We are based in the city’s creative hub. We have an experienced team of designers and developers working on an impressive client portfolio. Our growing reputation is due to the quality of our work combined with the exceptional customer service we provide.

It’s into this successful environment that we are seeking to add a professional with the talents to complement our existing team. So what are we looking for in you? You will have previously worked as a web developer in a commercial environment and used to working on live dynamic websites with related content management systems. You’ll have a solid understanding and working knowledge of PHP, MySQL, CSS,HTML and jQuery. Experience in any of the following – CodeIgniter, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress,PrestaShop and Magento eCommerce platforms are desirable. You must have good communication skills as you will be be required to talk to clients on a daily-basis.

We are happy to put together an attractive remuneration package for the right person. If you feel you have the qualities, experience and personality, then we would like to hear from you.

We are looking to recruit someone to start from the middle of February. Please email us with your CV and any relevant works or portfolio that showcases your work.

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We have been working closely with Parkdean since July on a brand new website dedicated to their kids characters Sid & Lizzie.

The website is packed full of activities ranging from postcard senders, pogo stick games and even the ability to keep track of how the Seagulls and Lizards team scores are doing at each of the holiday parks.

Behind the website is a full content management system, allowing the Star Town team to control jokes, scores and the blog.

The Star Town website was one of our largest projects in 2011, and contains some of the most interesting design and development work we have ever produced. We hope you enjoy taking a look around.

Click here to visit the website.

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Today is our last day in the office before we head off for Christmas. Don’t be too sad though, as we will back on Tuesday the 3rd of January.

We would like thank all of our clients, suppliers and partners for their support this year, and the very best for 2012.

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Well it’s almost Christmas, so we thought we would share some inspiration to carry you over the festive period, with this round-up of great logos we’ve had the pleasure to come across during the year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Union Room team!

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It wont be too long until we have our feet up in front of the TV watching Home Alone and eating far too many crisps. To keep us busy until then, we have a ton of great projects lined up. Read about what we have been up to below, as well as what we will be working on in December and early 2012.

*Just Launched*

Studacity

We launched Studacity in mid-November. Studacity’s main goal is to help Newcastle upon Tyne’s student population find the very best deals, event and venues. With a focus on quality, Studacity will be offering insight into the best the city has to offer, allowing exclusive access to the best promotions around.
Visit the website by clicking here.

Newcastle Drum Centre

We have been working with the Newcastle Drum Centre on their new website since the summer, and we’re delighted to see it up and running. The website massively improves on the previous version, with emphasis on unique kits and the massive range of items that the centre stocks.
Visit the website by clicking here.

Parkdean Holidays

We recently helped Parkdean launch a new homepage and park homepage design, which reflects the diversity they offer throughout their 24 parks. The new updates sit alongside Parkdean’s new sales brochure, which you can request by clicking here.
Visit the website by clicking here.

The Beacon Directory

The beacon directory is an online system we created which makes it easy for beacon to collect the data they require for their annual supplier directory. Formerly a manual process, the system makes it easy for users to log in, submit content and have it approved or amended by the beacon team.

Zenith People

As part of Zenith People’s Christmas campaign, the team wanted the website’s users to get into a festive spirit. We have created a themed header and a festive game for users to get their own back on those pesky recruitment agents.
Visit the website by clicking here.

*In Progress*

Startown

Startown is one of the most exciting projects we have worked on all year and is packed with bespoke games, activities and content. We’re busy making sure everything looks perfect for launch, but we cant wait to get the project live and onto our website.

Parkdean Holiday Homes

In another project for Parkdean, we will be helping the company redesign their Holiday Homes website in early 2012. We have recently presented visuals and begun deciding on the main functionality of the website. An exciting one for us to start the new year with.

VLS

We have worked with VLS throughout 2011, helping to create a customer-facing area that has transformed the way they interact with their users. Having recently completed another large round of updates, we are in the process of discussing the next stage of work that will take us well into the first quarter of 2012.

Hoochie Coochie

Since opening in August, Hoochie Coochie has established itself as one of Newcastle’s best nightspots. It’s mix of live music and luxurious surroundings has been a hit with music fans of all ages. We have recently been working on some updates to the website, launching a brand new members section, which allows users to become part of Hoochie Coochie and guarantee entry for its most exclusive nights.

Citrus Event Staffing

Although we cant show any of the functionality that lies behind the front-end, the Citrus system has been an ongoing project for us in 2011, with constant additions helping to shape the way the Citrus team work. We have recently been helping the team extend the functionality of their booking system, as well as discussing work for early 2012.

Gainford Care Homes

Gainford Care Homes was established in 1995, and currently runs thirteen care homes in the North of England. We are well into the development stage on the project, and hope to go live sometime in December.

Choccards

We’re working with Choccards on a brand new website to promote their personalised chocolate bars, including a design tool to help you create your own designs. More news on this project in the new year.

HSF Training

We have been commissioned by this leading north east training consultancy to develop a new CMS website for the business, promoting the wide range of health and safety, food safety and first aid courses they deliver across the UK and internationally.

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The weather might have been a little bit up and down in October, but that hasn’t affected the steady flow of work coming the through the doors of Union Room in the last month or two. We’ve launched some great new projects, take a look below for more information…

*Just Launched*

Sanderson Young

We’ve spoken about this project in a ton of detail in a blog post that we posted earlier this week, you can read that by clicking here. The new website has only been live a number of weeks, but Sanderson Young have already reported a large increase in the number of viewings and inquiries from the website. We will be working closely with the Sanderson Young team to continue improving the companies web presence and helping to improve customer experience as much as possible. Visit the website by clicking here.

Create a Commentary

We were really excited to launch our first iPhone app in September, and working with Match of the Day’s Mark Lawrenson was an added bonus! Create a Commentary is a unique opportunity for football fans of all ages to create their own personalised commentary featuring Mark Lawrenson. Read more about this completely unique app in our Create a Commentary blog post.

Carr & Co Solicitors

We have been working with the team at Carr & Co for a number of months now, launching their new website in September. We will also be working on some search engine optimisation for the new website, so keep an eye on the blog for more news on this. Visit the website by clicking here.

AMD Specialist Coatings

AMD are based in Gateshead, and provide the very best premium powder coating, shot blasting and wet paint coating. We launched the website in early October, working closely with the AMD team on all aspects of the design and content. Visit the website by clicking here.

Parkdean Festive

We have recently completed some festive work for Parkdean Holidays (around 9 weeks to go!) to advertise some of their great Christmas, Twixmas and New Year breaks. Take a look at our bespoke landing page by clicking here.

Emily’s Brownies

Emily’s Brownies are made by a small, family run business in the North East of England and offer some of the most delicious treats you’ll ever have the pleasure of eating. Take a look at the official website of Emily’s Brownies.

*In Progress*

Startown

The Startown website is one of the most exciting projects we have worked on this year. The website is aimed at 4 to 10 year olds, and really enjoyed creating an environment that they can have fun and learn in. We cant show any visuals quite yet, but keep an eye on the blog for more news on this nearer to Christmas.

Parkdean Holiday Homes

Continuing our long relationship with Parkdean, we have recently began work on redesigning their holiday homes website. The website will contain a lot more functionality for the user, as well as a complete design overhaul. We will be posting more about this as we progress through the work.

VLS & CE Electric

We have working on some updates to the VLS customer area, particularly for CE Electric account holders. This new work concentrates on increasing fuel spend efficiency, helping the CE team look at individual transactions and vehicle performance across the fleet.

Studacity

Studacity will be helping Newcastle upon Tyne’s student population find the very best deals, event and venues. With a focus on quality, Studacity will be offering insight into the best the city has to offer, allowing exclusive access to the best promotions around. Sign up to the mailing list at the official Studacity website.

Newcastle Drum

We’re into the development stage of the new Newcastle Drum website, and we cant wait for the centre’s customers to use it. The new website will be a complete shift for the company, concentrating on its core business areas such as beginner drum kits and cymbals.

Gainford Care Homes

Gainford Care Homes was established in 1995, and currently runs thirteen care homes in the North of England. We will be helping Gainford redesign their current website, as well as designing their brand new Bright Stars nursery. Look for the new Gainford website to go live sometime in November.

Derwent Lift Services

Derwent Lift Services have been established for over 30 years, delivering exceptional service across all areas of the lift industry. We have been commissioned by the company to develop a new website promoting the business and its wide service portfolio, raising its profile and improving their engagement with both clients and prospective customers.

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In early February, we were approached by Sanderson Young to redesign and redevelop their existing website. The current website had been running for a little over 10 years, and was holding the business back in terms of what they could achieve on the web.

The following case study explains the processes and decisions that were made in the project timescale, and how we helped to re-shape Sanderson Young’s online presence. You can hear what both ourselves and Sanderson Young think about the project, by watching the new website promo on this link.

Background

As we have already mentioned, the Sanderson Young website had been running (albeit with updates) for over 10 years in it’s current form, and had been performing well for the business in that time. However, with the emergence of new technologies and new property websites such as Rightmove and Zoopla, the average user has come to expect a number of standard features across real estate websites, most of which Sanderson Young were missing.

Our main tasks were to bring the design of the website up to date, but more importantly give the users of the Sanderson Young website as much functionality as possible when searching for and viewing a property. We will detail most of this new functionality later in the post, but the main elements of the project were:

• The ability for the user to quickly search for, and view a property.
• The easy management of featured properties on the homepage.
• The ability to search via an interactive map and view properties by their location.
• Rebuild the service directory and make it more useful to the end user.

Alongside these elements, our aim was to improve the general usability of the whole website and allow people to navigate to important information as quickly and easily as possible, as well as making life easier for the Sanderson Young team to manage the website.

Wireframes

Any large projects we undertake involves a wire-framing process. We find that this is absolutely integral to ensuring that the main elements on the page are arranged in the right order, and the client is given the opportunity to look at our ideas without the distraction of fonts, colours or imagery.

This allows us to concentrate fully on layout, and approach the website in the role of a potential user. The wireframe below was one of the first we presented to Sanderson Young, and gave them some options in terms of where important elements would sit.

The wireframes were tweaked several times (much quicker than changing a ‘full’ design) until the team were happy with the overall presentation of the page.

Design

With the wireframes agreed upon, we were in a great position to begin the design work. You can see our initial idea for the homepage below, which loosely matches one of our initial wireframes above:

As you can see from the visual, we still had some decisions to make regarding the design of certain content blocks, which we made progress with over the next couple of versions.

The aim of the design was to convey a high end look, especially with the inclusion of the rare! section on the front page, which Sanderson Young use to advertise their luxury (£700,000+) properties. In terms of typography, we used a mix of Gill Sans (for titles and calls to actions) and Georgia (a classic body font) throughout the website, which we think works well in giving the site that high end feel, but still retaining a modern look.

The colours and patterns used on the site were taken from the Sanderson Young branding, as well a mix of their literature such as sellers packs, seasonal magazines and staff profiles. The sheer amount of items we had available to us made it easy to introduce accent / additional colours throughout the pages of the site.

Development

Although a design refresh was needed, the main driving force behind the new website was the improvements to the website’s functionality, and allowing the user to perform many more tasks whilst using the website. These elements of functionality ranged from back-end elements, making Sanderson Young’s job of maintaining the website easier, through to completely new features that would benefit the user.

Control

The new back-end allows the Sanderson Young team to control properties on the website in a much easier and in-depth way. An example of this being a new control panel which allows the team to quickly edit a properties status (under offer, sold, price, active state etc) without entering the properties, saving countless clicks through the life of the new system.

Featured properties

Sanderson Young offer some of the North East’s most exclusive properties, and wanted to display a selection on their new homepage. The featured properties provide the user with a large call to action, and give Sanderson Young the opportunity to showcase selected homes of their choosing.

Regions

The old website allowed users to search via only one region, this would limit the effectiveness of the search and push people into doing multiple searches across regions / properties. The new structure allows users to complete an advanced search across multiple regions, meaning they never have the need to fulfill more than one search (unless their results aren’t relevant).

Blog

Although the old website had a facility for Sanderson Young to keep users up to date, the many categories were spread across multiple pages and sections, making it hard for users to find what they were looking for. The new WordPress blog utilises categories, allowing the team to publish posts to their relevant sections for quick and easy access.

Interactive floorplans

The current website offered floorplans in their most basic form, allowing users to see the dimensions of a property across its various floors. The new website gives users interactive floorplans, where they can see images for specific rooms, as well as virtual tours for some properties.

Service directory

The service directory gives users an index of businesses that anyone looking to buy or rent a house, could find interesting. The old directory was very linear in design, and lacked a search facility for users who knew what they were looking for. We took the existing database and built the new directory from the ground up, making it easier than ever for users to find services for their new home.

Conclusion

We’re delighted with the final product, and initial feedback / statistics from Sanderson Young show a sharp increase in viewing arrangements, website traffic and user interaction across the full website.

We’re looking forward to continuing work on the website, helping Sanderson Young cement their place as one of the North East’s leading estate agencies.

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Colour choices for your website create such an impact…

…and should be considered carefully. The relationship, religious, cultural, political, social and emotional influences a colour may have on a visitor, could make or break interest in your brand. Think Coca-Cola’s red, Cadbury’s purple, BP’s green and yellow, Orange’s well, orange. You get the idea. Here we have created a wide selection of colours and palette’s for our websites. Maybe they can help inspire your next project!

Families Talking inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Rise Lettings inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

My Best Insurance Quote inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Surfer’s Paradise inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Parkdean Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

A1 Blinds inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

VLS inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Peter Fall inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Nigel Frank Staffing inspired colour palette

Citrus Event Staffing inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

OpenCRM inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Beacon Green Hotel inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Play Fair inspired colour palette

Unique colour’s created:

Starting Drums Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Newcastle Drum Centre Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

The Works Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Cathedral Lettings Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Give Hope Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Collingwood Legal Inspired Colour Palette

Spanish Select Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Bespoke Radio Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Proform Performance Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Otter Recruitment Inspired Colour Palette

Business Impact Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Big Tree Planning Inspired Colour Palette

Richard Rothwell Inspired Colour Palette

Aircon Training Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Wessynton Inspired Colour Palette

Zenith People Inspired Colour Palette

Abcom Security Inspired Colour Palette

Makoosh Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

Park Lane Cards Inspired Colour Palette

Unique colour’s created:

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