Quite. And life is better with beautiful design.

I rarely get really excited about packaging these days. In fact, apart from Apple, Boden, Innocent and Jane’s Addiction’s Cabinet of Curiosities I can’t really think of much that has grabbed my attention in the last few years.

And that’s why when I received my vinyl wall graphics from Blik through the post I almost jumped for joy. Gorgeous package design fizzing with witty copy and a fab product to boot… pure joy from start to finish. Read more…

When Build Center (one of our clients at Wolseley) called us with an urgent brief to spread the word about their £3 loft insulation plus free delivery promotion, we knew we had a real challenge on our hands. Not only did we have just over a week to develop the campaign and roll it out… they wanted us to deliver something a little out of the ordinary to maximise the impact. Cue one Mini, one woman, 17 rolls of loft insulation, a 56-link chainsaw and a 2 minute viral ad. Read more…

The great thing about city breaks is wandering around taking in the different cultures, the history and the amazing architecture (in between shopping of course).

There are some fascinating buildings around the world that have been built with great care and consideration by talented tradesman and have lasted the test of time and Mother Nature but are starting to show their age.

German artist Jan Vormann has spent the last three years traveling the world fixing some of these crumbling walls and monuments. Instead of bricks and mortar, though, he’s used Lego!

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Location photo-shoots are one of my favourite parts of my job as an Art Director at Red C. I love the exhilarating mix of logistics, teamwork, improvisation and on the spot creativity that is required to pull off a successful shoot for a client. Factor the British weather into the mix and it can make for quite a challenging day!

However when the excitement is over you can find yourself sitting in a Travelodge feeling like Alan Partridge, contemplating dismantling the trouser press. So it’s great when you meet a photographer who is not only up to the job of taking fantastic images but can entertain you in the bar that evening (whilst the days photos are uploading, obviously) with wild tales of photographing Motley Crue and Aerosmith in LA!.

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Saul Bass was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century, but also the undisputed master of film title design. With a career spanning over fifty years – which included collaborations with Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese (among others) – the work he produced was consistently innovative. While always of the moment, Saul Bass’ work is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago as it continues to appeal to the audience’s emotions and intellect. Read more…

I love it when a plan comes together

It was that great leader of men Hannibal Smith who once said… “I love it when a plan comes together”. And that sums up perfectly how I feel about our TV advert for the holiday cottages brand cottages4you. It took  a large number of talented people to create the 40 seconds of film that is embedded within this posting… and to give you an insight into how we ended up with the advert we did… I thought I’d tell you the story of the commercial’s creation.

From the original client briefing to some insights into the creative process and the ideas we presented you’ll hopefully see what went in to creating the final concept that went before the cameras. I’ll then look at the filming process as well as the work that went into the post-production and resulted in the final commercial… which is hopefully enticing people up and down the country to book a break with cottages4you.

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Yep, it’s that time of year again where the whole agency get into the festive spirit and have a go at coming up with new ideas for the agency Christmas card! This year’s challenge certainly caused a stir with an extra sprinkling of motivation coming from the special prize of a brand spanking new iPod Nano for the winner. So everyone quickly huddled in their groups making sure their ideas weren’t over heard – we’re not competitive – honest.

And this year’s winner is… drum roll… Mrs Katie Shoard! Our Senior Copywriter.

The judges had a hard time choosing the winner but decided to go with Katie’s copy-based route that uses a quirky, colourful illustrative design that pokes fun at Christmas clichés and conveys Red C’s fresh approach.

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The history of football is littered with bruising encounters… AC Milan v Internazionale, Ayax v Feyenoord, Bradford v Leeds and now Creative v Account Handling. Despite the incidents on the pitch, though, it was Creative who walked off victorious yet again, having shot 15 glorious goals past their suited counterparts.

The game started off at a blistering pace and it was obvious from the kick-off that Account Handling were going for the jugular, and it was indeed the suited ones who drew first blood with an early goal that rocked Creative… who again were wearing their all black strip… but like footballing Ninjas we hustled, tackled and fired ourselves into a 6-2 lead.

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Gray & Osbourn, a leading niche clothing brand in the UK premium home shopping market, have appointed Red C to expand the role of online marketing and broaden the brands appeal to attract new, younger online customers. The business was founded as a division of Selfridges in 1989 and is now owned by the N Brown Group. Red C won the business in a 5 way pitch that included the incumbent and came down to a final 2-way shoot-out.

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Negative Space by Noma Bar

Can a picture really paint a thousand words? Well, yeah, if Noma Bar designed it. A modern-day master of the ‘less is more’ approach to design, Noma’s ingenious use of negative space gives his work a startling subtlety that creeps up and smacks you between the eyes.

Throw in some incisive wit in his creative handling of current political and cultural issues, and you’re looking at one of the most prestigious designers of the minute. He’s hot stuff. And once you’ve seen his work, you’ll know why. Read more…