Before joining us at Integrity, Heather worked as a 3D artist (hence her dimensional awesomeness). She also was a college instructor, teaching the Adobe Suite, #Ds Max, Zbrush, HTML and CSS. In her spare time, she enjoys reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, and is a frequent gamer.

Fun Heather Trivia: Before her family came to America, the family’s name was Starzik. Their name then got shortened to Stark…which means she could be related to the famously awesome, yet fictional, Tony Stark. Just call her Iron Woman!

Welcome to Integrity, Heather!

Each December, the Integrity team breaks away from their computer screens to compete for the most honored accolade: Champion of the Intergalatic Foospocalypse.

For those unfamiliar with the tournament, we’ve provided a short video tutorial:

It was a great day of foos, trash talk and, of course, penalty shots of the alcoholic variety. Our champions for the Doubles Tournament were Megan Fox and Jeremiah Harris of Foos on First, and our Singles Tournament champion was Danny Amacher. To view photos of the event, check out our Facebook album here. Until next year, our champions have supreme reign and just a bit of extra swagger around the office.

The application works with new and existing photos on a user’s phone. The photo becomes the base to which a variety of holiday filters can be applied. Santafy’s default features include hats, presents and the standard “Merry Christmas” greeting. Santafy is free to download, but to increase festivities, users are able to purchase additional photo filter bundles. These bundles feature animal, tacky, vintage and other deluxe holiday decorations.

After creating the photos, users can share them via social media, as well as save or email them.  Posting a Santafy picture will also share the App Store download page, so that all users can easily find the application.

In addition to creating the application, Santafy will also be available on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to keep users up to date on the application itself and what users are creating themselves, along with other holiday-themed material.

Integrity is a St. Louis-based digital marketing agency that specializes in custom web design and development solutions, web and mobile application development, digital strategy, branding and reputation management and traffic generation.

We’re happy to welcome Mike Amelung as our newest web engineer at Integrity. Mike describes himself as a “full-stack developer.” For those not familiar with the term, he has a pretty wide range of knowledge about coding platforms and programming languages. He specializes in PHP and Javascript, and can be seen furiously typing away at his computer.

Outside of the coding world, Mike likes cars. Like, really likes them. Enough that he competes in and enjoys watching drag racing. He also likes shooting sports, and plays in an adult kickball league on the weekends. Feel free to ask him how many home runs he’s booted recently.

Welcome to the team, Mike! Though it’s not kickball, we’re glad to have you aboard.

Outside of the office, Todd has two claims to fame. He was once a trained mascot, and he’s known on the ones and twos as DJ Toddy Holiday. He’s a vinyl-only Christmas DJ, so we’re expecting plenty of tunes now that the holiday season is just upon us. In addition to DJing, he’s also a music fanatic, and manages a local band.

Welcome, Todd! We know you’ll put on quite a show!

Tina joins our team from the news world. She is a recent graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, where she studied journalism, marketing and fashion design. She also served as the school newspaper’s managing editor and a reporter with the local public radio station. Tina is transferring across town from our local public radio scene to do all things interactive at Integrity.

Outside of our orange walls, Tina loves reading science fiction, biking, exploring abandoned houses, trying new food and staying up on all current news. She’s also a social media junkie, and always has something under 140 characters to say.

Great to have you with us, Tina!

Henry is a St. Louis native who studied at Mizzou and always strives to be learning. In his spare time, he enjoys reading non-fiction pieces, and likes surrealist art, electronic music, Boston terriers, Star Wars and deep quotes, in no particular order. Henry is also an urban artist and plays the synthesizer.

As a member of our mobile development team, he’ll have a big role in getting our mobile projects off the ground and helping provide an extra dose of awesome. We’d rate that at 5 stars!

Check it out on KSDK’s page here.

“I’m excited to get started on leading the team and building apps,” Harris said. “Our team has been steadily growing and this means we’ll be able to put more manpower into future mobile projects.”

This position comes on the heels of a bevy of recent application projects. Integrity most recently produced iPhone, iPad and Android applications for Swank Healthcare, MillerCoors, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC), KMOV and Busy Event, as well as its own Santa-fy application. Projects currently in development include sales management tools and wellness and tourism applications.

“This is a great opportunity for Integrity to grow and provide better solutions for our clients,” said Ed Morrissey, Partner and Chief Creative Officer for Integrity. “We’re always seeking to expand our technical knowledge and build ridiculously awesome projects. I’m looking forward to seeing what the team will develop.”

This election cycle has provided voters with more meme-worthy materials than ever before, from #bindersfullofwomen and its ensuing trolling of Amazon product reviews to a mash-up of political photos with quotes from Arrested Development. The presidential debates saw 10.3 million, 7.2 million and 6.5 tweets, respectively. Even if politics isn’t your thing, the Internet has likely found a way to tie it in to your pop culture preferences.

It’s not just a matter of jokes; significant political engagement is occurring over social networks. Mitt Romney’s official social profiles have nearly 11 million likes on Facebook and a million and a half followers on Twitter. Barack Obama’s Facebook page has over 31 million likes and over 21 million followers on Twitter. Not counting associated party and campaign sites, these accounts offer campaign, donation and platform information in spaces where people are naturally congregating online.

This sharable content isn’t just limited to Facebook and Twitter. The DNC cleverly developed RomneyTaxPlan.com as a way to mock the lack of details from Mitt Romney on the issue, and this “binders full of women” game appeared mere hours after the second debate. Chances are the most political commentary that the casual voter has heard is not about economic or foreign policy issues, it’s about how Big Bird might be on the unemployment lines. It’s great that we’re talking politics, but we do need to remember there’s a major decision to be made.

While those social numbers seem fairly impressive, there are over 311 million people in the United States. In the 2010 midterm elections, 90 million Americans voted. The campaigns are engaging with plenty of people, but there’s still a large gap. Will humor and #horsesandbayonets help determine the outcome of the election? We’ll find out November 6.