Web Design

The client

DDN (DataDirect Networks) builds the storage and data-intelligence layer that keeps GPU clusters fed for modern AI training and inference. A longstanding NVIDIA partner, it extended that relationship in 2025 across Spectrum-X and Blackwell-class systems, and announced a Google Cloud collaboration at Google Cloud Next. Blackstone invested $300 million the same year to accelerate the AI storage business. Its customers include CINECA's Leonardo supercomputer and Roche Sequencing Solutions.

Design sat with a small in-house team: senior enough to own the brand, lean enough that global launch volume still needed outside muscle. We were brought in as fractional creative leadership so that team could keep pace with NVIDIA, Google Cloud and the wider partner calendar without building a larger internal agency or handing the brand to whoever won the next pitch.

The challenge

Co-marketing with two of the largest names in AI infrastructure is not a side project. It is a rolling programme of exhibitions, social, product launches and sector campaigns, aimed at buyers as different as trading floors and national supercomputing centres, on a timetable set by someone else's keynote.

Like many global technology brands, DDN also leans on large agencies for volume. Too often that produces boardroom-ready pictures that arrive flattened, inflexible and unusable the moment the in-house team needs them for print, social, signage or the next show. DDN's Head of Design needed more than execution capacity. He needed a partner with systems thinking: someone who could turn a concept into a living brand framework, then run campaigns from it at the speed of the global AI event circuit.

What we did

We embedded with DDN's creative and technical teams and took ownership of the work that had to stand next to NVIDIA and Google Cloud in market.

The spine of the engagement was the partner calendar. We supported DDN through SC24 in Atlanta and Lustre User Group UK late in 2024, then through the two headline moments of early 2025: NVIDIA GTC in San Jose (17-21 March) and Google Cloud Next, where DDN announced its Managed Lustre and Infinia collaboration. Exhibition and social campaigns, co-branded partner creative, and product storytelling for Spectrum-X, Blackwell-class systems and the Google Cloud marketplace launch: both partners carried equal weight.

Alongside that, we built the supporting systems a lean in-house team needs to keep shipping between shows. That included Vector Vortex, a reusable visual framework rebuilt from an agency bitmap that looked sharp in the boardroom but was not fit for print, social or exhibition use, plus brand and product creative for Infinia, the Beyond Artificial campaign, financial-services and fraud programmes, and NVIDIA Cloud Partner positioning. The work shipped.

Our approach

This is fractional creative leadership, not freelance ticket-taking. We work inside the client's creative and technical teams, own the systems and the campaigns, and move at the pace of a launch calendar rather than a statement of work. The same model we run with embedded clients such as AutoProtect and Techspert: New Brand Media holds the practice; the relationship sits inside the client's own rhythm.

That trust cuts both ways. When DDN's Head of Design was away, we ran the design function in his absence. Fractional leadership that can hold the department, not cover a gap.

Outcome

DDN's design output scaled to a partner calendar built around NVIDIA and Google Cloud without growing the internal team. The campaigns shipped. The in-house team was left with systems and assets they could keep building from: grown-up brand infrastructure for a company that has to look as serious as the platforms it powers.

Context & coverage

DDN's NVIDIA and Google Cloud relationships are independently documented in trade press. DDN and NVIDIA have partnered since 2016, extending to Spectrum-X for AI storage and Blackwell-based DGX/HGX support announced at NVIDIA GTC 2025 (17-21 March 2025, San Jose). DDN announced its Google Cloud collaboration (Managed Lustre plus Infinia, available on the Google Cloud Marketplace) at Google Cloud Next 2025. Blackstone invested $300 million in DDN in January 2025. DDN is the storage partner behind CINECA's Leonardo supercomputer (highest production-system bandwidth on the IO500 list) and behind Roche Sequencing Solutions' genomic pipeline, where DDN's platform is documented as cutting analysis turnaround from 15 days to 2. DDN has also positioned itself publicly as a preferred AI storage provider within NVIDIA's Cloud Partner (NCP) network.

• NVIDIA GTC 2025: DDN Expands AI Data Infrastructure (StorageNewsletter)
• DDN Announces Collaboration with Google Cloud at Google Cloud Next 2025 (Business Wire)
• Blackstone invests $300M in DDN (Blocks & Files)
• DDN Customer CINECA posts dominating bandwidth score on IO500 (PR Newswire)
• DDN opens European demo lab in collaboration with CINECA (PR Newswire UK)
• Roche – DDN's Customer: DDN's own published case study, the source of the turnaround-time figures used in the landing page design.
• DDN establishes itself as global preferred AI storage provider to NVIDIA NCP (press release): confirms NCP means NVIDIA Cloud Partners, and DDN's positioning within that network.

The client

SkyDeals.co.uk was a Thomson Travel Group venture to build the ultimate flight shop for the web: one destination for chartered, scheduled and low-cost flights, with online booking, a call centre and fulfilment wired together. The live portfolio listing once tagged the client as "Sky"; the work was for SkyDeals, part of Thomson, not BSkyB.

John Stevens (RCA) art directed the web design and development. We delivered as the design team at NetDecisions / Agilisys.

The challenge

The web had become the default channel for airline tickets, but the market was split: airlines selling direct, heavy online travel agents, and new low-cost carriers each with their own sites. No single shop offered the full spectrum with a coherent customer experience. Thomson wanted the next-generation flight shop: strategy, brand, technology and operations, not a skin on one feed.

What we did

Web design and development under John Stevens' art direction, as part of a netdecisions engagement that modelled the best possible customer experience, created the SkyDeals brand, and integrated online booking, call centre and fulfilment. The agency delivered a new flight engine in six months using XML and Java, tying together Worldspan's central reservation system, discounted flight data, chartered flight systems and links to low-cost carriers.

Our approach

Look beyond the web. The proposition was a complete customer offering: clean design, fast booking, and back-office integration so Thomson could sell the full range without forcing customers to compare fares across half the internet. Technology independence mattered as much as the UI.

Outcome

A unified flight shop for an era when most competitors still specialised in one fare type. SkyDeals sat alongside TheFirstResort.com and Britannia Direct in netdecisions' Thomson Travel portfolio, evidence of repeated delivery for the group across holidays and flights.

Context & coverage

Low-cost carriers were rewriting UK travel economics in 2000. Thomson's response was not to pick one model but to aggregate them under a new brand with serious integration behind the search box. NetDecisions' July 2000 brochure positions SkyDeals as pioneering XML/Java flight commerce at speed.

• NetDecisions press release summary, July 2000: SkyDeals Challenge/Solution, six-month flight engine, Worldspan, low-cost links (ingested primary source).

The client

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications groups in the world. It was a client of NetDecisions during the period when the firm was building enterprise web and UI work for blue chip organisations across Europe and beyond.

We worked on Telefónica as the design team at NetDecisions / Agilisys, with Jonathan art directing as Head of Design. To be precise about depth: this was oversight and art direction rather than lead hands-on design, so the case study is framed accordingly.

The challenge

Enterprise telecoms work at global scale: interfaces and brand application that had to hold up across a large, demanding organisation and the technology constraints of the early web.

What we did

Brand identity, product design, illustration and web/interface design for Telefónica, with Jonathan providing art direction as Head of Design within the NetDecisions team.

Our approach

Senior art direction over a blue chip enterprise account: holding design quality and brand consistency across the work rather than leading every screen.

Outcome

Telefónica stands in the portfolio as a Tier 1, globally recognised telecoms client from the agency era. Because Jonathan's involvement was at oversight level, it is best used as a credential and high-level case rather than a deep hands-on design story.

Context & coverage

Telefónica was in an aggressive global expansion phase around 2000 to 2001. Its internet arm Terra had acquired Lycos in a deal valued at roughly 12.5 billion dollars, creating Terra Lycos across some 43 countries, while Telefónica Móviles floated in 2000 and launched its e-moción mobile internet portal across Spain and Latin America. The group was among the world's top ten telecoms operators. That is the backdrop to the design work: a global telecoms brand pushing hard into web and mobile at the height of the dot-com build-out.

• Terra at a crossroads (Knowledge at Wharton) and Telefónica Annual Report 2001: Terra Lycos, Telefónica Móviles, and the group's global scale.

The client

Hamleys is the heritage London toy retailer, one of the best-known toyshops in the world. This was agency-era work at Agilisys, where Jonathan provided art direction (the web design was led by another designer, Simon Tomlin), so this is an oversight credit rather than a hands-on lead.

What we did

Art direction for Hamleys' web work at Agilisys.

Our approach

Senior art direction over the account, keeping the brand's sense of fun and heritage intact while holding design quality across the work.

Outcome

A globally recognised heritage retail brand in the portfolio from the agency era. Because the involvement was art direction, it is best used as a credential and high-level case rather than a deep hands-on design story.

The client

The AA is one of the UK's best-known motoring and breakdown brands: more than 10 million customers, roadside assistance, insurance, loans and travel services. In November 1999 Centrica (owner of British Gas) bought the AA for around £1.1 billion and brought in netdecisions to relaunch aa.com: not a brochure refresh, but a new online proposition for a brand that had to stay dependable while reaching a younger web audience.

We worked on the account at NetDecisions / Agilisys. Jonathan Porter led the design team. Nick Brown was lead designer on the relaunch (Nick Brown on LinkedIn).

The challenge

The existing site carried motoring content and hotel listings, but feedback said the online proposition lacked clarity. Centrica wanted to exploit the AA brand and the site's business potential without losing the trust built over a century. The relaunch had to define what aa.com was for, then ship it fast.

What we did

NetDecisions assigned its best user-experience modellers, business strategists and brand architects. Working with consumer focus groups and AA functional teams, the agency shaped three major content and business areas:

| Area | What it did | | — | — | | Travelwatch | Traffic information and maps; SMS, WAP and email alerts; route planner | | Getaway | Hotels, restaurants and travel drawn from AA databases | | All About Cars | Insurance, inspections, advice; buy, sell and value cars online |

Nick Brown led the web design execution. Jonathan led the design team overseeing delivery. The agency rebuilt the brand for the web: a younger target audience, a fresh, simple look replacing the heavy yellow site, and a fully functional relaunch in six months. Delivery used extreme programming (developers working in pairs for speed and quality). NetDecisions' WAP and interactive TV teams extended the experience to wireless and iTV.

Our approach

One ally for every trip. The brand map positioned aa.com as the motorist's partner whether they were commuting, travelling abroad or buying and selling a car. Channels mattered: this was not web-only thinking in 2000, but web + SMS + WAP + interactive TV from the same strategic frame.

Outcome

A complete repositioning of one of Britain's most trusted consumer brands online, delivered on the timeline Centrica needed after the UK's largest consumer-services acquisition of the era. The AA sat alongside British Gas in the same Centrica portfolio; netdecisions' July 2000 client list named both Centrica and the Automobile Association among its board-level relationships.

Context & coverage

The AA acquisition was Centrica's bold move to become a multi-service consumer giant. The aa.com relaunch was the digital proof that the brand could modernise without sounding like a startup. NetDecisions described the technical approach as pioneering for its time (paired coding, multi- channel delivery).

• Centrica history: 1999 AA acquisition for ~£1.1bn.
• NetDecisions press release summary, July 2000: Travelwatch / Getaway / All About Cars, six-month delivery, extreme programming, WAP/iTV (ingested primary source).