It was, without doubt, the biggest year Koodoz had experienced to date and it came with a lot of ups and the obligatory sprinkling of downs.

All in all though, it was a fantastic year for the business, which saw a lot of growth through new project opportunities (with a workload to match). Subsequently this equalled an injected boost to our client base, which therefore required the need for new staff to join our team – welcome Rhett Luciani, our new Digital Designer. We also increased our presence at the attendance of several industry related conferences and meetings, which lead to the introduction of a bunch of local and international industry peers – all of which culminated into a very positive outcome for all of us at Koodoz Design.

In summary, here are some of our notable achievements for 2011:

Entering the Smartphone Development Market

In April, we launched (on behalf of our client) our very first iPhone app, called ‘Buy Aus Made’ (available via iTunes).

Although it required a steep learning curve for all of us, it was a really fun project to work on and ultimately gave us a good indication of what’s involved in offering this type of service for future clients. We’re currently in the process of developing a couple of other smartphone applications for ourselves, for public release, and we’re keeping an eye out for other potential ideas to work on.

Rubbing Shoulders

One of the many goals we set ourselves for the year (and for the foreseeable future), was to take a more active role in attending and participating in industry related events.

In June, we attended Future of Web Apps in Las Vegas. At this leading web-based conference, we got the chance to witness some fantastic speakers and meet with some of the web industry’s biggest Entrepreneurs, Angel Investors and Start-ups including Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg), Gary Vaynerchuck (of Jason Calacanis (Malhalo CEO, Tim O’Reilly (O’Reilly Media), the super inspiring Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO) and Werner Vogels (Amazon CTO).

We also got the opportunity to meet with some other really great web designers, developers and start-up guys including Garrett Gee from Scan and the chaps from Cheeky Monkey Media in Canada – a quick shout out to Rick and Gene!!

Back at home in September, we also had the opportunity of attending Semi-Permanent Melbourne. One of Australia’s most prominent conferences for all kinds of creatives, we got to see some really inspiring talks from Ken Taylor (Illustrator), Patrick Clair (Motion Graphics), Benja Harney (Paper Engineer), Platon (Photographer) and Scott Dadich (Condé Nast).

We also had the opportunity to catch up with a few friends from the industry and hang out over dinner with some of the guys from August Creative – a great bunch of peeps!

Some of our other gatherings throughout the year included meet-ups with a select few of Melbourne’s talented design folk from Dribbble, plus some other dev get-togethers at Jelly, which was a great way to see how a lot of Melbourne’s web creatives work on a day to day basis. Some of the great spaces we got to check out included Native Digital’s and Carter Digital’s offices in Fitzroy, the recently opened York Butter Factory in the CBD and Inspire 9’s co-working space in Richmond. If all goes to plan, we should be up for hosting another one of the next meet-ups at our new Abbotsford office.

Permanent Residency for Daniel

Another exciting tidbit of news we received mid-way through the year, was the official granting of Daniel’s permanent residency application. By directly sponsoring Daniel, we were all given the fantastic news that he was able to carry on living and working in Australia on a permanent basis.

Looks like the Colombian is here to stay for a little while longer – which we’re all really stoked about!

AWIA Finalists

Possibly one of the most exciting bits of news for the year, was discovering that we had been shortlisted as Finalists for the AWIA Eastern Region of Australia eCommerce Website of the year for our work on Camp Luxe.

Super chuffed by the nomination, we took a short trip up to Sydney to partake in the awards ceremony and got to mingle with some of Australia’s best in the web design industry.

Sadly, we didn’t come away with the grand prize, however, we were acknowledged for our hard work and were more than happy with the result of being shortlisted as one of the three best Australian websites in our field and will definitely be having another crack next year!

Holy Side Projects, Batman!

Over the years we’ve brainstormed and gathered a lot of great ideas for online products and services. We’ve also managed to apply a lot of these (read: all of these) to a ‘To Do List’, where they have sat festering and collecting dust, never to see the light of the day.

In 2011, we decided to change this and make a conscious effort to take action. Utilising the talented skillsets that we have, it would be a great shame not to develop some of these ideas, for fun and potentially, for profit.

To get the ball rolling (no pun intended) we started our first project off by developing a fun homage to our favourite film and lorem ipsum, with the creation of LebowskiIpsum. We’ve also commenced the development of a Table Tennis Scoring App, which we hope to launch in early 2012. Visit playwiffwaff.com for more info.

From One Corner of Richmond to Another

Well, it came sooner than we expected, but we managed to outgrow the office in Cremorne. Which meant, we needed to find somewhere that could house our growth, plus the guys from Bugherd and suggestions, for the next few years. Taking the plunge, we found and leased a fantastic old red brick warehouse in the gentrifying suburb of Abbotsford (in between North Richmond and Collingwood).

At first glance, the building was literally a shell. A barebones, rundown old building. For us, it was like striking gold. The potential it presented to occupy and renovate was exactly what we were looking for. Since the beginning of December, we’ve been madly renovating the space to turn it into a beautiful, open plan office that can house up to 18 people or more.

Here’s a list of the hard work we’ve put in to improve the office space:

• re-painting all the doors and trimmings
• painting 2 walls white and distressing walls (this was a tricky method to master – I may even write a blog post about this)
• creating a 5m W x 1.5m H meeting room chalkboard wall
• building a 7m long bench as a standing work station area for up to 4 people
• hand sanding, staining and lacquering 14 desks
• bond-creting every inch of red brick wall to harden the brick and mortar and reduce dust
• grinding a bucket load of dyna-bolts off of the concrete floor
• diamond-grinding 140m sq of concrete (3 passes) and preparing (vacuuming, sweeping, washing, scrubbing, mopping & cleaning) the concrete floor for sealing (this was back breaking work!)
• applying 2 coats of polyurethane enamel floor sealer for an amazing polished concrete finish – and managing to get extremely high during the process
• rewiring the entire factory to accommodate 18 work stations (sitting and standing), a new kitchen area, meeting room with TV and server area
• a new security system installed
• new door locks and a new back door
• re-paint the bathroom, utility room and existing kitchen area – plus some bond-creting and plastering of holes and cracks – plus we hand-made some pine framed, opaque perspex window covers
• new hot water system installed
• installed new ceiling and insulation…

There’s still a few things we need to do, but this should allow us to work comfortably in the new space for the short-term and allow us t finesse the aesthetic details over time…

Some of the additional task we need to complete, include:

• expanding the kitchen area with a Kitchen bench for food preparation
• building a wall to separate the kitchen area from working area
• build another wall to enclose the server and printer area
• purchase a lounge suite for the meeting and TV area
• buy an assortment of indoor plants…

Far out! Frisbee

As it has now become a tradition, the challenge for Koodoz Design to create a unique Christmas gift for our clients had crept up on us again, and as usual, it has become and increasingly hard task – but we love it!

Over the last few years, we’ve put together some really fun and useful pressies for our clients, and this year was no exception.

With the intention of topping [last year's crowd favourite], we racked our noggins until we came up with an idea that was not only Koodoz ‘brandable’, but was also a great way to celebrate summer and the holiday season outdoors with friends and family. Based on this criteria, we chose the timeless and alway-fun, Frisbee. But not just any Frisbee… oh no, no, no! We went and sourced only the finest Frisbee that money could buy – the pro-grade 175g Ultimate Frisbee – direct from the USA. We then, naturally, made sure it was a red frisbee and designed a faux-brand called the ‘Koodoz Kollider’ – another tradition we’ve happily adopted – which was applied to all 100 discs.

To package the disc and ship them out, we sourced some 11″ white Pizza Boxes and bradded those too (screen-printed). Then bow-tied each box with red Koodoz ribbon and a personalised Marty McFly themed Christmas card to each of our clients, suppliers and supporters.

Based not he wonderful feedback we’ve received from our clients, this year’s gift has already proved to be a soaring success and we can personally vouch that the Kollider has been a blast to play with over the summer!!

As usual, the challenge now is to see what crazy idea we can come up with for next years gift. Stay tuned.

All in All

To conclude, 2011 was a fantastic year and 2012 is already setting up to deliver some amazing results. We’re already looking at an action-packed return to work in mid January and we’re all super excited about working from the new space. Overall, I’m very optimistic about what the rest of 2012 will bring us and I’m positive we’ll be able to take it all in our stride.

Let the fun begin!

2. SBTRKT – SBTRKT

3. Dangermouse & Daniele Luppi – Rome

4. Clams Casino – Clams Casino

5. Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys

6. James Blake – James Blake

7. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

8. Radiohead – The King of Limbs

9. Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys

10. City and Color – Little Hell

Honourable Mentions

Koodoz Design is chuffed to have been nominated for Australia’s biggest Web Design Industry award – The 2011 Australian Web Awards for best eCommerce Website.

After submitting the Camp Luxe website earlier this year, we were recently notified that our submission was selected in the top three Australian websites for the eCommerce category. A very exciting bit of news for the crew at Koodoz!

Sadly, we didn’t win take home the prize this year – which went to Ambrosia Candles – but we’ll definitely be giving it another crack in 2012!

A big thanks to AWIA, the judging panel and the sponsors for organising a great night and to all the other finalists for their contribution in making the web a better place!

Determining a niche in the Australian marketplace for Human Resources information, the founder of Acadine HR decided to put their wealth of industry experience and knowledge into action and offer Australian businesses with helpful employment and staff related HR toolkits which comply with our laws.

Unimpressed by the dull designs and lack of usability presented by other international services, we were given free reign by the client to develop a website that would appeal to the Australian market. Offering a bright and striking interface, our focus was to ensure the site was enjoyable to use and easy to order from.

Incorporating an innovative and simplified shopping cart experience, customers are able to preview the contents of the Toolkits and purchase products within three clicks. To add to the site's qualities, we also developed a tool which automatically compresses the files and applies a unique one-off password to prevent unsolicited distribution.

Terry Johansson has done it again! Identifying a niche in the UK market for legal services in Contested Wills and Probate Law, Terry Johansson asked for our help to put together a site that would elevate the professionalism of his new venture with an element of class, sophistication and a teeny touch of British charm.

Incredibly rich in textual information, the challenge for us was to implement a website (powered by Wordpress) that would be simple to navigate, easy to read and straight-forward in its communication. Incorporating a gorgeous and contemporary palette of purple and gold, we adopted stacks of white space allowing the site to breathe - ultimately removing the potential of bombarding and stifling the user with information.

One of our original and longest standing clients, Australian Teachers Chronicle have continued to set the standard in useful day-to-day products for primary and secondary school Teachers.

In a constant effort to provide the best solutions for their customers, they have continued to evolve their product range, including the recent upgrade of their eChronicle Digital Diary.

Understanding the importance of their branding, we finally got the opportunity to update their previous website, to create a cohesively branded online experience. Offering a truly bespoke eCommerce website, we integrated their most recent marketing campaigns and branding into a modern website. Offering, not only, a product range that was easier to browse through, but a much more simplified purchasing process to assist in increased conversions. To boot, we also custom-developed a range of administrative tools and a complex shipping calculator to offer their customers the best possible price.

Following the successful rebranding of Expanded Polystyrene Australia, we were asked by the organisation to develop a content managed website which would positively promote and endorse the qualities of Polystyrene products in the Building & Construction and Manufacturing industries. The website would also act as a vehicle to educate the general public about its environmentally friendly qualities.

With a strong emphasis on providing a robust and flexible CMS, our development team implemented a number of customised modules within the Drupal platform to ensure EPSA staff would easily be able to edit and add new information to the site, without sacrificing the design aesthetics of the site. A secure and private intranet for 'members only' was also developed, allowing staff to internally distribute documents and files.

With a vision to introduce a new kind of inheritance claim service to the people of the UK, Principal Terry Johansson, founder of Johansson Solicitors' Will Disputes and Contest Probate Wills UK, realised a niche in the British market for people to gain access to top level legal assistance to claim their inheritance rights, without any of the stress or up-front expense that is often associated with legal claims.

Custom designed to accommodate the wealth of information the website offers, a strong focus was placed on ensuring users can find information easily through a simplified navigation system, helpful links to relevant pages and a powerful search tool. A strong emphasis was also given to creating multiple points of contact, making it incredibly easy to enquire. Other notable features included the implementation of a Blog and Facebook page to encourage and engage users in discussing their needs.

Established for over 40 years, Acland Travel offers Corporate & Leisure Travel management solutions to companies and their staff, for both domestic and international business trips.

Recently undergoing a change in management, Acland Travel asked us to develop a new brand and identity for the boutique travel management company.

Presented with a blank canvas to create a new 'look and feel', we chose a vibrant colour system that would appeal to the travel agency's target market as an approachable and uniquely dedicated team of professional corporate travel consultants. The inclusion of dynamic social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter, were also incorporated to help spread the word about the new look of Acland Travel.

Melbourne based IT support provider, Intellekt are a longstanding client of Koodoz Design.

Dissatisfied with the restrictive nature of their previous CMS driven website, Intellekt asked us to design a brand new site that would raise the bar and set them apart from their competitors. Our strategy was to create a compelling website that focused on usable navigation, planned page structure and a user interface that would deliver the information of their products and services through individually designed 'magazine style' page layouts to provide a comprehensive and enjoyable user experience.