photo by Shuffield Photography

We’re proud to announce that our client Memorial Walk for Babies is in its THIRD YEAR and going strong. Blue Cedar Design partnered up with MWB again this year, donating our time and design to produce a website, print ads, flyers, posters, t-shirts, and personalized memorial signs for the event. Last year, the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported that The Walk drew in over 200 participants.

If you or someone you know has lost a baby to any cause, I encourage you to visit MemorialWalkForBabies.com. They are a Midland, Texas-based organization, raising money and awareness for First Candle – a national nonprofit health organization uniting parents, caregivers and researchers nationwide with government, business and community service groups to advance infant health and survival. MWB also uses donations to provide custom made memory boxes to local hospitals that will be given to families after suffering the loss of an infant.

This year’s event will be on Saturday, October 15 at 7 p.m in Wadley Barron Park. Even if you can’t make it to the walk, please go by the site and make a donation to this wonderful cause. Or if you know anyone who might like to be a corporate sponsor for the event, they can contact BCD or e-mail info@MemorialWalkForBabies.com.

Weekly World News' "Alien" tab content - Super reliable

If you were inclined to peruse their site past the “End of Facebook” post, you would probably pick up on the fact that most of their news isn’t really news at all, but more an alternate version of reality (they literally claim that Abraham Lincoln was a woman), much like the tabloids you have time to read while waiting in the grocery checkout line because that 98 year old woman in front of you is paying by check. But apparently there were a lot of people out there that took this claim at face value, as evidenced by the numerous Twitter and other social media posts/status updates, as well as Google Trends data for the weekend. Mashable was kind enough to reach out to Facebook who confirmed that they were NOT in fact going anywhere anytime soon, especially considering the recent funding promises of $450 million from Goldman Sachs and more from others.

So the questions is, seriously, how much will we really believe? And who wants to join my “Save Facebook” page?

Oh, and would you still go see Batman if Kim Jong Il played the lead:


Kim Jong Il Ends Nuclear Program For Lead In Next ‘Batman’

If you want to read the full explanation of why Starbucks is making this big change, you can, but basically here’s what I got from it:

• Starbucks employees make an emotional connection with their customers every day. Apparently I’m on the list of people not to connect with, emotionally or otherwise.
• Starbucks needs “freedom and flexibility to explore innovations and new channels of distribution” and feels this logo allows them that. Read “World Domination”.
• Apparently the siren/mermaid has taken on a life of her own that I think most of us were unaware of, since she now “means something different to every one who sees her, who knows her.” To me she means burnt coffee and someone else’s order, but maybe I’m getting her confused with someone else.
• Starbucks is so awesome they don’t need to keep their name with their logo anymore. No snarky remark for that one since it kinda was the remark.

Oh Starbucks. Really? First of all, your new look doesn’t really offend the eyes and the mind the way the Gap redo did, but seriously? Now all you want to be to us is a mermaid? I mean, at least with your last logo revamp (you know, the throwback in 2008 that you brought back from the 1970′s) you kept it interesting (and by interesting I mean borderline pornographic):

Well Starbucks, good luck to you. I wish you all the best in your new endeavor, but I still refuse to stop in at your tidy little coffee shops unless I’m dying of thirst and there’s not a local place within 100 miles of me.

That’s right folks, Blue Cedar Design now has its very own custom dog bone line, courtesy of East Dallas’ own Samantha Abedin, owner and creator of Big Boy Bones. Samantha repurposes discarded designer fabrics to make custom lines of designer doggy bones which you can purchase on her site, or contact her for a custom job. We’ll be working with Samantha over the next couple of months to redesign her current Bones website, but feel free to still stop by there now and get yourself acquainted with some of her awesome work.

And for our dog lover friends out there that would love to have a little bit of BCD for their puppies: Comment on this post for the chance to win your very own BCD Big Boy Bone, as well as the secret to getting unlimited 1-Ups in Super Mario Bros (we’ve been playing a bit much of the new Super Mario All-Stars for Wii).

UPDATE: Just in case you were wondering, these bones are non-toxic to dogs, cats, toddlers and senior citizens, so feel free to chew away!

Whether you rang in the new year by cruising a stolen golf cart around downtown Dallas, partied it up with friends or just chilled at home with your tv remote control and a case of Andre Brut, BCD wants to wish you all a Happy New Year! Here’s to your good luck, good health and most importantly, good times.

First of all, the Facebook Pages temporarily took on the same facelift that all our profile pages have undergone, with the removal of the tabs and Questions integration, as well as a new “Switch Accounts” feature for users with multiple pages (I personally have at least 5 under my account at the moment). There was also, according quiet a few users, some sort of “Memories” feature added to the personal Profile Pages that allowed users to view their activity by year, including pictures and status updates.

The only change that I personally experienced was the addition of the Lightbox UI when viewing photos:

Generic screenshot of FB's newest "upgrade"

At the time that I noticed the change, I honestly didn’t think it was accidental — it seemed completely thought out and intentional. There were ads, comments, etc., all the items you would normally see with a photo album, except that everything was within a Lightbox hovering box. Frankly? It sucked. You may remember last week when I said that the new changes to Facebook didn’t bother me — seriously, how can we complain when this service that so many people’s lives revolve around is free? But this latest Lightbox update? I’m not a fan.

So what do you think? Did anyone else get a sneak preview of the upcoming changes? Like, love or deleting your Facebook account because you’re so upset? Also, is there anyone that really buys this as an accident, or is it just another shot at a media campaign for the Facebook machine?

Soooo….what do you think? Some people, of course, don’t like it, but others think it’s super fab. Me, I’m really on the side of “Who really cares people, it’s free!”, but if I did have to have an opinion, and of course I do, I would say that I’m really digging the new layout. The more pictures the better in my opinion, and I think I kind of enjoy the profile info being right at the top of the page. My own FB profile currently reads “Designer/Dog Walker at Blue Cedar Design“, which is honestly the most important thing people could know about me. Other than the pics and info at the top, the list of friends and family on the sidebar, and moving all those ridiculous tabs (Wall, Info, Photos, etc.) underneath the profile pic, I don’t really see any other major changes to ruin my boring way of Facebook life. I like.

If you haven’t seen an option to change over to the new profile style yet, you can go here and change it manually, but don’t forget that your change will be permanent (as in irreversible). Sort of irrelevant since within the next month or so we’ll all be forced to make the change, but just in case you wanted to hold on to your old profile layout for a few more weeks. And if, by chance, you’re just curious as to what sort of changes the face of Facebook has been going through over the years, check out this little retrospective collection that FB put together:

]]> http://www.bluecedardesign.com/news/the-many-faces-of-facebook/feed 2 http://www.bluecedardesign.com/news/it-must-be-seryn-dipity http://www.bluecedardesign.com/news/it-must-be-seryn-dipity#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:24:25 +0000 Kristin http://www.bluecedardesign.com/?p=1061

Looking for new music to jam to while you’re working, or perhaps pretending to work while actually surfing Facebook? Whatever it is you are doing, stop, click here and prepare your ears for the beautiful sounds of Seryn, a five-piece band out of Denton, TX. I’ve been lucky enough to see them a handful of times, and honestly can’t say enough good things about them. They are incredible musicians, their harmonies will blow your mind, and on top of being awesome on stage, they are some truly great folks to meet after the gig is over.

Their debut full length album is set to be released at the end of January 2011, but if you just can’t wait until then, check them out live on 12/10 at Double Wide with Whiskey Folk Ramblers and Luke Wade. Or if you really can’t wait, check this out:

Memorial Walk for Babies Balloon Release Ceremony

Blue Cedar Design partnered up with the Memorial Walk for Babies of Midland again this year as a sponsor for its second annual walk. We donated our time and design to produce a website, print ads, flyers, posters, t-shirts, and personalized memorial signs for the event. Only in its second year, the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported that The Walk drew in over 200 participants.

All proceeds from The Walk will be donated to First Candle, a national health organization working to advance infant health and survival, and memory boxes for local hospital to give to families after a loss. If you would like to make a donation to MWB, volunteer for next year’s event, or know someone who has suffered the loss of a child, visit the MemorialWalkforBabies.com for more information.

The reason we can use WP  for so many of our clients is because of it’s amazing open-source versatility for us, and one of the most user-friendly back ends available for our clients. Sure, we could use Drupal or Joomla, but they won’t be as fast or as server-friendly, and they don’t offer the same kind of security out of box that WordPress does.  And, contrary to popular belief, WP isn’t just for bloggers. We design entire sites, some of which have no blog aspect to them whatsoever, and use Worpress as the CMS instead of “basic HTML”, all so users can go in and make their own changes whenever they need to at a later date without assistance from us. It saves them from maintenance fees, and it makes us oh so proud of them!

Check out this list of some top-notch companies that use WordPress as their CMS:

Texas Tech Today:

Boys and Girls Club

Rally To Restore Sanity:

Wallstreet Journal:

The Ford Story: