While QR codes have been around since 1994, their use in western marketing is relatively new. ‘QR’ stands for ‘Quick Response’, as the inventor intended the code to be decoded a highspeed.

They started out being used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing, but their ability to be read by mobile phones caused their application to spread to several other fields. Now QR codes can display text, add a vCard contact to the user’s device, open a URL, or even compose an email or text message. Almost all smartphones with cameras are able to read QR codes natively (with the exception of the iPhone, although free apps are available to add this functionality), which means that these codes are quickly becoming an important part of cutting edge marketing. They can be put on almost any form of print media, from billboards to fliers, and even some digital medias.

So, why do WE love QR codes? Well, our favorite application for them by far is URL linking – We put QR codes on our print media and link them to our client’s website. Sure, the site URL is there too, but it’s just so much easier to scan the code with your phone and have it automatically redirect your browser to the URL. There’s several other benefits – No URL to remember, an instant impression is made, and you have control over the URL the user visits. I will note however that using QR codes does warrant another consideration – If you’re encouraging viewers to visit your website via their smartphone a mobile style sheet should be implemented on your site. This is a special style sheet that will change the display of your website to accommodate the smaller screen size and resolution of a smartphone. Although mobile browsers have come a long way and can now display most sites quite accurately, there are still limitations.

So, in conclusion – QR codes are cool, make sure you have a mobile stylesheet, and Critical Productions is your source for both!

An example of one of the new rendering styles offered

The last year has flown by… It seems like just last month I was writing the recap of 2009! Anyway, 2010 was a big year for us as a company:

• Gross income up approx. 80%
• Expanded our client base by approx. 25%
• Upgraded our hardware, software and rendering techniques (yet again)
• My wife and I had our first child (Again, more of a personal achievement, but I’m sure everyone at the office and even some of our clients will remember this one!)

We’ve got high hopes for 2011 too – For starters we’re revisiting our site (always seems to be a priority with each new year…) any updating our portfolio material. We’ll also be updating our featured projects so you guys can see more examples some of our cooler projects of 2010. We’re also pushing our growth with a beefed up marketing budget to make sure our name gets out there – Every builder needs renderings, and every business owner needs a website, so we want to make sure everyone knows the best place to go for either is Critical Productions!

A few weeks ago we launched the new website for Growing Together Family Resource Center. While the site is relatively straight forward in terms of programming complexity, it’s got a few really cool features that we implemented specifically to address the needs of the client. There’s a “Submit your Schedule” tool to allow parents to quickly and easily schedule stays that dynamically expands to accommodate as many dates as needed. There’s also a Twitter feed to allow for news updates to be posted to the site, which was the fastest, most efficient way to give our clients an interface for adding news updates to their site. Debbi Sluys, the Director of GTFRC was so pleased she offered a testimonial;

“Even though I am not “tech savy” I was educated on the process and feel confident using the various services e.g. Twitter.  Thanks for a great product and excellent service! … I will recommend your company.”

We listen to the needs of the client, and work with them to provide a solution that will address those needs while staying within budget. It’s a great example of how we ensure even an  ‘average’ project with Critical Productions is extraordinary!

Our work has been featured online, on billboards, on several forms of print media, and even on DVDs, and now, for the first time, Television! Check out the Seg Ins Inc. Commercial below, promoting their signature product, the Big Bed truck extender. The commercial was produced by Creative Bube Tube, using our previsualization animation showing the functionality of the device. Pretty cool!

To archive human knowledge and to make information more accessible to the world, multiple projects are currently digitizing physical books that were written before the computer age. The problem is, a page scanned from an old book cannot be parsed accurately by software – Enter reCAPTCHA! When the parsing software comes to a word it can’t read, reCAPTCHA will send it as a captcha to a random human filling out a form online. By solving the captcha, that person has “parsed” the word. You might wonder how the captcha can be solved if the computer doesn’t know the right anwser – Each word that cannot be parsed correctly by software is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words. If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one. If five other users answer the same captcha identically, then the system can assume with high confidence that the answer is correct.

Pretty awesome if you ask me. They’ve even made it really easy to implement on your sites with ready to use PHP snippets and a plugin for WordPress and Mediawiki. We’ve been using it company wide for all our captcha needs. We hope there’s more constructive initiatives like this in the future!

Brian Beaupré and Kyle Kosik man the Critical Productions Display at the WRHBA meeting.

Last Thursday the Critical Productions team went on a bit of a field trip! Three of our Project Managers and a couple Account Managers were at the Golf Steakhouse showing off some of our awesome pre-visualization products. We set up a media display, hoping to peak the curiosity of any attending members – As members slowly started arriving for the networking prior to dinner, our table visuals started to draw a crowd. In addition to a cool video loop running we had two interactive kiosks that were set up with samples of our Material Selection Systems, Virtual Tours, and Exterior 360s, and these were VERY popular.

After the networking, everyone was seated to prepare for dinner. We then made a presentation focusing on new, unexplored technology that builders can take advantage of -  Using a projector we were even able to demonstrate some of the technologies live to the entire association, which was pretty exciting and well received.

Overall, it was a great experience and a lot of fun. Hopefully our fellow members thought so too!

Tristan Mitchell (left) accepts membership from WRHBA President Brian Blackmere.

We’re proud to announce that Critical Productions has joined the Waterloo Region Home Builder’s Association as a service provider. Over the past two years we’ve been considering joining, (paired with some encouragement from existing members who are clients of ours!) and we’re glad we finally did. We’ll be offering our knowledge and expertise in our fields of rendering and web development. We are looking forward to contributing to the growth and success of the members, I think we really have a lot to offer. Looking forward to many fruitful relationships!

Check out my test project – a (relatively) quick test render I did today.