Studio Snapshot
Typography, Go Lives, AI and CAKE & Sparkly!
This month our design team is participating in 36 days of Type for the 4th year in a row! 36 Days Of Type is a worldwide Typography competition where designers celebrate type, with each day representing a specific letter or number. Each day one of designers (on a rota) is allocated a letter to design and has to be posted on Instagram. See below for how our team feel about this, and why we do it.
This month we have welcomed Harley into our Digital Marketing team! Harley has worked in a number of agencies as well as run his own fashion business, and is a fan of indie coffee, even to the point that he has also been involved in a coffee business also. Read more in our digital section below…
Happy Birthday to us again!
It feels like yesterday we said this but Fanatic also celebrated its Birthday this month, now 22! The team celebrated with a shared lunch in the office, indulging in some great picnic snacks, pizza and of course, birthday cupcakes!
Each member of the team brought in a dish to share, and as we have always had a great variety of nationalities at Fanatic, we usually get some new things to try also! This time Marcello made some fantastic Nonna’s Crostata di Mele – sweet apple pastries, as well as Annie’s Tzatziki’s, Stathis’s briam and Mary although from Armenia made a Russian Olivye Salad and also smashed out a wonderful Baklava. Phil also made a dish he entitled ‘Pad Thai Sort Of’, which we think will undoubtedly catch on! The real show-stopper, however was Mary’s baklava! It was amazing!
AI - What’s changing??
There has certainly been a lot of talk about AI recently. Automation has been a huge part of our workflow in web development for decades, programmers are well used to having ‘toolbox’ like code functions that can perform large tasks in seconds, and in our digital marketing team, we see the advance of AI giving new insights into the performance of sites and on content research.
To us, the big impact on digital marketing will be in how much the search results embrace the content it serves being AI-generated. This is another level from using AI to get better, more personalised, seasonal, timely or perhaps even more emotionally (for example) matching content, as ultimately, the content you read is then not AI. But if a search engine is happy to serve AI content, then there could be a seismic shift in approach to keeping clients at the top within their target keyword lists!
We feel less assisted by AI so far on the creative side of the business, although it is impressive how images can be rendered and how these are becoming more lifelike. Perhaps it could help us with the problem of limited stock imagery available for very specific requirements, which often comes up where photography is difficult to acquire or shoot ourselves.
There is hardly a day without a debate of some sort, so in the coming weeks and months, we will begin to create a set of posts and set out some current status on where AI is already part of a workflow, where it could impact and help, and in areas perhaps we could also say where we think it would never help. That could make interesting reading in only a year’s time, given how fast things are developing.
What's new in the
Design team?
36 DAYS OF TYPE
This month we asked our Design team to reflect on their time taking part in 36 Days Of Type.
This will be the 4th year Fanatic has been participating in 36 days of Type, driven by Sam our Lead Designer who is an avid 36 Days Of Typer. Thomas and Annie have both taken part with Fanatic before, and Sam, Thomas and Annie complete the majority between them, although Ian hangs on to his design roots to complete several each year, although typically delegates these to his daughter Poppy who enjoys getting involved.
This great mix of experience working together has seen some great designs and reactions throughout the competition, and we can’t wait to see what we produce throughout the series. You can see the latest of these on our Instagram page, previewed at the bottom of this page, where you can link to the full set.
Our designers continue to find inspiration from many Type designers, illustrators, 3D Artists and graphic designers. Thomas especially has a love of Type design, and follows a fair few contemporary font designers that create classic, as well as fresh modern type styles. He also likes exploring the fundamentals of letters back through time and styles. Annie is inspired by her favourite illustrators, who all tend to illustrate natural and urban landscapes, then tries to incorporate these into her type designs, which she finds is a fun challenge.
Sam likes having the opportunity to push the design team’s creative skills and try out techniques they would otherwise not have, as seen in many of Sam’s letters which are 3D Animations we do not get to work with very often.
The Fanatic team as a whole loves taking part in such a fun and creative competition, where our designers can show what they are capable of. Everyone enjoys watching our designer’s competitive sides emerge as the 36 days roll on, there is a lot of talk of who gets which letter, and then round ups of specific favourite letters over the 4 years.
Of course, when asked “what was your favourite design from this year?”, Thomas said his design of the letter V, stating, “I like the V I did this year; it has a nice mix of flare and functional typography” Annie said “ I like my Q and, in particular, the swoosh coming from the asteroid, which is the tail of the letter.” The team said that it’s probably the most competitive that they get as a team, but as they work in three distinctly different formats, it avoids any direct comparisons.
See what the Development
team have been up to
Health Checks
You may receive one of these regularly, but our technical health checks we perform on all websites has become the main stay for ensuring the huge number of websites we manage and care for (as if they were our own!) remain fast, secure and compliant with various regulations. – We thought we would give a short behind the scenes run down of how we have made this possible for an ever larger number of sites. Various checks are carried out using automation within an app we have written to serve exactly our purpose, but the human touch remains essential to bring this together and remedy or flag any issues.
Let’s start with a big one, GDPR and storing personal data, which also involves analysing website forms to ensure they follow GDPR guidelines. We check each form manually to check it has an ‘opt in’ to the GDPR terms.
But form entries that are stored in the WordPress Database, and could remain there becoming older than allowed int he terms, or stored data may be for a specific use, which may now be complete. The guidelines only allow data to be stored for as long as justified, and to manually check for these older entries in WordPress is impossible for us or for any client. So we wrote a script that would query the WordPress database directly from our app testing it against set criteria, to provide us with this information.
We are then able to discuss this with our clients, (an email you may have received) and discuss together what to do, and then ultimately remove the data that should no longer be held.
Another challenge for bringing in this automation was automatically identifying the type of form plugin used (i.e. Ninja Forms, CF7, Gravity Forms etc.) in each website. It has been programmed to read the unique way that each of these form plugins stores data. The ‘submission’ count is then made available to an API endpoint for our central Health Check App to use this information in the report.
The benefit of this is that our clients can now far more quickly be notified that there are older form submissions that require deletion. Once the client has given the nod, the script can then be used to remove these records permanently.
The latest from the
Digital Marketing team
Introducing, Harley!
- How have you found life at Fanatic so far?
I can confidently say that I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience. The work atmosphere is exceptional, with a team of friendly individuals who share some cool interests. The collaborative space is great to work in and I’m making great relationships with the clients I’m working with. All in all, I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of such a creative and supportive work environment.
- What were you doing before Fanatic, and what made you get into Digital Marketing?
Before joining Fanatic, I started a fashion brand. I enjoyed expressing my creativity by designing a brand that reflected my journey and appreciation for diverse cultures. While building my brand, I developed an interest in digital marketing and creating a positive user experience for my customers. As a result, I realised that I wanted to pursue a career in Digital Marketing and collaborate with other brands. I love working with other creative businesses and using my expertise to enhance their online presence.
- What made you choose Fanatic?
I ultimately chose Fanatic because of the positive energy and shared like-mindedness that permeates the creative space. The work atmosphere is exceptionally friendly and collaborative, emphasizing the importance of strong relationships with both team members and clients. This aligns well with my values and makes for an ideal work environment.
- What have you enjoyed most so far?
Working with various clients has been a particularly enjoyable aspect of my job, as it’s allowed me to gain a better understanding of clients’ businesses and how I can help them. Furthermore, the collaborative space has been a valuable resource, providing access to a wealth of digital expertise within the office. I’ve already learned so much from the team, and I am eager to continue growing my skills alongside them.
- What are you looking forward to learning more about?
The digital team have amazing knowledge, ranging from organic SEO to paid channels. I’m particularly excited about learning from their expertise to improve my strategies, refine my processes, and cultivate a more strategic marketing mindset. The prospect of collaborating with such a talented team is truly motivating, and I look forward to making meaningful contributions to the success of our projects.
- What’s an interesting fact about you?
Since the age of five, I’ve had the privilege of living in the South-West region of France, where I attended school and discovered my passion for surfing. It didn’t take long for me to realise that the weather and food were better than what I’d experienced in England (no offence to my home country!). To this day, I still follow my passion for surfing, making good food & coffee and chasing the sun when it’s out.
Our team have been on some great holidays this month!
Our team have been on some great holidays this month! 
Jacks Trip to Yorkshire:
Jack went on a fantastic family holiday in the Yorkshire Dales. He met up with friends and relatives from Scotland and did some marvellous hiking, including a walk to Cautley Spout, England’s highest waterfall above ground. He also visited Climping Beach, which you can see in the image here!
Stathis Trip to Norway:
Stathis took a trip to Norway with family last month, where he visited the city of Kristiansand and said, “I swam in the North Atlantic in 4 degrees freezing water. I think it was the highlight of my trip!”.
We think he is crazy!!