Diamond Heaven opens new retail store in Middlesbrough

An ecommerce client of ours Diamond Heaven, is expanding their business and opening a new retail store in a busy shopping centre in the heart of Middlesbrough. Diamond Heaven specialise in the sale of luxury gifts, chic and affordable costume jewellery, stylish home decor and dazzling accessories for weddings and special occasions. We designed and built their ecommerce website and an associated events website and we are pleased our client is doing well. What makes this opening extra special is that the opening will be performed by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on Monday 24th October!! How exciting is that, please pop along and support this business and who knows maybe make a purchase too, add some sparkle to your life!

Funding available for e-commerce websites!

Start up funding for businesses

We have just heard from Business & Enterprise North East (BENE / Business Link) that funding is still available for e-commerce websites. Read their article below, as an approved service provider on the North East England Service Provider Register (NEESPR) you will be able to obtain funding off our fees for a new e-commerce website subject to their criteria, get in touch now by calling 01642 777848 to see how we can help:

These are some examples of the diverse range of projects BENE have funded following referrals from their service providers:
• An application to support the design and development of an e-commerce website,
integrated stock management and ordering system as well as a finance and
administration system. The funding application was approved and paid within ten days.

• Funding was granted to a firm to assist with the animated design of a bespoke mobile
app.

• A North East firm was granted funding to facilitate attendance at a key exhibition so
the company could network, build up contacts and source new contracts.

• One company received funding towards the registration and protection of intellectual
property rights.

These funds are available to support new and established business to grow, innovate and diversify.

The key funds still available from the NEEIC are:
Intensive Start-Up Support
Starting a High Growth Business
Innovation, Advice and Guidance
The Flexible Skills Fund
Innovation Vouchers
BENE have already received lots of great referrals and have been able to provide financial support to fund a number of diverse and exciting projects for a range of companies across the region. However the deadline for funding applications is fast approaching and BENE are still actively encouraging more businesses to take advantage of the opportunities on offer. Contact VIA Creative now for further information.

Peat Rigg visit

We recently paid a visit to Peat Rigg in North Yorkshire as part of our web design commission. A little cloudy on the way in but the sun came out as we took a tour around the wonderful estate. Peat Rigg is an outdoor training and learning resource for school kids enabling them to partake in outdoor events and activities they wouldn’t normally experience. Have a look through the pics and keep visiting our website as we update news and images on the impending new web design project we are undertaking for them.

New VIA website live!

Well its here at last, been a long time in the making as we’ve been busy doing client work but the new website is complete! Still needs a lot of work and finishing touches but the general framework is up and running, its all bespoke, no gimmicky templates involved with the build of this website! We wanted another big folio site to showcase the various examples of brand design, graphic design, marketing, printing and exhibition work we have produced for clients in Redcar, Middlesbrough, throughout the North East, Hull and East Yorkshire.

We hope you enjoy exploring our site, it will be updated with regular examples of completed work (and some old chestnuts we had stuffed in the back of our archive room which we had forgotten about and deserved showcasing!)

Have a look at the VIA Creative website and please feel free to post any comments, good or bad and I’m sure Jamesy will have a field day with any coding comments!

How the internet has moved on

If you have never heard of “the way back machine”, it’s quite an interesting website that can show you a snap shot of a website. It works from 1996 onward. Now, it doesn’t provide a full image of every site – but it can give you a little look at the progression of websites. In creating our new site we had a look at some versions of our old site. But it didn’t pull in the full design.

So we took a look a look at the old msn site and how it has moved on from then. Take a look for yourself

It’s strange to be able to look at the different evolutions of web design and web technology.

April Fools From Google

Did anyone see the prank that Google have been running today? If you typed in either the font name helvetica or comic sans, their page would be formatted in the comic sans font.

They have also created a page stating their intent to change all their applications over to comic sans and tried to back it up with some fake research.

Always nice to see the big companies have a sense of humour.

LV Shipping Slip Cases and Ring Binders

Its great when new print lands! We recently received a delivery of these great looking slipcases and ring binders for our Middlesbrough based transport and logistics client LV Shipping. These products are part of a current wave of brand redevelopment we are carrying out for this international shipping and logistics client which includes a whole host of our creative services including graphic and brand identity design, marketing literature design, printing and also new web design, social media and website optimisation.

LV Shipping are a major player in the field of global logistics and shipping and handle clients from Brazil to Singapore and everything in between. Their services include project shipping, international transport and trailer services, domestic transport services, warehousing and storage, chartering and ships agency, deep sea shipping and freight forwarding, airfreight services, customs handling plus they offer quayside facilities at the Tees Commerce Park, Middlesbrough.

One of their key products is a unique container loader which makes it easier for bulk loads to be loaded into and removed from containers, the container loader is a key component of LV Shipping’s container and warehousing services.

Keep checking our blog and portfolio section for further examples of work we are producing.

Peat Rigg set to get a new website

VIA are very happy to announce that we have been awarded the contract for the new Peat Rigg Outdoor Training Centre website. The team have been invited down for the day to give us a flavour for the place to incorporate their style into the site. Lookout for the pictures, no doubt Ben will cause himself some damage getting carried away with the outdoor activities.

New Brian Yeardley website goes live!

We are pleased to announce that we have recently completed the new design and build of the Brian Yeardley haulage and transport website. Click here to visit their new website, if you have any comments please post them on this blog.

www.brianyeardley.com