Let’s start with the disclaimer. I am not in favour of a single company, service, product, whatever, dominating the scene.

Now to the ‘but’.

But Google is a very good search engine. I don’t like the fact that it inflates my rankings if I search whilst logged on to my Google account, but I love the fact that this post will appear on Google almost immediately. I realise that part of that process is due to WordPress and its plugins, but quite simply it suits my needs and my customers’ too.

Sarah Treble’s New Website

Exeter’s Design Credo have recently created a website for Sarah Treble, the renowned wedding dress designer now based in the South West. Whilst Sarah already had a website it wasn’t performing well particularly with search engines,

“I can’t even find myself unless I put my name in.”

Well, we are both extremely pleased with the results. Almost overnight Sarah’s ranking for key search terms improved with key phrases such as “bespoke dresses devon” putting Sarah at position two on the front page of Google. Removing Devon from the search string “bespoke dresses” still delivers a respectable third page Google result.

Somewhat surprisingly (for me anyway) “treble” returns a position two result on the front page of Google.

So how do we know this?

Firstly we make an educated guess about what terms people might use to search. We then reverse search and see how we do.

However Google provides some pretty good free tools help to collect and analyse useful SEO data. These tools not unsurprisingly are known as Webmaster Tools.

What these tools do is to allow us to see what keywords people may be using to search for our site. Sometimes there are some surprises such as ‘treble’. More surprisingly the observant may have noticed that ‘trebble’ appears on the list and searching for ‘trebble’ Google prompts us for a miss-spell.

The webmaster tools goes beyond simple keyword analysis though. It enables us to check the site’s HTML and allows us to see whether the SEO aids such as meta descriptions and page titles are all correctly added.

This is all free, you can do it yourself, but at DesignCredo it is very much all part of the Website Design Package that we offer to our customers

Mr (Chuck) Chumley-Warner Talks Science

OK, sometimes you realise that you know even less than you thought you did and the weekend I extended my personal list by one.

We went to the Branscombe Air – Car show, ostensibly to see the cars and there were some goodies. But the planes stole the show, the Mustang and the Hunter in particular. Afterwards whilst mooching along the airfield en-masse it was time to examine the light aircraft accompanied by a friend (Martine) who had made many of the exhaust systems and at least one of the airframes (well a fair chunk of it).

As I said, the clue’s in the name

Anyway quite a few of these exhaust systems were hooked to Rotax powered Autogyros. Still affected by my Heli flight earlier this year I was a tad surprised to find that the main rotor on an autogyro isn’t actually powered when in flight. It gets better, contrary to popular imaginings this serves to make them rather safe particularly if you lose power.

The video explains it as indeed does this essay.

For now, I feel an burgeoning interest. However I am troubled by the name (Calidus) of the one below. I assume it is named after the Calidus Perregrine

its hunting dive, the stoop,[5] which involves soaring to a great height and then diving steeply at speeds commonly said to be over 320 km/h (200 mph), and hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact (wiki)

Looks great, I want a go.

This is ‘just because’ really, follow the link to see the bike. About £5k will get you one, I suspect I would look a tad overdressed on it though.

The Tour is On and I’m Not There

The other day my after a trip to the beach where my daughter insisted on swimming fully clothed she borrowed an old T-shirt of mine bought at the final stage of the 1991 Tour de France. This was the stage where Djamolidine Abdujaparov famously crashed out. Every year since I have wanted to return to Le Tour, next year I will.

For now then a bit of a mish-mash which at some point I will re-visit this post.

First off a reminder of the end of the 1991 race.

The Colour of Cycling

The cycling World Champion colours are not ones that any designer would generally place together, all a bit Play-School. That said in the world of cycling it works, don’t know why, it just does. These basic primary(ish) colours are repeated throughout the cycling world, and why not?

For the uninitiated cycle shirts aren’t just about carrying a brand. Some specific shirts have colours to denote the position of the rider within the race (or World). Whether it is the leader in the sprint race, the best climber or the overall leader there are shirts to be worn.

There seems to be some dispute over the origins of Le maillot jaune in the Tour de France. I certainly like the second suggestion.

The colour was chosen either to reflect the yellow newsprint of the organising newspaper, L’Auto, or because yellow was an unpopular colour and therefore the only one available with which a manufacturer could create jerseys at late notice. (Wiki)

Cycle Logo Design

As a youth, the Campagnolo Super Record Mech (shown) was about as good as it got, but I always preferred the look of the Record (below), which was much more ornate. However the Super Record did allow the Campagnolo logo to be seen in all its glory.

People argue about the relative merits of the Japanese and European technology but for me it is European, in particular Italian all the way, and it’s about look and history. I ride a Dutch Gazelle with a strange mix of Campag, Sachs and 3ttt. Yes there are bits of Jap stuff in there but had I the money it would be Italian all the way, and probably steel too.

There is a certain purity to any of these logos. Some such as the Cinelli logo are a world apart from their predecessors, have a look here.

My friend Msr Moutard was having a bit of a whinge about the loose bottom bracket on his (Taiwanese built) Colnago earlier this week but I don’t think I would tire of seeing this logo on t’ push-iron.

(Told you it was a mish-mash).

Working on behalf of Yorkshire’s Techserv Cutting Systems, Exeter based Design Credo have created a brand for a range of newly developed machines.

More Than a Logo

The scope of the project extended beyond simple graphic design and logo design. Design Credo initially advised on product names creating a ‘brand-family’. Part of this advice extended to researching suitable domain names.

The rationale behind the logo design was to create a simple clear design that would communicate the accuracy and quality of the Techserv products. The logos were designed using simple geometric shapes with reference to the letters a&j, p&j, r&j.

Techserv have already commissioned Design Credo to photograph the first of these machines.

The Finishing Touches are being applied to Sarah Treble’s new website.

Working closely with Sarah Treble, Exeter based DesignCredo have created a clean and minimal website design with space to allow the images of Sarah’s stunning creative work to be enjoyed. The website implements the new brand designed for Sarah by DesignCredo.

The website will develop and change with news, reports and images of beautiful new bespoke bridal and couture wear combining innovative design with impeccable craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Highly Functional and Great SEO Abilities

Based on the WordPress platform the site is nearly finished and almost begun. What we mean by this is that the launch of a site such as this is the starting point for further developments.

As well as looking great the site combines PubSubHubbub technology as well as high levels of SEO to make the website perform well on search engines such as Google. Add to this automatic backups and you have a robust site that performs well all round.

We’ve all done it, it’s not big, not clever. Even I have on one occasion lost my domain name. How does this happen and how can we protect against it?

Domain Types

Domain names come in different flavours. Most people know think of .com as the web domain. This “top level domain” is available for everyone and is a valid choice for a commercial organisation. Clearly within the UK a .co.uk is a valid alternative and generally a little cheaper. This country code top-level domain is one that will locate your business to your country. Sometimes it is worth considering whether your trade will be primarily UK based or international before purchasing domains. Whatever it will be worth ring-fencing the alternatives.

In the past business names were frequently arrived at by an accountant purchasing an ‘off the shelf’ company. Thankfully this practice is now much less prevalent. Ideally the company name should say something about the company and there should be a ‘fit’ between what the company does and what it is called. Death Star Skin Treatment Remedies is hardly going to work is it? A bit like naming a sports car company after someone who’s called Trevor? What, they did…?
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Communication is the word, yes communication. It all goes horribly wrong sometimes.

I am a slow speaker, I know I am but once many years ago this was really brought into focus when I was trying to teach a friend how to ride a drop handlebar bicycle. She fell off at the point that I had said “take your hands off the lower part of the handlebars” and never got to hear me say “slowly, one at a time and move them to the top of the bars”. She survived (we didn’t). The point was that the communication clearly failed.

Why Mining

Frequently I hear people say things like “I need a website” or “I need an A4 brochure”. Rather foolishly some might say, I usually engage in a bit of Why-Mining by asking “why?”

To aid communication the emphasis is on the why not the mining. Why-mining is an effective although slightly annoying tool. Quite simply people frequently tend to already hold many of the answers that they seek, they just need someone to stand in front of them and ask them “why?”

“I need a four page A4 brochure”
“Why?”
“Because my competitor has one”
“Why does it need to be A4?”
“Because thats what they always are?
“Why do you need four pages?”
“Dunno”

Eventually you will get to bedrock and even if this bedrock is “I don’t know”, that will be a good place to start.

The bottom line is that what we at DesignCredo are trying to find out is what is the customer’s story, the unique thing that they are trying to communicate to others.

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Looks quite fun (the new Range Rover Evoque) thankfully the car isn’t in beige although as I write I am mindful of the fact that the early Range Rovers did indeed look very proper in beige.

It is with sadness though that the arrival of this new Range Rover coincides with the departure of Spen King

Charles Spencer ‘Spen’ King, one of the British motor industry’s most famous, resourceful and prolific engineers, died last weekend as a result of injuries sustained in a collision between his bicycle and a van a fortnight earlier. He was 85. Autocar

If you go though you might as well leave a legacy and what a legacy Spen left.

• Rover 2000
• Range Rover
• Triumph Stag
• Triumph TR6
• Triumph TR7
• Rover SD1

It is easy to overlook highlights of British motoring history, I would be happy to have any of the vehicles mentioned here, yes even the TR7.

Rover have a fantastic history and the era of the Rover Gas Turbine cars perhaps encapsulate the spirit of adventure. You can hunt out the other Rover Turbine cars, the Jet is my favourite but for mow here is the T3.

Exeter design company Design Credo is extremely pleased with the initial performance of the WordPress website that they have created on behalf of Topsham’s Nest interiors. The site has well and truly hit the ground running with large numbers of visitors already viewing the site on a daily basis.

The built-in capabilities of this WordPress site enable us to see that within days of going live the site is getting extremely good viewing figures. This is like having hundreds of extra people looking around the shop on a daily basis.

The website is based on the WordPress platform but has been designed to give a strong visual appeal. DesignCredo have undertaken photography for Nest Interiors to strengthen their existing stock of images. The site aims to capture and convey the rich visual appeal of the Nest Interiors shop.

Great SEO results

A great website is of little value unless it can be found. Of course searching on the company’s name puts it top but more relevant search strings such as ‘new + england + style + furniture + devon’ perform extremely well, less than a week from the site being live. Further to this simple search strings such as “Lexington + Devon” provide first page Google results with more detailed searches such as “Lexington + Chesapeake + Cushion” giving a position 1 on a worldwide Google search.

This is extremely important for a company selling quality brand items such as those from Lexington. Putting it simply Nest interiors although based in Topsham near Exeter in the South-West of England are able to create national and international interest.

Add to this the inclusion of PubSubHubbub technology to ensure almost immediate submission of website developments to Google and we have a very search engine friendly site.

However, this is just the start. Design Credo will use various collectable data to monitor where site-traffic comes from and will continue to develop content that will create a good hit with Google searches.