Web Design Trends for 2014

Since early 2013 we have been concentrating on using WordPress as an additional way of creating web designs for clients that want to update the sites themselves.
WordPress looks like it will continue to be the most popular website building platform for a while longer.
The team at Fusion have been making sure we are bang up to date and creating sites that are modern, meaningful and technologically sound. So when we were asked to provide a guest blog on another site, we were delighted to expand on current web trends for 2014. The article can be seen here>

Responsive Website Design made clear

We have been very busy in 2012 creating Responsive websites.

We think 2013 will see a dramatic increase in the number of websites built for desktop, tablet and mobile. 

What is Responsive Web Design you ask? A Responsive website is a single site that has been built to change its layout depending on the device it is displayed on. This means, testing websites as they are created on a variety of mobiles and tablet devices to ensure they display correctly. It also means that a designer will need to create a minimum of three layouts, one for desktop, one for mobile phones and one for tablets; creating three style sheets.

Is it more costly? Initially there is a little bit more work to do in setting up the themes, style sheets and layouts, however once these are done the build of the site is pretty much as before. However, the extra time spent on creating a responsive website will be worth the effort as your site will be accessed successfully on all devices without the need to zoom in.

Zooming, horizontal scrolling and navigation on a mobile phone that displays a desktop website is becoming a nuisance as more people want to access sites and read them more easily when they are out and about. Access to your site at all times is becoming more and more important.

What to look out for:

If you are looking for a designer to create a new responsive website for you, there are a few things to watch out for -

• Make sure the site loads quickly on desktop, mobile and tablet
• Make sure the site displays correctly on the smaller devices, sites that float around and show disjointed content are to be avoided
• be prepared to have less content display on mobiles, getting your message across is key
• check the code by right-clicking the site background (on desktop) this way if a site is not displaying correctly on mobile you may find that if a theme has been used it might be one to avoid

RWD is new technology and designers are learning how to create great websites that will perform everywhere.

Our first Responsive websites can be viewed here:

http://www.fusion-ipswich.co.uk

http://www.juliette-john.com

http://www.athelingtonhallweddings.co.uk

http://www.logcabinholidays.co.uk

http://www.csnilabour.org.uk

And more on the way

Soo

How a Hangover Saved My Great-Grandfather's Life

100 years ago, my great grandfather George Bailey had just been told that he had a new job. He'd been out of work for a while, in and out of work on Southampton Docks. The night before he was due to start work he decided that he would go out and celebrate with a few beers. He would be working hard on a ship as an engine stoker and would be away from home for quite a while. He wouldn't have much time for fun either, and an engine stoker was a really tough job.

The next morning my grandmother was not very pleased with him when she realised that he hadn't got up in time to catch the ship. She berated him for throwing away the chance to earn a good amount of money.

However, my grandfather had the last laugh when the ship - the Titanic - hit an iceberg.

After that he stayed on dry land working as a stevedor.

Family Tree:
Charles Bailey b 1846 -> George Bailey b 1877 -> Thomas FC Bailey b 1903 -> Thomas EG Bailey b 1933 -> Susan Bailey (me, now Smart)
Soo Smart

Does your business need illustrations to answer your brief

Do you ever get fed up seeing the same old stock images over and over again?

Have you ever spent hours trying to find an image that matches your clients description?

Or have you found a series of icons or illustrations that answer your client's brief, but they are all different in style and colour?

I have spent many hours searching for images or icons that fit with my clients needs, but rarely find a set of icons that completely covers their requirements, or a range of images that they want to pay for. I end up creating my own icons for websites and documents and have had many projects where I have created a range of illustrations in a consistent style for businesses and youth projects.

Businesses often need a strong bespoke image to communicate to their clients and using Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Ideas on iPad has been great for answering this perennial problem.  Creating vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator means that the images can be scaled for large format printing and reduced for the web and still look crisp. Mastering the Pen in Illustrator will be the best tool you'll ever use, once you get used to it in one programme, you will be able to transfer those skills into others such as Photoshop and InDesign.

The key to creating great illustrations is understanding the Pen tool:

From the left we have The Pen, Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point and Convert Anchor Point.
Start by clicking some dots on a page with the Pen Tool and use the Convert Anchor Point tool to smooth the corners:

Click and drag each anchor point to smooth the corners and use the Direct Selection tool:  this white arrow to move the anchor points into your desired position.

Experiment with borders and fills, thicknesses of border to explore how different this makes your illustration look:

You can look at more finished examples of illustrations created for businesses and youth projects here: click

How to achieve great website design - do you want to stand out?

More and more web design companies are being set up in the present climate, creating a larger pool of design styles and technical knowlege for clients to choose from. So how do you stand out above the competition? What is going to make a client choose you over somebody else? If your own website is poorly designed, lacks good search engine optimisation or has missing links, your potential clients will drift away. We have 12 years experience in creating great websites for our clients and have created here, a list of simple strategies to help you.


1 - Web design is a meeting of technology with beautiful graphic design, make sure you study both if you want to succeed
Why? You may come from a tehcnical background and have excellent skills in this area, but do you have the graphic design skills to help you create a truly great website? You may come from a graphics background and are finding the technical side of web design a little bit daunting.
It takes time to develop these skills. Research is key to combining both technical and graphic design skills necessary for web design. There are many books available to get you thinking about how great graphic design makes for great usability, I found "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug well worth the money, everything in it is so obvious, you wonder why you didn't think of it yourself.


2 - Use Photoshop as an aid to layout and plan your website, work at 72ppi and put the rulers on pixels. Use guidelines.
Why? Because web design like all other kinds of design take planning. If you use a themed website approach from one of the many web building aides around, like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, you may think the design is already done for you. It isn't complete, you will need to plan out new graphics and areas that will fit the style of the theme provided. If you look closely at some of the less successful theme designed sites you will see inconsistencies in colour, graphic styles and form. Example.


3 - Don't slice up the whole of your a photoshop design for the web, leave text alone to be input as text not a graphic.
Why? Not only is it the height of laziness, it will make your website very slow to load, be un-searchable in search engines and not even figure on Google. Unneccessary blocks of colour with text turned into graphics do nothing for the user either, especially if the font is overly fancy.
Well written copy keyed straight into your html code is quick and lighter to load, search engines love relevant words that relate to the business of the site.


4 - Code the colour for backgrounds, and put images in the background where appropriate, this way your site will load quickly.
Why? Setting a colour for the page background is the lightest way to add 'texture' to your site. You can use jQuery to add gradients or create a small background image that repeats to fill the page. Images with transparency place on top of backgrounds will load quicker than a completely solid image and you can use it on a number of different backgrounds. 
Think about using .gif and .png files for flexible use of images. 


5 - Resize images for the web before you insert them into your code or editing programme, this way your site will load quicker
Why? Have you ever waited while a site slowly loads it images? The images may have been dramatically reduced in html, beware of doing this youself. 


6 - Use 2 CSS files, one for your layout, the other for typesetting, keep as much CSS out of your HTML files as possible.
Why? If you have too much CSS styling in the tag, search engines will struggle to find relevant text to use to display your site high up the rankings. Organise you stylesheets into two kinds - one for layout, the other for typography. It makes finding style items easier. You may need further stylesheets for different layouts of course, and keeping your CSS files in a separate folder can make life easier for you.


7 - Only use Flash to demonstrate your skills, don't create Flash only websites as many mobile devices don't support it.
Why? It is a shame that many large companies have blocked Flash from their staff's workstations, this historically relates to spam that used to be attached to games and other Flash files in the late 1990s. Mobile devices don't all display Flash either, so all your hard work will go un-noticed on mobile devices and people will leave your site immediately.


8 - Nicely designed graphics speak volumes, don't use clipper art, clients do not want to pay for something they can do themselves
Why? Consistency is key to great design, you may think that it doesn't matter if you use a variety of icons and graphics so long as they illustrate the point you want to make. But the design will be compromised and start to look messy. Examples.


9 - Keep words to a minimum on your homepage, you need to get your message across in a short, snappy manner.
Why? People won't read beyond the first couple of paragraphs unless they are reading an article, you can save thos for other pages on your website. A small piece of text that sums up your business will draw people in and encourage them to return.


10 - Integrate your social media sites to your website, this way you increase traffic to your site and show brand awareness.
Why? Show people that you mean business, by using social media you can offer advice and learn from others as well. Links to and from social media increases your presence on search engines, so long as you use it and keep your site refreshed with new content.


11 - Use keywords - write your introduction with your keywords in mind. But don't over do it, Google doesn't like it.
Why? A well written introduction that makes sense and uses just a couple of choice keywords will help improve your search results. Peppering your text with random, meaningless keywords may cause search engines to demote your site. This guy Bruce Clay's site is well worth a read.


12 - Verify your site on Google and create a sitemap. This will improve your page rankings.
Why? Professionalism 


13 - Create a Blog and news feeds and send these to your site to help improve your search results.
Why? As point 10, show that you understand your business and are committed to it. 


14 - Get to know the difference between good and bad design, research pays, and listen to your client, they are all different.
Why? A tricky one this, there are as many design styles as there are people. One man's meat is another man's poison - however, great design should be easy on the eye. It takes time to get really confident with your area of expertise, there are things I liked years ago that I don't now. Art and design are subjective, so you will need to avoid taking criticism too much to heart, but take notice of feedback and act on what makes sense. 




15 - Build a website that suits your clients needs, nobody wants to pay for work that looks like everyone else's website.
Why? Your clients pay you to create a great website for them that will gain them business, they each have their own needs, listen to them and act upon their brief. You may not always agree, but you can find a common path and reach a good solution.
Your clients will want to feel that you are doing your best for them, thoughtful design solutions for each client will give you a varied portfolio.

Fifteen Top Tips for Great Website Design

Tweeting now at 11:47am each day over two more weeks - 15 Top Tips to get you on the right track for designing great websites. Just follow @Bloohair on Twitter.

1 - Web design is a meeting of technology with beautiful graphic design, make sure you study both if you want to succeed

2 - Use Photoshop as an aid to layout and plan your website, work at 72ppi and put the rulers on pixels. Use guidelines.

3 - don't slice up the whole of your a photoshop design for the web, leave text alone to be input as text not a graphic.

4 - Code the colour for backgrounds, and put images in the background where appropriate, this way your site will load quickly.

5 - Resize images for the web before you insert them into your code or editing programme, this way your site will load quicker

6 - Use 2 CSS files, one for your layout, the other for typesetting, keep as much CSS out of your HTML files as possible.

7 - Only use Flash to demonstrate your skills, don't create Flash only websites as many mobile devices don't support it.

8 - Nicely designed graphics speak volumes, don't use clipper art, clients do not want to pay for something they can do themselves

9 - Keep words to a minimum on your homepage, you need to get your message across in a short, snappy manner

10 - integrate your social media sites to your website, this way you increase traffic to your site and show brand awareness

11 - Use keywords - write your introduction with your keywords in mind. But don't over do it, Google doesn't like it.

12 - verify your site on Google and create a sitemap. This will improve your page rankings.

13 - Create a Blog and news feeds and send these to your site to help improve your search results.

14 - Get to know the difference between good and bad design, research pays, and listen to your client, they are all different.

15 - Build a website that suits your clients needs, nobody wants to pay for work that looks like everyone else's website.

Ten Top Tips for Best Practices in Mobile Website Design

No1: 
Design for a variety of platforms, iPhone/Pad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone


No2:
Keep it Simple - quick to access with short, snappy text and small images. It should be simplet than your standard site


No3:
Link to your standard site, and then link that one back to the mobile site


No4: 
Create a Separate mobile theme. Your main website won't scale down for mobile without a separate CSS and simplified 


No5: 
Only scroll in one direction - same as for your main site, double scrolling is no good, make sure your design fits 


No6: 
No need for pop up windows - mobile technologies is designed to make switching from page to page easy 


No7: 
Make buttons big enough for fingers - on small screens the proportions are different to standard web design 


No8: 
Make text bigger and images smaller - to comfortably read your content, example: http://www.doublesdesign.com/ 


No9: 
No Flash - many mobile devices do not support Flash, so your hard work will go un-noticed 


No10: 
Include as much content as possible but keep simple, compare this site on mobile and desktop: http://www.millriver.co.uk/

Oral bacteria linked to pneumonia risk

Our client - Rushmere DentalCare has highlighted an article on the Dentistry.co.uk website which introduces another reason to keep our teeth clean. "Thousands of vulnerable people are being reminded they should look after their oral health this winter after scientists further linked oral bacteria to an increased risk of pneumonia." Read the whole article here: http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/4739--Oral-health-Oral-bacteria-linked-to-pneumonia-risk

Your local BACD registered dental practice and licenced cosmetic dentistry http://www.rushmeredentalcare.co.uk

Good news for Start-Up companies in Ipswich

Do you want a website that is easy for you to manage and update yourself?

Do you want a website designed quickly to help you get your business off the ground?

Heard about WordPress but don't know where to start?

The good news is we have recently helped two new businesses get noticed locally using our combined skills and in return they have given us some wonderful feedback on how their new sites and strong branding has got them off to a flying start, with hundreds of hits in the first month of a site going live. You can see them here: http://www.keithjamesentertains.com/
and http://www.theblowdrybarandgarrafishlounge.co.uk/

We love variety and we love creating the best possible solution for our customers. With the rise of new technology and web-building products such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal we now offer our clients a more flexible, cost-effective way of managing their online presence.
Along side this we have a range of package deals to help get your business started, create a brand and link to your Social Media sites. However, if it is just a website you want, then our costs are even more competitive, it's easy to call and have a chat about your requirements.

Call 01473 410278 or 01473 728617

Or simply send us an email here

Suffolk Businesses Support Athletes for Destination Gold

Across Suffolk, enlightened employers are realising that being part of the London 2012
Games is good for morale and one of the best ways to engage your staff is by sponsoring an athlete.

In Suffolk a group of leading businesses have seen the opportunity the Games presents to
engage their staff and have aligned themselves to a local 2012 hopeful through the Suffolk
SportsAid Foundation Destination Gold initiative.

'Destination Gold' is an innovative approach to use the excitement of theLondon 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to raise money to support the most talented athletes in the county, including Suffolk's brightest 2012 prospects. Read more>>

Our Marketing & PR wins Award for Kitchen Showroom

LOCAL KITCHEN SHOWROOM WINS ADVERTISING GRANT AWARD FROM NEFF AT MASTERPARTNER EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2011

Ipswich Company Anglia Factors has been chosen as a runner up for the first Advertising & Marketing Grant Award presented by the UK’s leading built in kitchen appliance brand Neff at the company’s annual MasterPartner® Excellence Awards 2011.

Dan Barr, Managing Director of Neff MasterPartner® Anglia Factors of Ipswich in Suffolk accepted the prestigious £2,500 Grant on behalf of the company.  The money will be used to drive the business forward by investing in a number of innovative marketing and promotional strategies.

The Advertising & Marketing Annual Grant Award was presented at a special Awards Dinner held in the Central Hall of the famous Natural History Museum in London .The glittering event was hosted by the popular presenter of ITV 1’s ‘All Star Family Fortunes’, Vernon Kay.

Anglia Factors was one of three finalists in the first Advertising & Marketing Annual Grant Award category of this year’s Neff MasterPartner® Excellence Awards. 

He company was praised for their creative ideas and integrated marketing approach of the comprehensive advertising and marketing proposals submitted by Dan Barr of Anglia Factors.

The attached photo shows Dan Barr and Dave Charlton accepting their runners up cheques from Neff Brand Manager, Hannah Groves and host Vernon Kay. 

Comments Neff Brand Manager, Hannah Groves: “The Neff Excellence Awards recognise those who excel at being first class in every aspect of their business. Anglia Factors personify all the values we hold dear: quality, service, professionalism, creativity and enthusiasm.  We look forward to seeing how they invest the money and reap the rewards for the future of their business”

The Neff MasterPartner® Excellence Awards were set up in 2008 to recognise the successful partnership between brand leading built in kitchen appliance manufacturer, Neff and its key specialist dealers throughout the UK, known as MasterPartners®. 

ENDS.  Issued by Creativity PR on behalf of Neff.  October 2011.

Local PR: Sonia Shelcott, Millriver Publicity on 01473 410278

Contact: sonia@millriver.co.uk

On Social Media but Website still down in the dumps?

"I am on Social Media sites but it doesn't increase traffic to my website" - people ask me this occasionally, and I find that they are failing to link Social Media posts to their websites, or don't have buttons linking their sites to Facebook and Twitter etc.


Here I will explain:


Think of your website as the "centre" of the internet - that's a big statment, but if you think in this way you will increase traffic to your website.


Button Links
So, your website it the centre of your business. If you have not placed any buttons linking your website to your Social Media sites, it would be a good idea to do that for a start. Get your Web Designer to add some classy buttons that fit with the design of your site. Or if you are thinking about rebranding or starting up a business, choose a competent designer who can create bespoke buttons and build social media areas to your website that does not clash with the design of the site. Build them in and make it work.


Google Bots and Spyders
Now you have linked your website to your Social Media sites, Google and other Search Engines will notice "traffic" flowing from your site to the Social Media sites. This is a good start, but you need to encourage visitors back to your website rather than direct people away. So your next task is to draw attention to your website in your Tweets and Posts, then traffic will flow back to your site. Please see diagram here>>


Linking from Social Media to your website
Finally, you need to get to grips with creating a link to your website when you Tweet or Post on Facebook, or other. This needs to be done carefully, if you over do it, Google, Yahoo and other Search Engines will see this as Spam, so it's best not to link to your site every time you comment. It is also wise to link to your site when you have something to expand upon that will help other people and get them interested in YOU and your business. 


Out to the Internet
Once you ahve set all this up, traffic is flowing to and from your website and Google and other Search Engines will see your site as "Important" and start moving it up the rankings. You can check your rankings by downloading SEO Quake to your Mozilla Firefox browser and watch your Page Rank grow.

Sounds like a plan!

Typically, a communications campaign is only as good as its plan. 


Like any other avenue, a public relations road map should be reviewed not only with overall business goals in mind, but also with an eye toward opportunities and obstacles specific to PR. 


Here’s a checklist based on the most frequently overlooked or underrepresented elements. To fully evaluate your plan, ask yourself—or your PR team—the following questions. 


What is PR’s role? 
The PR program should have a distinct and defined role within the bigger marketing picture. Often, the best use of PR is to add depth or detail to brand messages or to lend credibility to an advertising claim. It’s rarely just “positive visibility.” 


Does it include internal audiences? 
Many plans don’t address employees and stakeholders. These audiences can be very powerful ambassadors for nearly any PR strategy. For a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, they are crucial. If employees and partners aren’t fully informed of a program’s goals and strategies, it can create roadblocks. Failure to do this is simply a lost opportunity. 


Is it coordinated with other marketing elements? 
Maybe full integration isn’t a goal, but simple coordination adds value to every piece. Very often we see newsworthy elements in other parts of the marketing plan, but we find them out too late to offer input or realize the news potential. 


Does it allow for full story development? 
In our haste to generate publicity or social media impact, we sometimes underestimate the time and research required for full story creation and for multiple storylines. Because this is the meat of most PR programs, it should be afforded time for fairly robust research, development, and vetting. The beauty of PR may be that we can shift tactics or change messaging without incurring production costs, but who wants to lose the time? 


Does it include a back up plan?
For the publicity piece of a PR plan, you should always have a backup plan—particularly if the planned coverage hinges on a seasonal opportunity or culminates in a special event.


Is it flexible? 
Similarly, any plan should be adaptable to market conditions, competitive developments, or changes in the news cycle as you go. Most PR programs operate within a very dynamic media environment, so change is the rule and not the exception. Take advantage of it with monthly plan reviews and adjustments. 


Does it include a contingency or crisis plan? 
It always pays to think through potentially damaging scenarios and be prepared with a defensive strategy. 


Is the timing realistic? 
People tend to underestimate the time required for research, tactical planning, and achieving media relations. If you want your publicity to hit in say in July you should be starting at least three months ahead, if not more!


By Sonia Shelcott

New iPad2 available in UK 25 March

I have fallen in love with the new iPad2, I've taken a look at iPad1 and this piece of kit is literally awesome. I have been deliberating on whether it is worth getting, since I have an Apple Mac, iPod and iPhone, but if you use the right apps you can use the iPad as a laptop, camera, book reader, play games and watch iPlayer.
Can't wait until 25 March.
You can also use it as a drawing pad, so the whole thing looks like an "Etcher-Sketcher" but without the rattle when you shake it!
Starting price £430 for 16GB is not an amount you want to spend on an impulse buy, so consideration is important.

When the going gets tough

When the going gets tough, what is the first thing businesses look to do? Yes, cut costs! It’s a normal response to a downturn, indeed some would say crucial to keeping the business lean and mean. Unfortunately some of the first candidates for cutback are marketing, advertising, design and public relations. Considered as a luxury during tough times and something that can be done without – Of course professionals in these fields throw caution to this and advise businesses not to hit the panic button.
Sonia Shelcott from local marketing and PR consultants Millriver Publicity commented: “It is well documented that brands who maintain their marketing presence during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and deliver a return on their investments. Maintaining strong brand awareness even in a downturn can play a crucial role in helping businesses keep its head above water and keeping one step ahead of its competitors. In a downturn businesses need to show strength and stability to its customers, cutting back too much on marketing budgets in the short term can actually cost a business more money in the long term, by having to rebuild your brand when the economy picks up and falling behind your competitors. It is crucial to remain successful, it puts you in a strong position when the market does eventually improve.”
Andrew Fleming is commercial partner of Blocks Solicitors, and realises the benefit of strong brand awareness. Andrew commented: “Although the business environment may be hardening, that’s when good marketing comes into its own. All businesses need to be able to communicate their particular strengths. As a firm, we invest in focused local advertising and have a concerted marketing strategy, which we intend to follow through and even enhance through this economic downturn.”
Cementing a company’s message is also crucial in a downturn, a good PR campaign backs up the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, amplifying its message, and it can help any size company build awareness.
Sonia commented: “Unfortunately many people see PR as a luxury it shouldn’t be if used correctly and integrated with an effective marketing plan. PR enhances reputation, builds a brand, and makes your business stand out from the crowd.” She added: “If you cut PR out in tough times you leave the door open for your competitors to walk in, you are much better off maintaining a presence in the public eye, keeping in peoples minds and communicating with your customers. If you are serious about business, you have to invest in it.”


By Sonia Shelcott

Three new websites go live!

After three months of intensive work, Soo and Sonia have now completed the Fusion Website. It is visible here: http://www.fusion-ipswich.co.uk and is a collaboration between Marketing and PR consultant Sonia Shelcott (Mill River Publicity) and Graphic and Web Designer Soo Smart (Double S Design).

Definitely two heads are better than one, together we can offer a full marketing, PR and design service. We are a PR, marketing and design consultancy that helps your business deliver highly effective PR and marketing campaigns. We share a passion for ethical, clear-sighted and client focused project delivery.

Whether your business is new, growing or established, we can deliver expertise and ideas that will drive your business forward. We work across a range of different sectors and pride ourselves on our many long-term partnerships with our clients. Working to your budgets and deadlines, either for a specific campaign or over a longer period of time, we can help to raise the profile of your business both in the written word and through creative design.
If you are looking for a dedicated consultancy to help you, please give us a call. We would be happy to visit to discuss your plans.
 
Fusion - Design, Marketing and PR Specialists. We share a passion for ethical, clear-sighted and client focused project delivery.

Social Networking -You Need Back Links

Did you know that it's no good doing social media if you don't link back to your site?



You may be very happy to communicate to your friends and business colleagues on Twitter and Facebook, but 2011 will be the year when Social Media comes into its own. If you are the only one seeing your Tweets, then your message is not getting across. If you never link your Tweets to your website, your are missing out on a vital way of driving traffic to your website. Search Engines look for links between sites, it thinks if there are links happening frequently, then your website is important.


Not only do you need to join Social Networking groups, but you also need to create a Blog and send the news from the Blog to your site via RSS feeds.


Is it all beginning to sound rather tricky and complicated? It's just a steep learning curve, but nothing you or a competent web designer cannot help you with or do for you. If you want to see what I mean, just click on these links here>> Tweets RSS Linked In Twitter News Feeds

Is your email address professional?

If you are serious about your business you need a professional email address. This means registering a domain and buying hosting. If you only need email and don't want a website for the time being, then that's as far as you need to go. It is a small fee to pay to look professional.
 OK, so we all have to start at the beginning and a hotmail or tiscali email address will do the job while you are setting things up. But if you want to look professional and don't know where to start, then simply give us a call on 01473 728617. We can set up your domain and email address without you having a Website.

Eddie the Eagle at Suffolk SportsAid Lunch

Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards is an icon of British sport following his heroic failure at the 1988 Calgary winter Olympics.
SUFFOLK SPORTSAID FOUNDATION LUNCH GUEST SPEAKER - EDDIE ‘THE EAGLE’ EDWARDS

Supported by Ipswich Town Football Club
Wednesday 3rd November 2010 12 noon
Sir Bobby Robson Suite, Ipswich Town Football Club, Portman Road, Ipswich
Price - £30 per person or £250 for a table of ten

To book your place or a Table, click here
Or email: sonia@millriver.co.uk

The so-called birdman of Cheltenham finished last in both the 70m and 90m skijumps at Calgary – his best effort of 73.5m was more than 50m behind the double gold winning Finn, Matt Nyaken. But instead of slinking home in disgrace and resuming his career as a plasterer, he arrived at Heathrow Airport to find a crowd of 10,000 fans, a 25-strong police escort and a whole new life of private jets, personal appearances, £10,000-an-hour fees and a Top 50 single, Fly Eddie Fly.


Eddie was a huge media celebrity – he appeared on Wogan, on the Johnny Carson show and even Ronald Reagan, then US president, held up a White House briefing to catch him on TV. His story is even the subject of a Hollywood Film.


This is an unmissable opportunity to hear a truly unique and compelling story from the legend that is Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards.
Suffolk SportsAid Foundation



The sole purpose of the Suffolk SportsAid Foundation is to raise money to help the next generation of Suffolk’s sporting talent to succeed. It is a joint initiative between SportsAid, the national charity for sports people, Suffolk Sport and ‘Rising to the Challenge Suffolk’ the campaign to maximise the benefits for Suffolk from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.


SportsAid is the only UK charity directly helping talented British sportsmen and women. Their research identifies that on average each athlete spends nearly £5,000 per year on equipment, training, travelling and all the other essentials that are required for competing at the top level. More often than not their only sponsors are Mum and Dad, so every bit of independent recognition and financial help that the young athlete gets at this stage makes a world of difference.


Since the Suffolk SportsAid Foundation was launched in 2007 it has awarded over 60 grants to talented sportsmen and women from across Suffolk, all of whom are competing at either national or international level.

Your Logo - Only One Part of Your Brand

Your Logo alone should not be the finishing point of your brand identity. Your brand is more than simply the logo, it is the personality that identifies your company or product and should encompass the beliefs and attitudes of that business. Thinking further about your brand identity, is it something that needs to be reviewed every couple of years or longer? Is the message you created when you set up the company, still relevant today? Or, in more simple terms, do all your marketing materials look like they have come from the same company?


Your Logo therefore, is only one part of your brand: careful brand managemant employs many visual clues to carry a consistent message to your target audience. A single graphic that acts as the link to your clients, can be joined with other strong design themes, and this will help your brand be recognised as coming from the same source.
By Double S Design