Website rebuild for The Academy
We've been flat out and unfortunately our posts have decreased over the last few weeks. Why you ask? Well we're happy to announce one of the premium sites that have been chewing up our time of late...more in the next post ;)
The Australian National Academy of Music
"The Australian National Academy of Music (the Academy) is Australia’s premiere institution for training the country’s finest young classical musicians."
It was a real pleasure working for a premiere institution like The Academy and without a doubt their South Melbourne location is one of the more stunning offices I've visited. The Academy previously had a site built entirely in Flash that was no longer serving their needs. The brief was to create a site that could be content managed, improve search engine visibility and allow their audience access to information easily and without fuss.
We worked very hard with Melinda, Matt and the team at The Academy to create a site with intuitive and user-focused navigation that was search engine friendly and had the ability to be updated easily. Using the Efront CMS (content management system) the site allows event creation that links into a calendar for easy access throughout the site. Each page and area can be updated, including the banner images, home page content and standard content areas, covering images, text, bookings and dates.
All in all a great result and a success.
More to come....
Mark
Labels: anam, australian-national-academy-of-music, the-academy, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Designer meets Developer
We've recently been lucky enough to have started work with Jane Sinclair. Jane is an accomplished designer who had a hand in the formative days of Cornwell Design with her husband Steven.
Starting with Soho Projects (more on that front soon) we've been able to move on to a placeholder for Jane's site at - www.sincalir.com.au. I've said it before but it's great to work with people who are passionate about what they do and Jane is no exception. We're looking forward to a great ongoing relationship and outcomes in the future!
Have a great week,
Mark
Labels: Designer, developer, Jane Sinclair, web-design
Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
A new online store - Kythese Adair
We've been working with Kythese for a little while now. Kythese Adair is a company that is "synonymous with style, elegance and innovative fashion charm".
Looking at a new online store to present their wares to Fashion and Jewellery boutique's throughout Australia and New Zealand, Efront was able to help Kythese Adair not only update their look and feel but deliver an entire new administration and workflow with their site. The new site allows the team at Kythese Adair to update their products on the fly, adding new images, pricing, weight and freight all from the comfort of their web browser.
Kythese Adair is unique in that it presents the same products to retailers and wholesalers. Once a wholesaler logs into the site, their able to access information specific to them, the entire site though remaining accessible to both types of customers.
It's always great working with people who are passionate about their business and Kythese and her team are absolutely no exception. They love what they do and it's been a pleasure putting together the website, online store and blog for them.
It's been a big couple of weeks and we've got more on the way....have an excellent weekend peoples :)
Mark
Labels: Online-Stores, web-design, website
Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008
2 new websites, 2 new great Melbourne clients
After hard work on all sides of the table, we're proud to announce our two latest sites from two very different clients.
Adams Management are an artist management service that look after some great acts. Broadcasters, comedians, writers, film makers and actors all help make up the swag that Liz and Jess help promote and book every day. We met Liz Adams and her team late in 2007, learning quickly that their current site wasn't meeting their needs anymore we looked to a new setup for them. The build gave Adams' a custom Content Management System and blog functionality, along with a fresh new design for their website, allowing Jess and Liz better control over their online content.
It's been excellent working with Liz and Jess and we're all rapt with the outcome.
www.adamsmanagement.com.au
SC Land are an award winning boutique property development company headed by Harvard-trained architect Lance Chu and his wife and co-director Chenghan Tan. Efront was proud to partner with Cornwell Design to bring to life a new site promoting SC Land's newest development - HUE.
A unique site built entirely in Flash - www.hue.com.au allows the visitor to navigate through a backdrop of great photography highlighting the HUE development. Main navigation along the bottom let's the busy visitor jump straight to the section of interest, whilst contact and enquire options are the call to action and available throughout each pop-in window. Take a look for yourself and enjoy the scrolling!
www.hue.com.au
Cheers,
Mark
Labels: melbourne, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne, website
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008
Fear of a Brown Planet
It's great to add a new client, especially a funny one. Nazeem and Aamer do ...
"Standup comedy about all the things you are scared to think about: Islam, race relations, sedition, and the War on Terror."
Part of the ever burgeoning portfolio of Smartartists Management, we've put up a placeholder page with some YouTube video for their upcoming run at the Comedy Festival and we're looking forward to working on the rest of the site.
Have a great Thursday peeps.... www.brownplanet.com.au
Mark
Labels: placeholder, web-design, youtube
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008
YarraLoch Wines Australia
We're pleased to announce the launch of the YarraLoch website.
YarraLoch produce wines here in Victoria and have received outstanding reviews across their range.
Their website features detailed tasting notes, wine reviews and an online order form. The site has been designed around YarraLoch's existing branding and highlights the premium quality of their product.
We've incorporated some AJAX features to help break up the text heavy areas and to minimise scrolling. The order form features a secure checkout with 128 Bit SSL encryption. This allows YarraLoch to sell directly but eliminates the need for a full shopping cart workflow.
It's been great working with Steve, Libby, Luke and Oliver from the YarraLoch team and we're looking forward to helping them do better on the web ongoing...
http://www.yarraloch.com.au
Cheers!
Mark
Labels: AJAX, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne, Yarra-Loch
Posted on Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Big Words Copywriting Service
In the same way you go to a designer for the look and feel and a web developer to build your website, a copywriting service is there if you have something that needs to be said. Be it on a brochure, a billboard or a website, clear and concise language is important. Big Words have years of experience as copywriters providing concise and relevant copy for corporations, companies and individuals.
Branding and design were provided by Luke Gerner (www.lukegerner.com) and we were lucky enough to work on getting the website, hosting and email sorted out. We're more than happy with the result and know where we'll be going when we run out of ... you know....
Have a great weekend...
Mark
Labels: Copywriting, melbourne, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007
MySpace Redesign
The advent of social networking sites has meant that businesses now have a whole new way to get in touch with potential clients. In the past, to develop an online 'community' or interest group, the best way to spark discussion was to run a forum, or look for feedback through traditional methods like online forms and emails. These all fell prey to the problems of moderation, checking of comments and constant monitoring. Facebook, MySpace, Digg and the like all bring with them new ways for communities, groups and businesses to encourage participation and share their messages online.
It's been great helping out Tim and the guys at Cliffhanger Climbing Gym first with a new online store and now with a redesign of Cliffhanger's MySpace page. We're looking forward to getting to work on the new site soon, watch this space...
Labels: MySpace, pimp, redesign, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Listen Carefully - A series of design experiments
Listen Carefully "... is the culmination of a series of design experiments, and the introduction to an exploration of the designer as the medium, through which media messages are communicated."
We've recently been working with Dan Peterson from Listen Carefully, helping customize a Wordpress blog template. It's great to work in web design on a non-commercial job and we've enjoyed being able to contribute to the Listen Carefully experiment.
In times gone by the humble blog was there for the angry nerd to voice his frustrations, complaints and issues. Nowadays, the blog has a whole stack of things going for it and a wide variety of uses for the individual, company or project ;
- it can be the 'voice' for the group or company it represents
- it's a way to respond and comment on news items or relevant activity out in the world
- use a blog to publish press releases, announce new products or relationships
- take advantage of RSS feeds and have instant updates go out to anyone who's bookmarked your site/blog
- tailor your content by tagging and labeling posts to help your SEO
Listen Carefully is a great example of the benefits that come from publishing work like this on the web. Bringing together 7 designers from Melbourne for the initial stage, now feedback has come from design studios and students all over the world, allowing the experiment to take on an organic element and grow with the people involved. The open communication involved via the blog medium allows for visitors to the site to contribute to the discussion and hence the experiment itself.
Take a look, wander through the site and comment where you see fit. If you want more information on how easy it is to update and run your own blog, feel free to get in touch.
All the best,
Mark
Labels: blog-templates, blogger, design, listen-carefully, melbourne, web-design, wordpress-customisation, wordpress-templates
Posted on Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Cliffhanger Online Store Revamp
We're pleased to announce the launch this week of the new Cliffhanger Climbing Gym Online store. After 4 years on the old store model, the revamped store gives Tim from Cliffhanger more flexibility and control of his products, discounts and orders. If you get a second why not drop by and check it out
Labels: Online-Stores, web-design, web-development
Posted on Thursday, September 27, 2007
Brother Baba Budan - new website
A short post to welcome our new client, who operates a business very close to our heart - Brother Baba Budan, a specialty coffee house in Little Bourke St, Melbourne.
At this stage we've just setup a placeholder for BBB and we're looking forward to getting to work on their website. We're also looking forward to trying out their coffee...I'm sure the meeting will be 'up tempo'. So, watch this space for a new site from the team behind St Ali.
Have a great weekend,
Mark
Labels: placeholder, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Adams Management - website redesign
We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Liz and Jess from Adams Management who are a Melbourne based company that represent twelve of Australia's best media performers, think - James Brayshaw, Paul Calleja, Liz Ellis, Kate Langbroek, George McEncroe, Tony Moclair, Dave O'Neil, Mark O'Toole, Emma Race, Adam Rozenbachs, Julian Schiller and Matt Tilley.
The Adam's Management's website has been up for a few years now and is in need of an upgrade. Efront will work to provide Liz and her team with a new site that will give them the flexibility they're after, letting them publish news and events through a corporate blog along with a content management system to help them keep the whole site up to date. We'll also be working hard to upgrade the site's look and feel, making sure it has an aesthetic to match the caliber of the company.
It's going to be a great job, it's always exciting working with people who know what they're after. Stay tuned for more news on Adams Management soon.
All the best,
Mark
Labels: adams-management, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne, Web-Hosting
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Richard Calley - Website launch
We're proud to announce the recent launch of a new website for Richard Calley Family Law firm. To quote Richard from the site : That was more than 25 years ago.
"I have always believed that if you want the best, you have to talk to a specialist. With this in mind I founded Melbourne's first firm to specialise exclusively in family law.
Another great partnership for us with Cornwell Design, Efront has worked hard to bring a simple yet elegant site together for Richard Calley. It's great to see the site live and we hope over time it helps to reinforce the brand and bring in more business for Richard Calley and his team.
Hope your week is excellent...
Mark
Labels: family-lawyers, launch, richard-calley, web-design
Posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2007
St Ali - A little bit of web development
"Our aim is simple; to source the best green beans, roast them with care and attention to detail, then make great espresso, as good as it gets." - St Ali
It's great to work with people who love what they do and enjoy it. Mark Dundon and the guys at St Ali are into their coffee. They not only make amazing espresso, they source the beans and carefully roast them as well.
Like many people, Mark is flat chat running a business and was struggling to find the time to sit down with Dreamweaver and update his site. Coming to Efront Mark was looking to make his days a bit easier and find some more time. A quick assessment found that St Ali wasn't in need of a new site, just a little web development to make his current setup more functional. We took some time and implemented a neat, small CMS that let's St Ali add new coffee's, put in links for PayPal purchases and reorder their listings. This job was a good example of a situation where a small amount of work was much more effective than a re-design or completely new build.
Keep an eye out this week as we'll be adding Google's Blogger to the St Ali site to help them out with new announcements and specials...make sure if you're in the area to stop in for a coffee too....
Have a great week.
Mark
Labels: blogger, blogging, cms, coffee, paypal, st-ali, web-design, web-development
Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007
More than a placeholder - DesignLive
DesignLive specialise in building automation, window furnishings and contract joinery. Looking through the work this company does will help give you an understanding of how much of a specialty area it is. Bringing together architects, designers, developers, engineers and corporations to create a unique 'smart' building is no small undertaking.
We were lucky enough to be recently working with Cornwell on the placeholder site for DesignLive. Under tight deadline recently a placeholder was needed to coincide with launch of new products and brand work. A placeholder is normally a single web page, logo and contact details that does just what it says, 'holds' the spot until content and a complete website is finished. The work that we ended up doing with Cornwell was much more than a placeholder site, seven pages and a registration option for people to record their details that hooks up to a database for email marketing.
We think it turned out really well and can't wait to get working on the full website for DesignLive.
Labels: design, DesignLive, melbourne, placeholder, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2007
Down and Dirty on MySpace
We've written in the past about our thoughts on MySpace. No matter what you reckon about the most visited site on the planet, you cannot deny the benefit it has to people in the music industry. Be they band or individual artist, a profile can be set, tunes can be posted and if done right, a good image can be portrayed.
Winterun are a band that have spent the last five years in Melbourne building a strong cult following. Heavy rocking blues or tunes that are like "logs let loose down the mountainside", these guys are good. A huge live following and their passion for what they do has brought the boys from Melbourne to the release of a new single Stompa from their forthcoming album : Into The Underground.
Efront had the pleasure of working with Winterun on their new MySpace page recently and we're chuffed with the results. Check it out, listen to the new track Stompa but most importantly when you get a chance, check out these fellas live 'cos if you like your rock... you're gonna get into Winterun.
Labels: design, MySpace, pimp, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne, Winterun
Posted on Sunday, August 05, 2007
Gray Nicolls
Just a quick cheeky little post to end the week!
If you're a cricket, rugby, netball, hockey or squash fan, you'll recognise some of the brands in the Gray Nicolls sports stable.
Brands include Gray Nicolls cricket bats (yes - the famous 'scoop'), County Cricket, to Gilbert & Steeden balls, Grays hockey and squash gear.
We're really pleased to be working again with HD Design on revamping the current GN Sports website.
Labels: redesign, web-design
Posted on Friday, August 03, 2007
Below the Fold?
I recently read an article by Clicktale called "Unfolding the Fold". Clicktale are a web stats and usability group that specialise in monitoring web users beyond the normal hits/visitor approach. They actually let their customers watch every action a visitor takes on their site, by recording movies of each visitors actions, these films show hotspots, where the mouse hovers and how a visitor navigates and interacts with the site. In its own right, a great service, though I'm not writing to sell it.
In the years that we've been working on the web, we used to work hard to make sure that content remained above the fold. This refers back to the broadsheet newspaper, where the biggest and most important headline gets the top of the page and content that went below the fold was considered second rate news. The same applied to the web, as with lots of new media, the web took this at face value and many sites were originally designed to be able to present all the information without scrolling anywhere.
Clicktale has now given us some great evidence that this is no longer the case. From Nov-Dec last year Clicktale studied 120,000+ page views and their habits and I quote :
- 91% of the page-views had a scroll-bar.
- 76% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled to some extent.
- 22% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled all the way to the bottom.
"These statistics demonstrate that the vast majority of web designers are designing pages with scrolling, that the majority of users do scroll and that a significant portion of them scroll all the way to the page bottom. While 22% may seem low at first, it is actually quite high as many page-views are repeat views where the visitors have previously scrolled all the way to the page bottom and are already familiar with the page. In addition, visitors often find what they are looking for near the beginning of the page and may not bother scrolling further down. "
I think this change has come about from a few different areas. The phenomenon of social content sites like Facebook, MySpace, Digg etc are all based on people commenting (and submitting) on the content that's shared by that online community. In Digg's case, a bunch of people submit stories from (mostly) traditional media sources and the ones deemed most interesting are voted to the front page. Where the interaction comes are peoples views on the stories, so the commenting, much like on a forum, runs on and on down the page. For people to interact, they need to scroll down the page.
So, summing up from this....utilise space, the more space around content is a great way to make a site feel bigger and 'roomier'. Don't get caught up on resolution and screen size and don't try and squeeze the content into the top of the page!
Have a great week....
Mark
Labels: above-the-fold, social-content, web-design, Web-Design-Melbourne
Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007