Timişoara, October 30th 2008 - The design studios X3 Studios is the first Romanian company to have work published in Los Logos, an international logo design compendium.

With 16 logos, X3 Studios is showcased in the forth volume of the Los Logos series, the most renowned Gestalten’s line of books on contemporary logo design. This compendium provides an authoritative overview of current developments and advances in logo design, one of the most prestigious of creative disciplines which represents the essential visual identity of brands, companies and their philosophies. The book is structured in themes, becoming an essential resource for designers all over the world, being a resource for inspiration and creativity.

At 568 pages, Los Logos 4 is the largest volume to date, showcasing a collection of over 5000 examples of contemporary logo design by bourgeoning design talent and once again offering an essential resource for all designers.

We are very happy that the logos our team created were published in this logo design “bible”. The 16 logos featured in the book are both logos we created for our clients and also personal experiments of our designers. said Ştefan Szakal, CEO&Creative Director la X3 Studios.

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About Los Logos: Gestalten’s Los Logos series is known as a precursor of logo design trends, underlining the importance of logo design in the 21st century. This compendium offers an overview of current developments and advances in logo design, by showcasing a selection of relevant stylistic approaches from designers around the world.

Timişoara, October 06th 2008 - the X3 Studios blog won the first prize at the Company & Brand Blogs section, during the first Romanian competition dedicated to web 2.0 projects and ideas - Webstock Awards.

The reception took place Friday, October 3rd at Howard Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel, during the first edition of Webstock Awards, competition that included 11 categories: Publishing, Social Networking, Utility, Virals, User Generated Content, Video& Audio, Company & Brand Blogs, Blogging Campaigns, Digital Storage, Content Aggregation and Others.

The X3 Studios blog created by and for the design studio with the same name was awarded for the second time. It previously won a third position as “the best company blog” during RoBlogFest 2008, a competition that awards the Romanian blogging community.

By its style and content the X3 Studios blog addresses all the company’s targets, being both a PR and recruiting tool, but also addressing potential clients and competitors.

In the Company & Brand Blogs category, the second place was won by iLeo with the „360 Digest” project, created for Leo Burnett, and the third place was occupied by „The Glucose Factory”, developed by Kinecto for Upground.

The jury for this competition was formed of specialists in the online field like Bogdan Barna (LG), Irina Bucurenciu (Vodafone), Octavian Costache (”News from online advertising”), Marius Deak (Green Pixel), Mihai Drăgan (MB Dragan), Dragoş Manac (SNS), Orlando Nicoară (MediaPro Interactiv), Bogdan Nitu (Webstyler), Doru Panaitescu (Marketeer), Mugur Pătraşcu (iLeo), Mihai Pricope (Adobe), Vali Petcu (Blog 2.0), Vlad Stan (Navidoo) şi Alex Visa (Hyperactive).

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About Webstock: Webstock Awards is a competition dedicated to projects which are already launched on the market - officially, beta, private beta - at least one month old, which had site activity and which have at least one web 2.0 component incorporated. Webstock is organized by Evensys having Vodafone as a partner, the event being also sponsored by LG and Adobe.

Timişoara, August 27th 2008 - X3 Studios created the brand identity and web presence for Extrude Studio Architecture office.

The project was based on creating a powerful and memorable logo for the architecture studio, creating the identity package and the online presence that would help Extrude Studio offer its potential clients a clear and representative inside on their activity field and expertise.

The logo created uses simple but expressive lines and colours, with a strong visual impact. The website follows the same graphic and chromatic theme, the main idea being to encourage the visitors to focus on the images that are representative for Extrude.

We wanted a website able to communicate with the visitor both directly and on an intuitive basis our way of approaching a project, but also the two-sided partnership between us and our clients. The structural and dynamic clarity and simplicity, dominated by a self sustained expressive load, are the basic coordinates of the visual experience the site has to offer, concepts that we recognise as fundaments for the architectural design style promoted by our office. The duality, the expressive symbolic symmetry constantly present as part of the graphic design, is an expression of our concept about the partnership designer-client, key elements that constantly shape and reflect each other. - says Dragoş Cutova, Project Manager at Extrude Studio.

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About Extrude Studio: Extrude Studio is an architecture office from Sibiu, a team of highly talented professionals. The studio offers professional and complete architectural services, restoration, urbanism, interior design, consultancy on architectural related topics. Further details on www.extrudestudio.ro.

Timişoara, July 24th 2008 – X3 Studios, the most important interactive studio from Timişoara launches its new site. This new website offers its visitors a unique experience content and interactivity-wise, due to its user-generated content feature.

This new site version reflects the company’s growth in its 6 years existence, along with a selection of works, from a portfolio of over 500 projects created for national and international clients. With a well structured content and easy access to information, the new website offers an extensive presentation of X3 Studios.

The innovation the site brings to the Romanian market is represented by the integration of an application that helps users create wallpapers directly on the site.

We wanted to better communicate with our public by the means of our new site, and even more than that, we wanted to offer those of who are not as advanced in the design field the possibility to explore their creativity - says Ştefan Szakal, Creative Director and CEO at X3 Studios.

The application for wallpaper creation offers 32 backgrounds, over 50 graphical elements and a large number of specific tools to allow visitors to create the desired wallpapers. Once the wallpaper is created, it can be downloaded, sent to a friend via e-mail or saved in the public wallpaper gallery available on the site.

Timişoara, July 18th 2008 - X3 Studios created the identity and communication platform for Tonik Gym, a fitness and bodybuilding club.

The project included consultancy services, communication and positioning strategy, creation of identity and communication materials as needed (naming, logo, tagline, graffiti, flyers, business cards, brochures, membership cards etc.), as well as the design and implementation of an interactive online visual experience.

The branding process took a normal course: the first step was creating a logo which would communicate with the target audience. The logo has a great visual impact, sustained by the simple chromatic palette chosen - black and white.

The visual interactive experience, www.tonikgym.ro, created for Tonik Gym emphasizes the positioning and communication efforts of the brand, by using plenty of dynamic and monochromatic elements - says Ştefan Szakal, Creative Director at X3 Studios.

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About Tonik Gym: Tonik Gym is a fitness and bodybuilding club from Timişoara, Romania, which gained its recognition among other fitness clubs from Timişoara. For more details visit www.tonikgym.ro.

Timişoara, July 14th 2008 - The design studio X3 Studios launches press.x3studios.com – an online pressroom specifically created to facilitate communication between the company and media representatives..

Available both in Romanian (press.x3studios.ro) and in English (press.x3studios.com), the online pressroom of X3 Studios is structured in sections, which contain information about the company’s activity (awards, news, project launches etc).

X3 Studios Press will give journalists easy access to the latest news about the company. Also journalists can better document their articles by using the media kit made available for this purpose. The pressroom also provides print quality images that can be used to illustrate any article.
Created as an independent entity, different from the company’s main site and the blog, the online pressroom represents an easy to use tool, which will hopefully simplify the activity of media representatives.

Ştefan Szakal, Creative Director at X3 Studios:

As part of the company’s growth process, a more consistent and clear communication with the media representatives became a necessity. Since such a dialog has to respect some well defined criteria, we considered that developing an independent platform, rather than including it in the main X3 Studios site, would be a better solution. Besides, the tone of such an official communication needs to differ from the tone used on the blog, site or any other online or offline communication platform.

Thus, X3 Studios Press appeared as a needed interface between the company and journalists. The pressroom represents a credible and complex information source.

Timişoara, June 13th 2008 – X3 Studios announces the completion of phase one of the image implementation strategy for Bellevue Residence. Bellevue Residence is a key project for X3 Studios, for wich the interactive design studio created a unique online concept for the real estate marketplace from Romania.

The X3 Studios team provided a complete range of services for the Bellevue Residence project.

We started with the identity package, then moved on to the print materials needed to define the marketing strategy and then finished with creating and developing an interactive online experience, www.bellevueresidence.ro. It was a great challenge for our team due to the unique features we wanted to bring in - says Ştefan Szakal, Creative Director at X3 Studios.

The real innovation is the virtual tour created by X3 Studios which gives the visitor the impression of a real experience, by showcasing the residential complex in a continuous presentation.

”The online component has an essential place in our marketing and communication strategy for Bellevue Residence. Being an ultra exclusivist residential complex, situated in an ideal location – above Braşov, surrounded by nature – a very important request for implementing the brand was the development of an online platform to communicate not only information but also feelings and values. And the extrapolation of the print materials on this platform was a very delicate issue from our point of view.

But we had a great chance to find in X3 Studios the partner who immediately understood our strategy, and the creativity and talent of this team made it possible for us to even outrun our initial ideal objective. I am thus convinced that for the phases to come we can count on at least one partner … called X3 Studios - concluded Laurenţiu Popelea, Managing Partner at Gabi’s Development.

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About Bellevue Residence: Bellevue Residence is a premium real-estate project, developed in multiple phases by Gabi’s Development from Braşov, Romania. The project, estimated at over 100 million Euro, is located on top of the Warthe Hill in the middle of Braşov, in an ideal location which offers a unique view over the entire downtown Brasov. In its final phase the project will include a residential complex, a hotel, spa centre, conference rooms and restaurants.

Timişoara, June 12th 2008 – X3 Studios was chosen to create and implement the identity and online presence for the first boutique hotel from Satu Mare, Romania. The project included the creation of a complete communication package, that would provide the hotel with a powerful marketing instrument.

Located in the town centre in a historical building, dated back in the 19th century, Poesis is more like a small antiques “museum” than an actual hotel. The name stands for the first poetry magazine from Romania, issued after 1989. Nowadays it also stands for the location (hotel and restaurant) where cultural events and gatherings take place.

The verbal and visual identity elements that were created sustain the location’s affiliation to the cultural world.

Same as a poem, the symbol part of the logo has to be read and interpreted. The square from the symbol suggests an environment that protects the cultural life. The two gaps represent the two different entities (hotel and restaurant). The lines from the inside are similar to the lines of a poem - said Sorin Bechira, Art Director at X3 Studios.

After completing the logo, the next step was to create the communication materials. Choosing the printing materials and stationary to implement the graphics was a very thorough process. Along with the design, the materials’ textures had to sustain the client’s identity.

The visual experience was carried on by developing the online visual experience www.poesis.ro. The site is available in four languages, has a dynamic interface and adopts a minimalistic and sophisticated style where images create the atmosphere.

It was very important for us that the website communicates emotionally with the virtual visitor, by expressing the personality and atmosphere of the hotel, to determine him or her to actually come visit Poesis - said Ştefan Szakal, Creative Director at X3 Studios.

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About Poesis: Hotel & Restaurant Poesis is the first boutique hotel from Satu Mare, Romania. The hotel has 10 rooms of three and four stars, a restaurant, conference room and garden. It addresses tourists and business people and hosts cultural, business and personal events.

Timişoara, June 10th 2008 - X3 Studios creates the brand identity and online strategy for High Class Events, a new event planning agency from Romania.

The design for the logotype and for all the other visual identity materials was conceived to sustain a stylish and powerful presence on a competitive market. The graphical elements and the chromatic palette were chosen to offer a strong basis for the company’s values: professionalism, seriousness and refinement.

Just like planning an event, we have put a great emphasis on each detail related to the visual identity created. For example, the identity package and all the other marketing materials were printed on special cardboards, tracing paper, filigree papers, using special printing techniques and manual binding. This way, all the offline communication materials we created for our client were meant to set the company apart from its competitors - states Ştefan Szakal, Creative Director at X3 Studios.

The communication package is complemented by the presentation site, www.highclassevents.ro. With the help of specific graphical elements and the chromatic palette used, the website takes a different approach than your usual corporate website, creating an atmosphere full of style and harmony.

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About High Class Events: High Class Events is a full service event planning agency from Timișoara, Romania. Newly launched on the market, High Class Events wants to offer high quality services and thus become one of the most recognized players on the national event planning market.

Timişoara, June 6th 2008 - X3 Studios launches the product website for Opalescence TrèsWhite Supreme, a top product in dental cosmetics.

Opalescence Trèswhite Supreme is the world leader in teeth whitening products segment, being the most innovative and easy to use system on the market at the moment.

The presentation site developed for Opalescence Trèswhite Supreme was created for Diviodent, the company that brought this product on the Romanian market. A very important request that had to be handled was the affiliation of this website to the main company site (Ultradent), so that all the brand references and rules are respected.

The online communication platform has a very simple interface, the accent being set on information and ease of navigation. On the site, visitors can read about product characteristics, usage instructions, recommendations and warnings, and can order the products online.

Dana Dobrescu, Sales Director at Diviodent:

Working with X3 Studios was very valuable for our project. We are very pleased with the promptitude and efforts of the team to create a site that is professional looking, very usable and in our given timeframe. I can also say that they meet all our requirements within the given budget, and we want to thank them once again for this great collaboration.

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About Diviodent: Opalescence Trèswhite Supreme is brought in Romania by Diviodent, a company founded in 2005, as unique representative of Ultradent Products Inc. from the United States. The company is an exclusive distributor for Ultradent products, the entire activity being focused on satisfying customer needs and promoting the Ultradent brand on the Romanian stomatology market. For more details visit www.diviodent.ro