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The De-Luxe team wanted something a bit different for their web presence which was to function as an online business card of sorts, with some very minimal content.

The result the team at Fluid produced is a virtual window display, that quickly shows visitors the attitude of the business and allows De-Luxe to add in new graphical elements at key points through the retail year to capture their clients imagination.

A huge personal bug bear of mine with Facebook is that the pages can sometimes look really dull and drab despite there being some awesome content on it. I put the challenge to the Fluid Creativity team to see what we could do to jazz up our company ‘Like’ page and this is what we came up with.

We have opened a can of worms with this one, we now have loads of great ideas for more exciting tabs for Fluid and for our clients. Holla if you like it…. we would love to hear what you think below.

“Fluid never want to rest on our laurels and accept that a project is ever “finished” – When both teams got our heads together it was decided that the whilst the site was good there were key things that could be improved, and it needed to be brought up to date with a graphical kick up the backside.”

The existing site skin was filleted away and a freshly caught new design was implemented, that was a lot more “artisan farm shop” than “fishmonger”.

Several tweaks were made to the existing functionality, to make the shopping experience more pleasant and easy for their customers, including improved product categorisation and a handy way for visitors to see at a glance the different health benefits afforded by eating our fishy friends.

Kind words from a happy client are as follows; “The great thing with Fluid Creativity is they don’t just look at your website, they seek to understand your whole business when conceiving a new design. This means that we now have a new website which not only looks great but will help us to reach more customers and provide them with a better service.” Andrew Franks, managing director of Fish Fanatics.

Check out the new website over at www.fishfanatics.co.uk

I spent Sunday morning getting to and running in the Wilmslow Half Marathon on behalf of a local charity that Fluid Creativity supports.  This is Willow Wood Hospice, which provides palliative care to people in the Tameside area where we are based.

We’ve recently been working on a rebrand of Willow Wood, which is celebrating its 10th Anniversary – more on this later, when the rebrand is officially unveiled.

Anyway, because we’ve been meeting with the fundraising team at Willow Wood about the rebrand, the idea of me running the Wilmslow Half for the Hospice began to take shape. They are a great team and really hard-working, as well as lovely people to work for.  The blisters I have are well worth it in such a great cause – the team won’t let me paste a photo here as they’re “too gross”!

If you’d like to lessen my pain or help the Willow Wood team a small way towards the massive amount of funds they have to raise each year, please take a look at my JustGiving pageThank you!

Christy were established over 150 years go and today are one of the UK’s leading and most respected brands, particularly well known for luxury bath towels. They have a long history and are still to this day a very trusted brand from supplying Queen Victoria to being the official towel to all Wimbledon matches. Over the last few years Christy have increased their products into a fantastic homeware range from bed linen to rugs.

Fluid Creativity have been brought on board to increase their online brand visibility, better display their products and encourage consumers to browse their range of luxury towels and linens. The creative team at Fluid will be completely reworking the site from the ground up to deliver a fresh, visually appealing and usable solution.

Wayne Silcock, Creative Director at Fluid Creativity said, “We are really pleased to be working with the team at Welspun UK, Christy are a well known brand with a lot of heritage who understand the importance of having a strong presence on the web. They are very receptive to fresh and unconventional ideas, and we are really looking forward to working with them in 2010.”

I know you’ll agree that this months free downloadable desktop is out of this world!

You might be aware that recently we’ve revamped our website, well this is just one of the optical treats we have in store for you as we’re implementing more Cinema 4D substance into the site very soon.

To download click the image above or click HERE.

Creative Credits is the world’s first programme that helps small businesses to develop their ideas by teaming up with creative firms:

“We’re inviting Manchester-based SMEs from all sectors to apply for ‘Creative Credits’ worth £4,000. These can be used to purchase services from a local creative firm. All we ask is an investment of at least £1,000 and we’ll top it up with £4,000.”

Here at Fluid we think that it’s a great because businesses can search creative credits’ online gallery of some of Manchester’s brightest and most creative companies before deciding who they want to work with.

Creative credits have already been through the first wave of entries and the entries for the second wave need to in by 1st March 2010 so you need to get in there quick. Businesses have to meet a criteria to be eligible for creative credits

It’s a fantastic project to promote innovation and collaboration with businesses and creative agencies in the North West. Fancy working with Fluid Creativity?  Check us out in the gallery.

Here’s the original:

And here’s the ‘copy’:

The scandal caused on Twitter must have done some damage to the reputation of Paperchase, so much so that by the end of the day the company had withdrawn products from Amazon that used the offending image and issued an apology on their website.  Perhaps with some serious crisis management from the right PR firm the business could still save face and @HiddenEloise will hopefully get the credit, recognition and money she deserves.

There’s a reason why ownership is nine tenths of the law and plagiarism is just plain theft. Plagiarism is something that happens every day to companies big and small and often the process of getting justice is just far too expensive.

We often spot examples of shameless plagiarism here at Fluid Creativity. They usually raise a laugh, so we thought we’d share a few of our favourite spots with our fine readers.

Check out Made By White’s gorgeous broach designs:

And Topshop’s identical copies.

The word autotrace was mentioned on their blog:

Its not just the big boys taking advantage – sometimes it works the other way around.

In this day and age every design is inspired by something else but to down right copy can be embarrassing for all parties involved. Take North Face – they are currently taking legal action against The South Butt.

Of course, in this case the plagiarism is obvious, a parody to emphasise that The South Butt’s aesthetics and values are the polar opposite of The North Face. However, it could still be argued that they’re using the familiar branding of a much more succesful company to market their products, just like those “Arribas” and “Nyke” trainers you’ll see down at your local market.

It’s not just illustrations and images, there are loads of copied videos around: Remember these fun finger-puppetry videos that went viral in 2006?

How about the Hula Hoop ads that popped up a couple of years later?

We’re saying nothing!

In September last year new students at UQAM in Quebec Canada had a viral hit on their hands with their excellent lipdub of the Black Eye’d Peas “I’ve Got a Feeling”, involving 172 students as the camera travels throughout the college in one continuous shot. This video has been incredibly popular, with over 4 million views and counting.

Incredibly, leading London marketing agency Publicis ended up with a Twitter Turkey (should that be Twurkey?) when they decided to do a somewhat similar thing for their 2009 “Christmas Card”. This video was roundly slated in virtually every corner of the internet – just take a look at the comments at Youtube!

This hot topic has been discussed previously by Fluid. Check out Phil’s blog post “How Todd Picquelle stole graphic design and didn’t get away with it”

You can make your mind up but we’re sure these examples say enough. Hopefully this post will raise this issue that plagiarism is not accepted and shame those copy cats thinking about ripping off their next design to be more original.

Do you have any examples of people you want outed? Go crazy with the comments below.

The quality and the reach of your initial marketing campaigns can often mean the difference between a comfortable first year and a difficult twelve months. Businesses which invest too little in marketing or fail to target the correct market can face an uphill struggle trying to attract the right interest in their product and persuade potential customers that they are a reputable, new company that will be serve their needs best.

On the other hand, businesses that set aside an appropriate marketing budget early on are much more likely to build a customer base quickly and develop a trustworthy brand which can help them to retain customers long after their first, tentative, purchase.

Becoming perceived as a trustworthy and reliable business is now more important then ever due to today’s entrepreneurial environment in which several similar businesses can launch at the same time in the same geographical area; Building a quality brand for your business is a good way of doing this in the early stages of your burgeoning business.

Twenty years ago it was only the international companies such as Nike, Coca Cola and McDonalds that could afford (and had the foresight) to develop their brand alongside their business. Nowadays brand building is a fairly inexpensive and invaluable addition to the marketing campaigns of most small businesses; afterall, what SME doesn’t want the recognition that the ‘Swoosh’ or ‘Golden Arches’ conjures up?

Fluid Creativity offers small businesses a brand identity design service alongside its award winning web design and development services, such as our work for design clothing specialists Brand Neusense;

Through a series of consultations, Fluid Creativity will attempt to understand your business and the mindset of your target audience. We will then create corporate identity for your business that can be applied to any marketing literature that you produce. Products such as business cards, letterheads, flyers and more can all be branded with your unique and instantly recognizable corporate identity.

Contact us online or give us a call on 0161 368 9814 to discuss developing a brand identity for your mall business.