How Great Graphic Design Can Get More Eyes On Your Annual Report
Getting ready to design an annual report for your organization can be overwhelming. There are so many things to gather and to choose from! How can you showcase a whole year’s worth of highlights into a budget-friendly publication? What should you include, or not include? Once you have …
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An Update from Tina Reynolds
When I started Uptown Studios 28 years ago I lived in the same house I live in now. Back then, my desk was in the same place it is today: the living room with a great view of the front window. COVID-19 has put me right back where I started. Except now I have a team of 17 employees and they are all working remotely too …
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Black Stories White People Need to Hear
The police killings of Black people paired with antiracist uprisings have exploded like a powder keg. We are watching and listening, reaching out, and finding ways to support our Black, Native and Brown friends and cohorts. Enter Black Stories: Kiara Reed and I put our heads together to highlight the Black Stories we all need to hear. With the country …
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5 Ways To Create Better User Experience on Your Website: A Web Designer’s Perspective
User experience for websites encompasses so many different elements of a website, and really, user experience is everywhere. You see it in grocery stores, malls, parking lots—you name it, there is probably some user experience …
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Website Management For Sacramento Businesses In 2020: 5 Useful SEO Tips
Times have drastically changed with the onset of the coronavirus and the closing down of our city in Sacramento. However, this doesn’t mean your website management should change, especially if you are a business owner. If you have a website or are thinking of creating a website for …
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Protest Poster Project
In the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed after, Uptown Studios launched a protest poster project to support small businesses that had resorted to using plywood boards to help protect against damages from looters. The brainchild of Tina Reynolds and Jill Bruschera, the protest posters featured positive messages in support of …
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How to Support the Black Community: Tina’s Perspective
As a small business owner, I am dedicated to creating social change. This is what I have spent my life’s work on and what I will continue to do. Today our focus is on how to build our Black community and help lift the burden off their shoulders. White society has been a weighty burden …
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How to Support the Black Community: Kiara’s Perspective
Over the past few weeks, we have seen hundreds of protests against police violence across the globe in the wake of the brutal police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. As the country grapples with the inherent racism and bigotry that it has been built upon, celebrities, corporations …
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Three Things A Communications Strategy Is NOT
Unlike a Marketing Strategy or Marketing Plan, a Communications Strategy is an in-depth plan of an organization’s entire communication efforts. This means taking into consideration every way you communicate internally and externally with different offices. A communications strategy is …
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5 Tips for Taking a Proper Selfie: A Photographer’s Perspective
From a photographer’s perspective, lighting is the most important aspect when taking a selfie, or any photo really! Apparently phones are horrible in low light, so the more light you have the better. But, not all light is created equal. Lighting from above creates a different effect …
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3 Easy Ways Sacramento Small Business Owners Can Improve Any Website
Do you ever look at your own website? If you’re running a company, there are often many things on your daily To-Do list, improve any website you manage is probably at the bottom of it. Below are a few steps that, if you can manage, will make a huge difference to how your website runs …
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A Statement from Tina Reynolds, Uptown Studios, Inc. President
I cannot be silent on the issues today. It has been clear for years that our police systems are broken, racial injustices continue from the inside, then break communities on the outside. I have spent years trying to work within the existing systems with small wins and lots of …
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How You Know You’re Acing Your Marketing
Infographic Curious how you size up to the competition? Follow this quick guide to see if you’re acing your marketing …
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2020 Social Media Image Sizes
Known in our office as the “backyard barbeque” of social media because it is a place to connect with friends and family, images on Facebook are best received if they feature images of real people, aren’t always over-produced, and feel authentic. The “noisy bar” of social media, Twitter is fast-paced and actioned-packed with conversations flying from every which way. Images on Twitter need to convey …
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Social Media Management for Sacramento Small Businesses—On a Budget
If you’re a small business owner in Sacramento, social media management may be one of the last things on your mind, but it shouldn’t be! With shelter-in-place regulations enforced throughout the state, you better believe the community you traditionally serve in-person, is online …
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2020 Hashtag Holiday Calendar for Sacramento Marketers
Are you a marketer in Sacramento, CA? Behold, the biggest social media hashtag calendar featuring all of Sacramento’s biggest events you’ve always wanted. Do you have a Sacramento-specific event that you think we should add to the calendar? Thanks to all of these folks for their hard work on compiling all of these dates! We definitely would have had …
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Finding Sacramento’s Brand: An Outsider’s Perspective
When I moved to Sacramento, California two years ago, I certainly knew what a brand was but I didn’t know what Sacramento’s brand was. Being the state capital, you really get a feel for the city and state. Here, the biggest influencers in the state come to live and work. The state leaders come to the capital seeking change and improvement in their own …
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Brand Management For Sacramento Freelancers
As a dedicated member of the Uptown Studios Marketing team, I am constantly preaching the importance of proper brand management to our clients. “You need a style guide,” is my go-to. Then, “You need a consistent brand voice!” And so on and so on. Marketing encapsulates so many different facets of the digital world; social media, websites, graphic design …
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