Earlier this week, Armadillo Studios had the pleasure of launching the redesign of the Alpha House Society web site. The Alpha House Society is a critical organization within the fabric of Calgary’s non-profit ecosystem, which provides safe and caring environments for individuals whose lives are affected by alcohol and other drug dependencies. The team at Alpha House does amazing work within the community and as a company it was an absolute pleasure to work them on this great project. And while I’m excited to announce the launching of their new online identity, what I’m really looking forward to is to seeing them bolster their online presence over the coming months.

With the launch of Alpha House’s new web site, I started thinking about all the non-profit and charitable organizations that Armadillo has had the pleasure to work with over the past few years. Given that non-profits and local charities are one of Armadillo Studio’s favourite clientele, I figured it would be a great time to showcase some of the great project’s that Armadillo has had the pleasure of on working over the past little while.

So with out further delay, please find below a list of the projects we’ve worked on over the past few years.

• The redesign of the INHOUSE Society Web Site (2015)
• The redesign of the National Cattle Feeders Association (2015)
• The design and development of the GiveToGrow Campaign Web Site (2015)
• The redesign of the Place2Give Foundation Web Site and additional Ux/UI development (2013-2015)
• The 2014 YMCA Calgary Annual Report interactive web site (2014)
• The Calgary Seniors Walk Web Site (2013-2014)
• The Canadian Legacy Project (2011-2015)

Working with local non-profits and charities to help them improve their online presence and social media clout is an absolute pleasure. For many organizations the biggest issues in regards to their communication plan revolves around creating a unique and professional online presence with a limited set of resources to help tell their story. So given the economic uncertainty in the city at the moment, if you are a non-profit or local charity looking to create a unique online identity get in touch today.

August 31st, 2015 is the nine year anniversary of Armadillo Studios Inc., so it’s time for a little reflection and celebration. Over the past nine years the Web Design world and Social Media landscape has evolved at a dramatic pace.

Here are some interesting tid-bits about when Armadillo Studios first launched:

• Facebook was still only available for College Students and didn’t have Fan Pages, Business Pages, etc.,
• Twitter wasn’t in existence.
• Other tools such as Foursquare/Swarm, Groupon, Instagram, Snapchat hadn’t launched and wouldn’t launch for a couple more years.
• WordPress was a still in version 1.5 and was considered solely a blogging platform.
• Mailchimp wasn’t available to the public for E-mail newsletter creation.
• Obama was still a state senator and the upcoming social media revolution in politics was barely an afterthought. Nationbuiler wouldn’t appear as an online tool for another 5 years.
• Flash was one of the dominant methods of developing web sites.
• The Web 2.0 phase was just kicking off and the concept of Mobile Responsive web sites wasn’t even on the communities radar.
• … and most importantly, nobody knew who the Kadashians were at the time.

A lot has changed since Armadillo Studios was incorporated in the summer of 2007, but the commitment to quality web services and customer relations still stands. It has been a pleasure to work on a variety of exciting projects and to collaborate with a fantastic roster of great clients.

So here’s to another 9 wonderful years of web design goodness.

For the second straight year, Armadillo Studios Inc., was a not only a sponsor of Calgary WordCamp 2015, but one of the co-organizers. This year’s edition of Calgary WordCamp set a new standard for the WordCamp community, with a sold out crowd of 150 attendees, a packed after party and three solid streams of in depth WordPress content for users of all background.

It was a great pleasure to be apart of WordCamp 2015 and to see the WordPress community continue to foster in our energetic city. The entire organizing committee is ecstatic at the reception we received from the community this year and are incredibly thankful to all our sponsors, volunteers and speakers who made WordCamp Calgary 2015 the best one yet.

We’re all planning to take a few weeks off to reenergize, but we’re looking forward to make WordCamp 2016 even better. Stay tuned.

It goes without saying that I’m a huge fan of WordPress. Not only is WordPress Armadillo’s core speciality and go to Content Management System (CMS), but it is also one of the easiest to use, intuitive and powerful tools out there for creating robust web sites. So it is with great pleasure that I get to announce that not only is Armadillo Studios a sponsor of WordCamp Calgary 2014 on June 14th, but I am also one of the core co-organizers of this year’s edition.

If you’re unfamiliar with WordCamp Calgary, here’s a bit of an intro into the event.

WordCamp Calgary 2014 is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. This year’s edition is planned for June 14th at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

This year’s conference is not only dedicated to celebrating the growing WordPress community in Calgary, but looking at how we can push WordPress to being more than just a “blogging tool”. Through a series of sessions, panels, hands-on workshops and events we are aiming to help grow the WordPress community in the city. This year’s one-day conference is jam-packed with great content for a wide spectrum of WordPress users – from content editors all the way to hard-core coders.

There is something for everyone at WordCamp Calgary 2014.

So if you interested in attending WordCamp Calgary and helping to build the great WordPress community in the city, make sure you register today!

Oh, Hello! Welcome to the revamped Armadillo Studios Inc.

Some of you may have noticed the soft launch of the site in late November, but now that 2014 has crept upon us I felt it was time to make the new redesign official.

Yes, this new redesign is a massive change for the company and only the third switch up since I started this outfit way back in 2007. The new look is designed to showcase the evolution of Armadillo Studios from a broad and idealistic multi-contractor shop to a focused and specialized WordPress, Social Media and E-mail marketing outfit. The added benefit of this new redesign, is not only does Armadillo have a brand spanking new look, but also a more specialized business direction.

Armadillo Studios’ new mantra is to help Businesses. Non-profits and Political Organizations achieve their online goals through customized WordPress and NationBuilder web sites, grass roots based Social Media campaigns and personalized E-mail Marketing Campaigns. IF you haven’t noticed, it’s plastered all over the new site and branding. While I won’t pretend that these three areas of services are ground breaking by any stretch of the imagination, I do hope that by focusing on these three avenues, I can further improve upon the great service Armadillo Studios’ has been providing over the past few years.

And while you’re browsing around the site, you may also note that the new site better reflects Armadillo’s true structure. The site now acts as more of a professional portfolio site for myself and my two and a half compadres. You can read the new bios on the about page to find out more about Armadillo Studios or check out the long standing corporate blog for the most recent projects and articles.

Oh, and in addition to a brand new web site and redesign, I have also launched Armadillo’s first new email newsletter. This new monthly newsletter will focus on the latest web sites launches and blog posts. It’s a simple way to keep our clients, friends and unsuspecting family members up to date with the latest adventures.

I hope you enjoy the new vibe and I welcome any feedback you may have. Feel free to sign up for the newsletter below or follow armadillo on Facebook and Twitter. Over the next few weeks there will be even more changes to the site as the second phase of the redesign takes place. The first order of business is to add some mobile responsive magic and to also provide a new level of detail for Armadillo’s Services.

Thanks for taking the time to catch up with Armadiilo.

Cheers,

Connor Turner