We have been working with the charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) over the past few years. CRY raise awareness and provide screening for young people across the UK and Northern Ireland. They have numerous sports people who are patrons of the charity including Manchester United and Northern Ireland star Jonny Evans.

We are delighted to have been working on the branding for the 2011 Football Special Foyle Cup with McDaids & Sons. As well as the brand we produced merchandise and advertising mechanisms for the event held in the Derry and Foyle area from the 19th-23rd July 2011.

About the Foyle Cup

The Foyle Cup tournament takes place in Derry City & Surrounding areas in Counties Derry, Tyrone & Donegal in July each year. The competition is open to football teams globally at age groups from Under 10 up to Under 19.

Organised by the Derry & District Youth Football Association the competition has expanded from a mere 8 teams in 1992 and 100 sides are expected to compete in the 2011 running of the tournament.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate a team from IT Sligo on their win at the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals. The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition, honoring student innovations that address global problems such as improving road and fire safety, eradicating poverty and creating a more sustainable environment.

More from www.itsligo.ie

The ninth Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011 competition winners were announced last night at the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Festival and Awards Ceremony at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. The event was the culmination of a six-day celebration of technology, hard work and ingenuity. Narrowed from more than 350,000 global registrants, more than 400 students from 70 countries traveled to New York to compete at the Worldwide Finals. The festivities included remarks from philanthropist, activist and actress Eva Longoria, CEO of the Startup America Partnership Scott Case and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Read more…

(PRESS RELEASE)

Omagh based fashion designers Squareball received an unprecedented surge in interest when their ‘Jedi Jim’ tee shirt featured on ‘The Apprentice The Final.’

Cookstown native Jim Eastwood presented Dara O’Brien with the Jedi Jim tee shirt during his last appearance on the show, in the process showcasing Squareball’s custom designed garment to over 10 million BBC viewers. Since then Squareball has been inundated with queries by fans of the programme seeking to buy the tee shirt.

The tee shirt was designed earlier in the series following ‘Jedi Jim’s remarkable escape from the Boardroom. And, since Sunday night Facebook and Twitter have been buzzing with queries about the exclusive design.

Last night as Dara O’Brien presented Jim with a toy Light Sabre, Jim countered with a present of his own, catapulting Squareball into the national limelight.

Said designer Fehin Quinn: “We know Jim from his work as a printing rep. He’s a good guy and when Dara O’Brien christened him Jedi Jim we designed up the tee shirt from the craic. Jim loved it and he asked us to get him one last week when he was preparing for the final.

“I couldn’t believe it when he whipped it out on screen. Since then, well we have been inundated with enquiries and people wanting to buy it.”

Fehin added: “It’s a nice bit of coverage for Squareball and we think Lord Sugar would be pleased with our ability to get one the ball and get this to market so quickly. Jim is behind the idea so together hopefully his fans will snap up a few.”

ENDS

Basic Health Checks

The first thing you need to do is to check if your site is listed on Google and if its listed correctly. I’m going to use Lairdesigns website as our example site. So what I need to do is search google for the sites domain name or URL, which in this case is lairdesign.com:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=lairdesign.com

The site is listed and returns as the first result on Google, see the screen shot below. This result means that Google has visited the site and its listed in its index. If your site is not listed see the section “What do I do if my site is not listed?” below.

It’s important to pay close attention to how Google has listed your site. The key elements in the listing are the website title and the website description which are highlighted in the image above. People will read this information and may decide whether or not to visit your site based on its contents. A well written accurate title and description can help drive traffic to you website.

Website Title

A good website title should contain keywords related to the products or services your company offers. The lairdesign title contains the main keywords related to the services offered by lairdesign:

Lairdesign | Corporate Identity, Graphic Design, Web Design and Web Development. Omagh, Co Tyrone, N Ireland

Website Description:

The description should provide more general information about your company, where they you are based and what you do.

Lairdesign is a design studio based in Omagh, Northern Ireland who provide Brand Consultancy, Corporate Design and Literature, Web Design and SEO

In the next article in this series we will show you how to select keywords for your site and how to build a search engine friendly website title. We will also show you how to track your websites performance using free tools provided by Google.

What do I do if my site is not listed?

If you find that your site is not listed this may indicate a problem and is something you will need to fix as soon as possible.

If your site is new it may be that Google simply hasn’t found it yet. You can manually submit your site to Google and ask them to visit your site the next time they crawl the web. Simply click on the link below and follow the instructions:

http://www.google.com/addurl

If that isn’t the problem you will need to look deeper into your site to check for issues. Lucky Google offers a set of tools for website owners to help diagnose problems, called Google web master tools. If you don’t already have one you will need a free Google account to access the service, see the following URL:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

You will need to add your site to the service and verify that you own the site. Verifying your site can be a little technical and you need to have access to the files on your website. If you don’t have the technical know how, contact the person who looks after your site and they should be able to help you.

The main things to check are:

• Crawler access – “Site configuration – Crawler access”
• Malware – “Diagnostics – Malware”
• Fetch as Googlebot – “Labs – Fetch as Googlebot”

Should you find any problems the interface is well documented and should help you fix any problems.

By Senior Developer, Michael McCrea

In conjunction with local entrepreneur Michael McElroy we have been working together on his latest venture, a Mediterranean styled Cafe Bar due to open shortly on Main Street. There have many ideas, scamps and proposals all leading to the introduction of ‘Una Vita’ into the Main Street family. Meaning One Life (in Spanish) or A Life (in Italian), Una Vita is a fresh new take on modern social life…

And just like Life itself this project has been a learning process, constantly evolving to reach an end goal. With a grand opening now fast approaching the final touches are being made not only to the building itself, but to the Identity and accompanying graphics & collateral.

So stay tuned and get ready to celebrate one life.

Fehin Quinn of Lairdesign explains: “The famous Ulster cycle of folks tales recounts the tales of Cuchullain and the Red Branch; stories of epic battles between larger-than-life figures in signature landmark locations throughout Ulster.

“We tried to capture that landscape and that sense of these legendary figures doing battle throughout Ulster in epic head-to-head contests.”

He added: “These were the starting points for the Land of the Giants campaign. Over the decades, the Ulster Championship has seared into our collective minds those matches, heroic achievements, and days of individual brilliance. Days when we are there and we could tell others we were there.”

The Inspiration

With the ancient tales of Ulster the inspiration, the link with the Championship was easily slotted into place.

In hurling, the modern day Cuchullain’s carry the flame. In football the giants of the game bestride the Championships like the colossus from the tales of Finn McCool.
Fehin says: “The Tyrone writer John Montague compared the Ulster landscape to a manuscript that we have lost the ability to read. Such is the richness of the sense of place. The GAA in Ulster is no different. Every club, every county and every pitch has its unique history. We’ve tried to capture that.”

He points to the collective Ulster memory that recalls Art O’Hagan snatching a goal at Casement from Cavan in Casement in 1953; Down with their tracksuits and their interchangeable forwards coming out of Ulster to claim three All-Ireland titles.

The seventies saw the Armagh of Kernan, Moriarty and Smyth emerge to contest an All Ireland Final. Frank McGuigan in Clones in 1984; Down and Derry in the Marshes in 1993 and again at Celtic Park in ’94.

The landscape of the province provides an endless manuscript of great players and great achievements. Frank McGuigan in the lee of Ardboe Cross, the likes
of Kieran McGeeney born and raised in Slieve Gullion and Brian McGilligan from Dungiven sur, nestling among the Sperrin foothills. Sambo and the hurlers of Antrim living cheek by jowl among the beautiful Glens or their Down rivals clustered in the Ards. Martin McHugh by the Atlantic Shore, or the Cavan legend John Joe O’Reilly the Pride of Cornfean.

“More than any other province we celebrate the uniqueness of the Ulster Championship. It’s cut-throat lack of sentimentality with shocks every year.”

And we all know what that means – the sudden clinical despatch of the Ulster dream in a flurry of scores plunging one tribe into despair for another fruitless year. To the victors, the joy of fighting another day.

The ‘Land of the Giants’ pays homage to all these achievements, and those of the modern day giants of the game. They have become legends in their own right with their own epic tales. Bear witness. If you’re from Ulster, you know what it means.

We want our clients to love their meetings at Lairdesign and enjoy the great cups of tea in comfort.

Our sister company Squareball has even got a new home during the move, our studio extends into a Showroom where members of the public can check out the full range of Squareball products as well as getting a sneak peak at some new prototypes.

Have a look around:

You can see some shots of our studio on our Flickr Page.

CSS Grid based layouts

www.thegridsystem.org

We’ve launched a Squareball Facebook page to keep you updated with what’s going on in the world of the GAA with News, Videos and links as well as special offers. If your out and about in your Squareball Gear take a photo and upload it to the Facebook page and there could be something in it for you.

We’ll be posting videos and news which include the current topics in the GAA so get discussing!

Join us on Facebook now!

The Spring/Summer 2010 range of our sister company Squareball is now available online at www.squareball.com.

The range includes more colours in the popular Yoda T-Shirt, a new Stormtrooper Version of the t-shirt, All-Star Dead Ball and the Playmaker Hoodie to name a few.

Visit the Squareball shop now!

iPady

Superirish

Working with the Tyrone County GAA Board, Lairdesign have re-designed the Tyrone 2010 Allianz NFL Match Day Programme the “Red Hand View”.

This year there will be four issues of the programme with Tyrone facing Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Dublin at Healy Park, Omagh.

Previous issues of the Red Hand View have won a McNamee Design award.

The Ails Of Typographic Anti-Aliasing on Smashing Magazine

Munster GAA, One of our clients whom we have worked with to create a new online visual style have started using Twitter to post fixture and news update.

If you are on Twitter and are interested in getting information on fixtures and latest Munster GAA news then you can follow the Munster GAA Twitter account at @munstergaa

What we do for BA happens pretty much on a monthly basis. We are almost a part of the company’s strategy because with this level of trust that exists between us, the design element is never an after thought. Within their sector the competition wait to see what BA are doing next, because they never go the traditional route.

In late 2007 BA launched the Bella range and instead of going to dealers exclusively they also released the brand to the end user. With the development of a state-of the art website allowing the end user to buy a sample and also find their closest dealer, BA have bucked the trend of the traditional sector marketing.

kitchen units – By BA – Kitchen doors and bedroom doors for the UK and Ireland

Developing the new brand was a whirlwind job – we took feedback from IT Sligo staff at the beginning of June 09 and the first items were in place for students and staff returning in September.

Since then we have been commissioned to develop a range of materials, as well as provide clear brand guidelines. The website has been launched and a keystone of the entire project has been the high level of integration across all media.

www.itsligo.ie

Back in late 2007 we won the contract to brand the new High Performance Centre for sport at the University’s Jordanstown campus. This was a creative pitch (which we love) and won it due to our understanding of their own brand and also our knowledge of signage and mixed media. The University’s vision is to be the leading university in Ireland for sport, and we take great pride in the role we are playing in helping realise their ambitions for sport.

We firmly believe that design is communication in every form. We never limit ourselves to a particular medium but embrace whatever we fell works best for that particular project. In this case the strength, power and impact of the branding speaks for itself.

What used to be a town centre hotel is now a street with a mix of bars, restaurants and shops. Even the weather is controlled, you think you are sitting outside but are covered with a glass ceiling and outside heaters.

The street really comes to life at the weekend: each end of the street is closed off and a mix of people of all ages sample different types of food and entertainment within one complex. For us the branding was a dream because the product itself was so unique. It really needs to be seen to be believed.

www.mainstreetomagh.com

We have led the way in terms of introducing good design into the GAA in Ulster. We currently hold the contract to produce all the promotional materials for the Ulster Council until November 2010. Through our approach we feel we have raised the bar for the GAA throughout Ireland.

www.ulster.gaa.ie
www.ulster.gaa.ie/landofthegiants

The centre was going through a major extension and working with the architects and contractors was a key part of our early work. Little things, such as knowing what wayfinding signage was DDA compliant (Disablilty Discrimination Act) helped us gain the respect of the whole production team.

We were involved in everything from Adshels to the main signage and controlled a range of outside contractors. Challenging at times yes, but the overall result was worthwhile. We are now employed directly by the centre manager on an on-going basis.

Its predecessor, Omagh College, was a client of ours, so we were naturally delighted to get the branding contract following the restructuring and merger with the other colleges. The visual identity had to sympathetic to each of the campuses and a key element for us was its visibility in terms of signage etc. The identity has worked well through a range of media and also has the flexibility to work on sub identities such as the Innotech Centre.

www.theinnotechcentre.com

We were commissioned to update their current identity and also explore the relationship with the other companies in the AssetCo group. The new visual identity incorporates the letters ‘A’ and ‘C’ to create a bridge effect. It is derived from the symbol denoting infinity to indicate the breadth and depth of the AssetCo brand.

We also branded the sub units within the group with the same identity, allowing them to draw on the strength of the AssetCo brand. Most significantly the colour change from sky blue to red makes you aware of the sector thay are invoved in… who’s ever seen a sky blue fire engine?

As well as an image change we developed their website and a full range of promotional materials. They now feel they have the image to compete and they see the difference that a strong brand can create.

One of our designers is a Kerry girl, it was nice for her to work on something outside Ulster! Made her think of home.

www.munster.gaa.ie

For any design project, research is key and in this instance we could fast track this element through our in house expertise.

The Irish News quicky realised that with us, their briefs needn’t be as detailed and our presentations exceeded what they were looking for. The result has been a very creative answer to elements that previously would have received very tame ideas.

The idea finally got off the ground in June 2007 and is slowly but surely gaining a foothold in the marketplace. In Lairdesign we use Squareball as a massive case study. With a very limited budget it pushes our creative skills to the max and also involves almost every single aspect of design.

What we learn from Squareball is vital information to the growth and survival of SMEs. Lairdesign is not about text book consultancy. We are in the front line, learning from our own mistakes and growing strong businesses as a result. That helps our clients. And it helps us. Squareball is our working laboratory.

www.squareball.com

We were aware of the ‘Go For It’ brand and also the individual identities of the Enterprise Centres in Northern Ireland. It was always going to be easier for a designer to satisfy the needs of both clients in this signage. We introduced the signage in two phases as we expected some opposition from Centres afraid of losing their own identity.

We were confident that the Enterprise Centres would be pleasantly surprised by how the signage looked. Phase II allowed them to go for elements they were afraid to during Phase I. The project was delivered on time and under budget.

We were happy with the overall result, particularly how we solved the Healthcare identity problem. Now all those employees know who they work for and appreciate the strength of the overall organisation.

www.conwaygroup.co.uk

We created a name and a mock-up which we sent to them in the post without them knowing. The CEO was distraught when he saw it as he thought that there was a well branded competitor opening soon nearby. It was not until they looked at the address that they realised that it was for them.

Surprising the client and thinking ahead of them is a key part of what we do – it keeps the relationship fresh. In this case it demonstrated that we knew our client inside out – maybe even better than they knew themselves!

www.workspace.org.uk

The same idea and values can be attributed to any client we work for. We work with clients with whom we share beliefs and ideals. They have a good story to tell; we help them tell it!

www.clubtyrone.com

O’NE1918 was the answer to two specific briefs from the parent company. The identity reflects the tradition and history of O’Neills but also displays a new modern approach. It is equally effect away from the parent, O’NE1918 has allowed O’Neills to secure contracts in areas that they would have found difficult in the past.

When we went to see them their main focus was a website and we found that they currently had three separate domains each focusing on different aspects of the business. There was no synergy between any of them. Also we felt that their current identity no longer reflected the scale of work they do and the sectors they are involved in.

Their new website is a fully content managed system, and throughout the development process the Forbes Group were confident in adding content to the site themselves. The same style is now used in all their promotions and advertising.

This is a a great case study of a business with a truly integrated approach to design.

www.forbesfurnituregroup.com

ICE was a clever play on the word off-licence and we felt that it had great potential for franchising or expansion. Again the signage played a critical role in the overall design. For any business, one application can always be key and in this case, we designed to suit this medium.

A small project but one we are proud of in terms of the impact it has achieved.

This is a philosophy we stick to and apply to a business no matter what the size, just like the ICE case study, it is not about where that identity stands today but how will it look in the future. Working with us is an investment in your business, in Blue Peter style…here are a few we did earlier.

Since then (and following further advice that some of their key products and branding did not sit well together) we have been on a journey that has included rebranding, web and a yearly catalogue. Particularly with our guidance on branding, there are parts of Naturelle that can stand alone and and are strong business assets.

www.naturelle.ie

Our initial task was to arrange a fundraising banquet which included PR, event management, branding, web design and painting. The portrait of Cormac was sold for £21,000 and all proceeds went to the Cormac Trust.

www.thecormactrust.com

Our brief was to deliver a fully content-managed website and like many of our projects it began with an overhaul of the identity. The existing identity would have proved very difficult to work with on-line. Part of the value of Lairdesign is the ability to work with clients across a broad range of media.

www.nimdta.gov.uk

To mark this extension we were contracted to produce a website that reflected the buzz and vibrancy of the centre. The site is fully content managed and allows the centre staff to update all the ongoing events and any changes to shopping hours etc. In today’s changing economic climate it is important that clients have as much control over their own information as possible.

www.meadowlane.co.uk

Based in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, the Company has operated throughout Ireland and the UK and has completed projects in London, Belfast, Dublin and most regional cities. This is the second time we have developed the website for McAleer and Rushe. This time the emphasis was on creating the ability for them to add up to date projects and images.

McAleer and Rushe recognise the web as a key tool in their marketing activities and the flexibility and easy navigation of this site reflects the type of progressive organisation they are.

www.mcaleer-rushe.co.uk

As part of Lairdesign’s ongoing work with IT Sligo we been working towards a new visual style for their website which, Today, has gone live.

The project contained information systems for both the Faculty and Students, numerous sub sites for various faculties and an online prospectus for potential students.

Together, ourselves and ITSligo have been working together to Re-Brand the Institution which has included a new Corporate Identity, Signage and Printed Materials. The Website is another big step in the re-branding of ITSligo.

You can visit the new site at www.itsligo.ie.

Featuring a range of t-shirts and hoodies produced and finished to the highest standard complete with Squareball’s familiar sense of humour, the collection is sure to brighten up your Christmas stocking.

And, to brighten things up for the forthcoming festive season, the site has been given a makeover. Look out for our Squareball flyers in the Irish News, the Evening Herald and the Examiner.

Full details of what’s available for Christmas on: www.squareball.com

Our creative director, Fehin completed the New York marathon today on just under five hours. Despite a dodgy knee he completed the race for the second time. Well done from all in the studio.

Already we are working with the officials in Munster to build a website that does justice to the fine GAA tradition of the province. After all it was in Munster, in Thurles in Co Tipperary, that the GAA was created 125 years ago.

We’ll keep you updated on progress as we go along. Like our other web projects we’ll be getting the site up and taking on board soundings on what users like and don’t like. Hopefully more of the former than the latter.