Ideas & Insight

    Two minutes. That’s how long it takes for most animated explainer videos to fully communicate a main point. And yet, within those two minutes, these highly engaging videos (also known as explainer animations) can do more for your brand than a 50-page proposal or even a 100-foot billboard ever could.    The simple fact is that consumers are using video more than ever before to make purchasing decisions, with studies showing that landing page conversion rates can increase by 80 percent after the inclusion of a video.   Explainer...

Animated explainer videos are everywhere. You know, those short, super engaging animations that visually present concepts, processes or statistics. As marketing departments scramble for more and more content, these quick bursts of information have become essential tools for brands. Why? Lots of reasons. Research shows that 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Even better? Eighty-three percent of marketers think using video gives them a good ROI. So now that you know you need...

Fads and trends. Both are current. Both are popular. But one fades fast, while the other grows and evolves. Fads from the past are fun to look back at...and maybe point and laugh at. Furbies, mall bangs, and mood rings had their heyday, but thankfully, they’ve come and gone. When it comes to marketing, it’s important to differentiate between trends and fads to ensure you don’t sink your campaign before you even get started. So, what are some current video trends you should care about? The answer is not simply ‘more social media’ or ‘more...

  Looking for new ideas for your tradeshow? We’re wrapping an extended tradeshow roadtrip and have a few ideas! Here’s a quick overview of the innovative work we did for one of our clients. Record-setting booth attendance! Our Tradeshow Experience Team was in Las Vegas with John Deere at ConExpo. Deere has already set booth attendance records throughout the show. We’re live-streaming in 360 VR Throughout the duration of the show, we not only broadcasted live from the floor at ConExpo, we were broadcasting LIVE in 360°! We’re really excited about ...

Everybody knows the Super Bowl isn’t about football. Or, it isn’t only about football. It’s about parties and friends and food and Beyoncé and commercials. In fact, in my mind the order of importance is: Friends Commercials Food (possibly higher on this list if it’s fried) That sports game being played on TV So, what did we like? Music-based spots scored high with Applied Artisans. Our sympathies went out to the affable rapper Drake in T-Mobile’s ad, in which he faced revisions ...

This January, Applied Art’s own Rick Vanderleest travelled to Las Vegas for CES 2016 (The International Consumer Electronics Show) where he set up and supported the software for Ooma Inc.’s booth. After the show we chatted with Rick and Alex (lead developers) on what went into making this a rousing success. 1. What were the client’s expectations/inspirations, and how did you go about meeting these expectations? Alex: The clients were looking for something engaging that could interact in real-time with the technology we created on the show floor. 2. What...

Explainer animations are short videos, usually used for marketing, that help explain a company's product or service. They have become extremely popular and can be a great way to engage an audience and get the word out about your company. Here are 5 great uses for explainer animations: To visualize an abstract concept, idea or service. Let’s say you offer a really cool service. It’s a bit abstract and sometimes your prospects have a hard time...

Ever wonder what goes on in a day here at Applied Art? Most people know we love doing video. But we also specialize in marketing and sales tools, digital strategy, interactives, apps, tradeshows, graphics, animations, design, development, and websites. All under one roof. So get to know us. We're a creative, quirky, innovative, work-hard/play-hard type bunch. And in the daily whirl of activity here, we're always looking for the next new technology, while appreciating the classic tools like writing on wipeboards and talking face-to-face. Our goal? To make our clients look great and help them grow. 

Applied Art graphic artist Scott Kaven created this vibrant :30 web spot for Songdish. Songdish is a new online music community and web tool that connects fans, bands and the music industry. Supported by producer Neil Zaugg and graphic artist Todd Huffine, Scott drove the creative and finished the spot earlier this week just in time for Songdish's arrival at this year's SXSW in Austin, Texas. Scott designed the spot so that any still frame of the video is an abstract piece of art. Check out the video!

Fun with stop motion paper creations Around the 0:30 mark the fun really gets going!

You've seen it on TV! It's totally awesome! It's the new Iowa Lottery "Game Book" TV spot! Applied Art & Technology teamed up with Strategic America and the Iowa Lottery to create a 3-D animation to promote a new booklet of scratch tickets. With eight games to play, the challenge was to not only bring one game concept to life, but all eight. AA&T 3-D animators, Scott Kaven and Steve "Sparky" Dixon, combined to give viewers the feel of a pop-up card, revealing each featured game as the pages turned. Viewer response has been great, and...

Animation in 4K resolution, in pixels that's 3840 x 2160, or put 4 high resolution HDTVs together and there ya go. The project was to create an animated logo for AVD Dimensions and give it a puzzle theme to match their presentation needs. The animation presents AVD as the puzzle wrangler bringing together all the pieces of the puzzle to create the ultimate end product. The challenge was that this animation would be displayed at AVDimensions trade show booth in full 4K resolution. That's a lot of data - each frame is four ...

The Coalition to Support Iowa€۪s Farmers was created by farmers in 2004 with the mission of working with farmers to advocate and help implement on-farm best-management practices that assist Iowa€۪s farm families in raising livestock responsibly and successfully. The Coalition approached Applied Art to design a fresh look. In addition, they desired a website that was not only easier for their visitors to navigate but also easier for them to update. Applied Art provided The Coalition with a new site architecture and a custom web design with Flash animation. We teamed...

Applied Art & Technology teamed up with The Integer Group and their client, the Iowa Lottery, to create an exciting new TV spot for the Lottery's Silver Anniversary. By combining live-action foreground elements with 2D and 3D background elements, Applied Art's animators were able to bring the ambitious storyboard to life. Creatives Bryan Loop and Jeff Warren, along with Kent Fieldsend and Megan Kruger, represented Integer during the production. And from the Iowa Lottery, Sally Robson oversaw the project. Marty Jorgensen directed for Applied Art, with George Christ lensing the live-action....

An affiliate of Mercy Medical Center, the Iowa Diabetes and Endocrinology Center (IDEC) is the largest endocrine practice in the state of Iowa, providing comprehensive health care services to adult patients diagnosed with diabetes and hormonal disorders. IDEC and Mercy approached Applied Art seeking to design and develop a website that would feature and provide an education about the many conditions IDEC treats. The homepage also features a callout listing information about IDEC's groundbreaking clinical trials. Applied Art provided IDEC with a custom web design with Flash animation, and teamed with...

Recently, Applied Art created a Flash animation for Allied Insurance. This animation would illustrate Allied Insurance's ability to allow qualified automobile insurance customers to customize their policies by adding On Your Side€ Rewards. After designing and storyboarding, Applied Art graphic designer Michelle Monson used Adobe CS4 to animate each scene. Be sure your sound is turned on to view the animation now on the Allied Insurance website.

Our old friend Joe Pundzak joined us again to create a follow up to last year€۪s Lightning Horse project for Purina Mills. This time Joe€۪s excellent writing was brought to life by three of our artists, Steve Dixon, Scott Kaven and Todd Huffine . This team created stunning 2D and 3D animations that were expertly edited by Chris Heckle to create an introductory video to Purina€۪s latest horse feed products. Mr. Pundzak said of his experience, "After over 30 years as a writer/producer, I've had occasion...

This is our video showing off what we do... in High Definition. We are the HD experts after all.

This is our 2009 Graphics Demo. Watch this video and many others on youTube. Look us up, we are appliedartweb. Comments please... "Inspiration and genius–one and the same."

The Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers, with the help of Trees Forever and the Iowa Nursery & Landscape Association, has launched the Green Farmstead Partner program to encourage the installation of vegetative environmental buffers (VEBs) around poultry and livestock farms. The goal of the program is to create and promote a turn-key system for farmers to install VEBs on their farms in a timely and cost-effective way. Applied Art provided the Coalition a custom web design with Flash animation.

After years of planning and construction, Mercy Medical Center—West Lakes is scheduled to open Tuesday, September 8. As West Des Moines’ first full-service community hospital, Mercy West Lakes is truly a hospital unlike any before. It is part of the Mercy Medical Center—Des Moines family, and was built as a replacement hospital for Mercy Capitol in Des Moines. Mercy approached Applied Art seeking a website design with the same feel and functionality of mercydesmoines.org while also providing a unique look for the new hospital. Applied Art provided Mercy Medical Center—West...

Camp Hertko Hollow is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth who have diabetes. The goals at camp are: Recreation, Education, Regulation and Fun! Campers enjoy the traditional camp activities while learning about living with diabetes. Meeting other youth and counselors who have diabetes is also a great benefit from the experience. Camp Hertko Hollow approached Applied Art for a website redesign that would better communicate those camp goals - especially to younger, more inexperienced campers. With that in mind, Applied Art designed a fun and interactive Flash...

The Danish Immigrant Museum, located in Elk Horn, Iowa, shares the legacy and continuing influence of Danish culture as realized in the experiences and contributions of Danish immigrants, their descendents and Danes living in America. The Danish Museum approached Applied Art for a website redesign that would better meet their branding and fundraising goals. Using HD images from Discovery: A Story of Shared Heritage (a fundraising video previously produced by Applied Art), Applied Art provided the museum with a new site architecture and a custom web design with Flash animation and...

An affiliate of Mercy Medical Center, Perinatal Center of Iowa (PCI) is a leader in the obstetric community of central Iowa — providing personalized, compassionate care to women. PCI and Mercy approached Applied Art seeking a redesign of their current website that would better appeal to and serve as a center of information for expectant mothers and referring doctors. Applied Art provided PCI with a custom web design with Flash animation, and teamed with programming house DWebware to integrate this site into Mercy's content management system which features the ...

From their first store in Boone to 95 stores and growing today, Fareway Stores have provided a full service grocery shopping experience to their patrons since 1938. Along with celebrating their 70-year anniversay, they are also proud to announce their new web presence. Applied Art, working with programming house DWebware, designed and developed a custom site to reflect Fareway's brand and provide customers with online access to: coupons individual store ads news store locator

Many of us at Applied Art & Technology are engaged in creating a new demo DVD. Once finished, this DVD will include our best work from our production, post production, and graphics departments. As a special treat to you blog subscribers, you get to see the “Special Effects Demo Montage” as a small sample of the great stuff that will be on our new Demo DVD. I edited this two minute piece in our DS edit suite. Several of the projects featured in the montage are broken...

I just returned from another tradeshow in Las Vegas, Exhibitor2009, where we had an opportunity to partner with AV Dimensions to display our content on two LED displays side-by-side. We provided content to show in their exhibit on both a Barco 4mm Black LED display (NX-4) and the more common 8mm (ILite 8 MD) display. The LED displays are becoming more and more prevalent – at sporting events, corporate functions, concerts, and of course trade shows. Their advantages are that they are extremely bright and can...

Applied Art provided the video editing, treatment, and graphics for the newest Iowa Lottery spot using Adobe® Photoshop and After Effects software. The TV ad features images of veterans who have received assistance through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund and agreed to be part of the campaign to help spread the word about the help that's available. You’ll see veterans from across the state and from several different eras in the ad -- maybe even someone you know! Click here for a sneak...

Anyone at AAT can work on a video that gets passed around. A collaborative piece of visual art. We will use it to try new techniques or just have a chance to destroy our coworkers edits. It's fun and impromptu. The first of these videos has been through the hands of 4 of our artists and editors. It's a hodge-podge of custom art, public domain clips, visual effects, and a custom music score. Enjoy!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter to receive interesting tweets about HD video, web design and development, graphics and animation, museum/traveling displays and much more! Our handle is @appliedart.