We’ve recently been looking to bring someone in-house to strengthen our extended family of developers. After some healthy business growth and some very positive projections for the next year we were looking for smart creative people to fit in with the team. With that said, we’d like to say a big welcome to our new developer Liam Chapman – the newest member of the family.

Liam joins us from a sound background of front and back-end development with skills in design and Flash development. Previous clients include working with Sunseeker, Proton, Royalton and RNLI. With outstanding achievements during education too Liam is by far the youngest member of the team outshining the older members in health and looks no doubt.

The best part of this recruitment drive was the power of Twitter. We’ve met some fantastic people on here and generated a healthy amount of business too, but it’s really shown it’s worth again in us being able to find Liam not to mention many of the other candidates who applied. So a big thanks to everyone else who showed an interest, we’ll keep in touch as many of your skills will no doubt be of help one day in the future.

Welcome Liam, and look forward to your start.

Learning to say no at the right time can save you and your company time, effort and and a lot of pain. Said at the wrong time and it’ll bring you all of those and more.

We were recently offered a project to work on solely as designers to another agencies project. We’ve worked with these guys before and love working with them and still do. The budget was great and with the business booked out for a whole week it seemed to make great business sense to take it on. We’d already figured that this project alone could easily be used to re-invest in a new mac and all the software plus more for a new employee so there was a great reason to take the project on. But things don’t always run smoothly and in hindsight we should have refused the project from our original gut feeling.

The original brief for the project came in, very much driven by the agencies customer and certainly very challenging for even the best in the industry. It went against all the general rules of design and build practices and we instantly knew this was a project that was impossible to start let alone deliver what they were after. We went with our gut feeling and advised the agency that this was a project that we didn’t fully believe in and that without 100% belief in a project we couldn’t take it on and that maybe they shouldn’t either. They totally agreed with us and went away to the customer for talks and that was the last we heard of it.

Several weeks later we were back around the table talking with the agency and how they had now encouraged the customer to reign in their control on the project and take on board all the advice that had been given (well almost everything). We were still a little concerned simply because of the client and the original brief, but the new approach seemed promising, made sense and we love a challenge. The brief was very open and we knew the style and approach we were going to take, it all seemed to be running smoothly.

We normally offer up one conceptual design, it’s a rule we like to stick too. We feel that you need to be confident in what you are selling and splitting the time into creating two or maybe three can show a lack of this. That one concept has been brainstormed, sketched and well planned and shows a concise thought process. OK sometimes it might not be right first time, colours or graphical elements might need changing or re-positioning but the general layout, copy etc. is 99% of the time bang on, first time. In this instance the original design needed a second approach with the colour scheme and graphical elements. The layout we stuck with, it was strong and communicated the site clearly, but also stuck to the original brief of being modern, funky, cool, clean and cutting edge.

The designs finally went off to the agency and onto the client. Having thought we’d fulfilled the brief the client came back and commented that the designs were not what they had expected. In their eyes funky and modern meant large background photography and early noughties corporate. They had also started reigning in full control of the project again, changing the brief and the direction setting up image light boxes with terribly cliche imagery and very cold copy. We were back to where we had started again when our initial gut instinct told us to steer clear of this project.

Over a few days of discussion we had to make the hard decision to cut ties with the project, it was the only way both us and the agency could move forward. Too much time was going to be needed to get this new brief and direction deciphered and we felt that our time was better spent investing our skills into new more fruitful projects and existing clients. Our heart wasn’t in the project any more and what the client was asking didn’t seem commercially correct.

It’s been a tough decision to make but the company has already made back the lost billings and will continue to grow having learn’t some valuable lessons from this project.

So what advice can anyone take from this? The most important lesson is to know when to say no. The money might be great, the use of that money might be incredibly useful, but you need to trust your gut instinct. Fortunately the experience within the company allows us to recognise this type of client, this time we went against that first instinct and we paid for that mistake. If your heart isn’t in it and you can’t believe in the project 100% know when to walk away. Even if you loose the contract and money, put that energy into finding one that you can believe in.

As a company we have worked with and continue to work with several agencies including this one, but from now on we’ll make sure certain guidelines are set out from the start. We’ll certainly mention that if our design style doesn’t meet the clients then it might not be the best project for us to be involved with. We like to think we are versatile in our approach but sometimes loosing heart in a project is damaging to your reputation and anyone that you are representing.

Last month we announced that we were moving into new offices. A few peeps have asked to see some pics of the work so far… so check them out here. We’ve only managed a lick of paint, signage and desk space but being manically busy this year and having the holiday period recently we aim to push the rest of the office outfit through next month. We’ll keep you updated as the new features are added.

Remember we are on the look out for new HTML/PHP Developers too. If your interested or know of anyone that might be up for a new challenge check the blog post out too. We’ll even give you the choice of a brand spanking new iMac 27inch or the fastest PC of your choice. Happy days!

Yep you heard right we’re employing from today! How would you like the chance to work alongside some of the most talented designers in the industry? To be pushed and find ways to solve solutions every day? To love coming into work everyday and be paid well and not having to watch every minute of the day. To be trusted in your skills and abilities and not be micro-managed.

We require a developer who has outstanding skills in XHTML and CSS 2 and 3 delivering W3C standard sites to boot. We ideally require someone who is comfortable developing in PHP utilising the Symfony framework, although prior knowledge of Symfony isn’t a necessity it would be an advantage. Other skill sets such as ASP.Net, Perl, Object Orientated Programming and jQuery will be a great asset to the team.

Good knowledge of SQL databases is required, in particular MySQL.

We are a laid back team but highly motivated in creating the best sites in the industry so all candidates must be able to prove themselves at pushing the boundaries professionally and personally and finding solutions to problems that may seem impossible at first. Prove this and you’ll get your choice of the fastest PC or the latest 27″ iMac too.

Whilst qualifications are great we are more interested in you being able to demonstrate and deliver on your abilities. Successful interviewees will be required to carry out an assignment that will cover your HTML, CSS and PHP skills after your first interview.

Salary is dependent on skills and experience.

Ownership of a car would be advantageous, we are in the countryside after all.

And please… strictly NO AGENCIES either.

Email ben@fhoke.com along with your C.V. either online or in PDF or Word format.

So apart from the heavy snow and slight disruption to the first week back at the office we’re pumped and ready to go for a great 2010. Now settled into our new surroundings (although a country location hasn’t seemed too wise the past few days) what else have we got lined up in the coming months and year?

To start with let’s give everyone a run down of a few sites that have gone live over the Christmas period and some exciting projects to come in the next few months.

Walk With You

A site to help people gain more control in their life and feel more energised and inspired by their future. This site helps you on your new journey of discovery and is visually stunning with some great copy writing to boot. Take a look…

Carbon Squash

CarbonSquash is the Greener Way to Search, offsetting CO2 every time you search through the site. The site also enables the user to learn about their carbon footprint and how to offset it and keep up to date with the latest environmental news and energy saving tips. Take a look…

The Little Cake Parlour

Say hello to probably the most delicious cakes in the world. Cakes for anyone and any occasion that you just won’t find anywhere else. Contemporary, classic or quirky The Little Cake Parlour can create any cake your wish desires. Take a look…

As usual we’ve had some great feed back for these sites, and can’t wait to work with these clients again. So with these sites up and running what else have we got planned and ready to launch over the coming months? Well here’s a sneak peak at a few sites that are nearing completion.

Oroza

Pocket Size Media

Bingo Reviewer

Need A Job?

So there’s what we’ve created and what’s being worked on so what’s next? Well in the next few months we are looking to take on front end and backend developers. Keep a look out for information on these jobs and in the meantime if your interested then contact us at hello@fhoke.com and we’ll take a look at your CV and arrange an interview.

Happy New Year to everyone and we look forward to speaking and hearing from you all.

OK… we’re in! Based in-between Andover and Sailsbury our new studio is in a purpose built barn and will benefit our local clients in both locations and surrounding areas. Set in beautiful countryside with rolling hills and an abundance of fields our new studio spearheads our 2010 expansion plans.

Offering our clients a better insight to the way we work the studio is open to all and potential clients to visit in the new year. We might even give you a match on the old table football, maybe we’ll give you some free web work if you let us beat you.

We’ll get some pictures up as soon as to share with everyone but we love it already! So from Tuesday our address and phone numbers will be changing. For all our current clients an email will go out to you all with new contact details. For everyone else here’s our new address and number.

Crest House
Middle Wallop
Stockbridge
Hampshire
SO20 8EG
ENGLAND

+44 (0)1264 782 711

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