Our clients from Boston – Sanbolic trusted us and we redesigned their web site. In the beginning we stuck to the structure and we aimed to keep the view of the old site, but as we had complete freedom about the design, we decided to show some more creativity. Our designers created special icons for most categories and products of Sanbolic as well as different design of the whole website. The communication with our clients was entirely on Skype at convenient for both sides time. Together we generated the direction, functionality and overall project realization. It was such a pleasure for us! You can see the result on Website development for Sanbolic.

Communication between people has always been one of the most important but also one of the toughest things. We have more and more channels to communicate through and more and more opportunities to remain misunderstood unfortunately. In order our messages to reach our clients we need much more than launching them on all possible social networks and think we have done the necessary thing. The strategy and preliminary information for our client are important. Naturally, basing on study about the interests, attitudes and interactions with similar to our products or services is the most logical and necessary first step before choosing the channels and ways to communicate.
Bloggers are more and more used to affect users. Many of them are opinion leaders and people trust their judgment for almost anything.
Many of the campaigns of famous brands use as a channel blogs to reach a larger  percent of people who are targeted and who are much more willing to trust them. When a blogger has become a fan of our brand we can say that this is a good sign.
Another communications channel is social networks. Once again the reason for their success is that people are themselves there, they have many contacts and friends who constantly share opinion on different issues and regarding promotions, games and business fan pages is a wonderful opportunity for increasing the popularity online.
Of course, there are other ways to popularize your business too, but the above mentioned two are the closest and most understandable to people. Important stress here is put on the concept and realization of “Users – we listen to you. You are the most important ones to us!”
By observing some simple rules you can achieve a lot in the online communication and not only keep but also make your clients stick to your site and company. We share with you some major and easy pieces of advice:

1. You must always call things by their true names. Don’t neglect plump people for example. It is already quite banal to advertise products with models and very thin girls and boys. People are not perfect and this is not something to be ashamed of. Communicate your brand for the common people who have not got supernormal powers and unique perfect skin.
2. Offer maximum convenience. For example, if you have developed an online shop you must make it easy for users and guide them around the website like a skilled sales consultant. It is good if the shop offers FAQs; you should offer free trial, product recall; you should include coupons in the basket and many more main ideas that will help you to keep your users for longer time on your online shop and will make them returning visitors.
3. Emotion is above reason! You remember the ad with Santa Claus of the famous soft drink brand; the ad of the aromatic coffee – Unique Charomat; of the chocolates – Dare to be Tender ? The emotional side above the reasonable one is present in these  memorable examples and in many more campaigns. Touch the memories, dreams and traditions of users and you will be much more successful than if your campaign is based on the sole rational decision to buy something (in most cases it is irrational )
4. Give freedom and flexibility in the choice. An example can be given with the plans of  mobile operators. There are such mobile operators that provide much more flexibility in the plans and term of their contracts. Freedom may be expressed also in not forcing your client and ask him at all costs what he wants or why he has come in your shop. This is invasion of people’s privacy and they start to feel worried and anxious. When a client has visited your shop, don’t scare him with too many banners as well as flashing, illuminated and producing sound ones. Restrict to minimum the annoying and intrusive elements.

We hope we have been useful to you. We wish you success in the communication with your users.

We love Komicite show! They always make us laugh, even if we watch them on the TV set and it is mute. Our actors are very good and they prove it every time when they are on the small screen. We are happy that our clients from Orbis Foods entrusted us the design and creating of their new calendar for 2012 which consists of all the characters from the Komicite show. Your months will be funnier and sweet with them. We created the calendar in no time with the most favorite products of Orbis Foods – Turkish delight, limonovi rezanki, halva Zlateya, Mentina as well as with the merry photos. With laugh and goodies work goes smooth and slips by

The season of awards, acknowledgements and balance for what we have done over the last year has come.

Here’s the result!

We won 8 awards in a total of 3 contests.

We thank our clients for trusting us, the jury for the high estimate for our work and of course the whole team that stand behind all RIZN projects.

Bulgarian Web Awards

• First award for Powermark in the Transport and Logistics category

Computer Space 2011

• First award for ParAvan in the Technologies and Market category
• First award for Pod Prikritie in the Entertainment and Hobby category
• Award for Powermark in the Technologies and Market category
• Award for the Menu magazine in the Information and Media category

BG Site 2011

• First award for Bulgarian Donor Forum in the Public Administration and NGOs category
• Award for RIZN.bg in the Corporate Site category
• Award for the Pod Prikritie in the Education, Science and Culture category

Congratulations colleagues!

Each and everyone of us has something defect. That’s essentially why we are perfect human beings. Someone once said “Beauty is symmetry”. My Mom says: “Small defects highlight the perfection”. Well, I believe more what my Mom said . Even in nature there is no complete symmetry and that’s why it is marvelous and unique. I prefer to be unique!

We make our choice every day – how to dress, what to put on or not on our hair, how to decorate the office, home … car. We need to give colour and shape to our moods. We stress on our personality when we put a vivid and different detail on the wall, table, ceiling and in our soul. With this very idea we decided to create the Defect.bg online shop – to create many Defects for your internal space Defect is a project behind which stand many people, sleepless nights, ideas, used up books and tested materials. We are happy to present to you the completed but still in progress online shop in which we hope each of you will find something new and provocative. See our project Logo design and online shop development of Defect.bg. We will be glad if you like it and pick a gift for the coming holidays and why not just like that, without an occasion, for you, your friends or relatives.

We present to you the interview we took from our long-time friend and client Miroslav Dimitrov. He is a car designer and he has so far worked for the companies Ferrari, Lotus, Aston Martin etc. He changes his job frequently, he always finds his days exciting and generally he is a very interesting company we can speak with till the morning. Miro hasn’t worked in Bulgaria for years now but he trusted us once again for his latest project – his personal blog. You can see what we did for him a few years ago – Flash website development for the car designer Miroslav Dimitrov and first read our friendly interview with him. We think it is very curious. Have a nice reading!

Q: Three years ago you used to work for Ferrari, in 2010 you started to work at Lotus and now you are at Aston Martin. How does it feel to be a part of these car icons?

A: Yes, it’s true, time flies. My recent shift to Aston Martin did surprise me. When I was at Ferrari, I had a project I had to put into production (the interior of the 599′s successor) and they wanted to have me at all costs. I had to choose Ferrari or Lotus. In Maranello I was fortunate to work on cars as Ferrari 458, Ferrari 599XX, the successor of Ferrari 599 etc. But the Lotus proposal to make 5 concepts for 10 months was very tempting and ambitious. None of the car makers has made such thing until now and to me being part of this historical moment of the company was an honour and responsibility. We worked an average of 13-14 hours a day, sometimes even more! The presented 5 cars at the expo in Paris last year caused huge excitement and now these 5 concepts have to be put into production, but Lotus is a small company and hasn’t got resource to do it simultaneously. That’s why first will be the new Esprit whose design was recently completed with plenty of my help. Later I went to Aston Martin where there’s lots of work and we are pretty busy. My experience with sports cars from Lotus, Ferrari and other private projects I’ve made turned to be very important because there was no hesitation and I was offered a job immediately.

Q: Tell us something more about the atmosphere at Aston Martin?

A: Aston’s studio is newer than Lotus‘ one and in terms of  building and conditions it is better. The team consists of the same number of people – around 65, 10 of whom are designers. The work atmosphere is stricter than at Lotus and the colleagues are not that friendly. Fortunately though, with some of them I have worked at Lotus and I managed to return the cheerful mood during the work process. If I have to be honest, of all design studios I’ve been until now (6) the atmosphere was the best at Lotus. When they learned I quit, 26 colleagues and friends gathered for a treat at a pizzeria and then we continued the night at the bars in Norwich.

Q: You have a very dynamic and stormy career. Maybe you will surprise us again in a year that you are no longer in your old workplace. You like the change, you don’t find exactly what you are looking for in the companies you have so far worked in or there is another reason for which you change often your jobs?

A: As a designer with an excellent creativity I always look for an opportunity to express myself. Realizing this I need new projects to work on and I put everything in them. To a great extent the changes we are talking about have been dictated by the opportunity emerging before me – the new challenge! It is the driving force. Of course, sometimes you must stick for a longer time on one place to complete what you have started, but there are always other factors involved which sometimes have great influence on your decisions.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: You know I can’t tell what I’m working on at the moment. We keep everything a secret, if you share what you are working on, the competition in the branch will instantly add 2+2 and will become aware of what your company is preparing. I can only say it is a sports car with 2 seats

Q: You have learnt in Bulgaria and England, you have worked in Italy, now you are in England again with Aston Martin. What will be the next destination?

A: Unfortunately or not, it is very hard in our industry to find one working place where nice and exciting projects continue for long. This depends on the nature of the projects and the company management which sometimes change drastically. No matter how much I like the environment when I see I cannot receive what I need I have to look for a new challenge. Currently, work is a priority and it depends on work what the next destination will be. So while I’m satisfied with the projects, environment and my position in a stidio, I’d stick to it. Probably I will be in Germany soon where I will be part of an interesting project.

Q: How often do you come back in Bulgaria? Don’t you miss your friends, family?

A: I rarely come back here, sometimes even a year or more pass. I don’t miss anything from Bulgaria, the only thing I come back for are my friends and the relatives you mentioned. By living in different places and facing constantly new cultures I realized that the nationality, the borders and the artificially planted differences are things rooted by our predecessors. Without someone asking whether we like it, after being born we have some ‘nationality’ and we don’t have any choice – something we have to stick to and something that burdens us. However now I see myself as a cosmopolite and I don’t feel nostalgy for the place I was born in.

Q: Why did you choose us before the other web designers?

A: Before choosing you I made a survey of companies dealing with web design in Bulgaria. I saw your previous projects which I liked a lot. The combination between professionalism and a very good design combined with functionality was what made me contact you. As a man dealing with design it took me only 2 minutes to decide you are the people who I want to make my site.

Q: Do you like working with RIZN?

A: Working with you was easy. I had the clear idea what I want and you understood it very well. We started working on the site’s structure and functionality with Georgi right from the beginning, the design was created in parallel. The communication was easy as we spoke one language and when you work with professionals in your circles things go smoothly. Last, but not least I like your small, but united team. I would like my bosses like yours to buy us Playstation 3 to have fun in the design studio! I hope you liked working with me too

Q: How did the site we created for you helped you in a professional plan?

A: I aimed with this site to have a representative place on the web space. Or in other words – I needed a stylish and clean digital portfolio that gathers on one place a selection of my works. Very few people in our branch dare to show their creative ideas in front of the world. Often they hide them fearing that someone will copy them. In one case no one knows about you all your life and in the second case if someone wants to copy you, there’s always a way. This is why sites like mine are very few and I daresay there’s no other car designer with so cool website! To me it is a way to show on professional level part of my work and it is my business card in front of the world!

Q:As a designer to designers – do you like the web designs and logos we create? Be honest

A: Yes, I like them! I like them a lot. As I mentioned earlier the ideas and creativity you have were one of the key elements which made me choose you before the others. This is seen in the logos, corporate identity and sites you create.

Q: Design or function, this is an old dispute. What do you think about this question which includes all fields of the design no matter if we speak about web sites, logos or automobiles?

A: No matter what the end product is, the design’s task is to help and even improve its function! The design also has to present/sell in a unique way one product, but we shouldn’t forget that the client has to interact with it. The functionality or other main parameters of the given product we are talking about should never be at expense of its design or image. My experience as a designer allows me to say that the good image of a product is pointless if it doesn’t match with good functionality and efficiency. The design has the important task to combine all the functions and requirements (the so called product assignments) and present them in a way that every time the client takes pleasure when working or interacting with the ‘product’. The successful design is just like the successful management of a given problem. No wonder the genius of some products whose design we admire every day lies in the fact how simple they are. Subject completely to their function. And we call it design

If I have to go back to the topic with websites, when we started working on my site, I was pleasantly suprised to see that you put function and navigation around the site before design, the proportion was 70/30. Why would I need a website that looks good but it is headache working with it. Of course the image was on a very high level too but that comes next and it is dictated by the previous two factors I mentioned. Exactly at that time your experience in developing well-operating sites with unique image was seen.
My advice is keep it that way!

RIZN: Thank you once again for your time! We will be glad if you keep us in touch with the things happening around you. When you come by – give us a call

Miro: I thank you too, it was pleasure for me! Greetings to the whole team and see you, I hope you still have some sweet things for eating at the office:)

Our latest project has been on for a week, we worked on it at full steam over the last month so that our clients could present it on BULPEK 2011 – the bakery and confectionery expo. There have not been so many temptations at the office till now! During the online shop development and our meetings with our clients we had access to an interesting inside information. How are the famous Macaroni in one of the most popular confectionaries in Bulgaria made, what mixture is used to make so delicious muffins and how easy it is to be a confectioner when you have a ready mixture for almost every product
Of course, besides getting informed so well on chocolate, ice-cream and bread, we tasted different flavours, colours and scents. The sugar rush gets us and we solve tasks fast. See our project New online shop development for Alimco. We will be glad if you find it tasty.

A few months ago we finished the website for New Bags and this is why we decided to share our emotion from the project.

We love paper bags! They are our passion, but … this is a small secret. Why do we feel like that about them? Because usually when we receive a paper bag there’s something interesting in it. For example a gift for a birthday, a delicious food, a bottle of wine, a new sweater or an expensive perfume.

What we like about the luxurious bags of New Bags is that they are made of paper and cardboard and are personalized. The bags can be made according to our design and in appropriate sizes.

View our project Website development for New Bags! We will be glad if you like it and you find your own Bag.

Searching high-quality pictures online has happened to each of us at least once. Whether for making an announcement for an upcoming promotion on the online shop, for launching a newsletter, for publishing a feature or for replacing an old photo with a new one on the website.

The reason does not matter. The important thing is that many sites where you could find free high-quality photos exist – you only have to know where to look for and be careful for the terms and conditions in which you use the photos We present to you a selection of 13 websites which will do you a good job for the above-mentioned tasks.

SXC
Probably the website stock.xchng is the most well-known example of all for a place where you can find free photos. In order to download photos on your computer, you have to register first and pay attention to the licenses. Some of them are free if they are used for a personal use only. Furthermore, you have to be careful because almost every page with results has also paid pictures among the free ones. The advantage of this website is that there are many pictures which have high resolution and are absolutely free!

Dreamstime
Dreamstime sells photos but if you know where exactly to look for you will find a section with free ones. First you have to register in the website which is free.

Photl
We mentioned this one a few years ago in Free photos by Photol but there’s no way to skip it now. You can download more than 40 MB a day. Every month the website is updated with between 7000 and 10 000. All photos are taken specially for photl.com. Before downloading pictures, you have to make an absolutely free registration.

Stockvault
Stockvault is a wonderful place where you can find absolutely free pictures if you want to use them with a non-commercial purpose (for example for your blog or for a personal presentation). Here you have to be careful which photos are free and which are not, too.

Morguefile
Morguefile requires registration but here you can find more than 10 000 free photos. This website is much better than some other like it because it is easy to find and distinguish free from paid pictures.

Freepixels
Freepixels is a smaller website, with fewer advertisements, but the pictures are easy to find and download on your computer (registration is needed). There are 40 categories with photos in it. Abstractions, architecture, nature, subjects, food and drinks, travelling and people – these are only some of the main categories.

Photogen
Photogen is another small website we liked because although there are advertisements, all pictures which appear in the results are completely free and are not mixed with paid ones. It is easy-to-navigate and download high-quality pictures. Preliminary registration is required in the site.

Free Images
Free Images is another website that you have to remember because not only it has a base of 6000+ pictures, but you can view and download them absolutely free and without an account also! Searching is very fast, advertisements are well separated, i.e. there is no way to confuse them and click on them by accident unless you want to, of course. The pictures are easy-to-find – arranged in special categories.

Texture King
Texture King is a unique site because it has free photos of textures. If you need a picture for background, pad, screen etc. they are awesome for this purpose. Another (almost without advertisement) site where you don’t have to register to see or download these pictures (of high quality).

Every Stock Photo
What makes Every Stock Photo unique is the fact that this site is a search engine for other free photo sites. It gives results from stock.xchng, flickr, photoXpress and other.

Nations Illustrated
Nations Illustrated offers photos from all over the world, with a base of more than 7300 pictures (of different quality). Most of them are linked with the travelling theme but you don’t need an account to have access to them and the only advertisement that can distract you is from adsense.

Public Domain Pictures
Here you can find everything! It is very easy to distinguish advertisements from free pictures. The photos have different resolutions and you can view and download them without registration.

Recently, on September 20th , Tuesday, Google tried to overshadow Facebook with the news that the social network Google+ is already open for everyone.
But Facebook which planned to launch a new media platform and make some other important updates this week on their annual developers conference in San Francisco, struck back

Google strengthened the competition for dollars and online dominance just like Facebook did. Facebook releases its News Feed update which gives priority to important publications. If you haven’t visited Facebook recently, you will see the top photos and latest statuses since your last login; If you login a few times a day, you will see more latest news. The idea is viewing the information you are mostly interested in.

“Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper”, announced in his blog Mark Tonkelowitz, an engineering manager at Facebook.

Facebook also presents a real-time ‘ticker’ which divides the last activities of your friends and encourages you to chat with them about it.

“Ticker shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook but it brings your conversations to life by displaying updates instantaneously”, adds in his blog Tonkelowitz.

The main goal is to provide quickly the most important updates from your friends. It sounds good, nevertheless, the comments for these latest efforts are mixed. There are users who complain the social network does not have the right to discuss what is important to them. Of course there are many users who welcome the updates on Facebook.

Which type are we? We tend to be from the second group. As specialists in online advertising and SEO optimization and online shop and website development we always welcome the effort towards improving the quality of the offered services.