We are a small web and graphic design studio based out of beautiful San Luis Obispo, California, with associates in San Francisco and San Jose. We provide distinctive web, identity, and print solutions for businesses and individuals. Although we occasionally provide services to large corporations, we cater mainly to small and medium sized businesses, as well as startups and independent contractors.
Our passion is creative presence, in the form of websites and print materials that communicate to their viewers. We like to keep up with current design trends, but our level of experience also allows us to tap the traditional and classic design fundamentals as well. It's the knowledge of this broad range of styles that we feel adds to our uniqueness. We love all types of design, from ultra minimal, to urban grunge, to whimsical pretty, to super sleek... and just about anything else. "Appreciation of All Things Art and Design" is our motto, and we apply this mind set to each and every distinct project.
Meet the teamIt's interesting to think of the array of inquiries we get in a given day. Some think we are a big enterprise company with several dozen employees, while others assume our studio is the personification of a single person. In reality, it's somewhere in between.
We are in fact a small company, consisting of two partners and a handful of specialists. We have a single lead designer (and founder), who works solely on creative and design processes, while other experts manage all of the tasks of running a business. Here's a bit more info about our main cast of characters:
Jessica - Founder & Designer
Adrian - Business Strategist
Karen - Virtual Tour Photographer Extraordinaire
Toadie - Head of Security & Official Lunch Taster
Why we're different
We pride ourselves in being a web design studio that focuses equally on form and function. We believe that well-designed websites must be aesthetically pleasing, as well as properly structured, carefully coded, and fully optimized for search engine visibility. This extra emphasis on the functionality of our websites is a feature that sets us apart from many other design studios. We firmly believe that a website must be excellent in both it's frontend design and it's backend coding. This is why so many of our websites win awards and recognition in the design industry.
Our lead designer, Jessica, is an expert in graphic design, search engine optimization, web coding, and content organization.... All of the fundamental elements to creating a superb website. You can be sure that a website designed by Corvus Design Studio will not only be great looking, but will also be optimized for search engine visibility, coded by hand using "standardization" techniques and valid code, and will never include any arbitrary, bloated code that bogs down the site.
Random facts about Corvus Design Studio
"Corvus" is the genus of birds that includes crows and ravens.Corvus Design Studio is a small company, but our designs are huge.Our studio was formed in March, 2004.All of our work is done in-house and never outsourced. We like WordPress.Our lead designer works on a PC. Perish the thought!But she loves her iPhone so she's partially redeemed. We like winning design awards.We're closed on Monday's and usually work on weekends.Toadie, our head of security, can control your mind with cuteness.We like hostmonster and dreamhost.For additional info about us, you may be interested in:
Hello, my name is Jessica Miller, founder and lead designer at our little studio. As a client at Corvus Design Studio, you would work directly with me on all design projects. I've put together a little history of my unique road into the web design industry that I hope gives a bit of insight as to what makes our services stand out in a sea of designers.
I was born in San Luis Obispo, California, and moved to the Bay Area in my teens. I finished college at San Jose State University, majoring first in Bio-Chemistry, then changing to Computer Science in my fourth year. Sounds like a pretty sharp 180, right? Well, I was actually minoring in Computer Science so it wasn't all that far fetched. Living in the tech capital of the US, it's difficult not to become a computer expert in your spare time.
In 1999, after reading a book on HTML, I produced my first website as a favor for a friend who was selling a condo. To my surprise, the website was apparently pretty good for standards back then. My friend showed it to his manager at Philips Electronics, and shortly thereafter I was asked to interview for one of four internships as a computer engineer. I wasn't planning on pursuing a career in the computer industry, but the pay was irresistible to a 20 year old struggling to afford college. So I jumped on the opportunity and got the job.
As time went by, I found my job exciting and challenging. I worked at Philips for a good year before permanently switching my major to Computer Science and finishing out my education in this field. As a result, my love of the natural sciences took a backseat to my new career path.
My internship evolved into a contract job that lasted several years. I started off in the R&D lab, programming robotic chip testers and creating software interfaces. Our group was one of the first in the industry to utilize XML schemas for designing and developing browser-based interfaces, a concept made mainstream by Apple's revolutionary OSX.
Having gained expertise in markup languages and browser-based scripting, I eventually moved from the R&D branch to the web design department of Philips Headquarters. It was here that I discovered my calling as a web designer. At first I was a web programmer, and along the way found that I had an affinity for graphic design as well. I worked on Philips' internal intranet as well as their consumer electronics website, creating cutting edge Flash animations and graphic artwork. My spare time was spent back at the university, taking courses in animation, graphic design, communication and marketing to enhance my skill set.
When my contract at Philips expired in 2004, I took several short-term web design contracts with other top names, including Sony, HP and Sun Micro. I very much enjoyed being a web designer, but found the corporate world restricting and riddled with red tape. I wanted the freedom to be creative, and to work on diverse projects that weren't always "design by committee" in nature. In response, I started Corvus Design Studio in 2004. That was five years ago, and I've since moved the entire operation back to San Luis Obispo, California.
The experience I gained early in my career in the areas of programming, interface design, corporate marketing, and digital communication is what I feel gives us that extra edge in our projects. As it is so closely related, I have also extended my expertise into the world of branding and print design.
Our studio offers award-winning web design, business card design, marketing print design, and search engine optimization. I've been a professional designer for 11 years now, and enjoy every aspect of it, from concept development, to print design, to hand-coding XHTML and CSS.
I could never really abandon my roots in the natural sciences and always try to find ways to interweave the ethereal nature of our planet into my career and life. I named our studio "Corvus" after my favorite genus of birds; crows, ravens, and magpies. The design of our website is an ode to my second love of nature. It's definitely a reflection of me, and I think that's most appropriate since I personally work directly with our clients. I feel it also portrays our artistic design nature. I pride our studio in being artistic, creative and rich in design, and at the same time, always up to date with the latest and greatest in technology and design trends.
That's my bio in a nutshell. Thanks you for taking the time to view it. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about Corvus Design Studio.
Useless facts about me
Something of Interest: I am writing a scifi novelDogs or Cats: Love them both, and have two dogsCoveted Techy Thing: My own androidFavorite Flicks: The Matrix, Dirty Harry, The Wedding Singer, ShrekInspiration: Steampunk, Cyberpunk, MoMA, Nature, FilmsIdeal Weekend: Trip to the California Academy of Sciences in San FranciscoMemorable Destination: 3 weeks traveling AlaskaWould Like to Visit: Ireland, Africa, Japan, Messier 31Highest iTunes Play Counts: The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, David Bowie, Siouxsie and The BansheesOdd Fascination: Jeff GoldblumWell, they stem from our company name. Jessica Miller, our founder and lead designer, chose the name Corvus as an homage to her favorite types of birds (those of the genus Corvus). Jessica gets a lot of her inspiration from nature, particularly wildlife, and wanted to incorporate her love of nature into her business life. This often shows in her design style, which has been described as "organic" and "ethereal".
