Peapod Studios is on the lookout for a web developer to join our close-knit team crafting engaging experiences for a variety of outstanding clients. If you wield semantic HTML and efficient CSS like a boss, join us in crafting great work. Although you’ll be mainly working with PHP-based content management systems such as Drupal and WordPress, you can also expect to have some fun with third-party APIs.

Your main responsibilities:

You’ll be working with our Senior Developer and design team to build new standards-compliant Drupal and WordPress themes from PSD files and style guides. Detail is our middle name, so you’ll need to stay sharp! You’ll be developing custom Drupal modules and WordPress configurations as needed, and be fully engaged in our project process, acting as an advocate for technical excellence.

You will need to have:

• Outstanding HTML, JavaScript, JSON/AJAX, and CSS Skills
• Know what the implications of HTML5 and related technologies are
• Ability to create Drupal and WordPress themes and extensions from scratch
• Experience working with relational database systems, particularly MySQL
• Excellent organization and communication skills
• Be almost as detail-orientated as our Creative Director
• Be self-motivated, able to work independently without constant supervision

What you’ll need to rock this gig:

• Love for client services
• Passion for clean, elegant code and a hunger to keep making it better
• Thirst for knowledge and desire to keep expanding your skills
• Strong drive to achieve goals and the self-motivation to get there
• Excellent ability to stay on top of a variety of competing tasks and priorities

If you are interested in this position, please send your resume/portfolio to jobs@peapod.ca
Thank you for your response, only those selected for interview will be contacted.

Peapod has watched Ottawa based communications shop, MediaStyle grow from a one-man home office to a four-person boutique communications firm.

MediaStyle isn’t like most public relations firms. Ian Capstick and his team focus on teaching people how to maximize their public relations budgets by teaching clients how to be better communicators. They also take on high-level content strategy and creation.

The re-designed MediaStyle.ca now provides more ways to access the rich archive of two years of near-daily content. The site also provides a much stronger showcase for their portfolio of videos, text and audio content. The new site even has a cute spot for the office to post about their well-known cupcakes.

The team at MediaStyle values handmade goods, they have impeccable style and as Ian told us at the start, “We’re way overdue for a new look.”

Here’s what else Ian has to say about his new site:

“I love how they have infused the site with subtle detailing and really captured what we love about the MediaStyle brand. It’s bold, but bespoke as well.”

We’re looking forward to our teams working together again soon.

Peapod is now searching for an exceptional person to fill the position below. If you don’t feel your skills are a match for the open position we have posted, but would add value in another position, please contact us anyway. We are always interested in hearing from great people.

Web/graphic designer

We are seeking an amazing designer. As a key member of our interactive team you would be designing websites and application interfaces for a diverse client base, coming up with creative concepts all on your own, and refining concepts based upon client feedback provided to you. Working closely with our Art director on external projects and on internal sales/marketing/print collateral. You would also be working with front end developers providing Production ready files, HTML & CSS development – At least a basic understanding of standards-compliant HTML and CSS is required, as well as a desire to grow in this area.

Key Qualifications:

Experience designing for multiple mediums (Online Portfolio required)

• Adobe CS4 expertise
• HTML & CSS proficiency (w3-compliant)
• Experience with rapid prototyping of interfaces
• Attention to detail and a genuine passion for designing beautiful, polished interfaces.
• Demonstrated experience developing UI for web-based applications
• Sensitivity to typography and colour – you know when things just “look right”
• Good organizational skills
• Familiarity with Mac OSX

You should Have:

• Experience in an agency/client services environment
• Working with multiple clients / deadlines.
• Demonstrable experience in web application design
• Strong knowledge of user interface principles.
• Strong communication skills

If you are interested in this position, please send your resume/portfolio to jobs@peapod.ca

Thank you for your response, only those selected for interview will be contacted.

A Little History

Château des Charmes story began over five generations ago with a family that traces its roots to the Alsace region of France and the vineyards of French Algeria. Thousands of kilometers from its present day vineyards located at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

In these foreign lands, the ancestors of Paul Bosc began a heritage of fine winemaking that would serve the Bosc family for generations to come. This tradition of excellence continues today in the vineyards of Niagara-on-the-Lake where Paul Bosc and his family carry on this rich heritage of meticulous vinification by harmonizing science and art.

A graduate of one of Europe’s finest winemaking schools, the University of Burgundy at Dijon, Paul Bosc came to Canada from France in the 1960′s. He brought the Old World tradition of winemaking to his new home and he grafted that knowledge and tradition to the soils of Niagara.

Renowned British wine writer Hugh Johnson in his book Wine Companion has written:

“Canada was discovered, in fine wine terms, in the 1970′s when old fears and prejudices about which vines could survive were tossed aside. The formidable know-how that had been accumulating in new wine districts around the world provided answers to problems that had seemed insuperable. Paul Bosc became the first to plant a wholly vinifera vineyard. Award winning VQA estate wines include Icewine, late harvest riesling, an impressive range of both white and red varietals as well as méthode traditionnelle sparkling wines.”

We had to try it

Peapod Studios is picky about our clients, we want to work with the best of the best. We seek out companies and projects we can feel good about.

So we headed off to our local LCBO to grab some of the Châteaus offerings. We ended up with the 2005 Old Vine Cabernet- Merlot and the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, St. David’s Bench Vineyard.

Nom nom nom

The Cabernet Merlot was simply exquisite, the more it breathed the more fantastic it became, and the Cabernet Sauvignon reminded us of that summer in Rome.

We were hooked, The wine is fantastic, and the scenery and chance to visit and work with a company that is in arguably in the most gorgeous place in Canada. A family run business that returns its wealth to the community and environment. All the things we love and appreciate and aim for being ourselves.

“In the belief that quality and value go hand-in-hand, we at Château des Charmes have been dedicated to producing world-class wines in Canada by growing only the finest grape varieties.”

-The Bosc Family

Photo credit: whatsonmyplate

There is a great deal of discovery and strategy that goes into creating the final products we deliver. We start with several sessions of discovery, where we set the basic goals and criteria we’d like the clients site to meet.

Then we develop several individualized personas of who the key users and stakeholders of the site will be. Personalizing a users experience dealing with a website is a key part of ensuring success. We develop several pathways throughout the site, for them to easily obtain the information they desire or have come for while navigating the site.

Architecture and Strategy Documentation

We take all of this information and use it to develop our Architecture and Strategy document. This will serve as a resource for both our developers and the client to refer to as we move forward to the point where we can begin the preliminary site mapping and wire-framing of the eventual site build.

WireFrames

Once we have established the web sites core functionality and layout only then can we move into creating the initial rounds of designs, a process we call skinning. Initially we like to provide the client with three distinct rounds of creative, allowing the client to have several choices in the future direction of the design.

Design Begins

Taking the clients feedback from the intial three mockups we can begin to build out more honed designs based on their feedback. This is not a perfect science, sometimes a client will go through more than one round of creative, although sometimes we nail it from the get go.

Design Sign Off

WIth all the elements in place, we finally have the basis for build.

The documentation we have from the preliminary steps allows the developers to work knowing the ins and outs of the final structure, and gives them an extensive library to refer to. Art direction is minimized as most of the design lives within the styles created in the skinning stage.

Asigra.com

So when Michael McDerment called and asked us to add a little spit and polish to his presentation at the Future of Web Apps Conference, we absolutely jumped at the chance.

Photocredit: Alex Designs

FreshBooks Believes…

Running a business is hard enough. We believe financial record keeping should be easy, fast, (and perhaps even fun), but still detailed enough to satisfy your accountant.

Billing should be simple. You can send an invoice a few seconds after creating your account no matter what level of experience you have.

Your data deserves to be safe, secure, and accessible to you. We also believe you own your data, we do not. Your data will be easy to export any time you want it.

Every customer should look like a Fortune 500 company, based on the image sent by invoices, bills, or other accounting communications, no matter what size the company is.

Thank You.

So a giant “Thank You” to the FreshBooks Management Team for putting your external face to the world in our hands, if only for a brief moment.

We were happy to return the favour.

It’s true. We’ve always been a sucker for a great slab.

In this world where everyone always seems to be creating brands and identities using your typical san-serfis, the talented team at Hoefler-Frere Jones has brought back some love to the Slab Serif.

Sentinel: the slab serif that works.

For everyone who’s ever wished Clarendons had italics, everyone whose favorite slab serif is shy a few weights, and everyone who’s ever needed a slab serif to thrive in text: we designed Sentinel for you.

The first slab serifs were designed to be oddities. It was their intention to be eye-catching, to be novelties amidst the world’s conventional book types. Never mind that some of these faces treated different letters inconsistently, or had inherent qualities that limited the size of their families: these were eccentricities, and to a novelty typeface, eccentricity is strength. Two centuries later, their legacy includes three beloved species of typeface that are handsome, popular, and maddeningly difficult to use. Each is marred by a crippling deficiency, a situation inspiring us to create Sentinel.

Sentinel was designed to address the many shortcomings of the classical slab serif. Unbound by traditions that deny italics, by technologies that limit its design, or by ornamental details that restrict its range of weights, Sentinel is a fresh take on this useful and lovely style, offering for the first time a complete family that’s serviceable for both text and display. From the Antique style it borrows a program of contrasting thicks and thins, but trades that style’s frumpier mannerisms for more attractive contemporary details. It improves on both Clarendons and Geometrics by including a complete range of styles, six weights from Light to Black that are consistent in both style and quality. Planned from the outset to flourish in small sizes as well as large, Sentinel contains features like short-ranging figures that make it a dependable choice for text. And most mercifully, it includes thoughtfully designed italics across its entire range of weights.

Call to Action

So we ask you, please take another look at the fonts you use for your new projects, the world needs a little more excitement and colour in its designs. A return to the slabs would be an excellent start.

Peapod Studios is pleased to announce that we have been selected to create a vibrant new web presence for Asigra Inc., a leading cloud backup and recovery software provider.

The Asigra project includes a new strategy, architecture, design and development of asigra.com.

Stay tuned for a Spring relaunch of asigra.com.

About Asigra:

Asigra brings Cloud Computing to backup and recovery. Traditional approaches to backup have not kept up with the exponential growth and value of data – and the complexity of the IT environment. This means IT organizations are wasting brainpower and precious resources on what should be a routine task in today’s Cloud Computing era.

For more than 20 years Asigra has stayed ahead of the market with an efficient, cost-effective and transformational cloud backup and recovery solution that aligns the value of data with its storage costs.

More about Asigra online via www.Asigra.com

Unfortunately until this week there was no option for Mac users to experience the innovative design and workflow Bumptop had created for PC desktops.

Well all that changed this week, when the fully realized Bumptop for Mac edition was released.

At first blush it’s immediately apparent Bumptop has put quite a bit of polish into its new release. It’s an absolutely gorgeous, well conceived user experience treatment of your standard desktop. It’s integration into workflow makes me believe that it was Apple itself that implemented this edition, or at least they’ll try to nab bits of it for later releases.

The basic version is free for download, and for a mere $29 you can upgrade for a more feature rich full version.

Azule Fuel came to Peapod Studios looking for a brand that was reminiscent of the past era of fuel companies, while having a dab of that modern day slickness.

Now, as proud members of the planet, Peapod Studios loves the fact we get to work with some of the new companies that are standing up to the status quo with some actual forward thinking. Azule Fuel is developing viable energy options smart enough to create self sufficient fuels for the completely sustainable communities of the future. As well as a future plan to developing biodiesel hubs, utilizing seed oil, livestock and poultry processors, renderers and waste cooking oil to create networks large enough for even the biggest national trucking companies.