posted
Jan. 31, 2012
time
11:11 a.m.
by
Andrew

Dribbble and Drool
Design Social Network

We've just set up an Omni profile on Dribble, which is by far the most popular, design and development community on the web. It has an amazing array of designers, artists and developers from all over the world. It manages to stay this way because it's invite only, so you don't get every Tom, Dick and Harry uploading photos of their cat. We'll be posting shots of our workflow from sketches and things we're working on all the way through to finished, shiny pieces of work.

You can check out our Dribbble profile here: dribbble.com/the-house-of-omni

Dribbble and Drool

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posted
Jan. 9, 2012
time
8:46 a.m.
by
Sam

A blast from the past
1st Generation iPod

It feels like a very long time ago now looking at it but after only 10 years this 1st Generation iPod feels like an antique compared to what is now available. I think this is testimant to how fast the technology is moving but also how well Apple built these products. 

Firewire 400 connection cable and 5 whole GB in capacity size. hahaha. :-)

A blast from the past

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posted
Dec. 5, 2011
time
11 a.m.
by
Darren

Lord of the Flies
Cover Competition

Faber and Faber is one of the great independent publishing houses in London, and is renowned for its design heritage.

Omni has been working as one of Faber and Faber's retained agencies over the past year and have some exciting projects planned.

Working in partnership with the Guardian, Faber asked us to design a microsite to promote a competition - calling on artists aged 13 to 16 to redesign the cover of William Golding's classic, Lord of the Flies.

The site features a video brief from Faber Art Director, Donna Payne, as well as advice from Neil Gower - who will not only judge the entries, but has twice designed the cover on previous editions.

The audience can share the competition, register for competition news, download the brief and upload their entries via the site.

Lord of the Flies was an unexpected bestseller, and was not a hit when initially published. It has gone on to sell millions of copies and its success was purely down to word of mouth, as the late Charles Monteith at Faber and Faber recalled ‘The book began not only to be talked about but to sell and before long we had to order a reprint. In the United States, where we had great difficulty in placing it, it made little impression at first, but after a year or two, a paperback edition began to spread like forest fire through university campuses.’

The winner will see their artwork transformed by the Faber design team into a cover for the new cententary edition of Lord of the Flies.

Lord of the Flies has been summed up as "a savage analysis of what can happen when regimes fall, fear rules and power must be fought for"…so as relevant today as ever.

Visit the site here: lordofthefliescover.com

Lord of the Flies

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posted
Dec. 5, 2011
time
8:17 a.m.
by
Andy

Faber Christmas Gifts
New site designs

Since taking on Faber and Faber as a client earlier this year, we've been providing them with a lot of back-end Django support and maintenance for their website (the framework that their CMS is built in). Up until now, we haven't had a chance to get stuck in with the front-end of the site but with Christmas approaching Faber asked us to design a new Gifts ideas are of the site. This new section allows you to filter the content by groups, 'Gifts for Dads', 'Gifts for Mums' etc, which then gives you a recommended set of Faber publications. This gave us a chance to break out of the existing templates that the site adheres to and create something new for them whilst ensuring it stays on brand and seamlessly part of the current site.

Designing the Gifts section coincided with planning a site-wide refresh, which would improve usability, functionality and importantly the inherited code that was originally used to build the site. The problem that we faced was that this is not a redesign where you have the flexibility of a blank canvas. We had to take what was already there and work out how we could make the user experience a better one, whilst upholding the design style that is already in place. We focussed a great deal of time on the homepage, trying to find a solution to some core site issues, which is to create an more intuative search for their large catalogue. The secondary need for the homepage is that it's a pin board of news and promotions for the various arms of Faber that all need a place to communicate. These two factors saw us radically change the layout and even navigation to find a solution. Watch this space for a launch later this year. 

Choose your Christmas Gifts here: www.faber.co.uk/gifts/christmas

Faber Christmas Gifts

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posted
Nov. 8, 2011
time
9:28 a.m.
by
Darren

Black Mountain Hike
Omni Adventures

Following on from last years trek up Snowdon, the Omni team all got together this Friday for a 15km walk across the Brecon Beacons.

As a company we try to organise events like this as often as possible - the only rules being; no cringe worthy team building exercises and no whiteboards - just good clean air, horizontal rain and some breath-taking views.

Flickr Photo Feed here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwSQzAA

Black Mountain Hike

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posted
Oct. 26, 2011
time
9:29 a.m.
by
Sam

Adaptive Layouts
Fluidity on the web

I'm holding back from a major blog around adaptive layouts because I want to show you some lovely examples from our own portfolio but these are all still in development at the moment and will be launched very soon. 

Suffice to say, adaptive layouts are a very exciting development and have fast become a major consideration for our team. They are not new as a theory but have certainly been recently fine tuned and come into their own after the launch of a fantastic book by Ethan Marcotte called 'Responsive Web Design'. 

The idea is for smoother user engagement with a website design when accessing it via the multitude of mobile and tablet devices now on the market. Essentially we work through each page template to consider how the core design template would then fluidly adapt, whilst still retaining the information priority and core structure. Drop down menus may change to mobile friendly menu items, images shrink or expand, carousels turn into single image slideshows, horizontal layouts become vertical for easy touch screen finger scrolling etc. etc. 

Some say adaptive layouts can be boring and restrict the design process because they are sticking too strictly to measured column views but we have found the exact opposite, where having to consider how a site will adapt for mobile devices is a fascinating new challenge. 

We are close to completion of two new sites using these techniques, the first is a 2012 Olympics Photographic Competition website for The Royal Photographic Society and the other is a new website for Active Centres formally South Gloucestershire Leisure Centres. Both will be launched over the coming months. 

Some other examples of responsive web design can be found here: mediaqueri.es, foodsense.is

Adaptive Layouts

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posted
Oct. 26, 2011
time
9:26 a.m.
by
Sam

IE6 Apology
...kinda

It doesn't make up for all the pain anf frustration that IE6 (Internet Explorer 6) has caused us over the years but I guess it's nice to have some kind of appology for such a shoddy browser. :-)

IE6 Apology

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posted
Aug. 17, 2011
time
12:26 p.m.
by
Tom

Bristol Django Talks
Arkestra

In the interest of growing more Djangonaughts in the Southwest, Omni have been playing host to the Django Bath & Bristol users group.

Last night we were lucky enough receive a visit from Daniele Procida, and the subject of discussion was Arkestra, an intelligent content management system, which powers the School of Medicine at Cardiff University (and a growing number of other sites). 

With impressive disregard for murphy's laws of presenting, Daniele built a small site that showed off Arkestra's determination to get as much use as it can from every piece of information that it's given. It's clear that a great deal of thought has gone into building a system that doesn't require the entry of lots of near-duplicate content, and that presents that content in an appropriate and flexible manner. 

If you're interested in Arkestra, you may want to have a look at Daniele's lightning talk from DjangoCon EU (he starts at about 24:30). 

As ever, thanks to Dan Fairs for getting everyone together.

Bristol Django Talks

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posted
Aug. 17, 2011
time
9:34 a.m.
by
John

150 years in the making
Exhibition Catalogue

Omni are delighted to share with you, the recently completed Exhibition Print Catalogue, for The Royal Photographic Society.

The Royal Photographic Society’s International Print Exhibition is the longest standing exhibition of its kind in the world. During its long history of over 150 years, it has gained a reputation for showcasing a wide range of genres and styles of photography, with cutting edge prints being shown alongside traditional work. This has ensured its uniqueness within the photographic world.

Take a look at some more of our work for the RPS

150 years in the making

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posted
Aug. 15, 2011
time
8:30 a.m.
by
Sam

King of Pong
The Winner

It was an epic battle late Friday night but after an hour of gruelling table tennis with another local team, one of our designers, Andrew Lucas, picked up the singles award beating off all the competition.

The whole competition was accompanied by a truly cheesy 80s and 90s sound track, including 'Eye of the Tiger' and 'We are the Champions'!

Great times and certainly a welcome break from computer screens. :-)

 

King of Pong

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posted
July 15, 2011
time
8:57 a.m.
by
Sam

Summer at Omni
Thinking time

A candid shot taken whilst one of our video editors contemplates his next mind blowing creative decision in our staff lunch area. 

Summer at Omni

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posted
July 5, 2011
time
1:46 p.m.
by
Sam

iPad App Development
Prototype Completed

Busy times at the moment with lots of interesting projects in the pipeline but recently we have just finalised a prototype iPad App for a long term client, which unfortunately we are under a very strict Non-Disclosure Agreement and can't give anything away. 

Suffice to say, the concept is 'proved' and we are now moving onto the commercial version of the app for distribution on iTunes. 

It was certainly a different beast working on an iPad and interesting following some very strict HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) laid down by Apple but we are really happy with the results and can't wait to see the app in commercial operation.

iPad App Development

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posted
June 6, 2011
time
10:54 a.m.
by
Sam

Circadian Trust
Brand Launch

Omni are proud to launch the new brand identity and brand applications for 'Circadian Trust', formally South Gloucestershire Leisure Centres (SGL).

Omni have a long-standing relationship with South Gloucestershire Leisure Centres and produced their first website after they received their independence from the council www.sgleisure.org (created for them over 5 years ago now), which has stood the test of time well but they have now evolved as a business and are looking to the future. 

This new partner and stakeholder facing brand allows them the freedom to deliver, via Circadian Trust, all kinds of 'Active' related ventures, such as the new public facing 'Active Centres' brand and website, which we are working on as I type, and will be launched towards the end of summer.

We had an incredibly productive brand workshop at the start of the project, which gave us the opportunity to all thrash through the issues at hand. This was followed by a naming session generating 'Circadian Trust' as the new identity. 'Circadian Rhythm' is a 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological, or behavioural processes of every living entity on Earth, so a very apt name for a business working in and around Active Lifestyles. We then moved into a second session, which revealed a powerful set of brand values and a solid, easy to remember Mission and Vision statement:

Mission: Inspiring active lifestyles 

Vision: Giving more

Values

  • Customer obsession - Looking at everything through our customer's eyes
  • Passionate about service - Putting the customer at the heart of everything we do
  • Provide expertise - We develop our people to be experts in their field
  • Striving to be better - Giving more by striving to be better at everything we do
  • Innovation - Developing new ways to inspire active lifestyles
  • Ownership - Making the effort to get it right
  • Being resourceful - Spending money on what matters
  • Empowerment - Helping you achieve your potential
  • Equality - In everything we do

The clearer the Mission and Vision of an organisation, the more easy it is for all staff and management to remember, relate, engage and action its core messages, and 'Giving More' to 'Inspire Active Lifestyles' is a powerful and simple formula.

The ideogram element of the brand mark was then developed and followed these core guiding principles:

  • Creating a sense of rhythm taken from the dictionary definition of Circadian
  • Multicoloured inter connections represent communities, partnership and support
  • There is a sense of movement to highlight the core service offerings around being active
  • Vibrant colours give a sense of fun and diversity

Initial feedback from staff has been overwhelmingly positive and we are very proud to see it starting on its journey. Stay tuned for the Active Centres site to be launched in the coming months. 

Read more about Circadian Trust on their website. www.circadiantrust.org

 

Circadian Trust

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posted
May 13, 2011
time
7:51 a.m.
by
Sam

Awwwards Nomination
For BOA

We're happy to announce that one of our sites, Body Of Art, has been nominated for an Awwward. Awwwards are the awards that recognize and promote the talent and effort of the best developers, designers and web agencies in the world.

Well done team. :-)

Awwwards Nomination

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