Where the new creative challenges really are...

We can use our wide range of experience and expertise in producing creative design, print and marketing, to work with you, to drive the many different aspects of more traditional marketing processes and material - tying all these different aspects together in ever new and exciting ways...

Hammer Design skills and expertise:

Brand development and identity creation:

Corporate ID creation, Logo design and development, Brand guidelines...

Design for Print:

Corporate Brochures, Sales literature, Sales flyers, Catalogues, Retail point of sale...

Marketing:

Campaign concept creation through to delivery and around again
Headline writing and copywriting, Reports, Proposals and research, Brand management...

Advertising:

Advert creation, Production and delivery

Direct Mail:

List buying and validation, Concept creation and design, Copywriting, Print fulfilment...

Video:

Video story board planning, Design and writing, Video production, DVD authoring to packaging...

Exhibitions & Displays:

Design, production and installation, Large format digital printing, Mounting & laminating, Exhibition stands, Banner stands, Pop up displays, Banners and signage...

Museum and Heritage:

Visitor and exhibition panels (internal and external), Illustration and Photography, Video and audio work, Interactive technologies, Touch panel work, Shop fitting work...

coming soon...

BMW dealer Rainbow motorcycles: http://www.rainbowmotorcycles.com
Hammer Design are proud to announce their recent appointment to rebuild the BMW Motorcycles flagship website for the UK's leading motorcycle dealership Rainbow Motorcycles in Rotherham. Voted the UK's No.1 Bike Shop of the Year 6 times out of the last 8 years, Rainbow's new website will present some interesting challenges, not least of which is to maintain and manage over 1,000,000 parts records for the dealership!

Friends of the Peak District:
Hammer Design were deleighted to be recently awarded the Friends of the Peak District website project. The Friends are part of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the brief comprises challenges that involves a sensitivity to their members as well as a number of features and functions designed to enhance the new website experience.

Always on the move, Hammer usually are working on a number of projects concurrently - we have briefly listed a few of the sites that are now well underway with launch dates in the near future.

- Youth Rangers: Peak District National Park Authority - http://www.youthrangers.com
This is a redesign of a website we built 5 years ago with fledgling technologies.

- Audio Images: http://www.audio-images.co.uk
Sheffield's most prestigious leading HiFi and Cinema retailer.

- Community Sports Trust:  http://www.communitysportstrust.co.uk
A pioneering local community project.

- Opera PR:  http://www.operapr.com
Public Relations guru Simon Turton.

More details to follow...

Countryside television presenter Julia Bradbury launched the all new Friends of the Peak District website today.

She is currently and will be staying on as the Friends of the Peak District's president for another year. "Friends of the Peak District does brilliant work protecting the beautiful Peak District countryside, and I'm delighted to support them for another year," she said.

http://www.friendsofthepeak.org.uk

The website features a simple PayPal donation and Subscription payment system as well as extensive use of Hammer Design's own content management system - Chameleon CMS.

Buying keyword-rich domains and just redirecting them is so last decade...

Traditionally, boosting search engine rankings for a particular keyword or keyphrase could be done by buying one or more keyword-rich domain names and setting them up as Permanent Redirects (also known as 301 redirects) to the main website. Google and the rest of the search engines have seen through this one and as a technique on its own this method doesn't hold water any more.

If you're a holder of many such domains you'll probably find they're not in Google's main index and thus not doing you a lot of good from a search engine rankings point of view. Google has done this because there's very little real-life benefit to an internet user in clicking through a redirected domain name - the target site is where they end up so as far as the search engines are concerned the keyword-rich domain they went to in the first place is basically useless.

...but dedicated micro-sites can make them useful again

Lets say you have a company with a small number of 'primary areas' for which you are the leader in your market sector. You could place all your information on one website and this is recommended if you're a new company as it'll make website maintenance simpler. If, however, you've been in business a while and can buy some new (or already have some) domain names containing the keywords you'd like to be found for, you can use these to better reflect your primary areas of business on the internet.

Create a micro-site on each domain name, with a small number of pages, entirely dedicated to a given primary area of your company. Link back to your main website for anything unrelated to the primary area you're catering for (general company information; other services; etc.) and keep the user on the micro-site for everything to do with this primary area. Make sure, of course, that anything related to this primary area is moved from the main website to the micro-site and appropriate links are created so users who reach your main site first get to the micro-site easily too.

This is, of course, a bigger maintenance job but the results can be worth it.

If your keyword-rich domain name did end up out of the Google index, file a reconsideration request explaining you've now created an appropriate dedicated micro-site and you'll get back in. As always with optimising search engine rankings, slow but sure is the way and don't expect results overnight!

Ben.

This article is an abridged version of It's a feeding frenzy for keyword-rich domains, from the SEOmoz blog which provides SEO advice for those in the field but can be terse reading for a non-specialist. Hopefully the above overview provides a suitable plain English summary of the key concepts.

In summary 2009 was quite a year, in the light of what has been going on in the world in general we have had an extraordinary year and after all the foundation building are really looking forward to the next one - perhaps with a little less snow?

To all our customers, and all of you who have been working behind the scenes on so many varied and interesting projects, Hammer Design, Heritage Interpretation, Living Art and software development alike...a great big thankyou!

Click here or the image below to see the e-Card

We specialise in building great websites and great design. Great design is about communication that works, websites that are clear, effective and ultimately very successful.

We are in the business of engineering our design, website development code and marketing communication skills into a precisely honed vehicle to drive up your sales.

Hammer Design is a creative design and marketing business but really we are in the people business.

We are communicators: specialists, experts, consultants, whatever you would like to call us, we just live and breathe making it all happen... from small brochure websites to giant online superstores, we are driven by challenge and push technological boundaries to deliver excellent products that really work. These websites exceed their briefs and everyone can get on and enjoy their lives enriched and fulfilled.

Who we are: Hammer Design is a dedicated, passionate team of excellent individuals and associates.

The team consists of professional website coders, developers, designers, project managers and marketers experienced in both traditional and digital media: from logo and corporate identity to print, promotional flyers, brochures and websites, we provide an efficient, friendly and personal service tailored to fulfil the individual needs of your business.

Size doesn't matter:

We work with a wide variety of businesses and organisations, large and small, across a wide range of traditional and emergent markets.

Our clients include National Parks, Universities, The National Trust, Small Businesses, Manufacturers, Consultants, Online retailers, E-preneurs in markets as diverse and as broad, specialised and niche as the academic world, conservation, small start ups, entrepreneurs, heritage interpretation and the outdoor Industry…

Across a wide range of disciplines – all designed to sell:

Hammer Design offer a wide selection of different expert hats - from SEO (search engine optimisation) to brand management, the technical intricacies of code development to the subtle psychologies of graphic design and visual communication.

Where we are:

Our offices are based just 8 miles outside Sheffield in the beautiful Derbyshire Peak District and you are more than welcome to visit us to discuss how we can help you to grow develop your business.

Our personal qualities:

Friendly and approachable:

Straight forward:

Avoiding jargon wherever possible, we provide clear straightforward advice when it is needed and listen. Above all we listen to you and to your customers. Sharp and on the forefront of what is happening, we keep all our senses in tune for what is needed to run and build good businesses in the most exciting of times - right here, right NOW.

Committed, Dedicated, Passionate:

We take great pride in what we do - the detail and the delivery - so if you are looking for an excellent company that is brave and fun to work with - here we are!

Communicators, Professionals, Collaborators:

Genuinely collaborative, we believe in long term solid relationships and partnerships, where success works two ways, with real people, where we share ideas and push for success together.

Charitable:

Putting something back: A charitable Hammer Design are sister company to an exciting pioneering project Living Art.

The ultimate toolbox:

A veritable treasure trove of skills and disciplines, expertise and experience…

Hammer Design and a local business ‘Angel’ have got together to offer website design and development awards of up to £20,000 every quarter.

The e-Awards are aimed at regional businesses, entrepreneurs, organisations and charities with a great or worthy online idea they are trying to get off the ground or develop.

This is the first award of its kind in the region and digital agency Hammer Design are well placed to make these great enterprises happen.

Great ideas deserve great websites

Hammer Design e-Awards application form and rules and regulations download >>

We have six fantastic offers for companies and organisations who are looking to refresh, rebuild or completely transform their online presence.
These offers are based around the six most common challenges that we get asked by our customers to solve. So Whether you want us to: '...create a fresh new look', '...take our website to the next level', '...increase online sales', '...regularly update our website', '...get found in Google' or '...reach more customers' Hammer Design can 'nail it'.