Most of our days here at Studiobanks are spent using our skill sets for the creation of digital platforms and campaigns. However, to kickoff 2013, we decided to take a break and exercise our sandwich creation skills in order to do something we enjoy just as much: giving back to the community.

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Occupy-NorthPole.com is now live and fighting the good fight against cookie inequality! Learn more about the movement on their site and then check ‘em out on Facebook and stay up to date about all the news by following the movement on Twitter:

@ChandlerWobble: Head spokes-elf for the ONP movement.

@Occupy_NP: The official twitter account of the ONP movement.

@Red_NoseRudolph: Santa’s 9th reindeer and proud member of the Reindeer Union for over 72 years.

@Sam_theSnowman: Lead reporter covering the movement for the North Pole News Network.

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On April 15th, students from UNCC, CPCC and the Art Institute descended on Studiobanks for an AIGA sponsored tour, making our firm the most popular spring break locale this side of Fort Lauderdale. Banks and Alexis regaled a group of 20 design students and professors with stories from the front lines of digital design and explained how, as a digital agency, Studiobanks differs from traditional ad agencies.

Check out the fun on our Flickr stream and take a moment to enjoy the delightfully innocent smiles of tomorrow’s overworked, sleep deprived designers.

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Sometimes it’s worth reminding ourselves that things like Steve Carell’s departure from The Office, the end of March Madness, or Netflix instant streaming outages aren’t exactly the epic tragedies we make them out to be. Less than a month after the devastating 9.0 earthquake in Japan, the news cycle and daily life continue on and the millions of people affected by the disaster remain in need.

At Studiobanks, we wanted to help boost donations to aid Japan as news coverage wanes. So when our friends at BooneOakley approached our team to help create a screensaver to serve as a simple reminder that there’s still a need for aid and support, we jumped at the chance.

Visit Japansaver.com to download the free screensaver we developed. The site also lets you donate directly to the American Red Cross to support the disaster relief efforts for those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific. Today’s 7.1 earthquake in northeast Japan is yet another reminder of just how desperately donations are needed.

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Once upon a time in a creative land far, far away, account managers were viewed simply as project planners and not creative-types. These account managers were expected to know about budgets, timelines and client relations, with very little input on creative concept, design and implementation. But as the creative world evolved into a digital-centric universe, so did the role of its account managers. Digital producers emerged with an entirely new playbook, or shall I say, storybook.

My, what big ideas you have! Today's digital producers are active participants during concepting meetings, thinking strategically and contributing big ideas. We bring a unique skill set that combines project management expertise and a strong passion for digital marketing. Digital producers need not be shy about sharing ideas among designers and developers. After all, collaborating with a team is far better then strolling through the dark, scary forest all alone.

Mirror, mirror on the wall... As the liaison between clients and the creative team, digital producers must be sharp communicators. Just like the magical mirror in Snow White, delivering delicate news is sometimes part of the job description. Perhaps a client is hesitant to trust a remarkable design concept, or a developer wants to incorporate an ubercool feature that just isn't in the budget. Digital producers must tread lightly as they carefully determine who truly is the fairest of them all.

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This year's Charlotte ADDY Awards Show & Preview Gallery brought together a record 275 industry professionals to celebrate creative excellence in our community. The Mint Museum Uptown provided a gorgeous setting that matched the evening's award-winning, artistic achievements.

During the Awards Show, Studiobanks was presented with the following awards:

• Gold ADDY: Parker Poe Holiday Microsite
• Gold ADDY: Studiobanks Holiday Microsite
• Silver ADDY: CMA Awards Website
• Silver ADDY: CMA Country Christmas Microsite
• Silver ADDY: Muzak A/V Systems Website
• Silver ADDY: Reel-Scout Marketing Website
• Silver ADDY: Reel-Scout Search Website
• Silver ADDY: SAFER Barrier Website
• Silver ADDY: Varrow Website

Awards are an important part of our industry as they benchmark creative excellence and online success. We happily accepted these awards on behalf of the collabortive efforts and partnerships with our awesome clients.

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Each summer, District 3 (D3) of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), comprised of AAF clubs in Asheville, NC, Charlotte, NC, Greensboro, NC, Raleigh, NC, Charleston, SC, Greenville, SC, Midlands, SC, Hampton Roads, VA and Roanoke, VA, holds a leadership conference to engage and prepare incoming board members for the new club year. These annual leadership conferences typically draw between 75 to 100 attendees, and AAF Charlotte had the pleasure of hosting this year’s conference in early August.

The first night of each conference features a large-scale, icebreaker game that allows attendees to mingle with other clubs. The responsibility of planning and executing this game falls on the conference’s hosting club, which in turn was my responsibility as an AAF Charlotte board member. I quickly recruited talented copywriter Katie Fisher of Balfour Beatty and Studiobanks' newest designer Joe Bauldoff to help out.

D3 asked us to create a game that incorporated the conference theme, “Social Uprising” in which attendees learned to integrate social media tools into all aspects of club management. During initial planning, we were a little stumped by incorporating social media tools, which are primarily used on an individual basis, into a game that needed to be interactive for a live, in-person group of people. Ultimately we decided on a concept that was a mix between the style of the scripted “dinner and a murder” mystery game and the classic board game, Clue. The twist was that our game would utilize Twitter to support the social media theme of the conference.

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Charlotte-based digital agency, Studiobanks, was hired by Discovery Place to create a unique, interactive touch screen experience for its new exhibition, Think It Up. The exhibition, which opened to the public on May 1, 2010, includes ”thought studios” that facilitate engagement in the process of innovation.

This digital technology allows participants to experiment with stop motion animation as well as digitally document their innovative creations. Sharing is also a large component of the experience so we created separate viewing stations within the exhibition and a mini-site to showcase the inventive work produced by participants, and to provide inspiration to newcomers.

We wanted to be able to collect and view all the great innovative ideas that will be created in this new exhibition, which is part of the largest renovation in Discovery Place’s history,” said Sarah Macey, director of exhibition design for Discovery Place.

“We selected Studiobanks as our partner for this project because of their expertise in creating great interactive designs and user-friendly interfaces – an essential component for a tool that will have a high volume of use."

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