An image of the new East Building from the St. Louis Art Museum’s website.

“St. Louis is the culture town of the Midwest.”

We most definitely agree with this message from an article published on STL Today this morning.

The article details the $162 million expansion of the St. Louis Art Museum and how the city is handling the national exposure it’s bringing.

Turns out, the local arts community was ready and waiting for an opportunity like this. Representatives from the St. Louis Art Museum, Laumeier Sculpture Park, the Convention and Visitors Commission and the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission as well as many other organizations are collaborating on a full-scale campaign to show the nation why St. Louis is the cultural epicenter of America.

What’s even more awesome is Integrity’s involvement in the movement.

We’re proud to be working closely with Executive Director Jill McGuire and Director of Marketing Diane Kline at the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission to fully revamp their web presence – from online branding to mobile user experience – and help them gain exposure in the local and national art scene.

Though we’re just now in the discovery phase to determine our next steps with RAC, we’re excited to partner with them as they grow along with the massive artistic talent in the Lou.

Be sure to check out the whole article by Diane Toroian Keaggy on stltoday.com.

We create more awesome stuff! Who would have guessed?

If you’re unfamiliar with our CCO, Ed Morrissey, he may as well be a walking advertisement for Mountain Dew. He and several other Dew hounds on the Integriteam recently designed, developed and launched the Dew or Don’t iPhone app, which allows users to document if an establishment has Mountain Dew or not with the swipe of a finger. That way, we can always get our Dew fix in.

Aside from showing our devotion to the lean, mean, green caffeine, Integrity has also become home to a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer. That in itself is awesome, but even more awesome is the stuff the mobile lab has made with it! From iPhone cases to swords to video game characters, we’re on our way to printing a small army.

Speaking of printing, Integrity just shipped in a batch of Creator’s Life posters. Our designer hit the nail on the head with this motivational masterpiece. It reminds us Integritians to smile, love what we do, foos and build cool shit – the poster demands it! They’re also for sale, so shoot us an email or check out our Facebook if you’re interested.

Do you love seeing what we do during the daily grind? Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and LinkedIn and follow our Twitter and Instagram feeds. Sometimes, we even have puppies.

Ok, so his real name is Kevin Collins, but with a nickname like that how can we NOT use it?

Kevin is the newest addition to our ever-expanding frontend web development team. A graduate of Ranken Technical College, Kevin was a developer at The Net Impact in Chesterfield before coming to Integrity.

The “wannabe Jedi,” as he calls himself, hails from the St. Ann area and is the middle of three children and the oldest dude of 15 cousins. But, who’s counting?

When he isn’t busy with web development projects at Integrity, Kevin enjoys disc golf, pool, paintball, nerdy board games, reading Flowers for Algernon and “anything Star Wars.”

Kevin is a big classic rock fan and shreds on his double bass. He used to participate in live action role-playing in Forest Park and still has his full arsenal of foam weaponry.

In the saddest revelation ever, K-Money revealed that he’s never seen an ocean in real life.

Field trip!

This year, Lancaster Bingo Company celebrates three decades of helping nonprofit organizations raise money with fun, engaging bingo events.

Lancaster began as The Bingo Store on Wheels when founder Mark Sells himself delivered gaming supplies to charitable organizations. Since then, the company has raised more than four hundred million dollars for charity and awarded one hundred million to players.

Charitable gaming laws are complex and change over time and from state to state. Lancaster specializes in navigating these rules and helping organizations plan bingo games and attract and keep players. Fundraising Coaches located around the country drive their recognizable Lancaster trucks to bingo events to provide hands-on support.

About Lancaster Bingo Company’s Facelift

The interactive design team at Integrity rebranded Lancaster to showcase that they are much more than a supply warehouse. The company provides ongoing support and strategies to hundreds of customers.

Lancaster’s once busy website is now a bright, organized space. A white background with pops of deep orange and gold helps users navigate hundreds of products and access extraordinary customer service.

New features include improved navigation, a large and easy-to-use ecommerce section, personalized customer contact forms, an in-depth biography section for the Fundraising Coaches and a new reward center for licensed customers.

Our team of web developers rebuilt lancasterbingo.com on the Symfony PHP framework.  One of their largest tasks was opening up the shopping experience to every visitor. Before the redesign you had to log in to view any of Lancaster’s bingo pull tabs, jar tickets, merchandise and equipment.

After about a year from the first kickoff, Lancaster Bingo’s big, bold and beautiful new site is up and running for visor-rocking bingo pros and first time charitable gamers alike.

Many of us who Internet professionally have said that a time or two. But, this guy really is – in the coolest way possible.

Wait, Who?

Daniel Strabley is our newest user experience designer at Integrity. But don’t let that title fool you; he does a little bit of just about everything. Some of Daniel’s other talents also include ideation, frontend development and bioengineering.

No big deal.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in visual communication and art history from Southern Illinois University Carbondale Daniel moved north to Chicago.

There, he worked in multiple capacities with a wide variety of companies, including Google, The YMCA, Dickson Data and Roger Ebert on Ebert Digital. But, perhaps our favorite project of his to date is his work with Bill Cosby.

Daniel likes to build what he calls “weird, cool, functional things” both online and off. His current passion is a biofeedback device that measures a pet’s biological indicators and connects to Bluetooth to automatically update an online profile. Owners and vets can then use this profile to monitor an animal’s health.

As a kid, Daniel used to take things apart and “a butter knife later it would just be in 100 pieces and would never work again.”

We’re happy to see he still hasn’t grown out of that.

What’s He Doing In St. Louis?

After seven years of crime, taxes and traffic in Chicago, Daniel was perusing job openings one night when Integrity caught his eye.

Daniel said the way our partners Ed and John presented the company with transparency and honesty really drew him in. Within a few weeks of his first interview, Daniel took up residency right in the middle of our design team space.

Daniel is quickly acclimating to our office culture and helping bridge the gap between our responsive design and interactive development teams. When he isn’t designing for user experience, he’s excited to exercise his ideation muscles on new projects. He has a range of experience analyzing processes, identifying holes and discovering opportunities to make better final products.

Though Daniel, his girlfriend and their dogs live in Columbia, Illinois, they’re enjoying all that St. Louis has to offer. He especially digs the free – and awesome – museums and the St. Louis Zoo.

We’re stoked to be an active member of the growing St. Louis creative scene, and with a website that boasts his Midwestern digital awesomeness and his affinity for foosball, we can’t help but think it was fate who brought Daniel here.

You aren’t dreaming, you’re zip lining in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.

Who is Soaring Colorado?

Soaring Colorado offers a full-day adventure for families of all ages. The trip begins the moment vacationers board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to take a scenic ride up to the remote resort. For five hours visitors will zip line over one and a half miles on a revolutionary course that is so safe riders don’t even have to wear gloves or a helmet.

A user wouldn’t have known any of this after looking at their original website, which had not been updated since it was first built. Information overload, a lack of organization and a dark, busy design scheme caused a high bounce rate as confused users gave up trying to find what they were looking for.

The family staff at Soaring Colorado knew they needed a complete overhaul. The asked us to convey their top-of-the-line services in a way that would appeal to adults and children alike. They also needed a way to manage their frequently changing content.

How We improved Their Business

Our interactive web designer Megan created a clean, bright space for them to display their copy and gorgeous photography. She used soft tans and greens to preserve the natural feel while complementing the content. Our web developers created a special “sticky” header for Soaring Colorado to use as an alert section. The content strategy team rearranged their content with sidebars and blog categories to make the site easy and informative for users. Our team paid special attention to drawing users to the two main conversion points – a “Make a Reservation” button and a phone number for quick communication.

We have already seen a great increase in traffic to the reservation page as people plan their summer vacations. Now we’re just waiting for the perfect time to use our paid time off for a trip to Colorado for a vacation we won’t forget.

Well, my friend, you don’t know any SEOs with integrity.

See what I did there?

But, seriously, our SEOs aren’t spammers or link baiters or black magicians or any of the other vile names we’ve seen. Do you text your mom with those fingers?!

We understand that real, strong search engine results depend on one thing – quality content. We only produce content that is meant to help, inform, entertain and be shared.

Today’s Lesson: Search Engine Optimization is Social

Many entrenched business-to-business professionals regard social media as a pastime of the millennial generation.

That’s only half true. Research shows that large search engines – let’s use Google as an example – are beginning to factor in a website’s social media activity when ranking it on search engine pages.

While classic SEO practices are still very valuable, Google’s buy-in on social media tracking shows that it isn’t a fad. Social media is quickly becoming a staple in search engine optimization.

This means you should probably dust off that LinkedIn account you started four years ago and try to come up with a Twitter handle for your company before it’s too late.  The picking is getting pretty slim.

How Does Social Media Optimize My Search Engine Results?

What do content, social media and your website have in common? A blog.

Or “News.” Or “Updates.” Or “Case Studies.” Whatever you call it, you need a dedicated space on your website for fresh, industry-relevant content.

As we’ve discussed, that content, with well-chosen keywords, will boost your SEO. And even more so when you begin sharing it.

Research shows that sharing your content across well-managed social media accounts will increase your brand awareness. This will increase how often people and other businesses visit your site and share your links. And as many of us know, spreading links from your website is still the best way to increase your search engine optimization.

When you’ve established a voice and the best posting schedule for your company, you will begin building relationships with your audience. Social media provides an easy and affordable customer service outlet. Friendly, prompt service results in better reviews, more suggestions, shares, plus ones, likes, follows, mentions, repins, etc. Google tracks those numbers.

Now that a startup has clicked on your article on Facebook, they’re on your site. They’re invested in reading what they came for. They might even make it to the “Contact Us” link that you’ve so cleverly included in your post. And just like that you’ve decreased your bounce rate and increased your conversions.

You’re getting so good at this!

Quality Over Quantity

As it is in every other realm of life, quality is still more important than quantity. Only invest time on the social accounts that your target audience is using. Before you even go social, solidify a valuable content strategy. And be sure that you’re only strengthening your brand voice out there in the social sphere, not changing it or spreading it thin.

There is evidence to suggest that Google is even taking your website authors into account. The more robust social media channels they’re active on, the higher Google ranks their content.  So be sure that whoever’s name is on your posts is someone you want upholding your company name.

Don’t just take my word for it, check out what the SEOmoz blog has to say about social media and SEO. 

We kid. We’re pretty sure she’s 100 percent human.

You have to be a human to be attending Webster University for Interactive Digital Media, right? Well, if not, she only has until graduation in August to keep up the charade anyway.

Aside from the Shire, Theresa grew up just outside of our beloved St. Louis in Fenton, Mo., where her parents and 14-year-old brother still hold down the fort. Nowadays, she’s enjoying the St. Louis Blues from her Manchester apartment with two roommates and dog Chloe.

When she isn’t at Integrity, in class or hosting 30-second dance parties with her precious Chloe, she’s slinging drinks at Trainwreck Saloon in Westport Plaza.

Whatever you do, don’t get near this girl with a spider! She hates them so much that when a picture of one popped up on her phone her first instinct was to throw it. Across the room. She has the cracked screen to prove it.

At Integrity, we understand that it isn’t about how much you already know but how much you’re willing to learn. That’s why we make it a point to hire promising web stars, even while they’re still in school. We’re pretty excited to have Tiny T join our team of interactive web developers for our next adventure beyond the Shire!

We love living inside the historic Tivoli Building.

It’s noisy around here. And it’s not just the shouts echoing from the foosball table.

The clamor of construction grumbling up to our fourth floor offices signifies that after months of planning and bargaining it’s really happening – we’re doubling in size!

Since 2009, we’ve grown from six to 40 employees and continue to hire on an as-needed basis. Five thousand square feet just isn’t enough.

Our new offices on the second floor of the Tivoli Building in the Delmar Loop will provide space for our ever-growing team of mobile app developers, web developers, content strategists, project managers and interactive designers.

Now, if you’re paying attention you may be thinking, offices on the fourth and second floors? Yes, we’ve already thought of that.

Fireman’s pole. Maybe a slide. We’re open for suggestions.

What is certain is we’re already dreaming up collaborative workspaces, niches for ideation breakout sessions and more cool conference rooms for client visits. Given our “tech lounge” theme, we’re working with Kevin Brennan, owner of the immaculate Brennan’s bar and lounge in the Central West End.

By June, we hope to have part of the team moved into our new space; and by the end of the year we hope to break ground on another chunk of space in the building.

Rooftop parties, anyone?

Check out a sneak peek of our new digs on Facebook. 

Amir Kurtovic also wrote a short review for the St. Louis Business Journal after visiting our offices last week.

We usually reserve talking about our projects until after they’re launched. You know, when they’re all pretty, bug free and actually clickable.

This post is different, much like the project that it’s about.

What’s so cool about this project?

BusyEvent Mobile is the ultimate business-to-business conference and tradeshow mobile app.

Users will be able to manage events, plan their agendas, create personalized profiles and network within the mobile app. BusyEvent Mobile will allow attendees, vendors, speakers and event planners to generate and follow up on business leads, making it a valuable marketing tool for a variety of industries.

In other words, BusyEvent Mobile is the pocket-sized assistant you always wished you had, but without the attitude. Well, maybe a little attitude.

Normally, a project of such caliber would take a team of our size a year or longer to build.

We’re doing it in five months.

A crack team of about 15 interactive designers, frontend and backend developers, content strategists, an entire mobile development lab and one stressed out project manager are currently eating, breathing and sleeping BusyEvent Mobile. Every single aspect of the mobile app is custom made. From the clean, modern logo to the massive amount of code to the quippy copy.

What the hell is this “spare time” thing I keep hearing about?

So, what exactly is BusyEvent?

BusyEvent is a St. Louis startup that specializes in event planning expertise. We’ve worked closely with co-founders David Schenberg and Brian Slawin and their team every step of the way to build this complex app, and a responsive website, from scratch.

A beta version of the mobile app will be released for a large event at the end of April. The first fully functional version will roll out for iOS in mid-May.  An Android version of the mobile app and many updates will follow.

Check out what Amir Kurtovic of the St. Louis Business Journal had to say about his peak at the wizards behind the BusyEvent curtain.