We're huge fans of BBC One's The Apprentice here at Designer Websites, and so we're obviously very excited for the start of show's twelfth series. Episode 1 airs tonight at 9pm - we can't wait to see who's a pretender and who's a contender this time around!

Speaking of contenders, did you know that we've worked with a couple of winning candidates over the past few years? As fans of the show will know, the winner of each series receives a £250,000 business investment from Lord Sugar, and we've designed and developed the websites for not one but two of the companies that have benefited from that cash injection - not to mention the guidance and wisdom of Britain's most successful self-made businessman.

 

Here's some more info about the websites we've created for Lord Sugar's business partners:

 

 

 

Ricky Martin, with his biochemistry degree and years of experience in the recruitment industry, won the eighth series of The Apprentice in 2012. He used Lord Sugar's £250K investment to found Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS), a recruitment company that caters exclusively to the science and technology industries.

 

We worked closely with Ricky and the HRS team to create www.hyperec.com, a modern and professional-looking recruitment website that allows jobseekers to browse hundreds of science jobs and submit applications online. It also makes it easy for employers in the scientific sector to list vacancies online and find talented individuals to work for them.

 

 

 

 

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We've been struggling for some time with a single small meeting room, so we decided to reshuffle our premises somewhat to create a new room that's perfect for meetings, presentations, and training sessions. Work on the room is now complete, and as you can see, the results look great!

 

 

Practically everything you see in the photo above was provided by one of our clients. These are businesses with whom we've worked very closely over the years, and we thought that explaining 'who did what' would make a great talking point within the meetings we'll be having in this space.

The first thing we did when renovating the room was install a luxury vinyl floor from Floormaker, long-time clients of ours who supply all kinds of high-quality flooring to homes and businesses throughout the UK. Here's what the stripped-back room looked like once the floor was down:

 

 

Then came the task of plastering and painting the new meeting room, which we split between ourselves. We also took care of hanging the blinds, rewiring the electrics, and sorting out the radiators.

 

After that, we turned to our friends at ABC Designs, signage specialists based right here in South Wales. They created a sign similar to the one in our main office, along with some entrance signs, door vinyls, and car park signs - all of which, in our opinion, looks absolutely awesome!

 

 

We also commissioned Printmet to build us a bespoke meeting room table (with a parquet insert from Floormaker, who we mentioned before) and a bespoke TV stand, which we designed specifically for the new room.

 

 

Then came the pièce de résistance: a quirky, modern-looking partition with a hidden door. This was designed by the brilliant Modelmakers Ltd, who normally specialise in architectural and exhibition models but clearly have a bright future in this sort of work! We already had an idea of what we wanted, so after a few design concepts and discussions with the guys from Modelmakers, a plan was agreed upon and they installed this unique wall in no time.

 

 

And with that, our new meeting room was finished!

 

 

Our meeting room has gone from being boring and run-of-the-mill to being exceptionally cool and contemporary, and everyone here at DW absolutely loves it. None of this could have been achieved without the help of our brilliant clients, so if you are ever looking for a superb signage company, an amazing model maker, a fantastic bespoke metal furniture supplier, or a high-calibre flooring company, you know who to call!

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JSM Models & Effects called up the Designer Websites office recently because they wanted to give their online presence an overhaul. JSM create all kinds of amazing models and visuals for projects large and small; however, their rather dated website wasn't really doing the company's work justice, and so they asked us to come up with an attractive, modern-looking design that would capture both the attention and the imagination of potential clients.

As ever, our web design experts were more than up to the task, and we believe we've succeeded in producing a website that's worthy of JSM's spectacular creations.

The new website has a responsive design, which means that it's easy to use and appealing to look at no matter what device you're using. The design automatically adapts to the screen on which it's viewed, resulting in a superb user experience for everyone.

It's always a joy to create a website like this one, because the visual elements (photos of JSM's models, in this case) do most of the talking. That being said, there are a lot of other things to take into account behind the scenes, and we all worked very hard to ensure that every element of the new JSM website was spot on. Our UI and dev teams concentrated on delivering a smooth, intuitive journey through the website, while our SEO specialists collaborated closely with the guys at JSM to make sure that the site copy was search engine-friendly while also appealing to the company's target audience.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable project to work on, and we hope that JSM are as happy with the finished website as we are. To see it for yourself, visit www.modelmakers.co.uk now.

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PalleTrucks-Trolleys.com is a brand new ecommerce website that sells a wide range of materials handling products, including site trolleys, pallet trucks, material lifts and more. The site was designed and developed by the Designer Websites team, and it went live yesterday - please click here to view it.

 

This project came about because one of our existing clients (a company that offers a huge variety of different products, including heavy lifting equipment, height safety gear and PPE) wanted a separate website that specifically centred on their range of materials handling equipment. The primary purpose of this new website would be to target a broad array of search terms related to pallet trucks, site trolleys, and so forth; while these product ranges are represented on the company's main website, we agreed that a new site with a more concentrated keyword focus would have a much better chance of conquering Google's SERPs.

 

Our SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) experts performed extensive keyword research to ensure that every page of the PalleTrucks-Trolleys website was targeting the best possible search terms in the proper manner. PalleTrucks-Trolleys.com is a responsive website, meaning that it looks great and functions smoothly on screens of all sizes; this is another important consideration when it comes to search engine optimisation!

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Do you consider yourself a drinks connoisseur? If so, you may well want to take a look at our latest website!

No Comply Brands are a branded drinks agency who work with small, independent drinks businesses and help them to get their products to a wider audience. Their partners include Two Birds, who craft a variety of English countryside spirits, and Original, who make tonic water that's infused with the tastes of the Mediterranean.

No Comply asked us to create a dynamic, modern-looking website that would show off these brands in the best way imaginable. We worked closely with them to ensure that the new site met their expectations, and we're pleased to announce that www.nocomplybrands.co.uk went live yesterday. The website includes:

The beverages sold by No Comply's partners are perfect for cocktails, and so the company asked us to build a blog engine into their website to allow them to upload cocktail recipes and share them with followers on social media.

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