This is one of the rare times when Monkey Outta Nowhere actually builds a web site. As anyone can tell, we're not known for our coding skills. But it works, and what we're really offering here is strategy, content and execution. We're hoping the 'tell a friend' impact of social media paired with content (daily specials, offers and updates) will bring people through Dora's door.
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Say hello to our white-faced saki monkey. In celebration of the holiday season Monkey Outta Nowhere sponsored the fuzzy little primate from the nearby Como Zoo. Our sponsorship helps support a local urban zoo that's a great family-friendly, low-cost attraction. Plus--monkeys!
We hope you and your family--and the white-faced saki monkey's--have a happy holiday.
So, I present highlights from the personal blog of Kevin D. Hendricks:
It's been a busy year.
]]>It's (hopefully) good information about how churches can make the most of the web, and really the same principles can be applied to any organization.
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In the summer of 2008 we helped Boxbot--and their fun robot mascot Clutch--tell their story. Boxbot specializes in packaging design for children's products, hence the tagline we wrote: "Boxbot designs stuff kids like." We also organized and wrote content for their web site, focusing on showing who they are and emphasizing their expertise.
Remember, it's OK to play with dolls.
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Twin Cities radio station 98.5 FM KTIS needed to redesign their web site to bring focus and consistency. Taylor Design Works headed up the project and we focused specifically on the homepage, working together to determine the best way to highlight multiple types of content and create a sense of hierarchy.
In addition to giving KTIS a clean look and a streamlined homepage, we advised them on site navigation and interior content, making suggestions for how to improve writing, boost online readability and avoid confusion.
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In 2000 as an intern and again in 2005 as a freelancer, Monkey Outta Nowhere worked with the National Park Service to create a trail guide for the Twin Cities metro area. The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is a unit of the National Park Service that focuses on 72 miles of the Mississippi River as it winds through the Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding area. The trail guide included historical sidebars and specific directions for navigating difficult spots along the trail.
The 2000 version of the trail guide covered Minneapolis to South St. Paul while the 2005 version expanded north to Anoka, skipped south to Hastings and included updated information about new trails in between. Both guides offered an overview of the region as well as each specific trail segment. Each segment included a sidebar covering historic, natural or otherwise interesting features of that segment. In both cases we worked closely with designers to decide how to break up the region into segments and structure the entire guide.
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In the summer of 2008 Monkey Outta Nowhere started writing content for iThemes, a creator of WordPress themes. WordPress is an open source blog software that makes it very easy to manage a web site and control the design through customizable themes. We wrote blog entries about how to use WordPress, prepared PDF tutorials and pulled together content for a new web site.]]>