Out of our work on the Argyll Communities website for AVA, came the Argyll and the Islands Leader website. Ideally suited for WordPress, this project utilises post thumbnails, gallery slideshows, custom fields, some php applets within the theme itself, as well as some fairly thorough-going optimisation techniques for search engines and speed (a lot of which we have learned on ForArgyll.com). The main challenge however was to create a sufficiently capable template to cater for the hundreds of projects Leader has funded while making them search engine friendly, both to Google et al. and using the internal WP search. The result we think is an excellent and accessible WordPress implementation which with ‘Thelonius’s’ fab auto-upgrade will stand the test of time.

This is another artwork developing the graphic identity of the Kames Hotel. Using typeface from the A4 wedding brochure we designed last year, we’ve created a punchy, visually appealing Ad for the Scotsman on Sunday. As ever the photography is by the ever-creative Philippa Elliott, and shows elements of what the Kames has to offer (more personality per square foot than anywhere else on the West Coast).

We have just finished design and writing the copy for the new A4 Presentation Folder for the ScottishLaird.com project. This is the first version of what will become a series of souvenir presentation folders which existing lairds and ladies can purchase. To market this new development we have produced a ‘3D’ artwork for the website.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Building Your Brand Through Consistency (mfinch.ca)
• Evolution of Advertising & Public Relations: PR’s Winning (pr-squared.com)
• FeedDemon 3 – The Perfect Twitter Client (labnol.org)

…. even if we say so ourselves. This project continues to intrigue and delight us here at Arbu, not only because the visual material we have been sent is so strong, but because of the variety of historical material these Museums and Heritage sites exhibit. When we were writing the back cover copy, something which I took particular pleasure in, we could draw upon the entirety of Scottish history for inspiration. The result was some of the bast marketing copy I have written for a while:

“Viking, Celt or Pict, Sassenach, Gael or Scot, Argyll & Bute’s museums will bring your heritage to life.

“From bronze age man to the Picts and the Gaels, from the Spanish Armade thrugh the Clearances to the rise of the Victorian Industrialists, the museums and heritage sites in this guide, together create a stunning narrative of life in the region which spans its beautiful geography as much as its complex and ancient past.

“Learn about the lives of the ordinary folk as well as the clan chiefs, of the battles fought here as well as the peace lived, of the craft and artistry of the West Coast people as well as the harshness of some of their lives.

“This guide is designed to introduce you to the full breadth of Argyll and Bute’s heritage, and perhaps connect you with yours!

Now aside from writing superlative copy, one of our underplayed strengths, the branding and visuals have provided us with some challenges we have relished. For example, the original logo, works extremely well on its own, however in this context we needed to give the visitor a guide on what the Forum actually means and how it is trying to connect with its audience, hence the tag, “Bring your heritage to life!”. We wanted to subliminally empower the visitor, ask them to see these venues as being of value because of their, the visitor’s, attention. It also brings in the idea of folk tracing their genealogy, taking a positive role in constructing an historical narrative in which their family plays a part – after all what are we most interested in? Ourselves. And then there is also the idea that these 15 Great Museums create a really fantastic themed tour around Argyll, allowing the guide’s users to bring their heritage to life in a narrative of the actual journey to each of these venues.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A gift from Rothesay to Rothesay (forargyll.com)
• Argyll’s MSP and Energy Minister, Jim Mather, responds to concerns over Kintyre grid upgrade (forargyll.com)
• Argyll & Bute Council sees third consecutive unanimous acceptance of its budget amid sense of positive collective responsibility (forargyll.com)
• Early invasion by Ireland evidenced by DNA in Islay, Skye, Harris and Lewis (forargyll.com)
• Reaper to visit Argyll: Oban and Tobermory (forargyll.com)
• Two wild winning opportunities for Argyll farmers (forargyll.com)

This is in development, but is sufficiently advanced to show here as a piece in and of itself. We particularly like bringing the 2D cartographic environment into the 3D with our square, Frappr-like pins. Evidently the ongoing “map-everything” meme which Google began with GoogleEarth is infecting all areas of the design industry, and in this case for the better:

The Dunans Charitable Trust have commissioned ARBU to create and revise existing signage which guides walkers around the Dunans Project’s Woodland Garden in Glendaruel. We have been working on the first element of this: the revised map sign. Of course edits have to be made, but in addition the trust has extended the path network (and has plans to extend it further) and is in the process of creating a new visitor facility in the grounds. These works have been enabled both by active directors and the ScottishLaird.com project which has made available several hundred man hours as well as trees for planting and material for the new path elements through the sale of laird- and ladyships. In the next week we will be producing small direction signage as well as a new panel to celebrate the tallest tree in the UK, the Stronardron Fir, of which the Dunans pathways have the best view.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Dunans Castle Views the tallest tree in the UK – it’s official (dunans.org)
• All a sweetly twitter my Laird! (scottishlaird.com)

Such is the translation of the McDougall motto, which the new Homecoming Production, the Hidden Jewel is using as its strap-line! We have just completed phase 1 of this project (and thoroughly enjoyable it is proving to be too), and we’re now working on the reverse side of this ticket, including maps and terms and conditions, as well as an A4 poster and DL format flyers (all of which more later). In the meantime, here’s the ticket artwork — some of the text isn’t finalised, but the graphical side is ready for go.

As part of Scotland’s Year of Homecoming 2009 Dunollie Castle are hosting a spectacular theatrical event, The Hidden Jewel. Arbu are branding the print material for this weeklong extravaganza and we have just had approval of the logo design. Next on the roster is the ticket for the event, and after that posters and flyers. The event which runs between the 17th -23rd July 2009 is set to tell some amazing stories about Clan McDougall and their family seat.

A theatrical spectacular at Dunollie Castle

Related articles by Zemanta

• Scotland’s Homecoming Year 2009 starts today (lenina.wordpress.com)
• Scotland wants you to come home (gadling.com)

… or Arbu designs the most visited websites in Argyll!

So you’re about to commission a website, you’ve got a competitive tender going and you need some sort of objective criteria to measure the expertise of the companies and individuals quoting. Difficult for SMEs who are focussed on business and products, near impossible for associations and organisations without in-house web expertise. There is an answer though.

Alexa.com ranks websites worldwide on how much traffic they get and how long they retain visitors for. The stats look like gobbledegook at first, but once you see the rankings it becomes much easier. I now have the Alexa Firefox plugin which allows me to see the rank of sites as I visit them. The ongoing battle for number one spot is fascinating, but what’s more useful is seeing how successful Arbu’s site designs are in terms of the traffic they pull in.

As you’ll have gathered from this blog, we work on ForArgyll.com, the region’s premier news service, and top website, and it is this site which has really made us pay attention to Alexa’s very useful stats. Here’s how things looked the week beginning March 2009 with a random selection of other websites from across Cowal and Argyll (Arbu’s websites are marked in bold):

1. forargyll.com’s rank this week is 346,703
2. Lochfyne.com has a traffic rank of: 357,874
3. Argyll-bute.gov.uk has a traffic rank of:  546,984
4. Arbu.biz’s rank this week is 596,532
5. Dunans.org’s rank this week is 1,101,285
6. Colglen.org’s rank this week is 2,204,430
7. Watermill-glendaruel.com has a traffic rank of:  3,545,293
8. TheWalkingTheatreCompany.com’s rank is 4,469,314
9. Cowal-dunoon.com has a traffic rank of:  5,008,692
10. Bumbleargyll.com has a traffic rank of: 5,571,596
11. Philippaelliott.com has a traffic rank of:  5,694,181
12. Katesbigchair.com has a traffic rank of: 6,149,160
13. Dunoon-observer.co.uk has a traffic rank of:  7,737,864
14. Argyllpublishing.com has a traffic rank of:  10,479,940
15. Cowalopenstudios.co.uk has a traffic rank of:  17,706,517
16. Aboutargyll.co.uk has a traffic rank of:  18,078,371
17. Glendaruelcaravanpark.com has a traffic rank of:  22,858,198
18. Cowalfest.org does not register

This is NOT a definitive list of websites across Argyll, but it does show how the hierarchy of business turnover or local visibility is completely undermined by the traffic visiting these webpages. For example, there is no way in a sensible world that the ColGlen website should be over three million ranks higher than the main site for the Dunoon and Cowal Marketing Group, but it is. Similarly, and probably more incredibly, a small (but luxurious) B&B run by Michael and Sandra Webster is 15 million places higher than their local friendly-neighbourhood Caravan park.

How do these things happen? Well, aside from saying that Arbu knows what it is doing in terms of attracting traffic, it is probably sufficient to say that a lovely design isn’t as important as knowing how the web works.

So, if you are thinking of commissioning a website in the near future and you want a directly comparable way of measuring how your tenderers’ previous commissions stack up, or if you would like to check these ranking out for yourself, click here

A final thought: if you have a web designer, and you’re wanting a quick thumbnail of how they’re doing in terms of traffic, put their website into Alexa.com – you may be surprised!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Cowalfest – walking and the arts (forargyll.com)
• Google Rank: 23 (developing.fyneside.com)
• Polphail Photos (arbu.biz)
• Argyll’s Ardkinglas Railway (forargyll.com)
• The Great Redesign of ForArgyll.com (developing.fyneside.com)

The latest strategy to market accommodation is to go mobile. The rest of the world has, but perhaps not the less technology-driven sectors of the tourist industry, particularly B&Bs. The Watermill’s owners Michael and Sandra Webster gave Arbu the brief to promote their business as widely as possible, and one of the strategies we have come up with is to make their website, watermill-glendaruel.com, mobile browser-ready. How did we do this? A combination of WordPress, javascript and a little template trickery. The result below, is a ‘thin’ version of the site which carries some all important information on the front page: the phone number and the postcode. The former for the mobile phone to make the booking and the latter for the satnav so no instructions are needed. We’ll be putting the GPS up as soon as possible too.