Valentine Makhouleen — interactive art director

Saul Bass – Making Money vs. Quality Work

Valentine — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:30:22 +0000

The strange new world of Nanoscience, narrated by Stephen Fry

Valentine — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:21:17 +0000

Toronto’s top ad agencies – we don’t need meta tags

Valentine — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:30:45 +0000

Last night I decided to do a survey of search engine positioning of some of the top interactive and ad agencies in Toronto. To my astonishment, I found that about 80% do not have any metatags embedded in their sites. The description tag provides metadata about the HTML document. These tags are something that is not displayed on the page, but will be parsed and picked up by search engines. Google uses the description tags not only to position the results, but also as a site description posted under the link to the site. If the tags are not present, Google will pull any content off the site at its discretion.

Searching DDB Canada, for example, renders this result:

Granted, their US subsidiary has proper tags, it’s amazing that an agency like DDB, or any other on the list below won’t take an opportunity to advertise on the world’s largest ad agency – Google. Most of the agencies listed offer integrated, interactive services – so something needs to be said about practicing what is preached.

To be completely frank, Ogilvy Toronto (my current agency) lacks description tags as well, although that’s something I flagged and we’re working on.

Description meta tags are critical to indicate relevant content to users and search engines. They are not the most critical factor in search engine optimization, but they are an essential part of your online branding.

My word to the agencies – invest a few hours of your time to optimize your online presence and stake your claim on the results page. I do not see Google going away anytime soon. You have to admit, you all use it, as do your clients and their audience.

It’s a one-liner. Add it to the header of your document:

Without further ado, here’s the offender list I composed, just after 15 minutes of search:

DDB Canada
http://www.ddbcanada.com

Juniper Park
http://www.juniperpark.com

Leo Burnett
http://www.leoburnett.ca

Taxi
http://taxi.ca

Starcom MediaVest Group
http://www.smvgroup.com

Cossette
http://www.cossette.com

Critical Mass
http://www.criticalmass.com

Young and Rubicam
http://www.yr.com

Publicis
http://www.publicis.ca

1970’s vintage logo set

Valentine — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:40:34 +0000

Check out this vintage logo set on Flickr.

Via Denis Lirette

Nick Chase

Valentine — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:35:02 +0000

Nick Chase is a glass artist consistently influenced by natural and urban landscapes. Starting with blown glass shapes, Nick emulates textures and patterns that he finds in the world around him. I had an opportunity to create an interactive online showcase of Nick’s glass art.

http://nchasedesigns.ca

Fido reinventing media placement

Valentine — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:48:05 +0000

Physics experiments, photographed by Caleb Charland

Valentine — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:44:02 +0000

Caleb Charland

Norwegian sunrise

Valentine — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:41:09 +0000

Last 12 Naturally Silent Places in the US

Valentine — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:28:55 +0000

Gordon Hempton is an audio ecologist (how many of those have you met?) who, due to a profound love of nature, has made documenting the way it sounds his life’s work. In the course of his work, he’s come across a startling phenomenon–the quiet places in the world are vanishing.

Hempton argues that “silence is rapidly disappearing…[and] there are a fewer than a dozen places of silence [in America].” He believes that such silence — found in natural settings undisturbed by human activity and sound — is completely underrated, yet it profoundly contributes to our well-being.

Read the rest on Planet Green

Obey, consume, this is your God

Valentine — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:20:35 +0000