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Ech were pleased flicking on the TV recently to see a logo we had designed for CTM Fire and Security turning up in the convenience store in Eastenders. We were even more pleased to spot that a series of charts we designed for a report by the Matrix Knowledge Group have been reproduced in a recent BBC blog article about predicted levels of reoffending. Informatics design is an interesting area of design because the focus is on maximising the clarity and impact of the figures presented and it’s great to see the report getting the exposure it deserves.
Ech are currently knee-deep in developing interface designs for a series of applications developed by partner companies. As web designers who like to get our hands dirty with the coding as much as the photo-shopping it’s an interesting experience to stand back from the application and say ‘how should this look to the user and how should it work’. We’ll be installing some heat-maps on some of these applications to see where people are clicking so it will be interesting to see first-hand how people interact with the design.
Since the close of last year Ech have been supporting on the design and development of a new online magazine known as Hornblend. I’m going to write a full description of the project in the coming weeks, but for the meantime just wanted to say that we’re really proud that it’s made it out into the wild and look forward to building it up into a really popular resource.
Ech are proud to support the launch of new music and lifestyle magazine Juke. We have just put up a video page showcasing their style.
Ech recently installed a countdown timer on the Hearing Aid Council’s website. Its a small feature and one that has been seen on websites since the early days of web design, but if used for the right reasons we think it can be a really eye catching and useful feature. Can you think of an application for a countdown timer? Could count down to your birthday, pay day or even that holiday you’ve been saving up for…
Ech are currently putting the finishing touches to a few websites and looking forward to adding some new screenshots and links in the coming weeks. The last couple of weeks of developing a website can be the most important – in design the devil is nearly always in the detail! (more…)
Ech have just launched a small website to support the Marr Munning Trust in coordinating bids on a property in Ealing, 29argyleroad.co.uk. The website allows interested parties to register their interest through a registration form which triggers the delivery of an email with a password enabling them to view the full property details arrange a viewing.
Wow, it doesn’t seem like five minutes since we were all listening to Prince’s Party Like It’s 1999 and getting ready for the millennium, but here we are 2010.
Of course planning a whole decade is difficult, so I’m going to focus on the immediate future. January 2010 sees us booked up with website projects. We’re well on the way to launching the full website for new UK charity City Year London, we’re working on an exciting new online magazine, producing a website for a local school and ramping up development on a couple of soon to be launched ecommerce sites.
Something tells me it’s going to be a busy year!
Much as the scrooge in me hates to admit it, it seems that Christmas is well and truly here again…
On the plus side for Ech, this means we’re busy putting together Christmas Cards and Christmas HTML emails for several of our clients. A personalised greeting that touches gently on your business as well as sending out best wishes and season greetings can be a good way to remind your clients and contacts that you’re around and ready for work. Its nice to say thanks for another year of good business with the best clients in the world – yours!
Reminds me, we had better get our Ech xmas cards finished too!
Ech are currently working on three E-commerce sites. We’re putting the finishing touches to an updated website for MyPureRush – screenshots of that to appear shortly – diving into the world of Actinic shopping carts for Awards of London and just starting off a website for Luke Jakobs ties and accessories.
With all this online shopping activity it’s a sure sign that Christmas is coming. Besides the general tidings of good will, there’s money to be made and a recession to beat!
At the moment we’re working on a few massive projects which are keeping us busy in so many ways. It’s really exciting to be undertaking these, but the frustration can be that you want to tell the world about it and preview some pages, but you can’t until it’s all polished and ready to go.
Fortunately then, we have also taken on some quicker engagements allowing us to keep busy as the larger projects change pace. A couple to mention: We’ve produced a small portfolio site for up and coming furniture maker Oliver Haddon and have added a content management system to a site designed and built by someone else a few years previously for Solo Fitness. The new Wordpress driven version should make it a lot easier to keep the site up to date and moves the code forward from old style HTML tables to the much nicer semantic XHTML / CSS.
Ech are delighted to announce the launch of a new website to support the launch and recruitment efforts of the UK division of the young people’s charity City Year. You can view the initial one page version of the site at www.cityyear.org.uk. This website will be expanding over the coming months as the charity recruits its first wave of volunteers and commences work in Shoreditch. Check back soon!
Ech are currently finishing work on a new website for designer furniture maker Oliver Haddon and have just launched a website for House Consulting – portfolio item to appear on this site shortly. We’ve also launched a micro site for Face Painter Donata’s Art.
On the print side we’ve been carrying out some brochure work for the Caledonian Hilton Edinburgh and designing a report for the Department of Health.
Ech are just starting work on some exciting new projects:
Who says summer is a quiet time, eh?
Ech are delighted to announce that we have relocated to Rayners Lane in North West London. Our new offices give us more light, more plug sockets, bigger desks and most importantly space for working with our freelancers and new recruits.
Recent months have seen a lot more application development projects coming in, with a resultant focus on building up our programming team. Well… now there’s space for them to work in the office – I love the virtual office thing, but there’s nothing quite like putting your heads together for coming up with the best approach and refining the best ideas.
We’re excited this week to have launched a series of new websites for the Matrix Knowledge Group. A feature on this will definitely follow….
Ech are currently hunting for new premises in the run up to a hot summer – a few new print products in mind and more partnership working with other agencies puts the need for space on our list of to dos for June / July.
On the project front, we’ve been installing some IP direction code on a series of upcoming websites so that visitors are directed to the right section of the site for their country of origin when they type in or search for the site. We’ve also been playing around with some neat flash and Flickr image galleries
Websites are like buses in that you wait for ages for one to be released and then three come at once. Well, admittedly that is tortuous analogy, but the truth in it is that we have been working on a series of websites for a range of our clients since the beginning of 2009 and in the next couple of weeks we will have the great pleasure of launching them to the world. From small websites through to giant content managed websites, we’ve been wrestling with PHP, CSS, MySQL, Flash and Javascript to come up with a bespoke, cutting edge approach to our clients’ website challenges. Feeling really great about the new batch and really can’t wait to get them out in the open so we can talk about them in greater detail!
We’ve recently completed some NHS executive summary designs for Qmonde. We put together their branding for their launch in January 2008 and its been great to revisit and build on the styling we developed back then.
Putting aside some resources for the design and layout of front covers and executive summaries is a really cost effective way to raise the impact of your published reports. A clear introduction and a compelling image to grab attention can be the difference between someone reading your report or leaving it on the coffee table.
This week we have been finalising banners, gobos (glass lenses etched with designs for projection), flyers and booklets for an event for the Private Equity Foundation and on the web side, developing a searchable database of pdfs of surveys for a marine surveying company. A few websites on the go at the moment and looking forward to showcasing some of these in the next month.
As people use the internet more and more and we become used to the slick interfaces of sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and the BBC, people are demanding more from their websites. Brochural websites still have their place, but in the last six months we’ve seen an increase in our clients asking for database driven applications and functionality that allows their viewers to interact with, store information and generate content by using their websites.
With tighter margins and a really tough economic climate, companies are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors and their website is becoming increasingly important as a means to attract the business there still exists out there and show that they are forward thinking, willing to share useful features with their clients and open to innovation. (more…)
As big companies look for ways to beat the recession, and technology makes it easier to communicate across great distances more firms are choosing to locate away from the traditional business centres of the UK, US and Europe.
Two recent movers are Ebay and Google who both now have big offices out in Zurich in Switzerland. Ever keen to keep up with what the big players are up to, half of Ech are out in Switzerland at the moment setting up some new contacts and seeing if that popular email forward about Google’s offices really is true!
Setting up an HTML is a curious challenge for modern web designers as to get them to work in as many email programs possible you need to code them with HTML tables. Back in the nineties nearly all sites were coded this way, but now the vast majority of us code with divs and CSS (that’s cascading style sheets by the way), because separating content and styling gives us more control and is much better for the search engines. (more…)
It’s early website spring cleaning time for a few of our clients, with lots of updating work carried out in the last month. A few new features, new content and improved search engine optimisation can bring in new visitors, keep people coming back and generate business. Keep your content up to date and you’re providing a valuable resource, let it go stale and no-one will visit!
This week’s update is to the Travels on Horseback website – adding new pages, new images, restructuring and building on the features in the availability/bookings calendar. (more…)
Ech are adding an RSS feed to Achill Management’s website, to bring Xpress Rural Net news items onto the site.
Ech are currently designing some new web pages and features for the website of Hotel with Rooms, Maes Yr Haf. New features to be rolled out this month include an events calendar, random special offer adverts and a new ‘activities’ section.
Ech would like to wish a happy, prosperous and fulfilling year to all of our clients, colleagues, associates, website visitors and friends. Here’s to a good one, and now the work begins….
We are currently adding some new products and streamlining the Irish Linen Company website.
Ech have been busy this month immersing ourselves in the world of Microsoft Office Template creation for the Matrix Knowledge Group. Their new templates are optimised for creating quick, powerful layouts and styling, with included keyboard shortcuts and style sets.
We have just finished designing a research report for the Private Equity Foundation using their established distinctive branding. The report was written by the Matrix Knowledge Group and examines the reasons why young people may choose not to engage with education or employment.
We’re busy working on a number of projects at the moment, with two websites to launch in the next two weeks for new online business Chart the Stars and for artist Larissa Hoops.
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Ech Design Ltd, based in London, UK, specialises in web based design and development, graphic design, and print work. The company is three years old and employs a small dedicated team with expertise in graphic design, illustration, branding and consultation, web design, web development and search engine optimisation (SEO). Additionally, we work with a large network of associates and can provide other services such as PR, marketing, proof reading and animation / motion work.
Check out our portfolio of web and print work and feel free to drop us a line if you are keen to discuss a project, a collaboration or just want to shoot the breeze.
Phone: 020 8429 5264
email: info@echdesign.co.uk
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You can find our address and a more comprehensive enquiry form on the Contact page.