For the past 10 years, the gentlemen at Internet & Telephone, LLC of North Andover, MA have built a strong company on face-to-face business relationships.

I&T provides corporate IT support and phone, data and Internet service. They serve as an outsourced IT department to keep phones and computer networks working for clients such as hospitals, office buildings and colleges. Customers really like I&T because they provide great customer service. When clients call for help, they know the voice on the other end of the line. I&T has thrived with this approach.

But in all that time, I&T hadn’t generated many leads from the Internet. Their sales have been more traditional – handshakes, community networking, and referrals.

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We recently finished a new website design for Applecrest Farm, New Hampshire’s oldest and largest apple orchard. It’s an earthy, rustic design, a bit like the smooth scroll website we developed last spring.

The new web development showcases the tasty offerings of Applecrest (located in Hampton Falls, NH), such as pick-your-own schedules and festival dates and other info. The site also offers a registration form for private parties, allowing users to reserve dates online.

“This website design ties in four generations of the Wagner family. We are really excited about our new web design,” said Applecrest’s Todd Wagner. “Vital Design combined all of our attributes into one well-organized site to showcase everything our family has created throughout the years.”

We had a lot of fun designing this site because it brought together generations of hard work and development. (The Applecrest barn itself is more than 200 years old.) Applecrest Farm is a family fun day mecca, offering pick-your-own fruit and hay rides to their pumpkin patch. The new website also offers festival and event schedules.

Another cool feature of the Applecrest website is the ability to buy gift packages of apples online and have them shipped to a friend, business associate or family member. This would be great for a transplanted New Englander. They hand select each item for the gift basket. To top it off, they add a handwritten card to accompany the package. It’s sweet. Go pick some apples next fall and check out the site and let us know what you think!

It can be tough to come up with unique ideas for client holiday gifts. We’ve sent North Face fleece shirts, hosted parties, created custom designed posters, and even hand painted ornaments in years past. To thank our clients this year – and show them we appreciate working on their branding, websites, and other marketing projects – we tried to create a fun, memorable holiday gift. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing more frustrating than filling out an Adobe PDF form then realizing you can’t save it.

Recently, one of our clients had this problem on a PDF form we’d created for him. It seems like a hiccup that should have an easy fix. But the link that should explain it on Adobe’s site was broken. (They’ve since fixed it.) But you know when we find a good solution, we try to share it. (See posts like, “Creating a Facebook Page With Custom HTML” or a “How to Rotate Photoshop Brushes.” )

After testing the template several times internally, we delivered the branded, updateable document and our client tried it out too. He was psyched. But when it came time to save a new proposal, he couldn’t save a copy of the template with his new data entered. Here is how we were able to set up his document so he could save form data – complete with colorful, easy to follow graphics: Read the rest of this entry »

As you all know, social media is exploding. Almost everyone has either a Facebook, Twitter (although my wife may think it’s stupid), and/or LinkedIn account, if not all three. YouTube is becoming an everyday resource for tutorials etc. If you still think this social media thing is just a fad, you may be surprised to learn that in January UNH will offer it’s first Social Media course. Read the rest of this entry »