Thanks Lucky Mag!

Lucky Magazine gave Sharon, our creative director and captain, the chance to have her picture and quote featured in their magazine. It's currently out in the May 2010 issue on page 160.

Sharon's sister, Deanne (the Bear CFO), entered Sharon for a Lucky Magazine sweepstakes...and won! It's pretty rare to win any kind of prize from them due to the volume of entries they receive. Plus, out of all the sweepstakes winners that submitted photos, they chose Sharon's picture among their selections. We're all so flattered and honored to have our very own bear captain represented!

The picture that we sent in and they agreed to use, is the same one that is currently used on our site and up in our side menu store ad. However, when we originally submitted it, they requested if we had a picture with Sharon wearing a blank t-shirt (instead of one with the print design). Unfortunately, we didn't, so we Photoshopped out the graphics. Below you can see how the original image was edited to reach its final published form in Lucky.

In any case, it's still a BearBear Creative shirt she's wearing. Our juniors'/ladies' shirts are well fitted, soft, 100% ring spun cotton, and as you can see, are pretty versatile with most basic articles of clothing. Check more out in our store! There's different designs and colors to choose from to best compliment whatever you enjoy wearing.

The photo was taken by our photographer Tom Lee - a very talented portrait and event photographer with over 20 years experience (that's even back in the days of film cameras - you remember those, right?) More examples of his work soon!

Again, BearBear Creative (on behalf of Sharon) thanks Lucky Magazine, not just for the prize but for extending such a gracious opportunity! Check them out at luckymag.com if you want a shot to win prizes too or get ideas on how to accessorize on a budget with your new BearBear Creative tee!

effectively using a 404 error message

It's hard for artists to truly feel "finished" with a piece. Especially for a pet project. Every time we open up our site for review, we want to add more details, whether they are great or small. This also applies to how we work, we like to keep adding even to the minor element of our website, even if no one will see them or notice.

The "404 Error" page is an example. When someone has a type-o in entering a directory name in our site, (or any site, for that matter) an error page or notice will usually pop up. These are typically bland, with default type stating "error" on a white, and otherwise blank page.

We didn't leave it as such...here's what we did:

(ABOVE: the graphic. BELOW: the graphic in context. Click for close up.)

So if you were to manually type in "www.bearbearcreative.com/services" instead of what it should be ("www.bearbearcreative.com/services.shtml" - [note the ".shtml" at end of the word "services"]), it would take you to this specially designed 404 error page, and more clearly orient you around our site. We made it functional and easy to understand that the page is an error/non-existent, while staying thematically cohesive to the site theme. Go ahead and try it out!

Also, isn't this just much more friendly than seeing "404 error" in 24 pt Arial? I know when I see just "404 error" I feel a little startled. "ERROR" --- It just looks like a word that wants to bite you. (Yes, I know that real bears can bite too, but in this case we're talking about cuddly bears...and anyways, sometimes biting isn't so bad. Hehe.)

Look in the future for these kinds of details and additions on top of new site content. Who knows, we may quiz you on it and you can win a prize!

new site vs. old site

For those of you who did not get to see what the old site looked like, here is a screenshot for comparison:

And yes, the old site design did NOT have a background color. It was sitting in white like that. We had not implemented a consistent grid structure then, and with the expansion of new and plentiful content in many different sections, (such as our store, services, and webcomics) a redesign was in order. This resulted in a solution that combined interactive and animated Flash, javascript, php, html, css, e-commerce elements working like organs in a body for cohesive functionality, accessibility, security, and entertainment. Ta-da! The new site (generally - updates are constantly taking place for freshness):

Graphically and conceptually, it is a tribute to pop-art, comic art, and Japanese pop culture with the boxes, borders, comic lettering for headers, high chroma colors, benday dot pattern background, and cute images. After all, it was comics, sequential art, and cute bears that inspired our business in the first place as well as much of our personal art works and design philosophy of "Story Meets Design." (see our "about" page on the official site)

When you look at it, we want you to think about HAPPY COMIC BEAR STORIES and DESIGN GOODNESS! Warm and happy fuzzy cheerful feelings! We have fun doing what we do! And we'll have fun with you!
Check it out in full size in all it's cuddly splendor!