The Engine Room

Studio Business, April 2008

2008-04-28T16:44:00.008+10:00

Check out all the latest in April's edition of ER Happenings, online right about now!

Buried within that very swish looking indeed newsletter (cheers, Kraig) is a welcome to our wondrous new Marketing Manager, Ms Emily Shurey.

We think so highly of Em that we've conjured her up her very own micro-site! Click away and acquaint yourself with the latest gun addition to the ER Team!

Finally, we've updated and given our promotional micro-site a new paint job and some love under the hood.

This is our Sales Kit for new and prospective clients, and we wouldn't complain at all if you passed the link on to any parties you think might have need of our services!

Hunter Toys

2008-03-25T19:45:00.001+11:00

Masquerave Teaser Site

2008-03-02T15:07:00.000+11:00

We're BACK!

2008-02-22T19:38:00.001+11:00

Final Fiji wrap up is online here!

The Engine Room- Fiji Hell: 2008

2008-02-11T19:36:00.001+11:00

Engine Room Fiji Hell Tour 08 official Flickr stream- click the image for the lot!

Back to the wet bar, then...

Kokoda Property

2008-01-30T15:05:00.000+11:00

Cranbourne Music Catalogue 2008- Print Design

2007-12-19T15:30:00.000+11:00

Publicity Works

2007-12-19T14:52:00.000+11:00

Worry Not, We've Been Keeping Ourselves Busy...

2007-12-13T19:22:00.004+11:00

Idle hands make light work, right?

Well, here at Team ER, we're pretty sure we could never be accused of sitting on those proverbial extremities for too long- there's a very bloody good reason why you haven't heard from us since April!

Taking the non linear approach (it's too late in the year for narrative cohesion, friends), we moved our arses, assorted computing boxes and similar into our tastefully colour coordinated new digs in the very heart of St Kilda (we've got a plasma and all those sexy third gen games platforms in here, you know!).

That's right- we're Fitzroyalty no more! You can now stalk us onsite at the Frontier Advertising super complex, at

1/30 Inkerman St.,
St Kilda, VIC 3182

or make suspect calls to one of our excitable staff on (03) 9593 9058. The fax capacitor number is (03) 9593 9086, and the email song remains the same.

Now- before we get down to the actual work, let's briefly review some of the milestones from Team ER 2007's scrapbook.

The Chef and his better (and MYOB accredited) half, The Frith, finally welcomed Archer Hoban into the world on October 2.

Thankfully, she's got Dad's singing voice and Mum's good looks, is about as cool a three month old as you could hope to meet, and provided a good excuse for the studio boys to do some long overdue baby clothes shopping on Acland St.

Whipping the ER gang into shape post-Friday night beer and X Box sessions was our very own guest Sgt Hartman, Mr Tom Lashan, whose ANS Protein site and products we've had a heavy involvement in designing.

Fady, our resident Design Management guru, clocked four stars on Metallica's 'One' on Guitar Hero III just the other night, and is still riding high following the emphatic Halo 3 thumpings he's handed out to all and sundry over the course of the year.

Multimedia Developing wunderkind Kraig had all his AutoSalon dreams come true earlier in the year with a trip to the two day chrome and ladies spectacular, and is still ruing the day he ill-advisedly consumed a stack of well-salted potato cakes and then attacked the ER Stairmaster with frightening vigour.

You can see some of his recent sterling work in the monthly Frontier Advertising newsletter!

The ER also graciously welcomed yours truly, their formerly AWOL desert bound designer at large, back into the fold in September (if only to get these updates back on track); and the band of loonies has expanded to include web ninja Dave, design messiah Oli and even SEO maniac Brad on occasion.

But enough of the jibber jabber, as Laurence Tureaud once allegedly said- the following is a retrospective of our work from 2007; we hope you enjoy your tour through what's turning out to be an ever widening and diversifying portfolio!

(See list at bottom right!)

Through our friends at Frontier, we've also had the distinct privilege of working on an exciting array of sites and promotions for THQ Games- our banner ads and videos have graced the international sites for Stuntman, Juiced 2, Bladestorm, Dynasty Warriors Gundam, Squad Command and Fatal Inertia; you can also check out our full site for Drawn to Life and the prestige 2008 release Frontlines.

Whew.

What a year, eh? Of course, there's far more coming up in '08- the ER's going to continue to expand in all sorts of crazy directions, most of which are so super top secret that we can't tell you anything about them just yet.

We [i]can[/i] tell you that we'll be winging off for a well earned Fijian stopover sometime in Feb, and that a new, fully loaded site is on the horizon, to boot.

So, until the next update, which we promise won't be anywhere as long in the offing, the Team extends to you all the compliments of the season, and implores you all to behave yourselves, just a bit, into the New Year.

Cheers,

Jones

Taunovo Bay

2007-12-11T14:37:00.000+11:00

Charles Lloyd Property Group

2007-12-04T14:39:00.000+11:00

2Vouch Job Genie

2007-11-30T14:44:00.000+11:00

Tropic Surf

2007-11-29T14:40:00.000+11:00

Biba Academy Print Collateral

2007-11-07T15:28:00.000+11:00

Duratrans poster:

Flyer:

Presentation folder:

Engine Room Online

2007-11-05T14:19:00.001+11:00

For posterity, the original Engine Room Online site, circa '06, in all its award winning glory:

Footlocker/ HSV Promotion

2007-09-26T15:10:00.001+10:00

Heliexperiences

2007-09-16T14:42:00.000+10:00

Greenmark Landscapes

2007-08-29T14:53:00.001+10:00

O'Callaghan Commercial

2007-08-24T14:57:00.000+10:00

Nevermind Bar

2007-06-12T15:00:00.000+10:00

Cranbourne Music 2007 Catalogue- Print Design

2007-05-25T15:31:00.000+10:00

MacDaddy Sopranos

2007-05-25T14:43:00.001+10:00

Trenerry on Studley Park

2007-05-10T15:06:00.000+10:00

George Lane Bar

2007-05-04T14:47:00.000+10:00

Uniform Streetwear

2007-05-01T15:01:00.000+10:00

Too Little, Too Long

2007-04-15T19:14:00.002+10:00

Hey sportsfans,

Mucho apologies for the lack of news updates, no real excuses for the slackness, for in between a stack of new sites we have been busy with some primo development in the templates area and CMS related technologies and other exciting revelations.

The new crop features the relaunched hoodies.com.au and the matching MySpace.

Our new Flash based CMS for fashion ecommerce sites under the banner of MerchCart is also recently live.

We've also launched a swag of new hospitality sites using the HostGear panoramic template:

Club Retro
Mac Daddy Sopranos and
George Lane Bar

We've also been developing a swanky 3D interface for an internal CD-Rom that Austereo have been using to gear up their new sales team.

Look out for more coming up in the near future for Ten Men, an MMS server for mobile video intergration and much, much more... for now- stay cool.

Chef

Smartcup

2007-03-19T14:50:00.000+11:00

ANS Protein Joomla Site

2007-03-12T14:56:00.000+11:00

Ruby & Spike E-Commerce Site

2007-02-10T14:46:00.001+11:00

SA Gridiron Association

2007-01-22T15:03:00.000+11:00

For Whom The Bell Tolls...

2006-12-15T18:25:00.003+11:00

Well, another mad month or so has elapsed, and we're rapidly descending into Summer Break here at the ER- Kraig's awayed to India on sabbatical for six or so weeks, the Chef's gone to ground somewhere deep in an East Melbourne bunker, Shannon's just gotten hitched in fine style on the Central Coast (Raise your glasses, then!), Fady's taken to his gaming parlour to give the Nintendo Wii a jolly good seeing to, and Rocko's mere hours from hitting the highway on a Hunter Thompson Lite desert tour.

But! Festive revelry or non, we're still knee deep in a raft of projects well into the New Year- so much so that we've had to shut down in January to roll the sleeves up in the ER Lab and get to work on some very special new endeavours...more of which we'll be revealing next year.

First, though, check out the Flash 8 preview of our Chivas Golf promo for the upcoming Chivas Life promotion. Special thanks to Ryan Media, who shot our golfing footage and really should have a website through which to pimp their excellent production services.

We've also completed work for online content delivery gurus Streamspace, and have put a huge USB drive presentation job for Marriott Hotels to bed in the last week or so, with the aid of Branded Items.

In addition to January's tinkerings, upcoming projects include sites for The George Lane Bar and Mac Daddy Sopranos, product and site launches for Australian Nutritional Supplements, and an explosion of content for our friends at SAGA.

So, for now, festive greetings to you and yours, keep safe if you're travelling, and yes, Gatorade and Nurofen is indeed a smashing hangover cure come January 1, 2007.

Most importantly- a huge thanks for all your support this year- see you on the other side!

Rocko

SAGA Team Sites

2006-11-01T14:31:00.003+11:00

Check out the other retooled sites:

Eastside Razorbacks
Spartans
Chiefs
Eagles

SAGA & More

2006-10-26T16:02:00.001+10:00

Contrary to popular (and entirely well founded, come to think) belief, we've not dissolved into a puddle of exhausted alcoholic muck post- Adelaide jaunt; there's simply been far too much STUFF on that's eaten up all our valuable News Updating time!

First cab off the rank are our new chums at the South Australian Gridiron Association, who've brought us on board to update their branding and online presence in conjunction with Adelaide based creative dynamos Penguin. Check out the new look site for the Eastside Razorbacks, and keep an eye out for a fully tooled up SAGA homepage in the very near future!

Our Adelaide visit also strengthened our ties with advertising agency KWP! (they even bought us lunch!). We'll be developing some cool new promotions in conjunction with the guys in the coming months- look out for new Chivas Life web action in the weeks ahead.

What else is on the plate? We're in the process of finishing off an extensive CD-ROM for Footy Vic, have put together a new site for our hygiene oriented friends at Virogard, are in the process of getting up and coming label Johnny T's new web presence off the ground, and are looking forward to a whole raft of fashion related undertakings for our friends at NMBQ, KDT and Snikity.

Oh, and check out the new site for local textiles consultants Pryor Concepts while you're poking around our wares, too.

Alright, then- back to work it is.

Promise to keep a more regular updating schedule from now on!

Biba Academy Hairdressers

2006-10-02T15:04:00.000+10:00

Khoi Dinh Tran Fashion Site

2006-09-05T14:55:00.000+10:00

Top Secret Projects Unveiled!

2006-08-31T16:35:00.001+10:00

Produced in conjunction with our chums at KWP! in Adelaide and hot off the proverbial, here's our closely guarded new project in all its painstakingly crafted glory:

SA Tourism Activity Seekers Microsite.

Look out for the accompanying TVC and print campaign just about any moment now!

Also hitting the 'net this week is By Design: Mind and Body's new site; drop by to get the down low on all the latest fitness and well being news and tips.

Sadly, Chef has let his 7 day trial gym membership expire; stricter adherence to the principles outlined at By Design might just see him make it through our boozy rock 'n roll fact finding tour of Adelaide late next week.

Finally, but no less important for it, it's Spring Fashion Week in Melbourne once more.

We Engine Roomers are proud to be rolling out a new folio site for insanely chic rising stars Khoi Dinh Tran.

You should also check out Fashion Week exhibitors and ER favourites Roba Designs' catalogue site, and be certain to say 'hi' to the boys if you spy them around the Fashion Week traps.

(There could be dire repercussions if you don't; have you seen the size of them?!)

We'd also like to remind you to check out our close personal friends at New Model Beauty Queen's site; these are the guys behind the scenes, the makers, printers and consultants who see all those garments through the production process; be sure to check out some of their work at the Beautiful Fear event on Thursday the 7th!

That would be pretty much IT for this installment; assuming Chef and Jones make it back relatively sobre and capable from their Adelaide jaunt, one of us will be in touch soonish!

-Jones (Yes, it's 11.18pm and I'm still here.)

Lightning Update

2006-08-25T16:24:00.003+10:00

As promised- some new sites!

Montie's Bar
Dew South
360 Events

Currently deep in the lab hashing out a hot new micro-site for SA Tourism; Ben and Garth will be jetting to Adelaide in the weeks ahead to press the flesh with our good friends at KWP regarding some exciting developments in the advertising neck of the woods, too.

Otherwise- we've rolled up the sleeves and have some hot new idents for our friends the Shred Bettys and StreamSpace in development, and the By Design site's not looking too shabby, either.

More on our top secret Spring project next time, too!

It's Friday,

Jones

Packaging Design Samples

2006-08-23T15:32:00.000+10:00

Jones Accepts The Handball From Chef

2006-08-03T16:14:00.002+10:00

...who's having a less than stellar time of it, what with his prized ugg boots finally succumbing to the cruel whims of Whirlpool fate- vale, you mighty, odorous bastards: we'd almost come to terms with your seemingly symbiotic relationship with the Chef's lower extremities.

Anyhap, footwear catastrophes aside, it's been a pretty decent few weeks for The Engine Room; embarrassingly, it seems we're now a triple award winning studio, as most recently voted by the preeminent Australian Web Designers Network; their very stylish Platinum Seal of Approval rests right here:

Shiny.

Other big news includes the launch of Boags' Gallantry Is Back site, as seen recently in MX and Kontraband. 75,000 individual views (and counting!) in the site's first fortnight online means that there are quite a few starstruck romantics out there revelling in their own personalised love jingles at this very moment.

We've also launched Roba Designs online store; if you're of the 6 foot plus persuasion and in the market for some unique wearables, give the guys' site a visit, pronto!

There're a whole slew of projects currently in the works, too: upcoming weeks will see the launch of a hot new site for Montie's Bar in Fitzroy (The Engine Room's watering hole of choice!), a new site for personal trainers By Design: Mind & Body (whose services we really should consider utilising), and the unveiling of Dew South's all new page.

That's not even taking into account a few of the more top secret efforts in production- be sure to check back regularly for all new updates and the odd embarrassing personal revelation.

Be sure to drop Chef an email to commiserate re: ugg boot loss, too. It's the decent thing to do.

Soon,

Jones

Roba Designs E-Commerce Site

2006-07-24T14:36:00.000+10:00

Welcome to The Engine Room

2006-07-12T16:08:00.006+10:00

Greetings all, this is the first filler post for the ER blog, I will encourage Garth to edit (delete) it later as he is far funnier on the type than I, but I felt we needed something more original than latin sample text in the blog.

So in the absence of wit I'll deliver the facts, as I see them, at this the birth of a super studio. As we emerge blinking into the light and open our first bank account, get baptised by the glory of ASIC and suckle greedily at the teat of company credit cards, we pause to look back to our parent companies Neografik and NMBQ whose folios we have so blatantly plundered.

OK that’s enough pause, we are a now a Multi award winning design company, that’s right 2 count them 2 website of the week/month/second awards for Engine Room Online courtesy of Creative Public and The Webmaster Awards.

And here's what they look like:

So proud.

New stuff in the works that hasn't made the folio yet includes an interesting piece of work for the Boag’s St George website courtesy of
AJF Partnership and our ever benevolent benefactors the masters of moving pictures for the electric internet Vividas. This viral campaign sited at
Gallantry Is Back saw us putting a finely flash engineered backend to some supplied storyboards the result of which allows you to send a song to your chosen lord or lady in the fine tradition of the knightly serenade. Have fun with that one.

Other work on the go includes a total design rework for the South Australian Gridiron League and Merchcart a customised e shopping cart for the fashion and music industries.

Cheers,
Chef

SA Gridiron Association Programme- Print

2006-06-05T15:36:00.000+10:00

Virogard

2006-06-05T15:06:00.000+10:00