Voodoochilli Design

For years now we have been building calendar and diary systems for our clients. One of our London based clients originally hired us to create a diary for them way back in 2005, something we are still maintaining now and is being used daily by hundreds of staff. The project has evolved considerably since it’s conception and a great deal of experience has been learned about such systems and the best way to make them. Additionally, just in the last year we have been hired to create three separate bespoke event calendar systems for three different charities, check them out here, here and here. As you can see from these examples they all share a similar layout and features so we decided to optimise and combine the code for distribution. Over the next few months we will be releasing an improved calendar system for sale to the public. It will come with a simple install process that will enable site owners and web designers alike to get an events calendar system up and running in minutes. We have looked at the competition and there really isn’t much out there that offers a simple but practical experience for little cost. We will update you when development is nearer completion so keep your eyes peeled!

Recently we were asked to design a logo for a client, which on it’s own is not that unusual. However, this was a particularly interesting project for us as the client makes fuel for rockets, satellites and spacecraft. Cool, huh?

The client was very pleased with the end result which you can see below:

One of our recent websites received a long and extremely positive appraisal on BBC Radio Gloucester. The website, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund is an archive and research tool located at Kempley in Gloucestershire. One of the sites best features is an interactive map which allows the visitor to “travel in time” by exploring different areas throughout history.

The show was split into 3 parts and makes fascinating listing.

Click the links below to listen:

» Listen to part 1

» Listen to part 2

» Listen to part 3

Additionally, you can visit the website here.

Development has begun on a website tracking and recording the history of a village in the Forest of Dean, Kempley. The project is a large one comprising of a custom built database system, content management system, maps and archives, a blog and of course the front end website itself. The project is being developed in collaboration The Friends of Kempley Churches and other volunteers interested in preserving the villages important history. The Kempley project is being funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund and will be launched later this year.

We were very pleased to have been picked from the short-list of web design and development agencies pitching for a very exciting new project. The Roma Routes website will charter the migration of the Romany people across Europe.  Working in collaboration with The Rural Media Company, the project is being funded by the European Union and is due to be launched later in the year. Watch this space!

We have just launched a new site for our clients, www.familidrugsupport.com. The redesign holds a special importance to our company as it was in fact the first commercial website built by founder of Voodoochilli, Harry O’Connor way back in 2003. For years he has wanted to redesign the site encompassing a more up to date approach to web design, both visually and technically and we are all very pleased with the results.

The site was actually built with the aid of our 50% charity discount, halving the project cost. Contrary to the beliefs of many in the web design industry, charities have very limited funds and offering a discount can sometimes be the difference between a charity having a professional designed website or not.

The new site features a brand new design, replacing the now very dated one that was online since 2003. People can now make donations via PayPal, connect using various social sites such as Facebook and more. However, the biggest single upgrade has been the addition of a custom built Content Management System allowing staff at FDS to update the content themselves, keeping it fresh while at the same time reducing long term costs.

We are pleased with the results and hope people continue to find the site a useful resource.

Here at Voodoochilli we like to try and keep things fresh. Web design is an exciting industry to be in right now, there’s plenty of things happening, new technologies and styles appearing all of the time. It is essential that a company such as ours keeps up to date with these things and keeps being innovative. Although we love building sites for our clients we have made the decision to adopt the 20% rule – from now on Fridays will be a day when we work on our own self-directed projects. This will enable us to keep coming up with new ideas as well as sharpening our creative tool-set.

Below is a rather interesting video which mentions another company adopting this approach. Fascinating stuff!

We recently received an email from one the members of our online portfolio for artists, Voodoochilli.net. Steve Diffenderfer emailed us with a modification to our existing logo that we liked immediately.

The logo that hasn’t changed since the site was founded back in 2002 now sports a funky little portfolio icon. The change is so minor but as soon as we saw it our reaction was disbelief that we had not spotted it ourselves.

We asked Steve some questions about the new logo:

Please tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am an artist and designer. I graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in ‘91. I have worked in different design and production roles ever since. I worked in vinyl graphics for an exhibit company, as a signmaker, digitizing corporate embroidery, as a business owner, and freelance design. I am the father of three talented children and live in Vermont, USA.

What made you think of the changes for the logo and of approaching us with them?

I saw that you were making changes to the homepage (as noted in the newsfeed) with an invitation for comments and suggestions. I wanted to lend a hand. I looked it over and thought I could contribute by making some suggestions to modify the logo.

Can you tell me a little bit about the process involved in modifying the logo.

I imported the website gif into Adobe Illustrator. I needed to created a high resolution file. I vectorized the logo using “live trace”. I redrew the portfolio element adding a handle and slightly rotated counter-clockwise for more visual movement. I then worked with the “Voodoochilli” element. I used the “tweak” filter at vertical 1% to slightly roughen the design. I manually manipulated points in the element while maintaining the definition and strength of the original design. I then replaced the type with a similar but slightly bolder sans-serif font scaled horizontally 110% and manually kerned.

Anything else you would like to add.

VoodooChilli is an excellent site. Having a website to share artwork and communicate is great. I am proud to be part of the online community.

We said a little thank you to Steve by giving him a years free pro membership to the website.

Voodoochilli.net is an online portfolio for artist’s run by Voodoochilli Design Ltd. If you are interested in joining, check it out!

We are currently developing a free company website service. It has occurred to us that in the current clime, many start-up companies are simply not in the position to afford the design and build of a bespoke website. We hope to help solve this problem with CompanySite.org.

Although there are other free website services available on the net – most of them are extremely unsightly and barely function. We hope to rectify this.

The site will be funded mostly by advertising but there will also be a premium service for those that wish to have a website at an affordable price.

It’s all very hush hush at the moment, so I can’t reveal too many details except that we hope to have the system completed soon.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

We recently launched aggora.co.uk – a site for a company that are a “specialist innovator in the provision and delivery of catering equipment solutions to the foodservice industry.”

AGGORA have some really big clients under their belt including BT, Vodafone, Sainsbury’s, Goodwood Race Course, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University to name but a few.

I am really pleased with how the site has turned out, no small part of down to our designer Dave who has done some great work for us lately.