Write Code?

Oct 22 2013

RD2 is actively seeking a Web Application Developer to add to our team in Dallas, Texas.

At RD2, we are focused on designing and building beautiful applications to connect brands with consumers. We have a place for someone who can work with our fantastic team and inspire us with their talents.

Ideally, you:

  • Are proficient in coding website front ends which render precisely to design standards
  • Are proficient in developing front ends that are flexible and responsive
  • Write code that’s clean, commented, and reusable
  • Love to solve problems and rise to the challenge

Bonus points if you:

  • Like to play with APIs
  • Thrive on standards, usability and accessibility

Adding to the RD2 team is no small task. Our environment is key to our success, and finding the right fit is something we know doesn’t come fast. We’re looking for a Web Application Developer who shares our focus on creating great user experiences.

If this sounds like you, please forward your resumes and samples of your work to

Tags

Everything Together Fiesta!

Aug 27 2013

Ford Canada, Sonic Boom, and RD2 have teamed up once again to launch a new website for the Ford Fiesta.

To celebrate the the new 2014 Fiesta, RD2 helped Ford Canada launch #Fiesta Moments, a website dedicated to all things Fiesta.  Choose how you want to browse the website and learn about the new Fiesta features by clicking between the tabs at the top: The Fashioniesta, The Connoisseur, The Night Owl, The Driver. Each focuses on different features such as voice activated navigation and ambient lighting.

Here is more from the website describing #Fiesta Moments, ”We all have different elements to our personality. And because you’re so versatile and connected, shouldn’t your car be the same? Meet the new Fiesta, which is up for anything, just like you. Whether you want to hug corners in style, stay connected with voice-activated technology1 or get “pass the pump” efficiency on your next road trip, the new Fiesta has everything to fit your life.”

The website also features content from some of Canada’s most well known bloggers and you can get social by checking out the Buzz, populated with the latest tweets, instagram, and Facebook posts. Like the other Ford Canada social properties, the website is multilingual, available in English and French.

Stay tuned for more on #Fiesta Moments!

FiestaMoments.1FiestaMoments.2FiestaMoments.3FiestaMoments.4FiestaMoments.5

A Few Kind Words – From Dumbo Feather

Aug 7 2013

Still on cloud nine after the launch of the . Love the stories and the way this whole thing just came together. A couple of days ago I received this nice video with words from Danny and Brendan. Thank you so much guys! And thanks Andy Lark for making this introduction. It’s like we were supposed to work together. Things have a funny way of working out.

Tags

Team New Zealand is Amazing!

Aug 7 2013

20130727-P7271571

Have you ever met a sailor? Not just a sailor, but a died-in-the-wool Kiwi sailor? These are not average human beings. They possess an uncanny propensity for personal fitness, skill, and endurance. Then, as Kiwi’s usually do, they have an abnormal take on what adventure really is.

A couple of years ago I met the greatest sailing team on earth (Team New Zealand). Had the chance to work with them at their headquarters in Auckland and witnessed first hand their passion for dominating the seas.

So we designed and built a blog to help spread as much awareness about Team New Zealand as we could to every corner of the world. In doing so we had a rare opportunity to get to know an amazing family of people. To see how they operate. How they designed and constructed an “other-worldly” race boat. To witness how the they pulled a team together to prepare for the Americas Cup.

After spending three weeks in Auckland recently, I met my family for a weekend in San Francisco. Thinking it was a long shot, I emailed Lisa Edser (of TNZ) to see about connecting with her and the team while we were there.

Lisa set us up with TNZ’s Ian Stewart as VIP guests on a chase boat where we could witness the team racing the AC72 boat in the San Francisco Bay.

Lisa Edser and Di Mason helped my family to bundle up and board the chase boat for what was the most incredible two hours the Ronan Family has ever experienced.

Seeing pictures of this experience cannot possibly do justice to what’s happening. It’s difficult to describe the excitement of bolting through the water on the chase boat laboring to keep up with a sail boat that’s hurtling through (and above) the water at over 40 knots. The feeling of the San Francisco Bay winds blowing sea water into your face is a tremendous shot of adrenaline!

Get this — 40 knots is 46 miles per hour! This is a sail boat and it outran the chase boats. This boat is so fast they built another chase boat just to keep up with it. The latest chase boat sports 4x300HP motors to do the job. That’s right, it takes a motorboat with 1200 horsepower to keep up with an America’s Cup sailboat!

Grant, Lisa, Di, and Stewart – We Ronans cannot thank you enough for your kindness and hospitality. You anointed my children as honorary Kiwi’s for the day — they’ll never forget that! Team New Zealand is our team too — we hope you can feel a little wind in your sails on race days from our family and crew here in Dallas, Texas!

For what it’s worth, here’s some advice if you ever work this closely with Kiwis.

  1. The Kiwi is a serious human being. As such, they like to give Americans a hard time. Not in a bad way. It’s a good and fun way. Be prepared to be messed with.
  2. If you ever start drinking with a Kiwi, you really should stop first. Don’t try to keep up. You can’t. The Kiwi is unaffected by beer. You can’t even dream of out-drinking them.
  3. If you think you have a strong sense of adventure, you had better dial it back about 50%. Kiwis invented adventure. I rented a motorbike and rode around the Coromandel Peninsula. It was an exhausting trip that took me a day and a half. Grant Dalton does that same ride twice in a day. Americans, you could get into serious trouble trying to keep up with the adventurous spirit of the Kiwi.

IMG_1134

20130806-P1010868-Edit

20130806-P1010844-Edit

20130727-P7271682

20130727-photo 1

20130727-P7271644

20130727-P7271635

20130727-P7271602

20130727-P7271595

20130727-P7271587

20120101-P1010852

20120101-P1010842

20120101-P1010827

20120101-P1010783

20120101-P1010737

20120101-P1010732

20120101-P1010717

20120101-P1010676

20130727-photo 3

20130727-photo 4

20120101-P1010627

20130727-P7271712

Dumbo Feather Launch!

Aug 5 2013

There’s this place in Melbourne called the White House. It’s the home of Small Giants. A special company with a passion for making a difference. But that’s not something you can get from this simple post. Lot’s of people say they want to make a difference. But I’ve had the privilege of meeting and working very closely with Danny, Berry, Brendan, David, and the team at Small Giants. These folks are a class act. And they are indeed making a GIANT difference.

On the property you can smell the energy. After a few work sessions you’d quickly be spoiled with a spot of tea served with honey from the bee farm upstairs. This is the environment where the team creates a quarterly magazine with stories aimed to “heal the world.”

I was introduced to Dumbo Feather by my pal Andy Lark. He gave me a magazine which I read on a long flight from Sydney to Dallas. The work of Dumbo Feather instantly became my favorite magazine. What happened next was a complete surprise. We were asked to work for Dumbo Feather to help them bring their stories to the rest of the world through an iPad app.

Just a few days ago I returned from a several week trip to Auckland. During this time, we launched the iPad application for Dumbo Feather. It’s an application that myself and the team are very proud of. We’re seeing great interest in downloads of the application so far with lots of updates to come. And, the app has already been featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section of iTunes! ()

Don’t do it for me or for Dumbo Feather…download the application for yourself. Read just one story. That’s all it took for me. If you like what you read, you can take it a step further and save the feathers (stories) locally to your iPad and enjoy them on your flight in a full digital experience. It’s every bit as nice as the magazine.

Congratulations to the team at Small Giants / Dumbo Feather. You’ve launched an amazing application to extend your stories to the rest of the world. Dumbo Feather is a treasure. It’s great to have you on my iPad!

(Thank you, David, for the application screenshots)

1_Launch_Tiger_Skin

2_Tickle_My_Fancy_Orange

3_Main_Menu_Red

4_My_Feathers_Orange

5_Issue_Selector_Orange

6_Tickle_My_Fancy_Green

7_Special_Del_Barton

8_Convo_Text_01

Tags

,

Ford Canada Blog: 9 Artists, 4 Weeks, 2 Subways, 1 Fiesta

May 13 2013

Ford Canada, Sonic Boom, and RD2 have joined forces once again for a new and exciting promotional campaign highlighting the launch of the 2014 Ford Fiesta. Simply called, “24 hours of Fiesta,” nine local artists will be taking over two Montreal Metro subway stations for four weeks and display their own original artwork inspired by the 2014 Ford Fiesta, which will then change rotate every 72 hours. Anyone in and around Montreal, Quebec can interact with the exciting exhibits by using the hashtag #Fiesta24h and posting to Twitter or Instagram.

While being an extension for promotional campaigns from the Ford Blue blog like the Ford Escape campaign we wanted to take a step back and embrace the unique characters of each artist to make this destination as vibrant and exciting as the Ford Fiesta. Every artist page has their own signature custom color and background pulled from their own art. This is carried through to the color of every light box where the user can download hi res versions of each piece.

The campaign serves as a guerrilla style promotion for the Artists and Ford Fiesta and is geared to people in and around the Montreal Metro. They will be able to enjoy viewing the Artists installations while at the subway station and learn more by going to the promotional website on their desktop, phone or tablet since the website is fully responsive.

http://blogue.ford.ca/9artistes/

670-9Artists-Desktop-1

670-9Artists-Desktop-2

670-9Artists-Desktop-3

670-9Artists-Tablet-1

670-9Artists-Tablet-2

670-9Artists-Tablet-3

670-9Artists-Tablet-4

670-9Artists-Tablet-5

670-9Artists-Tablet-6

670-9Artists-Phone-1

670-9Artists-Phone-2

Ford Canada Blog: Going Wild with the 2013 Escape

May 10 2013

Looking to use of the Ford Blue blog as a destination URL for their advertising and promotional campaigns, RD2 was tasked with creating a branded page that was in sync with the recently launched “Going Wild” campaign for the 2013 Escape. Luckily for us, there was more than enough good content to work with. Centered around the unlikely pairing of a rugged outdoorsman and his “over bear-ing” companion, , the campaign follows the two as they banter, explore, and tout the Escape’s ability to thrive in both the city and the Great Outdoors.

Unique page features include the ability to pull content from both the blog and outside sources (like YouTube), to set custom images and page backgrounds, and set unique advertising promotions to create an experience that both worked with the campaign and directed visitors to explore additional content. Like all of the Ford Blue blog, it is responsive and powered by WordPress.

http://blog.ford.ca/escape/

Screenshot-Desktop

iPad-670

iPhone5-670

“With a Little Help From Our Friends”

Mar 2 2013

Blue Dog Series

You know how the song goes, “We get by – with a little help – from our friends”

Every year the school our son attends, puts on an auction fundraiser. It’s a big deal for the kids because the money we raise provides needed improvement for the school.

This year, Melissa worked with the children of the fifth grade class along with Kathy Van Blargen who is also the room parent. The  goal was to create an artistic piece that would consist of small works from each student in the class. The piece needed to bring a voice  from every child that could fit together as one whole piece. Each child sees “The Blue Dog”  in their own way and that moment was captured within the lines of this fluffy sweet blue dog and his field of green. There’s a piece of every student in this project and it turned out fantastic. The theme selected last year was similar and consisted of an art project in which each student painted a circle from the well known “Kadinsky Color Study”. The final piece was stunning and it fetched a very nice price at the auction. We hope this year`s project will be just as successful!

Of course, assembling each piece of the mosaic into a presentation for display is much more difficult than it appears. And, the children deserve to have their hard work shine in the best way possible. With little time to spare, we needed a solution — a way to mount, matte, and frame the piece in a way that showcases the nature of the medium and the artwork of the children. Leigh Ann Williams with 24FPS was up for the task and we are so grateful. After 20 years 24FPS is the best kept secret around. They do amazing work and really know how to problem-solve when it comes to helping fine art stand out in beautiful ways.

The project this year honors the work of  George Rodrigue, and his famous Cajun “Blue Dog Series.” George Rodrigue’s interpretation of the “Loup-Garou” is presented in a way that resembles the form of his studio dog, Tiffany (who had passed away several years prior to the painting).

This particular Piece is called “Blue Dog Cafe” and hangs prominently on the walls of his cafe appropriately named ” The Blue Dog Cafe” in Lafayette, Louisiana

Here are the specifics on the piece that will be up for auction this Saturday night at the Orion Ballroom.

  • ‘Blue Dog’, Collaged Prismacolor on Paper
  • White lacquered wood frame   -  25″ x 23 1/4″
  • Wooden support strainer
  • Float artwork on 100% cotton ragcore
  • 5/8″ deep spacers to distance artwork from glazing
  • UV-filtering glass

Many thanks to Lee Ann Williams at 24FPS. She is a friend indeed.

Tags

<