Well, I decided to share some of a pet project i’ve been working on at lunches and after hours wherever possible.  The idea is to build an interactive walk through of our new office space for customers who haven’t been here before and would like to see the environment we work in.  Now the environment is cool but pretty basic so it’s more about capturing the details

and aesthetics of it all than a “walk through”  really.  To do this, my first choice is going to be to develop the office environment in the Unreal Engine using Maya for the 3d modeling assets and the Engine to handle the first person style walkthrough and all the lighting/rendering bells and whistles.

Here I’m just posting a quick screen cap from Maya to get wet your whistle.  If you want to see more check out the MudBrick Facebook page where we’ll be sharing renders throughout the process as well as development notes etc.  Love to hear any feedback you have or ideas as we go through the build out, should be a lot of fun.

Our  Facebook Fan Page to see future renders and notes!

Well MudBrick has decided to attack our internal redesign project with a vengeance.  Our new interactive site which is in concept stage right now only is shaping up to be a very immersive experience for the user.  Current concepts include using a Flash 3d Engine like Papervision and user interaction guide content options within a 3d environment.

Currently we have a few design concepts we have worked on as time permits as well as ideas on how the concepts will allow for interaction.  We are posting two of these for you to check out below.  One is practical and one is not.  Both are still cool in their own ways though.  Enjoy!

Practical

This would be the practical concept.  A 3D modeled environment with content panels strewn throughout which would be activated via a device the user manipulates within that environment.  

Non-Practical

This one is cool but the polygon count and texture size make it unrealistic given current technology and bandwidth.  Here we would actually 3d model a small set of city blocks which the user would navigate and interact with in order to get content information they are looking for.  

PS: To all the folks who hate interactive sites where you have to "find" the content your anger is noted.  We’ll still have our tried and true basic website with all the info your looking for too.  These interactive sites after all are just a way for us to show off the skills.

Well folks it’s been a busy past two weeks here at MudBrick. We have been working on the most powerful website in the universe He-Man.org dillegently. This site has been exciting to work on, we’ve got the design template built and backend admin in production with two site sections finished and ready for data entry by the customer. We’re in the process of also tweaking the design and admin interface layout to be cross browser clean. Our goal is to have beta ready for mid June and start the tweaking process.

BrainStorm Creative Goes Live

We’ve also been finishing up the production on Brainstorm Creatives website which just went live yesterday. Be sure to check it out. BrainStorm is a business partner who has a unique product, they use comic books as trainng materials and marketing materials for customers. Their site involved a little flash and some elbow griese on a tight budget but we delivered on time and at their budget.

In Other News..

MudBrick will be doing a video production project starting mid June for PFSA, the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance. PFSA performs a valuable service for the community in that hey provide parenting assistance and support services to parents for their children. Our project with them will involve video shoot, production and a micro-site for display of video elements for a presentation. Overall will be a fun project and help an excellent organization.

MudBrick Joins the Tech Council

MudBrick has also rescently joined the Technology Council of Central PA and is looking to take part in some of their upcoming events. MudBrick’s goal for the coming year is to become more involved in the technology and design communities of Harrisburg. We want to not only develop business relationships but also get to know the talent out there and develop some good friendships.

MudBrick to Develop "The Cheese Shop"

MudBrick Creative has also just signed a deal to design and develop a eCommerce enabled website for "The Cheese Shop". The Cheese Shop is a a bulk foods distributor located at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and a business partner to a old and favrote customer of ours Dutch Valley Foods Inc. The Cheese Shop has a Microsoft RMS system running their point of sale systems that MudBrick will be tapping into to power their online product catalog and website. This is going to be a real nice project for us and draw on some of our core capabilities, web development and design.

MudBrick Creative is currently spending some in-house  time and resources to take a closer look at new technology and how we can use it to develop next generation user interfaces and applications.  A product that’s caught our attention lately is Papervision 3d. It is a 3 dimensional plugin for Flash based heavily on AS 3.0.  One of the best examples of it’s power is www.whitevoid.com and their portfolio application.  This user interface is very unique and the kind of work we’re aiming at for our interactive website.

The interface is 3d and the transitions and camera angle work provide for a very cool effect.  With our in-house 3d design capabilities and concept design talents we see this as having some killer possibilities for both our site and our customers.  Ever thought of having a 3d walkthrough of your office or facility? One that’s truly interactive? Well it may be possible very soon!

The Papervision site is kind of sparse as far as content and the technology is still not really well documented but it’s going to be our baby, MudBrick is going to attack this kind of tech with a vengeance.

http://blog.papervision3d.org/

-Paul

MudBrick has just signed on to start work on a fairly new company to the scenes website and branding. BrainStorm Creative is a local to PA startup company that does something pretty unique. They use comic books to get messages across for customers. For instance they have done a series of comics for a company to explain the 401k process and the pitfalls and how it all works. BrainStorm has signed on to do two project with MudBrick, one being their own corporate Branding and website. The second to design and build a site for a customer, the PA Drug & Alcohol Council. This site will include an interactive Flash comic and Rave Party. Both of these projects are in production process currently and are very fun projects.

MudBrick has been chosen by Liberty Excavators to handle redesigning the company website. Liberty contacted us through a partner and was looking for a fresh look for their business that included more branding and a more up-to-date style. MudBrick is currently working with Liberty on design concepts and narrowing the focus down to the design they want with the functionality they need.

Liberty Excavators is recognized as one of central Pennsylvania’s most respected and reliable turnkey site contractors, based on a solid track record spanning over 30 years. Their experienced workforce and state-of-the-art equipment fleet provide customers with both the experience and resources to professionally deliver a quality-finished product in the timeframe customers require.

Well MudBrick has moved into it’s first full blown office space. No longer will we share space with other folks, no longer will we work from our homes and get distracted by our puppy dogs, and we’re now free to get creative in a space that works for us. Our new office space is located off of second street in downtown Harrisburg right on Locust street. We’re kind of in the basement of an office building but we really dig the space and it’s in an area of town known for creative minds. MudBrick started out as most startups do, working out of our houses, building up a client base and spending many a night wondering when the time would come where we could get a little more “legit”. Its funny how having your own office space makes you feel that way…more “legit”. Well within 3 months of getting started we now have that tag and all that goes with it.

The Office!
Our office started out with these nice clean somewhat imperfect walls. Walking into it it’s kind of like a bowling alley a little, long and kind of narrow but has the space in it to add a few more people when we’re ready as well as give the boss a nice area in the back under the lights for his work area. (Which is most important!) Our first order of business was to make this office ours. So we went about to get some paint to match our corporate colors, then did the lettering with Fast Signs of Harrisburg.

And Now…
Now we have this as our beautiful new office space. After about a week we did all the trim, placed the logos, got the furniture and we were ready to rock. Keep in mind all this time we’re delivering for customers and signing new business so we were some busy folks around here. The next order of business for this office will be building the business to a point where we’re needing more space! Oh and maybe a plasma TV on that window sill so we can plaster our logo and multimedia stuff all over it as well.

The MudBrick Painting
In addition to our new digs we wanted to give the office some unique decorating. What we decided to do was paint all of our own wall hangings and do them in a style that is befitting our personality. The first painting we’re doing is a kind of Graffiti slant on our logo with some abstract pieces to it. Here is a first look at it. It’s on a very large canvas to fit on the wall as you come in the door. So as you can see in addition to customer work we like to stay busy in all areas of art and design.

Stay tuned for more photos of the painting as we continue work on it and a finished product when it’s done!

-Paul

Central Penn Rehab Services, a leading provider of Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine services in the greater Harrisburg Area with 16 locations, has signed to redesign their corporate website with MudBrick. CPRS just had a local marketing agency re-brand their company including new logo and marketing materials. CPRS then chose to do their homework and find a company that best suited their needs for the web. MudBrick did our pitch and it was a homerun.

Over the next few weeks we will be going through the design concepting stage and starting the construction of the site. CPRS will be working closely with MudBrick on the content integration and mainting the focus on the areas they find crucial to their business. We are really looking forward to tackling this project as CPRS wants something a little more cutting edge than what their industry is used to.

MudBrick Creative has been chosen by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to redesgin the Preservation Committee website. After initial meetings with the committee MudBrick fashioned a proposal we thought would hit all the key points of their website both dynamic and static. The project will include some data work including integration of their Civil War Flags database and shopping cart functionality for their current online shop. The bulk of the work will be on the design side however as the committee wants something that will truly convey the history and aesthetics of what it is that they do.

MudBrick will be going on-site for a day to shoot photography of the various buildings, monuments, and the very details of the Capiltal. Along with these photos we’ll be getting a sense of the look what we’ll try and convey in the website. From our initial meetings we were amazed at the amount of detail in the building. Everything from the light fixtures to the floors you walk on are works of art. This will definately be a project we will look forward to taking part in.

MudBrick has just finished off the first of several sets of tear sheets/one sheeters for Harrisburg University.  HU wanted a set of handouts done for perspective students that focuses on each curriculum they offer and it’s information.  Basiclly these are to be used as teasers to get students interested and get them to take a look at the school as an alternative to the big budget colleges in the area.  The next step for HU and MudBrick after all these sets are completed is to design a couse catalog which is already on the docket for next month.

These tear sheets were fun to do and helped us build a relationship with Harrisburg University for the coming year. We are definately looking forward to redesigning their course catalog and giving them something truly unique.