Welcoming Kira to the ttp team
In September we welcomed our new account manager Kira Marshall.
She brings to our team some fresh new ideas and an interesting mix of experience within marketing and communications across a range of industries.
Kira has previously worked in product marketing for Bosch before moving into communications and pr, across consumer, corporate and capital markets accounts.
Her past clients span a range of sectors including leisure, technology, retail and finance.
Having lived in 6 countries growing up, she spends most of her holidays (and her savings) continuing to travel, looking for remote surf spots in countries a lot warmer than England.
RELX returns
We worked on a complex infographics project for RELX last year and they returned this year with a new request.
Friday afternoons are usually the time we get a call for something last minute but not usually a complete project. Especially if it’s required on Monday. We don’t mind our metal and resolve being tested but we always like to deal with the possible… and this time it was.
With our internal and external resources, we were able to turn around the document for the client to review on Sunday at the airport and, with a few amends on Monday, the job was delivered on time and on budget. Have you got a challenge for us, even if it’s taking on Kevin, Joe or Adam for a game of Ping-Pong?
Wowed by shimmer and glow
This week our MD visited Imagine, the art of the possible in visual communication, at OXO2 in London. This was an opportunity to see some of the innovations that are coming our way ahead of the big Expos.Simon had seen shimmer walls before, they’ve been around since Egyptian times (that’s not when he saw them!) but the quality and process behind this new system makes them an interesting and affordable option for retail and interiors. The images are printed on small punched discs (less than 10mm in diameter), that are fixed on plastic panels of 200mm square, a bit like the modular large screen LED panels you get at events. This modular system can be velcroed, screwed or glued to installations up to any size with any image printed on the discs and the substrate. This helps create a perfect representation of the image or graphic supplied using high-resolution print technology. There are metallic discs for a theatre-land effect, or a double-hit white disc for a near photographic print effect and are less reflective so easier to see, day or night – very tempting for our salon client from Skyler London who attended the showcase with us.
Talking to inventor Andrew Ainge of Shimmerdisc, Simon discovered he still has a stack of other ideas that he’s testing… from fluorescent discs that charge during the day and reflect at night (great for Halloween displays) to discs immersed in fish-tank style displays with contact lens fluid and bubble jets that create a hypnotic motion to the graphic. This is just calling out for use in health and well-being environments.
Simon was suffering information overload at this stage but he’s definitely keeping in touch and looking for opportunities to use this system. Why not give us a call to see if we can bring some shimmer to your shammy?
Are creative clusters born or made?
As part of the London Design Festival our Creative Director Kevin Cox and Simon Hutton our MD were invited to attend a Better Bankside talk, ‘Designing a Destination’, debating: ‘Are creative clusters born or made?’.
It was held at a great new space in Borough created by Fora, the innovative workspace environment organisation. The talk centred around how creative clusters are becoming more prevalent and successful, both economically and socially in the UK. The distinguished panelists were introduced by Donald Hyslop – Head of Regeneration at Tate Modern, and included Katrina Larkin, Co-Founder of Fora, Nick Finney, Creative Director of NB Studios, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp, director of the Africa Centre, London and Graham Hitchen, who provides strategic management advice on the development of major programmes for cities, cultural organisations, universities and government agencies.
Better Bankside wanted to hear the views of local levy payers and stakeholders as to how the area could better promote its virtues on a local and global scale. This fed off the back of a recent pitch that they had organised amongst several branding design groups from the area, us included, as to how to promote the ‘story’ of the area under an umbrella campaign.
Our concept ‘The Many sides of Bankside’ which conveyed the artistic, cultural, business, historical and recreational themes that make up the area came a close second – never a great place – but it was an interesting journey and helped some of our new joiners get a great insight into the cultural richness of Bankside.
NB studio pipped us at the post with a great body of work that Nick presented at the talk. Some of their initial thinking is now being displayed with a series of over 45 flags, created in collaboration with a selection of artists and designers – a creative cluster – who have supplied their work free of charge, but for good causes! These flags will be seen in Borough Market during the London Design Festival and then hopefully finding homes around the borough. A duplicate set is also being sold to raise money for three Better Bankside charities.