At Mixd we’ve been designing and building websites with ‘one-web’ principles in mind for over two years now so we were delighted when Adobe recently announced ‘Edge Reflow’. It’s a new piece of software that should make our creative design process more fluid. Why? Because it means we can design on screen then see what happens [...]
Mixd are looking for a talented and creative designer to work with our internal team on an exciting new project.
Mixd are looking for an additional front end developer who loves working with Responsive Design. At Mixd, we are dedicated to One Web principles – so much so, we choose to implement our constantly evolving Responsive Design approach on all of our projects. Working here, you will embrace the web’s fluidity and never build a fixed-width site again!
Every Friday afternoon we are giving all members of the Mixd team a half day of free time to think, explore, mock up, prototype, whatever.
Just so you know, we are closed for the Christmas recess from Friday 23 December 2011 til’ Tuesday 3 January 2012. We have gifts to give, food to be eaten and beer to consume. Thank you folks! 2011 has been a great year for Mixd and we have had the opportunity to work on some [...]
When Santa hit the streets of Harrogate last Christmas to collect charity donations, he took 3 ‘stooges’ with him to help conceal his true identity. But which one is the real Santa? Win champagne! To enter and be in with a chance of winning a magnum of champagne, just visit the Mixd Facebook page and [...]
Design flourishes within constraints The more a design team knows about the users of a site, the better they can meet their needs and design something that appeals to those users beyond the aesthetic appearance of a site. Something that looks lovely but doesn’t work for the user is pointless online. The fundamental principles of user centred [...]
Happy 1st November everyone! Whilst driving to work this morning I was thinking how lucky I am to have the commute that I have to Harrogate. I am sure that I am not alone to say that I have had my fair share of long, dull and tedious commutes. Perhaps the longest of which was [...]
Not that Oasis! We have created new branding and launched an online presence for Oasis, an ethical, not-for-profit human relations consultancy. The branding and website are designed to help Oasis to clearly articulate its unique approach and skills, with much of the web content focusing on real-life case studies and testimonials. Some might say… Cathy [...]
It is fair to say that scoping is the most important stage of any design and development project. “None of us plan to fail, but some of us fail to plan.” Anon. (I saw this quote as graffiti on a dressing room door!) Without scoping, a design and development project is like trying to build [...]
This has nothing to do with web design but if you are a web designer, training to become a web designer, would like to be a web designer or just like to keep abreast of the latest technologies and apps us web geeks are using then you might find this interesting. Then again you might [...]
If you’re in the market for a great deal on a used car in the Yorkshire area, you may have come across our recently launched website for Andrews Auto Parcs in Harrogate. Website scoping The website is the result of many hours of hard graft, with a great deal of time spent planning, investigating, scoping [...]
I just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the support and the money raised from the 100 mile South Downs Way ‘bike ride’ that I took part in last Saturday for the British Heart Foundation. It is the 3rd year I’ve taken part in this event so in fairness I knew what I [...]
There’s an awful lot of discussion and criticism regarding education and training in the Web Design community lately, and subsequently the University of Leeds’ BA (Hons) degree in New Media has recieved a lot of attention. The criticism mostly regards the relevence of the more broad modules such as Communication Research Methods and Communication Sciences [...]
Showering with the Wurzels I often have strange thoughts when in the shower. This morning was no exception. I found myself singing The Wurzels’ classic hit ‘Combine Harvester (brand new key)’. I sing a lot in the shower, but have no idea why the Wurzels entered my tired morning mind. Anyhow, this got me thinking [...]
The appearance of a bit of sunshine in England brings about many changes. Those early mornings seem easier, everyone’s in a happier mood, beers taste better and the ladies don their bikinis. After having a decent bit of decent weather of late, I decided sitting in front of a computer all day needed to be [...]
Over the last few months the Mixd team has steadily been growing and as a result we have been encouraging web designers and web developers of the future to get in touch. Those of you that regularly read the Mixd blog will know that we work closely with York College and the University of Leeds [...]
Time flies… As I was preparing the content for the May 2011 edition of MixdMessages, it occurred to me that we had completed our first year of our monthly eNewsletter of ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ according to the team here at Mixd towers. Crikey… that’s flown by! Any good? Over the last year, we [...]
In case you didn’t know… Earlier this year, East Coast announced a direct train service returning from London to Harrogate of an evening (leaving King’s Cross at 5.33pm) to complement the direct service from Harrogate to London on weekday mornings (leaving Harrogate at 7.28am); prior to this, you would have to return with a change [...]
Harrogate web design company Mixd is proud to have recently launched the new website for the Obesity Surgeons Group based in Leeds. The Obesity Surgeons Group (OSG) is a surgeon-led organisation that offers leading surgery solutions to patients revolving around four core principles: Highly skilled professionals with vast experience in weight loss surgery; State of [...]
Agile Adjective Able to move quickly and easily. Concise Oxford English Dictionary Agile development Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a [...]
I was just sat here this Friday afternoon (wasting time) thinking about those halcyon days of being a ‘youth’. When lengthy school holidays meant everyday was a Saturday. Your normal ‘working’ day finished at 3.15pm. And your biggest worry was if that new girl you fancied thought your trainers were cool. “Those days are gone [...]
GET IN! I’m shouting. I’m on a roof top. One of our sites has won the ABTOF MAFTA for Best Website! What’s an ABTOF MAFTA? You may be wondering… Well, ABTOF is a travel industry association and stands for the ‘Association of British Travel Organisers to France’. MAFTA, not to be confused with BAFTA, is the [...]
A recent new business win for Boston Spa based Oasis School of Human Relations gave Mixd an opportunity to work with a great new client and to work in some exciting and different ways… The project brief was to supply a brand update and to apply that new logo to a completely redeveloped website. However, [...]
A bit like buses – two jobs come along at once! We are looking for a mid-senior Ruby on Rails developer to come and work with us in a freelance capacity on a number of existing client projects. You must demonstrate excellent Ruby development skills, technical wizardry, flexibility, a sense of humour, motivation and an [...]
We are looking for an experienced and passionate Front-end Web Developer to join our development team based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The perfect candidate will be an expert in advanced web interface development, browsers, accessibility and modern techniques using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). They must demonstrate experience hand-coding web standards based solutions with a critical [...]
It was like something out of a home economic lesson… To celebrate Shrove Tuesday we thought we would do something a little different this lunch time. Armed with camping stoves (supplied by our very own Mr Outdoor Shackleton), mixing bowls, egg, milk and flour we got together for a pancake extravaganza. Mike won Best Pancake [...]
Last week Phil and I attended the New Adventures In Web Design Conference (#naconf) at the Albert Hall in Nottingham. A new conference for 2011 it was billed as being “carefully curated; chock-full of integrity, opinion, and fresh content, with an emphasis on shaking things up and challenging convention” by curator and organiser Simon Collison, [...]
Simply having a wonderful #mixdmas time Harrogate Digital Agency Mixd threw caution to the wind this year and let the good people of Twitter run the Christmas party, titled #mixdmas. Our apprehension that no one would get involved and that we would be sat in the Holiday Inn all night didn’t last long… local charity [...]
Christmas bash with a 21st Century twist? Mixd to stage social networking event in lieu of the traditional office Christmas party Harrogate digital agency Mixd will dump the traditional office party this year and instead opt for a seasonal celebration shaped entirely via the social networking channels Twitter and Facebook. Dubbed ‘#Mixdmas’, the event will [...]
The area we are talking about here is website typography – any type elements on a website, including the body text For a long time, everyone has talked of ‘web safe’ fonts and a large part of website design and copy styling was often limited to the basic font libraries on a Mac or PC (Arial, [...]
To mark the occasion of Mixd’s sixth birthday, the team headed out into a dark, misty and chilly night in York on Tuesday for a stroll around town… with a difference. After a couple of light ales and a chin-wag in the Maltings, we headed off to meet our hosts from the Original Ghost Walk of [...]
Picture the scene if you will… I’m on my way out to meet my mates. Looking rather dapper if I do say so myself. We are off to see a club DJ, but I need an extra tenner for my ticket. I’m running well late. The taxi’s waiting. Now on with the story… I dashed [...]
One of the social media experts here at Mixd in Harrogate, Phil Shackleton, was asked to go on BBC Radio York’s Breakfast News again a couple of weeks ago to comment on how social media is affecting the way in which we communicate. As part of the recent BBC First Click campaign, BBC Radio York [...]
Earlier this month, we welcomed Surprise to the team; a female Border terrier pup with a penchant for front-end web design. Primarily working alongside Boon utilising HTML, CSS and jQuery, Surprise has also been put in charge of the office exercise regime and ensuring regular meals and comfort breaks are taken. Hi, I’m Surprise! Hello! [...]
One second please caller… Just a quick note to let you know that we are having an updated telephone system installed here at Mixd towers today. Your communications are important to us and we want to ensure we have a system that keeps up with the expanding Mixd team and makes it as easy as [...]
At Mixd, we’re not just a creative digital agency! Our vast experience of back-end systems and complex environments means that we have the technical expertise to turn your bespoke requirements into reality. Here at Mixd, our technology of choice for application development is Ruby on Rails (aka Rails); our development team have been using Rails [...]
Okay folks. Let me tell you why Google Analytics should be used by you! In general, Google products are good. Google Search, GMail, Google Chrome, Google Wave… okay, scratch Google Wave… Google Maps, Google Earth (my Mum now uses this, which says something!), Google Webmasters and its latest offering Google Goggles (more on this in [...]
Right. A big bug bear of mine! It has been a growing and annoying trend that links to external sites from one website to another open in a new browser window and it has been something that we advise our clients against… time and time again. Some common misconceptions are listed below with several facts, [...]
The Mixd team spent an afternoon going back to our evolutionary roots at Go Ape’s Dalby Forest operation. Hanging around in trees, beating our chests, singing ‘The Funky Gibbon’ and scratching our… noses. As part of the Mixd mantra ‘play well together, work hard together’ we like to get out and about in this beautiful [...]
I just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the support and the money raised from the British Heart Foundation’s South Downs Way Randonnée that I took part in a few weeks ago. I think I’ve just about recovered now! 100 miles in 11 hours I’m pleased to say I completed all 100 miles [...]
One of the social media experts here at Mixd in Harrogate, Phil Shackleton, was asked to go on BBC Radio York’s Breakfast News to comment on York Flash Mob and the controversy the organisers of a mass pillow fight have caused with the announcement of their next event using the social network, Facebook. The group [...]
Producer at Mixd by day… Cosmic rock n’ roller by night… Many of you will know Beardy Bob as the Producer here at Mixd, dedicated to your project. However, he does have a life away from Mixd and one of his major passions is music… and in particular his band, The Bobby Sunshine Revival Band. [...]
As this Summer’s sporting festival of football, the World Cup, draws to a close, the British Heart Foundation stands to win £50 if Spain are crowned World Champions. Before the World Cup started, Mixd undertook a sweepstake, donating 6 places to the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The draw was conducted under unprecedented security in the Mixd [...]
Once again this year, our very own endurance athlete (think Lance Armstrong… and then some!) will be taking part in what is known to many as the toughest off-road mountain bike endurance event in the UK – the British Heart Foundation’s South Downs Way Randonnée – on Saturday, 31 July 2010. The 100 mile (161km) [...]
Some of you will already know Dave – ‘the international master of rave’ as he is affectionately known here at Mixd owing to his mobile DJ career – from his involvement in the technical aspects of your digital project. He’s one of those guys that never sees the light of day, survives totally on crisps, coffee and red bull, and is [...]
When the BBC wanted an expert in Social Media to comment on Paul Chambers’ recent conviction for ‘sending a menacing electronic communication’ for his Tweeted bomb threat to Robin Hood Airport they contacted Mixd, asking us to appear on Look North with Harry Gration and Tanya Arnold. Of course we duly obliged and just 2 [...]
Mixd are looking for an experienced and passionate Senior Web Developer to join and lead the development team in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Candidate should have a minimum of 4 years experience in Ruby on Rails and PHP development. The perfect candidate will be an expert in advanced web development using PHP and MySQL, Ruby on Rails [...]
Extract taken from the Harrogate Chamber of Trade and Commerce’s monthly ‘Review’ magazine: A record attendance of members and guests packed into the Old Swan Hotel on Monday 8th February to hear from North Yorkshire’s social media experts… Tweet your way to success Bob Tait, from Harrogate-based, full service creative agency Mixd, was next up, to help [...]
And no, I’m not referring to the great thaw in Harrogate, but the loss of internet for a few hours yesterday afternoon. We work in the digital world, so probably notice it a bit more than most, but what did we all do before internet access, broadband and Wi-Fi? We almost felt naked. In the [...]
Mark Graham, whose company Original Ghost Walks of York says he found things going bump in the night at the former Mixd offices in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
Contrary to a popular belief created by nineties boy-band FIVE!, no it won’t… five is most certainly making us get up; happy and celebrating. Yesterday was the fifth birthday of Mixd, the full service creative agency based in Harrogate and five of us celebrated in our own individual ways: Matt jumped down five sets of [...]
Are you looking for a challenge this year with the benefit of the knowledge you’re raising money for a worthwhile charity? The British Heart Foundation is holding its long-running South Downs Way (SDW) Challenge on 25 July 2009 and Mixd is pleased to announce that Phil will be stretching his legs and representing Mixd at [...]
Full service creative agency Mixd welcomes new recruit Matt to the web design and development team at the studio in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Matt spent his first days at Mixd at the beginning of 2009, working with the team for a couple of days a week… he has already settled in well and served his [...]
New plans to brighten up Mixd HQ with the introduction of a ‘work wall’ that would allow the design team to display creative concepts was scuppered this afternoon. The plan was simple: “Let’s get a sheet of stainless steel and use magnets to hold the work up”. One quick call to a local steel fabricator [...]
A key feature of the BA(Hons) Graphic Design Programme at York College is its involvement with Design experts from industry. Phil Shackleton and Mike Danford from creative group Mixd have worked with the students as creative consultants on projects including Brand Creation, Promotion and Interactive Design. “The experience has been of immense value for the [...]
Mixd would like to give a warm welcome to the new guy, beardy Bob (his name’s Bob Tait and he has a beard). We think a group hug is in order; mind you, Bob’s girlfriend Vic knows that when it comes to the hugging stakes, no one is quite like Bob! Bob’s role in the [...]
When Mixd opened its doors in Harrogate for the first time at the start of 2009, it heralded the arrival of a new creative force in the North Yorkshire spa town. Mixd is an exciting young business which started in Northallerton in 2004; but why the move to Harrogate? Partner, Phil Shackleton, says, “We’re delighted [...]
New year, new you… so they say. Well, here at Mixd, we’ve really gone to town on all things new. Whilst we can’t really take any credit for the new year, we must say how delighted we are with both our new physical home (a stone built period property set in a beautiful, leafy Harrogate [...]
If you just can’t get enough of us here, we’ve also now broadcasting out into the Twittersphere.
