WDL Year In Review

Christmas; a time for family, food, one too many and the EastEnders special. It’s also a time for reflection on the previous year. Sure, you’re meant to look to the future now, but even Slade would’ve reviewed how things had gone. Earlier in the year we started a blog series that saw us celebrate the little wins. Things like sites going live, completed design work and campaigns we ran for our clients all cropped up. With it being that weird period between Christmas and the New Year, it’s time for our year in review.

Messi, Suarez, Neymar (Sort Of)

Alright, they’re not the GOAT of the beautiful game, don’t bite other players or score a ridiculous number of goals, as far as we know anyway. Where am I going with this? Well, like that darn useful trio, we had a trio of new employees join this year; Tom, Jonathan and Rick, our TJR up against MSN. Digital marketer Tom started early in the year and is firmly part of the WDL furniture. Jonathan and Rick are two developers who joined in July and October respectively and we simply can’t remember a time without them.

Auf Wiedersehen Bob

Yes, 2020 was the year support technician and all-round developer Bob moved on from WDL. He’d spent just over 7 years with us and in that time worked on numerous bespoke projects and was the first port of call for support, from SSLs to site updates, Bob was your man. Thankfully, we also have Matthew who has taken over support seamlessly.

Bubble Wrap & Boxes

In a move on par with Arsenal’s move from Highbury to The Emirates, we moved from 1 Thomas Court to The Old Brewhouse, so just up the hill really. Our new premises are definitely more spacious and we look straight out on to East Hill. Here at WDL, we consider the office move a massive win. We’d been on the lookout for a new stomping ground and The Old Brewhouse was too good to turn down, it’s part of Colchester’s history after all.

Alright, the move was a win, but we didn’t keep a clean sheet, it’s like we had Kepa in goal ( I can say that as a Chelsea fan right?) With lockdown restrictions, we managed a grand total of one week in the new office before we shut the doors and started working from home.

That doesn’t sound great I know, although there is also a win in that. Thanks to the nature of our jobs we could work from home in our makeshift offices (kitchen tables, coffee tables and bedroom desks never had so much use).

Oakpark Proposals

It’s a yes, a thousand times yes. Okay, so it wasn’t that type of proposal, but we do enjoy working with Oakpark. Using Oakpark’s content, we’ve produced numerous proposal documents this year which they’ve taken and used in presentations to their prospective clients. Agreeing contracts is big news for Oakpark and we’re delighted to have contributed to their success.

Bespoke Website Projects

I’ll be honest, these projects are probably one of the best things about the job (Fantasy Football banter and the meeting room biscuits are definitely up there too). From IA and design to build and the site launch, it’s a comprehensive process that allows for creativity. We’ve had the pleasure of working on and putting live various fully bespoke projects this year. (I’ll let you in on a secret here, a few of these aren’t live yet).

Coralia Concierge

This project had the full whack. With logo design and branded concepts produced to firmly establish the Coralia brand before we went ahead with IA, design and development. It was a pleasure to work on, especially for grease monkey and my fellow designer Richard.

Nexus Fostering

Nexus approached us with a dated site. We expanded on their already established brand and designed and built a bespoke site that includes a variety of custom blocks and content types, providing Nexus with the ability to adapt page layouts as necessary when adding new content.

Challs

Following the success of the likes of Buster, Alkimi and Knaus, Challs came back to us for their own eCommerce website, which would sell products from all of their sub-brands. It was important that the design cemented the Challs brand but also gave fair promotion to the sub-brands. We pushed eCommerce to the limit and couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

Wheelers

One of the Challs sub-brands, a brochure site for their natural beeswax and plant-based cleaners with clear signposting for ‘where to buy’ options.

Stringers’ World

Australian Open 2019, ATP Finals various years before, Wimbledon was booked for 2020, as was the ATP Finals Final (in the front row no less, but those plans got scuppered). Stringers’ World might not specialise in just tennis equipment, but was definitely a project for me. At the time of writing, the site has been built, it’s just the final touches and content that’s being added. This was a great project for us this year and included a rebrand too. What we delivered to Stringers’ was a sharp and modern design paired with tailored eCommerce functionality.

Howard Ripley Wines

An eCommerce site was the order for this European-wide wine seller.

Student Life

Simply put, this was the web version of the Student Life magazine. They provide articles for and by students, with the aim to help, upskill, educate and entertain.

Get Your Macs, Macs For Sale

I leave the wording of sale campaigns to our digital marketers and they’re probably raising their eyebrows at that heading. Having designed and built the MacFinder site in 2019, 2020 saw us work on a number of campaigns for MacFinder, providing our design and marketing services. With campaigns including website banners, social ads, emails and display ads, there was something for everyone at WDL.

As for many in the retail sector, Black Friday is massive and it’s no different with MacFinder. Their biggest sale campaign of the year saw us prepare teaser emails, banners and social and display ads, followed by the exact same for the day itself (well, weekend as it is now) and for Cyber Monday. The results were fantastic too!

Bye Bye 2020

There you have it, the highlights of 2020 for WDL. While this year has been a rather ride with everyone and everywhere in lockdown, there are always plenty of positives to pick out and celebrate and we hope you can do the same. Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!