In early Spring I sat with the directors and discussed the need to produce “a modern and engaging web site, that accurately reflects the company’s position and capabilities, whilst satisfying all user requirements”.

And that was the brief!

Three months on, with the launch of our site under our belts, I thought I’d write a quick insight into how we have got here.

Having briefed in our creative and digital team, we began with a ‘brain-dump’ of everything we wanted for and from the new site. Whilst our history and foundations remained important, the requirement to showcase our current and future capabilities soon became paramount. Having thought long and hard about our audiences and their user journeys, the wireframes and site map were agreed. Each of our studio members then set about creating the ‘look and feel’ of the site.

The colourful and immersive nature of the site soon materialised as favourite, and it was then the (sometimes painful!) refinement of the individual components that really let the site come to life. The use of flash animation and video streaming in addition to the worthy inclusion of our blog has really added personality and insight, without adversely affecting our search engine optimisation.

Many people warned me that internal projects were more stressful than any client engagement. Whilst I wouldn’t entirely dispute that, as the champagne corks popped to toast this milestone in our growth, you can couter-balance it with the fuzzy glow you get from a wholehearted team effort!

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That’s it for now!

Here we are now firmly ensconced in our newly converted 18th Century coach house. You’ll be pleased to hear that our latest technology sits beautifully alongside our exposed beams and resident owl (no joke!).

Anyway you can expect to read lots from us over the next few weeks – some Reiki healing tips from Lorraine, some hilarious knock about wedding banter from Caroline and some Withington Posh match reports from me!

I bet you can’t wait!

Hey hey fellow eco-warriors. Tomorrow 21st of June - Midsummer’s Night - the whole of London will turn off all lights and non-essential appliances between 9 and 10pm. Let’s get involved and do our bit for mother earth. Go out in style by lighting your apartment with loads of tea light candles or get out to one of London’s beautiful green spaces to see the city skyline move into a sea of dark, and hopefully we’ll even see some stars!!! I might even head up to Hampstead Heath to have a good view…!

Whilst I can’t say my weekends are the cultural anomoly that Mr Scott clearly enjoys (See Cultural Runnings - June 2007), I always like to spend a sizeable chunk enjoying films from far and wide. In fact, if Mr Scott’s posts are a little like BBC 2’s vintage arts fair ‘The Late Show’, I’ll take mine to be a little bit like Film ‘94 (I use ‘94 advisedly for, at this precise point in time, Barry Norman was gently drifting into quaint but amiable senility). And why not?

This weekend, I bought a copy of Pan’s Labyrinth, three-time Academy Award-winning Spanish language film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It’s an an unusual and moving story, seen through the eyes of a young girl enraptured by fairy stories.

Set in post-Civil War Spain in 1944, the story of Ofilia and her surreal journey towards a telling fate feels like a live-action version of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away; breathtakingly art-directed, with visceral and unsettling imagery and some really strong performances from a largely unknown cast. Anyone that may remember some of the grown-up, art-house fairy tale shockers of the 80’s (’Labyrinth’ and ‘Company of Wolves’ whizz to mind) can rest assured of a little more style and alot more substance with this film.

Above all, it’s well worth digging into your pocket for. Or indeed awaiting it’s inclusion into the Blackbridge Movie Club (BlackBuster? BlockBridge? You choose) - the little shelf by the studio where random DVDs live. Until next week, popcorn-dodgers…

So, I was recommended this book by one of my friends, whom I’d lent a book about Las Vegas. Written by Ted Heller (son of Joseph Heller of ‘Catch 22′ fame) ‘Funnymen’ tells the story of a American show-biz duo called Fountain and Bliss - who are not a million miles away from Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis - through a series of fictional interviews with interested parties, friends, business associates and the like. This is where you can buy it on amazon:

I’m liking it so far. My girlfriend’s trip to Spitalfield Market on Sunday afternoon gave me a chance to actually concentrate on reading it. A far cry from my pathetically slow attempt to finish this new translation of Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ which I tackle of an evening:

I’m enjoying that too, certainly more than when I first read it as a student. In the introduction by the translator Edith Grossman, she explains that most translations try and replicate the actual language the book was written in - in this case, 16th century Spanish - ignoring the fact that at the time, it was in the most modern vernacular, so shouldn’t be treated as a period piece. She’s certainly tried to bring it bang up to date and it has actually started to make me laugh; the previous translation just confused me. Tilting at Windmills, indeed.

Finally, I’ve got a load of time for late sixties music of a somewhat cheerful bias, specifically what the cognoscenti call ‘Sunshine Pop’. Just last week, having realised that paying at least $70 for the original LP would put me a seriously bad mood, I decided that I could buy the CD reissue of Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends album, especially as it comes with a load of extra songs and some very comprehensive notes. The record didn’t sell many copies at the time which is bizarre, (though not quite as odd as the Free Design flopping), and the Circle split before Roger Nichols went on to write some big hits for the Carpenters including ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’ and my favourite ‘Won’t Last A Day Without You’. The Small Circle of Friends album is, my friends, excellent. See here:

Think that’s it for now.