D4 has joined forces with DKPM, one of Yorkshire’s most respected brand communications agencies, to offer a broader, more comprehensive and reinvigorated service for our clients.

The new venture combines our extensive web development and new media expertise with the vast experience DKPM has in advertising and branding. Having long respected each other’s work we are delighted now to be formally merging our businesses, enabling us to improve and extend our service offering to all our valued clients.

It’s business as usual, but better…

As of Monday 25 January 2010 the whole D4 team has become part of DKPM, which is great news for our clients. Our philosophy and approach to work will remain unchanged, and we will continue to be based here at The Stock Building so you will enjoy complete continuity of service. What will change is the range of services and expertise we can offer; this will expand dramatically.

Our new colleagues are a fantastic and experienced group of people with a huge range of new and fresh ideas to bring to the table. And greater internal resources will bring exciting new possibilities. DKPM’s impressive portfolio of regional, national and multi-national clients includes Sega, BAFTA, Disney Interactive, moneysupermarket.com, Sony Computer Entertainment, Westfield Health and Servisair.

As Head of Digital I am now part of the DKPM senior management team, and I look forward to introducing you to our new colleagues, including our Managing Director Paul Martin. We will be glad to answer any questions you may have about the changes.

Thanks for your continued support, and I look forward to working with you again in the near future.

Yours sincerely

Paul Herron

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!

In the absence of Rudolf, Santa or even a stray elf we roped in our Dawn to spread a little Christmas cheer. It’s in her job description.

It had been two days since she’d last been seen without her Santa’s hat so she was the obvious choice. And we think she looks lovely.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Okay, it’s a cheap pun but sing it - it really works!

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

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!

His portfolio of work is elegant to say the least and has an air of sophistication about it that you rarely see. Sune’s work is regularly featured in Fashion Magazines and Advertising campaigns throughout Europe and beyond.

We’re not sure how to pronounce his surname, but we’d love to work with this photographer at some point either way. Get yourself a drink, sit back and browse his website to enjoy the work of this great Dane: http://www.kowski.dk

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.

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: