Darrell's blog
Rumoured to be crepuscularly creative but still waiting for the end of the tunnel
New ad in a directory near you
If you get the Salisbury edition of the Yellow pages that is. We're keeping our local area covered but we are always looking national and sometimes international as well. Local is also the counties of Hampshire and Devon for Beetlebrow, so check us out.
Beetlebrow meets George Mitchell School students
A good way to start a design process for a website with an exciting London "All Through" school is to have a design session with it's pupils. So, that's what we did. Matthew Savage, Deputy Head of the George Mitchell School, arranged meeting rooms in the centre of London and we all met up for a full day intense design workshop.
The students, of varying ages and interests, attended and discussed all aspects of their school and its history. With the usual pros and cons analysis of existing sites we also established some real areas of interest in the school to work up for the new design. So, time to see where we can go with it now...
Farewell to the old site
We were all very fond of the original incarnation of the Beetlebrow website with its slightly idiosyncratic navigation and verbose levels of information. From the cheeky flash animation on the homepage to the circular themed images inside, which are incidentally carried over to our "BB09" version 2 site, it was a visual experience.
This site was also the introduction of our hallmark grey. Catapulting this under valued tone into a new dimension and putting colour back in its place; bring on the #BBBs! (Grey in RGB hex values for those still in the sane world). The wire photograph was taken by Alex Segre and graced our branding along with the logo, Boing and the immortal tag line "Get webbed" for many years.
The sticky Jam section of gadgets won many friends as did the "Fish machine" and we have plans to include these in the new site very soon, so look out for them.
Here's a screen shot for those with a tear in their eye for the ol' days.
Yellow Pages ad for 2009
We've just completed our 2009 ad for the Yellow Pages in the Salisbury area and it is adorned with the latest Boing incarnation and a reworking of the Beetlebrow logo type. Still in Gill sans, but lower case and light this time, for those type spotters out there.
Anyway, new ad in a Yellow pages near you, or not, depending on where you live! But you can always find us online at www.yell.co.uk.
The Beetlebrow "Boing"
I thought I might explain where the Beetlebrow "Boing" logo came from. This friendly and somewhat glassy logo started out as a modest extra bold "B" from the Gill sans font family. It was then rendered in outline and tweaked to give extra character to the holes. After being rotated on to its back and then swivelled slightly by 10 degrees back to the left, the final graphic was now complete and the Beetlebrow "Boing" was born.
Obviously, the logo will exist in different guises as the fashions change over time, currently it has adopted a glass like attitude which hints at three dimensional space by the use of a cunning highlight effect.
[~] The name "Boing" came from an imaginary friend who was a trusty companion to one of our children. That Boing has long gone but this one lives on...

{Built on Planet Plone}