The statewide Community College Public Relations Organization (CCPRO) is a professional development and service organization that seeks to promote excellence in California’s community college public relations, graphic design, media and other related professions.

The CCPRO Awards represent the highest mark of achievement for marketing, public relations and graphic design in California’s community colleges. Awards are presented in more than 20 categories, including web design, class schedules, writing, photography, newsletters, media relations, advertising, broadcast promotions and more!

Receiving the the “All PRO Award” marks outstanding achievement in community college public relations. Winners are nominated by presidents, chancellors and public relations professionals. To win, recipients must have served California’s community colleges with distinction as a public relations professional.

Judging

Judging took place last month at Founder’s Hall at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA.  I was invited with other editors, writers, graphic designers, web designers and media producers to participate in judging some of the categories.

Judging was based on a point system with category guidelines to assist in determining winning entries. Based on the results of the judging, the PRO Awards Committee will make awards for first, second, and third place for each category as appropriate. Here are the categories I judged with their associated judging guidelines:

1. Annual Report

Judged for attractiveness of cover, copywriting, use and quality of photographs and graphics, quality of printing, effectiveness of message and theme, and overall impact.

2. News Release

Judged for impact of lead, quality of writing, quality of reporting, reader appeal for impact, and depth of subject covered.

3. Print Advertising

Judged for concept, attention-grabbing quality, use and quality of photographs and/or graphics, copywriting, persuasion/call to action, visibility of college logo or name, and overall impact.

4. College Promotional Video

Judged for scripting, use and quality of video, use and quality of audio, interest-holding ability, creativity, and overall impact.

5. Social Media Marketing

Judged for appearance, organization, comprehensive content, ease of use, originality and effectiveness. Entries included social network campaigns such as Facebook or MySpace, blogs, and viral You Tube videos.

6. Logo Design

Judged for design, color, typography, communication of message, reflective of organization, visual coherence, style and overall impact.

Announcement of Winners

Winners will be announced and awards will be presented at the Pro Awards banquet held in conjunction with CCPRO’s next conference titled “CCPRO on the American Riviera“ at the Hotel Mar Monte in Santa Barbara, CA from April 15-16, 2010.

Smart Bullets Movie Poster Contest

High Tower invites contestants to enter the competition to create the most stunning movie poster. Prizes range from the Smart Bullets saga and t-shirt package to a grand prize of an 8gb iPod Touch and High Tower Premium Package. Smart Bullets has received many high marks from various comic book reviewers. Richard Caldwell of Comic News states, “Narcomey is listed as creator, co-writer and editor, so I blame him for the coolness of what I will call ‘modern pulp cowboy noir’.”

Entries will be accepted starting February 1, 2010. Voting ends March 31, 2010. The top 10 contestants are determined by public vote and the top 3 winners are chosen by judges. Contestants must be 18 years or older to participate. Contestants can enter their posters using the online submission site available at www.hightowercomics.com/postercontest. Submissions are preferred in 11″ x 17″ 160dpi+ format for production use, but all submission sizes are welcome. Sample artwork can be viewed on www.hightowercomics.com or Smart Bullets Series at High Tower Comics or purchase digital copies for $1.00 at Drive Thru Comics.

Prizes: One Grand Prize winner will receive a Ipod Touch and The High Tower Deluc Package. Second place will receive the High Tower Comics Delux Package plus one original page. Third place will receive the High Tower Comics base package plus one sketch.

High Tower Comics, Inc. was founded by Michael Tolbert and John C. Narcomey, Jr. in 2008 to produce high quality and genre diverse comics. We are an independent comic book publisher based in Corona, CA. Current titles include: Ghostface, Smart Bullets, Space Boogie, Spooksville, Jungle Jive and Heiroglyphs Artbook. If you have any questions for us, please contact us. We are happy to make appearances at local comic book shops for signings, grand openings, etc.

Rio Online Development, Inc. was founded in 2009 to bridge the gap between business and the web. We are a design, development and consulting company with an emphasis on outstanding user experience. We provide intelligent, end-to-end web, design and print marketing solutions that are aimed at increasing your profitability.

We respond to the latest questions from the mailbag.

This post is part of our Mailbag Q&A series where we answer reader-submitted questions related to web design, development and online marketing.

If you would like to submit your own web design, development and online marketing questions to be answered, please email us at:

Question:

-Rafael, San Diego, CA

Answer:

Hi Rafael,
Thanks for emailing us. I think it’s great that you have taken an interest in web design. I started over 10 years ago with nothing but a browser, text editor and dial up modem, and have progressed over the years to designing and developing rich internet apps, mobile apps and websites of all types. It has been a great ride and a very prosperous career.

You have a few options: web design, web development or both. The Art Institute is a great place to study web design. I am sure you are familiar with the standard tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc. Take web design courses and start designing as much as possible. Have your professors or others with web design experience critique your work so that you know where to improve. Remember that you are designing both a user interface and also visually communicating. Take a look at the best sites on the web (www.apple.com is pretty damn good) and also read up on web usability (Jacob Nielsen is a great author).

For web development, you can start with simple HTML and gradually progress into your language of choice (PHP, Ruby, Python, etc) as you go. A great way to learn is online by following tutorials. WordPress is a great content management system and blogging platform written in PHP. It is open source, so you can modify or add onto it in any way you wish. Start by following the installation guide, and then put together your first site. As you go, you’ll learn more and more about PHP, especially when you start to modify it beyond the default.

You can also go for a degree in computer science. I majored in computer science at UCSD. My only concern is that in the computer science department, they did not emphasize web programming languages. Instead, we programmed in C, C++ and Java for a majority of the courses. This gave me a very strong foundation in computer science, algorithm design and building software. I do use it for developing on the web, but it was definitely not a requirement for becoming a web developer.

You can get by just by taking a few web programming courses at the local community college and polishing your skills through projects and work experience. I recommend getting involved in open source software projects. The people you will work with can teach you some amazing things and you’ll get the chance to work on a large project.

I hope this is helpful in your quest.

Sincerely,

Daryl Auclair
Web Developer / SEO Guru
Rio Online Development, Inc.

The information economy is global in scope and quick by nature. In the current online marketplace, productivity and competitiveness of firms depend mainly on their capability to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge‐based information to their clients and consumers. Today, the global economy has the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale though strategic online developmental systems.[1] Companies who fail to successfully adapt to current market and technological standards within the present online developmental culture will fail to achieve full market potential and thus cause constraints and inefficiencies in business operations and marketability.

The information and communication technology (ICT) revolution has transformed how people respond to information. The internet and the ICT revolution has created “sovereign individuals” who now feel more empowered in making decisions based on value‐added information over the internet. Moving away from traditional out‐bound marketing techniques, the knowledge‐based worker has taken heed to In‐bound marketing practices where decisions are made based on fast, reliable and simple information presented over the World Wide Web.

Websites have always been an ideal organizing tool due to their inherent flexibility and adaptability as their evolutionary nature is asserted.[2] A successful online presence allows for growth in effective marketability and sustainability in strategic business‐to‐business (B2B) and business‐to‐government (B2G) e‐commerce sales. More precisely, an online presence allows for businesses to create, transform and redefine the business relationship into a rewarding experience of professionalism and personality.

Business is no longer strictly business. People are now concerned with the social and personal nuisances involved within the strategic business unit and the holistic web site experience. As internet users are increasingly impatient and intolerable, new methods of web development technology must be implemented to satisfy the present needs of a specific market niche.

Rio Online Development, Inc. can make your business thrive. Contact us today.

[2] Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1‐2.

We are an internet marketing company that offers a wide range of services including web design, search engine optimization (SEO), web hosting, print & print design, interactive media, professional photography and more. When it comes to web design, we believe in easy usability and navigation. We combine beautifully design code with a clean user-interface to increase customer leads and sales. All our programmers are fluent in multiple programming languages and have years of experience within the web development industry. We work hard in being your trusted and reliable source for web development.

Having a great website

Having a legitimate website for your personal, small business or corporate needs is vital in today’s current marketplace. In fact, a website is the most efficient, cost effective marketing tool in business today. A website is a 24 hour marketing tool that provides access to your company’s products and services. It can also sell company branding, generate hot leads and automatically close sales through e-commerce.

Why choose Rio Online Development?

We are not like the others. We are not someone’s nephew or some cheap online template you can buy online – we are intelligent web design made affordable. We differ from the others in three main ways: competence, communication and price.

Enjoy

Thank you for taking the time to check out our company. We have big plans for Rio Online Development Inc., and encourage you to keep checking back as we expand our company and website. This blog will be a place where we discuss topics related business and the web.  We view ourselves as a stakeholder in your business, and are committed to making it even more successful.

Let Rio be your trusted source for web development. Contact us today.