Here at X-Fire design we love to hear what you think of us. It is an integral part of our service, and so we have created an on-line questionnaire to get your feedback, and we would love for you to spend a little time filling it in. All the feedback will be looked at and our services improved accordingly.The questionnaire is available here >> www.x-fire.co.uk/?s=questionIt can be filled in anomolously if you prefer.Thank you in advanceThe X-fire Team
Manchester Cathedral is one of the most interesting Cathedrals in the country, after surviving the IRA bomb and acquiring one of the oldest buildings in the city it was decided to be the first Cathedral in the country to have a visitor centre. The centre was designed to have a full multimedia exhibition, conference facilities, a shop and a restaurant in the basement which was to house the only medieval scheduled monument in Manchester, the Hanging Bridge.Work started on the centre in 2001 which completion in the summer of 2002, when it was opened by the Queen. The centre has been running since then, attracting lots of visitors as well as attracting a lot of conference trade in it’s four conference rooms.The centre, along with the cathedral, had a website built just after opening, but due to time and costs the site wasn’t updated with new information and news. The cathedral decided to commission a new website for themselves, leaving the Visitor Centre without an up to date site to advertise themselves.We were approached a few weeks ago to design a site for that purpose, with a good brief from the Managing Director we got to work on a site which suited the brief. The main aim of the site is to get more people through the door, wither it be visitors of the shop, exhibition or restaurant. But also to help the conference trade continue to grow.Some of the interesting features discussed where some way of putting up late availability for the conference rooms, on-line booking and on-line shopping, all of which we are currently looking into as part of the design.The client also needed to be able to update some areas of the site, for example: prices and menus, quite regually. We decided to use Adobe Contribute for this, which allows the client to edit areas of the site using a user friendly and easy to use program, with no technical experience of HTML or any other website languages - just english!The main part of the site is now ready to go live, we are just working out the final parts of the site before letting the public loose on the site.The site will be available to view very soon at www.mcvc.info
The catering company is a local outside catering company, set up a few years ago by its owner Johnathan Allott BA(Hons) Hospitality Management. He approached us to design a website for his company, and to gather together some sort of stationary for him. The initial logo was already complete, and also a few ideas for a website.After looking at the ideas we got to work and produced a few testing sites, and after a little bit of feedback from the client we got to work with the complete site.Drawing inspiration from many of the areas of outside we created a site which changes every time it is viewed, creating random images to keep the user interested.The navigation is quite orthodox as we felt the regular user will be someone who may not have a lot of experience of the Internet, so the idea to keep it simple seamed a good one!The finished site included a simple intro on a splash page, before entering the full site, which features menus and prices for the many options available by the company.We are currently designing letterheads and business cards for the client.The site can be viewed at www.thecateringcompany.info
I’ve been looking around recently at all the different adverts, logos and general graphic design. I have always had a thing for pattern and shapes, and looking around now you can see that this is something I share with a lot of others.A logo is usually the first thing you notice about a company, so it needs to make the impact that will mean you remember, but some of the biggest companies in the world have the simplest logos, just look at Microsoft, The BBC, Google.They are all so simple, usually just the word, with something added on. I like this idea, but I also like a company who has gone a bit further with the development, Apple Computers stands out to me as a company with the right attitude, I don’t think their logo is the same for more than a year, yes it is the same shape etc, but its always changing, and what a lovely logo it is too. I remember when it was the multicolored apple, looking at it thinking what is that. Now the brushed chrome look and the “shiny floor” reflection that is used, just stunning.Anyway back to the original topic, shapes. It occurred to me this week that everything is made up of shapes in some way, circles, squares, triangles, they are always there. A lot of logos use the oval and put the lettering inside it, I like this idea, the oval draws your eye and helps you remember the company, but the more this method is used the more it seams to loose its skills.The use of shapes in logos can give any message you want, we have been working with Solutions Applied Ltd. helping them get up and running, (big announcement soon!) and we decided on a logo for them, which incorporated steps up to an ultimate goal. The company is a consultancy firm which helps businesses get on their feet, or gives them a new look, so we used the step theme to show progression, and I think its worked. To add to the look we added lots of colour on a darker background to show contrast between the begining and end product.The website will be up soon, so keep checking for more updates.Well thats all really, ive just been thinking about how nice the world is at the moment, yeah we have lots of conflict and stuff, but take a look outside and it seams to brighten up even the worst of days.Jack
Ok so this is my first real post, but here goes.I’ve been thinking recently what the world would be like without the internet, it seams to be the biggest thing that we have in our lives, sure we have mobile phones and computers and everything, but the growth of the internet puts all of our other “gadgets” to shame.I was talking with an internet marketing specialist the other day and he said that in every one minute 20,000 new websites are registered. Yes some of them are the likes of MySpace profiles and other networking sites, but most are brand new domains.I see this as a good thing, as i find the internet such an amazing place, but then again it means that the more we use it, and feed it, the more we are destroying it. More spam than ever was sent last year, and i really don’t think this is ever going to stop, internet fraud was also on the up with new phishing sites, it seams such a shame that so many people find joy in ruining such a helpful resource.So life without the internet. No more cheating in pub quizzes, no more just having a quick look on google maps if you dont know where you are going to get to Cardiff, a lot more of having to go to the post office to send your “snail” mail, no more nipping on MSN to find out if your mate is up for the pub.I think it is mad how much we rely on the internet now, but I know that if one day it decided to go offline then the whole world, including me, would stop.Lets hope that never happens…
Welcome to our new blog!Well it seams that we have fallen for the blog bug, but to be honest it seams the best way to get your information up on the web in this modern world, so enjoy. You are probably wondering what we are going to be writing about on here, well anything really, our feelings, thoughts, news, new projects, current work, and failures, so pretty much everything! I hope you enjoy reading and commenting, all your comments will no doubt help us to serve you better.ThanksJack