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All Posts in Culture

August 8, 2024 - No Comments!

Sweet Dreams are made of… chicken

A few weeks ago I took the Serotonin creative team on a little trip out of the office for an afternoon of culture, creativity and fried chicken with visit to the surreal world of a fading fast-food empire and an interactive adventure that mixes cinema and animation...

Sweet Dreams is an immersive adventure that transports you into the world of the Real Good Chicken Company, created by award-winning artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast and illustrated by French artist mcbess (big fan).

From factory button pusher to funeral guest, the experience really touches all the senses.

All in, it was nice to get out of the studio for half-a-day and immerse ourselves in brand storytelling, pop-culture, design and cultural satire of the food & advertising industry.

Check out my photojournal from the visit

July 10, 2024 - No Comments!

Winner winner

It was an honour to have picked up two awards at The Prolific North Awards last week.
The campaign was meticulously put together, a real labour of love! Hundreds of elements coming together to create our own psychedelic world, across so many touchpoints from OOH, social and even creating our very own bus & route!

Couldn’t be happier to win for both the idea as well as the execution, for Best Advertising Campaign and Most Effective use of Design.

February 16, 2024 - No Comments!

Northern Digital Awards

It was great to be nominated for a couple of awards at the recent Northern Digital Awards, including best integrated campaign for my Sussex Modern campaign. Unfortunately didn't walk away this time with any gongs but it was a great evening.

 

 

The awards celebrate digital and marketing campaigns, websites, apps, software, tech and of course the incredible agencies and teams that invest innovative thinking, creativity and passion into their work and region.

September 21, 2023 - No Comments!

Sussex Modern campaign, arriving soon!

Excited to share this project created at Serotonin for Sussex Modern properly soon, as it's been a labour of love for a most of the summer! A massive campaign psychedelic cut-n-paste DIY key visuals, soon to be featuring aceross OOH, digital and even wrapped around it's own bus!

A nice little article gone out in the Guardian newspaper today, with the rest of the campaign launching soon.

Watch this space, all aboard...

January 31, 2023 - No Comments!

Pt1: New Brand Project Initialising…

 

My Creative Director and Serotonin co-founder Clair Heaviside, and I, had a great day getting to know our newest client and their employees last week. We both left feeling energised and excited to start working with them.

January 31, 2023 - No Comments!

Culture Club

It’s the last Friday of the month, and that means Culture Club!

✅ Two slides
✅ Two things
✅ Two minutes

Something you've done. Something you've seen. Somewhere you've been.
Everyone in the agency, has two mins (max) to share a couple of cool things.

That’s it.

Then we all go to the pub/home/wherever our Friday and weekend takes us, having learned a bit, and feeling inspired.

This is the Culture Club.

January 31, 2023 - No Comments!

Oceans Alive: Rebrand

Full case study is on the way but in the mean time here's a little overview of my first project at SEROTONIN.

A new brand proposition, a rebrand, website redesign and total photography overhaul to give Oceans Alive a new purpose to head into 2023 with.

Oceans Alive. Supported by Science.

November 26, 2022 - No Comments!

SPEZIAL F.C.

Last weekend i went down to the Spezial F.C. exhibition at Circlesquare. Since 2015, the premium sub-line of adidas – which is curated by Gary Aspden – has become renowned for diving into the Three Stripes’ extensive archives, and reimagining heritage styles through a modern lens for each of its collections.

The exhibition, celebrating the symbolic magnitude Adidas has had, both on and off the football pitch -  adidas SPEZIAL has been at the heart of football cultures, especially in the North of England.

Comprising both vintage and reissued styles alongside unreleased samples, working prototypes, and a selection of football boots, the exhibition showcases a deep love of the beautiful game.

Check out the rest of my photos on my photojournal

November 8, 2022 - No Comments!

Manchester Art Fair

Friday night art fair launch party action down at Manchester Central. Some great artists on display from across the country and beyond.

 

Highlights for me were the Orbis Community. A not-for-profit Community based in Gateshead. It was great chatting to one of their board members and learning about their collective. I particularly loved the work of Adam Pointer, Rock and Rose and Helen McClafferty.

 

 

A few photos from the fair are below, with some more over on my photojournal.

 

October 24, 2022 - No Comments!

Chatsworth House

 

A couple of weeks ago I visited Chatsworth House. Having not been before or for a very long time I was expecting the standard National Trust type old estate, country house experience. I was very much mistaken... The Devonshire Family and the Duke and Duchess particularly, have curated an engaging and interesting balance of their modern art collection balanced with the rich history and restoration of the original house and its features.

 

 

Highlights are a gold stripped back sculpture from Damien Hirst, Hockney's hung casually in the corridor (apparently they saw it hanging in the Whitechapel Gallery and bought it straight from the gallery wall to hang in the their living room!), as well as a walk in wardrobe type room filled works from with Picasso and Matisse.

 

Some of the other highlights are the painted optical illusions as well as the stories from the knowledgable staff throughtout the house.

The gardens are also great, and with both modern and classic artworks dotted throughout.

 

Check my photojournal for more images from the visit and weekend in the Peak District.

October 14, 2022 - No Comments!

Big Prize… and big names ;)

Nice little mention in PR Week today, as Rise at Seven clinch agency of the year... article below...

UK PRWeek Awards 2022.
Best Agency (outside London) - Winner – Rise at Seven

This award goes to Rise at Seven, whose approach of combining PR with SEO has paid dividends.

Launched during the pandemic by Carrie Rose and Stephen Kenwright, in just three years Sheffield-based Rise at Seven has grown into a major player. It now has 140 employees and offices in London, Sheffield and Manchester.

Read: PRWeek UK Awards 2022: Winners revealed

April 2022 saw the opening of Rise at Seven’s first US office in New York and the agency boasts clients such as Interflora, boohoo, GoCompare, and Parkdean Resorts. The agency was the fastest growing in the PRWeek Top 150 2022, with revenue quadrupling to almost £4m in 2021 and the size of its team doubling from less than 50 to more than 100. Revenue is continuing to soar, reaching £6.8m in 2022 – a year in which Rise at Seven made £1.5m in profit.

The secret of its success? A client offering combining PR with SEO to increase brand awareness and digital impact, according to Rose. The past year has seen it continue to win big name clients, such as Revolution Beauty and Dermalogica. And the agency has attracted some big names to its ranks. Dave Bennett, the former global managing director of Exposure and Freuds director, joined as comms director in March; and the agency appointed Ben Topliss, ex-design director at IMA-Home, as head of design in May.

In a bid to stay ahead of the pack, Rise at Seven recently built a tool that extracts thousands of searches from its clients’ internal site search analytics and matches them to Google Trends. This informs activity in a fraction of the time compared to traditional insight processes.

The judges said

The niche this agency serves feels very current right now, and the growth and culture Rise at Seven has achieved in just a few short years is really quite astounding.

October 13, 2022 - No Comments!

Castlefield Viaduct

Last month I was lucky enough to have been  given a private tour of the striking Victorian-era steel Castlefield viaduct.


Built in 1892, the Castlefield Viaduct is a core part of Manchester's remarkable industrial heritage. It has been abandoned since the 60’s but the National Trust have been bringing it back to life, creating Manchester’s own green ‘sky park’.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a visit and supporting the project, you can sign up for free tickets here: nationaltrust.org.uk/castlefield-viaduct 

A few of my photos are below, but check out some more on my photojournal

August 6, 2022 - No Comments!

Meeting The Shoe Maker

It was a real privilege yesterday to get to meet Joe Foster, founder of Reebok and hear his story first hand (particularly after having worked so much on Reebok campaigns and launches over the last few years) about how he created a sportswear brand that has been sold twice now for a total value of over £6 billion!

 

What a legend!

Whalley based Lanx shoes hosted the event as part of their first Creators weekend. I've been aware of the brand and it was cool to meet Marco and his team at Lanx HQ. Proper sound guys making proper shoes. Great to meet people passionate about their craft.

 

Check out my photojournal for some more photos from the evening.