We are Five! Our history and more…

In a twinkle of the eye, 5 years flew past us. From the early days in 2004 where we initially worked from home in a bid to keep overheads low, we have certainly come a long way. During this 5 years, a lot of things have certainly changed.

From a home office to a shop house office at cozy Keong Saik road is a story by itself. We tried initially to work from home but unfortunately, it just wasn’t conducive enough and definitely not the correct business direction. In 2005, when we finally managed to secure enough projects and profits to rent an office, our old office at Keong Saik road was not even our first choice! We actually wanted to rent another shop house opposite Singapore General Hospital (SGH). There was a nice cozy roof garden where we can actually invite our clients there for a jug of beer after work. Parking was convenient and ample. Location was perfect as it was just outside CBD area. In fact, we were so keen on that location that we placed the security deposit. History has it that someone else offered a higher price and the landlord chose to offer it to another company instead. In our search, our dismay turned to joy when we found the office at 30A, Keong Siak road and we soon settled into that office.

Graphic design (print matters) was what TILT first begun with in our early days. In this course of 5 years, we had included photography, web design, web applications, copywriting / copy-editting and events management to our scope of work. The increase in our scope of work coincided with our increase in headcount as well. As much as we like 30A, Keong Siak road, the cozy shophouse was simply too small to squeeze all of us. In fact, everyone in our office loved that office! They love the convenience of having a 7-11 just at our doorstep. The coffee and tea from the coffeeship downstairs is as aromatic as it goes. The food is simply heavenly! The list can just continue but changes in life is what makes life exciting!

In 2009 alone, TILT managed to have not 1 but 2 sessions of team-building. The birthday celebrations which we have had for all of us have come in all shapes and sizes. From the karaoke sessions, we understand that English MTVs have a high percentage of becoming a National Geographic video where you are introduced to a country by some bikini girl. From the BBQ which we had, we found out who knows how to marinate and who knows how to start a fire. From the partying times, we realised who can hold their liquor and how some react when they lose it all. In the midst of all these fun which we had, there is also an increasing list of clients who are recurrent and our projects are of a larger scale as well as higher visibility. All these could not have happened without everyone at TILT. These are the people who knew how to work hard and play hard.

For the years ahead, we are sure that changes will continue to surface. No matter how things may change in the future, there is one thing which we are sure. That is our promise to our clients that DESIGN MATTERS!

Design Matters: So what do you think?

To be able to create a good website design, very often, you have to put yourself into the position of that of an end user. You will need to curb your organisation’s requests or your own liking and ask yourself, so what do the users think?

In TILT, this is the way which we function. A good website needs to be usable. Usability and the utility, and not how the website look, determines the success or failure of a website. If you have a good usable website, chances are, the website is good. If the design highlights the usability features, it will make the website great!

Always remember, the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and decides where to go. Our job is to advise the client how best to create a user-centric design.

As mentioned earlier, to create a good website, first be in the shoes of the end-user. First and foremost, user habits are not different from that of a retail customer habits in a store. They will enter the website / shop, they will scan through the stuff (for website, it will be text) and take action on the first thing which catches their interest (for website, it will be link). If it doesn’t meet their expectation, they will leave the shop (for website, it will be clicking on the back button or go to another website).

If you wish to create a website in the future, perhaps the starting point can be business processes. What do you think?

Be part of the Royal(ty) Family

“This is not acceptable!” stormed the client.

This had been a situation where TILT had faced several times in our course of work. To explain further, the situation arose due to the possible scenarios listed below.

Purchasing TILT’s Stock Library of Photographs
In our course of work, especially for web projects, we had used our stock library of photographs as part of the design for the client. When the project closed, after a period of time, the client called us back and told us that for consistent corporate branding, they wish to use a certain image for their print publication. When we tell them that it is not possible, voila! That’s when we hear the first sentence.

Why is this not possible? TILT usually purchase royalty-free images as part of our stock library. These images, even though are royalty-free, are licensed for use only on one computer. In addition, they are licensed for use only by the company who bought it and they can only use it in their course of work. We had a particular experience where we had an extremely lengthy discussion with the client explaining to them why this is not possible and after that long period of time, they still do not really understand and demand for the use of the photographs.

It’s ok, you can download the pictures off the web!
We have on several incidents encountered this as well. All photographs from the web actually have copyrights. On several occasions, we had informed the clients that downloading these photographs, even if they are high resolution enough to be used, may result in them being sued, if found out. The client simply do not believe that this may happen and, at times, insist that we do that. We naturally refused.

Why are the folks at TILT so sticky about this? That is simply because we care for the client and we do our best to advise the client. In a recent report, a businessman had asked a freelancer to do up a simple brochure about his consultancy services. The freelancer had used images from Getty Images without authorisation and the businessman now have only 1 week to pay $14,000 for the infringement of rights.

To read more about the report, click on the link below.
Businessman billed S$14k for images on website

This, unfortunately, is a piece of news which is sad for the design industry. Hopefully, clients now can understand why we charge a higher price than freelancers and hopefully, when we next explain to them, we will hear “Yes, I absolutely agree!”

A new makeover

As we shift into our new office at Havelock, we have also created a brand new look for our blog! Just like how TILT continuously seek refinement and improvement through feedback from clients, websites do need constant reviews and the occasional revamps as well.

And as we blog about our new makeover, we will also like to list 2 simple reasons why you should consider revamping your website:

Look Good and Feel Good!

Attractiveness and easy to use has always been one of the key important features of your website. If the new look can make it look better, create better navigation and look professional, why not?

Control Control Control

The frustrations which you have had to wait for a company to maintain your website can now be over. More and more companies are setting up corporate blogs to showcase their information and this by itself is one of the best content management system which your staff can pick up easily!

Before we end off here, watch this space as our blog is in the final stages of being revamped!

Job Well Done!

We had just received an email from the management of Bottle Tree Pte Ltd on the revamp of Bottle Tree Website. Besides these testimonials from our clients that constantly serve to drive us, it also goes to show that the articles on design matters which we have been writing are testimonial to our knowledge in these areas.

I will like to praise TILT’s good work on our web page construction ! It was a well done job indeed. Thanks !!

Colin Chia
Bottle Tree Pte Ltd

In fact, one of the fundamental reasons why TILT created this blog is for us to share with all netizens the importance of design in all aspects of our lives. We recognise that there is only so much that we can do but we do hope that through these sharing, Singaporeans, can appreciate the power of design and recognise the limitations of design matters.

Practice what you preech. That’s what we believe in. We hope you can do your part too in making this world a better place.

Great Thank You!

We were pleasantly surprised by an email which just came in.

Hope this thank you note is not too late. I sincerely thank TILT for all your effort in contributing to our successful event in Phuket. All your quick turn around for us is greatly appreciated. Look forward to our next partnership together.

Once again, thanks for everything you have done for us in making it a successful event!

Cheers,
Wenli
Carlson Marketing Group Pte Ltd

This is a project which had lasted 1 full year, 10 months to be exact, where we first received the brief, designed the visuals, presented them, was awarded and worked on the full scope of work including:

Logo Design

Brochure Design

Certificate Design

Invitation Card Design

Electronic Direct Mailer Design

Pull-up Banner Design

Website Design

Corporate Gift Design

In fact, there was an initial period during the designing of visuals stage where we seemed to be missing what was required and nearly gave up. Our determination held us through and we are glad that 10 months later, this compliment was given to us.

We truly appreciate the client for giving us such a great thank you note and we will definitely strive to continue to be better.

Design Matters.

Introducing the team from TILT.

Adobe Education eSeminar Series

TILT is encouraging our clients, especially those in the education industry to let their students have a shot of credibility and confidence with the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA). With our interest in design matters, it is important for the younger generation to understand about the importance of design. With the ACA, not only will they be able to understand and learn more about design, they will assist to make Singapore the design hub which she has set herself out to be.

The Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) is a certification program for students and industry to demonstrate and validate their abilities in digital media to plan, design and build effective communication projects. It increases confidence and proves proficiency, especially for students’ fresh out of college and employers looking for a benchmark to validate digital media skills.

Today, Adobe offers 3 areas to gain certification:
> Web communication using Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS3
> Rich media communication using Adobe® Flash® CS3
> Visual communication using Adobe® Photoshop® CS3

In this session, you’ll learn about:
• What is Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) for educators and students
• How you can offer ACA to your students
• Learning objectives and curriculum for the ACA exams available today
• Case studies of schools incorporating ACA for their students today

Presenter: Anuja Dharkar,
Senior Manager, Education, Adobe Systems

To register for the online e-seminar, happening on 10th July 2008 (Thursday), 12pm – 1pm, click this link

To find out more on the Adobe Education eSeminar Series, click this link

SAF Combined Rededication Ceremony 2008

TILT has been working on the SAF Combined Rededication Ceremony 2008 since May 2008. With a host of collaterals needed to be designed for the North / Northeast Zone, the SAF Combined Rededication Ceremony 2008 finally came to a close today.

After the event, we received an email from the Deputy Principal of Republic Polytechnic, Mr. Eden Liew and TILT is sincerely happy to receive such a testimonial. Below is a snippet of the email:

I will like to thank Tay Ling from TILT for his effort and contribution on the design of the SAF Combined Rededication Ceremony 2008 Collaterals (such as e-card, poster, banner, e-banner, plaque design) and the numerous changes to accommodate to all the inputs given by committee members.
Mr. Eden Liew
Deputy Principal
Republic Polytechnic

This is the design of the poster by TILT.

Parkway Website

The CIO of Parkway Education approached TILT to design and develop their corporate website today! This speaks volumes of the recent projects (corporate website and print collaterals) which we have done for their sister company, Parkway College.

We also learnt that our client, Parkway College, had also referred TILT to Parkway Health to do up their e-newsletter. They had spoken favourably of us and we sincerely thank our clients for providing referrals after our good work.

And of course, we welcome all comments of our services, whether it is positive or areas of improvement. Our internal service review session, which takes place every three months, will consider all client comments to improve our service level and competitiveness.