Zeroseven turns 20

It's hard to believe that Zeroseven is 20 years old now, and what a milestone for us as a company! 

Throughout the years we've evolved to who we are today, with a focus on helping our clients to solve big problems while creating a connected team. We will always strive to do and be our best, and are proud of our team, their work, and the culture we've created over the years. 

With 20 years behind us, let's take you WAY back to where it all started in 2003...

For context, here's what happened in the digital space in 2003:

• Apple opens iTunes store: April 2003
• LinkedIn launches: May 2003
• Safari web browser launches: June 2003
• MySpace social network launches: August 20

The iPhone isn’t out for another four years...

When a designer and developer came from the United Kingdom (our two founders) to Brisbane with big dreams and a vision to help others in the digital space, Zeroseven was created.

One year later we hired our first employee, a developer, who joined us in our shared offices in Teneriffe.

In 2005, we moved into our first office on Melbourne Street, South Brisbane. It was on the third floor at the top of a very cool black building. It had a sloped ceiling at the back where Chris, one of the founders, hit his head a lot.

Three years later we moved into an even bigger office on Hope Street, South Brisbane. Project Managers worked on the ground floor and Developers on the second floor.

In the 2000’s we made websites and html emails. We worked with many Brisbane advertising agencies as their digital arms.

In 2008, design of websites consisted of:

• 256 colours
• Overlapping everything
• No web fonts
• One screen size

We also made really cool things in flash, which allowed us to be visually creative with lots of animation and a very ‘designed’ look that solidly kept its structure.

We worked on project such as:

• Griffith Globe – A 3D spinning earth showing student stories and videos from around the world 
• Musiah - the first AI piano teacher which enabled a student to play on a connected keyboard and gave real-time feedback to aid learning
• James Seear - A site for a young Australian triathlete, where you could dress him in a swimming, cycling or running outfit and spin him around - we called him 'Spinny Jimmy'.

Around this time the internet was changing, and we were also changing our development focus to more technical projects.

These solved problems for a wide range of industries such as: 

• Accounting with the Bentleys Aged Care Survey - a complex project allowing benchmarking for the aged care industry
• Health with St John Ambulance - allowing the organisation of patient transport with many logistical nuances
• Industry - Providing a tag ordering and production workflow for agriculture businesses

These projects may not have been as animated as the flash ones but solved real world problems, helped streamline workflow and create efficiencies in many industries.

Also in 2008, we won our first major national award. It was a BIG deal. We developed a website called ‘Start Next Week’. It was a startup where last minute courses could be found and booked online. This achievement gave us the confidence to do even better work.

In 2009 we were still on Hope Street. We'd created a great team who were passionate about their work and were loving life.... then, in 2011 Brisbane flooded. 

Our office was right by the river and the city was evacuated. River waters flowed into the surrounding streets. Luckily waters lapped our doorstep, but we were safe. We'd lost power and couldn’t actually get to the office for a week or so… but we were safe.

In 2014, we moved into a new office in West End. It was a renovated warehouse with LOTS of space for workshops with clients and staff, client breakfasts, Christmas dinners and overall good vibes.

We were also moving into specialising in two CMS systems – Kentico and Umbraco and became a Microsoft partner. 

We trained our team on these systems -  it was important for us to do things right and for Zeroseven to have a team of experts that were technology focused.

... because websites became complicated and our work focused on usability, integrations, accessibility and building systems.

Fast forward through to 2022 and Zeroseven's office is now located in the beautiful Brisbane CBD. Our West End office was a bit too large with the shift to hybrid roles and more of our team working from home. 

With a nice change in scenery, and a bit more life around, the Zeroseven team is thriving. 

At present, it's 2023 and we're incredibly grateful to be able to look back on our 20 years of history and get the opportunity to enjoy such a big milestone with our talented and vibrant team. We couldn't be prouder of where we have come from, what we have created and accomplished, and where we plan to go. 

Thank you to our clients and team over the years - here’s to another 20 years!