We get asked each year to develop and design Christmas cards for some of our clients – this year we decided to make one for Quiqcorp. Our constraints were set and fixed as a test to see what we could complete with the budget that many smaller companies face but instead of designing a custom card choose a pre-design mass produced option.

Constraints included: budget ($250 for design, print and postage), time (5 days), environmentally friendly (paper choice, print process, minimal waste), and enjoyable (family and friends, wine, coffee, laughter) and it had to have a classic basic christmas feeling with use of brand and colour.

Result: one A4 printed double side, hand folded, hand cut and glued.  

Getting out and about is one the the great opportunities that I like to take up when traveling on business. There were plenty of times inside talking with publishers and networking and consulting on business solutions, but when the end of the day came - there was an opportunity to explore. Here's a scene from near the safety of our taxi, en route to where ever it was that Andrew, Tu & I had dinner. 

A pet project for quite some time, Artists.co.nz nears completion of phase 22, its been an interesting adventure. I started out a little too energetic with content classes, and options galore - we have since narrowed this down to a very smooth selection of content classes that allow the good data control. The latest version beta2, is built on eZ Publish 4.3 and has many custom improvements, plenty of scope for adding in more, and now many times easier to use for both the admin and for the sites users. Currently in testing and final debugging, and the payment system is being introduced - finger crossed it will be ready to rock in the next weeks.

The Asian Publishers Convention  is happening in Viet Nam, 8-9 July this year. I'm preparing to meet with Andrew, who is one of the speakers at the event. I'm putting together a demo for eZ Publish, and a number of other give away information sheets.

And as their site mentions :

"Publishers are very busy people and have little time or opportunity to meet face-to-face with the digital world. APC pulls the digital talent together for publishers to test their ideas, enlarge their understanding and ask the questions that bother them about the monetizing potential of digital engagement."

I am indeed looking forward to this opportunity to meet with a variety new people in our industry.

Quiqcorp specialises in design and development .

We have experience and know-how in product design, graphic design , web design and all the associated development, and or manufacturing required to take on projects at any stage in the process. This includes retail and merchandising display, brand management , wayfinding signage systems, and the design and development of custom extranets to keep you in contact with your client base. We work with a diverse range of industries covering not-for-profit and Government organisations, professional services, trade and industry, arts and entertainment, goods and retail, food and beverage, information technology, travel, real estate and publishing.

One of our projects currently is to revitalise  www.artists.co.nz  - we have been working closely with Kate Spencer in order to find all the opportunities that we may be able to uphold with the re-development. The current website is an older style .html based solution, while we have development of the new site with an eZ Publish framework - we expect this to allow us the room to easily manage the sites image, movie streaming, community, and marketplace requirements. I have updated the portfolio  area on our site to give you a taste of the new look.

Its late September, and we've started to move to 155 High Street , Christchurch . The front area is in a gallery layout, behind this is a meeting and gathering area, then through the doors is the design and development office.

Come in an visit, we're expecting to be operationally early in October. Will add some images soon.

Last month we managed to get to Gold , and in time for the Olympics. 10th position worldwide isn't too bad for a small team of developers, designers and technical experts. This month we are expecting to make further steps towards Platinum, even if in the short term it means a drop in points, it will only be short lived.