November 2007 - Writing for the Web Training for West Lothian Council

When West Lothian Council undertook a major project to relaunch their website they came to Cygnus Extra to provide training for their content editors. Hilary Phillips worked closely with West Lothian Council to develop writing for the web training that would give employees from a wide range of service areas the right skills to maintain up-to-date, accurate information on their areas of the site.

Following training in the early autumn, westlothian.gov.uk was launched in late October. The site carries a Plain English crystal mark and one of the goals of the training was to ensure that all new content that is added to the site is easy to understand and written in appropriate language for the intended audience.

September 2007 - Clyde Waterfront Web Award

The Clyde Waterfront website has been awarded Standard of Excellence status in a major marketing competition. The website was developed by Innovation Digital, with copywriting for the site supplied by Cygnus Extra.

The Web Marketing Association awarded www.clydewaterfront.com the accolade in this year’s WebAward competition. The Clyde Waterfront website scored highly for its design, ease of use and content in the Non-Profit section of the awards, which are recognised as the premier showcase for website development in 95 industry categories.

May 2007 - Wayfinding training package for OPENspace

Cygnus Extra have teamed up with Filfx to deliver a CDrom based training package about wayfinding. Cygnus are providing the instructional design element of the project, creating text that will be easy for countryside managers to use as they learn how to improve the signage and wayfinding provision for visitors to their sites. The project is for OPENspace, the research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments, based at Edinburgh College of Art. OPENspace specialises in helping make the landscape accessible to everyone.

October 2006 - Web copywriting for National Museums Scotland

The National Museums Scotland have launched a new website as part of an extensive rebranding exercise. Cygnus Extra took part in the website redevelopment, writing new copy and editing existing material for the site, which went live on 13th October.

Visit the new site at www.nms.ac.uk. A new feature of the site is a series of highlight objects that represent the breadth and depth of the museums' collections.

May 2006 - @SU Shortlisted for Andrew Cross Awards

@SU, the supporter magazine of Scripture Union Scotland has been shortlisted for a prestigious Andrew Cross Award. Announcing the shortlist, the Churches Media Council, who run the awards, said, "Each of the entries shortlisted is of exceptional quality and may be about to receive an Award, a Commendation or a Special Mention, and each entrant on the shortlist should be proud to have got this far." Hilary Phillips of Cygnus Extra is the editor of the magazine and works in close association with Summit Media and Print on the design and print aspects of the project. Hilary says, "It is exciting to have this kind of recognition for @SU, which also has a very loyal and dedicated readership."

February 2006 - Taste of Winter for Heritage Portfolio

Cygnus Extra are working round the seasons, writing a quarterly newsletter for Heritage Portfolio. The high quality catering company organises events in some of Scotland's most prestigious locations. The newsletter has been designed to keep clients up to date with the menus that change with seasons and to spread the news about how the company keeps winning awards.

You can see the newsletters here.

October 2005 - Enhance People Consultants

This new HR consultancy and training company needed a dynamic, young image as well as a website. Cygnus Extra was able to work closely with their team to understand exactly what they needed. Business cards and a website were priorities to help support the networking that the partners were engaged in.

March 2005 - Clement and Co go online

Clement and Co are a Kilmarnock based accountancy firm with a solid base of small and medium sized clients. They wanted a professional website and leaflet to help new and existing clients see the range of services available. Cygnus was able to carry out the writing, design the website at www.clementandson.co.uk and handle all the design and print requirements.

February 2005 - Business Gateway

www.bgateway.com, the business information site for Business Gateway, has just been relaunched. Working with Run Deep, Hilary Phillips of Cygnus Extra has been lead editor on the project which has involved a major restructuring of content. A considerable amount of new material has been added to the site which provides extensive information for new and existing businesses.

December 2004 - Making Gravitational Waves

Cygnus Extra wrote the articles for Issue 3 of Science Scotland, the magazine of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, produced by www.rundeep.co.uk. The articles resulted from interviews with the top scientists in Scotland working in various fields of physics. There are articles on the search for gravitational waves, the hunt for the Higgs Boson, ultra-short pulse lasers, extreme conditions and how alliances between Scottish universities are making a major difference.

October 2004 - Website for MJ Consulting

Cygnus Extra have created a website for MJ Consulting. Maryanne Johnston of MJ Consulting specialises in advising clients on all aspects of spoken communication.

August 2004 - Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce

Cygnus Extra's prize draw created a bit of interest at a recent Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce event. Business cards were collected during the Showcase lunch where Cygnus Extra had a stand, with a prize of 300 free words for the winners. Fifty Nine Ltd, a design house with offices in Edinburgh and York, came out of the hat first. They chose to have a critique of their proposal style, rather than a piece of formal writing, and as a result ended up with 1898 words instead of 300!

July 2004 - First-hand experience

The Cygnus team took time out of the office this month to help run an activity holiday for 46 10-13 year olds. The holiday was organised by Scripture Union Scotland, who are clients of Cygnus. Hilary comments, "We were just two of a couple of thousand volunteers who help make SU events happen every year in Scotland. But there's nothing like some hands-on experience to inform the editorial process!"

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June 2004 - End of Term

Cygnus Extra has been collaborating with Mentoring Direct on a training course to help to prepare senior school pupils for the world of work. The course is designed to help young people become aware of the soft skills that make the difference during the application and interview process. Cygnus contributes the communication skills module in this one day course, which also covers assessment centre exercises, interview skills, advice about networking and encouragement to be positive, confident and proactive in the hunt for the right career.

The course was piloted during June and is now available as a one day package for senior schools.

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June 2004 - Writing for the Web

Cygnus Extra have launched their new website, with a development in both content and design. The website text has been optimised and Cygnus are looking forward to seeing the impact on traffic to their already busy site.

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May 2004 - Writing about Science in Scotland

Cygnus Extra contributed to the content for Science Scotland and the accompanying magazine and website. Hilary's article on Virtual Reality focused on the work of Professor Tom Maver at the University of Strathclyde. The website and magazine are coordinated for the Royal Society of Edinburgh by www.rundeep.co.uk.

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April 2004 - Readers say they like it

Cygnus Extra carried out a reader survey for SU Scotland's supporter magazine @SU. The impressive results were that 93% of those who replied thought both the content, edited by Cygnus Extra and the design by Summit Media and Print, were either Good or Excellent. The detailed comments from the survey will help to shape the future content of the magazine that has a circulation of 8,000. Other interesting statistics from the reader survey: 41% read the magazine "cover-to-cover" and 33% pass their copy to someone else to read.

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February 2004 - Cygnus creates e-commerce site for Cards2U

Creative style and a relaxed friendly tone were used to develop a new site for www.Cards2U.co.uk, a new business selling handmade, original cards on the web.

Customers need to be able to appreciate the textures which bring the designs to life and quality images were used to achieve this.

We developed the e-commerce aspects using Paypal, providing a customer-friendly, cost-effective and secure solution.

Customers can select the design they want and add a greeting of their choice. There is even a timesaver option of having the card hand-written with your personal message and popped in the post. Wedding stationery is available and this can be customized to particular requirements.

The site gives Cards2U the ideal platform for showcasing their unique artwork.

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Cygnus Extra appears on Applegate.co.uk with an article on Making your marketing website work. Click on the link below to view it.

http://www.applegate.co.uk/news/new1/1303.htm

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August 2003 - Cygnus Documentation Services has relaunched as Cygnus Extra Ltd.

The new name reflects the stronger team and a more comprehensive offering, especially in the area of on-line communication. Mark Phillips has joined the company to enhance the technical skills and complement the writing and communication services that Hilary Phillips has offered for the last 12 years.

Hilary says, "It's an exciting moment when you move from the freelancing model to running a 'real' business. After all, for Cygnus this represents 100% staff growth. Our complementary skills will ensure excellence, both for content and delivery."

With the ability to add more technical expertise to a project, Cygnus will continue to focus on content-driven websites and newsletters, but increasingly can offer the technical skills that mean a complete solution for the customer.

"When it comes to website development people are still inclined to get distracted by either the technical issues or the design. Of course these are both vital elements but it is critical that the design and development flow from the purpose and content of the site, not the other way round."

Mark Phillips joins Cygnus following 7 years as Technical and IT Director of Spektra Group Ltd, a highly successful Scottish software house specialising in e-finance.

Mark says, "In my experience, technical people often come up with very elegant and clever pieces of software to deliver second-rate content. I believe that Cygnus can now offer both a good method of delivery and quality content. After all, if the content is no good, why bother?"

Cygnus can offer a range of practical skills that includes copywriting for a variety of publications such as newsletters, annual reports, brochures and e-learning. Cygnus also offers print management and web-development with a focus on real content. But the policy is not to leap in before talking, thinking and planning. "Whatever the format, old fashioned print or on-line, the purpose must be clearly defined if the communication is to be effective," says Hilary.

The husband and wife team are based on the west edge of Edinburgh and continue to work with established clients in Glasgow, Edinburgh, elsewhere in central Scotland and further afield.