We’re keeping it local for our music pick this week. Kids These Days is a band from Chicago that’s only been around since 2009 but have made a big splash. They performed on Conan in June of last year and have put out a couple EPs. Traphouse Rock is the latest one and these 4 songs are great and worth a listen.

Momentum seems to be building and the LooseKeys name is becoming a force in the explainer video space. Today marks a huge step for LooseKeys; Jake Williams joins the team. We couldn’t be more excited to announce this news!

Jake recently moved to Chicago from Portland, ME and has had no problem diving into everything Chicago has to offer. Over the last year of being in Chicago he worked with Cars.com and freelanced often on LooseKeys projects. By working with him on and off, we learned first-hand that Jake has outstanding ideas and possessed a similar love for the startup space. As a result of this relationship, we’re very pleased to welcome him to LooseKeys.

You can see what Jake gets up to in his spare time by following him on Twitter at @jacobwilliams

Spring has sprung here at LooseKeys in Chicago, Illinois and we couldn’t be more excited about that. As we are approaching our first full year in operation, we have an awesome one year anniversary party being planned and some great new projects in the works. Not only do we have more groundbreaking explainer videos but we are working on using the teams talent for t-shirts and other design related goodies. Not sure yet if we’ll be selling those or just giving them away to our fans but we’ll keep you updated as we move forward.

We have a lot of fun projects coming up, both big and small and we can always use an extra set of hands. If you’re interested in working with us you can contact Brad Chmielewski. Email him at brad@loosekeys.tv.

Keep following for all the LooseKeys happenings and get outside and enjoy that warm spring breeze!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Chicago, Illinois, August 22,2011
 
NEW PRODUCTION COMPANY LAUNCHES IN CHICAGO FOCUSING ON THE START-UP BOOM
 
Chicago designer and animator Brad Chmielewski has launched LooseKeys; a creative motion graphics studio currently focusing on explainer and demo videos for start-ups and small businesses. He previously worked at Daily Planet Productions ltd. with the creative team that crafted the animated explainer videos for the Chicago tech all-star, Groupon. The videos appeared throughout Groupon’s website and were used as a tool in helping to promote their business in a simple and fun way. Chmielewski saw how these videos were instrumental in the growth of Groupon and he saw a vital market with the potential for something similar to help other start-up businesses.


 
Chmielewski commented, “Every move, big or small that these businesses make has a huge effect on their success. Startups know the value of video for their websites, they understand the return on their investment. We know that 73% of web-visitors watch the company video and startups see a 35% increase in the number of sign-ups for their product after video implementation.”
 
Being an entrepreneur at heart with a number of ideas in the works himself, Chmielewski was driven to focus on working with the start-up community because they show passion and hustle in what they do. Every move is critical and time sensitive, so unlike large corporations, they are not waiting on focus group testing to make sure the commercial hits the right demographic.


 
Chmielewski said, “I think every start-up is really no different than your local coffee shop or auto repair shop. They need to advertise too and get their name in front of consumers and investors. The medium is a little different but the idea and goal is the same.”
 
Most start-up videos appear on homepages in order to give visitors a simple and fun explanation about the products or services. When these videos are well made, they are extremely efficient because they are educational, entertaining and short, therefore they keep the viewers attention. Moreover, if they are embeddable, they spread even faster over the Internet.

 
From concept to development to animation Chmielewski and the team behind LooseKeys are looking to help businesses reach a larger and wider audience with a professional video tailor-made for their companies.

After avoiding the weekend lines for years we decided to check out The Bongo Room on a Monday. My fiancé and I showed up just before noon and even though the place was packed we had no trouble getting a table for two. We were able to get our coffee and place our order very quickly. Which was great because I was pretty hungry. But then the wait began. The waitress never came back to see how we were doing or to see if we needed more coffee or anything else. 30 minutes after we ordered, the food showed up. I know the place was busy but we both ordered sandwiches, those aren’t that complicated to make. Our waitress was just bad because the people behind us had a different waitress and she apologized to them for the wait. The service might of soured me a tad on the food but overall I wasn’t blown away. The apple club was tasty but really heavy and the crab club was just so so. After we were done I guess our waitress figured we didn’t need or want anything else because she just brought the check over and didn’t even ask how everything was or if we needed anything else.

The place was a bit over hyped for me. There are plenty of other great places in the area with less of wait and better service. I’d love to give The Bongo Room another try sometime but I’m not waiting two hours on the weekend. Maybe another Monday in the future…

We kick off another week with a meeting out at a restaurant. This week we check out Jam on Damen Ave. in Chicago. When we got there the place was pretty empty just a few other people. Some were eating inside and couple were eating outside. We ended up sitting inside but really should of ate outside on their great patio and enjoyed the early summer weather. Was glad to see they served Metropolis coffee. It’s always great to see local businesses supporting other local businesses. Jam starts you off with a complimentary mini muffin which is very tasty and goes great with the coffee. As far as the menu goes, it felt a little limited on classic breakfast fare. I went with the egg sandwich, it came with pork and rhubarb. Really this was more of a pork sandwich with an egg on it. Much more of alunch dish then a breakfast item. But it was basically lunch when I was there so I wasn’t complaining. The sandwich was excellent and there wasn’t a bite left on my plate when it was taken away. Maeve ordered the veggie panini and she also enjoyed it but didn’t love it. Glad I got to check it out but I don’t think I would have waited in the typical weekend brunch line for it. Be sure to bring cash. Its cash only but there is an ATM inside.