We did a good job on our showcase (thanks team). We had a big Mac set up showing examples of our web design and development work, including for local companies Summersdale Publishers, Harbour Cars, Vanilla Catering & Events and Rostand. We also had a few panels on the wall, including a big Chichester Design logo and an outline of our main services.

Wayne Hemingway, the SCDF chairman, gave a typically forthright speech on what the forum had achieved and what it should be doing in the future. He spoke about how we need to be influencing the environment in which we live and how one of the forum’s recent successes had been the redesign of a footbridge over the A27. Essentially, a bad design was replaced with a good one.

The liveability of design is obviously something very close to Wayne’s heart and he made the point that the SCDF needs to be more political going forward. I think it’s hard to argue with a call to have more design-minded people in decision-making positions, such as on local councils. We shall see.

All in all a good week at the showcase – David Kester, CEO of the Design Council gave a good talk on Wednesday night about the forum and the importance of design and creatives in general (we popped along to that too!) – and from what I hear, it might be popping up in other places along the south coast in the coming months. Look forward to it.

To find out more about Chichester Design’s web design and development services, contact Ben on +44 (0) 1243 787542 or info@chichesterdesign.co.uk.

Our contribution to this one-off publication has been created by our web designer Oli. The artwork comprises the number five made up of pixels, code, words and pen strokes, which is surrounded by a circle created from the same components. According to Oli, each small pen stroke, shape or doodle represents a piece of creativity, effort, organisation or communication that goes into each and every project that Chichester Design undertakes.

I also think that the combination of creativity, effort, organisation and communication describes well how the SCDF works. Since its launch at the University of Chichester in May 2006 – can’t believe that – when we hastily created a website for the forum, it has grown to bring together designers and other creatives from across the south coast and provided a means of sharing ideas and promoting the value of design to the business community.

I’m looking forward to seeing the showcase at the Oxmarket – where our MD tells us he used to work many moons ago – and design work from members from Chichester, Winchester, Brighton, Portsmouth, etc. I know Oli will be chuffed at seeing his work in the birthday book too.

To find out more about Chichester Design’s web design and development services, contact Amy on +44 (0) 1243 787542 or info@chichesterdesign.co.uk.

Most of the websites I’ve looked at have put me off right away: poor information, hard to navigate, low-quality pictures and a generally uninspiring feel. All of which says to me: don’t stay here!

What makes this particularly surprising (and irritating) is that these are the type of business for whom a good website is essential. Potential customers, especially those who are visiting the area for the first time, can be put off in an instant by a bad website. Equally, they can be enticed to make a booking by a good one.

Talking of guesthouses and B&Bs with good websites, we have just finished a new website for Landseer House in Sidlesham, near Chichester (www.landseerhouse.co.uk). We overhauled their website, adding up-to-date information on what they offer and a selection of brand new images, taken by the Chichester Design photographer.

As part of the redesign, the website was fully search-engine optimised by our specialist team, giving Landseer House a higher Google ranking, which makes it more visible to potential guests. We also set up a Google AdWords online marketing campaign to help boost its online profile further.

If only more guest houses, B&Bs and hotels would follow suit, my trip planning would be a lot easier!

To find out more about Chichester Design’s web design and development services, contact Michael on +44 (0)1243 787542 or info@chichesterdesign.co.uk.

I’m a student at Felpham Community Collage and as I’m interested in the web and photography Chichester Design was the perfect place to hang-out for the week and to find out what goes on in this fast paced industry.

My first task was for myself and Ashley (one of the talented intern web designers) to venture into Chichester’s city centre with the office camera. The setup included a sturdy tripod with a bizarre looking tripod head and a Canon EOS 20D with a 17mm EFS lens.  We took photos using a clever little tripod head called the Panosaurus. 

The Panosaurus enabled us to take a series of photos in a complete 360°, rotating the lens around something called the central ‘nodal point’: not sure what it means? Look it up on wikipeadia.  This makes the process of stitching the images together much easier. Using the Panosaurus we took a total of 16 photos at each location. I used these photos to make an interactive 360° virtual panorama. The format we used was QuickTime VR. I used an application called Panorama Factory and PhotoShop CS4; I stitched all the pictures together into a 360° cylindrical panorama and exported it as a QTVR file for QuickTime 7.

Simply click and drag the image to look around Chichester!

Kate decided to wimp out and work from home today (some might say she has a tad more sense than her male colleagues?) and from the warmth of her flat she managed to catch some shots of a local artist who was busy making snow sculptures. She also got some romantic shots of when the snow started to coat the Chichester streets last night.

And we can’t forget Terrance the Tapir! For those of you who don’t know, Kate adores Tapirs and we have included a picture of her pet Malaysian Tapir (aptly named Terrance by Chichester Design’s Simon) getting his first taste of the snow. Take a look at our Chichester in the snow photo gallery below:

It has been a great first year for Chichester Westgate Triathlon Club, but it has been made even better by eight athletes traveling to Australia for the World Triathlon Championships. Qualifications was via a series of national events where you had to finish in the top 4, which ranked our 8 as serious triathletes in the UK.

Chichester was responsible for 8 of the 450 GB age group squad, and was one of of the most represented clubs out there.Great Britain was also the largest traveling country out beating their Kiwi neighbours and the USA, which puts the achievements of the club at a very respectable level.

The team had travelled out  to the Gold Coast over a week before the race to acclimatize and get over jet lag. There were several training sessions before the big race, which were to help with racing in the Australian Heat!

The year’s hard training showed as all team members set personal bests in the race! The swim, was a tough battle against the current and the high salt level water. Coach and Chairman Adrian Campbell is convinced that swim times were good as the threat of sharks (which had been spotted the previous week) sharpened their senses. The bike was a very fast course in which several members managed an hour or under for 26 miles! This was followed by a flat, but hot run. The Club Olympic Distance record was broken by Tom Wilson in 2:05:03 (finishing 52 in is age group AND only in his first year!)

Mary Campbell, the only female racing from the club, did well to battle an earlier start than the men, to finish in a superb time of 2:26:11 (finishing 43 in the world and 5th Brit)  James Woodward came through strong posting one of the fastest bike legs of the day, 00:59:02 for the 26 miles, and all the other members did extremely well, considering the exceptional conditions, with most achieving PB’s. The hopes of another medal for Dan Bailey were dashed when he was involved in a 25 bike pile up. Dan said that “that’s all part racing and I’ve learnt a lot in my first year. It has certainly made me more determined for next year”.

The results are as follows:

Tom Wilson 2:05:03

James Woodward 2:10:57

Mike Cooper 2:14:10

Andrew Soppitt 2:14:26

Jason Davis 2:18:24

Steve Hasler 2:18:34

Mary Campbell 2:26:11

Daniel Bailey 2:29:35

For more information visit www.cwtc.org.uk

• Service and repairs to all bicycles (leisure to competition) on-site or pick-up and delivery
• Professional answers to your questions
• Mountain bike specialist
• Accompanied rides and coaching
• Advice in bike maintenance
• Bicycle rentals
• Custom built road bikes
• Emergency repairs any time

To celebrate, Julian’s having a bit of a bash down at Bike-Master HQ from 9.00-5.00 on the first Saturday in October, where you’ll find:

• Free food and drink
• Complimentary beer for anyone who arrives by bike
• Cycling goods at bargain prices
• 40% discount on cycling clothing
• A dirt jump demo
• Prestige road bike test experience

Sound like your sort of thing? We’ll see you down there! Chichester Design’s Ben loves messing about on his bike and he’ll be there with bells on (not like a Morris Dancer, but with sheer excitement all the same).

You can find Bike-Master at Unit 13, Polthooks Industrial Estate, Clay Lane, Fishbourne, Chichester, PO18 8AH. To find out more call Julian on: 07944 30 29 74 or email: Julian@bike-master.co.uk.