Feelingpeaky

A design is only as good as its brief. Here are some tips for briefing a design agency that will help you get the outcomes you want.

- Start with the results; what do you want the project to achieve? What are your business objectives?

- Make sure your agency understands exactly what your company does. And how this project fits into the bigger picture.

- List your main competitors and explain how you differ from them.

- Who are you targeting? Are there several groups of customers? Think about age, occupation etc., and also their views and tastes, what worries them and how you solve those problems.

- What do you want the audience to hear? Define the key message and any secondary messages.

- What do you want your audience to do as a result of hearing those messages?

- Find examples of styles you want to achieve.

- Set clear time scales and budgets.

- Trust the designer to do the creative bit.

- When you evaluate the concepts, do it objectively: list the pros and cons. Ask yourself “How well does this meet the brief?” “Does it transmit the right message?” rather than “Do I like it?”

The start of the Feelingpeaky design process

For all Feelingpeaky design projects we provide a comprehensive project briefing document. This forms the foundation to our process of helping you to get the designs you want. Have a design project? Call Feelingpeaky on 020 8997 4700.

Have you got any tips that work or pitfalls to tell others about?

If you read our May newsletter, you’ll know that Feelingpeaky is rebranding. This month we got our branding consultant in and, with the help of magazines, scissors and post-it notes, we found out some very interesting things about Feelingpeaky.

How did it work?

- We kept it to 1.5 hours: plenty of time for everyone to have their say, and not so long that it lost momentum. Our crew loved taking part – especially when they found out they were being rewarded with a pub lunch!

- We involved people with different views. Directors, designers and account managers see the clients and the agency from different perspectives. Recent joiners are more objective, old-timers have more knowledge of the company.

- We held a separate workshop for the bosses. Not that it’s a problem when you’ve got someone like Chris calling the shots, but staff can worry about looking foolish or saying something critical when the big cheeses are in the room.

- It was interactive – by the end we had a wall of paper covered in yellow stickys and pictures from magazines.

What did we learn?

- What makes us different (and better)
- What our values are and how they show in the way we work
- Who our target audiences are (and who they aren’t)
- What issues we need to solve
- Some ideas for improving our service to clients

What’s next?

Now we know who we are and where our strengths lie, we’re working on refining what we represent to our clients (our “proposition” if you like marketing lingo) and being more specific about where we are heading (our “vision”). Check out next month’s newsletter for tips to find out how we got on.

Have you got any branding workshop tips to share?

The boys and girls at Google have been busy again. Quite rightly, they want to make sure customers get what they want when they Google something. Here are a few ideas to help you keep up with the latest and improve your SEO activity.

1. Focus on Google.

That’s still where it’s at in the UK (around 90% of all searches), with Yahoo and Bing therefore coming not very close seconds. If you have an international audience you’ll need to look at other search engines.

2. Select generic search terms and then look for qualifiers.

Think adjectives “cheap flights”, comparison/quality “compare flights”, intended use “flights to Ibiza” and brand “EasyJet flights”.

3. Educate the website team.

Make sure your website’s author(s) and editor(s) know which keyphrases to use and where they will have the most impact.

4. Prioritize the key phrases for each page.

When considering what keyphrases are right for a page, think about whether that is what the visitor was expecting to find when they typed in the search phrase.

5. Don’t overdo it.

Google spots “keyword stuffing” and will penalise you by decreasing the position of that page. A key test is that a human being can read it without noticing you’ve optimised it.

6. Update your site regularly.

Google is always on the look out for new stuff and may index a new or updated page within hours.

7. 20% of searches specify location.

(e.g. “theme parks Surrey”) so make sure you are listed on Google Places.

8. Keep your content unique.

Google has developed a special tool for filtering out duplicate content.

9. Work the crowd.

Google notices when you are being talked about on the social networks. For example, have a look at our client Longleat Safari & Adventure Park and their Facebook Account.

10. Not all links are created equal.

One link from a website with authority can be more valuable than 100 from less relevant sites.

Have you got an SEO tip? Why not share it?

A very brief post to introduce the whole new world of web fonts that are out there ready and waiting to be discovered. For years web designers were tied down and shackled to the fonts common on the vast majority of computers including Arial, Verdana, Times, and Georgia. Not now though – there are literally thousands of web fonts to flex your typographical muscles.

Here are 12 places to find out more about web fonts and typography for websites – browse and discover your next favourite.

1. Fontdeck
2. Fonts.com
3. My Fonts
4. Typekit
5. Webtype
6. Typetogether
7. Typotheque
8. Google web fonts
9. Font Squirrel
10. Fontspring
11. Fonts Live
12. Kernest

Finally, there are different ways of achieving your typographical impact. Although we’re not going to get techy here these range through Cufon, sIFR, FLIR and @font-face.

A couple of examples:  The new Longleat Safari & Adventure Park website designed by us here at Feelingpeaky implemented cufon and the font Dirty Headline in the headers and sub headers. Have a look at the safari park intro page to see. We also used Cufon on our newly designed site for Nordoff Robbins the music therapy charity. Here we used Helvetica Rounded. Both slightly more interesting than Arial – we hope you’ll agree.

That’s it… A quick start to your web fonts journey. Go out, discover and enjoy this whole new world.

Clap your hands, Tap your feet, Sing out loud, Dance or stomp, Shout or cry! It’s time to rejoice charity website design and our work for Nordoff Robbins.

Nordoff Robbins is a UK charity specialising in music therapy providing individuals the ability and confidence to express themselves and communicate where they may have not been able to do previously – the results can have a profound impact on individuals and their families.

Feelingpeaky provided their expertise to help Nordoff Robbins produce a new website. Its aim is to act as a powerful engagement tool with their various audiences and ultimately increase support and donations for the charity. This new vibrant and exciting website now helps Nordoff Robbins to promote fund raising events, encourage people to get involved and educate them on the powers of Music Therapy.

Fraser Simpson, Communications Manager at Nordoff Robbins comments on their charity’s website design project….

“Thank you so much for all your hard work and particularly in this final stage over the last few weeks. We have got a superb product and your team has done a magnificent job for us.”

Feelingpeaky used Drupal, the powerful open source content management system as the platform to drive the Nordoff Robbins charity website. The solution provided numerous functionalities including, news blogs to talk about all their fundraising activities, galleries to show their music therapy in action and web forms to give their audiences a simple and quick way to sign up for fundraising, courses and newsletters! Finally, integration with SecureTrading provides an easy to manage payment gateway that gives donators a quick, easy donation process!

Have a look at the website here: www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk and consider giving to a very worthy cause. If you’re looking for charity website design Feelingpeaky would be happy to discuss your brief and bring our energy and expertise to help your charity perform online. Contact us on 02089974700 or email info@feelingpeaky.com.