Alpha Converting
Alpha Converting MockupAlpha Converting build bespoke slitting and winding machinery from their plant in Sandy, just south-east of Bedford, and market, ship and install their products across the UK and internationally.
Their existing site required an overhaul both aesthetically and content-wise, as well as better placement within the search engines.
Blue - Colour of Trust
A clear factor of the rebuild was branding and adoption of a strong corporate signature. Whilst attending their premises, Simon King, managing director, took me through the production process — where I noticed the beautiful shade of deep sky blue they spray some of their kit - and that helped consolidate the corporate image and website colour scheme.
Close Encounters Ecommerce Website
Close Encounters Mockup Version 1Close Encounters, a comic book store based in Bedford, were looking to revamp their website, initially for SEO purposes but, after consultation, decided to pursue a completely fresh build and incorporate an ecommerce content management system (CMS).
The existing site has been live for about 20 months but in that time has received little traffic with almost zero visibility in the search engines, only recently featuring for its bricks and mortar shop in Google. Clearly, the site as a whole needs SEO and marketing attention. Moreover, a number of its 30-odd unique inbound links are entirely irrelevant, originating from dating agency or free-for-all directories. (Investigation revealed these to be the remnants of a linking campaign when the domain name was indeed that of a dating agency before the owner sold the domain to Close Encounters.)
Close Encounters Mockup version 2Such linking can be potentially harmful to a site and may even result in blacklisting by Google.
Amazon Partnership
Close Encounters are currently negotiating an Amazon partnership as a featured seller of comic magazines and books. This has necessitated a rethink of the ecommerce database and datastreams since their existing data structures do not include EANs - unique barcodes - for the products, a prerequisite for Amazon feeds. In fact, the business requires an in-depth review of its data origination and administrative systems, and construction of a dataflow model to map out and define a clear picture of its business processes.
Website Mockups
The accompanying imagery are the preliminary look & feel mockups for the new site. The second version was selected by the client as it more clearly depicts the business - the selling of comics and not the promotion of video or film. The flaming 'hot' products was idea dropped in favour of a gentle silver backlight for the featured home page products because the term 'hot' is a hangover from the '90s comic genre. You learn something new every day.
PHT Personal Print
PHP Personal Print MockupPHT are based in Bedford, and offer personalised printing on clothing and other personal effects. They use dye sublimation, vinyl and flocking dependant on the garment or item colour and surface texture to produce a variety of effects from simple text to full colour reproductions. They also offer shop signwriting and vehicle livery design.
Similar such personalised printing sites abound as this is quite a cottage industry and there are a number of key support industries producing a range of printing hardware and materials - printers, presses, inks, vinyls, etc. - and, of course, the products on which to lay down the designs, anything from coasters and puzzles to cuddly teddy bears and high-end, full-zip fleeced hoodies.
Server-side Scripting not JavaScript
The user interface needed to be bright, open and airy, while the interactive dynamic design pages had to be both intuitive, informative and speedy to reflect user changes on-the-fly. JavaScript was eschewed in favour of server-side updating (although utilised is enabled); many similar sites rely heavily on JavaScript and offer no fallback mechanism should - as is now frequently the case - client-side scripting have been disabled by corporate IT support or even private individuals for fear of browser vulnerability exploitation.
intobeats
intobeats Mockupintobeats offer live streaming audiovisual media from their Bedford based studio, offering new and established DJs, clubs and promoters the opportunity to reach an international audience with their music.
The dedicated music studio sits above Bigshot records and features enterprise level technology, multiple webcams, high speed broadband streaming for 24/7 broadcasting.
