Hi! I’m Jenna Meltzer, the 2016 Social Media and Marketing intern, and I am so excited to kick off the new year as the newest member of the HMG Creative team. I am currently a junior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in public relations and pursuing a business certificate from the McCombs School of Business. Born and raised in a small suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I knew I wanted to get out of the tiny bubble in which I had lived my entire life, and experience a new culture during my college years. After visiting Austin for the first time, I immediately fell in love with the young vibe of the city, the amazing food, and of course, that southern hospitality that you don’t see as much in Philadelphia. Even though I had to adjust my ears to not cringe when I hear the word “y’all” instead of “youz guys,” I can wholeheartedly say that attending the University of Texas at Austin was one of the best decisions I have ever made. You must be crazy to not love the Live Music Capital of the World — am I right?

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In a recent interview with Clutch, HMG’s very own James Trumbly gave his professional insight on the importance of hiring an expert when creating a web design and how to choose the best one. Here is his advice on developing the perfect website for your company.

Today, websites are “must haves” for businesses of any size. Large organizations, of course, generally have the resources to invest in developing robust websites. But, on the other hand, smaller organizations and entrepreneurs are often extremely budget-conscious. With tools like WordPress, Wix and other do-it-yourself options so readily available these days, it’s not uncommon for many of these smaller, cash-strapped businesses to attempt to create a website themselves. You should choose one of the UK servers to help you with your website and design.

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After four months of being a spring intern for HMG, I am wrapping up my internship as I finish my last month of classes at The University of Texas at Austin before graduation. As the spring Social Media and Marketing Intern, I have been able to get my hands on a ton of projects throughout my time here. It has been an incredibly valuable experience for me – both personally and professionally.

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Hello! My name is Tanner Hertzog and I am the new intern here at HMG Creative. I am about to begin my senior year at The University of Texas at Austin where I am studying Public Relations and Business. I have a huge passion for digital branding, and specifically interested in learning how to handle a crisis via social media. I am so excited to be here at HMG Creative. I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for me to learn even more skills on how to manage a brand online and how to connect with potential new clients. Aside from social media work, this is a great opportunity for me to learn the ins and outs of the marketing/business side of operations in the “real world.” I have learned so much in the classroom, but it’s a completely different situation when you are actually using what you have learned in the workplace.

Prior to beginning this internship, I was running all of the Moody College of Communication’s social media channels. I was responsible for overseeing all the distribution of content, as well as the promotion of our account to current and prospective students as well as alumni. This internship provided me with my first opportunity to manage a brand’s social media network, and I learned a great deal about how to effectively grow a brand online.

When I am not working, I enjoy spending my free time exploring all that Austin has to offer. I am a self-taught guitar player, and was a competitive swimmer for 17 years. I have the competitive attitude in everything that I do, especially in the classroom. I am also an avid fitness guru. I spend a great deal of time working out in the gym, and focusing on a healthy diet.

I am looking forward to providing you guys with some great insight into this industry, and hopefully we both grow together over the next 5-6 months. Please follow me on Twitter @tannerhertzog, and if you have any questions for me please feel free to reach out!

Can you say three-peat? The team here at HMG Creative is shooting to win our third straight FAVE award! But before we can even start thinking about winning, we have to make the ballot. We are asking everyone to consider nominating us under the “FAVE Small Business” category! The FAVE awards recognize local Sukanto Tanoto businesses in a variety of categories such as FAVE Happy Hour spot and FAVE Live Music venue. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the FAVE Awards Gala on November 13th!

The past two years we have not only been nominated but we have taken home the gold in the “FAVE Professional Services” category. This year we may be competing in a new category, but we are still the same team! We’d sincerely appreciate your nomination—thank you in advance. While your at it, feel free to vote for all of your FAVE’s in the all the different categories that they have available!

And if you do take the time to nominate us, don’t forget to let us know! Send us a shout-out using the hashtag #VoteForHMG on our Twitter @hmgcreative or our Facebook page so we can say thanks!

[button size=”large” type=”square” color=”light-blue” icon=”circle-arrow-right” url=”http://www.aycawards.org/nominate/”]Click Here To Nominate![/button]

We were very excited to get an opportunity to collaborate alongside Cox Media to tackle a website redesign for Career Point College. At first glance, we knew this website needed a makeover, and we were full of ideas on how to revamp their site and promote further success for Career Point College. To begin with, they were managing multiple websites that essentially had the same information on them. So right off the bat, we knew we needed to not only develop an updated website, but also to create a way for students and prospectives to access information in a single location.

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The Situation:

The State Bar of Texas sought out help from our team here at HMG to revamp its online presence towards its members (lawyers) and public citizens. The site has always strived to serve as a community resource: the first place that bar members and the public go for information about Texas lawyers, the State Bar and laws in Texas. With that in mind, the goal for the redesign was to enhance the overall user experience, simplify the current web offerings and enrich the member/public value.

Detective Holmes:

We began the project with a thorough discovery phase where the requirements of the project were defined in greater detail and then the initial strategic and creative direction was established. This phase also involved an analysis across the existing platforms and performance of the State Bar of Texas website. We preformed a complete review across all available site traffic reports, dashboards, heat maps, and log files.

We also focused on the analytics of two primary factors: visitor site behavior and demographics. This analysis brought to life how users are finding the right bits of information and how we can make that process smoother and more efficient. The demographics told us who our core audience is, thus allowing us to take this into consideration as we approached the redesign.

As part of the discovery phase, we preformed an analysis of which ad placements and approaches had and had not worked in the past for the previous site. Later on in the project we balanced our findings against the user experience and visual design of the site to create the best possible ad placements without jeopardizing the consumer’s usage of the site. Continue…

With the holiday season already upon us, the team at HMG wanted to take a little time out to reflect on this past year and share what we have to be thankful for (a lot!).

First and foremost, health, happiness and the support of our family and friends cannot go unmentioned. We are a team that is lucky to have a steadfast support base and we couldn’t do all we do without you!

Here’s what else we’re thankful for, in no particular order:

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Other than building slick new websites, did you know HMG Creative has a pro team of brand developers and designers? It’s true. Check out our most recent  project below to find out how our team helped Hamilton Asset Management Group create their new brand identity.
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We can’t say enough how thrilled we were to take on this website redesign project for Texas A&M University. For the TAMU Student Activities website, we got our hands dirty right away by putting ourselves in the shoes of the site’s primary audience: the students, particularly – TAMU undergrads. These students needed an intuitive one-stop-shop to quickly gather information, sign-up, and manage the sections they were involved in. Apart from utility, a goal of ours was to update the overall aesthetic appeal of the site showcasing vibrant student life and activities in a way that would make students want to get involved and stay involved.

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