Rockit Design

Designed to last

10 years ago, in December 2001, we were tasked by Southampton Council to design and produce new maps of the vast 21 hectares that make up five Central Parks - Andrews (East) Park, Hoglands Park, Houndwell Park, Palmerston Park and Watts (West) Park. (Southampton is proud to be the greenest city in the South)

These maps would be mounted in sighboards in key locations around the Parks to help people navigate them, and to inform them of some of the parks history and their attractions. The award winning parks are actually Grade II listed, and established between 1854 and 1866 on the old medieval town fields.

10 years on and our 'You Are Here' maps are still looking good, and helping people find their way around our city's Parks! We have since produced maps for other local parks - 'Riverside' along the banks of the River Itchen, and Mayfield Park in Woolston.

Watercolour and CGI working together

We have recently been tasked with providing an elevated view of a development in traditional watercolours. With aerial views the viewpoint that best shows off the site isn't always immediately apparent. When in doubt, we like to make a basic 3D model of the site. Once this is done we can fly around the model to work out the best angles. It often brings to light problems that weren't obvious when looking at a 2D plan, and cuts out having to resubmit further laborious pencil drafts if views don't quite work. With a 3D model we can render out new views in minutes and email them across in seconds, giving a client much more choice and flexibility, and great if working to tight deadlines where the finished result needs to be right first time.

Once a view has been established our watercolour artists then use the model as a template to work from.

Gone are the days of the client saying

"I love it, but can we move our viewpoint round to the right a little ..."

Quadruple: something made up of four clearly defined parts or stages

Four websites finished and live in the last week.... pest control, industrial estate, sales and lettings agent! All include content management giving clients the ability to update their own websites going forward. Social media included on three of the sites to share and like posts and listings to gain some all important (free) viral marketing. One site includes a blog that the client promises us he will commit to posting relevant and informative updates to regularly, as advised. The largest of the sites is for the estate agent - sister sites for sales and lettings.. read more details here.

Captcha, don't you just love 'em

A big thankyou to all you spammers out there! ... we now have a captcha on our website and are recommending to clients that they have them also to stop junk coming through on contact forms.

But they are having to evolve all the time like everthing else on the web to fend off those 9 out of 10 of all emails that are junk globally (fact)... but this example I noticed on our site may have gone one step too far - certainly no spam today, definitely no new business leads through our site today thats for sure (other than perhaps from somewhere far eastern!!!)

Captcha's - don't you just love 'em....

Romsey Show Stand

Cloud Computing

Artwork for client Compare the Cloud who offer comprehensive cloud-based services to small and mid-sized businesses through a network of trusted providers, read more details on Compare the Cloud website.

Gardening Competition Poster

Poster Design for A Frame (pavement sign) - bold, simple and on brand.

We are running a competition for a client as part of a trade stand at an agricultural show in Romsey, Hampshire - http://www.romseyshow.co.uk/. Work also includes; competition entry forms, posting boxes, branded clipboards and merchandise. The stand itself includes; 6 metre gazebo, large format pop up displays and flags, furniture and planters with roses in bloom adding colour and fragrance. Fingers crossed for some good weather and visitor numbers!

Show Apartment Furniture Pack

Show apartment furniture available immediately for rent... lounge/diner, double bedroom and single bedroom, kitchen and bathroom props also. Or available for purchase at 40% discount prices... 2 seater sofa and footstall: £280, Single bed, mattress and bedding: £152. Next, Ikea, John Lewis, M&S.

New Homes Garden Awards

Working with client to enter New Homes Garden Awards 2011….http://www.newhomesgardenawards.co.uk/

Now in its 8th year, the New Homes Garden Awards is supported by media partners Express Newspapers. The Express claim to be great champions of innovative new property and sustainable gardens and landscapes and say all winners can look forward to high profile national publicity with nearly 2 million people reading the Express everyday.

Woodland CGI

Recent CGI by Mike at Rockit - created from architect plans and combined with site visit photography. Commissioned by selling agent Hamptons.

New Forest Show completed stand

The finished stand...

New Forest Show Stand

Excited to be in the final stages of planning an exhibition stand for a client at the New Forest Show next week - 26/27/28th July 2011. We have been taking deliveries at the Chapel for the last couple of weeks of everything from print to pop up displays, from flags to astro turf. Really starting to get a feel for what the stand will actually look like - I think better than the CGI - a good representation of what we have promised the client but in the flesh it will feel so much nicer.

In particular the roses... yesterday we shopped for the roses from Pococks in Jermyn's Lane, Romsey, Hampshire http://www.garden-roses.co.uk/ ... proved very tricky to choose roses that will be flowering in a week's time. Generally they are not flowering as well as they should be with current low temperatures and also thrown by summer starting very early this year! Star purchase I think will be either the 'Ballerina' rose or more likely the fantastic red 'Ruby Anniversary' which we will put front centre of the stand to draw the public's attention!

Update to follow next week showing the completed stand, CGI shown below