Turn Key Blog. Things we've done and the things we love.

Designer Paul Hainsworth loves… McBess

Often design is thought to be the work of computers and so it’s really refreshing to see someone holding on to more traditional felt pen illustration. McBess has an amazing talent of bringing out shadows and light using only one colour.

His distinctive black and white style is influenced by old cartoons such as Betty Boop and Merrie Melodies and his drawings often feature himself surrounded by surreal elements including food and musical instruments. His work has a truly nostalgic feel but with a fresh and modern twist.

See more of his work at  http://mcbess.com/

1.  Technorati – It’s been around for years but as I’m been working on a social media listening piece recently, I’ve rediscovered how useful it is. Essentially it is a directory of most of the blogs out there in the blogosphere and a search engine to peruse each of them. What’s most useful is that it gives an ‘authority’ and ‘rank’ to any blog, both against the whole of the Technorati listings, and within its own specialists sector e.g. sports, medical, travel, etc. ‘Blog Authority’ is based on an algorithm of popularity, links, relevancy and frequency of content and is particularly useful when researching which blogs within a sector one might engage with to do a spot of online PR.

2.  Goodsie – This ‘create your own online store’ eCommerce platform looks just amazing and is inspiring us all to set up our own eCommerce businesses! For just $15 a month it provides small businesses with a great platform for their online store. Plus, I love the simple, modern design of the Goodsie website. Nice large font as live text, simple but clever navigation which keeps all the key info on the homepage … beautiful.

3.  Pinterest – Yes I know this was the flavour of last month but I finally got my Pinterest invite through and I think it’s fantastic. It’s now easier than ever to store all the beautiful and interesting images you might come across on your day to day web browsing, in your own personalised categories. It looks great too (even if it is a bit girly!).

4.  Responsive design – This is the next level in the technique of web design and build for multiple devices. By using some nice HTML5/CSS3 wizardry, and most importantly designing the best user experience for each device the website will be viewed on, means we can create a single website, laid out so as to be easy to read and navigate, whatever the device and screen size.My favourite example right now is Smashing Magazine . To see what I’m harping on about, grab the corner of your browser window and resize to smaller and larger screen sizes, right from smartphone, to tablet, to huge iMac type screen and watch in awe as the navigation and content moves to fit the screen size perfectly. We’re currently employing this design on some of Turn Key’s own upcoming sites.

To welcome Spring in style, Eden Shopping Centre, High Wycombe, decided to produce a guide to Spring fashion. Aimed at the 30 plus female market, this guide was to be given out at a Colour Wheel Fashion Event. With content, styling and design pulled together by Turn Key we had a great time being creative.

The finished guide is an A3 sized newspaper style magazine, and we love it!

Nerves were at an all-time high this lunchtime, when 6 brave team members made their way to Carpe Diem to take part in the Mega Burger Challenge. Just to recap from an earlier post, the challenge requires each individual to polish off 4 quarter pound burgers, 4 rashers of bacon, 6 onion rings all in a giant garlic and herb focaccia bun accompanied by a large bowl of fries all in just 25 minutes.

Challenger number 1: Rich – Creative Director

Challenger number 2: Paul – Designer

Challenger number 3: Samara – PR Account Manager

Challenger number 4: Tom – Designer

Challenger number 5: Derrick – Digital Account Manager

Challenger number 6: Mike – Head of Marketing

Sure there was banter, a sweepstake and lots of excitement, but not one of the contenders, myself being one of them knew just what we were letting ourselves in for!

Just to put things into perspective, we had to give Carpe Diem a week’s notice to ensure there was enough meat to go around and they had to hire extra staff for the occasion! So, with our challenger table set, we prepared ourselves for the ultimate food challenge.

Ready, set… Go!

15 minutes later….

20 minutes….

Finally at 25 minutes…

It was a close call, with Mike just bites away from entering the wall of fame, but alas, the burger won! The results were…

1st – Mike ‘Sorry, I’m just in the middle of a burger challenge; I’ll have to call you back’

2nd – Rich ‘I might aswell just lick a cow’

3rd – Derrick ’I’ve got a meat migraine’

4th – Samara ‘It tastes like the ground’

5th – Paul ‘Can I order a few sides please?’

6th – Tom ‘I wonder if they do ice cream sundaes’

We all gave it our best shot, but unfortunately the defeat was in the meat!

Designer Darren Jaques loves… Inspiration from Staudinger + Franke

As designers we get to spend a lot of our time scouring the Internet and flicking through the pages of books in the search for inspiration. As a result we get to see all kinds of weird and wonderful creations, but every now and then, you see something that stops you dead in your tracks and leaves you quietly muttering to yourself ‘Bloody hell, that’s good’.

For me, that moment came the other day after our Creative Director, Rich,  pointed me in the direction of Staudinger + Franke.

Based in Vienna, Austria, they specialise in CGI, photography and retouching and the results are stunning. Check out a few examples below or see the site for yourself at www.staudinger-franke.com

Team PR went above and beyond last week hand delivering custom made pint glasses including an invitation to ‘Beer with Blacks’ – a mini beer festival being held by our client, Leeds-based Blacks Solicitors to introduce its new legal licensing whizz Mark Beedel.

We were lucky enough to enjoy an hour of the glorious sunshine whilst touring the city as we popped in to see some of our favourite journo’s at the Business Desk, YBI, the YP and the YEP.  A welcome, refreshing and mouth-watering surprise for our favourite contacts. Can’t wait to see you there on the 19 ^th … make mine a pint!