Our journey with ‘Dynamix Dance’ began from a few paper sketches…
When Dynamix Dance founder, Michelle Pentecost, originally approached us for help with her project it was to turn her pencil sketch of a logo idea into something she could use in print and online. Almost a year later, Armshouse Group are still involved with Dynamix Dance in many ways. Michelle has kindly agreed to let us share some of the work we’ve done with her, so that you can get a feel for the way we approach things and how we might help you too with your project.
Workshops In Progress
Michelle Pentecost – Founder ‘Dynamix Dance’
Dynamix Dance was formed in 2009 by Michelle Pentecost, a professional West End performer with a passion for teaching children dance and movement. “Dynamix Dance already had much success teaching workshops in schools,” says Michelle “after interest from both pupils and parents, I wanted to branch out and offer workshops during the school holidays.” Michelle knew that she’d have to start promoting her workshops somehow, so she decided to set up a website and make some posters; it’s at this point we began our partnership with Dynamix Dance, which has grown and evolved to cover many aspects of both their online and offline activities.
Transforming Logos
Michelle’s original sketch
The first task Michelle wanted to accomplish was to have a logo produced. As you can see from Michelle’s sketch, she already had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, but didn’t have the time or know-how to spend, sat at a computer trying to get a polished logo completed. She approached us to have a look and see what we could do. Michelle told us that she planned on using this logo everywhere from posters and flyers, to online and on t-shirts, so it had to look right.
Michelle didn’t have the budget to hire a graphic designer or firm, so we agreed that we’d work to her spec and see what we could come up with. After a few revisions and a tweak or two, Michelle approved the logo below which is widely used today and has been adapted for both online and print.
The Dynamix Dance logo today
Posters Next
Original poster sketch
Just like her logo, Michelle had an idea for the layout and style of the posters she wanted produced. What she needed help with was getting those ideas from paper to computer. “I’m the first to admit that I’m not the best on computers,” says Michelle “Hyder at Armshouse Group was able to take the sketches I’d made and come up with something that looked more like a finished product.”
Like most projects, there’s always a bit of back and forth during the design stage, tweaking designs till they’re just right. It didn’t take too long though before we’d finalised a finished poster which Michelle was able to get printed and displayed.
The current Dynamix Dance poster
We also took the same look and feel of the poster and re-purposed it to make smaller flyers and handouts.
And So To The WebWe’ve kept the same layout and graphics for many of the recent Dynamix Dance posters to help establish a recognisable brand identity amongst students and parents. Above you can see the current Dynamix Dance poster publicising their upcoming August 2012 ‘Rizin Starz’ workshop.
Michelle and her partner Lee Meadows, who is also a West End performer and Associate at Dynamix Dance, had already registered a name for their website and even created a site using the tools made available through their hosting company. Lee explains “Although the site we had set up was doing the job, we were already outgrowing it a little and all the additional things we wanted the site to do, we had to pay extra for – we knew there had to be an easier way to achieve what we wanted.” Armshouse Group were asked to look at the current web hosting plan that Dynamix Dance were signed up to and assess if it was the best option for their needs.
Although they had chosen a reputable web host, Dynamix Dance were using the template based designs offered as part of a basic package. Templates are fantastic for smaller sites, but are often limited to the amount of pages included – which is where Dynamix Dance were finding an issue. Seeing as their web hosting plan already included a generous amount of storage space, I asked Michelle and Lee if they’d considered having a site designed for them.
The Dynamix Dance website
“When Hyder suggested that we get the site designed for us, my initial reaction was that it would cost a fortune,” says Michelle “but once we’d seen the mock-up of what we could have, there was no doubt that it was the way to go and the price has worked out to be better than if we’d kept upgrading our old site.”
Without a doubt, the website has become one of the most important factors of the Dynamix Dance project. Everything flows through there, from communicating new workshops, to enabling students to book places and parents to pay deposits. The website is ever evolving and expanding to offer more functionality to visitors. You can visit the Dynamix Dance website at www.dynamixdance.co.uk
Getting Social
Dynamix Dance had already been proactive on social media, but Facebook’s transition to the ‘Timeline’ format in March 2012 was a perfect opportunity to migrate the existing page, which was still a personal profile, to the new and more presentable format. Armshouse Group created a Facebook page for Dynamix Dance as well as registering the username ‘DynamixDance’ before other like-named organisations were able to beat them to it. In order to help Michelle with the admin side of Facebook, Hyder has been added as a page administrator and is able to post and edit information on Facebook on behalf of Dynamix Dance. Michelle explains, “Having someone from Armshouse Group added on to our Facebook page is a real plus, if there’s anything I get stuck with, Hyder can log-on and sort it all out.” The kind of functionality Michelle refers to are things like custom tabs and apps in Facebook such as those we created for Dynamix Dance to highlight their YouTube page and workshop events. You can visit the Dynamix Dance Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DynamixDance to see examples of this in action.
In a continued effort to enhance Dynamix Dance’s reach, we have worked with them to setup a mailing list based around the details of people who had previously attended their workshops. We registered Dynamix Dance with iContact who provide an online system for permission based marketing, ensuring that their messages are both responsibly delivered and targeted to the right people.
Multi Media
As the web continues to enable and power people to share photos and videos online, so too it has become important for brands and organisations to engage with their followers and provide them with such content. Dynamix Dance have recently begun to use their channel on YouTube to share videos of their workshops and events. Some videos are uploaded directly by Michelle, whereas others pass via Armshouse Group for editing and further enhancement, for example titles and graphics. Below is one such video we recently completed following the appearance of Dynamix Dance corporate performers at The Baby Show.
The Future
We’re thrilled to be working with Dynamix Dance. I personally believe that when someone comes to Armshouse Group, that they’re not simply another individual or organisation to whom we want to sell a service to; instead, they are partners for the future whom are relying on us to help them get to where they’re going. I try and think of ideas and solutions beyond their initial brief in the same way I would if it were my own project I was working on. Dynamix Dance have evolved from having a paper sketch and template based website, to an organisation which has a professional image and has gained respect from both educational institutions and their corporate clients, as well as a loyal following from happy pupils of their ever popular workshops.
Michelle describes best how she feels the contribution from Armshouse Group has helped;
“I can’t say a bad word about Armshouse Group and in particular our client liaison, Hyder. No matter what we throw at him, he’s able to take our ideas and come up with something that fits perfectly with what we want to achieve. I always imagined that working with a company like Armshouse Group was reserved for big firms who had huge budgets to spend on consultants and marketing, but I’ve seen that getting someone on board who knows what they’re talking about has probably saved me time and money on mistakes I might have made going it alone. I encourage anyone who has a project to get in touch with them, no matter what stage you’re at – you won’t regret it.”
Our Services
If you’d like more information on our services, further information is available on our website.
In particular we have helped Dynamix Dance in the following areas of practice:
We always offer new clients a free, no obligation consultation where we can discuss your project and get a feel for what you’re trying to achieve. We can call or meet with you to bounce around ideas and perhaps give you some points to think about in order to best plan your course of action. If you find our advice useful, that’s great – it won’t cost you a penny and we promise not to try and sell you anything. If you’d like to schedule a free consultation please contact us.