News listing

Recent publications

• A GOOD online community

  Los Angeles, CA — December 20, 2006

  The GOOD community has gone live. If you haven’t joined, check it out and get involved with this active community. The website uses an AREA 17 Engine code-name ‘Gorilla’ that takes group blogging to a new and organic level. Its simple, every comment and vote on the website ends up on the users own blog. Its a new level of transparency that gives other users a quick glance at the voice of each other member.
  Work → GOOD Website

  See also 

  goodmagazine.com

• GOOD has entered the building

  Los Angeles, CA — September 5, 2006

  

  The logo we designed for GOOD

  Its been a year since we started working on GOOD — the magazine that we created the identity for in addition to the website. Now, today marks the launch of the magazine in print and on the news stands across the U.S. of A. Props goes to Open for designing the magazine, and 2×4 and W+K 12 for their wonderful contributions.

  Today also marks the launch of the updated website with all the magazine content available for free, in addition to other nifty features. The next launch will be in mid October with full community features. If you haven’t subscribed to the magazine, do it now and come to the Launch Party in NYC or LA.

  GOOD Magazine featured on New York Times, Yahoo! Picks, Del.icio.us, Boingboing, Gawker.
  Work → GOOD Brand

  See also 

  goodmagazine.com

• Downloads that look like CDs

  New York City — September 2, 2006

  Naxos of America and eMusic introduce MPkey downloadable classical music collections, now in Borders stores nationwide. The albums are packaged in CD-sized boxes and will be placed on store shelves at Borders. Inside each box, however, customers will find not a CD but a card with an access code and a booklet of instructions for downloading the album. Using Ruby on Rails AREA 17 built the website application which includes a secure token downloading system and full integration into the Emusic backend. The product was featured in the Wall Street Journal this past Sunday.

• New Paris office ready to get used and abused

  Paris, France — August 1, 2006

  After 3 months of making drawings, fighting with french contractors and changing our minds (we are the clients this time), our new Paris office is finished.
  Agency

• Now serving: 18 websites in one

  New York City — July 10, 2006

  Rainbow Media, the Cablevision owned company that brings you AMC, IFC, WE, Fuse and many more cable stations, asked AREA 17 to help create a file management system — similar to our file browser — that allows them to distribute their many network and programming assets to their affiliates. At the time, they had 18 semi-content managed websites that were out of date in all aspects. Difficult to use in all aspects, both admins and end-users found themselves frustrated and reverted to email for their file exchanges — not so timely or cost effective.

  AREA 17 worked with the Rainbow Media team to come up with a solution that allowed them to easily create a network affiliate website that distributed and promoted their assets in simple and relavant ways. The back-office system allows for ‘push-button’ network creation, permissions-based access, really simple file uploads and content management, section specific or site-wide promotional tools, website usage stats, and a whole lot more.

  The front-end allows users to log-in without a password to the network of their choice and be remembered. Smart URL’s allow for easy sharing of files, and users are able to switch networks in a jiffy. Just like our file browser, the website is organized in a folder structure with a breadcrumb that keeps you on track. But it goes further to introduce site-wide search, network topics (keywords) and relational content. Users can stay tuned-in through custom email alerts and RSS. And of course the little things have been thought of such as send to a friend, printable views and the ability to download multiple files in one-click through an on-the-fly zip compression function.

  Last but definitely not least, the website itself has different file access, based on the URL you enter through. Instead of making a separate website for more secure internal sales content, the system automatically publishes a second version of each network website that is secure. It includes the same structure and content of the public one, but has additional content securely and privately available just for internal sales users. This not only makes it so that the website admin can publish a file once and make it available many times, but it also allows us to update the system engines once with new features and every network website — public or private — instantly benefits.

  The website had gotten rave reviews from our client and also their end-users. Traffic has been steadily increasing from launch and retention is at an all-time high. We are proudest of the work we do that really makes a difference and most thankful and dedicated to our clients that allow us to do just that.

  See rainbowaffiliate.com and 4-minute presentation
  Agency

• Identité Visuelle

  Paris, France — May 15, 2006

  

  ‘Etape Graphique’ — the premiere graphic design magazine in France — recently featured our Elan project in the May Issue.
  Work → Elan Brand, Print and Packaging

• “Blondie” and “The New Cars” give back to the people

  New York City — March 15, 2006

  In support of the Blondie and The New Cars tour, eMusic, a leader in MP3 downloads and independent music, offers tour ticket buyers a free Blondie and The New Cars album download. AREA 17 created a mini-website that accepts up to 300,000 unique user-entered codes and gives users-specific access to the downloads — MP3’s are then downloaded via a secure token system to the users computer. A customer service management system was added to allow eMusic to view and report on usage, in addition to re-releasing download tokens in case of user-based problems.
  Agency

• After 5 Months of Existence, Paris office gets Cleaned

  Paris, France — March 3, 2006

  Arnaud Mercier applies the basic principles of web design to our Paris office. All furniture has been place on the pixel grid and wall colors have been converted to web-safe. This simple step has improved efficiency by 43.5% and has presented a more refined image for our French clients.
  Agency

• The Con is on AMC with the all-new series ‘Hustle’

  New York City — January 6, 2006

  AMC launches a new television series, Hustle, using its website as a primary tool for marketing. AREA 17 worked with AMC to design and develop a fully content managed and growable website with custom illustrations, games, interactive features and fully integrated photo galleries and video on each page. The website is automatically updated as each episode passes, giving users fresh content each week. In its first three days after launch, the website enjoyed 100,000 unique visitor and over a million unique page impressions.
  Agency

  See also 

  hustle.amctv.com