Recent projects have required our web development team to push the limits of the open source platform to which we build nearly all our websites in. Having used Drupal for years some of the new websites we are working on require the additional heavy module development above and beyond core and contributed options. We are delighted that one of these developments will be released to the Drupal community as soon as it finalised.

We have moved, but not far. Regular clients will now find us on the ground floor of our three storey building, the new offices have been refurbished with work continuing to develop facilities for the team.

We have recently broadened our horizons and began working with clients across Europe. Having worked at a national level with numerous blue chip clients, we now have contacts in Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. The projects will aim for a truly global audience, with websites being produced in multiple languages and printed materials for various international markets.

Inline with an ever developing new media industry, Mono are keeping in pace with the next generation trends. A project close to completion utilises our in house video and audio editing skills to stream a virtual host into a webpage, working in multiple languages, the host summarises the website, pages and company as a whole in under a minute, giving the end user a clear message without having to read a single line. New Media Manager, Robert Wild believes this is a positive step forward for web development and user experiences and suggest this will be common practice for high end websites in the next few years. Watch this space.

We celebrated Comic Relief by wearing official Comic Relief T-shirts. Katie also managed to keep her red nose on for most of the day – very impressive!

We are continuing to expand on our range of clients involved in the agricultural sector. Having worked with NWF and Promar for several years, we are now also working on marketing campaigns for the regional retailer CWG and the global animal feed specialist, DSM.

We have worked with Travall on their eCommerce website for several years now, but have just upgraded the site to integrate with the client's Sage accounting system. This now automates all products, stock quantities and orders between the live website and their system in real time 24/7.

We are delighted to have Rachel back at work after the shortest maternity leave in corporate history!

We are delighted to have worked with Stephanie Bell on the branding and website for Scene and Sound. The site promotes performances in the region that are assisted by audio describing, captioning and interpreting. As accessibility is a priority with all our sites it was rewarding to work with a company who are equally as passionate about this issue.

Rather than sending out corporate gifts and cards at Christmas we made a donation to the Breast Cancer Campaign. However, Rob did develop an excellent Christmas game which involved hitting members of staff over the head with various objects. The game proofed to be very popular with clients and was probably to blame for a fall in productivity leading up to Christmas.

In December 2008 we were delighted to pass our three year review for Investors in People. In his conclusion, our assessor stated: “the owners of Mono Design have aimed for and managed to develop a successful lifestyle business that involves and genuinely believes in it's people.”

In November, London Midland asked us to come up with a gift idea to celebrate their first birthday. We suggested giving all their staff a chocolate “1”. We're not sure that the delivery driver would have dropped off all the boxes had he know they contained 2600 bars of chocolate....