Archive for the 'Unusual' Category

If your website is just a touch neglected…

Published on January 20, 2010 in Unusual and Web. 0 Comments Tags: Alcentra, Duke Street, Indicus Advisors, Inflexion, information hub, investor communications, investor information, website.

Some web sites really don't do the jobs they were designed to do any more

We all know how it goes sometimes; your website just doesn’t get the love and attention that it should. And meanwhile of course, life can be passing it by.

Which would all be okay, if it weren’t so serious.

We have a lot of clients in investment and private equity for example, and their investors need to know what is happening to their money. The web and a properly designed website, can be a focus of this kind of activity – keeping investors informed about more than just the big picture, but maintaining information streams that are relevant (often personalised to) individual investors.

Quite simply, if you haven’t got these facilities, then some very important people might well go elsewhere.

The rusty cars that we at Wild West design are featuring in our new promotional campaigns should help bring more of this functionality to more new Wild West clients in the near future, while clients like Alcentra, Inflexion, Indicus Advisors, Duke Street and others are already taking advantage.

Management buy-out at Griffin Global

Published on January 15, 2010 in Brand and identity, Finance and investment, Unusual and Web. 0 Comments Tags: Alcentra, financial, Griffin Global, Indicus Advisors, Inflexion, logo, private equity, Satya Capital, web site, www.inflexion.com.

Private equity firm Inflexion lead another important transaction.

Not that their very smart and seemingly ageless logo has anything to do with it, but Inflexion, a Wild West client since they were taken private some years ago, have successfully concluded another important transaction. This time they have facilitated the management buyout of Griffin Global Group, a company that provides specialist travel services to sectors of the marine and energy exploration industries.

Inflexion Private Equity invests in businesses valued between £10 million and £100 million that display clear potential for growth, and operate within a dynamic environment.

Read more about Inflexion’s work in funding enterprise and the new generation of British business at their (Wild West designed) web site: www.inflexion.com

Wild West work for a number of private equity and other investment companies including Satya Capital, Duke Street, Alcentra and Indicus Advisors.

Everyone knows good design these days…

Published on January 14, 2010 in Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: design standards, how not to design.

An album cover. Hope the music's better than the presentation!

Sometimes, just when we’re worried that the market for design is saturated, when we’re concerned that today’s design tools are too easy and cheap to use, something comes along to reassure us that we can (really) do much, much better. This album cover, sent by one of our friends, probably isn’t current, but does remind us that our work still has considerable value!

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our clients and friends a very happy and fulfilling new year, and if anyone would like to suggest a caption for this picture, then please do send it in.

Christmas Greetings from them (and us!)

Published on December 18, 2009 in Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: animation, barristers, christmas, ecard, Hardwicke, seasons greetings, Shelter.

Seasons Greetings from Hardwicke

Our clients over at Hardwicke barristers are supporting leading homeless charity Shelter this Christmas. They are also sending this rather stylish ecard to their clients, which Wild West designed. We can only echo their sentiments and wish all of our many clients, friends and readers of this blog, a very Happy Christmas.

Everyone wants to take the trophy home!

Published on November 27, 2009 in Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: Activation, Barclays, football, International, Premier League, Premier League trophy, Soccer, sponsorship, Sport, Web, web site.

Everyone wants to take the Trophy home!

There’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news is that Barclays are extending the entry period for the Barclays Home Win prize draw.

The bad news is that there are already over 12,000 entries which have been logged through the prize web site, so you’re going to have to be pretty lucky to win that prize.

The prize (let us just remind you) is to spend a day with the Barclays Premier League trophy.

Get your team photographed with it. Let your kids take it to school. Use it as a charity fund-raiser. What you do with your prize is (within reason!) up to you. The trophy comes with its own security staff too, so you don’t need to worry what might happen if it got stolen. Remarkably, too, the prize is available wherever in the world you are – Azerbaijan or Zambia – Barclays will (somehow!) get that trophy to everyone who wins.

Modesty forbids us to mention who designed the web site for this competition, which Barclays are hosting to celebrate their Premier League sponsorship contract being extended for another three years.

For more information, go to www.barclayshomewin.com

Christmas, and the Recovery

Published on November 25, 2009 in Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: christmas, credentials, design samples, design wild west, identity, planning, web site.

Just a month now before Christmas is upon us. Next quarter (so we’re told) is the one when the UK finally emerges from recession.

Whether it does or it doesn’t, companies around the UK should be better structured to take advantage of the opportunities that do come along – more efficient probably, with every kind of expenditure monitored and scrutinised.

Marketing expenditure is no different. Fortunately, because we can offer a very cost-effective service, we often benefit when times get tough. So, we’re lucky that things haven’t really slowed down at all this year. We’re grateful for the opportunity that Christmas provides, to get our new identity complete and rolled out.

At the moment, our web site is a holding site, but not long into the new year, it should be available with much more content, and show the wide range of work that we are involved in. Please come back and take a look at www.designwildwest.com in 2010.

Electronic Christmas? Our first brief of the year

Published on November 11, 2009 in Corporate and Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: animation, christmas, Christmas card, corporate christmas card, electronic card, Flash animation, xmas, xmas card.

It must be Christmas soon.

We’ve just had our first brief for an electronic christmas card, which, like the first cuckoo, is a sure sign that the season is about to change.

A lot of our clients and friends like cards that can be emailed. They’re fun, they cost a whole lot less to deliver, they’re environmentally friendly and what’s more, companies can give some money to charity from the budget.

Gif animations can be delivered to pretty much any email box. Flash animations are trickier but there’s usually a way to get recipients to take a look at what a company has created. And if a card like this is done with a bit of flair, it can help underline a company’s position and credentials, and become an effective piece of marketing weaponry, without looking inappropriate.

So, with Christmas around the corner, what will you be sending this year?

Get your hands on the Premier League Trophy!

Published on November 9, 2009 in Sport and Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: Barclays, Premier League, Premier League trophy, prize draw, promotion, soccer prize, web competition, web design, web site, win the trophy.

The Barclays Premier League Trophy could be yours – for just a day

No. You don’t have to spent half a billion buying a team. All you have to do is to go to www.barclayshomewin.com and enter the Barclays free prize draw.

20 winners from around the world will get the chance to have the Premier League Trophy for the day.

What could you do with it? Well, just think. You could lift it aloft with the team you play for. You could take it to your kids school. You could use it as part of a fund-raising opportunity for charity. Or you could just put it on your mantelpiece and dream.

But you’ll have to enter quickly! Our information is that a number of unnamed Premier League managers want to get their hands on this unique prize…

Web site and promotional advertising is by Wild West of course.

Web Site Statistics – A New Twist

Published on September 17, 2009 in Unusual and Web. 0 Comments Tags: ecommerce, financial, investment, Marketing, private equity, report, sales information, Web, web design, web site, web statistics, web tracking, web traffic.

Putting privileged information on your web site, probably in a password-protected area, has advantages beyond treating special clients in a special way. Because each password is linked to a particular person or company, you can track very closely statistics like:

- how often did each one visit the site (if at all)?
- what files did they download? (and so what are the hot topics for that individual?)
- what pages did they visit?

These kind of statistics can be interesting when trying to assess how and why shareholders, investors, journalists and others behave as they do, and can be important for your sales and management processes, as well as providing valuable input to a sales team or marketing campaign.

Safety on Ships

Published on August 27, 2009 in Display and Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: Charles Taylor, crew, P&I, poster, safety, Standard Club.

One of our series of animal safety posters for Charles Taylor & Co

We were asked by marine insurance specialists Charles Taylor & Co to produce a set of posters to promote safety on ships. Ships’ crew knew about safe working procedures, but they occasionally ignored them, with sometimes disastrous results. Of course, each one of these incidents was not only serious, but expensive too, and Charles Taylor wanted to do all it could to prevent them. One problem was that crew members’ first language was often not English. Another was that previous ‘blood and guts’ approaches were being ignored. Our solution was to use animals to point up messages. We hoped that by raising a smile and providing an attractive, friendly image, we could make more of a point. Our series of posters was enthusiastically displayed on ships, and helped to reduce the number of crew injury incidents and, just as important, the value of claims that stemmed from them.