A short history of BRAINBOX
1999 - The seeds are sown
We trace our origins back to a project for children's charity the NSPCC.
The project was in two parts:
- the installation of a brand new content management system, and
- the restructuring of their existing website content.
This was my first experience of content management and it was plain to see the benefits it provided to the society's editors.
More of a surprise was the impact of the content restructuring. The NSPCC website was well-established and had a huge amount of content (> 300 pages), but the organisation of the content was such that few users would be able to find what they wanted.
By thinking about potential users of the site and what they would be seeking, we were able to establish a new organisation - a new Information Architecture - that made much more sense and had a profound impact on the effectiveness of the website.
An enduring interest in content had begun!
2003 - The start-up: ContentAtoZ
In 2003, there were "design-led" web companies and "tech-led" web companies. There seemed to us to be the need for a "content-led" web company. ContentAtoZ was born.
The approach served us well. I'm proud to say that one of our first ContentAtoZ clients - The Records Management Society - is still with us.
2005 - BRAINBOX arrives
While content is still a very important part of what we do - we continue to manage content for most of the sites we've built - it's no longer all that we do.
The range of our work has extended to include web strategy, development, email and search engine marketing... and the name ContentAtoZ doesn't really fit the bill.
So ContentAtoZ became BRAINBOX. It's a cheeky little name... one that's not to be taken too seriously ;)