We are delighted to have recently launched the new St James Quarter brand, website and corporate identity, on behalf of Henderson Global Investors and their PR agency Halogen UK.  The content managed website, built on Drupal, forms part of a set of communications collateral we have developed since developing the new brand in June 2008.

Outline plans for the St James Quarter - an £850 million investment - have just been submitted to The City of Edinburgh planning department. See the website for more information.

To mark the opening of the new Kingsgate Shopping Centre extension in Dunfermline we were commissioned by the centre’s PR agency, Halogen, to design and build a new website. The content managed site, built on dotnetnuke features interactive floor plans (flash fed by xml updates from the cms), rotating ad spots and a news & events section. The site has now been launched and is in use promoting the Launch celebrations on 15th August and the range of new stores.  see www.shopkingsgate.co.uk.

We’re all smiles this week; it could be down to the summer weather or to the fact that the promo we shot for The Standards, “Needless to Say”, is being screened this Friday at DiBa, the Digital Barcelona Film Festival. In their words: “A selection of the best video clips of the year: samples of talent that break with the established rules. The most innovative and surprising music videos compete to win the DiBa Club award”. Giddyup.

 

We are pleased to announce that the new Dyslexia Teaching Centre website is now live. The site is built on a WordPress Content Management System which allows the staff to update the site with latest news, events and publications relevant to the dyslexia community in London. The iste offers a new communication hub for people connected with the centre and we are delighted to have worked with the wonderful team at the DTC. We wish them success with the site and all the work they do. Thanks also go to our good friends and partners at Foxland with whom we developed the site.

For the second year running Phones 4u have won the Mobile News Awards with a set of entries designed by Zebra Crossing. Relating to the TV advertising we help them deliver we took the TV ad characters and used them in a Banksy, stencil style positioned around London, as if interacting with people as they walk by. We are delighted for Phones 4u and pleased that the work we do with them to deliver the TV ads (brilliant creative by WCRS) has been recognised.

With these entries also shortlisted for other awards we hope more success follows.

Carrying on the theme of using classic artist styles to generate a set of award entries for one of our biggest clients - phones 4u, this year we decided to pay homage to Banksy, arguably the most active and thought provoking artist in the last 12 months, certainly in Britain. Taking the characters out of the TV ads and creating a set of stencil style images imposed onto typical street art backgrounds we hope that we have again created a set of creative material to match the wonderfully whacky advertsing campaigns Phones 4u are entering. A fun job to execute we wish them luck in the awards.

 

Through our ongoing relationship as a supplier of media services with the multinational consulting, technology and outsourcing company Capgemini plc, we are in production of a series of interviews with Michael Portillo (former secretary of state for defence) and several of Capgemini’s largest clients. The 7 minute episodes are a chance for Michael, who acts as an advisor to Capgemini, to discuss the work they have delivered with the clients, finding out how it has changed the organisation and it’s people, and what it means to work with such a high profile delivery partner. Chief Executives from government and the private sector share their thoughts with Michael, the first episodes are now available to view from the Capgemini UK website with more to follow shortly.

The recent completion of brand development work, a series of detailed print documents and a web site for the Upper Lee Valley regeneration project saw the programme launched at an event at BAFTA this week. Being managed by the North London Strategic Alliance (a government quango) we delivered the work in partnership with Halogen the NLSA’s appointed communications agency.

The Upper Lee Valley stretches six miles from the Olympic fringes through Tottenham Hale up to the M25 – all within the Government’s ‘London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough’ growth corridor and is set to be one of the most high profile development areas in Europe in the next 10 years.

It is always exciting to be involved in the development of a new brand, but this feels especially significant given the importance of the area in the Capital city, so close the 2012 Olympic site. We kicked off with a workshop to understand the core values, aspirations and responsibilities of the new Upper Lee Valley brand, which led us onto the development of the literature and digital media.

See more in the design section.

This week saw the launch of the CIH Conference and Housing Exhibition site we created for the Chartered Institute of Housing and their event organisers, Ocean Media Group. The event - taking place in Harrogate this June - boasts a strong line-up of speakers, including Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo, Diane Abbott MP, David Smith – Economics Editor of the Sunday Times and leading US Economist David Shepherdson.
The CIH is the professional body for people working in housing across the UK and its conference and exhibition is the UK’s ultimate housing event. With Gordon Brown announcing an £8bn investment in housing in his first spending review, the conference will look at how the sector can deliver the government’s objective of decent and affordable housing for all.
Working closely with our partners at FoxLand, the site was built using WordPress and includes online booking functionality. More exciting functionality will be added to the site as the event draws closer - so watch this space!

Last night saw the first public screening of Nic Franklin’s latest short film, Room 32.
Played to a full house of cast, crew and invited guests at the Rex Cinema, Piccadilly the film which is inspired by the Jim Morrison poem Room 32 was well received. It’s an emotional piece where the main character is a schizophrenic battling with his inner demons. The lead role is played superbly by Mark Dymond, (James Bond - Die Another Day; Blackball; Dungeons & Dragons; Northanger Abbey). Thanks go to everyone involved.

Also screened for the first time was the recently completed Music Promo for the fantastic new London Band ‘The Standards’. Filmed in two separate locations, we hired a full size Circus tent and performers during the summer of 07, completing filming in November at Big Sky studios in London’s Kings Cross. The band are performing to their single ‘Needless to Say’ in a ghoulish early 1900’s surrounding.

Directed by Nic Franklin and produced by Luke Hammersley, big thanks go to the band and all involved, but especially to DoP Joel Anderson and compositors Marc Khachfe and Siobhan Bowers who worked incredibly hard to produce such fantastic results. The promo has been entered into various film festivals around the world… watch this space.