Hooray for the Hub
A few years back, I was working as special projects manager for the City of Dayton. The city needed a firm to take on a unique assignment: creating a website for the Ohio Aerospace Hub. Dayton earned the Hub title in 2009, an initiative to draw aerospace-related jobs, education, and economic development (read: cash money) to the region.
Researchers partnering with the Ohio Aerospace Hub are up to all kinds of crazy stuff: advanced sensing, drone technology, cybersecurity, you name it. The Hub needed a website to show off its research to the world.
But the website had to do more than just inform. The Ohio Aerospace Hub will require significant investment over time—not to mention an A-team of scientists and engineers to get things done. Now, we locals already know how cool Dayton is. But the city wanted to raise its profile by attracting a new segment of people: techies, creative types, entrepreneurs, and businesses keen on Dayton’s new aerospace economy. That’s a tall order for one little website—but Atomic was up to the task.
In the search for the perfect firm for the job, Atomic really set themselves apart. (It also led to my job here—but that’s a different story.) Throughout the development process, there was great collaboration between the guys at Atomic, the director of the Hub, and all of the partners involved. The result: an awesome site—that got people talking as soon as it launched.
And it’s not just Daytonians taking notice. International publication fDi Magazine held its first annual Digital Marketing Awards in 2012, sizing up economic development sites worldwide on design, innovation, and social media strategy. More than 50 organizations entered the contest. The Ohio Aerospace Hub won 12th among websites overall, and third among Economic Zones, a category for initiatives within a city, state, or country.
I’m proud of what our team has accomplished. Now, Atomic is ready to help the Ohio Aerospace Hub move forward as its research products take flight. (Plus, maybe they’ll finally let us give their latest gadgets a try. Fingers crossed.)
We can’t wait to see what the Hub does next.
Apping It Out in Las Vegas
So you probably heard that Slickplan, our web app for sitemapping, was selected as a finalist in this year’s AppItOut competition.
The contest was held at Future Insights Live, a massive 5-day conference for web developers held in Las Vegas.
The contest pitted three web apps against each other in a head-to-head competition before a live audience. Lights, cameras, presentations, clapping, cheering … for a few minutes, on a Tuesday afternoon, Ian and I felt like we were on American Idol.
We even got grilled by the judges, Simon Cowell–style, and had to defend our app’s design and functionality.
It was a crazy and amazing experience. Not only did we have the honor of being voted into the competition by real users, we had the privilege of introducing Slickplan to a ton of our colleagues in a huge public forum.
We also got to meet lots of Slickplan users, many of whom thanked us for creating the app and told us how much they enjoy using it every day.
And after the competition, we got to enjoy the conference itself. We got to meet and learn from amazing industry leaders like Bulat Shakirzyanov from Twilio and Devrim Yasar from Koding. And superstar entrepreneurs like Jason Calacanis from Mahalo.
Oh — what’s that you say? Did we win the competition? No, we didn’t.
That honor went to Tracky, a social collaboration app.
But the recognition from our peers — the great feedback from our users — and the chance to learn so much in such a short time — made us feel like big winners nonetheless.
So thanks to all the fans who voted Slickplan into this year’s AppItOut competition, and gave us such a wonderful opportunity. We’re sending big love right back atcha.
Meet Bart
Atomic Interactive first caught my eye when I was an economic development professional with the City of Dayton.
Atomic built a website for the Ohio Aerospace Hub. At that time, I provided staff support for the Hub’s governing body.
Working with the gang at Atomic was a pleasure, and the final website was awesome. It was exciting to know that there was a cutting-edge, full-service web development company right here in Dayton.
After working with Ryan and Ian on a couple more projects, something became clear to me. I didn’t just want to work with Atomic. I wanted to be part of it.
And Atomic’s growth in the digital marketing industry made this possible. I’m now working with the team as a business developer, and I’m up to my ears in user experience lingo, programming language jibber-jabber, and all kinds of optimization hootenanny.
In all seriousness, the level of expertise at Atomic is truly impressive, and I feel honored to work with such talented — and fun-loving — developers, designers, and project managers. My experience in economic development and public administration is lending itself well to business development.
My role here is simple: to identify companies’ needs and match them with a solution that solves their problem and helps their business grow. And Atomic Interactive has high-quality web solutions in spades.
It would be my pleasure to work with your business to find which solutions work for you. Wanna grab a coffee?
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 Designer, Jessica Prater
Hi! My name is Jessica Prater, and I’m the newest designer at Atomic. I’ve been interning here for a couple months, and I’m excited to finally be an official employee.
In fact, I’ve wanted a career in graphic design ever since I can remember. So working here and doing what I love is awesome.
I can’t wait to meet all of our Atomic clients. Here are a few facts about me.
- I started on the design path early. I’m a 2011 honors graduate of the School of Advertising Art. And I spent my junior and senior years of high school in the graphic commercial art program at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center.
- My hair? Yes, it’s naturally curly.
- Loves = anything made of lace, photography, and collecting old cameras and films.
- I also love to cook … but the results are usually not so great.
- Favorite weekend activities = rummaging around vintage shops and thrift stores, going for a hike, or doing anything else outside.
- Drink of choice = hot tea.
- Favorite TV show = Doctor Who. Call me a geek, but I never get tired of watching and re-watching old episodes!
I look forward to meeting all of you soon and helping the team at Atomic continue to bring you great design.
Rocket launch for new Atomic website
After months of strategy, planning, and production, we’re happy to announce the launch of Atomic Interactive’s new website.
Nearly everyone on our team touched the site in some form or fashion. Ryan, Alexis, and I worked on the creative concept and strategy, and Curt and I came up with the design. Eric and David worked on development, and Zach and Ryan handled strategy and execution for search engine optimization. Curt pitched in with his camera on photography, and Marshall created the great line drawings that accompany our client testimonials.
We feel like the site is a great representation of Atomic’s overall capabilities. We’re proud of the work that each member of our team did in pulling it together, and we think the site really showcases each person’s individual talents and reflects their knowledge and creativity.
In addition, building the site gave us a chance to work with some of our favorite creatives in the region. People like Kenny Mosher with Showdown Visual, who produced the killer video on our home page; Jason Joseph, who shot the additional videos throughout the site; Sam Enslen at Dragonfly Editorial, who lovingly wrote the many pages of copy; and Ben Prince, who did the Flash programming for the home page. Thanks guys, you’re awesome.
A couple things we’re especially proud of are the Work section, which allows users to filter and view our work samples by date, industry, and type of service. We built this on WordPress with custom plug-ins that categorize and tag our work. We’ve improved the search, which also runs on WordPress. And we feel the blog is better than ever. It’s now easier to navigate, makes better use of archives and categories, includes its own search feature, and has a multiple author system. These are all components we build for our clients everyday. It’s nice to see them shine on our site as well.
To sum up, let me thank everyone on our team one more time for the creativity and dedication they brought to this project. You’ve helped create a site that really reflects where Atomic is in 2011. You’re what makes our company – and our new website – great.
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!
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 !