Day one: lots of clearing out joints, discussion of approach, and above all, lots of learning about rubble-built structures.
Before 
After
Category: Dunans Castle
Our Lairds and Ladies form a huge community of interest around the restoration of Dunans Castle. The website sells gift packages and merchandise, most of the latter being based on our very own ‘Dunans Rising’ tartan.
September 2019 Report from Dunans
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Selwyn & Ink
Readers will be aware of my ongoing design and illustration work, as well as installations and videos I have produced over the years. Last year, inspired by a series of illustrations I produced prior to delivering a show in Birmingham, I launched Selwyn & Ink a portfolio website and overall brand to encapsulate this work and separate it from ScottishLaird and Dunans Castle. The website is available here.
Sign of the Times: Signage at Dunans goes purple, though not in homage to #thepurpleone …
We wanted to do something different with our signage, refresh it yes, but more than that. Reflect our ambition, create something familiar yet original. I think we’ve done it. (Please ignore the calibration and cropmarks!)
@Shopify et @Langify = brilliant e-commerce in translation on http://scottishlaird.co.uk
If this sounds like an advert, it is not – well, unless you call it promotion for my business.
I have been working with Shopify for a while now to deliver the ScottishLaird.co.uk website. It has been a wholly fantastic experience answering all of my needs as an ecommerce vendor without let or pause. We’ve seen 40% growth this year simply by transferring platforms. Things like cart recovery and customers signing up for notifications on when new stock comes in have really helped. 100% uptime, rock solid servers and well-thought out user experience have also done their bit. But what has been really impressive is how, when we ask a particularly difficult question of the system, it rises to the challenge.
Languages represent a barrier to entry for any website wishing to break into new territories. English is the Lingua Franca of the internet, but frankly, there are limits. We found them in Finland, Sweden and elsewhere. But for us France has been one of the most difficult countries and languages to break into. French is a lovely language, and having a very little, I appreciate how different and distinctive it is. We were recently very lucky to be approached by the folks at franceagora.fr who wished to promote ScottishLaird.co.uk in France (See ‘Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!…’).
To cut a long story short, after wondering exactly how we were going to create a fully translated website to service this new and exciting market which Anne and her team have been busily working on, we finally found Langify, an app within Shopify, and its been a revelation!
With translations from Agora and some on-the-fly work from google translate, which we’re updating for accuracy, the system now recognises our French customers and serves the French version, including our wonderful slideshow en Français!
As my girls would say, Ooh La La!
And you can see the (admittedly work-in-progress) French version by visiting our website, scrolling to the bottom and selecting the language in the pop-up.
Now, I’ve got the bug. First php, then mysql, now French … Anyone for German?
Figaro, Figaro, Figaro! Features Dunans Castle & ScottishLaird in ‘Le Figaro et Vous’
Delighted to report coverage in the National French newspaper, along with exposure on French Radio and Online News outlets here and here!
Here’s the cover of the supplement, with a photo by our very own Jean Donaldson at Powan, gracing the cover:
Thanks to Anne des Froux for the coverage! and to find out more go to ScottishLaird.co.uk
The ScottishLaird #GiftGuide: What to buy for everyone in your life & support the restoration of #DunansCastle
Stuck for a gift for the man who has everything? Can’t think of what to buy your teenage nephew? Mental block about a gorgeous Christmas present for your mother? ScottishLaird.co.uk has the answer – of course it does!
Smartphone Cases for Lairds & Ladies: #DunansRising tartan, #DunansCastle and Lechadhu insignia on the back of #yourphone
Delighted to announce another product now launched on the ScottishLaird.co.uk website: smartphone cases for iPhone 5 onwards and the Samsung Note range.
We’ve presently four designs to choose from, the plain Dunans Rising Tartan, the Lord’s/Laird’s/Lady’s phone (on tartan), the Spring view of Dunans Castle (taken by myself in 2005) and Jean Donaldson’s wonderful shot of the insignia which graces the curtain wall at Dunans.
We think they are all fabby, hope you do too! You’ll find them all here.
@what3words: Coordinates for #DunansCastle in three words, include fragment.curly.firebird and cups.domestic.inventors
Postcodes and GPS coordinates are, let’s face it, complex and easy to get wrong – particularly when you are trying to remember them to put them into your satnav / maps / google maps. The What3words app is the answer. I know without looking at the title of this post that the coordinate for the drivehead at Dunans is fragment.curly.firebird. The postcode covers at least three other houses and the GPS, well, I am just not sure. But a mirror image of a phoenix with curly feathers ripped in half, means that whenever someone needs an accurate location, I have it to hand, immediately… Similarly, I have a visual image of a bunch of guys in lab coats, in a kitchen, drinking tea back to front … genius, particularly as they’re in the castle when they are doing it.
With 40,000 words and consequently 57 trillion combinations, the world can be covered in three metre squares, or the size of the average room. And it is all so memorable. So for example here’s one I particularly love which identifies a place I often have to meet newcomers to the glen in – flukes.reports.unicorns. However, I am not sure the committee would approve – but then I do have a mental image of a narwhal reading a paper inside out?!
For balance I should just add sheep.conga.pleaser … !
