Tag Archive for 'website'

SEO – no silver bullets

Published on July 30, 2010 in Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

We’re often asked about SEO – search engine optimisation – for the websites we design, build and maintain. It has the reputation of being a very special black art, almost a branch of magic, something only a very few sorcerers actually understand.

The facts of course, are different. Search engines like sites that don’t try to cheat them, sites that are built to standards, have good and consistent content (and so get visited) and have links in and out which people use.

Adding a good and content-rich blog can help, especially if you are prepared to comment on industry issues (and do a little more than to plug your own products and services).

Using social media and connectivity tools like Twitter and Linked In can help too, but are best utilised when you talk about industry topics.

Finally, improvements come by finding out what works and what doesn’t and that means using measurement tools (probably more than one!) like Google Analytics and Webalizer. Our tip would be to look at trends, not just numbers.

Getting the best out of the web means putting the best you can into it. Keep your website updated, keep the content fresh, and keep tracking what’s going on. Those are the essential components of any SEO plan.

Design for PR

Published on July 22, 2010 in Advertising, Brand and identity, Display and PR. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Some PR agencies like to invest in their own in-house design capabilities. Others either aren’t of a sufficient size, or they just like to choose the right designers for the right project. After all, design, like a pair of shoes, doesn’t come in one size for everyone.

A pop-up display for Barclays Spaces for Sports

Even a big agency like financial specialists FD have been known to look to WildWest for design and programming skills, and over the years, we’ve worked variously for Brands2Life, Octopus (and their Loudhouse research subsidiary), Bite, Lexis and Hill and Knowlton.

The projects have included everything from interview sets for British Lions rugby, through to client magazines, props for photoshoots, websites and advertising. Some of these companies have come to us because of our particular knowledge of sponsorship and sponsorship activation; others for more general help, or to ask whether something they have in mind is actually feasible.

CCDC appoint WildWest for design project

Published on June 21, 2010 in Design and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

CCDC is the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, the world-leading source of expertise on crystal structures for education and commerce. We’re very proud to be working with this influential and important scientific body, which is vital to life sciences, materials science and other development bodies around the world. Our work includes developing a short-hand ‘icon set’ for CCDC products and services, and designing a new web site.

Great design – It all adds up

Published on June 17, 2010 in Brand and identity, Corporate and Design. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

No matter whether you are a start-up operation just beginning to make your mark on the business world, or an established company with a brand to protect and enhance, the way you look is important.

And it’s not so good when your website (for example) looks great, but your corporate stationery looks second class. Or your product literature is great, but you’re let down by an outbound email. High quality is important and consistent quality more important still.

At WildWest Design, we’re proud to provide that consistency of approach. Because we’re not the largest of design companies, we have to be incredibly thorough about detail, (as well as providing the inspiration in terms of the big picture), because getting things right – from a business card or a powerpoint presentation to a corporate display or a product launch – really does matter. It means business for our clients, and it means business for us too.

Our bright and confident logo for Hatton Grange, a company providing specialist services to private equity and venture capital companies

Our bright and confident logo for Hatton Grange, a company providing specialist services to private equity and venture capital companies

Hatton Grange (see the story directly below) are the latest new company to launch with a new identity, new stationery and new website – all designed by WildWest. They join a growing list of companies working with WildWest, either for specific projects or on the basis of regular and frequent needs. You’ll find that list to the right of this story. Scroll down to the ‘Contacts’ section.

In total contrast to this project was our work for central Europe’s largest manufacturer of branded spirits. Stock Spirits neeed to document and control the use of their brand mark over different territories, and to ensure a consistency of approach in terms of corporate websites wherever their products are sold. WildWest designed and implemented a set of ten websites, many with two and three language versions.

Reinforcing brand consistency on an international basis - Branding defined and guided for Stock Spirits, Central Europe's largest producer of branded spirits

Different companies have different requirements, but our award-winning service can be important whether you have specific design needs, or you are concerned to have a service that will reinforce your product and service quality wherever you are visible.

Inflexion – Buyout House of the Year

Published on May 7, 2010 in Finance and investment. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Inflexion Private Equity (a Wild West client for many years, ever since we designed their new logo) have triumphed at The Private Equity Awards, hosted by the BVCA (the British Venture Capital Association) and Real Deals, being named Buyout House of the Year.

The judges praised Inflexion for its outstanding performance in what was a challenging year for the private equity industry.

Key achievements included the market beating returns on the exit of Viking Moorings, the ability to raise a co-investment fund and securing new investments in exciting growth businesses.

Winning against prestigious competition, including HgCapital, LDC and Charterhouse, the judges said their decision was unanimous.

More at www.inflexion.com, the web site also designed and programmed by Wild West.

Becoming experts in MS Sharepoint!

Published on April 9, 2010 in Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Well, anyone who knows us will know that we like open source software, but now we have a very big job ahead, made even bigger by the fact that they need to use MS Sharepoint 2010 for the web design and the application development behind it. Made even bigger by the fact that the software hasn’t all been released yet!

Sponsorship activation – our partnership with SMI

Published on March 23, 2010 in Brand and identity, International and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

SMI (Sports Media International) is a specialist sponsorship agency working on an international basis with rights-holders and commercial companies. SMI helps rights holders package and sell sponsorships, and it helps commercial companies to source and activate sponsorships on a global scale.

Citroen Racing. The most successful World Rally Championship team of this decade.

Citroen Racing. The most successful World Rally Championship team of this decade.

Wild West has worked with SMI on a number of projects (and indeed designed and produced the SMI website!).

On the commercial front, SMI has been working with Citroen Racing since 2002, promoting its proposition to the commercial world. Citroen is the most successful World Rally Championship team this decade and sponsorship opportunities there are valuable properties. After all, Citroen uses its own involvement in WRC to promote and enrich its own brand on an international basis, and if it works for them, then it can also work for commercial sponsors too.

The joy of sponsorship is that it enables brands to gain traction on an international scale, achieving results that might be impossibly expensive on a country by country basis. Citroen’s unique record of success is also extremely valuable and can give brands almost instant status.

For more on SMI and Citroen, go to: http://www.sports-media-intl.com/case-studies/citroen

Indicus Advisors – New Look, New Outlook

Published on March 11, 2010 in Brand and identity and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Our finance and investment clients have been busy this month. Indicus Advisors have just implemented their ‘refreshed’ new logo and should be going live with their new website design very shortly. Meanwhile, Resolute Asset Management and Peace Dividend (a company investing in Yemen) are the latest companies in this sector to add to the WildWest client list.

Indicus, whose business is in the white hot territory of the finance markets, think they may just be over the leap they have had to make from the old assumptions to the new. So maybe the recovery actually is on the way.

More on all of these developments very soon.