Here's where we invite you to learn more about the fun and interesting things we're doing as an organization. It's a great place to learn more about our team members, client spotlights, and industry and community news.
Want to hear a shocking fact? There are currently over 200 million live websites on the internet, and another 1.5 billion sites that are currently inactive. When it comes to your logo and web design, “good enough” just isn’t good enough. You need a style that sets you apart.
As we return to more normalcy after a year of pandemic-enforced restrictions, we’ve noticed that many of our clients are asking us to help them embrace more aspects of digital marketing. Obviously, digital marketing has been trending upward for the past 10 years or more, but recent factors have caused interest to skyrocket.
Our President & CEO Monica Kolbay recently joined two other thought leaders in the digital marketing field in a one-hour webinar entitled “Banking on Digital Marketing with Stories That Connect.” Jay Sedgwick, Banking Industry Specialist of WebbMason Marketing, led the webinar.
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There are plenty of ways we could celebrate Hump Day at ArachnidWorks, but we’ve found one that’s alcohol-free, sugar-free, and 100% relaxing… yoga!
Every Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM, the team gathers in the big, open area on the third floor of our new downtown office for a group yoga session. Led by our client Kimberlyn Cahill of Life’s Work Yoga, we spend the hour focusing on breathing, stretching, and learning the basics of yoga practice. Kimberlyn’s approach is “Come as you are,” which makes us all feel relaxed and welcome to participate at whatever level feels comfortable.
Fortunately, our new space allows plenty of room to observe the recommended physical distancing while still enjoying a group activity. And while each of us participates individually at a different level, these once-weekly sessions are interactive, collaborative experiences that build teams and lift spirits.
Working as a team is an everyday occurrence at AW, but our Wednesday yoga meet-ups are a different type of team work. It’s been interesting to observe how helpful the process of relaxing the mind and body in an intentional way can be.
Kimberlyn advocates an “intentional self-care” approach to living a more balanced life. With her guidance, even those who are brand new to yoga—like many of us—can explore the powerful connection between the breath and the body. Kimberlyn integrates breath work with a series of intelligently sequenced postures that builds strength and endurance in a way that is challenging but gentle, with adaptations for those who are less mobile.
There’s a saying “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” Kimberly teaches “restorative yoga” that settles the nervous system and returns the body to a state of ease. After several months of practicing yoga individually and as a group, we are learning how taking as little as an hour a week to relax and unwind together revitalizes us and gives us even deeper creative reserves…and it feels great physically, too!
Hey, Frederick locals—have you walked by our offices at 47 South Carroll Street lately? Did you notice anything new?
If not, glance up next time. With the help of AMI, our brand new signs are in place! Another local business and one of our former neighbors on Pegasus Court, AMI did a great job creating attractive signage that complements the one-of-a-kind 19th century building that has housed our offices.since last February.
You’ll notice that our traditional AW burgundy is set off with a border of light-hearted green—we think the combination is a fun graphic update for our business as we continue to grow and thrive in our new location.
Working in one of Downtown Frederick’s historic buildings just steps away from the Carroll Creek Linear Park is a creative opportunity we’ve only just begun to explore. Hanging these signs was the next step in making our new building our forever home.
‘Tis the season for ugly sweaters, too much food, and general holiday merrymaking—and everyone at AW was in it to win it at our annual holiday party.
Due to COVID-19, this year’s plans were a bit more sedate than in previous years, but a physically distant, masked good time was still had by all. We closed at noon and spent the afternoon enjoying monster subs from South Market Street Sandwiches (#trythe4sisters) with all the trimmings, playing games, listening to holiday music, and basking in the glow of our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. As always, the highlight was the presentation of the annual A-Dub Awards, where each of our unique contributions to life at Arachnidworks, Inc. is recognized and applauded.
For a bunch of geeks, we’re a highly competitive lot. Project Manager Joel Layman’s Grinch sweater helped him win top honors in the Best Holiday Attire contest, followed by a round of games as a warm up to the main event later in the afternoon. We ended up declaring a draw between designer Drew Ahrens and copywriter on the Holiday Trivia Game (just to keep the peace), but Wes Stull was the clear winner of Name That Tune.
Next we enjoyed some holiday hijinx at ClueIQ, one of Frederick’s escape rooms around the corner from our offices at 47 South Carroll Street. If you’ve never been to an escape room, it’s a live-action adventure in which two or more players have to use hidden elements to find clues, solve the puzzle, and produce a solution in less than an hour…not unlike working in advertising and marketing, so we all felt right at home.
This was our first holiday season in our new Downtown digs, so being within sight of Carroll Creek added to the festive vibe. A lot of things feel different this year, but the most important things are the same as they ever were—we’re grateful for our talented team, and another wonderful year of helping our clients thrive and meet their goals!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at AW!
We would like to say a special THANK YOU to Lumberjakkss for creating this AWESOME co-branded boat for us!
We love it and we love having Lumberjakkss as a client!
If you’re strolling along Carroll Creek, be sure to check out this work of art on the wall behind our building!
We wanted to take a moment to say congratulations to the Rotary Club of Frederick for a very successful Centennial Summit and for 100 years of service to Frederick, MD!
We loved creating the event programs for this celebration, as they turned out beautifully!
When COVID-19 descended on the U.S. earlier this year, we had no idea how it would affect our business. Fortunately, we’ve been able to stay very busy during the pandemic helping our clients update their messaging, improve their website visibility, and position their brand more effectively in light of the COVID-19 challenges.
Another pleasant surprise over the past six months has been an influx of new clients. Having new people is always exciting, but it was obvious that we were not only going to need a bigger boat, we were going to need to bring on more talent– and not just any talent…we needed a person with the right combination of style and experience to be able to get onboard fast.
How lucky were we to find Joel Layman, a skilled project manager with great marketing chops and a real desire to add value to our customers’ brands! For more than 15 years, Joel’s been coordinating collateral and managing creative teams for organizations like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and STX Lacrosse. We love that he’s a utility guy with cross-over skills in web development, video production, social media, copywriting, public relations, retail initiatives, event planning, and grassroots marketing. He’s primarily a project manager, but we love that he’s got the big picture knowledge to understand how all the pieces need to work together to turn a complex vision into reality on behalf of our clients.
“I am beyond thrilled to join ArachnidWorks and help take the team and their clients to the next level,” says Joel. “It’s clear that Monica and everyone at AW are passionate about delivering top quality results to create true partnerships with each and every client. I have always loved building brands through meaningful stories and I am excited to bring my skills and experience to the group on both the agency and brand side.”
Call it a quarantine, lockdown, shelter-in-place, or a “safer at home” order, unprecedented public health measures forced by the global pandemic drove millions of people around the world into virtual seclusion. During this time, apps and platforms that were once used entirely for entertainment and personal connection have been hijacked for use by digital markers to reach consumers.
However, as the number and severity of COVID-19 cases begins to trend more positively, and some countries and US states are beginning to open back up, these same digital markers are wondering: how different will things look over the next year? Will things go back to normal? How has the novel coronavirus affected consumer behavior? And how will that affect digital marketing attempts to reach a society of consumers that have made significant changes in many areas of ordinary life?