Given the hand-drawn nature of ay-pe’s latest and greatest project; an animated flip-book telling the story of the cultural history at Clitheroe Castle. Ay-pe asked if we could reflect the look and feel of their AV production and bring some movement to the page.

Initially, we discussed Adobe Flash (no) and  Javascript animation, but finally settled on a much simple, subtler and; I think, more elegant approach given that the content of the page no t the background deserved to be hero.

Those readers that follow the web-design community closely will have noticed a new trend for parallax backgrounds. There have been a few notable examples recently. The Rissington Podcast and Clearleft’s ‘Silverback‘ to name but two (with an excellent tutorial on how to recreate the effect by Carsonified here).

So; some brown paper, a few fluffy clouds, one friendly Owl and a lovely Quicktime movie were winged over by carrier duck (this is Sheffield pal) and we set to work implementing the effect. I’ll not wax lyrical here about the techniques. It’s all been articulated much better than I ever could on the Carsonified tutorial noted above.

I’ll just a big thank-you very much to the Sir or Madam that was crazy enough, drunk or both to have been messing around with CSS minus margins and wildly re-sizing their browser window!

Odd? Yes. Useful? Very!

Creswell Crags on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire borders is one of the most important archaeological sites in Europe and is currently working towards ‘World Heritage’ Status – a label that would see it ranked alongside historical luminaries such as Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

A Limestone Gorge, Cave System, Country Park, Wildlife Reserve, Museum and Visitor Attraction; Creswell Crags, it’s object collections, research, exhibitions and website are supported (most notably) by the British Museum, who’s curator of pre-history; Jill Cook had a large hand in conceiving and planning. In the early nineties I’d worked on the team that put the original site and its award winning content together. Now, more than ten years later – we’d get to improve upon the design, enhance the content and introduce some new ideas of our own.

Take something great, and make it better.

Some excellent re-branding work had been produced by Sumo in Newcastle, along with some suggestions for what the site may eventually look like. We took those early concept visuals and built on the thinking, applying our expertise and beginning to firm up the specification that much to the clients surprise; had a much richer feature set than they’d ever imagined considering their modest budget.

Using Teleriks Sitefinity CMS we delivered a fully managed website that included full ‘in-page’ content management. News and Events sections. Community message boards and polls; and a blog for the Creswell Team to talk about life at the Crags. Integration with Google maps provides a ‘rich media layer’ to head up the site – supporting local businesses by providing relevant ‘places to eat, drink and stay’ information to users wishing to visit the Museum and get a wider view of the surrounding countryside.

Still to come

The feather in the cap, is the integration with the Museums offline object database. Containing hundreds of thousands of objects, scattered far and wide across the country in various public and private collections; the Creswell object database is a goldmine of archaeological information and an incredibly important data set for education and historical research.

Using the Microsoft .NET development framework, we’ve set about creating a connection between desktop and internet that will bring the entire collection of objects to the world wide web. Keep your eyes peeled on the site for updates, but in the meantime you can search the Creswell Object Database as it stands so far: Human Skulls, Bison, Bear, Wolves and Hyena bones all found in rural Derbyshire… Crikey!

You, the reader (ha!) may be forgiven for being less than enthusiastic about this little corner of t’world wide t’interweb. Especially were you to be expecting relevant, cutting commentary, satire and repartee regarding the state of play for graphic designers in todays digital marketplace. In fact I’m ashamed to admit that the obligatory madewithpixels weblog is now more than twelve months old and contains no more than a few rambling posts from my tired old mind about subjects as closely related to graphic design as I am to Genghis Khan.

All change: destination. The future.

Suddenly; everything has changed; and It’s only fair to say that we’ve only gone and thinked the unthunkable…

So without further ado: I’m pleased to announce that Mr Jon Ward esquire; kitty-cat afficianado and all round good-guy and I have finally made the jump and are embarking on our own little foray into the murky waters of the web agency ocean.

Baiting our metaphorical hooks with the hopes and dreams of a brighter, more accessible, easier to use web future; and casting our rods with a renewed glee that has taken us both by surprise.

So far, it seems to be working very well thanks.

There are plenty of little fishies (and some bigger ones) in our little fishy** bucket and we’re looking forward to finding out whether our slant on things works as well as we think it might.

So I guess all that’s left to say is ‘check back soon’. When there’s news, you’ll find it here. Perhaps there might even be some of that promised commentary and repartee? We’ll see

** Please note. At no point do we intend to bash our clients on the heads and place them in a bucket for consumption later.

In preparation for his support slot for The Holloways (myspace) last night at Leeds University Union, Mr Turner Esq wowed a largely impromptu audience with a short but oh so sweet set on the grass outside the venue during a fire alarm incident.

Belting out three numbers from his albums, with a much appreciated and spine-tingling (but hardly necessary given his vocal talents) helping hand from his devoted Leeds following, he finished up with an acoustic rendition of Abba’s Dancing Queen; much to the delight of all.

Considering an extremely large, very busy Student Union building had emptied in a matter of minutes, it’s fair to say that many of the audience had no idea just what the hell was going on. Of course, everyone sang along to Dancing Queen. Just as the sun went down on a crisp and sunny Yorkshire evening. So I’d like to take this opportunity to doff my cap to Mr Frank Turner and Co; moments like these are gold dust.

Once the all clear was given, Frank and the rest of the band finished the set indoors, ripping the roof off as they finished a cracking set, such great songs, such a great band. However, personally, I’d have paid just to see the grassy knoll incident!

Video footage after the jump.

I should also mention that the Holloways were also pretty damn good, and props to them as headliners and gracious hosts for giving due credit to Frank as the hero of the evening. Also, they introduced the audience to an 11 year old crowd surfer! You may be shocked, but I can assure ‘Health and Safety’ that this was surely the most gingerly handled crowd surfer in rock history, passed like a precious stone from hand to hand and set down on two feet with all limbs intact; while the band watched over affairs intently… another smile raised on my face; and no doubt a young mans birthday dreams made!

Who are these others I speak of?

So while I’m on the music subject, I thought I’d throw in a few other links to some perhaps less well known but equally impressive artists that have rocked my world over the last few weeks while frequenting the regions smaller live music venues in search of good ale, pub food and good tunes.

First up would be Rory McVicar (myspace), who I saw at the Angel Share in a small Leeds suburb called Chapel Allerton a few weeks ago. I haven’t had his CD off my iPod since, awesome stuff. Shades of all sorts in here, fantastic song-writing, a captivating and distinctive voice and great production on the CD.

Second (and, I hasten to add; in no particular order) would be a two-piece from Manchester who I caught at the Grapes in Sheffield last week, Stereo Horizon are a brother and sister combo with obvious comparisons to the White Stripes in that she plays drums (apparently self taught and mentored by her brother to amazing effect!) and he plays everything else (Piano on this occasion). However that’s pretty much where the Stripes comparisons stop. I could hear Radiohead, The Smiths, Muse in their songwriting and compositional influence and with serious skills seemingly pouring out of these two I’d be willing to wager a fiver on this being a duo to keep your eye on.

Lastly, and of course by no means least would be a lady I’ve rather luckily caught twice now, at both of the above events. On a solo adventure from Monkey Swallows the Universe (a band on hiatus apparently). Nat Johnson always seems to charm the pants off her audiences! Great songs. With at times; a smidgen dark lyrics that bely the sweet and often surprising melodies conjured up on-stage with her guitar, glockenspiel, loop machine and beautiful voice; not unlike Beth Orton’s – a long time favourite of mine. Creating her own samples, loops, backings and harmonies as she goes. I’ve never seen anything quite like it; on both occasions I’ve been utterly stunned by how simple and effective it is. For me and my trusty gig companion, Nat Johnson and all of the artists mentioned here come highly recommended.