Blue Mouse Monkey
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Blue Mouse Monkey Design - Site Summary

What a good site can do for you >

And it works! >

Starter Sites >

Website Analysis and Evaluation >

Articles >

Content Management Systems >

Sell from your website >

What is the Process? >

What technologies do you use? >

How much does it cost? >

Websites for Visual Artists >

Websites for Film-makers and Musicians >

Websites for Fashion and Textiles >

Websites for Photographers >

Websites for Jewelers >

Websites for Writers >

Websites for Healthcare, Non-profits, and Others >

Julia's personal sites >

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The Artist's Dilemma

Is promoting your work a chore that cuts into your creative time?

Blue Mouse Monkey works with artists, musicians, film-makers, writers, and creative small businesses.

A website tailored to your art and your audience will both represent you professionally and save you time.  A well-made site will streamline your marketing and unify all your outreach efforts.     

But you need a designer you can trust to understand your creative vision, and rely on to not overwhelm you with geek-speak.  Blue Mouse Monkey sites are designed and built by an artist.  You retain control over every aspect, the process is made easy, and the results are high quality.

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What a good site can do for you

Blue Mouse Monkey websites are both beautiful and practical. Each site is custom-designed for your creative work, your professional needs, and your personal vision.

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And it works!

"As soon as we launched the site, I saw the benefits: editors and gallery directors have viewed my work there and pronounced the site beautiful and easy to access and use. I also build my artist talks around the site and find that it allows me to speak about my work in a way that makes more sense than the usual chronology of the slide carousel. I truly appreciate Julia's sensitivity and creativity."

                                       - Pat Boas, Artist

"Simple, elegant and brilliantly accessible - My Bluemousemonkey designed site gives me a great way to showcase my work in film and installation."

                                      - Rose Bond, Animator

And when you cut down on the time you spend on preparing promotional materials, that means more time for your real work, the work you love to do!

To learn more about the benefits of having a custom-designed site, download 'The Best Websites for Creative Professionals'  (Free!  No strings!  Two page PDF!)

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Services: Unique, Custom Designed Websites

Blue Mouse Monkey designs websites to consolidate and streamline your promotional needs, and act as a central hub for all your outreach efforts.  Blue Mouse Monkey can also design your logo, business cards, CD covers, postcards, stand-alone animations, and more.

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Services: Starter Sites for Visual Artists

The Starter Site service for Visual Artists

Like a starter home, an economical starter site can grow and change over time.  Choose from three designs, and customize the colors and fonts to suit your personal aesthetic. The cost for a basic Starter Site is $850 

Starter Sites are built in Flash and include:

• A home page with one large background image
  
• An about page with one image, a short bio, and a link to a downloadable PDF resume
  
• Four portfolio pages, each containing one block of text and eight rollover images.
  
• Additional portfolio pages are $100 each.

Design A (horizontal menu across the top, with thumbnails below menu):
photokashmir.com     - new design Fall 2007!

Design B (vertical menu down the left, thumbnails below menu):
annegriffinjohnson.com    williamdutterer.com    sarasutton.com

NEW Design C (vertical menu down the left, thumbnails to the right of the menu):
Design 'C' demo site 
Be the first to choose this layout and get your site showcased on Blue Mouse Monkey!

Extras goodies can be added to your basic Starter Site.  Download the Starter Sites Price Sheet for details.

(Goodies include individual image captions, additional pages, additional links, a Content Management System, PayPal integration, animations, PDFs of articles or reviews, and more!)

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Services: Website Analysis and Evaluation

Do you already have a website but you're not sure how well it's working for you? 

A Blue Mouse Monkey website evaluation comes with a clear, plain-language report about user experience, usability, navigation, aesthetics, and consistency of vision and content, along with tips and suggestions.  The report is usually one or two pages, and for most sites costs about $100.

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Services: Articles

Written by Julia, an art and technology educator, the Blue Mouse Monkey’s straightforward articles offer curious readers short explanations about aspects of web design and the Internet.  And they’re free!  The Blue Mouse Monkey wants everyone to know more about the Internet, to further its evolution towards greater beauty and usefulness.

Download these PDF files:

How the Web Works:  A Guide for Anyone Who's Left It Too Late to Find Out and Is Now Afraid to Ask

Getting a Domain Name and Putting Up a Website

The Best Websites For Creative Professionals

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Services: Content Management Systems

A Content Management System (CMS) enables you to easily edit and update your own website! 

Whether your site is built in HTML or Flash, Blue Mouse Monkey now offers custom built CMS that fit you and your site’s needs exactly – we don’t use off-the-shelf templates!  And we create an elegant and intuitive interface for you to use – no need to buy any software or learn any code.

 A CMS can be created with a new site, or it can be added to an existing site.  Blue Mouse Monkey also offers other interactive technologies such as forums, PayPal capabilities, custom designed blogs, and more. 

For more information

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Services: Sell from your website

PayPal is the easiest and most cost-effective ecommerce alternative for artisan businesses. Whether your site is built in HTML or Flash, Blue Mouse Monkey can set up the selling operation and make sure it integrates smoothly with your site.  And PayPal is easy to use and trusted by your clients.

For example:
PayPal with a custom Flash site: Neve Maternity Skirts

PayPal with a Starter Site (also in Flash): Sara Sutton Hand-woven Garments

PayPal with an HTML site: Rick Meyers Music: Merchandise  

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FAQ: What is the Process?

You and Julia first talk about what your website needs to do.  Julia then draws up a service proposal, a quote for the cost, and a list of the materials you need to gather, such as images and written copy.

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FAQ: What technologies do you use?

Websites can be built in HTML or Flash.  Most sites are suitable for Flash, and contrary to popular belief, it won’t cost you more than HTML!  Video, sound files, PDF documents, and other media can be incorporated into any site. All Blue Mouse Monkey websites are guaranteed to be cross-browser and cross-platform compatible. 

Julia is happy to maintain your site after it is built, and is equally happy to train you to maintain it yourself.  Julia has many years of experience teaching web technologies to adults with varying levels of computer knowledge.

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FAQ: How much does it cost?

Custom designed portfolio sites, such as for artists, film-makers, and designers, average around $4000, and Starter Sites begin at $850. The final cost depends on the amount of content, type of structure, and extras such as animations.  Non-portfolio sites, such as for writers, small organizations, and special projects, usually cost less than portfolio sites.  

These websites are built to grow, so they won’t stagnate over time.  And unlike the ‘my-nephew-is-making-me-a-site-for-his-class-project’ type of website, Blue Mouse Monkey websites come with several guarantees 

They are guaranteed to be designed in collaboration with you, guaranteed to each be creative and unique, guaranteed to reflect your personal aesthetic and vision, and guaranteed to be cross-browser and cross-platform compatible.

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Portfolio: websites for Visual Artists

Portfolio: websites for Film-makes and Musicians

Portfolio: websites for Fashion and Textiles

Portfolio: websites for Photographers

Portfolio: websites for Jewelers

Portfolio: websites for Writers

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Portfolio: websites for Healthcare, Non-profits, and Others

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Portfolio: Julia's personal sites

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What Blue Mouse Monkey websites have achieved for these clients

"When I began talking to Julia about a website, I wasn't quite sure that I really needed one, but Julia created a site that went far beyond anything I imagined. In effect, she created a "site" in the true sense of the word, establishing a presence and an integrated identity."
                        -  Pat Boas, Artist


"The website is both beautiful and easy for me to use and keep updated — the perfect combination!"

                       – Cameron Walker, Writer 


"Your understanding of my (and other artists') ideas and process is a terrific bonus since you're able to translate the conceptual underpinning into a visual equivalent, making the web site a work of art in itself." 

                       - Trude Parkinson, Artist


"A terrific thing happened to me recently.  I pitched a story to an up-and-coming publication, offering my URL as a way for the editors to get more info on me, and, after checking out my website, they enthusiastically invited me to be part of their team.  They commended the design and creativity of the website (calling my web designer a genius) and were most impressed with Bluemousemonkey."

                       - Tessa Brinckman, Musician


As a fellow artist, Julia and I speak the same language.  I much appreciated her sense of color, critical, aesthetic eye, and ability to dialogue back and forth until we arrived at a collaboration which we were both happy with."

                       - Keith Jellum, Sculptor


Some responses to Emily Ginsburg's website:

"...the site is fantastic. One of the clearest, most elegant artist sites that I have seen in a really, really long time...The work reads beautifully."

                       - Stephanie Snyder, Curator, Cooley Gallery, Reed College.

"Your website really looks great, easy to get around, find things out about the work, see good details... I LOVE IT."

                        - Tracy Harrison, Artist

"Your site looks GREAT. How exciting to see your whole body of work together at once...I can really see much more clearly what you've been doing, reaching for, etc. CONGRATS! Handsome site design, too."

                        - Ann Decker, Artist, Designer, Fortune Magazine

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Who is Blue Mouse Monkey?

Behind the furry blue creature is Julia Stoops, an artist and writer living in Portland, Oregon.  Julia created Blue Mouse Monkey in 1999, and for years the domain was home to her own art portfolio website.  Then others began asking Julia to make unique, creative websites for them, and Blue Mouse Monkey the business was born.

Julia understands what her fellow creative professionals need, and she enjoys working one-on-one with each client.  Her years as an artist and college teacher give her the ability to explain and demystify Web issues, which can make owning a sophisticated site seem less intimidating.  You can visit Julia’s art, writing, multimedia, and teaching sites at Blue Mouse Monkey Art & Life


Read Multiplicity Squared - an interview by TJ Norris on OregonLive.com