A couple of months ago we were approached by Mercury Records to put together a pitch for designing and developing the website for this incredible vocalist, and we were successful in securing the project last month. Since then we’ve been hard at it, conceptualising some punchy visuals which L himself oversaw and upon giving the final nod, we pulled it all together and began development on the site.

A media driven site full of video, imagery and social integration, L’s new site sits on a solid content management system, allowing for regular updating of content including media, tour dates, gig tickets and blog articles, keeping it consistently fresh and thereby acting as a central hub for his growing number of fans.

Featuring a very dynamic and rich ‘hero’ slot, which needed prominence throughout the site, we have created a new level of depth to the visuals which are akin to the depth L Marshall has in his songwriting and performing, as is evident in his release of The Wait Pt 2 and his new single ‘Sing For Tomorrow’ with Sneakbo.

About L Marshall

Now London-born L Marshall is ready to take centre stage as a solo artist in his own right. A captivating, charismatic writer and performer, the 24 year-old is an incredible vocalist who treads the taut line between commercial appeal and underground credibility. Listen to his recently released mixtape, The Wait, and you’ll find it impossible not to be won over by L’s skilled songwriting, tempo-twisting compositions and genre-refining vocal; we might be familiar with the rapper that sings (Drake), but L is the singer that raps. L explains,

I’ve always had this style, I call it ‘rhythmic singing. I actually started out as a rapper until I discovered I was a pretty good singer and I started to blend the two. But I didn’t realise, until Drake came along, that it would be acceptable to do both. Rappers like Drake, and Ja Rule to an extent before him, showed how it’s done one way; I’m trying to show you how to do it the other!

Signed to Mercury Records in April 2011, L has spent the last few months recording his debut album with an A-list line-up of hitmakers including Jerry “Wonder” Duplessis (T.I., Lupe, Mary J Blige), Supa Dups (Drake, Eminem, Bruno Mars) and Novel (Gaga, Jason Derulo). He’s also been busy penning tracks with the likes of Fraser T. Smith (Florence, Adele, Beyoncé), for JLS, Kelis and Cheryl Cole. Of his debut album, L says,

I want it to have everything from dark hip-hop to straight up global pop. Nothing less than that.

With influences ranging from Tupac, Aerosmith, Enya, Daft Punk and Lady Gaga, you can be assured his debut album will be as eclectic, diverse and, indeed, global as his upbringing.

We definitely think he’s got the goods, as is evident in his music style and vocal range.
Check out L Marshall’s new website here!

Designing and building websites is what we do – it’s become second nature to us, but inevitably, there are things that hold the process up – this has got to be a first – Tim loved the initial visual mockups and the explanation of the site architecture so much that he gave us the nod to start building pretty much immediately. So we’ve been hard at it for the past week, conscious of the fact that Tim has an upcoming European tour with Dwight Yoakam, Joey & Rory and Laura Bell Bundy, that we really wanted to push his presence out there sooner rather than later.

So here we are, just gone midnight, and we’ve dropped Tim a text announcing his site is live, to which we got an immediate reply, “Looks great man – I better get tweeting!”

We first heard Tim when we were photographing the International Festival of Country Music @ Wembley in February and really took a liking to his unique voice. Tim digged the photos we presented him and we have kept in touch since. With his upcoming European gigs, a two week long festival in Seychelles and his impending visit to Nashville, we said, let’s get the ball rolling with a real slick site and brand… and the rest is history.

Tim’s album, “Chasing Dreams” is available from his site and also through Amazon with the ultra-melodic single “Goodbye Would Go” currently featured on the homepage.

We’re really happy with the final result, as is Tim and we hope you enjoy the experience. Check it out here.

It has been a long and adventurous journey from the initial conceptualisation to meetings with the band and album art designers – a process which was imperative to ensure that the final online presence truly reflected the brand of Saint Etienne and importantly as well, the theme of their upcoming album.

We went to work to pull together a multitude of assets from the old website – news archives, footage, discography and tracks and then redesigned the user journey to offer a balance between simple architecture and an aethetically clean and brand-consistent visual (note the London-tube-styled navigation).

Saint Etienne are not short of discography and news, so we aimed to create a hub for their fans where they could indulge in all the Saint Etienne history as well as keep in touch with upcoming tours and live event dates. Combining loads of social interatcion, a media and information hub for fans and of course, an avenue to sales, a content management system and a fully responsive design, the new website’s is indicative of the Saint Etienne formula of lo-fidelity and intriguing, quirky visuals.

We’re really chuffed with the results and hope you will be too, so why not head on down and have a look here.

We put in a visual pitch to Mercury Records earlier last month after analysing their brief for the artist and after scrutinisation by L Marshall himself, we have been given the green light to start full design and development to establish his online presence.

L Marshall is a UK artist with global aspirations. The 24 year old is a captivating, charismatic writer and performer and an incredible vocalist who treads the taut line between commercial appeal and underground credibility. With influences ranging from Tupac, Aerosmith, Enya, Daft Punk and Lady Gaga, he’s a diverse artist with tremendous potential.

We are going to be putting together a very visual, social and strong content-managed site to enable his fans to access the latest information with a wealth of interactivity.

Stay tuned for the release coming soon!

We first saw Tim perform at Wembley Arena earlier this year alongside a star-studded US line up including Reba McEntire, Lonestar and Asleep At The Wheel, and along with the packed arena, we were very impressed with this homegrown artist. Country music is slowly gaining the recognition it deserves over here in the UK, with strong promotion and several international acts visiting our shores yearly, but it’s still nowhere near where it needs to be. Tim McKay and his band are making sure that this gets rectified. It does help that he is an enormously talented musician and vocalist, which is evident in the exposure he has been getting of late.

We think it’s very important to convey his brand online in the most international way possible, to ensure his presence matches the quality of his talent, so we’re moving forward in conceptualising this over the next week or so before getting stuck into the development which will incorporate a wealth of information, media and interactive features for his fans and fans of the genre alike.

Winning a cluster of 47 awards so far including ‘Best Male Vocalist, Entertainer of the year and Best International touring artist in Europe 2010. Tim has an awards case to be proud of. He has opened up for Marty Stuart on one of his UK tour dates, represented the UK in Nashville and earlier this year, representing the UK at Wembley and along with other high profile shows scheduled in for 2012.

We are very excited about working with Tim and conceptualising his online presence and brand – watch this space!

Smatt’s is one of the finest rums ever produced, dating back to the earliest days of rum production in the Caribbean. Considered by many as the world’s best tasting rum due to its intense smoothness and unique flavours, Smatt’s epitomises the unrivalled quality that has made Jamaica the home of rum. The birthplace of Smatt’s is a historic distillery, beautiful estates surrounded by soaring mountains, pure mineral springs and rich sugar cane fields; elements that all contribute to the Smatt’s phenomenon.

After a number of meetings with the directors of Smatt’s Rum, we established that the long term vision was to create a minimalistic yet stylish online presence which encompassed the values of the Smatt’s brand, so we examined the existing Flash based site which had long expired as the ideal solution for the current market, given the trends of browsing on tablet and mobile devices and its lack of scaleability, search integration and content management. We stripped it back to the bare shell and highlighted the key messages that Smatt’s wanted to convey – first and foremost, their product, followed by the history and tradition behind the rum alongside its place in the market.

We came up with a very subtle and stylish set of templates built on a sturdy content management system so things such as their regular events – International Polo, co-branded launches et al – which Smatt’s are very proactive in, become easily manageable and integrate well in the site without detracting from the focus of the products.

In addition to the digital element, we have also been involved in redesigning key material such as bottle labels, billboards, marketing collateral and event invites.

Sometimes, simple works best. Check out the result here.

Fans have been streaming on the landing site to download the new single since one minute past midnight on 8th April which was pre-empted by a big countdown site in the weeks leading up to it, and we’re excited to have been a part of the creative process that built this hype.

We teamed up with Mercury Records a few weeks back to start the process by replacing Justin’s official website landing page with a countdown to the release of the new single, culminating with a switchover to a new design at midnight on 8th April, two weeks earlier than originally anticipated as the release date was brought forward, much to the delight of his fans here in the UK. This opened up the site for users to download the single from iTunes and traffic skyrocketed around this time, seeing 87,000 Facebook Likes and over 55,000 Tweets in the 48 hours that followed, along with the single hitting number 2 on the UK download charts within just 12 hours of it being released.

Check out the official landing page, see a video message from Justin and download the new single – all at justinbieberofficial.co.uk.

After a lengthy spell of rebrand and reestablishment, we have now launched the fully content managed website for Kamini, which showcases its multitude of services and the unique traditions that have made this salon a haven for Londoners (including a wealth of celebrities). The brand is well established and has had years of exposure so realising its digital space is adding further strength to its already growing reputation.

In addition to showcasing its services and wealth of products including Sothys, Essie Nail Care, Neom Candles and Cetuem, the website will offer the exchange of beauty tips and provide its own beauty secrets in an engaging community center and going forwad will be presenting users with an online booking facility.

About Kamini Beauty

Kamini Beauty, named after the woman who has worked for some 20 years to create pioneering treatments for the world to experience.

Famous in celebrity circles for her bespoke eyebrow shape which has to be tried to be believed. Kamini also offers a host of other services within the peaceful haven that is her salon located in Kensington.

Kamini has dedicated her life to understanding beauty therapy in a way that others don’t. Her personal philosophy, which is at the heart of her business, is that of changing the way people think as well as the way people look and feel about their face and body.

Her prime expertise and what she has become famous for in celebrity circles is her bespoke eyebrow shape – second to none in the business – and has to be tried to be believed. Having taught herself the miraculous technique, Kamini operates a swift, pain-free service that she confirms will eventually prevent systematic regrowth and will leave you with eyebrows looking like that of a movie star. Having diagnosed any problems with shape and current shaping techniques, Kamini is strict in her prognosis, adamant that tweezers, waxing or threading by other therapists is not an option. Kamini implores her clients to trust her judgment and they will only ever be satisfied with the results.

Kamini has also developed her own facials, accompanied with massages, to achieve perfect results for all different types of skin. It takes just one look at a face for Kamini to know immediately what the problem is and how it can be rectified. Nobody has perfect skin to begin with, but with Kamini’s intuition and innovation, she can get it to as close to perfect as is humanly possible.

Alongside these innovative treatments, Kamini offers a host of other services within the peaceful haven that is her salon, located off the charming Kensington Church Street in the heart of the Royal Borough.

Kamini are very happy with the result, and we’d like to share it with you. Visit the new Kamini Beauty website here.

The success of the ongoing Elbow Instagr.am competition has prompted our friends down at Universal to roll out several additional competitions for some of their other artists who have pending deluxe and remastered releases on the way.

The Dio and Thin Lizzy sites have taken on a broader role, not limiting themselves to Instagr.am, which is currently only available for iPhone users, but moving over to the wider realm using the Flickr API, which allows users with any device to participate – be that directly through Flickr (desktop or mobile) or via third party applications such as Twitter.

Fans will love these competitions as it gives them a chance to be creative with their photography – the Dio competition asks users to take snaps of themselves pulling the “Devil’s Horns” – made famous by the late Ronnie James Dio himself, and we’re already seeing a great mix of photos feeding through.

The beauty of visual sites such as Instagr.am, Flickr, Picasa are that they have spent a lot of time putting together sophisticated APIs which means from our perspective, integration into stand-alone websites is as straighforward as pulling the devil’s horns.

Universal are chuffed with the results, as we are and as we hope you will be too. You can view the two different sites using the links below:

Dio’s Devil’s Horns
Thin Lizzy-Gram

Instagr.am is just simply AWESOME in the ever-growing lo-fi culture and we are confident that putting together weekly timed challenges where users submit their photos via the mobile app based on song titles from the band’s two albums will give exposure and drive sales to the recently released deluxe editions.

Focusing on a minimalistic design around the lo-fi feel, the microsite will outline the winner’s photo on a weekly basis, contains a countdown and real-time feeds of submitted photos hashtagged with the tag of the week. The idea is really simple, but as “mobile socialising” and “iphoneography” is the new craze, it provides a true one-click mechanism to enter the competition and share original photography in one spot.

We’re really excited about the launch, so get involved and start snapping photos to get you in the running for the prizes.

Check out the Elbow Instagr.am site here!