Cardiff-based Equinox Communications (previously Equinox PR) is one of Wales’ leading communications agencies specialising in communications services, spanning the disciplines of public relations, marketing, design, social media, crisis management and training.

The Equinox Communications Website was developed in php with a MySQL database backend. It has a splattering of jquery throughout to add a touch of movement when needed…and of course, being a flash free website, it works wonderfully well on iPads too…

Phase II in the development of the new PDR website has just been launched in time for their debut at the Insight Show in Olympia.

PDR is a world leading research, design and innovation organisation based here in South Wales.

Upgrades to the site included a new portfolio area to showcase their impressive client base and a new footer across the site to increase the profile of their core services.

And…due to the website being built with standards based markup with a touch of jquery, and its reliance on flash technology at a minimum, it looks pretty damn good on the iPad too…

Here is a technical demo (dont expect it to look too good yet) of the top 300 pixels or so of the new Sugar website. You can rearrange the magnets in any way you want and, when you hit the save button, it will save it so the next person on the site will see how you left it. There are also a couple of presets in there if you get in muddle. Dont forget to type you name in too.

http://www.sugarcs.com/fridgemagnets4.html

You can throw them around to but dont be too fierce..they will fall off the fridge never to be seen again!(until you hit the refresh button). Its been built in Flash using PHP and MySQL to save and load the locations of the magnets and the TweenMax Actionscript framework for some of the subtle animations.

Let us know what you think and leave us a message…

Based on the successful completion of the PDR website for UWIC, Sugar CS was asked to undertake a brochure site for the Creative Leadership and Enterprise Centre (CLEC)’s ’20 Twenty Leadership Programme’, based out of their Colchester Avenue campus.

Our role was to produce a website that would compliment the existing literature and add functionality, including an online registration form.

We’re so excited to see another site go live, and what’s more our customer is really pleased with the result.

We have been commissioned by Visit Wales to help maintain and update the sites with videos, games and viral content. We’ve already had the opportunity to attend the recent “Homecoming” gig with the Lost Prophets at their school in Pontypridd to produce a couple of small videos documenting their return…

(I may have to try that chip shop next time im close by!)

The website is built upon a bespoke Content Management System built in house together with SugarBlast.

Sugar Creative Studio’s very own Email Marketing Solution that will enable the client to communicate targeted news and offers to their many customers.

After several consultations with Applied Torque, we were able to them produce a set of conceptual logos for them to consider. Once we had feedback on the concepts we then produced a single working concept which became the new identity for Applied Torque and its online shop Tools 4 Torque.

Since then Sugar CS has been commissioned to produce two websites for the company as well as a set of stationery for office use and order fulfillment.

Here are some concepts that didn’t make the grade.

Funnily enough, there are several campaigns out there to rid the world of IE6. StopIE.com, Bring Down IE6 (by .Net magazine)to name but two. There are also the pro IE6 campaigners at SaveIE6.com providing us with some (sometimes laughable) arguments to keep the browser alive.

But as firm followers of web standards, we put a great amount of weight in the opinions of standards gurus’ such as Jeff Zeldman who has recently been quoted:

“IE6 is the new Netscape 4. The hacks needed to support IE6 are increasingly viewed as excess freight. Like Netscape 4 in 2000, IE6 is perceived to be holding back the web.”

Clients sometimes pressure designers to ‘force’ sites to work in IE6, and designers, not wanting to lose business, comply, using hacks and workarounds. This wastes time and money. Microsoft needs to fix this, designers need to unite, and we all need to move on to bigger and better things.

This IE6 problem has become an issue in a current development at Sugar, where a once beautiful design and interactive experience  is in danger of being diluted to fulfil its duties on the IE6 platform.
The question we are asking ourselves is ‘how far do we go?’. Do we say good bye to IE6 users with a detection script to warn them of their shortcomings or do we spend additional time and money on workarounds that have the potential to hold back the development and have a negative impact on the end result?

Additional reading at BringdownIE6, Wired.com and the Facebook campaign.

Quality illustration by robotjohnny