About Cygnus Extra
Cygnus began life as long ago as 1991 when Hilary Phillips decided to launch into the self-employed world and set up Cygnus Documentation Services. Websites were still well in the future at that point, and business during the 90s revolved around writing user documentation for software houses as well as marketing literature and newsletters.
Hilary has an MA in English from St Andrews University and a growing number of years of experience as a writer and editor. She works with public sector and commercial organisations, mainly in Scotland, but also further afield. Interesting writing commissions include Science Scotland for the Royal Society of Edinburgh, web copy for the National Museums Scotland and a website, way back in the late 90s called Creative Scotland, that no one will remember now. Over the last several years, training has become an increasingly important part of the mix and Hilary has trained 100s of people in writing skills. Regular courses are available in Edinburgh, but Hilary has trained all over Scotland and people have attended from as far afield as Cardiff and Shetland.
In 2003 Mark Phillips added his skills and experience to the mix, and we changed the name to Cygnus Extra. Over the last decade the internet has become gradually more and more important to us – and of course to business in general. Now our core business revolves around writing for websites, training others in web copywriting skills and, where appropriate to support our core content experience, providing a start to finish web development service. Mark’s web design and development skills mean that for certain types of project we can offer the complete content, design and development package. Before joining Cygnus Mark was a founder, owner and IT Director of Spektra Group Limited. His background in Astronomy and Astrophysics puts us on a solid footing for any scientific and technical projects.
Cygnus Extra is based on the west side of Edinburgh, very close to West Lothian. We have easy access to Scotland’s motorway network, which means that we can be in Glasgow, Perth and even Inverness very easily, and frequently we are. We are of course also at the end of a phone and easy to reach by email!