And the Winner is… US!
Atomic Interactive, the digital marketing agency headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, created the design, development and marketing strategy for Slickplan.com. Slickplan was created to fill a hole in the web design process that Atomic encountered every time they picked up a new project. Like most design agencies (and freelance designers), Atomic begins the web design process by creating a sitemap that displays the page titles and navigation of the finished product. A growing frustration within the Atomic team due to an alarming absence of quality sitemap creation software led to a proactive decision – “We’ll make our own!”
Fast forward two years and two versions of Slickplan – the web application has become a trusted design industry resource for over 35,000 users who love the simplicity of the creation process and the beauty and functionality of the finished sitemap. This past weekend, the Atomic Interactive team was overjoyed to learn that Slickplan was chosen as one of three finalist for Best New Web/Mobile Application in the App It Out contest hosted by
At the conference, 4 members of the Atomic team will have 10 minutes to showcase the finest points of Slickplan in front of a huge gathering of web designers, developers and digital agencies, as well as a panel of judges that will be voting to send one lucky app development company to a conference in London. Future InSights Live is conference that hosts cutting edge trends and personalities in the web design community, and this year such well-known industry personalities and web entrepreneurs as Dan Cederholm, Josh Clark, Steve Fisher, Paul Boag and Molly Holzschlag will be featured as speakers.
Ryan McCoy, one of Atomic’s co-owners and a member of the presentation team, is particularly excited. “This is a great honor to attend the Future InSights Live conference to present our software to all of our peers within the interactive community,” Ryan said. “We created Slickplan because of a need we had as an interactive agency, and to get a chance to share our creation with a gathering of all these potential users is really a dream come true.”
Slickplan’s creators are well aware of the fact that this opportunity presented itself thanks in part to the contributions of Slickplan’s users. Ian Lawson, Atomic’s other co-owner, explains, “The improvements made to Slickplan are based on our own day-to-day use and feedback from 35,000 very active users. Together, we’ve made something great.”
Visit our media kit for more information or contact us by email or phone, 937 232 1155.
Meet Atomic’s Newest Intern, Shelby White
Greetings, everybody!
My name is Shelby White, and I’ll be Atomic’s new design intern for the next 3 months. This is my second experience working in the real world, but the first one I get paid for– awesome! I’m beyond excited to join the Atomic team, and I feel very fortunate to be in the design field, doing what I’m passionate about.
For starters, I’ll let you read the obligatory segment that describes me in a nutshell:
- I’ve lived in Kettering, Ohio, most of my life. I graduated from Kettering Fairmont High School with honors, and I just graduated from the School of Advertising Art this May, also with honors. I never hated school like most people I know, and I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished.
- I’m an only child, and I’m a lefty. Did you know that only some 13% of the world is left-handed?
- I’m sure you can tell what my favorite color is. Examine the color of my car, my hair, my clothes, my bags, and my miscellaneous office supplies: they’re all some form of pink!
- I will be a cat lady when I’m old. However, this does not mean that I like Cat Woman. The best Batman villain is Poison Ivy.
When I’m not at work, I’m usually:
- On the Computer or Xbox. I’m a pretty big geek. I love playing video games (the Fallout series is my absolute favorite!), and I love to talk about them.
- Jammin’ out. I listen to all types of music, but The Blood Brothers is my all-time favorite band. My other top choices range from hardcore music to the indie-est of indie. Add a little hip-hop to the mix, and you’ve got my iTunes! I also thoroughly enjoy musicals and soundtracks.
- Being a couch potato. I watch a lot of movies and TV. I’m a movie buff, or so I’m told. I won’t tell you my favorite movies, though, because I could go on forever. Just assume that if it’s horror or sci-fi, I’ll enjoy it. As far as television goes, Criminal Minds tops my list of favs. Bones, Fringe, House, Castle, and Firefly are also up there, along with White Collar. Can you say, “one-word crime series?”
I’m going to head back to work, now, doing what I love best. I look forward to meeting you on your next project with Atomic!
Greetings from R2
Hello, everyone. My name is Ryann Pierce, and I’m Atomic’s new project manager. Although my name is Ryann, I will hereinafter be referred to as R2, to lessen confusion with the famous Ryan McCoy, Atomic’s cofounder and all-around great guy.
I grew up in Millersburg, an Amish town in northwestern Ohio. It’s so small, it makes Dayton feels like New York City. I studied at the School of Advertising Art, then spent three years working as the entire creative department for a local advertising company.
That gave me experience seeing projects through their entire lifecycle, from kickoff all the way to publication. That experience was great, but it’s nice to finally have other creatives on hand to help with some of the steps.
I’m looking forward to getting to know all of Atomic’s great customers. In the meantime, I’ll share a few facts about myself:
- I’ve never seen Star Wars or the Matrix (everyone here says that has to change)
- I’m a vegetarian
- I hate the smell of peanut butter
- I love anything green and hate anything pink
- I’ve never been on an airplane, train, or boat (at least no boat bigger than a canoe)
- Popcorn is my food of choice
- Growing up, my parents liked to go “primitive camping” in the summer. That means no zippers, Velcro, or lighters for the fire.
- I always have a book on standby in my bag, just in case I end up in a waiting room.
Currently I’m reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Atomic welcomes Pierre
My name’s Pierre, I’m french and I’m here to study during one quarter at Wright State University (WSU). I’m nineteen years old, going to be twenty in April (24th). I arrived on January the 2nd and I will leave on May the 7th.
At WSU, I studied Integrated Marketing Communications, Human Resources Management and International Business. All of these classes were interesting, but I prefer the marketing.
The main objective of that trip is to improve my English, to meet different people from another culture, to discover new classes, and to have an expérience in a foreign company.
About myself… I love playing tennis, I played in a club for 15 years but I had to stop this year because I came in the USA. I also like other sports like surfing, skimboarding or snowboarding. I always have my iPod with me, music is a part of my life even if I don’t play it ! I’m most of the time with my friends and I enjoy watching all kinds of movies. To finish, I spend some time on photography, taking pictures and changing them on Photoshop, I really like design.
And… this is me !
Atomic welcomes Mathieu
My name is Mathieu, I am 21, I am from France, and I am studying at Wright State University (OH). My courses are International Business, Human Resources Management, and Marketing, which is my favorite one. As a complement of my measure, I had the opportunity to join the Atomic Interactive for an internship. Before that, I’ve been making several internships for a video game retailer in San Diego (CA), and a fashion retailer in Manchester (UK).
As I have been traveling in different parts of the world, I speak various languages as French, which is my mother tongue, English, Spanish and Italian. All the different experiences that I had have been a great way to meet people from different countries and to discover new cultures.
I am really keen on music, I play the guitar since I am 15, and I like riding sports as mountain-biking, snowboarding and surfing. I have also a special interest for clothing, like a lot of frenchies, and also because some of my family works in the Fashion Industry… I like to hang out with my friends and to watch movies.
Working Remotely
Last week in Ohio, the temperature dropped to -3. The week before, we had two nights of freezing rain, followed by snow. Dayton was pretty much shut down.
But here at Atomic, things were business as usual. Development meetings, client meetings, preparing new designs… it was all good. Why? Because we were already using technologies that enabled remote working. So when we had to work from home for a few days… it was no big deal.
Remote working is becoming increasingly prevalent, across a variety of industries. But we think that some of the tools we’re using are making it more effective than ever. Here are two of our favorites.
- We’ve used Basecamp for years to organize all of our projects. It provides web-based project management and collaboration, so everyone on our team – from designers and developers to clients and consultants – can see the same information, in real time. Basecamp also helps us keep projects on track – everyone can see the same schedules and milestones, and whether they’re completed or outstanding. It also lets us keep all the messages and files related to a project in one place – so they’re not spread across multiple hard drives and emails.
- join.me is a free online meeting space that we use to hold staff meetings and client meetings. Join.me lets you “share” your screen with each meeting participant, so everyone can see the same thing you’re looking at and follow exactly what you’re clicking on. We use join.me in a variety of ways – to orient new clients to Basecamp, to train them on new content management systems, or to review wireframes and designs.
As Atomic’s “air traffic controller,” I also love the fact that projects don’t fall behind just because we can’t meet in person. Effective remote meetings let us keep things moving – even when snow, travel, or busy schedules intervene.