We have received early feedback from Romania, where local managers were ‘totally amazed’ at the reaction of their learners. They described their pilot phase as an ‘outstanding success’, and told us that the participants have been ‘inspired to continue and further develop their skills’.

We’ve also been lucky enough to see some of the work produced by pilot participants in Greece. You can see a couple of examples in the image above. We are stunned and gratified that Page Designer has enabled people who are just starting out with computers to produce such wonderful publications!

Page Designer is part of a wider project that seeks to address low levels of participation in vocational education and training by disadvantaged groups. It forms part of a suite of software resources designed to enhance people’s digital and creative skills, as preparation for entering the local labour market.

Page Designer is a simplified desktop publishing tool that allows learners to design and build a visually appealing document quickly. It’s designed to enable people with very limited computer skills to learn by doing something that’s creative, achievable and relevant to their interests.

The simple publications that people produce with Page Designer can be printed out and shared with friends and family. The approach is intended to engage the audience with IT by providing tools they would actually want to use.

Page Designer is currently being piloted in Poland, Romania, Greece, Italy and with the Somali community in the UK. To find out more about the project and try it out for yourself, visit www.enableeurope.eu.

We created five immersive games to accompany the Mr Bloom’s Nursery TV series. One of the best things about the project for us was that we were able to work really closely with the show’s TV production team. We visited Mr Bloom’s actual nursery and met his vegetable pals in person, which really helped us bring the show to life for children.

For more information, check out our previous blog post about Mr Bloom’s Nursery or head over to the site and get playing.

The idea is to use our Mission:Explore platform to create an estate-wide gaming experience that inspires and engages local people in their community.

Sanctuary Housing has spent £90 million improving the housing and £14 million to improve Shiregreen’s streets and green spaces. The Let’s Celebrate Shiregreen event allowed us to get out the gorilla suit and speak to kids, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We even had them taking part in our Space Race and Chase the Ape missions.

Over the next few months, we’ll be running workshops with local people to create over 40 missions, which will help residents explore their community. Willing explorers will be inspired to get out in the open and traverse the Trans Pennine Trail, which runs through the estate. All missions will be published as a book and appear on the Mission:Shiregreen website.

The Garden is based on an initial pitch that we made to the BBC as part of their @North initiative just over a year ago. The idea was to create an area on the CBeebies site where the BBC could promote a selection of their TV brands to 3–6-year-olds. In the Garden, children can find characters from CBeebies shows and interact with them to discover links that launch existing content on the site.

One of the interesting and challenging aspects was to create the Garden as a ‘flexible framework’. This means that new animations can be dropped into the Garden, without redevelopment work, whenever a new TV brand is launched. The ability to develop and refresh the Garden over time was important to the BBC, allowing them to derive excellent value from the budget.

The results of user testing suggest that children will be excited to find their favourite characters and intrigued to see who else they can discover. The functionality of the Garden includes the ability to change the weather and even turn day to night, which our users found a lot of fun.

We are delighted to have created another engaging interactive product for CBeebies, to stand alongside our popular games for Mr Bloom’s Nursery.

Visit My CBeebies Garden

In October 2010, The Workshop was commissioned by BBC Bitesize to create a suite of 25 online learning games that feature three CBBC brands. This month, we’re pleased to say that the last of the games went live and look fantastic.

Covering content from the KS2 Science curriculum, the games reflects real adventures from three CBBC shows: Deadly 60, The Sarah Jane Adventures and MI High. We needed to blend learning from the fields of biology, chemistry and physics with narrative concepts which were true to the story and brand values of each CBBC show.

We worked with a Sheffield primary school science specialist to ensure that the learning was correct and met the demands of the curriculum. Most importantly, we user-trialled ideas and games with the target audience to make sure that we’d struck the right balance of fun and learning.

You can try one of the games above in the embedded player, or head over to BBC Bitesize site and start exploring.

In April we told you about some of the work we’ve been doing recently for Create, an award-winning social enterprise that gets people on the margins of society trained and back into work.

Since then we’ve been busy on a range of further projects, not least the second of two new Create websites. The first site showcases their food offer and is designed to attract customers and generate business. The second site went live last week and focuses on the social side of Create, providing a full rundown of what they do, who they help and how they run their Academy.

At the same time, we also produced a promotional video as part of a presentation by Create’s Chairman, Norman Pickavance, and Deputy Chairman, Gary Stott, at the recent IGD conference. The idea was to show how Create helps people make real changes to the way they live and gives them not just confidence and skills, but a career too.

You can watch the video in the player above or over on our Vimeo channel. You can also see an edited version on the new Create Foundation homepage.

Drawing on Nick’s influences, we used sleek black and white photography, overlaid with a 24-hour-clock texture. Marking a subtle departure from Nick Munro’s characteristic monochrome, we also introduced a splash of bright colour to the outside of the packaging. The name 12:19 (the time on the clock when the idea for his watches struck) and the securing tag are in the same colour as the watch face. Inside the box, we’ve included a high-quality insert to reveal the inspiration behind the collection.

12:19 will be available soon at retailers including John Lewis. We’re also working with Nick on another exciting new project, so keep an eye out for that too.

First and foremost, Create are a fantastic catering company. They cater for events of all shapes and sizes and are expanding to Doncaster, Sunderland and Liverpool in the coming weeks. They also have plans to open a chain of bistro-style restaurants, starting in Leeds.

So yes, Create are more than handy in the kitchen. However, there’s a little more to them than that. Behind the scenes you’ll find a thriving academy where vulnerable and marginalised people are learning new skills and finding employment. Create provides training and experience that leads to real, paid work for people who want ‘a hand up, not a hand out’.

The new Create logo

Our relationship with Create began last year when we developed a new brand. Following a period of research where we really got to understand Create as an organisation, we started work on designing the brand elements, including a new logo, mark and tone of voice. A few months down the line and the new brand is out in the wild. It’s on menus, uniforms, packaging and even the delivery vans that transport Create’s food to events.

The brand has also played a key role in two new websites that we’re developing – one that promotes Create’s food and another that covers their academy and work as a social enterprise. The food site – foodbycreate.co.uk – is live and features downloadable menus plus the ability to place an order or get a quote. The site that focuses on Create as a social enterprise will launch in the next couple of months. For consistency, the structure mirrors that of the food site, and users will be able to easily switch between the two.

Top: Paul Berriman, Head Chef at Create. Bottom: Create's new website. Right: The brand in action

Speaking of placing an order, we did just that ourselves just last month, when we booked one of Create’s famous buffets. Head Chef, Paul Berriman came down to our office in Sheffield for our monthly Funky Friday session, where we all get together and share the work we’ve been doing over the previous month. Not only was the food extremely tasty, but we were also treated to a short talk from Paul about his work at Create. It was inspiring to hear such personal, life-changing stories and great to know that the new brand is working and has started to make a difference.

You can visit Create’s new food website now.

Mr Bloom’s Nursery is a new BBC TV series and interactive website for 3–4-year-olds. Filmed on location in Manchester, it follows the magical adventures of Mr Bloom and a group of vegetable friends, including Margaret the shy cabbage, Colin the excitable runner bean, and cheeky radishes the Wee McGregors. The show invites young viewers to join three children (the tiddlers) in tending Mr Bloom’s allotment.

We have developed five immersive games to accompany the TV series, featuring actors and the veggie puppets from the show. Choose from Patch Match where you parachute the veggies to their rightful spot on the patch, or Speedy Weeds, a nifty game of veggie hide and seek. With surreal graphics, zany sounds and quickfire movement, the games are fun to play and also help kids learn about the basics of nurture and growing.

The original idea for the series came from newcomer to children’s TV, Ben Faulks, who plays Mr Bloom. Ben previously toured his children’s theatre show at festivals, and has contributed to the script for the series, along with writers from BBC comedies That Mitchell and Webb Look and Miranda.

The first episode of Mr Bloom airs today on CBeebies at 10.05am and again at 2.05pm. Why not try out the games for yourself?

The site showcases the work that school councils are doing across the country. After a pilot scheme last year, PES wanted a website that could handle secure applications and feature some of the councils’ smashing projects.

The pilot stage had used a variety of tools to handle registrations and applications. We integrated this into a single site that allows schools to register, create a public showcase and then complete their private award entry.

The system allows PES to moderate and then publish showcase entries, email and alert registered users to deadlines and store and export entries for the judges to select the winners.

With all this user-generated content, we had to make sure the site had a consistent look and feel. The big background image and coloured blocks bring the site to life and appeal to the young audience.

The site is up and running, so feel free to head on over and take a look.