01.05.12
May is going to be a very special month for me and my hubby as we'll be welcoming our first bambino into the world. Poppage is due this Thursday (3rd May), but I have a feeling little baby brew is in no hurry to enter into the world and is quite happy all tucked up and cosy.
Whilst I'm on bambino leave and beginning my new role as PA to our baby I'm excited to also be involved with promoting and acting as a kind of agent for my very talented cousin - Andrea Toth who is a brilliant Artist. 'When' I find the time during singing nursery rhymes and being in complete and utter awe of our new addition to the family; I hope to plan a couple of exhibitions and generate ideas to help promote Andrea's outstanding skills as an artist to the general public.
We've already a private show booked for the end of November at the West Barn in Bradford on Avon, which is very exciting. So watch this space for more details.
And... I'm also going to be finding some time (hmmm) to help out where I can with promoting another exciting event planned for the end of the year!!
Here's hoping the rain will ease, we have a wonderful summer and all goes gently with our impending birth.
Just a little taster of Andrea's work...
04.04.12
From time to time I get to collaborate with the lovely team at Pixillion on exciting digital projects, including the mentoring work I do with Creative Director, Remco. The latest project I was asked to be involved in was to devise a social media strategy and recommendation plan of attack for Monkton Combe School. They are an independent co-educational boarding and day school set in the heart of the beautiful valley outside the city of Bath and have a very inspiring ethos and views on education - Ken Robinson would be impressed!
They're currently in the throws of having a digital makeover so to think up ideas of how we could maximise their presence in the online space was a lot of fun. The recommendations were well received and I'm really looking forward to seeing the results when they go live later on this year.
12.03.12
The beginning of this year found me immersed in a brilliant project for Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon who were awarded a substantial amount of funding from LEAF (Local Energy Assessment Fund). This funding came from DECC - Department of Energy and Climate Change to promote energy saving measures to the wider community here in Bradford on Avon.
I was kindly tasked to take the lead on all the Communications required and head up this part of the project. My role was to provide strategic direction, communication concepts and copywriting. There was a very tight deadline as the funding had to be spent by the end of March. The communications work had three objectives: to develop an overall approach, design and branding; to provide promotional materials, and to promote project activities wherever possible.
With the help from talented Graphic Designer Sarah Mawdsley, we set to work to produce a mountain of communication materials that the group so desperately needed. This included: brand refresh, banners, posters, leaflets, fold out cards with useful energy saving tips, case studies, photography, fun stickers, a microsite that showcased Thermal Imaging of houses in Bradford on Avon, (intake of breath) a Facebook Group, tweeting, press releases and providing guidance in how to improve internal communications within the group using Dropbox, Google Docs etc…
The results were very well received and below is a rather meaty case study showcasing all that was produced in almost record breaking time!
To view other winning communities and the work carried out across the UK check out the Mapping for Change site.
24.01.12
Back in November last year I was asked to speak at Vision Bristol. After peeling myself off the floor in a state of shock, I gave it some thought and decided, why not! Although public speaking isn't really my thing, I felt it was too good an opportunity to decline, especially when the subject I was asked to natter about was 'How can we protect our ideas when it comes to pitching.' A topic that gets my goat and something I wish as an industry we could sort out - especially, when it comes to free pitching.
I was asked to do a double act with Graeme Fearon leading specialist in IP law and data protection at Thrings Solicitors… and little ol' me was asked to look at this issue from a creatives point of view with insights from the clients point of view.
We talked around issues of how you can in theory protect ideas, although it's never as easy as we'd all like to think. Why there is no 'silver bullet' to winning a pitch every time and had a good healthy debate about how as an industry we should be standing up to the client and not giving all our ideas/designs away so freely at pitches.
I also shared some of my pitching 'war stories' and my views as a creative that I have on how we should all value our creative thinking gift so much more than we do.
Trying to remain optimistic, I was hopeful for a revolution to be sparked from our talk and we'd see an end to this horribly destructive and damaging process that as an industry we all just seem to roll over and except as the way things are done to win business. But alas, it's just appears to be too embedded in our way of 'doing things' to win work. Why should clients start paying for pitches when we've let them have it for free now for so long…! We only have ourselves to blame… ok, now I'm ranting.
The two day event was very inspirational and for me the real highlight was listening to Dave Trott - a true advertising legend, who has the incredible creative gift to interpret all communication challenges into simple memorable messages. Remember, 'Hello Tosh, Gotta Toshiba'? I rest my case.
Some pics of me speaking at Vision Bristol
- Posted from Bristol, United Kingdom
19.01.12
At last count (so far in my life) I have moved house about twenty one times (gulp)!! So when the lovely Sara Milward-Oliver, Founder and Director of Tailormade Moves asked me to help her with her brand positioning and devise a communications strategy for her business, I figured I had some pretty sound insight in to the upheaval and hassles involved with moving home.
The brief was simple - to inject some energy and personality back into her brand, design a new website, create a spot of marketing (mainly printed literature) that she could send out to prospects, pop through letter boxes and leave with Estate Agents. Along with a few press adverts and other publicity ideas were also needed, including raising her profile in the social media space.
Here's a link to the new Tailormade Moves website
and below is a little Case Study of the new marketing and advertising I produced.
05.10.11
With a little bit of down time on my hands I thought this is the perfect time to share some case studies that kept me busy for most of last year. I'm not quite sure why I haven't popped these up on my website yet, I blame my tangent brain that can be so easily distracted by sparkly new creative projects.
The first one is about a great project I worked on for thankQ, who are a leading not-for-profit CRM software company based in Loughborough, with a twenty year heritage of providing exceptional solutions to their clients. In early 2010 they found themselves at an interesting crossroads with regards their business identity and which strategic direction they wished to move forward in.
They were keen to undertake a step change in their offering to their market and recognised a strong new brand identity, marketing and new business strategy was required. However, what ever the outcome, their new identity needed to be aligned and reflect their internal company values.
I collaborated with two brilliant independent minds that I love working with. Stewart Redpath from Liminal Marketing who carried out the full brand review to establish what their core proposition and competitive advantage was. Alongside Ronnie Hannon, from Transform Communications, who devised thought leadership and strategic PR thinking, including a developed, detailed marketing and new business plan.
My role was to carry out a full digital audit and provide procurement guidance for the development of their new website, along with creative ideas for the brand launch. I also collaborated with Stewart on writing the copy for the final website.
The chosen digital and brand agency was the talented team at Defacto who were based in Nottingham.
P.s
John Bird (the MD) at thankQ wrote a little blog piece about his rebranding experience...
25.09.11
Now if like my hubby you're potty about bicycles, you are going to LOVE this latest self-initiated gorgeously creative web project to pedal out of Pixillion HQ.
It is called The Work Cycle. And, well, it's basically a beautiful homage to the bicycle and showcases through stunning photography how our working lives and work spaces are being shaped by this humble mode of transport.
Here's the latest press release I wrote that tells you all about it (as featured on Boneshaker Magazine).
You can follow the project on twitter @TheWorkCycle and become a fan on Facebook
There are some big names already signed up (Poke London, Evans Cycle, Tribal DDB Amsterdam, Burtt-Jones & Brewer) and more über cool companies rumoured* to be featured soon. The Work Cycle is set to become a huge success. But what makes this such a unique project is not just it's a great idea, but the very slick design and technical execution that makes the user experience, a really great online experience.
*watch this space!
15.07.11
It's high time I posted news about some of the recent projects I've been working on. Too busy doing. And not enough time to update my site!
[Nanosecond grumble over.]
What I love most about the world I'm in is the sheer variety of not only the people I meet, but the opportunities I'm lucky to be involved in.
A lovely little project that went live a few months ago was for a Social Policy Researcher and Consultant chap called Martin Evans. He was keen to bring his vast CV alive online. Now, Martin is one of those people who has a very niche job advising on very important grown up issues.
He basically helps Governments, NGO’s, businesses, you and I to wrap our heads around serious Social issues that are in our world today. (I told you, grown up stuff!)
I was commissioned by Martin to pull together his website brief and find the right digital partner for him to work with. Pixillion based in Bristol worked their magic and created a lovely site that is perfect for Martin’s requirements. Complete with a nifty filtering tool to browse Martin’s extensive Publications, CMS that allows him to update his news and a brand identity that reflects Martin’s personality, yet professional position in the world he works.
He was also after some profile photos, which the talented Frances Gard captured him so eloquently.
Martin travels extensively around the world, his new site not only aims to raise his profile internationally, but allow people to find out what he does, the work he has done and generate more fascinating Social Policy projects for him to work on.
11.05.11
Pretty much the whole of May saw me head down immersed in a huge British Gas project. After polishing my slight dinked halo this was to be voluntary work for the Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon group that I'm part of. I figured I might get a speedy boarding pass at the pearly gates, when the times comes for helping out! The group last year were one of the lucky 14 communities across the UK to win £100K to put towards energy saving (and making) projects through the British Gas Green Streets initiative.
My involvement was to help pull together our presentation back to British Gas and share with them our Green Streets journey. I embarked upon interviewing some of the lucky households and created little films that I hoped would make interesting viewing for the Dragons. Our angle was to talk about community engagement and share their experience, the overall result was just peachy.
The presentation itself went well, followed by a slightly random, but highly enteraining black tie eveing do where I even got to sit on the same table as a 'celebrity'. I'll let you judge for yourself if he should be titled as one. Nonetheless, he made all of us on the table laugh and after what has been complex project and logistically challenging presentation, it was all made worth it in the end.
We'll know if Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon make it to the finals around the end of June, and hopefully in the chance to win the additional £100K prize... which if we do will go towards putting 90+ PV pannels on the Wiltshire Music Centre's roof... so watch this space!
15.04.11
After our mini heatwave and secret sunbathing in the garden. It's been all hands on deck. Last week saw the launch of the very talented commercial interior design duo's new website Burtt-Jones & Brewer ! It was a really lovely project to work on and it was all possible thanks to the clever CMS platform Cargo Collective. The reason I chose Cargo was because the budgie was tight and we needed a CMS that had a creative portfolio feel to it. Steve and Adam [founders of Burtt-Jones & Brewer] are hoping their new site will help raise their profile and place them firmly on the map for organisations to turn to for all the interior needs, and not think that only an Architect can do what they do with so much talent.
Here are a few screen shots from their new site:
