Well, it’s the first week back after Christmas and New Year and it’s time for the first blog of 2010. And what better way to start it than with the illustration we were commissioned to do for our good buddy Mr Dan Kavanagh at Ignition Search. Dan’s company were to be featured in the Sheffield Chamber’s ‘First for Business Magazine’ article about Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO as we like to call it). So he approached us, as he wanted an image that was ‘different’ and ’stood out’ from the usual stock images that you usually see to illustrate such articles.

The concept (Paul & Matt) developed was ‘get to the top of google mountain’ - which works well we thought. So, get on board Dan’s SEO cable car (which takes you straight to the top of Google!) or take the treacherous and altogether more complicated route through the lowlands of Google, all the while trying to avoid those ‘non-search engine friendly’ critters.

Lovely illustration by Matt and a more than happy client - good start to the year so far!

We’re all for reducing our carbon footprint so we were glad to start work with a new solar panel company in the region, to help them get their brand message out there…

We’ll say more about them soon, but for now we thought we’d share some of the gorgeous illustrations made by our Matt for the company’s literature.

The idea was to tell a simple story about how solar energy can be harnessed by ordinary householders to run their homes. We wanted to show that, as well as helping reduce CO2 emissions, solar panels can save people cash and even earn them a bit extra in return for producing clean energy.

We’re creating a whole new brand strategy for the company, and producing a brochure and web design, which we’ll shout about when they’re launched. In the meantime, enjoy the pretty pictures…

We’re all delighted to have won the highly prized Jewel Blade account. As the world leader in blade manufacturing the company is carrying forward a proud Sheffield tradition and we’re really pleased to be a part of that.

We were up against stiff competition but our experience, creative approach and the results we’ve achieved for other high-quality manufacturers from the region struck a chord.

So we’ve wasted no time in cracking on with the creative. Ace photographer Tom Jackson (wearing Michael Jackson gloves) is in the studio as we (err) speak, creating truly beautiful images of Jewel Blade’s precision products (art directed by Paul).

And surprisingly there is real beauty to be found in a well crafted blade (and, no, that’s not a comment on football allegiance).

We’re looking forward to building an on-going relationship with Jewel Blade. 2010 is set to be a busy year for them – and us – kicking off with a major international handtools exhibition in Köln. Our carefully crafted product literature and exhibition design will take pride of place!

When we made a short video recently as part of a website for Sheffield-based solicitors ASD, it proved to be a great SEO tool as well as a fantastic way of engaging their audience.

We wanted to help ASD define themselves as a local, trustworthy legal firm, different from the rest of the large, faceless corporations. So we wasted no time in persuading partner Chris Chapel to star in his very own video message. And, check him out, he did a great job.

We wrote the script, directed and edited the piece, and used motion graphics to reinforce key messages, but it was Chris who was crucial to its success. He’s local and, because he’s the real deal not an actor, he speaks with genuine authority about his subject. Allowing online visitors to ‘meet’ one of the partners means a personal connection is immediately made.

So in the midst of all this technology it’s worth remembering that the persuasive powers of a human face shouldn’t be underestimated. And including even a simple video like this on a web design can have a big impact on conversion rates.

The whole ASD project has been a great success read all about it… http://www.d4online.com/portfolio/asd-solicitors

We’ve really enjoyed working with Niki and the team at Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust over the past few months since they came on board with D4 in the summer. Since then we’ve rebranded them, produced a new CMS website, as well as various seasonal campaigns for each venue. And here’s the latest one for them - a Christmas campaign! We love a bit of Christmas here at D4 (no one more than Dawn though - she’s a yuletide fanatic), so we were delighted to get the brief to design the campaign to promote the 18th Victorian Christmas Market at Kelham Island Museum here in Sheffield.

Before we started the creative process, original artwork of a hardcopy illustration from the 80’s was dug out that they wanted to use - so we scanned it and designed it in to our handy work as we went along. The look and feel of the design has a traditional yet contemporary feel that was complemented nicely by the original artwork provided. We’ve now produced a Visitors Guide for the 2 days the event is on, web graphics, promotional leaflets and dressed a shop window in prime position in Sheffield city centre to attract Christmas Shoppers.

The event runs from Saturday 5th - Sunday 6th December. So this weekend get yourself down to Kelham Island for the Victorian Christmas Market, and enjoy a Victorian Fairground, Ice Skating, Traditional Crafts, Singers & Musicians, Gifts & Jewellery Stalls, Festive Food and a Traditional Hog Roast. Then there’s the Kelham Island Museum which is superb in its own right to have a look round!

What are you waiting for - get yourself and the family down there! The D4 team are going so hopefully we’ll see a few familiar faces down there! No doubt I’ll be spending most of my time loitering with intent around the Hog Roast.

See you there… oh yes, graphic design stuff is below!

When we subjected the D4 website to a brand new facelift recently, we thought it would be useful to add some information that allows you to view exactly what happens during our creative process, and beyond the standard, technical jargon put out there by other creative agencies.

We understand that every penny of a marketing budget is important and that all businesses would like to know what each pound is being spent on, from the word ‘go’ all the way through to the implementation stage and beyond. Behold therefore, the introduction of D4’s ‘Method‘.
Broken down into seven sub-heading’s we take the time to briefly and simply explain what happens throughout the creative process, allowing clients to see ideas blossom from a collaboration of suggestions, into fully functioning designs.

Commission >   Inspiration >   Create >   Communicate >   Implement >   Advantage >   Evolve

With each sub-heading being broken down into an easy to follow description, accompanied by illustrations representative of the individual stages, the whole ‘method’ gives us a chance to show off our way of doing what we do.

Without attempting to sound like a host from Family Fortunes, “If you were to ask 100 people from South Yorkshire what made them proud of their region?” I’d happily guess that a majority of them would have an answer based around a strong, industrial heritage (either that or The Full Monty!).

Being a Sheffield based company therefore, we at D4 are no different in sharing this viewpoint and consider it a great opportunity to work on a re-branding project with Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, who specialise in preserving and promoting this traditional culture.

When considering how to move forward with the brand strategy, we wanted the Trust and museum gems to be more accurately presented online and to make the website a more enjoyable experience to help convey the importance of giving museum’s an overhaul. The starting point for this project though was to give the Trust a whole new ‘brand architecture’ that could be rolled out across all future marketing and promotional material. As the Trust currently manages three industrial museums (Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet; Shepherd Wheel Workshop; Kelham Island Museum), it was important to have a design that was recognisable not only across each sub-sector, but also represented the group as a whole.

With the brand imagery decided upon, the next step was to update and modernise the Trusts website. The main principle of the new website would be to act as a more effective marketing tool attracting new visitors to the museums which we did through colourful image led graphics all powered by impressive backend functionality of a database driven website. Allowing the site to be database driven means the sites content can be managed in-house, allowing for any instant updates on events and collections as and when they happen. With the foundations of the website in place, we also brought it bang up-to-date with social media feeds, a blog and a newsletter link, all great ways to keep young viewers updated.

We didn’t just stop with logo designs and a new web design, we also helped roll out the new brand across a range of promotional literature for various events and an educational campaign to schools in the region.

Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust are very good at modernising history without removing the sense of education and traditional values attached to it….. now they have a website and brand to match…

WEBSITE BEFORE:

WEBSITE AFTER:

BRANDING:

EDUCATION LITERATURE:

We’ve been enjoying ourselves with one project inparticular recently after we were handed the challenge of designing a new brand strategy for online social invitations company, Überfly. We were also let loose on designing 10 invites that would be sold on their soon to be launched web-to-print website.

Our first step was to analyse Überfly’s offering, its rivals and discuss how we could make Überfly’s invitations more imaginative and individual. We soon realised that most of their competitors websites were quite dated and as a result, sometimes cheap and tacky looking. We wanted to design a brand, associated images and a website that would establish Überfly as a well priced company with exceptional, contemporary design at its heart.

Having created a series of images that would cover all genres of invitations, ranging from children’s parties through to corporate events, the team decided to get particularly creative on the brands logo. Fonts were tweaked, pictures were stretched and pulled, and plenty of coffee was drunk to ensure the final designs were of the highest standard. Creative thinking produced a logo that resembled the the back of an ‘open’ envelope, and the eagle-eyed amongst you may also notice that the typography in the logo has also been adjusted to match the same two types of curved contours at the top and bottom of the envelope shape. It’s what we pride ourselves on - attention to detail and it is how we believe graphic design should be. We could have just plonked a sans serif font in there and saved a bit of time, but we believe these small tweaks make a big difference. Our client also appreciated the effort we put in and feel ‘chuffed’ that they have a unique brand and their very own font.

While we’re at it, here’s a sneak preview of the website and some of the invites we designed. As I’m sure you’ll agree from the graphics below the designs of the invites look………..Über!!

The graphic below will be sold under the ‘Party’ category. Our brief from the client was simply ‘Glamour!’ - now that’s what we call an open brief. So we did some thinking, stared out of the window and then used Angela (graphic design student & D4 tea lady for a fortnight) as our muse. We took a few shots of Angela in the studio and then produced this lovely vector illustration. Client was happy and so were we.

Here’s a few more invites for your viewing pleasure…

It seems rare these days to find a good, old fashioned, British engineering firm that delivers on the talent and craftsmanship that originally made South Yorkshire the engineering hub of the UK. It’s with great privilege therefore, that D4 have been able to link up again with a true, great British engineering firm in the stature of Philford Design.

Prior to us starting work with them two years ago, Philford’s had no marketing literature for their previous 29 years of existence! They were certainly doing something right though, as they had built up, and still maintain an envious reputation within the mining industry. Commissioned to look at their brand communications, D4 helped roll out their new style of corporate literature, website and promotional materials, to help aide introduction into a wider market.

Having established their brand and reputation within the UK engineering market, and winning new business as a result of the brand strategy we delivered. Philford’s approached us once again to ask if we could help them take the next step into embracing the overseas markets. Happy to help, the first step we looked at for integration into a foreign market was to update and upgrade the existing Philford’s website to be more internationally friendly. This was done by making it database driven (Baffled!? see the following link and all will be explained…….). Updating their website to a database allows Philford’s to content manage all areas of the business with greater ease, as well as enabling language capabilities to help conquer a wide range of international markets such as the Czech Republic and Poland.

With minor copy and translations to finish we expect the ‘new and improved’ website to be up live in the next few weeks!

CMS Websites (i.e. content managed websites) are certainly a hot topic at the moment and something I get asked about a lot. I am, it has to be said often guilty of going into ‘techie talk’, spouting such phrases as ‘you need to upgrade your existing site to become database driven, what you need is a better web design and online strategy’ - (you have to understand techie talk often has no direct translation into English Language). While I am proud of my new found knowledge, I won’t bore you with the technical detail but thought I would take the time to introduce you to the wonderful world of database driven websites, and more importantly the benefits they bring.

When browsing the internet, it is very rare (unless you are a techie that is) that anybody gives a second thought as to where the website they are looking at originated from and ultimately how that website is maintained over time. So I’ll take a moment, put my knowledge hat on and explain a few things about the wonderful world-wide web and how D4 can utilize its potential.

Originally, and still in abundance now, millions of websites have been built using static material. Although quick, cheap and easy to host initially, these websites more often than not become stagnant to the viewer as the information contained on them rarely changes due to the expertise required to aid web development. These static pages also restrict the user’s interaction with the content, often meaning they look elsewhere for more up-to-date, modern material.

What’s that I hear you ask, “Are there any better options apart from these static websites?” Well…… thankfully there is and this comes in the form of dynamic, database driven websites. Clued up and ready to spring into action, the design team here at D4 are able to upgrade existing static websites or build from scratch to become fully database driven, utilising the numerous benefits available from doing so.

When a website has been constructed using dynamic content, it is supported by a database that automatically changes and customises the content contained on the pages every time the page is requested. The main advantages are four fold:

“Scaleability” which allows for expansion and development of the website in the future, which long term will save costs and time for any amends or updates. Using a database ensures that data is never lost as the site grows and changes over time, so should you decide in 5 years that a new site is required, we store all the previous information, meaning any renovation is accessible and easier than a complete overhaul.

“Fresh Content” - Dynamic sites allow us to integrate a content management system (CMS) = a marketing managers dream! This means that all copy, images and links can be all managed and kept fresh in-house. The results of which will mean delighted clients about having access to relevant, up-to-date content, and you don’t have to fork out unnecessary costs for us to make changes to your website.

“Multiple Languages” - Another key reason our clients are biting our hands off for a website upgrade is this allows the site to house translations and display multiple language options. Not only that but translated copy can be entered directly onto the site through the content management system - this opens up sites to international market opportunities, which as we know for many of our clients is a potentially huge growth area at the moment with the pound being so weak.

“SEO” - Lastly, a big advantage and a very important part of business development that can arise from upgrading to a data driven site is better search engine performance (this helps with SEO). As the information contained within the database utilises the very latest programming techniques allowing clients to add in key words, meta descriptions, meta tags with ease, this combined with fresh content can really maximise and improve search engine ranking.

So there you have it, just some of the benefits available to you via an upgrade from static content to a fully database driven website. Like the sound of it? Why not indulge in the database driven delights and contact me (Marianne) to see if we can help.