12/Nov/2008
A different perspective
You'd have to be living on another planet to be unaware of the acute pressures facing business: a global banking and credit crisis, downturn, recession and falling demand.
Faced with this it seems like a supreme understatement to say simply 'times are tough'.
And we know it's at precisely times like this when advertising and marketing budgets are vulnerable, despite the fact that this is when businesses should be rigorously maintaining their spend and their market presence to gain competitive advantage.
But as A&P budgets inevitably face the axe, clients understandably become ever more demanding and look for better value for money alongside more effective and harder working creative solutions, faster and more flexible response, clearer thinking and better tactical and strategic marketing support overall - that's where we think we score highly and our track record confirms it.
We've been successful in sustaining a string of new business wins since earlier in the year from clients across a wide cross section of local industry and commerce from public sector consultancy, business services and engineering to online art, paint manufacture and retailing and, extending our reach into South Wales, bus and coach seat manufacturing.
We've also spent the last few months successfully re-developing and upgrading our own unique web content management system, which is currently being integrated into several new sites the first of which, on behalf of the Cheltenham Art Gallery, is now 'live' at www.cheltenhamartgallery.org.uk with other sites likely to be completed between now and the end of the year.
If your present design agency has lost its sparkle and their costs are starting to spiral, and you're looking for fresh impetus, greater energy and drive, and a team that's used to working closely with new clients to understand their business and their vision, to arrive quickly at the heart of the problem and devise and implement effective marketing communications - why not contact us.
5/Aug/2008
Welcome to our summer blog
We thought this would be a great opportunity - though adnittedly not brilliantly original - to get the word 'summer' into our blog, bearing in mind this time last year we were busy clearing up and coping with the aftermath of the floods and collecting our bottled water rations from the police and army supervised distribution centre in the car park of the former B&Q store on Trier Way - fortunately that's just round the corner so we didn't have far to carry it!
So what's new with us? Actually quite a lot: new clients with new projects; recent new clients with projects now coming onstream; current clients with both new and ongoing projects; and the welcome return from maternity leave of our senior designer, Vicky, who gave birth to a lovely little girl, Gabriella.
We're also on the lookout for new people (so if you're an experienced .Net Developer and looking for a new challenge, do please contact us).
On the new client front we're working on five separate new branding and brand development projects - more news of which soon - and, simultaneously, completing major web re-designs for clients Metalock Engineering, CDS Media and Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum.
The new and updated Metalock site (www.metalock.co.uk) is multi lingual and features an improved layout over a 1024 width with interactive image gallery - it's scheduled to go live in the next day or two.
CDS Media (cdsmedia.co.uk) are the leading online supplier of low cost blank media and packaging, and their re-designed site is now live; as well as featuring a refreshing new modern look and feel, it includes a secure payment gateway with an option of pounds sterling or euros.
The Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum site is currently under development and is planned for completion and to go live later next month; the new design will echo the style and graphics of recently introduced new promotional literature, also produced by us.
24/Apr/2008
Spring launch for three new websites
It's been a while since we were here. Have you missed us? The simple truth is that we've never been away, but have been so busy our regular blog has had to take a backseat.
The successful launch of three new websites may not seem like an exceptionally heavy workload but, as ever, it only really tells part of the story since we've also been busy developing other websites as well as a whole range of design, branding and print projects since the turn of the year.
The new sites include the Cross Stitch Guild (www.crossstitchguild.co.uk), Bradstone International and Champagne Casinos (www.champagnecasinos.co.uk).
Since it was formed in 1996 by best selling author Jane Greenoff, the Cross Stitch Guild has become a worldwide organisation with an enthusiastic following by stitching and embroidery addicts; the new website is a major overhaul of the e-commerce site we designed some 3 years ago.
Bradstone International, part of Aggregate Industries, has an international network of licencees who manufacture its paving, walling and hard landscaping products; this site carries an approved product photo library of over 1700 hi-res images solely for access and use by licencees in the design and production of marketing support material worldwide.
Champagne Casinos are the professional masters of fun and entertainment, and whether you're planning a wedding reception, family birthday party, corporate event or a charity fundraiser they'll make the occasion truly memorable. From Fun Casinos, Race Nights and Themed Events to Fairground and Giant Games, Balloons and Quizes, they take care of everything.
16/Jan/2008
New websites go live and more new business wins
Adding to our internet credentials, we've just launched three new websites and, at the same time, successfully pitched for two new web projects - on behalf of Gloucestershire Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund - which we expect to complete and go 'live' in the next few weeks.
And we haven't been idle on print based design, having recently completed our first assignment of a corporate brochure on behalf of new client GKN OffHighway supporting the group's stand at Agri Technica exhibition in Hanover.
The first of our newly launched 'live' sites is the Village Agenta website at www.villageagents.org.uk and the result of a partnership between Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire Rural Community Council. The site enables older people living in rural communities within the county to benefit from easier access to information and services.
As well as a customised Google search facility for useful information, there's also a database of local information and a password protected login for the Agents themselves.
Another site now live at www.electrolab.us is on behalf of existing client Electrolab, designers and manufacturers of sophisticated equipment for the biotech industry, in support of their USA sales office.
As well as general product data, FAQs, ordering information and a link to Electrolab's main site, this US site also includes a video product demonstration and product feature that allows the user to move the mouse over certain hotspots to reveal close up detail and technical information.
The new Gloucestershire College site at www.gloscol.ac.uk is also now 'live' and celebrates this FE/HE college's relocation to a brand new purpose built campus in the heart of historic Gloucester Docks.
2/Oct/2007
Online surveys? OPENsurvey is 'invaluable'.
Want customer feedback and to know what visitors think of your website? Want to undertake online market research?
That's exactly what Cornwall Enterprise want so, like many tourism websites, they use our versatile and field proven OPENsurvey on www.visitcornwall.co.uk - and guess what? It's revealing precisely what they want to know.
Here's what VisitCornwall Web Manager, Nicky Miller, says about OPENsurvey "We've had the survey on our website for 2 years and we're happy to renew for a further year. It's giving us invaluable feedback and in the last 6 months alone we've had over 7000 responses, of which some 95% said they found all the information they needed, and the comments from the other 5% enable us to make constant improvements."
Their words, not ours. And we've had similar responses from other tourism bodies that we're almost too modest to share (but we will) "valuable and highly cost effective", "so flexible and easy to use", "works brilliantly".
Need we say more?
21/Sep/2007
We've been busy over the summer!
We've recently completed a new and updated brand identity for ourselves - together with a new brochure - and now the first of several new websites goes live. There'll be news on our blog about the others in the coming weeks.
By the way, if you'd like a copy of our new brochure, just call Geoffrey Ainsworth on 01452 305303 or email geoffrey.ainsworth@iconnet.co.uk and he'll be happy to send one to you.
New commercial property website makes searching easy.
One of the region's leading chartered surveyors, ASH & Co, has a totally new site at www.ashproperty.co.uk - in addition to the fact that we've completely redeveloped and modernised the site, it features a bespoke, sophisticated search facility which can bequickly and easily updated via our own content management software.
This database driven facility enables users not only to search for all commercial properties currently available with ASH & Co - and to download availability schedules, purchase/lease terms, location maps and brochures - but also to find and match all similarly sized altternative properties on the company's books.
ASH & Co partner, Rob Smith, said "This new site now ranks us amongst the largest players in the region and reinforces our reputation as a dynamic, innovative and proactive force in the commercial property sector."
25/Jun/2007
Cheltenham Art Gallery design competition
New web launch for international architectural design competition.
Today sees the launch of another new Cheltenham-centric website designed and built by ICON.net Limited.
Cheltenham Borough Council is promoting a new architectural design competition, in conjunction with the RIBA, for the design of an extension to the existing Art Gallery & Museum.
The competition is open internationally to architects and architect-led multi disciplinary design teams and, prior to judging of the initial Stage 1 submissions - from which a shortlist of 4 will be selected - all submissions will be displayed within the Art Gallery & Museum and on site at the newly created website www.cheltenhamartgallery.org.uk/buildingforanewfuture
Deadline for registration is 24 August 2007 and the closing date for all submissions is 12 September. Final judging is scheduled for early December.
The site itself has been designed to look very clean, fresh and modern, and features a high level of interactivity - in addition to a photographic showcase that takes you through the Art Gallery & Museum, there's also a clever and unique user FAQ posting facility where answers to questions are not merely posted back to the website, but are accompanied by a simultaneous notification to the user that an answer to their question has been posted.
In another clever idea, the site also uses Flickr which allows architects a more detailed look at the museun with the opportunity to download and comment on images.
The launch of this new site follows on from the launch just last week of the Cheltenham official venue finder service website at www.conferencecheltenham.co.uk
and the recently updated version of our Gloucester Heritage URC interactive website at www.gloucesterurc.co.uk and you can find details of both here on our blog.
19/Jun/2007
Conference Cheltenham new website
Gloucester web expertise puts Cheltenham on the map (again!)
It's a credit to our web designers and developers that we were selected to design a second site on behalf of Cheltenham Borough Council.
The council's official tourism site at www.visitcheltenham.co.uk is an ICON.net Limited production and this new site - the official venue finder service for Cheltenham and the Cotswolds - is now live at www.conferencecheltenham.co.uk
The site is intended to appeal both to conference, exhibition and event organisers as well as those planning a wedding reception or special family gathering.
Database driven with clean yet stylish graphics and simple, intuitive navigation visitors to the site will find a comprehensive list of venues and information literally at their fingertips. And if you're a hotel, conference centre or wedding venue you can get a listing for free.
14/Jun/2007
New Bradstone International brochure
Bradstone double success - online and in print.
In our enthusiasm to give you an insight into what we're doing you might conclude, quite wrongly, that we spend all our time and energy designing and building websites and absorbed in Web 2.0 applications.
True, we do spend a lot of time doing just that, but there are others in our team busy working on print related creative design. And just so they don't feel they are the unsung heroes, we bring you news of a striking double success on behalf of client Bradstone International.
We've already created 12 individual country-language websites, and now the latest 52 page Bradstone Garden Paving & Walling brochure has just been published. Full of helpful tips and stunning in-situ photographs showing their range of paving and walling products, we've designed it in a stylish and contemporary format with clean, crisp typography and layout to mirror the quality and style of the products themselves.
13/Jun/2007
Gloucester Heritage URC
New city heritage website is live.
The latest updated version of our Gloucester Heritage URC interactive website - designed to encourage participation in the regeneration of Gloucester - has now gone live at www.gloucesterurc.co.uk.
GHURC Chief Executive Chris Oldershaw said: "The regeneration of Gloucester is a living, breathing project, and the continuing input of those who have an interest in the City is essential if we are to deliver a successful scheme by 2012."
Visitors to the site will be able to read a regularly updated blog written by Chris and have their say on each of the 'Magnifient Seven' key regeneration projects. The site will also stream the on-going video diary currently being made by youth and community groups across the city, tracking the changes taking place as Gloucester's £1 billion regeneration programme gains pace. A news page keeps visitors up to date with the wide range of projects and developments which are now taking place across the City.
As our Creative Director, James Chance comments: "We were especially pleased to win this pitch earlier in the year; we're very much a part of Gloucester and the opportunity to be part of the regeneration of such a great city cannot be underestimated and we are completely committed to its future success. We see this as a real showcase website, both as a future benchmark for other urban regeneration companies in the UK and, most especially, for us as it's an opportunity to demonstrate our leading edge creative and technical expertise in the region."
6/Jun/2007
10 Years Old
A very grown up 10 year old
ICON.net Limited was incorporated as a limited company just 10 years ago - and my how we've grown!
With a successful 10 year old track record behind us and a client base spanning both the public and private sectors, our unique blend of people, experience and skills enable us to confidently offer strength in depth in electronic and print media to organisations of all sizes.
From corporate and brand identity, graphic design, internet and consultancy we have the resources to provide clients with a sharp and responsive edge across their entire marketing communications.
So happy birthday to us - and we look forward to the next 10 years!
18/May/2007
Rhyming clues unlock Gloucester
The Gloucester Quest project, to develop an interactive online quiz aimed at bringing alive the citys history to Key Stage 2 pupils, has now been successfully completed.
Visit The Trail of Gloucester at www.gloucesterquest.info and follow the rhyming clues to test your local knowledge.
The Trail of Gloucester is now ready,
So test your knowledge, but be steady.
The rhyming clues might be a mystery,
But they will lead you to our history.
So take your time, and do your best
To solve the mysteries of the Quest.
Now enjoy the fun and off you go,
Click on www.gloucesterquest.info
2/Apr/2007
Helping to attract £1 billion investment
Working with new client The Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company, we've designed and built a new interactive website aimed at heightening awareness and promoting their work in bringing back life to the many historic areas of Gloucester.
The new site is now live and will be a real showcase featuring the latest Web 2.0 format, embedded video footage controlled by the user, data sheet downloads, image library, comment section and blog.
29/Mar/2007
Welcome
Welcome to the ICON.net Limited blog
We hope you find our blog interesting and, more than that, you feel the need to respond, because we really do want to hear from you. So please, add your comments to our entries and remember, brevity is a virtue - so please keep them short.
Before you innundate us with your comments (good, bad or otherwise), please be aware that we reserve the right to edit messages before publishing and we also reserve the right to fail messages if we consider them to be in any way offensive or unlawful (this includes breach of copyright).
Our blog will take you through the frosted plate glass windows and behind those mysterious green doors on Gloucester's Barton Street.
We want to give you an insight into what we're doing and into the thinking that lies behind what we're doing.
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