Cedar Bifold Company Website Goes Live Today!

After a few months of hard work we've launched the new website for Cedar Bifold Company. You can view the site at http://www.cedarbifoldcompany.com.

The client is thrilled with the site and we think it's one of the best we've designed and built so far. Please let us know what you think.

Client Testimonial
"Working with Brian at Imagine Design Associates has been a pleasure from start to finish. He has provided a truly professional service and his team clearly know what and how a website should look and operate. Our questions were always answered quickly and effectively and he designed and built a fantastic website which was better than we had envisaged.  He also came up with the wonderful design of our company logo.

Throughout the process, Brian was constructive; he opened our eyes to the advantages of the World Wide Web so that we were able to maximise the user friendliness and impact of our site.  We have people still commenting and complimenting our website. He has provided a great aftercare service and we highly recommend Imagine Design Associates to any business who would want to have a presence on the net."  Jeremy & Anna Harwood - Cedar Bifold Company

Information about Cedar Bifold
Cedar Bifold Company is a leading manufacturer, supplier and installer of Western Red Cedar Wood bifold doors and windows - a stunning addition to any home. They import top grade Western Red Cedar Wood from managed Canadian forests and employ highly skilled craftsmen to design and hand-build doors and windows to suit individual customer requirements. Their on-site installation services are carried out to this same exacting standard.

Western Red Cedar Wood is so versatile that it equally suits new developments as well as sympathetic refurbishments of period properties. It is just at home in domestic as well as commercial environments.

About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

Cedar Bifold Company - Corporate Identity and Website

 We've currently been busy on designing and producing the new Corporate Identity for Cedar Bifold Company.

This project was quite a challenge as the client wanted to visually portray folding doors in their new logo without resorting to visual clichés. Also, the identity had to appeal to both residential and commercial customers, especially architects who would commission Cedar's products.

The identity we've come up with is highly original, clean, professional and visually represents the company's role and function . It will be a great tool for Cedar to communicate both internally with it's employees and shareholders and externally with its customers and suppliers. The client was thrilled with our design and we're currently building their website which can be viewed on our test server at http://dev.cedarbifoldcompany.com/about-us.

Information about Cedar Bifold
Cedar Bifold Company is a leading manufacturer, supplier and installer of Western Red Cedar Wood bifold doors and windows - a stunning addition to any home. They import top grade Western Red Cedar Wood from managed Canadian forests and employ highly skilled craftsmen to design and hand-build doors and windows to suit individual customer requirements. Their on-site installation services are carried out to this same exacting standard.

Western Red Cedar Wood is so versatile that it equally suits new developments as well as sympathetic refurbishments of period properties. It is just at home in domestic as well as commercial environments.

About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

The Bath Half Marathon

 I've just successfully completed the Bath Half Marathon on Sunday 7 March.

My mother Lena died from Liver Cancer last September and spent her last 10 days in a Marie Curie Cancer Care Hospice in London where she received the most wonderful care and attention. As a thank you to Marie Curie Cancer Care, my wife Nicola, my son Dominic and his girlfriend Lizzey and myself all decided to run the Bath Half in memory of my mum and also to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

So far, we have raised just over £1,500 through sponsorship and donations offline and also online via our Just Giving website at http://www.justgiving.com/Liu-family. With Gift Aid, the total should rise to well over £1,600.

It was incredibly tough for us as we didn't start training until after Christmas and hadn't done any exercise previously. Also, Dominic was suffering from a sore knee and a terrible cold the Firday before the race. However, we all completed the race in respectable times and the amount of monies we've raised for Marie Curie Cancer Care has made us very proud.

Thanks to everyone who was kind enough to sponsor us.

About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.

IDLS - Brand Launch

We recently designed the Brand Identity, Corporate Stationery and Website for IDLS - an international development company providing high quality advisory services.

IDLS aim to deliver the highest standards of work to achieve an improved quality of life for people and the planet. They help their clients to find sustainable solutions through learning, collaboration and participation.

IDLS clients include governments, multi-laterals, private sector organisations and NGOs. IDLS works primarily in the Climate Change and HIV sectors.

IDLS specialise in project and programme management and design, monitoring and evaluation, research, capacity building and policy analysis. We support innovation and debate on emerging issues.

Find out more by going to their website at www.idls.co.uk







About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

My Perfect Prom - the website designed to help you have the time of your life on the night of your life

Whether you’re on the Prom Committee, helping organise the event, or simply attending, we’ve gathered together all the information you need to plan, shop and prepare to make sure you have the time of your life on the night of your life.

We've been working on this project for about four months now producing the Brand Identity, Website and Marketing materials. It's been great to work on and is an on-going project.



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DRCC Website goes live!

We've just completed the design and build of the new DRCC website for Diana Railton - a specialist in web writing and communications. The site is built with a Content Management System, is fully optimised for search engines and meets all accessibility and DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) requirements. Oh, and it looks really good too!
Check it out at www.drcc.co.uk and let me know what you think.

It's Childs Play Charity Walkabout

My family and I recently took part in a charity walk organised by the Rotary Club of Bath and Itschildsplay Childrens Charity in aid of Children's Hospice South West. Childrens Hospices provide relief hospice care for life limited children. Children and their families receive respite care every year, free of charge. Public funds cover 5% of the cost, the rest has to be raised by the Hospices to run this uniquely valuable service.

Funds were raised by hundreds of walkers who took part in a sponsored walk along the Avon and Kennet Canal. The walk took place on the Bank Holiday weekend and we were very lucky with the weather.

We decided to start our walk from King Edward's Playing Fields at Bathampton and went up as far as the Dundas Canal. We stopped there for food and drinks and a short rest. We then returned to Bathampton making a round trip of just over 6 miles. We had a thoroughly enjoyable day out as a family and managed to raise some money for a very worthwhile charity.

Bath Preservation Trust Annual Review

Imagine Design Associates was recently asked by the Bath Preservation Trust to re-design and produce their Annual Review for 2008. 

The Bath Preservation Trust was set up in 1934 to safeguard the historic city of Bath. Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the only complete city in the UK afforded World Heritage Status.

The challenge for Imagine Design was to move forward the look and feel of the Annual Review, making it more contemporary, but without alienating the more conservative members of the Trust. 

Imagine Design produced a design the Bath Preservation Trust were extremely pleased with and are now working on the new Membership leaflet for the Trust.

About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

Imagine Design Associates found on the web by successful, Scottish, new technology company Arrayjet

Arrayjet, a successful, Scottish new technology company found Imagine Design Associates website recently through a web search. Arrayjet were looking for a Graphic Design Consultancy to produce an image to visually portray the innovative 'microarray' process fundamental to the microarray products the company produces.

Arrayjet's Commercial Director, Duncan Hall, approached Imagine because he liked the illustrations we produced for BMT Sigma and felt we could produce exactly what he had in mind for Arrayjet.

Imagine were promptyl briefed and were supplied with a variety of technical photographs and a verbal description of the Arrayjet process. Within a period of only two weeks, we had produced initial sketches and delivered the final full colour illustration to a delighted client. The illustration we produced was now a very important 'Brand Asset' for Arrayjet and could be used on all of Arrayjet's marketing materials such as exhibition stands, brochures, posters, factsheets, etc.

Duncan Hall was delighted with the work we produced and said: "Imagine Design Associates were the perfect partner for my project: they stayed within the brief and the budget, and yet they delivered an attractive and creative pice of artwork within a very short timescale. I rate Brian highly and would definitely work with him again."

Arrayjet was founded in August 2000 by a Cambridge physicist, Dr. Howard Manning, and University of Edinburgh molecular biologists, Prof. Peter Ghazal and Dr. Douglas Roy, to develop robotics using inkjet printheads to make biological microarrays. In February 2001 Arrayjet secured two-stage funding from the Scotland based investor group known as Archangels and won a Scottish Enterprise SMART award to develop the ink jet microarray platform. Further funding by Archangels and SE followed.

From February 2001 to summer 2005 a team of 5 engineers developed the fundamental technology, additional funding was secured, and the first pre-production instruments developed and validated with commercial partners. Since 2005 the original engineering and technical team of 5 has expanded alongside Arrayjet’s engineering and laboratory facilities to meet the increasing demand for development and manufacturing.

Arrayjet has now established a number of products in the microarray market, including the newly launched Ultra-Marathon,has an expanding client base in the US and Europe, and continues to develop its patented technology.


About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

Imagine help the Rotary Club of Bath Charity Golf Event

Imagine Design Associates was once again pleased to be involved with the Rotary Club of Bath and their recent annual Charity Golf Event. Imagine helped with both designing the Programme and photography on the day of the event.

Bath Golf Club was once again the setting for the Rotary Club of Bath’s 3rd Charity Golf Challenge. As Rotarian Rodney Hodgman said on the day... “God must be a Rotarian to give us such a lovely day for our event.” It was one of the few days of sunshine without rain this year!

The clubhouse was buzzing throughout the day as golfers started registering from 8 am onwards. This year Bath Rotary had the support of Bath Golf Club Captains Valerie Key and Steve Ford who joined forces with us to create a very special day. 36 teams comprising 144 golfers in total took part, travelling from far and wide for the event. The competition was a Bowmaker with teams of four playing with two counting on each hole.

The atmosphere both on the course and in the clubhouse was tremendous throughout the day as teams coming off the course swapped stories with those waiting to go on and could also view pictures of themselves on the course taken throughout the day and projected on a large screen in the Clubhouse. The clubhouse bustled with busy Rotarians carrying out duties from manning the registration desk and selling raffle tickets to adjudicating the various mini-competitions set out around the course.

‘Rodney’s Sting’ devised for our very first event three years ago and now renamed the ‘4th Hole Swindle’ was as popular as ever. It offered teams the chance to obtain extra points if they landed on the 4th green and had paid £5 – what golfer could resist the chance to improve their score for a £5 and also receive a free golfball?
The evening Presentation was very well attended, with The Right Worshipful, the Mayor of Bath, Cllr. Tim Ball, distributing the awards. The winners this year were the Planos Holiday Team after a count back (which went to the last 6 holes) over Richardson Groves. In third spot were the G.L. Hearn team followed by Simon Harris and Associates and Reeds of Trowbridge.

Nearest the hole on the 11th was Paul Porto of Moore Stephens Financial Services and on the 14th Mervyn Osman of Monahans. Longest Drive was won by Eddie MacDonald of MPC Data. Winner of the fiercely contested Dartboard Putting Competition was none other than superb local golfer Colin Edwards.

The main donation made on the night was to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the RUH (NICU ‘space to grow’ campaign) for premature and desperately ill babies which aims to raise £4.5 million over the next 2-3 years to fund an urgently needed brand new unit. A cheque for £6,000 was presented to Rachel O’Connor from the Forever Friends Appeal fundraising team. Other charities supported by Rotary will aslo receive monies raised from the event.

The day was once again a huge success and everything a Rotary event should be. There was fun, fellowship and in excess of £9,000 was raised on the day including £800 from the raffle. Richard, the bar manager, not only manned the club bar throughout the day and evening but also provided all the food and drinks for the Half Way House on the 8th.


About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

The Value Of A Good Logo Design

In June 2007 something extraordinary happened. The nation focused its attention, possibly for the first time, on a single piece of graphic design. Debate raged across the media – was it any good, did it do the job and, most importantly, how on earth could it cost £400,000. I refer of course to the London 2012 Olympic Logo.

The furore did the design industry few favours - the cost, the controversial style, not to mention the photo-sensitive epilepsy problem. But one thing the circumstances of its creation did illustrate quite clearly was just how important the Olympic Committee believed the logo was to the overall successful promotion of the games. So why are logos so important to businesses, both large and small, and what makes a good one?

Chances are, potential clients will see your company logo (through advertising or mail-shots) long before they ever see you. Therefore your logo has to represent your company accurately and convey to the client where you stand in the marketplace. Nowadays that marketplace is more visually crowded than ever before. People are bombarded with messages from posters, television, shops, newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Your logo only has seconds to catch the eye, make an impact and convey its message. If your logo is not a strong visual representation of the product or service you are selling then you have wasted your time, your money and an opportunity.

Ideally your logo should be unique, have impact and be memorable. However, it does not need to be complicated to be effective – some of our most iconic logos are very simple, Apple, Nike, Mercedes, Orange. But your logo must SAY something about your company. To illustrate the point lets look at Apple and Nike. The bite missing from the apple in the Apple logo represents the fruit from Adam and Eve’s Tree of Knowledge … and Macintosh is a type of apple. Nike is the Greek Goddess of Victory and their tick is a sign of absolute positivity. Clever stuff. The more you know about these logos the more you see how they work. Standard ‘clip-art’ available through desktop publishing, which is often used to enhance non-professional logos, is just meaningless decoration without this type of purpose.

In addition to all this, your logo needs to copy well, at all sizes and across all mediums from business card to poster, through t-shirts to the Internet. Be aware that elements of a complex design can easily get lost when reduced down.

Finally, your logo design should be timeless because once you have a good logo you stick with it. The Coca Cola logo was designed in 1886, BMW in 1917 and the famous McDonald’s golden arches in 1962. The IBM logo, designed by Paul Rand in 1972, looks as strong today as it did then, is the cornerstone of the company’s image and is now an asset of incalculable value because it has been used consistently. Every time you use your logo you remind clients and potential clients who you are and what you offer.

A senior designer from Wolff Olins, the company who designed the London 2012 logo, once wrote: “Logos are to brands as haircuts are to people … the first visible thing you latch onto.” Well, some may say Wolff Olins were having a bit of a bad hair day when they designed the 2012 logo but it certainly is memorable, which is the whole point … and we still have 4 years to get used to it.


About the Author:
Brian Liu is the Creative Director of Imagine Design Associates, a Graphic Design Consultancy specialising in all marketing communications material for print and web.
T: +44 (0)1225 426987
E: brian@imaginedesignassociates.co.uk
W: www.imaginedesignassociates.co.uk

Stand Out From The Crowd

In business there's only one thing more important than winning new customers and that's looking after existing customers. Building a strong relationship with them ensures loyalty and that all-important repeat order. Email Marketing, in the form of a regular newsletter or a specific promotion, is without doubt the most cost effective and efficient method of keeping in touch.

Why does it work so well?
Here are just a few of the reasons why more and more companies are switching to email to talk to their customers.

1. It delivers results - response rates of 15% or higher.

2. It's cost effective - cheaper than either telephone or post.

3. It's quicker - fast preparation and execution mean you can react to market conditions and so deliver exciting, of the moment, campaigns.

4. It's easy to measure - click-throughs to links can be tracked and responses accurately measured.

5. It's more personal - the level of personalisation available means even massive campaigns can appear to be one-to-one.

6. It builds customer relationships - a newsletter gives you a reason to contact your customers regularly and remind them of your services.

Imagine Design provide a Fully Managed Email Marketing Service. We do everything for you: strategy, development, design, copywriting, building the plain text or HTML email, scheduled delivery and campaign reporting. Whatever's needed to make the campaign a success, Imagine Design will provide it!

Speak to your customers before your competitors do, call me now on 01225 426987 to arrange a meeting and discover how email marketing can work for your business.