This summer, to me, was a summer of firsts. I visited Prague, which boasts the largest nightclub in Central Europe, attended my first Mexican themed party, finally finished reading American Psycho, and survived my first music festival. The Hurricane festival was held in Scheeßel, Germany. The festival itself also held many firsts, my first time camping, first time visiting Germany, and my first experience of port-a-loos. Eek!

Before I arrived in Germany I had some preconceptions of the festival experience. I knew I’d be battling the crowds to be at the front for the Foo Fighters, I knew it would be dirty and grimy, and I had already prepared myself for the shower and toilet facilities, as well as waterproofing my outfits for the inevitable downpour and muddy fields.

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Is it just me, or are adverts more irritating these days? All you want to do after a long day’s work is to come home, put your feet up, and relax by watching a little TV. But just when you’ve gotten comfy and begin to unwind, suddenly you’re assaulted with blasts of ‘GO COMPARE! GO COMPARE!’ and you know you just have to get up and go to the trouble of making yourself a brew, just to avoid the whole experience.

Sound familiar?

And it’s not just Go Compare. Thickly accented meerkats plague our screens; break-dancing newsreaders promise to buy our cars from us. Excitable people in coffee shops tell us that a computer system was their idea. Are you irritated yet?

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If new products can come and go, why can’t the stores that display them do the same? Well they can, and this is known as ‘Pop-up retail’. Over the last year there has been a surge in the pop-up phenomenon. You may ask the question what exactly is pop-up retail? As I discovered, it can only be described as something that is a temporary venue — the space could be a sample sale one day then a host to a private cocktail party the next.

Pop-up retail is specifically an idea or mindset that allows a company to create a unique environment that engages their customers, as well as generates a feeling of relevance and interactivity. The main trend encompasses “popping-up” one day, and disappearing the next – creating a sense of being fresh and relevant – fantastic attributes for any brand. Read more…

Whilst catching some Xmas sunshine it was really interesting to see how South Africa is preparing for the 2010 World Cup in particular in the many townships.

The FNB is the national bank of South Africa a major sponsor of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, and in line with its sponsorship of the much-anticipated event, is transforming the skyline of several of the host cities. With some larger than life outdoor building wrap advertising campaigns in some of South Africas largest townships.

The most striking of these building wraps had to be the ones that I saw on my visit to Soweto – the largest township in South Africa. Here two of the four huge cooling towers, which belong to a currently decommissioned power station, carry FNB’s 2010 Fifa World Cup branding. The artworks are reproduced on canvas – about 12 800m2 of it – and the wraps weigh between 700 and 900kg each. Apparently the whole project took 12 000 litres of paint, and it took the team 720 hours each to complete their sections. Each tower is 60m high with a circumference of 120m at the bottom and 70m at the top.

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Who’d have thought a Swedish furniture shop could provide the ideal location for a gripping melodrama?

I thought it was just somewhere couples went to have arguments.

Ikea Heights is a spoof soap opera filmed entirely at the Burbank store in California without the store’s permission. It’s really well done too. Customers are milling around in the background, busy deliberating whether the BILLY or the FLÄRKE bookcase would better complement their lounge decor… blissfully unaware of the scandal and intrigue unfolding around them.

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Inspired by the pioneering design work of Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, Wally Olins,  Saul Bass, Milton Glaser and Neville Brody I became a graphic designer and worked primarily in branding for the first 10 years of my career. This was back in the day when the ‘designers are gods’ mentality still held true and being a bit ‘precious’ was the norm… which suited me fine, thank you very much.

Doodling away in a sketch pad (usually in the pub) and hunched over a drawing board armed with paper, fine point pen and a steady hand didn’t really feel like work to me (the apple macs were still not commonplace in design studios at this point). The process fascinated me and still does to this day.

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The winning logo design

Loud music, bad attitudes, safety pins and spiky hair. Does that ring a bell? Yes, I thought punk was a thing long left in the seventies too, until the Creative Department was approached by our Senior Art Director’s brother-in-law who is in a punk band called Hated Til Proven. They needed a kick-ass new logo to go on their posters and t-shirts for the next big gig… and since we’re always up for a creative challenge we duly obliged.

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Do you want to have revealed to you the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time — people who’ve profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry? Do you want to meet the artists and writers who brought a rebellious spirit to their work in a business more often associated with mediocrity or manipulation?

Well thanks to a new documentary called ‘Art & Copy’, now you can. This insightful film gives a basic overview of the history of American advertising since the 1960s, which is when a major shift brought the copywriters and artists together for the first time.

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A company’s Branding is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolises the company’s differentiation from its competitors. That’s why a Brand Identity is more than just a logo; it’s a collection of ideas, images and verbal attributes that convey the essence of a company, product or service.

Your Brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors’. Your Brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

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As the end of year approaches everyone takes the opportunity to look back before we look forward into 2009. So I thought I’d take some time to highlight several key achievements made by Red C this year in the world of Direct Marketing and Advertising. Here’s just five reasons why this has been a vintage year for Red C.

1. An award winning direct marketing and advertising agency

This year Red C achieved something that we have never done before. We became finalists at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Awards in two categories. An achievement not matched by any other Direct Marketing or Advertising agency outside of London this year.

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