Serene Studios Web design and development in Cambridge and London » Social Engagement

Beethoven Ensemble

Dan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:59:24 +0000

The Beethoven Ensemble is a young and exciting orchestra in Cambridge, England. The orchestra brings together the finest players of the University with recent graduates studying at music conservatoires and working as professional musicians. The aim of the orchestra is to build links between young talented players and the professional music world; by giving intimate concerts at exceptionally high levels we provide exposure and opportunities for musicians, not to mention world-class performances to our audiences.

They needed a website to promote their concerts, raise sponsorship, sell tickets, allow people to join their email list, read reviews, advertise on Facebook, YouTube and more. We built a stylish site that reflects the professionalism of the group.

Crashpadder – V2

Dan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:46:13 +0000

crashpadder.com is a global homestay network that enables hosts to earn extra cash from their spare room, and let’s guests avoid the cost of budget hotels and avoid the discomfort of cheap hostels. It gives everyone the chance to meet new people. We’ve been working with crashpadder for over a year now, having built the first version in 2008. Version 2 includes a total rewrite in Ruby on Rails, loads of new features, a new design by our friends at LookTouchFeel, and more. A huge and brilliant web application!

CrashPadder

Dan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:49:11 +0000

CrashPadder is a global community that enables travellers to stay with like-minded people for a fair price, and enables hosts to earn cash from their extra space. It gives everyone a chance to meet new people without the cost of a hotel, or the discomfort of a hostel.

“Crashpadder.com is a glorious, utopian ideal borne out of a simple desire to travel around, without having to pay a kings ransom for a place to lay your head.

The idea for Crashpadder.com first presented itself to a young dragon slayer from the days of yore*. He would travel the country hither and thither, yonder and yonderer still, slaying dragons willy nilly and surprisingly (given the danger involved) was paid relatively little.

Then one night, as he slept valiantly – though uncomfortably – in a bush at the side of a road, the dragon slayer was visited by an astronaut from the future. Not knowing what an astronaut from the future would look like he assumed it was an angel -but that’s irrelevant to the rest of the story.”

CrashPadder was a large and pretty complex project, pulling together many technologies and areas of expertise. There are tens of thousands of lines of code powering the site, doing everything from the search algorithm, the booking process, and user registration process, to the embeddable JavaScript people can use to promote their rooms and the powerful statistics engine giving a breakdown of the site’s performance.
The design we kept pretty simple, with clear navigation and emphasis on usability. We also wrote a nifty little facebook app that allows people to promote their rooms there too.

We’re really proud of this one!

Cambridge University Musical Society

Dan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:52:25 +0000

CUMS is the Cambridge University Musical Society. With a Chorus and three orchestras covering a range of musical standards and styles, CUMS caters for a diverse group of over 400 performing members. The Society includes many of the University’s most talented musicians who are drawn by their 160-year tradition of excellence and challenging concert programmes.

The Society puts on a great number of concerts every year, to huge audiences. A comprehensive, easy to use website was a must. We took their old site, restructured it, designing in line with the University’s new online style guides, to create a site that felt like Cambridge University, but with a more artistic twist.

We also manage their online social networking campaign, pulling in Facebook updates, email campaigns, and Flickr galleries.

CUCO

Dan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:02:15 +0000

CUCO, the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra, is the top ensemble within Cambridge, and certainly one of the best University Orchestras in the country. It regularly has some of the biggest names in classical music performing with them, and enjoys and international reputation. We created a site that allowed people to see their upcoming concerts, book tickets, contact the committee, and listen to the orchestra.