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.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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’.
Originally planned for Art Basel in Miami (until COVID continued to create havoc), the second Reebok x Eames collection launch activation eventually took place earlier this year - connecting the art world and with the sneaker community of NYC. One of my last contributions from my time at IMA-Home.
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.
Shot around a year ago in Boston with then Celtics NBA player and now San Antonio Spurs hero, Josh Richardson. The campaign for Reebok Pump Omni has made a surprise return to the big screens of Times Square after originally displaying in the famous square back in January.
I got the chance to visit the Hockneys Eye exhibition at the Fitzwilliam museum over the Easter weekend whilst down in Cambridge and it's one of the most beautifully curated exhibitions I've been to.
Hockneys work is incredible, as expected, but it's been positioned in and around the Fitzwilliam's existing works, playing on both the technical aspects of the artwork as well as juxtaposing themes. All while highlighted against vibrant green colour blocking. Totally unexpected and totally excellent.
A quickfire Friday brief - 4 hours to create a series of images on varying themes around retail and tech, for an editorial website for adidas. Because I like a challenge I decided to make each one an animated GIF.
Stick a comment below the post if you can guess the themes!