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.

Our brand new Fluid Search site focuses on a range of services, covering Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing and Digital Marketing Training.

Visually we wanted a different direction for the search site – one that contrasted our central website but was still part of the same brand. We combined our existing brand elements with some lovely old fashioned hand drawn pencil work to illustrate each service area. Of course all of the work from the illustration, design, build, copywriting and development was done by the in house team.

Hopefully the care we took over the illustrations will indicate to our clients the approach our search team takes to their online marketing briefs!

These are exciting times at Fluid Creativity. The introduction of the Fluid Search brand hopefully marks our first step on the way to becoming a leading provider of integrated digital marketing services. Have a look for yourselves and let us know what you think at www.fluidsearch.co.uk

With a great product and a solid brand we simply needed to translate their unique position into their website. This meant starting from scratch with the website’s structure, improving the layout, usability, overall look & feel and making it easy for new customers to navigate. The user is only a few clicks from making a purchase, with everything as easy to follow as an American blockbuster.

As well as improving the website, our copywriter rewrote the product descriptions with a consistent, fun and tasty tone targeted at the reader – not the search engines. The end result is a site that reflects the brand consistently and entices new customers to make purchases.

David Hughes, Owner and Managing Director of American Soda added “It was great to work with Fluid Creativity on our new site, they understood our brand perfectly and made it quicker and easier for customers to purchase our products.”

The RAR works by asking clients of an agency to rate their supplier on a range of criteria, including Client Service, Creativity, Effectiveness, Professionalism, Strategic Thinking, and Value for Money. Only those agencies that reach a set standard across the board are accepted.

Our clients were so quick to rate us that the RAR had accepted us at 3:30, though they only sent out the emails to clients at 12:30 – I’m not sure if that’s a record!

We were delighted at the comments our clients posted about us.  I thought about filling this blog with them, but there were too many, so I’ve picked just one:

“I would highly recommend Fluid Creativity to anyone who was looking to hire a professional full service digital agency. From first hand experience of their ultra talented & hardworking development and creative staff, as well as a very strategically forward thinking management team, Fluid will provide you a beginning to end professional service, to time and budget.”

Thank you very much – we really appreciate all your kind words!

Fluid Creativity plans to grow, but in the right way – by continuing to provide excellent across-the-board service.  We are working hard to ensure our standards are always maintained at a very high level, so that our customers will always be happy to recommend us.

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.

1)  PeterSage.com

If you’re looking to hire a really dynamic speaker then you may want to call on the services of Peter Sage:

This site has been my favourite for the past few months and I can’t decide on where to start in order to fully convey how wonderful it is.  The landing page asks whether you want to go to Peter’s new flash site (for which broadband is wisely recommended – each page takes about 20 seconds to load) or his html site (for which dial-up is for some reason recommended).  I implore you to begin with the flash site as each page contains a different blocky pixel flash video of the man Sage giving you a guided tour of the services described in a tone that seems to combine Alan Partridge and David Brent into one gloriously cheesy character.

There’s so much to explore and find on this site that through the tears of laughter you may forget that there’s still the html site to explore (don’t forget to unplug your cable modem and hook up your dial up modem first!).  On this site you will be able to find such treats as Peter’s words of wisdom (‘Sageisms’) and even some songs that he has penned himself.  There are also of course any number of photos of him grinning inanely as all dynamic entrepreneurs do.

And that’s not all – if you can bear to navigate away from the site you helpfully get returned to Google…but wait – oh Peter, you are a scamp:

2)  Norcalis.com

If Geocities was still around and one of their websites got smacked round the head with a baseball bat made of flash, it would surely result in the triumph that is Norcal Internet Services.

According to the strapline not only will they make your website, but they will also make your website better!  Talk about an offer that’s too good to refuse.  The website looks wonderfully serene, what with that waterfall and everything but don’t get too relaxed.  Your eyes are about to take a shelling:

In a similar fashion to big Pete’s site, a blocky video Francis Rossi stumbles onto the screen and proceeds to take you through all the visually engaging and user friendly services that he can craft for your business -  whilst some ducks float past.  Surely the results speak for themselves and there’s no reason for any other element of persuasion so virtua-Rossi is pointless.  Unless he goes on to elaborate on how Status Quo’s career was so successful despite only knowing 3 chords.

3)  Ling’s Cars

If you aren’t already familiar with Ling’s cars then you are in for a treat.  This shot doesn’t do her site justice at all, but it will show you a small slice of the madness:

The site itself is a long list of ever increasingly insane images and content – it’s the sort of site they show terrorism suspects in order to drag a confession out of them.  Bizarrely, the business seems to be very successful and the whirlwind behind it, Ling has even managed to put an appearance on Dragon’s Den.  Any business that is awesome enough to advertise on the back of a rocket clearly deserves attention.  It would appear that we aren’t the first website to appreciate the eccentric nature of Ling’s cars and Ling herself appears to go out of her way to track down her dissenters and comment on their site.  We’re half hoping that she makes an appearance in the comments at the bottom of this post!

Local goverments seem to enjoy the unenviable reputation of being red tape obsessed beaurocrats.  Luckily some of these organisations are willing to shake of this dusty image and rebrand themselves in a way that will appeal to the man on the street.

Last month we blogged about what we felt was Birmingham City’s overcosted and shoddily produced effort.  Now Burnley Council have decided that they can do much better and have treated themselves to a new website and a new logo!

Unlike Birmingham Council I imagine they shopped round for skilled designers and develepors, considered several potential suiters before agreeing on a design specification that would match the image they were looking to convey to their public.  It’s going to look good, isn’t it!

No.

After feasting my eyes on this visual monstrosity, I donned my dirty Columbo mac and set about doing some investigating.  After days of stake outs, clandestine meetings with informants down dark alleys, bribing corrupt policemen and eating lots of donuts I managed to turn up the document I believe was originally used in the conception of this logo.  Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I present to you the evidence:

I joke of course.  All it took was a chewed up biro and 4 minutes of time for the musings of an idiot (me) to be spewed onto a pad.  But surely thats my point.  I’m no designer (although some of you may beg to differ after seeing my photorealistic rendering of The Count) but even a little piece of me dies when browsing Burnley Council’s logo and website.  I can only imagine how many designers and developers would have loved to make a dramatic dive to push the Burnley Executives out of the firing line of that scribbled bullet.

If there are any any other local governments who are considering reworking their website and want to do it on a shoe string budget then by all means contact me as my pad and ruined biro are permanantly to hand.  If however you would rather speak to experienced design and development professionals then you would be wise to contact Fluid Creativity.

Once again I give a hat tip to How-Do for breaking the original story.