In true Hayle style we’ve even put up a ‘little’ sign in the office window to let the world know about Chris’ monumental  achievement.

One of the leading exponents of recumbent cycling, they asked us to rebrand the company so as to broaden its appeal as far as possible and reposition it at the forefront of the market.

We also designed a brand new website incorporating the rebrand and helping the company achieve its goals. The site was then built by the very talented team at Buzz .

The great news is that all our efforts and not least their investment in design has paid off handsomely, as Ben Rotheray from ICE explains:

“Good design is a good investment; our new branding and website have helped us double our sales. Nixon’s clear methodology helped us develop a great brand look and feel which all the team bought into. Our rebranding project has supported our new product positioning which has helped us to grow the business and drive incremental revenue.”

The conference talks covered a broad range of topics including HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Web analytics, iPhone app development and sessions on running a successful web design agency. All of these sessions were given by experienced and industry leading professionals so in geek terms it was liking hanging out with celebrities.

I’m sure I will be going on about the conference for a long time and no doubt that as I watch back the talks that were recorded and supplied to attendees I will be blogging about it a lot more. For now though here are some pictures I took whilst at the conference!

Thanks to the team at Heligan for making this project so fun. Special thanks to Sarah de Courcy for sending us this quote (which made us blush a little):

“We are absolutely delighted with our brand new website created by Nixon and are looking forward to sharing it with our online visitors. We were keen to update the site and make use of new facilities by offering podcasts and videos to further engage our online audience. Working with Nixon over the last few months, to get things just right, has been a real pleasure. We always enjoy working with local companies and supporting the community around us, but it is also important to know you are getting the best results possible. By working with Nixon you know that you are getting the best of worlds. We also greatly value the working relationship we have developed with Nixon over the years, which allows us to trust their understanding of our product and branding whilst aiding its growth and evolution.”

Baroness Greenfield in full flow

Last week we attended ‘The Edge’ organised by the Design Business Association (DBA). The event looked at the links between risk, creativity and success, kicking off with a day of workshops at the RIBA building in Portland Place. Day two saw around 300 delegates gather at The Circus Space in Hoxton where we were entertained, provoked and stimulating by an eclectic list of speakers, such as Baroness Susan Greenfield of The Royal Institution who  illuminated us on the links between creativity and intellect, Gary Low, Executive Chef at the Ivy not only fed us but also gave us his views about leadership and TV Producer Russ Malkin talked inspiringly about the links between risk and creativity.

Finally Rob Seymour from Seymour Powell wowed us all with his captivating talk, in which he extolled the virtue of watching people interact with objects and processes to learn how to improve things- It’s not what people say it’s what they do.

At the end of the day Deborah Dawton announced that the DBA would be working with 15 ‘bright sparks’ in 2010, and revealed that during the lunch break the various design ‘pioneers’ had identified several ‘high fliers’ who will now be invited to a series of exclusive masterclasses in 2010. Clearly  I must have said something of merit to Erik Spiekermann because they called my name out! For more information about the DBA and The Edge visit the site below or Red Cube Marketing’s blog here.

http://dbatheedge.com/home

They won two gold medals at the British Cheese Awards, two at the World Cheese Awards, two at the Taste of the West Awards and two more at the Bath & West Show.

Yarg is a delicious semi-hard cheese, creamy under the edible stinging nettle rind and slightly crumbly in the core with a young, fresh, slightly tangy taste. Lynher Dairies also produces Wild Garlic Yarg which is covered in wild garlic leaves which impart a delicate garlic flavour quite unlike any other cheese. Their dairy in Ponsanooth, near Falmouth, now processes two million litres of milk a year, making just over 200 tonnes of cheese. The cheese is distributed nationally and to the US market on a weekly basis.

We wish Catherine, Ben and all their team many congratulations on their fantastic award winning success!

Catherine and Ben Mead from Lynher Dairies

To find out more about Lynher Dairies, their full range of cheeses and to purchase their cheese online visit their website: www.lynherdairies.co.uk

Visit the new Meriski site.

Meriski Site Screen Shot

The biggest issue for brands these days is believability. It’s not good enough to just demonstrate your proposition in advertising, you have to prove your value every day in credible ways…

How can you encourage a market that relies on digital communication to use traditional communication methods?

Stefan the Swopper from Stefan Byte on Vimeo.

As part of Flash on the Beach, Chris and I were invited along to an evening hosted by Adobe to debate the role of a ‘Designer’ vs ‘Developer’ in a modern web/design agency. The panel included speakers such as Andy Polaine, Carlos Ulloa (Papervision 3D) and  Andrew Shorten (Flash Evangelist) to name-drop a few…

At one point I actually found myself sitting up with the panel discussing whether the new features of Flash and the complexities behind the authoring tool meant it was becoming inaccessible for a designer trained in the arts rather than code. Fortunately, Adobe had laid on a few beers beforehand which certainly loosened up the debate…

Over dinner we found ourselves sitting next to Carlos Ulloa! An incredibly modest guy who was recently voted by .Net magazine as one of the top 20 most influential web-designers. Chris and I got some very interesting insights from one of the masters in the field of online 3D experiences.

The whole debate was filmed by Adobe; as soon as we discover where it can be found we’ll be sure to let you know!