This is the first advert we’ve produced for our new luxury brand client, Ettinger. The ad was designed specifically around Ettinger’s range of luggage and was placed in the travel section of Country & Town House magazine.

Our initial intention was to photograph the luggage against a fairly plain background, thus focussing the attention on the quality and detail of the product; however, as an alternative, we printed out a large format version of an antiquated world map – not only giving the image some context, but also alluding to the heritage and traditional values of the brand. This was the preferred option.

The advert is essentially a brand builder, although it incorporates clear calls to action – driving potential customers to Ettinger’s e-commerce site and London showroom. Both worth a visit if you’re into English luxury with a twist!

Old news it may be, but Jérémy Clapin and Stéphane Piera’s 2008 Oscar contender ‘Skhizein’ is an absolute must see. For those who missed out on this beautifully realised and curious tale of Henry and his slightly displaced universe, here it is in full. Quintessentially quirky and French, it’s a joy to behold full of original ideas and visual cleverness not to mention rock solid art direction and admirable follow-through in all aspects of the execution.

Available here to buy on DVD with an insightful making of.

Thanks to monographer.

(Opinion: Jon Price – Designer)

Yes, I’ve been moonlighting. Well not really. One of my leisure interests is vintage transport and for a number of years I’ve been a part time bus conductor for an operator in Somerset. It’s great fun and good weekend therapy after a week spent driving computers (and fixing them).

At the end of last season they gave me the chance to train as a driver and offered to put a modern coach and their driving instructor at my disposal. How could I refuse?

I’ve already had an assessment day and will be taking my bus driver theory test in a few weeks time. By the time the season starts again in May I should have also passed my practical test as well.  I’ll then be qualified to drive any bus or coach although I will most often be found in one of the many historic vehicles in the fleet.

For a bit of fun I also decided to write a blog about my training, the test and beyond. Take a look at “Hold Tight Please!” and find out more.

All this will have no impact on my work at DNA, unless of course we decide to have a DNA day out on a vintage open top bus!

(Off topic jaunt: John Dawkins – Designer/IT Manager)

Whilst perusing the affordable Scandinavian wares of Ikea, I happened upon a particular sequence of wall graphics that told the story of how Ikea’s savings are passed on to the customer. Strangely, only five of the seven ‘Ikea concept’ panels used correct spelling with the remaining ones neglecting to use apostrophes (the above example also has a rogue space before the question mark). I’m now well versed in Ikea’s efficient production and distribution methods but surely they could have spent a few extra euros on spell checking. We’ve all made mistakes, but three in twenty nine words at 124pt nationwide is quite special. At first I thought ‘trust me to notice that’, so my biggest smile came from the huge ‘Thats why!’ that came after the equals sign, where a staff member had pasted a cut-out apostrophe on the wall!

This is the Ikea concept as it should have looked!

(Opinion: Jon Price – Designer)

There are many ‘Web Design Myths’, usability and design constraints that clients request having once heard that this is best practice. Most of these have come from the good old days of web design or even from constraints imposed on printed media. It is very often the job of a web designer to gently dispel these myths and dissuade clients from forcing them upon their site designs.

One such myth is the myth of the page fold, the point at which a user needs to scroll down to access content on your site. It was said that users would not scroll the page down meaning all content on your homepage should sit above this virtual line. The term originates from newspapers where the attention grabbing headlines would appear ‘above the fold’ so as to be seen on the newsstands.

Read More >>

Bit of Friday fun.
It’s Jim’s birthday tomorrow, so here’s a little ‘pre-construction’ of what we think he’ll be up to… (sorry Katie, but we couldn’t see him dance alone!)…

Hi all, if you’re into comedy and you’re in the South West of England (or love to travel), check out the Exeter Comedy Festival. Sounds great. Have a look at their website to see who’s on. The site’s not bad either (and no we didn’t do it – it’s the work of some cowboy outift
called 2020)

[Jim Green - MD]

Between the 5th December (my Mum’s birthday) and the 10th Jan, the new format Exeter Phoenix brochure was download 7,500 times! It’s the first time the brochure has been made available as a download but we think it’s a pretty impressive figure (clearly mostly down to the quality of the design). For the new brochure we’ve refreshed the best aspects of the previous format with a more lively, magazine style – our aim being to keep Exeter Phoenix one step ahead of other, similar organisations around the UK. Click here if you want to take a look or download it yourself.

Since we did the work on segmenting the Exeter Phoenix sub-brands and redesigning the quarterly brochure, the in-house team has overhauled the website and is now preparing to launch its new online ticketing system, which will be live from Thursday 14 Jan. Watch this space!

[Opinion: Jim Green - MD]

For anyone who didn’t see Ascari appear on ITV the other night – check out this bite-sized clip, or take a look at the website we designed and built for them at http://www.ascari.net.

Incidentally, we shot, edited and produced the film and soundtrack on this site ourselves.
We captured most of the footage in three days then spliced in some shots we had storyboarded for Ascari when previously commissioning another South West company – Denhams. The benefit to Ascari is that the whole thing is royalty-free. Just before Christmas we received a call from a company in the USA. They saw the Ascari film, loved the soundtrack and have asked us to do the same for them. Don’t you love it when that happens? Watch this space!