Uganda Development Services website
UDS are exactly the kind of NGO we set up to work with. Operating in rural Uganda to relieve poverty, they've been making a tangible difference in people's lives for 16 years. Their previous website had been servicing them well for half a decade, but was starting to suffer on both the content and the functional sides; it was time for a change.
Using our own Blanc Tools CMS, built in partnership with Hawkz, we've developed UDS a great looking, flexible and powerful website that'll keep their online presence fresh, current and relevant for many years to come. Blogging, podcasting, page-editing, file managment... it's all there!
One Voice website
For many years now, Tearfund have run an annual event calling people to focus on, and pray for the plight of people all over the world suffering at the hand of poverty. Global Poverty Prayer Week, they called it. 2011 will be different; they're still hosting GPPW as a focal-point for the year, but this year they are trialling a year-long experiment in digital prayer, and we've had the privilege of helping them develop it. Our brief was 'twitter for prayer', and this is what we came up with...
CBHA website
We were very excited, back in April, when The Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies appointed us to brand them and build them a website. It's been a challenging brief, with so many stake-holder's to consult and satisfy, but it's been a challenge that we've relished and thoroughly enjoyed. The site's fully content managed, and integrates things like Google Maps to deliver higher-level mapping of data.
We're proud to be playing our part in humanitarian sector, and look forward to helping the CBHA to develop their visibility strategy in the months and years to come.
The site can be found at thecbha.org, go take a look!
Bright One community badges
Bright One have an angle; small organisations and charities can't generally afford to invest in PR and communications consultants. Their funds tend to need allocating in other areas, and quite rightly so. But there comes a point where to do more 'good', to grow, you need to invest in just those areas. Bright One have a network of PR pro's who volunteer their spare-time and experience, to help these organisations and charities.
They've been making a difference for two years now - two years today, in fact - and to mark that anniversary, and to give their efforts a platform to build on, they are developing a new community portal for their clients and volunteers.
As with many community endeavours, there's an awards badging system in place that encourage users' interaction. We've been developing those badges, nigh-on 100 of them; fun, colourful and communicative. We're proud of them all, and look forward to seeing them in action in the next weeks and months!
Bright One, we love your passion and you approach; more power to you, and here's to many more years of success!
Do typefaces really matter?
Yes. Good, now that's settled, please indulge us a little. There's a really interesting article posted by Auntie Beeb that presents some interesting points about the theories of typefaces usage, without the zealotus rhetoric we typographers invariably resort to when we talk about the matter.
It's interesting; we frequently meet people who are design-conscious, who want to know what fonts they should be using, rather than the stock fonts that ship with your average PC/Mac these days. More often than not, they tend to already know that Arial is bad, and that Helvetica is better, but don't really know why. The reality today is that no self respecting designer would use Helvetica in any case, not because it's an inherently bad font (though many would argue that it is), but because since its birth in 1957, it's become unashamedly ubiquitous. In 1983 a new variation called Neue Helvetica was spawned which was superior in every sense, but has only contributed to the glut of Helvetica usage over the last few decades. There was a point during the 90's where a ridiculous volume of brand, and logo work generally, explored no further than Neue Helvetica for their typographic components. It's everywhere. Even today, you'd be lucky not to be exposed to Helvetica in a few dozen contexts before breaking for lunch.
That ultimately is the problem; for all its rights and wrongs, the reason we don't use Helvetica, is because it's an easy solution. It's a creative no-brainer. With so many viable alternatives available, the persistent use of Helvetica only highlights a lack of critical thought on the part of the designer. That's not to say that Helvetica doesn't have its place, it clearly does, but that place is a generic, functional one.
If you're still interested, and want some advice about typefaces, or you can't sleep and the chemist is closed; do give us a shout...
New face for the BBC News website
Over its lifetime, the BBC News website has won four BAFTAs, nine Webby awards of various flavours, and some serious love from the online design industry generally. We remember the early 2000's when pretty much every proposal document we produced for an information driven website referenced the BBC site of the time as a shining example as to how the web should be done. Its use of space, early adoption of technology, uncompromising usability hand in hand with quality stylings; it was hard to fault it.
Today, version 4 of the site has been released into the wild. There's some really interesting details in there, but on first impression, it feels a bit, well, floaty. One of the defining features of the last few iterations of the site, has been its amazing use of space. The pages were incredibly rich and dense with content; the new site by contrast welcomes a lot of empty space. And not in that cool Swiss-type sense, but in a kind of 'we were expecting more content in this space than there actually is available' sense.
We look at the BBC News site at least a half-dozen times a day, so we'll give it a going over in the next few days and consolidate our thoughts - for our benefit, if nothing else. What can we learn from the new skin of this revered archetype of solid UI IA design? Time, of course, will tell.
HTC 1 + lovely
We may love Apple industrial design big-style at Red Green & Blue, but never let it be said that we don't appreciate quality design developed elsewhere. Case in point; Designer Andrew Kim has developed his own concept phone under the HTC brand, that checks pretty much every box we can think of. Quality, simple hardware which doesn't scream me2 iPhone; UI that borrows elements from iOS, Windows Phone Series 7 and, bizarrely, five's stings it seams; and some truly unique ideas that would bring something fresh to the shelf of your local Car Phone Warehouse.
It's all good, and HTC would do well to watch closely; we'll be doing likewise!
Restored website
We've been working for the last month along-side a new charity called Restored. "Restored is an international Christian alliance working to transform relationships and end violence against women." We've developed a rich website, designed to be as flexible as possible in the short-to-medium term, which will be able to absorb what ever they choose to throw at it while they are establishing themselves...
Blacklock Jewellery
Blacklock Jewellery are a family-run business, dating back to 1832. They specialise in bespoke jewellery design, and my goodness, do they do it well! This project has been somewhat epic in its scale, starting with a full branding exercise; progressing through a huge website design and build including a comprehensive CMS and fully-functioned e-commerce framework; right through to asset development involving a small army of content suppliers including 3D artists, photographers, models, stylists and copywriters.
We've thoroughly enjoyed working with the Family Blacklock, and we look forward to many more years of collaboration. Chris Blacklock has also done us the honour of writing a glowing endorsement.
UPDATE: On 14 May, we discovered that the Blacklock Jewellery website (3 months old at that stage) had beenshortlisted for 'E-tailor of the year' by the UK Jewellery Award 2010. A massive achievement that we're very proud of.
Bloom website
Bloom are a brand consultancy based in Clapham, London. They redeveloped their brand through the course of 2009, we've had the privilege of working along-side them to bring it to life online.
Endorsement: Blacklock
“RG&B have helped Blacklock Jewellery come back to life through the creation of a stunning new website that delivers on many levels. From the outset a thorough strategic review was undertaken and brand template created that gives real depth and leverage. What has impressed me the most is that the thought process has not stopped upon completion of the strategic review but has continued and evolved as significant development work has progressed. It is unusual to get such a thorough and complete 360 degree approach to marketing and it is something we are lucky to have had. As a business we could not ask for more and I would recommend RG&B to anyone.”
Chris Blacklock, Blacklock Jewellery
Endorsement: Hawkz
“Through working with Paul Evans and RG&B we’ve found an exceptional creative and project management resource. Through all of the projects we’ve collaborated on over the years, we’ve been consistently impressed with how every project fully meets each clients’ requirements. Through not only visually stunning creative design, but also a rare depth of client understanding and management, we’re fully confident in the successful conception, implementation and delivery of every project. We relish each opportunity to work with RG&B as the results always amaze.
“After working with several design firms in the past, none have managed both the reliability and straight-talking transparency we get with Paul. We’re yet to see one of his clients get stressed! As both a supplier and a client of RG&B, we know we can rely on solid delivery and a seamless management experience. We find RG&B to be our leading asset in client satisfaction and creativity, and look forward to many years of successful collaboration in the future.”
Stephen Hawkes, Development Director, Hawkz
Endorsement: Bloom
“Starting my first web design project was very daunting but you’ve very patiently walked me through all the steps, with clear no-nonsense explanations of how the whole thing works, helping me to visualise everything from initial creative concepts to how easy the ‘self service’ content management system is to use. It’s been a very positive education and you naturally bridge the gap between creative ideas and technical consulting, which is incredibly reassuring.”
Jemma Golby, Business Operations Manager, Bloom
Endorsement: Tearfund
“Paul Evans and RG&B have proved invaluable to Tearfund’s new media communications over the last four years. The wide-ranging skills and all-round creativity they’ve provided have produced consistently high-quality work, both visually and technically, at excellent rates that indicate Paul Evan’s passionate commitment to Tearfund’s field of work. We’re happy to endorse RG&B to anyone.”
Nick Harris, New Media Manager, Tearfund
Tearfund “Living Gifts” alternative gift catalogue
We love Tearfund. We do, we really do. And the more we work with them, the more we wish there were more people out there like them! Our latest project was an update to LivingGifts.org.uk, their alternative gift catalogue.
{ONEL!FE}. website
Funkful stylings, check! Online store and event booking, check! Bullet-proof heavy-weight CMS, check! Onelife are a shiny new Christian youth work organisation based in Chorleywood. We've been working with guys at Anoo Design to develop the online side of this stunning new brand.
St. Andrew’s kids & youth-work branding
The second stage of the St.Andrew’s Chorleywood brand project, was to give their kids and youth work departments a makeover...
Tearfund “Lob a Loo Roll” game
Through our relationship with Tearfund, we're frequently asked to develop online components to off-line campaigns. This is another of those projects. If you'd gone along to a charity conference, or some other event where Tearfund were exhibiting this campaign, you'd have seen the odd spectacle of passers by being challenged to see whether they could "lob a loo roll" into a toilet bowl some meters away...
Tilling Productions website
Tilling Productions are television production company based in Harefield, Middlesex. They produce content for pretty much every major TV channel, as well as raft of other services. We worked with their in-house development team to bring the brand and content to life online.
St. Andrew’s branding & website
St. Andrew’s Chorleywood is what the Anglicans Church refers to as an “uber-church”, and with their scale comes a myriad of problems around communication. Many departments, talking independently to many people groups, through many media streams and multiple touch points, produced my many individuals. It all adds up to a potential tsunami of confusion...
Matthew Macaulay website
Matthew Macaulay is a fresh new singer-songwritiing worship leader from Chorleywood. He was in need of a website to link up with the launch of his first album, As for Me (link opens iTunesMS). It was a really fun, fast paced job; the original album artwork was designed by our friends at anoo, and the development was expertly executed by our other set of friends Hawkz, up in Brummyham. It's a lovely little site built upon a Wordpress back-end, allowing Matthew to administer the site himself, as well as giving him full-on blogging functionality.
Tearfund Carbon Calculator
As part of their continuing drive to champion the impact of man-made climate change on the developing world, we've been working with Tearfund to develop a carbon foot print calculator. Feed it key bits of information about your lifestyle, and it'll calculate an annual amount of money to donate, which will be spent in the developing world to mitigate your personal impact on climate change. As always, it's been a great job to work on, partially because of the interactive side of things, and partially because the calculations that sit under the hood have been an exciting challenge to develop.
Go take a look, and start taking steps to mitigate you personal impact on this planet's resources!
Tearfund website
As part of their corporate re-brand, Tearfund approached us to re-design their online presence. The site is built on an extensive, internally built CMS, so the designs needed to marry up a strong new identity with a pre-existing framework. Not an easy task, but one we thoroughly enjoyed and are immensely happy with.
Update
Three years on, Nick Harris who presided over the project at Tearfund has said this about the work we did back in 2007...
Care for Uganda branding
We've been working with Care for Uganda for a little while now. They were established in 2001 with a view to working with the 'needy' in Uganda. They have a particular emphasis on working with children and young people; a key component of which being an ever-growing child sponsorship programme. They've just rebranded, and we've had the privilege of working with them to develop their new identity.
