With the internet becoming the primary marketing tool for many businesses, having a memorable domain name is important, but it’s getting harder as nearly a thousand domains are being registered every hour – your dream domain name could be taken soon (if it’s not already)!

The iconic Andy Warhol is currently exhibiting in Southampton. This is an exciting development in the cultural growth of our city. It’s timing is welcome and very much in line with the refurbished Guildhall Square, and the long awaited and freshly christened Cultural Quarter.

We’ve recently finished an exciting video project using green screens – working with Focus Business Communications we developed the video for our client Johnson & Johnson.

We’re very excited to be working on a new campaign for Thames Water this month. After a successful pitch presentation we met with the Thames Water team to understand their new brief and get our creative team working on the campaign concepts.

In my view one of the most inspirational and influential designers of the 20th century was Saul Bass. Most people are familiar with his work but don’t know the name! As well as superb corporate identity and poster design he famously collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese on animated film title sequences.

Over the last week I’ve had typography fever after using it on a piece of work. I keep thinking about little typography projects I want to set myself. I have already started creating a personal piece for home, which I will get printed onto canvas.

Recently, I have been very interested in creative illustrative posters, mainly movie posters shown in a new and imaginative way.

I’ve just finished a great photography shoot with my client Johnson & Johnson for their new product Nicorette^® QuickMist Mouthspray.
A new instant release spray for fast craving relief to help you stop smoking.

For those of you that didn’t know, this week is Code awareness week, organised by the ABPI and aimed at raising awareness of the code This also happens to coincide with the new changes to the code which come into effect from 1st May 2011.

April is the start of the new financial year for many and as you are probably only too aware, it brings the 2011/2012 budget figure.

It doesn’t matter if you are the ‘Grand Fromage’ or a Sales Foot Soldier, what you do with this figure will set the scene for how successful you will be.  How many of us calculate how much year on year growth will be required to achieve your bonus, then sigh heavily and put it away in the desk drawer?

The latest versions of the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers have recently been released, so here is a brief review of what you can expect from them.

Long gone are the days when the straightforward role of TV ads were to sell a product or communicate a company’s brand image. Today, as well as incorporating those elements, it has also become increasingly important to entertain and amuse us.

That’s websites I mean… the one’s we’ve been working on over the past 3-months. A recent addition to our portfolio is http://www.the-oriel.co.uk/. Developed on behalf of Harvard Managed Offices, this is the first of two sites to go live for our client who specialises in providing world-class business centres.

“I have this thing I’d like you to go to…” Oh ok, what’s this going to be? Networking?! …Doesn’t quite sound like my sort of thing but having faced my fears, exorcised those first date jitters and thrown myself into a room full of strangers I can honestly say that I quite enjoyed the experience…

About a year ago I came across the work of Si Scott, a UK based Artist/Designer. I was drawn to his work after seeing a cup & saucer with one of his designs on www.clickforart.com/BuyArt/SiScott/lovebirdscupandsaucer. I love the flowing intricate detail of the hand drawn images and I am amazed how much detail, time and effort that goes into them.

Twitter this week has a new feature that when enabled means you always access it securely (previously you would have to remember to type “https://”).

Facebook has a similar option and you should consider using these particularly if you regularly use these sites on public WiFi connections such as in a Starbucks – Ashton Kutcher was hacked last week during when he was at TED using their unsecured WiFi.

Although I personally prefer Murphy’s Irish Stout (it never seems to be in many pubs, but like the drink, I’m not bitter…HONEST!), I often enjoy a lovely pint of Guinness. So to celebrate St Patrick’s Day I thought it may be nice to delve into the archives of the phenomenally successful campaigns for the famous stout.

A while ago I wrote a piece on typography, it was an overview on all aspects of type but afterwards I thought about writing a more focused piece on specific areas.

Part two I wanted to focus a little on fonts used for the web. Many people have tackled this subject in length but I wanted to share a few short, simple lessons I have learned.

March is here so it must mean awards time, or more specifically the OTC Bulletin Marketing Awards at the Park Lane Hotel.

Before the web was invented, when personal computers were in their infancy, I pestered my parents for a BBC ‘B’ computer. Now this was no small investment for a family like ours, after all, what use were they other than playing really basic games? So it was no small wonder that they said yes. This computer was the seed from which my later profession grew (though of course I didn’t know it back then).