Website maintenance – a different view

Web maintenance and updating is one of those subjects that splits clients down the middle. Some of them just say, “You do it,” and we do. Others say, “No. We’d like to have the opportunity to update some or all of our site.”

Our 'Dynamics in the Cloud' website for Tectura was built using WordPress.

Our 'Dynamics in the Cloud' website for Tectura was built using WordPress.

Those in the latter group, sometimes have a different option (if we know that is what they’re going to need from the outset!); we can build their site (or microsite) using the wonderful toolset provided by WordPress.

This blog is (of course) built in WordPress, but there are plenty of customised WordPress sites all over the world that you would be hard-pressed to spot, and because WordPress was built for bloggers, it is amazingly easy to update – even for non-specialist users like me!

WordPress gives those who want to have it, complete control over the pages that make up their site. They can add graphics, sound or video. They can provide links to other pages and other sites. Best of all, they can provide the complete information on a page that will help it to be found by search engines very easily.

Sites built in this way are ideal for a topical occasion (a product launch perhaps or a sales conference) and because they are so easy to add to or amend, marketing and PR people really like them. Especially when the new site can be shown to really add to traffic – and, yes, you get an inbuilt traffic monitor too!

If you would like to find out more about this option, please get in touch.

Just heard…

The Barclays Premier League debit card, designed by WildWest

The Barclays Premier League debit card, designed by WildWest

….that our design for a Barclays football Visa Card is being introduced throughout Africa. This is the latest in a number of promotional resources we’ve designed for Africa, where Barclays has a big presence and football is very popular.

Barclays Footy Goes YouTube

Barclays Football TV

You can follow the official sponsor of the English Premier League now on Twitter (search for Barclays Footy) and you can see all the great things that Barclays are doing for the game on YouTube too.

The Barclays Premier League has to be one of the most popular national leagues in the world and Barclays is helping to bring it closer to more and more international audiences.

At Wild West, we’re incredibly proud that our design work (in electronic and print media) is now being seen by huge numbers of people around the world, and helping to underline too our status as a great source of design in the world of football, sport and sponsorship.

Barclays football is also on the web (of course!) at www.barclaysfootball.com

Promoting Money Skills to Students

This brochure was part of a pack introducing Barclays Money Skills weeks to collegesPromoting financial awareness to students may not be the easiest task in the world, but now more than ever, it’s essential that students stand on their own two feet financially, and understand the implications of their financial decisions. Adding expensive overdrafts to a debt mountain of loans may feel like something to be worried about later, but debt can add up to a big burden for later life, or worse, if spending and debt get out of control.

Full marks then, to Barclays for extending its already huge and wide-reaching Money Skills programme - a programme designed to educate the underpriviledged and the needy about financial management – into colleges, to help their students.

Student life can be stressful enough without money worries, and out of control debt can have a marked impact on health, on the ability to study effectively, and most important of all on college drop-out rates. Barclays Money Skills weeks provide important lessons, for student life and for the life of work that follows.

Wild West are helping Barclays promote their Money Skills programme and in particular their Money Skills weeks, through promotional work like that illustrated here.

Rumours of a celebration?

Stock's international sales are growing fast, thanks in part to our website

Stock's international sales are growing fast, thanks in part to our website

According to press reports, our clients at Stock Spirits are planning to launch an IPO sometime next year. Of course, we can’t comment on rumours, but if you do feel like a celebration, you will find some excellent cocktails on the Stock Spirits website!

We’ve designed and built websites for Stock in its corporate guise, as well as dual- and sometimes tri-language sites for the Stock operating companies around Europe (Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) and in the US, as well as a site dedicated to their growing international sales portfolio.

Stock came to us via their corporate PR agency, and we’re looking forward to providing great value and great presentation as they extend their global reach still further into new countries.

The Stock Appletini. Find the recipe on the website

The Stock Appletini. Find the recipe on the website

And of course, if you feel like a celebration, you could hardly do better than the Stock Appletini. You’ll find the recipe (with some others that use the great Stock range of branded drinks) on the Stock Spirits website.

Stock Spirits continues to win major international awards for its spirits brands, which combine traditional methods and high-technology in terms of production and quality control to achieve remarkable results. No wonder that Stock is rapidly becoming central Europe’s leading producer of branded spirits.

Barclays – Using the Power of Football

Barclays - Using the Premier League to promote its brand across AfricaBarclays’ commitment to the Premier League in England is reinforced by the Bank’s determination to use the power of the most viewed club football league to extend its brand and reputation into countries and territories where it is now gaining significant market traction.

WildWest Design has produced a number of creative treatments (like the one shown here) promoting the Barclays Premier League, and Barclays products, in African countries. The overall goal is of course to reinforce and extend Barclays’ brand reach and its customer base across Africa, where the Premier League is already attracting big TV audiences and has a large established fan base, thanks in part to the many world stars from Africa who are now playing in the Premier League in England.

Financial Deal Reports – Now for Silverfleet

Silverfleet Capital successfully exits Histoire d'Or: the subject of their most recent deal report.

Silverfleet Capital successfully exits Histoire d'Or: the subject of their most recent deal report.

Deal reports are part of the essential landscape of investment companies – a key part of the communications landscape. They are essentially simple documents that keep shareholders, investors, the press, analysts and others in the loop with what a company does and how it is succeeding.

As such, they need to be well-designed, clear and factual, and of course, accurate too!

Silverfleet is a new addition to our client list. We’re very pleased to be working on research reports, web site, and branding projects for them, and of course, we are designing and producing their deal reports too.

This deal report on French jewellery company Histoire d’Or is produced in three languages – French, German and English, reflecting the European basis of the Silverfleet company and its investment portfolio.

New Tectura ‘In the Cloud’ site goes live

Tectura's new site for its Fast Track 'Dynamics in the Cloud' service

Tectura's new site for its Fast Track 'Dynamics in the Cloud' service

Tectura is a worldwide provider of Microsoft Dynamics® based ERP, CRM and technology solutions. Its UK subsidiary  is now offering a very special option to smaller companies with big ambition – the option to use Microsoft Dynamics software for a fixed monthly price. There’s no hardware required, because this is software ‘in the cloud’ – users access it via the Internet. With ‘Microsoft Dynamics as a service’, suddenly, and very cost-effectively, all the features of a world-leading business management system are available to every company, no matter what their size. Wild West designed the site that supports this important new service for smaller and emerging companies. Find out more at: http://www.dynamics-in-the-cloud.co.uk

Diane Abbott’s Leadership Bid

Our campaign leaflet and advertising for Diane AbbottDiane Abbott is a feisty and combative personality, the first black woman to be elected as an MP and who is now trying to secure as many votes as she can in the ballot for the next leader of the Labour Party. We hope that the campaign leaflet and advertising we produced as a part of her campaign will be giving Labour party members a good idea of what they might expect from Diane as leader of the party.

Source Foods

Counter graphics for Source Foods

Counter graphics for Source Foods

Source has the gift of getting food into people’s hands quickly, as regular lunchtime customers of its Richmond and Chiswick Park outlets will tell you. And not just the standard sandwich and chocolate bar either. Source provides good food at reasonable prices and its curries, sushi, salads, soup and their famous daily hot lunchbox are always great value and always served fast, when time is at a premium.

Now, Wild West is helping Source to refine its image and improve its signage too. Our first project for the company was to install a new counter graphic at the Source outlet in Richmond, which you can see in the picture.

Source also run in-office catering facilities and, as well as opening new branches in the near future, see this as another attractive opportunity.

We’re looking forward to lots more meetings with our new clients, preferably at lunch-time!