JANUARY

We brought in the New Year by bringing in fresh blood, hiring Frontend Developer John and Marketing Assistant Kriselle. We also gave up some blood, with six ducks donating together.

Web Designer Magazine published a feature detailing the rise of Cyber-Duck from Danny's bedroom to the flock of three dozen we are today. Google bought connected home company Nest for $3.2 billion in cash, bringing the Internet of Things mainstream – a trend that would anchor the year ahead.

FEBRUARY

While everyone else mourned the loss of Flappy Bird, this was Matt's month. From being published in Smashing Magazine's Responsive Web Design Volume 2 book and Web Designer Magazine to speaking at leading trade show TFM&A, our Production Director was in great form.

We put our own room of experts together, too: The first Digital Pond event of the year was filled with designers, developers, marketers and everyone in between to see Andy Budd, Anna Dahlströhm and, again, our own Matt Gibson talk user experience.

MARCH

Past intern Clément came back as a full-time Web & Mobile developer, and User Experience Designer Cristina joined us from Milan. There’s no Italian word for “selfie”, but that didn’t stop Ellen’s Oscar photo and the #nomakeupselfie campaign for Cancer Research UK from dominating conversation.

On the month the World Wide Web turned 25 years old, Benjamin spoke about the Internet of Things at Arduino Day and Danny gave advice to young tech entrepreneurs at Founders Nation. A team of Ducks flew to South by Southwest in Texas, where Ramon spoke about CSS pre-processors and we helped launch Planet Jockey.

APRIL

Benjamin and Sofia stayed in the nest to host our first Code Club for local students. Others did talks and workshops at UXPA, City University, and Google Campus’s Startup Weekend. We also filmed a video of the creation of the Cuckoo Quack, our interactive Internet of Things clock.

Much like us with this page, Google also released a time capsule, letting Street View users compare archived images as far back as 2007.

MAY

Dylan joined us from Canada as our PR & Events Executive. We stepped away from the barbecue long enough to play Zorb football, speak around London and in Düsseldorf, and… help others barbecue.

Danny was named one of BIMA’s Hot 100 Digital Personalities of 2014, while Google debuted a prototype of their driverless car, also full of digital personality.

JUNE

Raquel began a summer placement with our design team, and a pair of work experience students came in to produce The Duckgame, where two duck players battle each other on a pond by launching their eggs from lily pads.

Black cab drivers protest Uber, which was plagued by pesky legislation and scandals throughout the year. On a lighter note, our work for Sparks was highly commended for a Best Electrical Wholesaler Website award.

JULY

Calum was awarded our fifth annual New Designers Associate Prize and a spot on our team as a UX Designer. The team went full summer, with some ducks taking [in] flight at the Farnborough Air Show and others teaching students at Digital Summer Camp.

Danny took the stage in Cardiff to share the secrets of our success, while Matt spoke about responsive web design in Birmingham.

AUGUST

The Ice Bucket Challenge was cold and our UX glossary app was hot, both launching and going viral. We celebrated with our biggest Digital Pond event to date, with nearly 200 digital professionals packing a venue in Old Street.

Benjamin and Dylan headed to the Plymouth seaside, where our Festival of Code students were finalists in the Code a Better Country category. We were also published all over the place: Danny in B2B Marketing, Matt in Web Designer Magazine, and Neil on Usability Geek.

SEPTEMBER

Obi came aboard as our QA Analyst, and Delphine began a placement with our New Business department. The Cyber-Duck team was runner-up for Team of the Year at the DADI Awards.

We saw the warm days out with our annual Duckies UX awards party, celebrating the best and brightest in young talent. Of course, we couldn’t let the summer go without another installment of the Quack Hack, producing four apps, a robot, and just a little bit of snoring in only 24 hours.

OCTOBER

Karen joined us as our new Accounts Assistant just in time to shoot lasers at us. Neil gave an intro to user experience at Untangle the Web, while Craig and Cristina taught a lesson for BIMA Digital Day.

It was a big month for our clients – Cancer Research Technology launched the first stage of Ximbio and mydlc won Best Transactional Experience at the UXUK Awards.

Siji brought back a Wirehive 100 award for Account Handler of The Year, with two more ducks recognised as highly commended finalists. We placed in the top 15 of all agencies in the South East, and also got a nod for Best Use of Tech.

NOVEMBER

Giovanni joined us as a Web Developer, Danny presented a Unicom seminar about transforming process within our agency and The Hospital Club welcomed Matt’s master class on human-centred design.

A whole flock of us headed down to Ravensbourne to take in another year of Mozilla Festival, where we hosted a two-part connected robotics workshop for the first time to great response.

We also launched a completely new brand strategy for IMI; The Institute of the Motor Industry was formed in 1920 and needed a new brand both to reflect their heritage and the current market.

DECEMBER

For Christmas we got a new Product Designer called Sinead. Around the office, competition was fierce and Harry was envied, winning both the company go-karting grand prix with Obi and our first-ever lunch break FIFA tournament.

We also got into the holiday spirit with a dancing Santa hack, Christmas Jumper Day, a Digital Pond Holiday Social, and our annual Christmas party before taking a much needed rest. What a year!