Author : Jon

BBC North is live!

Posted by Jon at 10:13 am

As you may have seen in the news recently, the BBC have started moving into their northern home at MediaCityUK in Salford. It’s a big strategic move for the BBC and we were chuffed when we won the pitch to design and build the new BBC North website. It went live last week, and is full of information about the move, as well as audio & video content, event listings and profiles of a wide variety of BBC staff members.

From a design point of view, it was a great opportunity to dig into the BBC’s new Global Experience Language as well. If you haven’t already seen the GEL, there’s a great article on the BBC blogs.

So a big hello to everyone who is making the move to Salford, and hopefully we’ll get the chance to work with some of you soon!

Merseycare video sequences

Posted by Jon at 4:24 pm

Mersey Care NHS Trust provides specialist mental health and learning disability and substance misuse services for the people of Liverpool, Sefton and Kirkby. They commissioned Splinter to design and produce 5 video / motion graphic sequences to be displayed in waiting rooms throughout the region.

The sequences dealt with subjects such as the illustrating the Patient Journey, Jargon Busting and Data Security. They combine motion graphics, practitioner / service user interviews and raw video footage.

Online Radicals

Posted by Jon at 2:26 pm

Running throughout 2011, Liverpool City of Radicals is a programme of exhibitions, debates and events looking at radical Liverpool – past, present and future.

The website, designed and produced by Splinter, has just gone live. Whether you are left-leaning or not, give the site a visit at www.cityofradicals.co.uk.

Clwydian Range brand launches

Posted by Jon at 1:50 pm

The new brand for the Clwydian Range, developed by Splinter in partnership with Hi-Clarity Communications, was launched by Councillor Carolyn Thomas today at the Afonwen Centre.

The resources we have produced are designed to clearly define the Clwydian Range offering and raise awareness of all the area has to offer visitors. To check out more detail on the work we have done check out the Clwydian Range case study.

It has already been noted how useful the Sense of Place Toolkit has been for local businesses – giving them easy access to the words and pictures they need to promote themselves and the Clwydian Range.

Olympic success story

Posted by Jon at 10:37 am

We’ve just heard some great news that Splinter team member Barry has successfully qualified for the 2012 London Olympic Games! Huge congratulations to him – he’ll be competing in the synchronised diving category, so make sure you tune in Sunday 29 July – Saturday 11 August 2012. We have a feeling he’ll be the only web developer competing at the Games, so please post any words of encouragement here in the comments. Best of luck Barry!

Splinter MD circa 1992

Posted by Jon at 3:37 pm

Whilst trawling through the Splinter archives we stumbled across this little gem… Chris our MD’s self-produced album from way back in 1992. Nowadays it’s more shirt-and-jumper combos than dreads-and-beats combos!

Splinter start work on BBC Bitesize games

Posted by Jon at 4:53 pm

We’re always excited to work on new projects here at Splinter, but one particularly exciting one has just been awarded to us. It’s a collection of 11 online games for BBC Bitesize KS1 – teaching 5-7 year olds all about science! The existing literacy and numeracy games are hugely popular, so we’re looking forward to the challenge of adding to the collection. It’ll keep us nice and busy for the next 6 months, and above are caricatures of some of the Splinter team done in the KS1/Max and Molly style – drawn by our in-house illustrator Ste.

Splinter to collaborate with James May

Posted by Jon at 10:14 am

Okay, well maybe that’s not quite true… on one of our regular trips to London we decided to pop in to the Science Museum to see if their new interactive displays had been installed and who should we find wandering around learning about lathes? The man himself, James May.

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a photo for the Splinter blog, so here I am, grinning inanely. Chris had told him I was ‘his biggest fan’ (very funny Chris) – so he probably thought we were some sort of stalkers. Sorry James!

You are ‘avin a Bafta!

Posted by Jon at 2:13 pm

Another exciting bit of news has come through about The Well – the multi-platform project we did Flash work on for Conker Media and the BBC… it’s just been shortlisted in this year’s Children’s Baftas!! And it’s in the Interactive category as well, which we’re chuffed about!

We were brought in by Conker to build the online game that ran alongside the 4-part TV series, alongside fellow local creatives Milky Tea who did the 3D graphics.

We ended up building 11 different mini-games for it in Flash, so it was a hugely entertaining job for us to work on, and we’re delighted that people out there enjoy playing them enough to put the project forward for such a prestigious award!

And if you’re wondering what all the fuss is about then go and try the game for yourself over at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/thewell/game.shtml

Chris, caught in the Act!

Posted by Jon at 11:40 am

Chris has always been a huge fan of the classic early-90s comedy flick Sister Act, so he was delighted when, on one of our recent trips into the capital, we came across this… the stage musical version featuring Whoopi Goldberg herself!

A dream come true for Chris, and he couldn’t resist re-enacting the pose.