We are over halfway into 2023 – how did that happen? We are already seeing marketing professionals and retailers enticing us with their Christmas campaigns, so we had better enjoy the summer while it still lasts.

Having said that, it has been a busy first half here at Resolution Design, and we are celebrating the wrapping up of many creative projects we have been working on. We have also just had a trio of new wins land on our desk, so as those nights begin to draw in, we are preparing for an even busier autumn.

Our talented team are proving more than ever that our creative and technical capabilities are second to none. However, we know that many agencies can tell you what they do, but many could be better at showing you what they can do.

Read on for our round-up of projects that we have got out the door so far this year, and let us show you what we can do.

Woods Valldata

Our fundraising services provider client asked us to create a game-changing website for its customers. Woods Valldata wanted to increase its online presence and have an authentic hub that would house all its case studies, resources and service information.

Improving the customer experience with a clear and easy-to-navigate website, the result is fun and playful creative excellence. We also supported the execution of its brand graphics for its office base. You can read more about the Woods Valldata project here.

Roebuck Estates

We have been working with English vineyard Roebuck Estates since 2018, and they came to us earlier in the year to discuss setting up an event page on its website.

Having launched a series of wine tastings and tours over the summer months, Roebuck Estates needed a destination for customers to book tours and access more information.

Adaptation Design

Just before Easter, the website for architectural consultants Adaptation Design went live. Our brief was to build a platform that would showcase the capabilities that Adaptation Design has to offer.

Understanding that its website had to match its distinctive brand personality, you can see the new website here.

SubzApp

We couldn’t post a round-up of our key success stories of the year and not include SubzApp. A new and innovative software solution to help manage client subscriptions. We have won our first client, The Alliance of Independent Agencies, who were so impressed by the performance of SubzApp that they will be showcasing it on their website.

Spotting a gap in the market, SubzApp is creative, flexible and powerful, allowing users to create as many different types of bespoke customer subscriptions as they like. Speak to us about SubzApp now.

What’s to come?

We’ve started working with three new clients over the last few months and are now getting stuck into these briefs ready to add our wow factor once again. What have we got on the horizon?

Well, staying on the English sparkling wine theme, award-winning vineyard South Pickenham Estates has tasked us to design the branding and labels for their wine. We also will be building websites for local construction company Gaiger Bros, and street furniture solutions firm, Langley Design.

Take a look at our website where you can find a variety of case studies and testimonials. If you still have any questions you would like to ask, or want to have a chat about how we can help you with your business, please get in touch.

The trials are over, the results are in and according to a survey conducted by recruitment firm Hays last week, many employers are happy to consider a four-day working week. Just as long as those days are worked exclusively from the office.

Well, we’ve got news for you. Here at Resolution Design, we are going to be moving to a four (and a half) day week, AND still offer our hybrid working model for all employees.

After the Easter weekend, staff will be able to enjoy their Friday afternoons as they please. Switch off those screens, we have worked hard all week and it’s time to enjoy some ME time.

Why “and a half”?

We are a digital marketing agency and manage websites and strategies for multiple companies. Our clients need to know that they can contact us should they need to. However, after digging into the detail we have noticed that many of our clients can tend to be offline on a Friday afternoon. We’re still here for them, but let’s wrap up talking shop in the morning.

Well-being but also well-doing

Increase productivity, encourage a healthy work/life balance and support employee’s well-being. The list goes on why the four-day week is a good idea for organisations. We don’t stop there either. We are flexible with where our staff can work, and found that with a creative team they often need a creative space to work in. This isn’t always the office.

The gift of time

We’ve all been guilty of saying that the weekend goes in a blink of an eye, but now with the new hours we are proposing, our employees can fit in that fitness class, squeeze in some shopping or simply relax with a good book. With Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday now considered the busiest days of the week, time off on a Friday can be enjoyed guilt-free.

Here is what our team said they would be doing with their early Friday finish.

“Any opportunity to do more “life admin” will be very welcome. Nicely followed by popping over to a nearby riverside pub for a pint or two now the evening’s are lighter on a Friday evening is going to be bliss too.” Rowena, Studio Manager 

“Knowing I’ve got that extra time to go and do something I want to do for me. Weekends have become hectic, so it will be good to press pause and enjoy the Friday feeling.” Rebecca, Creative Director 

“I’ll be getting on my bike and taking full advantage of the extra time to do more exercise outside. Being at a screen all week can take its toll, so I appreciate the new initiative the company is introducing.” Joel, Web Developer 

We’ll let you know how we get on.

Going a little off-piste with this short post, away from the groomed slopes of brand marketing and into the wilds of business motivation. Why? Well, growing a business is hard and pushing your brand and marketing takes inspiration, motivation and energy.

Motivation is what keeps us all going, but mojo is what makes it happen. We all need a boost from time to time, so if you feel you’ve lost a bit of sparkle and that your mojo has gone astray, then it’s time to get it back. Of course, Covid has not helped any of us, mojo recharge has been very difficult, so it’s time to get out there and plug into the excitement of life.

What works for me may not work for you, but getting out of your normal routine and doing something that challenges you is probably a good place to start. I’ve recently had a tremendous experience that has given me a major recharge, a 10-day trip to the Alps to walk the Tour du Mont Blanc. Hiking roughly 7 hours a day, through majestic mountain scenery, with a great group of people I’d not met previously. It was spectacular and I can’t wait to do something similar again soon.

While I was in the mountains, Becky was in St Ives taking a dynamic landscape painting course. She not only recharged, but she also has some very good paintings to show for her efforts.

So if you’re stuck in the day-to-day grind of work feeling your mojo ebbing away, put yourself out there and do something cool… go on, you know you want to.

The signs are hopeful, restrictions have eased and things are opening up again, great news and long may it last. Looking back over the past 2 years, we’ve had our challenges here at Resolution, but trade has largely remained buoyant and I know that many businesses have not been so fortunate, so I’m very thankful we’re part of a digital-based sector.

I love having conversations with other business people, so as we emerge from restrictions, I thought you might be interested to learn more about our lockdown experiences…

We started working from home on Monday 23rd March 2020, kicking the day off at 9 am with the novelty of a team video meeting. We were well set up for remote working. Everyone in the team had their own laptop and almost all our systems were cloud-based, helping to make the transition relatively simple. The addition of second screens, keyboards and office chairs and we were largely there, all set, ready for a few weeks of working from home…

However, we felt the impact of the lockdown on the business almost immediately, several clients reduced or cancelled their planned marketing activities, projects in our sales pipeline stalled and the new business activity we had planned for our fledgling Bristol office became largely redundant. These unwelcome developments coincided with the introduction of the furlough scheme and we reluctantly decided to furlough some of the team whilst we waited for things to bounce back.

In July we created a lockdown gallery, images of our new home workspaces, including my modified shed, a space that became more and more important to me as time went by.

As 2020 progressed, business did return, and in fact, we experienced significant demand for our more technical services in the latter part of the year. Clients pushed to develop their digital marketing, with traditional sales and marketing activities being restricted and the surge in the use of digital generally. In fact, 2021 proved to be our most successful year and 2022 is off to an excellent start.

However, this pick up in activity took a little while, we kept our furloughed staff in the loop, but rather than stay on furlough they found new positions elsewhere and moved on with our best wishes. This was a sad time but it did give us the opportunity to re-shape the team to align with the shift in demand.

While the studio was unused we took the opportunity to oil the wooden floor and install an air conditioning system (for heating and cooling, replacing the wood burner).

Fast forward to today, just over 22 months later, we are at long last coming back to the studio, but with different views on the best ways of working.

Pre-covid the team worked mostly in the studio with occasional work from home days. Now, collectively, we have decided that 2 days in the studio and 3 days at home provides better work/life balance, delivers good productivity for the business, saves time and money in travel and is better for the planet. But we’ve missed team socials and lunches, so we’ve reintroduced regular team lunches and ‘Firsty Fursdays’ after-work drinks.

We’ve always been keen on using technology and working from home has motivated us to change our business systems and embrace communication technology more fully. This has been a very worthwhile shift, allowing us to be leaner, more efficient and more productive.

From a sales point of view, using video calls has largely been very positive. Meeting times are more flexible and a great deal of time, money and effort has been saved by not having to travel. However, from a new business perspective, we did lose the opportunity to network, something we are balancing with increased digital marketing activity.

We’ve taken some time to re-evaluate our own positioning and to create a clear process that can be applied to all clients who want to scale their businesses, our Accelerator process. This is proving to be a very successful approach and we’ll be sharing more on this in future insights.

All in all, it’s been a challenging time, but we’ve emerged as a stronger, more focused business, very much looking forward to continuing to help startup and SME businesses become more successful and to fuel our own growth in the process.

Here at Resolution, we work closely together to produce exceptional work for our clients. We continued to do so when the pandemic struck – albeit via video meetings and remote working setups – and we end 2020 as busy as ever.

As the year draws to a close, we invite you to sit beside the studio wood burner with us (figuratively, of course) and look back on the past 12 months.

Building the Hug brand

Our relationship with this fantastic client began at the start of the year. After conceptualising a new breed of premium pet food, Vicky approached us for help creating the Hug brand.

As an integrated agency, we’re perfectly positioned to build brands from the ground up and translate a vision into a polished, cohesive identity. Hug is a shining example of this.

From shaping its vibrant look and voice to building the advanced e-commerce site, our creative and technical teams came together to hone a compelling brand experience. We also delivered the strategy, designs for the website, print, and packaging, and wrote the content, from blog posts to email marketing workflows.

Premium wine, premium awards

We’ve been working with award-winning wine producer Roebuck Estates from the beginning, designing the luxury brand, website, product labelling, and collateral.

This year has seen significant achievements for their team. In addition to their Classic Cuvée 2013 and Classic Cuvée 2014, they launched their gorgeous Blanc de Noirs 2015 and Rosé de Noirs, both of which feature Resolution-designed labels.

Along with a multitude of rave reviews, 2020 saw their Classic Cuvée 2014 win Decanter’s prestigious Best in Show award, adding to a growing collection of accolades. A wine producer to watch – and sample…

Go shopping here.

New faces in the team

We’ve had some new additions over the course of the year. Joel joined the technical team this year, in answer to the increasing demand for our website development and web application building services.

Amalie, our copywriter, arrived at the start of 2020, as content creation becomes ever more indispensable to compelling digital experiences.

Watch this space for more creative and technical talent…

Powerful print

As always, the impact of print prevails.

In addition to our work for Roebuck Estates, we’ve worked on stunning print designs for many clients this year, including brochures for The Sound Post and Princeton Homes.

Another favourite was the beautiful catalogue we designed for client Chippenham Museum. Featuring the work of talented local artists, it showcases the museum’s new Modern & Contemporary Art collection (and was so well received, that a second version is now on its way).

The Resolution Triple Shot

This year we launched The Resolution Triple Shot, our agency newsletter. Designed to deliver timely and genuinely useful insights to SMEs looking to grow, subscribers receive a curation of Resolution blog posts, tips, and news. No fluff, only the good stuff.

You can sign up here, or head here to check out our latest articles.

Intuitive websites

Web design and development sit at the core of what we do.

We’ve created numerous websites this year; in addition to Hug Pet Food, one of the other stand-out projects was a new site for Lister Wilder, a long-standing client.

They were looking to rebuild and refresh their existing site, facilitating the seamless user experience people have come to expect. This was a complex piece of work, involving the build of sophisticated admin functionality and integrations.

Following on from this, we worked with their in-house design department to develop a separate site to promote their ex-demo and pre-owned agricultural machinery.

Advanced applications

It’s been a packed-out year for web applications.

As 2020 wraps up, we’ve almost completed the design and build of a bespoke HR management system for a client of many years.

Another notable project was updating the code of our very first system, a course booking and trainee management system built in 2013: this will ensure that it stays in line with modern web technology, giving it many more years of life.

See you in 2021…

What a year. Yes, it presented challenges along the way, but we’re delighted to be doing what we love, and we’re as connected and engaged as ever. We’ll raise a glass to that.