my Japanese.

  Speaking of Japanese, after university, I moved to Japan as an English teacher and was intrigued by the language, and thus  took a nine month intensive Japanese course (and obviously interacting with Japanese people on a daily basis). While living in Japan my Japanese did improve, but since moving back to the States it is completely rusty and needs to be polished (literally and figuratively).

  Lastly, I would love to learn Arabic but all in due time.

(source: occhiovivo)

When we are not building awesome websites or getting you on page one of Google, the BFM crew loves to read. Some of us love graphic novels, plays, and horror stories. I asked my colleagues:

What are you currently reading?

And what is your all-time favorite book ?

Zack | Marketing Project Manager

What are you currently reading?
The last (ever) published issue of Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine
What is your all-time favorite book?
William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury

Byrne | Copywriter

What are you currently reading?
Bernstein’s Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
What is your all-time favorite book?
Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon; It’s about more or less everything, but mostly about math, code breaking, love, startups, survivalist lawyers, and using Tolkien’s fantasy taxonomy as a model for understanding people.

Lonnie | Designer

What are you currently reading?
I just finished Bottomless Belly Button, a graphic novel by Dash Shaw.
What is your all-time favorite book?
I can’t pick a favorite book, but my favorite play is The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Ishmael | New Media Strategist

What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading Salinger’s Nine Stories. I have a short attention span so this book is great!
What is your all-time favorite book?
Favorite book of all-time; that’s a tough one. I’m going to go with Márquez‘ One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Alhan| Director of Marketing

What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading Gerzema’s The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It.
What is your all-time favorite book?
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, but Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot is a close second.
 

So, what have you recently read that has inspired, surprised, or changed your view or perspective? Reply with a comment. I would love to pick up some new books for my commute.