Really excited to unveil our most recent labor of love. We’ve spent a number of months working on this with our good friends over at Mono and Into The Groove Music and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the result. Illustrating, design, animating and developing Mono’s beautiful little tale all soundtracked to Into The Groove’s perfect soundtracking has been a true pleasure.

Here are a few captures, but you really must see it for yourself!

http://pennyfindsherbrave.com

Also, Penny’s been getting some press. How exciting is that!
Fast Co. Create
Creativity Online
The Guardian

We are proud and excited to announce NENO, our very own magazine publishing platform for the iPad that has been custom built from the ground-up. Over the past few months, we have been putting the finishing touches on NENO to create a unique publishing tool for magazines that offers fully customizable, rich tools as well as an avenue to meet magazine readers on the iPad.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NENO reinvents the advertising platform for online publishers. Our HTML5/CSS platform allows advertisers all the freedom of the iPad’s web browsing capabilities. How cool is that? No longer limited to static printed ads and online banners ads, advertisers may include interactive elements like videos, photo slideshows, and whatever else suits their fancy in their ads in NENO publications. The possibilities are virtually limitless. Check out a few examples of innovative ads running on a NENO powered publication now:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NENO is customizable to suit the varying needs of any publisher, and can be seen live in the app store with Metro Magazine’s iPad app. Publishers can choose from several subscription models to meet their own unique needs.

Check it out at: http://nenoapp.com

Today we are very proud to announce the launch of the Metro Magazine iPad App! We’ve spent the better part of the last year working closely with the team at Metro to create this wonderful little monster and we’re very excited to show it off. We also wanted to take a second and talk about all that went into this thing, as its more than just “Another Magazine App.”

Metro is a truly unique publication here in the Minneapolis area, as its not only dedicated exclusively to the Arts & Entertainment culture of our community, but its an incredibly well crafted magazine, continuing to uphold the highest editorial standards, even in a world where their craft is being constantly bombarded by free resources online and even on other newsstands. So our task was one with both creative and technical challenges to tackle.

We started first and foremost by evaluating what Metro does well. Their content is amazing and is genuinely top notch for any printed publication these days. But their website is ALSO filled with a tremendous amount of information that’s invaluable to the user. These two experiences are both wonderful, but so separate. So we took aim at the idea of combining the two into one cohesive interface. The landing screen dashboard gives you access to not only the recent magazine issues, but real time blog updates, categorical content from their website, and events calendar, local restaurant locations/reviews all built in Google Maps and using your location to find Metro-Worthy establishments near you as well as a dock full of articles, blogs, events and restaurants you’ve bookmarked to keep at the top of your list. This dashboard area was a true labor of love in that the goal was to both display the expected level of ever-present content users have come to enjoy on the Metro website, but also make use of some basic expected iPad gestural navigation styles and user interface standards. Very delicate balance between information overload, user interface complexities and the straight up design elegance you expect from both Metro and Sevnthsin.

The second big task was to take their actual magazine content and deliver it in a new digital format. This was more of both a creative AND technical challenge. So how do you get from something designed for a fixed size printed page over to digital devices that can (and is expected to) be reoriented on at will. This part is where we spent a LOT of time crafting our approach, and in the end we settled on a very elegant solution. We chose to re-create the print-ready articles as HTML5 documents using CSS3 media queries, @font-face declarations for font matching as well as some jQuery to be able to dynamically include video or audio content to supplement to articles. This affords us a number of opportunities within the content like dynamic reorientation or scaling of the content (you know, when you flip your iPad sideways for more comfortable lap reading), the ability to select/copy/paste content from the articles along with simple “share” features out to email/twitter/facebook and finally this method helped dramatically reduce the overall initial download time. We looked at a lot of other magazine apps and many of them are glorified PDF readers, which has many of its own merits, but our goal was to create rich, dynamic content that was also NOT a 280mb download.

Lastly, and this is a big one for any publication, we tackled the idea of advertising within the magazines. Banner Ads are so 2006, so how do we take this new medium and create legitimate, useful advertising spaces that are both beneficial to the advertiser but to the user as well. We all know that these i-Devices have spurred a sense of “what’s it do for me” in its user. And that’s not a bad thing by any means, but it means you’ve got to think harder about how you advertise on these devices. iAds was not the solution we wanted as we still feel it to be a bit intrusive and it still FEELS like advertising. So along with our HTML5 content delivery, we applied the exact same principles to the ads in the Metro issues. Each ad is essentially a full page mini-website. As long as you’re working within HTML5 optimized for the iPad Safari Webview, you can create almost anything you’d like. We’ve done some sample ads for the Metro team to use as pitch materials that incorporate OpenTable reservations for local restaurants or Google Maps pinpointing your location to show you walking directions to the closest bike share station. Or even the ad we’re running right now in the Free February and March issues, that auto-scrolls through a couple pages to tell a story and leaves you with a video showcasing some of our work. The possibilities are seemingly endless and we’re encouraging advertisers to push these boundaries within the Metro app and create a new wave of thoughtful, user-centric advertising that goes beyond the one directional banner ad of the past.

So take some time and check out the new Metro Magazine iPad App on your iPad or NEW iPAD 2 (because we know you’re all waiting in line today to get one). Its our newest baby and its got some growth to do, but its an amazing step in the right direction for a wonderful client of ours and we’re proud to have helped create such an elegant solution to a complex task.

Metro Magazine on the iTunes store – http://svns.in/lj

Our friends at Equal Exchange are hoping to do one thing: build a better food system, one that benefits small farmer co-ops and sustainable farming methods. We were honored to work with Equal Exchange to create Principle Six (P6), a social site that focuses on bringing consumers one step closer to the farmers, producers and stories that bring their favorite products to the shelves of their neighborhood coop.

Equal Exchange has pre-selected over 6,000 products that are local, small farmer produced or cooperatively grown or sold so that users of the site can throw their support behind their favorite products.

Why? Well, as products are shown support (and love) they are considered for feature in the Hall Of Honor – a collection of the creme de la creme of socially conscious products.

Check it out here, find your favorite products, and throw your support behind them. We’re bursting at the seams with P6 pride about this project.

*Also, kudos to our good friends over at Spunk for the amazing branding. Some great source creative to work with.

This Holiday season, we felt it only appropriate to FINALLY answer the burning question, “Where did the name come from?” So with that in mind, we felt the only true way to capture the essence of the company’s birth, was by rock opera. That’s right, I said ROCK OPERA. Written and recorded primarily by our own Aaron Shekey (with a little help on vocals by Jamey), a 6 part rock opera was produced and a limited quantity made available as a physical disc. A promotional video for the epic is available and five of the six movements can be found over on iTunes, where all proceeds of the sale of the album will be donated to our good friends over at Project Healthy Smile.

So enjoy a few shots of the mailer, complete with Disc, Promo Poster (autographed, of course), Band Bio/One Sheet as well as a few fancy Picks to ice the cake.

You can find the online experience over at: http://sevnthsinorigins.com

After about a year and a half of plugging away, we’re very happy to announce the launch of the Fifth Element site. Helping a local record shop hit the big time with a great new site/ecommerce system is something we’re very proud to have had our hands in.

Take some time, check it out, and buy THIS SHIRT!

Link: Fifthelementonline.com

We’ve had the pleasure of working alongside D.C. Ice – a charmingly sinister local artist and illustrator – for years, and this is the first of two projects launching this month. As someone who’s a bit clumsy with a brush, it’s always a treat to collaborate with someone as talented as D.C. – especially if it means helping her realize such a unique web site.

Take a look at the site and let us know – which is your favorite character?

Sevnthsin is proud to announce the launch of the Scion x-CHANGE web/mobile experience for this summer’s drive tour. We worked closely with both our partner AMCI and Scion to pull together an experience that not only promotes the event online, but is open to participation at the events as well.

Check it out over at: http://scionxchange.org

Late last night our first iPad app for our client JCPenney was launched. Taking advantage of the framework already established in the iPhone app, a new User Interface was implemented to accommodate the lovely new screen real estate the iPad provides.

Another big shout out is due to our pals over at The Nerdery for all their help on the back side of this thing. Always a pleasure!

So hop on your iPad and check this beauty out. More great things to come, we promise! http://svns.in/ai

First up is the new Pabst Blue Ribbon website. We spent the last couple months fine tuning this beauty for our lovely clients down at the PBR headquarters. Chock full of constantly produced, sortable content from their Field Marketing Reps in cities across the country and hidden surprises, this new look has been a long time coming, and a well deserved launch for a great brand.

See it in its glory at http://pabstblueribbon.com

Last, but by no means least, we have Voltage Fashion Amplified. Yet another rock-tastic year of Minneapolis’s finest fashions ruling the runways at First Ave during April’s fashion week. Going to be another spectacular event and we’re proud to have been involved once again.

Check it at: http://voltagefashionamplified.com

Sevnthsin & JCPenney have taken a Bronze at the 2010 RAMA Racie Awards for the JCPenney Weekly Deals iPhone app.

JCPenney medaled in many categories, but we’re all very excited to see our efforts achieve a medal in a new category. Congrats to all involved, especially our boys down at The Nerdery who moved mountains at the 11th hour many a time during the pre-holiday build up.

More here: http://svns.in/8h

Dear friends and people near and dear to our hearts,

There is a magical bond between interactive and the holiday season. We here at Sevnthsin felt that there was no better way to celebrate that bond than by creating a new holiday division of our agency: The Sevnthsin Collectables Collection. As a token of our love and affection, we’d like to extend an invitation for you to experience the fine quality holiday goods we provide through our website:

http://www.ecardmakerwebsite.com

Create and send elegant, personalized digital cards your loved ones will cherish the years over.

Pabst Art, our first project with new client PBR went live today. The annual fan submitted artwork competition brings submissions from all over the country, ultimately awarding four winners with the prize of a lifetime. This year, we helped PBR create an experience that allowed them to accept, vote, rank and award prizes all online. Additionally, we created a gallery structure that allowed site visitors to view all the work submitted over the past few years as well as the new work being submitted this year or even submit ‘found art’ photos they’ve taken or found online. And, if you’re REALLY into it, you can use their online “Art Hacker” tool to create a glorious PBR piece of your own to share with friends or print out and hang on your cubicle wall.

As they say, “Life is art. Art is passion. Passion tastes like PBR.”
So go check it out over at:
PBRART.COM

We would like to proudly announce the launch of the new Rhymesayers website. We’ve been crafting this baby for a long time now, and are ‘oh so excited’ to see it finally stand on its own legs. Lots of great new stuff, and not to mention, some sweet jams on the radio.

Rhymesayers.com

Sevnthsin proudly announces, in partnership with our wonderful partner &Yustin, our newest iPhone Application for retailer JCPenney. This new iPhone app takes JCPenney in a new/forward thinking direction and begins the process of moving towards a paperless means of content delivery for the company.

Each week the app dynamically updates with new weekly offers, in line with their newspaper circular, bringing the newest deals to iphone users no matter where they are. The app also includes functionality to create your own ‘Favorites’ shopping list and a GPS enabled Store Locator, making the distance between you and your nearest JCP just a click away.

Check out the app over at the iTunes App Store or by clicking: JCP.COM/IPHONE

A month before the much anticipated release of “Us,” the new effort by Brother Ali off Rhymesayers Records, Sevnthsin busted out this new experience, giving the fans a true form of conversation. The new BrotherAli.com focuses simply on the purest inspiration behind much of Ali’s new album, the conversations he’s had with fans.

So what better way to connect the two than with a site strictly focused on promoting those conversations, sharing those stories, just talking with one another. Sign in via Facebook or Twitter and comment on Ali’s posts or share a story of your own. The door is open, now go chat it up.

BROTHERALI.COM

Sevnthsin would like to announce the launch of Get Sleep Ready, a microsite for Select Comfort. Follow Russ and Sally as they discover the things that effect their sleep and how they can make a few simple changes to go from ‘Disastrous’ to ‘Top-Notch.’

A big shout out to the crew over at Select Comfort for being such an amazing partner to work with as well as to the team here at Sevnthsin for diving in head first and bringing this to life. We got our hands dirty on every component of this site, from the concept and strategy to the illustration, animation and voice over work.

We’ll have to have some cake to celebrate!

GETSLEEPREADY.COM

Sevnthsin would like to officially welcome Pabst Blue Ribbon into the mix here. We’re looking forward to working with you and are excited about what’s to come! This is definitely the beginning of something lovely.

Somebody PBR me ASAP!

iMated, our first non-client iPhone app, went live in the iTunes Store today. A hilariously creepy blend of facial feature melding in one fun little app. Take a sec and check it out over at iMated.com. There’s even a little demo!

Big shout out to PopLife and &Yustin for all their support on this epic quest for iPhone hilarity.

iMated.com

We just recently finished our very first internal iPhone App project with our good friends at PopLife/&Yustin. A fun little piece sure to cause ‘seam bursting’ laughter. The above image is a little sneak peek of what is to come. Expect it on the app store in the coming weeks.

Enjoy.