The client wanted to update his dated flash portfolio site with something capable of streaming high quality video, on a very tight budget, yet fully manageable by the client.

THE SOLUTION

Over recent months I have been championing Vimeo to my video clients for its ease of use and viral abilities, but also due to the extremely high quality of delivered video and once upgraded to pro, the vast array of embedding options. For video producers this enables them to stream masses of high quality video without having to worry about server loads or capacity draining their pockets.

The site itself is powered by WordPress enabling the client to take advantage of the ease of use of the back end management system and streams all video from Vimeo, although it is also setup to play locally hosted videos too should the client wish to keep them out of the public domain.

Having my site developed by mogmachine was the best thing I could’ve done.  Not only did they provide professional, speedy service, their suggestions complemented and improved on my own ten-fold creating a site that has improved usability and increased hits which means more work for me.

THE FUTURE

The site is now live and the client has taken over the production of content and is most pleased with the results.  www.claudiorietti.com

Approached by an agency needing a WordPress specialist I was asked to develop this site for one of the leading SEO specialists Latitude Group which functioned and conformed to strict rules regarding content structure and presentation.

THE SOLUTION

WordPress has often been put down by SEO agencies with regards to its seo compliancy so it was a most pleasant surprise to learn that Latitude Group, one of the leading companies in this field would like a WP powered site.
All of the design and PM was handled by the agency Vivid Image allowing me to develop purely to spec which was to be a pain free task.
As we all know nothing is ever as easy as first expected, but having overcome any hurdles and learning more about using Wordpress on an IIS server, the development process actually ended up being a pleasure as the site took shape.
We imported large amounts of data from their old Expression Engine powered site, and utilized jQuery to provide an intuitive graphically rich browsing experience.

“As a leading digital marketing agency, our website has to reflect our ability in SEO and online marketing. We also wanted to  have our website and blog integrated within the same CMS. We tested several CMSs but Wordpress was clearly ahead because of its flexible structure, its native SEO features and the numerous SEO plugins available. Latitude Group really challenged Marcus and VI but they had a solution for everything we asked them to do”.

Thibaut Pfeiffer

Latitude Group

THE FUTURE

The site is now live and the client is very pleased with the result. Check it out for yourself at www.latitudegroup.com

After previous work with the founder of Clever Diaries, we were approached to produce a commerce site that intergrates with a custom API for Outlook.
The site was aimed at the corporate market and so the design had to reflect this with a no nonsense approach to providing information supported by rich graphics.

THE SOLUTION

The writing of the Outlook plugin was performed by Ben@array[x] with whom I have worked on a number of previous projects, and as a highly accomplished project manager and programmer he also took on both of these responsibilities which provided us with an ASP commerce solution with which the distribution of his Outlook API would flow seamlessly.

We worked closely with the client through the design process which although not initially heading in the right direction was guided through good communication and relationship building with all parties to produce a final product that all parties are very pleased with.

THE FUTURE

At the time of writing Clever Diaries is yet to launch so i can’t spoil the surprise.

Avolus came to me in early 2008 through a reccomendation, requiring someone to take over the management of 2 sites from an errant developer. This continued until late in 2008 when it was realised that the 2 sites desperately needed a visual and structural makeover to ensure the maximum number of conversions for the company.

The main goal for the site is to drive traffic towards making a form based enquiry allowing Avolus to contact the client directly to initiate a transaction.
The secondary goals are to provide a stylish, multilingual online brochure that reflects the image of the company through information, marketing material and also the display of aircrafts for sale through the brokerage side of the site.

THE SOLUTION

For the design of the site I used a Japanese designer, Takashi Irie who I felt was best suited to the look and feel required by Avolus.
Once the design concept had been decided I built a custom site using a combination of XHTML/CSS/PHP/JQuery.
The enitre site had to be easily adaptable into any language with the initial langauges being English, French, German & Russian, therefore form an early stage every text element of the site and content was clearly separated form the design, allowing the simple editing of text files to control every single aspect of the interface.

For the forms we chose to use ShadowBox style overlays to ensure that maximum user attention and also facilitate the required form elements that we preferred not have present on every page.

The aesthic was then further enchanced through the use of a rotating image banner that utilized some stunning stock photography owned by Avolus, and setup to serve page dependant relevent images.

All of the content was authored with SEO and keyword analysis paramount, however to support this the site was built in a highly compliant manner, utilizing semantics and clean well structured code throughout.

THE FUTURE

Although the private aircraft charter industry is suffering in the current economic climate, Avolus continues to thrive through careful use of promotions which are easily manageable through the site, coupled with excellent SEO, Keyword marketing and analytics ensuring maximum visitor conversion.

www.avolus.com

Sky required an overhaul for their corporate responsibility portal “JoinTheBiggerPicture” which covers a massive range of Sky public media from Arts to Entertainment to Sports to Environment.

The challenge was to produce a custom CMS that allowed potentially limitless numbers of content editors, content managers and various other hierachial levels to visually interact with the content they were manipulating.
The visual aspects of this CMS are what made it different from off the shelf products, and the requirements for an intuitive interface that required no training to use were key parts of this project.

THE SOLUTION

Working with Array[x] we built the backend in ASP .NET, incorporating into the system elements of ExtJS and the MooTools library to facilitate the required user experience.

The design templates were provided by the creative agency Stickee, which we then took responsibility for turning into accessibility compliant XHTML/CSS templates and subsequently adding the necessery ASP bits and pieces and merging into the system.
There was also a large amount of already existing functionality that had to be incorporated as part of Sky’s internal environment incentive scheme which involved the addition of Flash API’s which were fed by user choices within the HTML interface.

A significant amount of time was then spent extensively testing the usability of the back end and the intuitivity of the interface before handing the project over to the client.

THE FUTURE…

Sky continue to use this site and system at the time of writing, and there have never been any major bugs of updates, which stands testament to the extensive testing and rigourous build protocol put in place by Ben @ Array[x] who subsequently now manages all projects of such a large nature.

www.jointhebiggerpicture.com

I was introduced to The DRH Collection at the end of 2007 as they were in need of a new website.
They distribute throughout the UK and Europe high quality glassware and ceramics, supplying primarily, the middle to top end of the retail and hotel/restaurant markets.

Although not offering online commerce and not wishing to due to the wholsesale nature of the business, it was imperative to be able to showcase in detail their entire extensive product catalogue online with all of the trappings of a commerce site, just without the ‘Buy Now’ button.

THE SOLUTION

As the client requested to keep the budget down, yet also have full CMS control over the content the optimum solution was WordPress, which although originally aimed at publishing, suited the structure and categorization of their product catalogue.

Cross product promotion and the clear presentation of product images is always of key importance for such a solution so to support product viewing we created JQuery image viewers for products, heavily utilized tagging and cross tag functionality and finally fully optimized the site for SEO compliancy.

THE FUTURE

As the client has continued to maintain the site with very further requests or bugs for us to fulfill we see this as a testament to the sucess and ease of use of the chosen CMS. Traffic for the site has also been monitored and showed a significant increase over the last year.

We continue to work with The DRH Collection on web updates, future technologies and media consultancy.

www.thedrhcollection.com

Before using Mogmachine our web presence was pitiful, as it was nothing more than a front page with some basic (and quite often out of date) text. However Marcus has turned it into something to be truly proud of and it is now used daily as a sales tool. It is also not just a generic website as so many others are, it has been personalised around us, and it is always very easy to add new parts, or equally remove things from the website which we feel may have become redundant or could be upgraded.

The service that Marcus provides is also excellent and whenever any issues or questions arise he is often just an email or phone call away. I would be more than happy to recommend Marcus to any company.

Michael Holmes
The DRH Collection
mholmes@thedrhcollection.com

incognito have the rare claim of being a client I approached. One Sunday morning I stumbled across an article on their mosquito repellent in The Sunday Telegraph and after viewing their site realised that they had a fantastic product, but their site lacked any form of SEO or proper content structure and their e-commerce solution was dated and clunky.

THE SOLUTION

Initially Mog Machine produced an SEO compliant re-build of the current site, we bought their commerce into line, added PayPal tracking, Google Analytics and setup domain, emails and hosting to give the small startup business the best value for money and chance of succeeding in the marketplace.

We continued to be involved providing consultancy on everything from best web practices and marketing solutions to managing everyday macintosh tasks such as order logging, optimization and distribution of marketing material and more.

incognito grew from strength to strength and then in early 2008 after adding more products to their line it became apparent that a new site would need to be built to manage the products, and wealth of mosquito information being built up.

As the business was still a 2 man operation with limited financial resources we decided on WordPress as the main CMS for the site accompanied by the WPe-commerce online shopping solution, both offering a cost effective, customizable, open-source solution.
The site design was put out to tender as a design competition at the university i was lecturing and the winner contributed to the look and feel allowing the client to come away with a ‘designed’ site at a fraction of the cost. This competition method for the design proved to service the clients needs and has continued to be deployed (albeit now using international candidates from around the world) by us for many future projects.

“We are so grateful to have Marcus as our webmaster and we very much consider him part of our team.  His commitment is second to none and no request ever goes unanswered.  He works really hard on our projects, is totally reliable and still manages to be kind and patient even when we change our mind for the 100th time!  Quite simply, he’s the best.”

Patricia Carter – incognito/lessmosquito.com – 2007-2009

THE FUTURE

The company continues to grow and flourish, having now got their products distributed throughout the UK and worldwide in stores from Harrods, Holland & Barrett, Fresh & Wild and many many more (see full stockists list) and all the time adding new products to their catalogue whilst continuing to exhibit in ethically aware shows and venues throughout the country.

It is only a matter of time before the dream of international distribution becomes a reality and the business grows more, and we will be proud to support incognito through this time and continue to provide the same level of service to one of our most loyal clients.

www.lessmosquito.com

ImpeyUK approached me on behalf of a consortium involving Topps Tiles, Homelux, Impey & Warmup who wanted a 3D instructional DVD with supporting material to illustrate to DIY and trade professionals the process involved in laying a wetroom.

THE SOLUTION

The narrative was provided by the consortium of companies along with product samples and the old dated version of the video.

We used Maxon’s Cinema 4D for all of the modeling, utilizing HDRI lighting techniques to provide a photorealistic look for finished shots.
The entire script was story-boarded first and then signed off before work began.

After a final review and creation of interactive DVD menus the entire 25 minutes film was rendered over the course of a week and then authored to DVD.

THE FUTURE

The DVD continues to be distributed in Topps Tiles stores nationwide.

Isn’t it nice when you get to put right things you find wholly wrong.

We were approached by ThinkPPN to implement someone else’s design to a holding page or three for them, which we graciously did, even though the design went against all of our better judgements.

Thankfully a few years later ThinkPPN have returned to us and allowed us to construct them n accessibility compliant site that we feel proud to put our name to.

Old Site

Having created a small portfolio site for MAMP as we both set out on our professional careers I was most pleased that they returned with a brief for a larger more comprehensive site.

The brief was for a portfolio site with added facilities to profile their team and showcase their work.

THE SOLUTION

At the time of production we chose to go with the CMS ModX. This is a unique CMS which presented a development challenge and learning process i was eager to be involved in.

We used the services of PensAreMyFriends for the design, with everything else being produced in house.

The site also just happened to be one of my first professional installation of Wordpress to power the blog (something that of course has grown and grown in my expertise and portfolio ever since).

The site used a flash carousel viewer for the profile browsing, something only really seen in the iTunes library in early 2007 as coverflow, now a prominent interface effect.

The site also used a unique 16 video collage video wall, something extremely eye catching and unique to this site.

THE FUTURE

As the company grew and turned to a more corporate path over the subsequent years they eventually merged with Mimo Productions (a current client of mine) and since then we have worked together on a number of projects over the years with a brand new portfolio for the merged companies in the pipeline as we speak.