Latest Dot News

DESIGN, DESIGN, DESIGN!

Wow wow wee wah! Well we have been busy boys!

Architecture first, our recent scheme for 14 flats a stones through from the new Boscombe reef has been submitted. The client gave us a fairly open brief in regards to design, but they wanted the flats to be spacious – aiming at a market that is on the way up, this lovely block of flats will be perfect for first time buyers (especially surfers) or people who are looking for a summer retreat in a more financially acceptable area of Boscombe! Designed alongside the knowledge from Planning Precision, this scheme is pays tribute to our design past, but uses contemporary materials to give it a sense of today! Client pleased, we’re pleased – lets hope the council are the same! Fingers crossed.This scheme comes on the back of a wave of approvals and instructions, two recent residential extensions in Bournemouth and Wimborne were both approved – happy days!

New instructions include a block of 5 townhouses in Salisbury, our brief was simple, ‘Make them look like they have always been there’ Our cottage style design was well researched, with a mix of stock brick,render, knapped flint and slate, the scheme really works. A real bug bear of ours is poorly designed pastiche, something that is becoming all to common in today’s market – we are pleased to say that these houses are accurately worked, and shows we aren’t all about the contemporary finish! Our first architectural venture into Salisbury, lets hope its a fruitful one!

Oh, oh, oh – we almost forgot! Our newest and most prestigious client on the architectural side to date – Murco! Brought to us via Planning Precision, Murco are a world renowned company, and a good indication that things are moving in the right direction for Dot. So far we have worked up schemes all over the country for Murco, as far a field as Stockton on Tees! Here’s to more in the future.

Okay, enough of the architectural stuff, what next, oh – graphics!

So, http://www.churchfields-farm.co.uk/ has won an award! A bronze website award, for its funky graphics and the way its been built (courtesy of www.jellyphish.co.uk)

We have had more illustration instructions from BBC Focus Magazine – must be doing something right, so look out for us in their awesome science magazine. On the graphics side, we have also been asked to draw up a logo design for the superbly talented Dwiko Arie Photography. Please, please please check out his website and blog at http://www.dwikoarie.com – he is BRILLIANT! Lets hope our logo can complement his beautiful work – touch wood! Look out for our blog post soon on how the logo went from sketch to final design – once we have completed it!

News at ten style…and finally! We have found our ‘Sega Rally Power lap time’ challange has become very popular! Come into our office, have a blast, and see how you fair against our clients, friends, and fellow office dwellers! So far Mr Whitney tops the list, with some excellent times from The White Balance, JellyPhish and Brighter Productions – the competition is well and truly underway!

Right, we have bored you enough, please keep coming back for more! Don’t forget, Bournemouth Air show is in the next few weeks, which going to be off the hook, along with the world record attempt of Roar on the Shore – a stupid amount of fireworks, in an insanely short period of time!

Ta Ta x

DOT.GRAPHICS MOVE FORWARD!!

Well what a few months for Dot. Graphics. Our first BBC Focus Magazine commission has been published, we can now show you a sneaky peek, to see the glossy beast in all its glory, run out to the shops now for a geesey gander!

Our brief was to illustrate how a new type of genetic code can have an effect on our everyday lives, such as sell by dates on food etc. After discussions with the Art editor at Focus, we went for an IKEA manual style illustration, showing the whole process in vector graphics. We are very pleased with the outcome, and look forward to working with the gang at focus in the future.

Our Churchfields website has finally gone live! After a bit of tooing and froing between ourselves and client, the site is finished and everybody involved are really impressed with the final product. A site that is a bit fun, and this comes across in the bespoke nature of every content page, something the client was keen to achieve. Dot. would like to thank www.jellyphish.co.uk for their hard work in the building and coding of the site – brilliant work!

Have a look, see what you think – its at http://www.churchfields-farm.co.uk/

New instructions on websites include, Leaf – a local leukaemia charity, Planning Precision – Planning Consultancy, and the graphic work for JellyPhish, which is looking awesome, sneak peak below!

 

Our Architectural dept is also moving along nicely, we have had a huge number of instruction over the last couple of months and we will be sure to update you once things start to get submitted and, touch wood, approved!

Cheers guys, will write again soon we promise!

WHOAH, WHOAH WHOAH, WHERES THE BEEF?

Okay, it’s been brought to our attention that one of our competitors is grossly mistaken about the way dot. do business, and as such, we feel it’s important to put the record straight. Dot. have always worked professionally and we’ll continue to, so we’re not getting into a mud-slinging match here. In fact we’re sure that ‘A Regional Architects’ have simply got their wires crossed, and as such, will be contacting us soon to apologise for their schoolboy error!

Anyway, just to be clear; we love what we do, we give all our design work 100% and we have NEVER and will NEVER be about ‘copy and paste’ design. Whether you require a fantastic little logo, or a polished 300-unit architectural scheme, we give each job the same attention to detail and always offer a bespoke solution, tailored to our clients’ needs. Just ask them – our customers tell us they’re really happy, and that’s at a time when good service and real value for money is all that counts.

What some people forget is that dot. are a new company. Our business model and values are based on excellent service, top notch design, and ‘going the extra mile’. We’re passionate about what we do and we’re very aware that we wouldn’t be around if we offered a substandard service, something that’s maybe easier to get away with in a larger firm.

We are laying tracks for a company that we hope will grow and, to that end, we promise to maintain these values, whether we’re two people or two hundred. We will never forget why we are doing this, to be able to give 100% to each job, offering clients advice on the thing we’re passionate about – design! We are fully covered for all our design work with more than adequate PI insurance in the unlikely event that anything does go wrong, and should anyone want to discuss this, feel free to drop us a line!

Both directors are driven by our love for what we do. We feel like the luckiest guys in the world; waking up and being paid to do this, so rest assured we’re not going to risk it to make a quick buck, it’s not in our nature!

We assume that this will be the last of what we have heard, but if you have any issues, comments or just feel like a chat, feel free to contact either Darren or James.

Okay, enough of that, James is off to tend to his newborn, and Darren fancies a surf – it is 5.30 after all!

ITS BEEN TOO LONG!

Okay, so first off, apologies! We haven’t updated our blog in a while, and we are really sorry for that, however, the silver lining to that is that we are now in a position to offer you tonnes of juicy gos from the dot. camp!

First on the list is the all important and very exciting birth of Lola Whitney. As many of you know, James has been on tenterhooks as the birth has got nearer and nearer, and you will all be pleased to hear that little Lola was born on Tuesday the 9th June and came in at a very cute 7 pounds 1 ounce. Family are all doing well, and all the dot team wish them all the best – another member to the growing dot family!

Now to work stuffs – we have had a raft of instructions, the most recent being a very cool illustration from the dot.graphics department for the BBC magazine, FOCUS.

We cant show you the Illustration as yet, don’t want to give the game away for next months issue, but make sure you check it out, on sale at the end of the month! The dot. team are really proud of the final article, and chuffed to bits that we could do a professional and exciting job for a client as large as the BBC – payoff for the hard work we have put in during this pesky credit crunch.

That’s not all from the graphics guys, we have seen an increase in the number of instructions for websites. With the market as it is, businesses have started to appreciate the importance of a decent website and marketing strategy, and as such, dot. have been awash with exciting re brand work.

We are currently waiting for the final touches being made to the Churchfields Ice Cream site, of which we will be sure to let you know. http://www.brighter-productions.com/ has now gone live, so well done boys. Thanks to Sean at Brighter productions, a great client who brought so many ideas to the table that it made our job very easy, and a pleasure to work on. Good luck in the future!

Our website work is fairly bespoke, and as such we work alongside Jellyphish Studio, who’s clever computer bods build our designs into usable and exciting sites – a relationship we see growing as days go by, thanks guys! We are currently working up a re brand with Jellyphish, so we will keep you posted to when that is ready to go live.

Sorry for the delay in getting a post up guys, we don’t want to leave you hanging like that, but we suppose its the only real negative to what has been a fruitful few months for dot. We will be posting again soon some of our most recent Architectural work, so keep an eye for that in the next week or so!

All the best...