Celebrating 15 Years of

In our birthday year, we wanted to showcase how web design and digital trends have changed since our inception 15 years ago. We’ve created a unique timeline that takes a whimsical look back through these years; the good, the bad and the ugly! Each period encapsulates the feel of the web during that time and is built using the methods we were using in those years.

We hope this nostalgic trip down memory lane will make you reminisce as much as we did. Travel back through the years and see how far digital has come in such a short space of time. Here’s to the next 15 years of digital!

Take me back

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creo:media logo
Lycos logo

Friends Reunited logo

Ask Jeeves logo

Chou Chou dolls

Grand Theft Auto 3

Nokia 3310

"Distinction, Digitial Design, Design, Marketing". Remember when everyone used to put their keywords in hidden text?

Distinction – then creo:media – was founded by brothers Greg and James back in 2001. With Greg still at uni, and James having just graduated, they were two of the UK’s youngest directors. Aside from this, the Bloors were also incredibly forward-thinking given the small percentage of people who had access to the internet at home. They set out to create a company that could help businesses achieve more in digital.

During the next 5 years, the company went from strength to strength. They hired their first member of staff and purchased their first flat screen monitors (that weren't really that flat!).

During these years, Greg and James began relationships with a number of small start-ups, who have grown at incredible rates and as a consequence been bought by huge multinational companies. creo:media was working with the likes of Midland Communications (later bought by Orange) and HD Decisions (later bought by Experian).

A highlight client from this year was The Look of Love, an Essex based dating website. The site was hugely innovative for its time, and allowed singles from all over Essex to connect with like-minded people, it included a feature called ‘flirt’ which was similar to Facebook’s poke!

Search in 2001

Google logo

Internet Explorer had an 89% share of the browser market

Back in 2001, there wasn't much choice of browsers. 89% of the market share was held by Internet Explorer. Dark, dark times...

 Internet Explorer logo
Google street view

Only 40% Internet coverage in the UK

Back in those days, of course, you couldn't be on the phone and use the internet! Looking back it's hard to imagine life without this trend. We now spend on average 2hr 51 mins every day online (1 in every 6 waking minutes).
Original iPod

The original iPod. 1000 songs.

In January 2001, iTunes was released followed by the iPod in October. In a short 9 months, Apple had changed the way we listened to music forever.

 The Sims 2000
The Sims 2000

The Sims

By 2001 The Sims had been released to great acclaim and it's still going strong today!

The game uses isometric projection and features open-ended simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons ("Sims") in a suburban area near SimCity.

By 2002, it had sold more than 11.3 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling PC game in history.

The Sound of 2001

So we know Spotify didn't exist in 2001, but what did you expect us to use, Napster?!
Atomic Kitten - Whole Again James Blunt - You're Beautiful The Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love? Enrique - Hero
Distinction
Distinction office desk

During these first few years, the team had grown to a strong team of five. The London office opened as more clients were won from the capital city, and we rebranded from creo:media to Distinction.

Our Nottingham office moved from West Bridgford to The Lace Market (an area we’ve been happy to call our home ever since). It was during these years that Distinction began working with some big name clients such as Unilever, Barclays and Confused.com.

Search in 2006

Google logo
TV and YouTube logo

YouTube

The idea for YouTube was born at a dinner party in San Francisco about a year before the official launch. It was based on two key events from that year - Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl, and the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Co-founder, Jawed Karim, posted the first video "Me at the zoo" (exactly how it sounds).

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock later that year.

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iPhone is coming

Six out of ten Americans surveyed said they knew the iPhone was coming before its release. It went on to sell its first million units in 74 days.

Original iPhone

MSN

MSN is widely ridiculed now (with good reason), but the messenger service was responsible for a whole host of behaviour that we take for granted now that was new at the time (and some that no longer applies). People that grew up in the 90's in particular will get these references:

  • Nudges (not for flirting)
  • Status updates
  • "BRB"
  • Whole conversations in Emoticons (10 years before emojis)
  • "ASL"
  • "Sorry, wrong person!"
  • "My Dad needs to use the phone"
  • Status as offline but you were really online (so you could talk to someone in particular!)
  • Song lyrics in your username
  • Signing in and out to get someone's attention
  • Playing only 'cool' songs on Windows Media Player so people could see what you were listening to. Sound familiar Spotify?
  • ...and the most common conversation ever; “Hey” “Hey. U k?” “Yeh u?” “gtg”

Thanks for improving our communication skills MSN!

Star Stats

Internet:

In 2006 57% of people had access to internet in their household in the UK

By 2010 this had increased to 73%

Facebook:

2006 - by December of this year over 12 million active users

2010 - by February the website had over 400 million active users

Twitter:

2006 - 1000 users

2010 - 145 million users

LinkedIn:

2006 - 8 million users

2010 - 75 million users

Bebo:

2008 - 40 million users

2010 - 117 million users, but fewer than 12 million were actually active

Myspace:

2006 - 100 million users

2010 - lost 10 million users in a month at the start of this year

Singles of the year

ShakiraAlicia KeysRihanna - UmbrellaBasshunter - Now You're GoneLady Gaga - Poker FaceGnarls Barkley - Crazy

The company continued to grow with the headcount reaching double its 2010 size, and by 2011 was a 10-person strong team of developers, project managers, designers and marketers.

Further big name clients came through the doors of the newly acquired larger office on St Mary’s Gate including work for Capital One (2011) and the start of a unique relationship with Pan Macmillan.

The creation of The Gruffalo website (which went on to win Kentico's Site Of The Year), MyKindaBook (also a Kentico winner) and Picador marked the beginning of a great relationship with the publishing house.

Alongside this, Distinction went on to pick up two RAR awards a year later that showed the strength and quality of the work we produced.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Arguably the most anticipated film of the generation, the final book in the Harry Potter series was released in two instalments to keep fans on tenterhooks until the very end.

The opening weekend claimed the worldwide opening weekend record earning $483 million.

VIEW TRAILER
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Vloggers

Vlogging

Blogging became so last year when Vlogging arrived on the scene. This trend favoured visual content that was easier for the consumer to digest.

This visual trend hasn’t shown any sign of dying out, with the likes of Vine, Snapchat and Periscope dominating social media.

ASOS

ASOS

From online catwalk videos, shoppable social profiles and dedicated apps for iPad and iPhone (which recommends personalised products based on past purchases), ASOS has revolutionised the online fashion ecommerce landscape.

They continue to be incredibly innovative and it's no surprise that they became one of the first retailers to launch an app for the Apple watch earlier this year.

Candy Crush

Candy Crush

Oh. So. Addictive. This game was everywhere. Everyone and their mum was playing it. A firm favourite due to the fact that it was available offline, meaning that tube journeys were so much more fun.

No more trying to avoid eye contact with anyone around you, you could now legitimately stare at your phone and play this addictive game!

x

It's a match! Groovy!

Now pay £0.89 to continue playing

Search in 2011

Xbox One

Whilst the office is very much split on the Xbox v PS debate (don't get us started), it cannot be denied that the XBox One was revolutionary in changing how people perceived and used traditional ‘games consoles’.

In the 'Internet of Things' age, it was designed to integrate gaming, TV and other media seamlessly; streaming directly from Microsoft's media center, device compatibility, face and voice recognition and Skype calling, as well as linking up with your cable/satellite box.

By hijacking TV, Microsoft aimed to keep the Xbox One interface in front of you all the time, relegating live television to secondary status as just another app like Netflix, YouTube and IE. Everything you need, in one place!

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Xbox One
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Tinder

Tinder

Tinder changed the way singletons meet people forever. Initially a – dare-we-say-it – “hook up” app; it offered us a fun, fast and easy way of checking out fellow singletons in a close vicinity (hmmm, sounds creepy when you put it like that).

The app protects us from rejection, as we see only those who say they ‘like’ us too, and has since grown to have over 50 million active users (although an estimated 46% of these are not single).

Tinder has grown up a little since the hook up days, and is proudly responsible for a number of weddings and many a happy relationship.

Singles of the year

Adele - Someone Like You Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know Pharrell - Happy Passenger - Let Her Go Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna - We Found Love
2016

Our 15th Birthday

Our 15th year has been an incredible one so far and we’re only half way through. The team has grown substantially and we are now on a brilliant team of 26.

We’ve moved into our new home on Broadway which we’ve made our own with a doodle by Geo Law and a huge collage of our favourite photos.

As well as the new staff, we’ve welcomed a number of lovely new clients and continued to work with some that have been there since day 1 and others who have joined us along the way.

Greg and James are still very much hands-on directors and are involved in the day-to-day running of the business.

Driverless cars

It would be easy to mistake driverless cars for a feature of Back to the Future that broke our hearts just like Hoverboards. However, thanks to the power of Google, autonomous vehicles are very much here.

Admittedly, you don’t need to worry about a driverless car pulling up next to you at the traffic lights just yet but the technology is in place, and Google think they’ve done a pretty impressive job.

Watch Video
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Mixed reality

Virtual reality’s cooler, more advanced sibling is set to change gaming (among other things) for good.

Mixed reality allows users to combine virtual reality with their actual surroundings. Mind-blowing, right?

With Google investing in smaller start-ups like Magic Leap (that are backing this ahead of virtual reality), it’s set to be a trend to watch out for.

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Jibo

This very cute family robot might just be everyone’s new best friend.

Jibo is set to become an extension of the family and make modern life that little bit easier.

We’re already a bit in love with this little bot, but we’ll have to wait and see to determine whether this really will catch on and we all end up with robot assistants.

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Search in 2016

More important than ever

The thought that only 40% of households had internet connection when Distinction first began is completely alien when you consider how crucial the internet is today. Constantly connected in more ways than we could list, it’s fair to say we are part of a digital revolution that just keeps going.

More and more traditionally offline industries are becoming digital – think Uber – and we can’t wait to be a part of whatever is next!

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keeps growing

The team has now grown to a strong and close knit team of 26. Fully integrated, all of our Strategists, Developers, Marketers, Designers and Project Managers work closely together to deliver the best outcomes for our clients.

We're still growing though, and we're always on the look out for talented, like-minded individuals to join our team

Everyone's favourite forgetful fish is just around the corner in 2016.

Facial recognition

Not a day goes by when you don’t see those hilarious face swaps on one of your social media streams thanks to apps like Snapchat.

This technology has become prominent in our day-to-day lives, and it's fair to say, we've accepted it as normality.

Face swap

Singles of the year

so far

Here's to the next 15 years

We hope you enjoyed a few memories and found lots of Easter eggs along the way.

We would really like to give more people happy #memories on our favourite networks. Just share the page with a #throwback memory of a digital trend or web design and we will publish the best ones from our social accounts.