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When Coillte Panel Products decided to reposition their organisation and change their name to MEDITE SMARTPLY, a collaboration of their market leading product names, we were delighted to be asked to produce their new identity , guidelines and subsequent marketing communications.

Having worked with MEDITE SMARTPLY for four years, our designers were confident they could produce a fresh and innovative brand that would position the company and its products correctly as an innovator in the timber industry.

The end result is a contemporary and bold brand identity that repositions the organisation as manufacturers of world class MDF and OSB boards. We’ve completed a set of brand guidelines for the full suite of MEDITE and SMARTPLY’s innovative timber products that include new logotypes and their usage, stationery, typography and colour palettes. We are now working on product sample folders before moving onto new datasheets.

We recently designed a programme, schedule, DVD and folder (to house it all) for University College Birmingham’s second annual EUGANGS conference on responding to youth violence. The design and colour ways were influenced by the existing EUGANGS logo and brand. We used an attention-grabbing graffiti backdrop, stencil type lettering and added spray textures to give a bit of depth.

EUGANGS is a collaborative project whereby professionals from five countries, have to research, develop and accredit a new professional or vocational qualification for those working in Gang and Youth Crime environments across Europe.

Heathrow Commuter have partnered with Sustrans, the national walking and cycling charity, to deliver an engagement and route development programme to make cycling to work the easy choice for colleagues at the airport.

To get the programme off to a rolling start we developed an illustration-led poster, leaflet and pull up banner.

Creative Triangle were delighted to be asked by Heathrow VIP to produce invitations, menus and various other materials to help launch their collaboration with Michelin starred chef Jason Atherton.

Creative Triangle helps to launch the UK’s first Sustainable Restaurant Association guide for an airport – ‘Ingredients for Success’.

The design of the guide needed to echo the focus areas of the content – sustainability and being responsible. Central to the design was the production process and materials used. To promote sustainability, laser etching was used instead of traditional print processes. The folder was created without ink and the associated chemicals and is one of the first ring binder promotions produced using this method.

All the materials used were 100% recyclable and reusable. A folder was used rather than a book as this will allow the product to be updated sustainably by only needing to reprint the areas that require updating. As well as being strongly focused on sustainability, the design needed to sit in line with a range of different brands and had many different stakeholders.

Having developed the University College Birmingham’s ‘Apprenticeships’ identity, Creative Triangle were asked to create their Apprenticeship marketing material ready for National Apprenticeships day. Including posters and a cleverly designed z-card, the collateral which detailed all of the key information needed to encourage potential students to consider the apprenticeship route with UCB.

We used the bold strapline ‘EARN WHILE U L£ARN’, teamed with inspiring imagery and accessible script typography which created an eye-catching, colourful piece ideal for the target audience.

Heathrow commissioned Creative Triangle to create the look and feel for their Retail Business Partner Conference which took place last week at the BAFTA headquarters. The overarching theme was ‘Transforming Performance through Service’. Our design concept, which incorporated all the elements of retail at Heathrow, was then applied to the invitation and exhibition panels throughout the conference.

We’ve just finished working on the marketing materials for Birmingham Conservatoire’s Frontiers Festival of Contemporary Music. For the second year running we were asked to design a 20 page programme, A5 flyer and pull up banner.

This year the theme was ‘decomposing music’ and the design included visuals of knock-downed buildings. A nod to the Adrian Boult Hall’s imminent demolition and the new state-of-the-art Conservatoire building that is under construction.

We also supplied elements to be used by the client to create a consistent look and feel across their website and social media. Follow the festival on twitter @frontiersplus or find them on facebook/frontiersplus.

Having worked with Pal International for over 3 years on all of their marketing materials, Creative Triangle were asked to develop bespoke training packs for their MEDIPAL® wipes range. These packs include how and where to use the products, product information sheets, key features & benefits and safety data sheets for 5 different product areas. The information needed to be presented in an easy to read manner, colour coded and broken up with illustrations to allow the end-users, mainly NHS employees, to read at a glance the key product information including safety data as well as facilitate staff training.

As part of the airport’s ‘Responsible Heathrow’ action plan they will be installing over 135 more electric vehicle chargers to help shift greater numbers of vehicles used on and around the airport to electric power. To promote Heathrow’s commitment to reduce emissions and become the most environmentally responsible hub airport in the world, Creative Triangle were asked to clad several electric vehicles with ‘I’m electric’ graphics to be used across the campus – both airside and landside.

Menphys, our Charity of the Year, asked us to get into the Christmas spirt and support them by designing and printing their annual Carol Concert programme and participant’s certificate.

‘I wanted to express my many thanks for the carol concert programme and certificates you designed for us. It was commented on the night by both trustees and guests how exceptional they were.’ Ian Knight, Menphys Chairman.

Check out the programme in action – http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/pictures/Picture-Gallery-Menphys-Christmas-Concert/pictures-28299199-detail/pictures.html

By now you should have received our dazzling annual advent calendar – this years’ Strictly theme meant we were able to dress up to the max with feathers, glitter and even a bowl of fruit?! Check out our team page to find out what we’d be thrilled to find in our stockings this year…

Following the launch of their new brand earlier in the year, it was paramount that the University of Warwick’s postgraduate prospectus, a key piece of student recruitment collateral, reflected Warwick’s unique strengths and vision.

To aid navigation we colour coded the faculties, we left large areas of white space to make the information easier to absorb and used the triangle device to break up the copy and hold imagery. Through the bold application of the inspiring new brand, this 194pp perfect bound brochure with UV spot finish helps to position Warwick as a world leading university.

We have just completed our first project for Birmingham Hippodrome, one of the largest touring venues in the UK, during the exciting time of them launching their new brand identity.

Creative Triangle used the new brand to create a look and feel for ‘Hippodrome Heritage’ – splicing old with new, highlighting the importance of preserving the past while encouraging people to get involved in the project by either donating memorabilia or funds. We applied this theme to print adverts, posters, online banners, donation boxes and more.

After nearly a decade of using the same design layout, one of our first ever projects, The Front Line, has received a design development.

Having worked on plumbing and heating specialists, BSS Industrial’s bimonthly internal newsletter for nearly 9 years, although the old design was still well received by BSS employees, it was decided that this key piece of internal marketing needed to look more professional and feel more like a magazine.

The fresh look, which has gone down well with BSS colleagues, has a cleaner, more uniformed look and feel to the pages. With the regular features still making an appearance our job was to update and modernise through larger imagery, more breathing space around the titles and colour coded sectional tabs.

Creative Triangle are delighted to have been ranked no69 in Design Week’s Top 100 Consultancy Survey 2015.

Last month Birmingham City University’s textile students exhibited their ‘trends’ project work at the May Design Series at the ExCel in London. Creative Triangle were tasked with creating the supporting materials for the exhibition including a 12pp brochure, certificates for students, voting cards and exhibition panels.

The students created two room sets within the BCU exhibition stand influenced by two trends – Tropic & Brink – all marketing collateral we created showcased the two trends by creating a platform to incorporate images of the students’ work within the design.

Creative Triangle’s first ‘Charity of the Year’ is Menphys – a local charity who care for Leicester and Leicestershire children and young people with disabilities as well as supporting their families. We will be donating our design and marketing skills to help promote the charity in order to raise much needed funds.

Creative Triangle have been ranked 4th in the UK for our size (10-19 staff) in this year’s annual design industry poll by The Drum. The national census is based on financial performance as well as client and peer polls – thank you so much to everyone who voted for us – we are delighted to be named an Elite Agency.

Heathrow asked Creative Triangle to produce an overall design concept for a brand new Airside Operations Facility that offers a number of new facilities for both staff and visitors. The project included choosing soft furnishings and ensuring all concepts fitted within the Airside and overall Heathrow branding style.

The result is a bright, clean and professional interior that is ready to handle a busy day that Airside Heathrow demands. Using a mixture of Airside graphics, photos, maps and historic timelines, the building acknowledges Heathrow’s successful past whilst looking very much to the exciting future.

For visitors who complete one of the extensive Airside training packages there is a flexible training room and driver simulator rooms. For staff, there are over 250 lockers (2 per person), a drying room, a rest room and kitchen that provides a relaxing area airside. There are also office spaces for all airside duty staff via 26 desks and a series of meeting and conference rooms for day to day meetings or for more specific airside crises.

Creative Triangle are delighted to announce that we have been nominated again this year at the Leicester Mercury Business Awards for Small Business of the Year!

When RS Components, the global distributor for engineers, expanded and reorganised their sales team they needed to make sure that their clients were familiarised with both their dedicated key account managers and internal account managers. Creative Triangle were tasked with designing, printing and personalising a direct mail campaign which involved organising a photo shoot of all the account managers. The direct mailer needed to be simple and easy to absorb, selling the key benefits of the improved customer service and ordering process.

Claire Cox – RS Marketing Specialist UK&IRE said “Creative Triangle took my brief and came up with a pack that fitted my needs, it was compelling and has been well received by my internal sales department. It has been recognised by our customers and achieved our objective of seeing increased calls into our internal sales department, an all-round win win!”

Introducing the final report by The Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value titled Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth.

The 72pp perfect bound report features a book jacket with a spot white foil finish and draws inspiration from Swiss Style modernism. We used bold typography to make sure no reader would miss the Commission’s key recommendations and the most poignant statistics.

The cover illustration was designed to symbolise the Cultural and Creative Industries Ecosystem – each of the nine industries overlap – together they form the Ecosystem.

Read the full report and recommendations here.

To make sure the Heathrow community were informed about every step in a series of phased airline moves into its new Terminal 2 : The Queens Terminal, Heathrow asked Creative Triangle to package the information in the most accessible format we could produce. We created a simple infographic and a handy guide to be emailed a week ahead of each move. The infographics were so well received, Heathrow added them to its Facebook page and extended the concept to other airline moves and projects.

Evolving from an advertisement concept created for Coillte, Creative Triangle have recently developed a direct marketing campaign directed towards 500 UK demolition contractors and hoarding specialists. Specifically selling SmartPly SiteProtect product, the concept behind the mailing was to promote SiteProtect’s core competence of being ready prepared site hoarding to take away. Housed in a traditional take away box, the recipient received a wallet promoting the save time, save money idea together with a product sample and a leaflet promoting the benefits of being able to reduce labour costs as the site hoarding is ready to paint.

We are eagerly awaiting the sales results for the campaign but initial feedback from recipients has been favourable both to the product and also to the innovative mailing they received.

Collecting customer feedback is relatively straightforward, yet the probability of someone successfully acting on it depends on how well it’s communicated within a company. Could infographics help get the message across? Read more

Having worked with University College Birmingham for many years, Creative Triangle were entrusted to design and artwork this year’s School Leavers’ prospectus. This 88 paged A5 booklet needed to really grab the attention of their target audience, be easy to read, present the detailed course information in a digestible manner and successfully promote the university’s key selling points – their outstanding OFSTED feedback and their wide range of functional apprenticeships and courses. The design was influenced by current fashion trends – such as the Ed Hardy brand – so to appeal to the target audience of school leavers and to encourage them to reach for this prospectus. Click here to view the full prospectus.

Look out for this year’s Creative Triangle chocolate advent calendars which will have landed on our clients’ desks this week! Check out our team page to find out who’s who and what our team wouldn’t be without on Christmas Day…

Heathrow VIP, the airport’s premier service, tasked Creative Triangle with their re-launch event email invitations, gift bags and merchandise, event banners and promotional film. The collateral needed to promote Heathrow VIP’s services as luxurious and exclusive and echo their philosophy of providing a personal and seamless airport experience. Producing branded moleskin notepads, high end trident pens with a matt finish, housed with the VIP brochure in a gift bag that had a UV spot logo to finish. The promotional video, showcased on screens at the re-launch event at The May Fair Hotel and also on the chauffeur car screens, utilised imagery of the new lounges and descriptions of their offerings and key selling points.

Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, educates and trains musicians to the highest of professional standards. Be it solo performance or orchestra, jazz or classical, the wide variety of creative talent emanating from the Conservatoire really had us inspired.

We were tasked with reinvigorating the autumn concert and events diary. The sixty page diary contained listings for over 100 recitals, events and masterclasses. Utmost importance was placed on designing a flexible layout that gave prominence to the key details. Click here to view the full diary and find out more.

Introducing IN THE BAG and Grey Matter; two very different newsletters for Lafarge Tarmac cement solutions customers.

Lafarge Tarmac are a leading supplier of packed cement products – IN THE BAG’s audience includes Builders Merchants and Trade Counters, both the warehouses and the small, independents. We designed and provided copy for a new eye-catching newsletter full of useful product & technical information, exciting competitions and articles that give buyers an insight into daily life at Lafarge Tarmac.

Meanwhile over at bulk cement, we gave Grey Matter – a pre-established newsletter now in its seventh issue – a makeover using elements of the new Lafarge Tarmac brand. So far feedback on the refresh has been positive. The audience for bulk cement have come to expect excellent sales and tech support, health & safety advice and useful information on cement applications, standards and innovations.

We’re looking forward to working on the next two newsletters.

Over the last 3 years Creative Triangle have been working closely with Heathrow to create a variety of collateral in preparation for the new Terminal 2. We started off by creating internal maps of all levels and developing airside maps showing the location of the new terminal. We also created early stakeholder engagement and safety campaigns during the build, trial volunteer recruitment, employee induction experiences and finally produced a host of familiarisation guides; all fitting in with a bespoke T2 communications style.

The familiarisation guides aim was to make sure all new starters were fully conversant with the new terminal. This is a key success factor in the smooth opening and day-to-day running of T2.

Creative Triangle created all 26, department specific, familiarisation guides, which varied from a simple pocket sized z-card to a detailed 200 page technical document including an introduction to T2, detailed, fold out maps and health and safety information.

Now Terminal 2 is open, Creative Triangle are closely involved with the comms surrounding the gradual airline moves into the terminal over the next 6 months.

Her Majesty the Queen has made it official – Heathrow’s Terminal 2 : The Queen’s Terminal is now open.

Creative Triangle are delighted to have been ranked in Design Week’s Top 100 Consultancy Survey 2014.

Having worked with University College Birmingham for many years, we were delighted to be asked to design a campaign to encourage their students to complete the National Student Satisfaction survey. The campaign needed to be bold and eye catching. We created the intriguing strapline – ‘What’s in it for U’ – which played on the existing use of the ‘U’ and helped to grab students attention– this campaign was applied to posters, flyers and pop ups across the campus. We also designed and produced a life size ‘U’ to go into the reception area which was to be filled with sweets helping to visualise how many students were completing the survey and how close the University was to achieving their target. The University have had the best response ever in terms of numbers completing the survey this year.

If you want to rank the UK’s best design agencies, you have to measure the factors that count – client satisfaction, peer recognition, and financial performance. That’s the job of The Drum Design Census, The Drum’s annual industry poll. For the best-performing agencies – those that end up in the top 20 – The Drum awards Elite status.

And this year we came 14th in the small-agency category (up to 10 designers). If you were among the many happy clients who voted for us, a big, big ‘thank-you’. We’re overwhelmed by your loyalty and support.

Massive congratulations to our client, Heathrow Commuter, for winning Transport Team of the year at the London Transport Awards last night.

The Avenue, formerly the Avenue Coking Works, is an exciting and ambitious project. It involves transforming 98 hectares of heavily polluted industrial land back into a place that can be used and enjoyed by both people and wildlife. Following their successful involvement with the creation and later refurbishment of the Avenue’s innovative project visitor centre, Creative Triangle were asked to design and print regular newsletters to engage with people living near to the site. These informative newsletters are needed to update locals on the project’s progress and site activity as keeping all stakeholders updated is paramount to the project’s success. By using light and bright colours we’ve given the newsletter an appealing look and feel; making it easy to read and digest. The uncoated paper stock takes it back to its roots by showing consideration for the environment.

Creative Triangle are thrilled to announce that we have been nominated for the Creative Industries Business of the Year at the Leicester Mercury Business Awards!

Before Heathrow opens its doors to welcome passengers to its newest terminal, Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal, in June 2014, they are running nearly 200 trials to check that everything works exactly as it should.

Creative Triangle have been tasked with the role of creating the communications to attract the airport community to volunteer to take part in these proving trials. The volunteer recruitment campaign includes a series of posters, direct mailers and newsletters. Heathrow’s target is to have 14,000 people volunteer and our job is to not only help recruit these volunteers but also to engage with them, create excitement and build rapport.

We are thrilled to have recently starting working with the University of Warwick and have just completed our first project for them.

The University of Warwick tasked Creative Triangle with the development of a visual device for their new Centre of Professional Education, this had to compliment and work within the University’s existing identity. The visual device needed to firmly position the Centre as a department of the University of Warwick, the design needed to be clean, fresh, understated and modern and the solution needed to be accessible both online and offline.

So far the visual device has been applied to email banners with plans to roll out the look and feel on all marketing collateral for the Centre. And we have just been awarded our second project for the University – a complimentary visual device for the Centre of Education Studies.

Happy 2014 – we hope you enjoy our shapely, colourful desk calendars this year! (If anyone didn’t receive one and would like one then please let us know).

Creative Triangle are thrilled to announce that we have been ranked 73rd in the Recommended Agencies Register’s Top 100 Agencies Outside London for 2013. This poll is based on best growth, profitability and efficiency and ranks agencies relating to their financial performance as well as customer satisfaction.

By now, this years’ pantomime themed chocolate advent calendars should have landed on our clients’ desks to enjoy throughout December!

To learn more about The Creative Panto’s characters and for even more of a giggle check out our team page!

When Heathrow asked us to take a fresh look at their terminal retail guides we were thrilled. Each edition has four slightly different versions, tailored to the products available in each of the terminals.

SHOWCASE, is a bi-monthly 34 page guide highlighting some of the many delights available at Heathrow. With more than 75 big brand shops and over 40 places to eat there’s certainly a lot to ‘showcase’ to passengers. So far we’ve completed the Sept/Oct edition and the Nov/Dec Christmas special featuring hundreds of great gift ideas.

The Showcase suite also comprises of Summer Essentials – a 12 page glossy guide, packed full of savings on last-minute holiday must-haves. The summer edition of the Companion Guide – an eye-catching, 24 page, insider’s guide to what’s on in London in August. And the Technology Guide – an in-depth guide to the latest tech trends, featuring a combination of editorial and product information.

We can’t wait to get started on the next one!

Having worked for Harvey Ingram for over five years, we were very excited for them when they merged with Shakespeares making them the second largest law firm in the Midlands.

We have recently completed the latest edition of ‘Talking Shop’ – the retail newsletter going out to all their retail clients and target clients. With the merger complete, this edition needed to take on the Shakespeares’ brand. It needed to be bold and confident and follow a new set of guidelines – cementing Shakespeares’ retail expertise. It also needed to reassure clients of Harvey Ingram that the same team is in place and has expanded with major new hires.

Heathrow has commissioned Creative Triangle to design and install an induction room for all new operational employees at the airport to make sure that they have an excellent understanding of Heathrow’s vision and brand.

Central to the induction room is a large ariel view of the airport printed onto a carpet with moveable 3D buildings (terminals, control tower etc) and props including airplanes, police cars etc. This floor activity has many uses – it encourages inductees to ‘take their shoes off’ and get involved, it works as a simple familiarisation tool and it clearly shows what makes Heathrow.

To break up the training sessions there are several interactive magnetic games around the room – encouraging inductees to consider components that make up the airport; retail, airlines, partners etc. There is a timeline printed onto the walls travelling around the room that depicts Heathrow’s journey of development – designed to enthuse and excite.

To encourage inductees to put the passenger at the heart of everything they do we created a passenger profile game using shoes to represent the different passengers, such as business, connecting, families etc.

For the past 3 years we have designed the University College Birmingham’s two public restaurants’ leaflet. This year they wanted to change the look and feel of the leaflet to ensure it mirrored the newly refurbished restaurants’ quality and sophistication. Through the use of bold colours and stylized illustrations we have created a leaflet that really showcases a key asset to the university. The use of a UV spot on the cover has added an extra touch of elegance.

Having a clear, detailed and easy to use welfare response plan at Heathrow is imperative, making sure that eventualities are covered and everyone knows their role, actions and responsibilities. We have just finished designing and artworking this 174pp A4 folder. Michelle Smith, Head of Passenger Welfare at Heathrow, described the file as ‘being key to Heathrow’s planned welfare response during major disruptions such as extreme weather conditions’. Michelle added that they are ‘really happy with the result and were impressed with Creative Triangle’s dedication to the project’.

We have just designed and printed two guides for new students at the University of Lincoln. The first one, entitled ‘Student Handbook’ – aimed at undergraduates – needed to be eye catching, vibrant and exciting. We used bold imagery and graphic devices to lead the student through the booklet. The second guide – this time for postgraduate students – needed to be clean and contemporary and more sophisticated. These A5 booklets both contained all the information a new student at the university would need when embarking on a degree at Lincoln. The design and content were tailored to the different target audiences and both fitted within the University’s brand.

Pal International, market leaders in disinfectant & cleaning wipes, hygiene workwear and chefs’ headwear, have commissioned a new corporate brochure. The brochure needed to be internationally appealing so to stand up against and have presence amongst Pal’s competitors in the industry. The company’s global image was displayed through an embossed map made from circles with silver foil blocking highlighting Pal’s global presence.

Creative Triangle were also appointed to direct a photo shoot for the brochure including product shots, team shots and also staff working in situ in their factory. The brochure’s clean, bold design reflects the company’s core values; innovation, customer focus and research & development.

Creative Triangle have been ranked 88th in Design Week’s ‘The Top 100 Consultancy Survey 2013’.

Coillte Panel Products are part of Coillte, an innovative and sustainable Irish forestry and forest products company. We were delighted to have been approached to help launch their panel product brands, Medite and SmartPly, across Europe. We have designed and artworked several advertisements for trade press (building and construction magazines) in a range of different languages for a host of different products. Following the success of the advertisement campaign, Coillte have asked us to create the marketing material for the European Panel Federation AGM (for which Coillte are the host) – it includes a brochure, exhibition equipment, event programme and signage.

Creative Triangle are delighted to have just achieved Recommended Agency status.

Heathrow have planned many passenger facing events across the airport this summer. For the first event they have teamed up with the Royal Horticultural Society to promote the National Gardening Week and the Chelsea Flower Show. To involve the staff, we have been asked to come up with an internal campaign which makes them feel part of the celebrations and helps them embrace the passenger event.

We have designed a 6 page DL leaflet with key event highlights and staff offers, a competition postcard to win an iPad by designing a flowerbed and an activities postcard and envelope aimed at children to engage the staffs’ families, for example how to make your own bird feeder and how to make plants from food.

We are excited to have started working on our first project for leading global information services company, Experian.

Last year Experian acquired 192business, an identity verification provider.  We were briefed to come up with the creative and message for an awareness campaign to announce the rebrand of 192business as Experian Identity and Fraud and raise brand awareness in two new sectors – online retail and gaming. We have applied this campaign across a number of channels – adverts in trade journals and magazines, email templates, web banners and pop up stands for exhibitions.

The final result was a campaign that had different straplines and images for each of the different target sectors.  We used large, impactful images and punchy straplines with careful consideration of the brand awareness Experian wanted to achieve within these new sectors.  

Creative Triangle have helped develop the standards for airside internal communications at Heathrow. There are close to 80,000 people working at Heathrow and many of them are responsible for airside operations. To ensure all of those who work airside receive consistent communications, we have developed design guidelines and content managed and produced literature used in staff training and awareness campaigns including brochures, maps, posters, z-cards and many more.

With so many employees having the responsibility of driving a host of different vehicles airside, we were asked to produce an interactive and challenging piece of communication that could be used in staff training programmes. Every person who drives airside needs to complete a test and also needs to re-sit that test every five years. Heathrow’s concern was that the staff training was not consistent and needed a pack that could be given to trainers allowing them to offer a consistent approach to the test.

The result was to produce an interactive DVD with notes that contained a film covering all of the major health and safety factors that arise whilst driving airside.  We conceptualised & programmed the training DVD which includes short videos filmed onsite and interactive training aides which complement and reiterate the information in the videos and allow the participant to engage with the trainer in highlighting possible problems that could arise whilst driving airside. The short videos are categorised making it easy to navigate through the information. The training aides are a fun, interactive way of recapping on important key points discussed in the videos.

“Proving the county can hold its own when it comes to competing with the big players in London…”

Creative Triangle has just featured in the latest edition of the Leicester Mercury’s Business Monthly supplement.

Photo: Courtesy of Leicester Mercury

For the third year running we were asked by Lafarge – now Lafarge Tarmac – to design, produce and install the graphic elements to their two-storey stand at Ecobuild – the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment.

Their feature exhibit, Cool Concrete, was an educational experience that challenged visitors to look at the future of sustainable construction materials and their manufacture.

The design evolved from the creation of four distinct zones, each with their own identity.  An Innovation Zone and a Legacy Zone highlighted some of the sustainable rejuvenation projects Lafarge Tarmac have been involved with.  The other two zones were Manufacturing and Construction.  Here Lafarge Tarmac demonstrated, through project examples, their sustainable and innovative solutions.  We created eight large light-box panels, which told the story behind each zone and in total, ten large photographic banners to give each zone a different look and feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP-Ud5m59bs

Photography: www.tristanpoyser.com

We are pleased to announce that we have been ranked 43rd in The Drum’s Top 100 UK Design Agencies and 4th in the East Midlands. The Drum’s Design 100 offers a comprehensive financial review of the 100 top-performing agencies in the UK design industry. As well as ranking highly in the top 100 for our financial credentials – we came 6th in the Client Poll for Value For Money!

http://www.thedrum.com/design-100/2013

We have just completed our first project for Saint-Gobain, world leaders in design, production and distribution of construction materials, delivering innovative products and services. We were delighted to have been invited to design and produce a limited edition book to celebrate the opening of Saint-Gobain’s Innovation Centre. The Innovation Centre showcases innovative and sustainable products and services within the construction industry, helps to raise the profile of Saint-Gobain and exemplifies their strategic focus: to be the reference for sustainable habitat. The book needed to be of highest quality and was designed as a ‘keep-sake’ to be enjoyed by the VIPs attending the launch event.

The book was 260mm square, 24 pages and printed on Fedrigoni Sirio Pietra stock – a perfect match to Saint-Gobain’s corporate colour – PMS 423. It included large images and full pages of block colour to break up the text, bracket graphics throughout were used as a linking device between relating features (i.e. a quote and an image) and there is a double page timeline to visually represent Saint-Gobain’s 350 year history of innovation. The cover of the book was simple yet effective with a UV Spot title and the Innovation Centre logo and each book was personalised with a limited edition number – highlighting the limited print run and emphasising the exclusivity of the book. The book was displayed in a presentation box with a black foam inner to hold a branded USB stick and the book.

We turned this project around – from receiving the brief to delivering the finished article – in just four weeks (which included digesting the guidelines which were new to us), in time for their VIP launch event last week.

The objective of Heathrow’s low-carbon strategy is to reduce emissions across the airport – the Energy Centre is a new facility which is set to play a significant role in doing so.

We have created an A6, 42 page, spiral bound familiarisation booklet for internal stakeholders which introduces them to the Energy Centre. The brief was to create a ‘handy’ reference booklet full of information that can be conveniently absorbed by the reader.

The booklet, which includes safety information, access details and operational essentials, has been designed to be tangible, practical and accessible to all. A pipe work illustration, which represents the pipe work that carries hot water around the airport, guides the reader through the booklet. There are illustrations to add interest to each page and key facts and figures travelling around the pipe work illustrations to highlight important information. Fold out pages show the process diagram which visually describes the workings of the Energy Centre and compliments the copy.

Pat McLaughlin, Heathrow’s Generation Maintenance Manager, gave us some feedback on the project –
‘A very useful, well designed and informative booklet that worked well for the familiarisation of Heathrow’s newest asset…graphics were good and the mixture of these and text worked well.’

Events, such as LAMMA (the UK’s leading farm machinery equipment and service show) and BTME (Europe’s leading showcase for turf professionals and buyers), are a fantastic way for our client, Lafarge Tarmac, to showcase their products and to reach different industries directly.

Lafarge Tarmac offer a wide range of durable, versatile aggregates from sites across the country. Aggregates can be used in a variety of applications both above and below the surface. We often see aggregates used for decorative purposes; for landscaping, footpaths and driveways. But there are also many uses for aggregates underground, including in concrete and asphalt production, sub-base, capping and drainage systems.

Creative Triangle have developed a design concept for 13 exhibition panels which effectively illustrates the different applications of Lafarge Tarmac’s range of aggregates. The panels tell the story of each aggregate – how it’s made and it’s usages. Illustrations have been used to show how each type of aggregate could be applied to the industry, icons highlight the key features and benefits and large images with close-ups of the products demonstrate their properties. There are Perspex display boxes to showcase the products which complement the panels. The exhibition panels work as a travelling exhibition stand which can be used at industry events across the country.

Creative Triangle beat off stiff competition from local and national design agencies to win the project to deliver brand development, marketing materials and a new website for the multinational brand leader Pal International.

We will be working towards the launch of Medipal, an innovative range of healthcare infection prevention products which Pal International will be launching to the NHS in spring 2013.

Alex Brucciani, Managing Director of Pal International said “We’re delighted to have Creative Triangle on board and are looking forward to working with them over the coming months. Our team was impressed at the work they had done in understanding our brand and work. It’s particularly important for Pal International to work with local businesses where we can, and we were thrilled to find an agency that fitted the bill in Leicester”.

“Winning this local contract was excellent news for us” said Jo McBean, owner of Creative Triangle. “It’s excellent to be working with Pal International, a key Leicestershire multinational business and the team is looking forward to helping the Medipal brand to grow”.

In January 2012 we decided to put our iPhoneography skills to the test using Instagram (for the uninitiated it’s like Twitter with photographs). We started looking for triangles in our every-day surroundings. Our 2013 desk calendars reveal some of our collection.

We are still hunting for the three sided shapes, be they shadows, reflections, stones or simply triangles. Search #creativetriangle on Instagram and see how we are getting on.

Join in by tagging your shot #creativetriangle

Lafarge Aggregates and Concrete UK – part of Lafarge, world leaders in construction materials, wanted to promote the key features of their Readymix division’s concrete products within the building industry. So we designed a concept to be applied to a suite of adverts to go into various building and industrial magazines and online banners. Our design encouraged potential clients, through the use of strong imagery, to ‘take a closer look’ at each of the products’ key features and benefits including agility, aesthetics, versatility, permeability and strength. The adverts were so successful we also applied them to chocolate advent calendars for the festive season!

During the sporting summer an integrated marketing campaign encouraged 2,500 Heathrow employees to suspend their car park pass for two months, enabling the airport to prepare for an unprecedented increase in staff levels and to reduce the pressure on staff car parks.

Creative Triangle worked with Heathrow Commuter, part of the airport’s sustainable transport team, to create a simple and effective campaign that could convince Heathrow employees to choose an alternative way to travel to work. The ‘Car Park Pass Swap’ – a scheme through which staff could suspend their car park pass for two months in return for £200 worth of fuel, a £200 cycle voucher, a Heathrow Travelcard for the bus network or a zones 3–6 Oyster card for the London Underground was the basis of the marketing campaign. The communications strategy was based on the support of multiple stakeholders and communications channels across the many companies based at the airport. Using multiple mediums such as posters, leaflets, adverts for external and internal newsletters, the airport newspaper to support a monthly column, as well as the Heathrow Commuter website, outdoor advertising at car park bus stops, direct mail and emails.

The campaign was able to achieve maximum awareness, consideration and ultimately a conversion to scheme members, with a simple graphic of ‘Car Park Pass Swap’ which creatively provided a visual thread throughout all the reiterations of the campaign posters (we extended the scheme closure date twice), multiple emails to existing employee member driven databases and eventually a ‘recommend a friend’ competition which provided just under 10% of the overall successful applications.

Over 4,500 employees applied for the Car Park Pass Swap scheme and just under 2,500 car park passes were suspended meeting Heathrow Commuter’s target and keeping staff car park capacity stable during the sporting summer.

When James, Angela, Steve and David (the Winning Recipe Team) from Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK took part in the Million Makers Challenge to raise money for The Prince’s Trust, we were happy to lend them a helping hand.

The team created a 112 page Big Sports Recipe Book featuring recipes from sports stars such as Jenson Button, Colin Jackson, Rebecca Adlington and Steven Gerrard. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to The Prince’s Trust.

We donated our time, design and project management skills; designing and artworking the book. The design and layout needed to be appealing, smart and easy to follow. Steve Lea, from the Winning Recipe Team, said: “Lafarge is proud to support The Prince’s Trust, a charity which is changing young lives every day. We hope our recipe book, created with the expertise of Creative Triangle, will prove a success and help us raise valuable funds for The Prince’s Trust.”

If you want to find out which meals our sports personalities associate with winning or if you fancy cooking a few sporty dinners during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games then please buy ‘The Big Sports Recipe Book’ and help us raise money for The Prince’s Trust!

Click here to buy the book from Bene Factum Publishing (If you buy from Bene Factum and The Prince’s Trust will get more money!)

Or buy the book from Amazon

We’ve been very busy working with Leicester City Council on the pioneering Food Enterprise Workshop.

The Food Enterprise Workshop is an innovative new project, funded through the Working Neighbourhoods Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. Their aim is to provide workshops with professional supervision, guidance and support to individuals from Leicester – a broad and multicultural City – who are interested in starting their own food businesses.

Based at Leicester Indoor Market they have a purpose built workshop equipped with catering facilities. They offer free workshops which cover legalities, business basics, marketing and food hygiene and provide the opportunity to trail your food business in a market environment. We created a fresh new identity and brand for the project, something which appeals to the diverse target audience and is easily applied to a multitude of platforms. Importantly we designed a crisp enough identity to really stand out against the loud, vibrant, crowded market environment in which it is situated.

We have designed a series of posters which play on the idea of turning food into profit for example ‘turn limes into lolly’. We have also created workbooks, wall graphics and a website. We used vivid images of texture-rich ingredients such as chillies and mussels throughout the campaign to attract attention and play upon the senses of any budding food entrepreneur, from baker to Indian chef, Jamaican cook to preservist.

Head down to the Indoor Food Hall at Leicester Market or visit www.thefoodworkshop.co.uk to have a look!

Following on from the success of Lafarge’s Fibonacci inspired, limited edition book, which we designed to support their stand at the 2011 Ecobuild exhibition; We were very excited to have been invited to work with them on this year’s Cool Concrete exhibition.

More than a year ago Lafarge decided to build a life-sized representation of a concrete home based on the famous Barcelona Pavillion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The stand demonstrates a practical solution for sustainable housing and informs buyers of the range of innovative products and materials that are available from their aggregates and concrete, asphalt and cement divisions.

Lafarge built their Cool Concrete house by abiding to their 20 rules of sustainable construction. We had a huge task ahead of us designing the brand identity, a thank you and a spiral bound VIP sketchbook which was designed to aid in planning building work from concept to reality. The internal and external exhibition graphics for the stand along with promotional materials and postcards were also part of this exciting design brief.

With nearly two hundred individually designed graphic elements in the Cool Concrete home, we ensured a clear and consistent style throughout emphasising the 20 rules. We wanted customers to interact with the house and the sustainable materials it had been created with. We designed fun graphics to create interest and applied these onto blinds, cushions and chalkboards, along with vinyl wall graphics depicting furniture to help the customer to visualise a real home.

The project was designed, art worked, manufactured and installed in just over two weeks!

We were delighted to hear that Lafarge have won the award for most sustainable stand by the UK Green Building Council at Ecobuild.
Check out the link below to photographer Tristan Poyser’s time lapse video of the Lafarge Cool Concrete home building constructed.

http://youtu.be/YSAH22Xrzwo

Following on from the success of the University of Lincoln’s Applicant Open Day postcard, we were asked to design and print a leaflet summarizing the University’s assets. The University requested an enticing piece of collateral to hand out at their Open Days and Higher Education fairs. We developed the same minimal, contemporary design of the postcards, with a silver block finish. We were also asked to design and produce 15 pull up banners and apply a silver, mirrored effect vinyl to the banners to compliment the design of the postcard and leaflet.

As we have worked with the University of Lincoln for many years we have a good understanding of their corporate identity and the style and tone to be captured within their literature. The strong working relationship we have with the University means we are able to turn projects, like this one, around quickly and efficiently – exceeding the client’s brief and coming in on budget (if not under!).

PTS has been an advocate of renewable energy technology for a number of years and opened its dedicated renewables branch in 2008, the first facility to use working displays to educate installers. With the evolution of the renewables market in the UK, PTS are now leading the way in the supply of renewable energy products direct to its customers. PTS decided it was about time they updated their marketing collateral to illustrate the diverse range of renewable products they stock, which are available within their 300 branches.

The new Renewables guide is the first PTS brochure to solely promote Renewable and Sustainable Energy products. We designed a 56 page A4 product guide depicting products which are available under section headings such as ‘Solar Thermal’ and ‘Rainwater Harvesting’. This involved collating and artworking information from over 30 of PTS’ suppliers. Using emotive imagery to represent the different elements, together with product images and product features and benefits, this clear and concise brochure offers a great overview of PTS’ Renewables offering. This brochure will be used as a key sales tool for branches to use to help sell and advise on the various renewable ranges.

The BSS Group is established as one of the UK’s leading companies supplying both the industrial and domestic markets with heating, plumbing, process and mechanical services equipment. Plumbing Trade Supplies forms part of the Domestic Division of The BSS Group and have always supplied a comprehensive range of bathroom, heating and plumbing products to a wide range of customers.

We have been asked by Heathrow Airport to create a set of internal stakeholder communications to create a buzz of excitement and engage them in the redevelopment of Terminal 2. Initially we have designed a bi-monthly newsletter, ‘T2 Taking shape’, which has been emailed to staff outlining the construction programme and key milestones for the project. Following this we designed a series of posters which depict staff’s individual involvement in the T2 project. Three of these poster designs, along with matching tent cards, have just been printed and will be circulated throughout Heathrow.

If you live in or around Leicestershire then you may have already seen the latest project we’ve been involved in – ‘Leicester: The Ultimate Guide 2011’. After a successful pitch to Le-One (City Centre Management), we were asked to create the initial design and guidelines for this booklet, which is filled with eye catching imagery and vibrant colours. This 132 page booklet was delivered to over 47,000 houses across Leicestershire and 3,000 businesses in Leicester promoting all that is fabulous about Leicester City Centre.

The short-lists have been announced for Design Week & Marketing Week’s ‘The Blade Awards 2011′ … and Creative Triangle are delighted to announce that we have been short-listed in the Design category for Lafarge’s ‘A journey of discovery’ book! The Blades are a creative award scheme judged solely by clients, and review creative execution. The judging panel looks for memorable creative communications and appraises how brilliant ideas can achieve brand buzz and brand vitality.

The first edition of Lafarge Readmix’s quarterly internal newsletter needed to enthuse and inspire and Creative Triangle, having a vast amount of experience in designing newsletters and magazines, were straight on the job! The aim of having a newsletter dedicated to the Readmix sector of Lafarge was to encourage the nationwide teams to share stories and connect with each other.

We created a template for the newsletter that was both readable and exciting. We balanced the longer feature stories with shorter ‘Did you know…?’ snippets and images for accessibility – even if the reader only had time to skim read the newsletter they would still be able to absorb some of the content.

The newsletter has just been sent out to over 400 of Lafarge’s staff and we are looking forward to the next one!

‘Think past our brand guidelines…reach a vast audience…inspire the unknown’ were all part of the University of Lincoln’s recent brief for the design of their new marketing literature aimed at prospective postgraduate students. Postgraduate students are probably the hardest audience for the University to market itself to – having the largest age range, coming from a mix of different backgrounds and all having different life experiences. We were given the task of producing a poster and a postcard advertising the University’s Postgraduate Open Days. The collateral needed to inspire, motivate and encourage prospective postgraduate students, through the use of uplifting imagery and colours we have created a design that rings positivity and freedom.

We have recently completed a new A4 brochure for PTS, Plumbing Trade Supplies. The new brochure is titled ‘Buying Solutions Supplier’ and has been produced to target social housing providers / buyers to illustrate the massive range of products available through the PTS network. This 80 page sales brochure involved collating information from 30 of PTS’ suppliers and artworking the varying amounts of text and images into a consistent design throughout. PTS will be using this new brochure as an important sales and reference tool for social housing landlords and public sector customers to use via the Buying Solutions EU Compliant Framework Agreement.

We would like to congratulate our client, Heathrow Commuter for their recent success at the London Transport Awards. Heathrow Commuter, Heathrow’s airport sustainable travel team, won the Excellence in travel information and marketing award for their Save 75% off Heathrow Connect campaign – for which Creative Triangle designed the supporting material.

The campaign was described by judges as having ‘impressive results from a comprehensive marketing strategy’.

Heathrow Commuter, Heathrow Airport’s sustainable travel team, launched a car share campaign in March promoting ‘Half Price Fuel’. Heathrow has the largest car share scheme in Europe but still find that a savings message is the most affective way to generate awareness and recall amongst the 76,000 employees who are the potential target.

Our challenge was not only to come up with a memorable way of communicating ‘Half Price Fuel’ but to roll the concept out across lots of other mediums that would help to generate registrations to the scheme.

Our approach focused on creating a headline and graphic that worked like an illustration, it gave us a presence in print that we were able to scale up and down for online promotions on intranets, screens and emails and ultimately at registration events in the four terminals, which resulted in just over 500 employees joining the scheme that month. We also launched a new call to action through this campaign – a text service. Monitoring responses will help to establish a preference for getting in touch for the next one.

We have recently completed the design and artwork of PTS’ (Plumbing Trade Supplies) ‘Bathrooms 2011’ brochure. This is the 3rd year we have produced this successful brochure showcasing the latest range of bathrooms and accessories available across all 300+ PTS branches.

We developed a fresh, contemporary design for the A4 brochure, aimed at the end-user, that effectively positions PTS as one of the leading distributors of plumbing, heating and sanitaryware in the UK.

The 2011 brochure now includes prices for all products too. We have already received very positive feedback from the client and we are very proud of the finished product – an attractive and user friendly piece of sales collateral.

We were recently commissioned by Lafarge, to design and print a limited edition book to compliment their stand at this year’s EcoBuild event. Lafarge built a spiral sculpture, made from sustainable construction materials, based on the Fibonacci sequence. The unique book, ‘A journey of discovery’, was written and designed to illustrate the power of the Fibonacci sequence and how this relates everything we do back to nature.

Through the use of beautiful images, delicate graphics and emotive copy lines we created a striking and enticing book which accentuates the significance of sustainability to Lafarge. We layered graphics over images of natural scenery to emphasise how the Fibonacci pattern is at the core of nature.

As sustainability was key to this project, the book has been printed on 100% recycled uncoated paper. The covers are made of unlined grey board, chosen to emulate the materials used within the spiral sculpture. The title of the book has been crushed into the grey board cover – subtle and tactile, giving emphasis to the book’s central topic; nature.

To emphasise the uniqueness of the each book we personalised every one by stamping it with its own number, from the Fibonacci sequence of course! To finish the book, we added a wrap around cover – hinting at the contents and pulling the variety of imagery together.

As well as the book, we designed promotional event material such as invites, graphic panels, seating plans and table cloths.

The client was delighted with the final book, referring to it as a “stunning keepsake, part of EcoBuild history”.

Our carefully designed Strategic Regeneration Area brochure for the Leicester City Council finally went to print and this high profile brochure detailing regeneration projects even made the East Midlands News. Feedback from both the client and stakeholders has been very positive – Rob Hincks, LCC Project Manager said “We are all delighted with the finished product, it really helps us to ‘talk-up’ Leicester and give the city the positive image it deserves” but the final comment from the East Midlands News presenter tops it all – ‘It even smells nice’.

This week we have turned a project around for the University of Lincoln within seven days of receiving the brief. At the beginning of the week we pitched for the design and print of a postcard to be sent to all of the University’s successful applicants, inviting them to visit the Applicant Open Day. The University loved our design concepts and chose to develop a minimal, contemporary idea for the postcards – simple and eye-catching through the use of silver block finish. These postcards are to be personalised with the applicants’ name and address before being posted out to nearly 7,000 prospective students.

Last week we successfully pitched to a new client…world leaders in building materials, Lafarge. We are over the moon to be working with Lafarge on such an exciting and prestigious project. We won this project due to our competitive price, friendly approach, creativity and also the fact that we are able to turn this project around in line with their tight deadlines.

Watch this space for more information about this project…it is going to be an inspiring one!

We were surprised (and excited!) to have a VIP visit our studio yesterday… the Prime Minister David Cameron! The PM was in Leicester talking to local businesses, and we were selected to have a one to one meeting with him. Jo, Carolyn and Neil were given the opportunity to talk to the Prime Minister about the business; he wanted to gain an understanding how Creative Triangle, as a relatively small company, had managed to thrive during the country’s recession. We were also given the chance to quiz the PM ourselves and he explained his plans to help small to medium businesses with new Government schemes. It was quite a surreal afternoon, having the Prime Minister on our sofa! The meeting was featured in the local and national press.

We’ve just completed a 28pp A4 brochure for The National Forest which goes into detail about all of its facilities and amenities, providing an excellent resource when planning group visits such as school trips. By using lots of images, maps and illustrations, perfectly balanced with copy, we have created a really compelling brochure that promotes the natural beauty of the Forest as well as the educational and practical facilitates available. We have also provided pull-up displays and magazine advertisements to compliment the brochure.

We have just dispatched our CT desk calendars for 2011 – so they should be with you in time for the New Year! (If anyone didn’t receive one and would like one then please let us know).
Can you spot the theme?

Since 2006, we have successfully designed and created artwork for PTS’s bi-annual DL ‘Spares’ catalogue. The most recent publication is the largest yet consisting of 172 pages. The project involves artworking the list of all the spare parts PTS trade. This is a highly detailed, text rich document – a prime example of our artworking skills. The latest copy has just recently gone to print. As well as Spares we also produce a range of marketing and literature for PTS, including their annual ‘Bathrooms’ product brochure which we are currently working on, due out in the New Year.

This month we will be designing the 25th edition of BSS Industrial’s staff newsletter – The Front Line. We have been producing the bi-monthly newsletter since the formation of Creative Triangle, in fact it was one of the company’s first jobs! The newsletter has been such a hit with BSS staff across the UK that we have continued to design it for over 4 years now. Regular features include a Rainbow Trust Update – congratulating staff on charity events and money raised by BSS staff, ‘Clear Water Heroes’ – recognising great service given by BSS staff and a section that focuses on individual branches/departments.

As well as The Front Line, we also work closely with the Marketing department at BSS Industrial on a variety of other projects including corporate branding and the production of a host of different literature ranging from Introduction guides through to detailed product brochures such as the successful 250 page Drainage guide.

Creative Triangle’s Christmas advent calendars are on their way to our clients and should be arriving in time for the official count down to Christmas! In the mean time we thought we would treat you to the out-take photographs from the shoot! This year’s theme was a snowy ski scene (very fitting with today’s weather in Leicester!). One day last month we all traipsed over to the photography studio in the next building wrapped up in our brightest winter/ski wear – hats, gloves, snowboards and all…confusing some passersby on the way! We even had some ‘snow’ to throw at each other! Enjoy!

On the first day of Christmas, CT gave to me…

…A wonderful chocolate filled funny advent calendar!

After pitching against four Czech design agencies we were ecstatic to find out that we’d won a tender to create Prague Airport’s online interactive terminal maps as well as maps for publications. The airport’s marketing team were really impressed with all the work we’ve done for BAA, and so, despite the fact that we’re nearly 1,000 miles away, we were still the best placed for the job! After travelling to Prague to familiarise ourselves with the airport (it wasn’t a jolly, honest) we delivered some really stunning maps across a range of formats. From interactive online maps, through to large scale terminal maps, we met the brief perfectly and really impressed the client. We’re looking forward to working with them again on future projects.

Czech them out for yourself! – Prague Airport maps

We have just helped to launch a new channel for marketing messages to staff at Heathrow Airport. We have designed, produced and installed contemporary notice boards in four high volume areas for staff at two locations. The notice boards have been designed to be updated on a regular basis with Heathrow Commuter’s (the airports sustainable travel team) current marketing campaigns – they also have the facility to display leaflets for staff to take away. They were installed a couple of weeks ago and as a result of lots of high level praise (‘they’re so clean, modern and on brand’) we have already been commissioned to roll them out across the rest of the airport– success all round!

We have just designed and produced a suite of promotional material and branded merchandise for Gatwick Airport in line with the European Safety Awareness Week (this week!). We have developed the brand – Think Smart – which umbrellas the existing ‘Smart’ brands we have previously developed for the airport (Trolley Smart, Baggage Smart and Electric Vehicle Smart).

Following Gatwick’s new corporate guidelines, we created 5 designs for A3 posters to promote the Health & Safety Executive’s national campaign within Gatwick Airport. Through the use of icons and illustrations we created a fun and eye catching way of raising awareness of the importance of considering health and safety risks while at work. Messages include; beware of slips, trips and falls, safety when working at height and safety when working in excessive noise.

We also produced a range of branded merchandise to promote the campaign – including USB memory sticks, tape measures, snap bands and badges.

We’ve had a great deal of involvement in all of Heathrow Airport’s communications, so when we were asked to co-ordinate and direct a series of photo shoots for the company we leapt at the chance. The brief was to capture its staff in their working environment, and that is exactly what we’ve been doing! So far, as well as getting a lot of great images, we’ve also had a really fun few days out on the shoots. Say cheese!

We are excited to have just completed our first project for the University College Birmingham. We were asked to pitch for the design of a new brochure for UCB’s two public restaurants. Our cost effectiveness won us the project.

The brochure will be used to advertise UCB’s restaurants to the general public. The brief was to create a brochure that emphasised the restaurants’ quality, value and variety. Using images of the students at work and taster menus, we designed a brochure that illustrated the restaurants’ professional status.

As part of Safer Leicester Partnership’s work on Reducing Re-offending, Leicester City Council asked us to create an interactive website. The ‘Reducing Re-offending Active Learning Tool’ follows a timeline of ‘blue-print’ re-offender Craig Morrison’s life, from his early years through to present day. The tool kit highlights influencing factors in Craig’s life and offers interventions and statistics about re-offending. The website will go live this month with the official launch event taking place today!

See the the Reducing Re-offending Active Learning Tool

It’s that time of year again…The Leicestershire Business Awards. The Awards are a great incentive promoting the achievements of local businesses – and this year two new categories have been added to the mix. Our design for 2010 proved such a hit, we have been asked to re-fresh it with new and exciting colours for 2011’s Awards. So far we have developed the application pack & form, sponsorship pack and promotional postcard – and there’s still more to come.

We enjoy working with LBA on this prestigious event – sadly it means we can’t enter the Awards ourselves though! However, if you would like to apply the deadline is 19th November.

To find out more visit www.bizawards.co.uk or call 0845 130 2866.

We have been working with the University of Lincoln for over two years now on various projects and we were delighted to have been asked to design their Open Day collateral for the second year running.

In order to recruit the best quality students, University of Lincoln needed the best quality collateral for its open days, which would be used to aid students in their decision-making process by providing information about the University.

Getting into the mindset of the prospective students, we created a suite of materials that was fun and interesting, setting the scene for the start of an amazing adventure in a great location. By using bright colours, while at the same time meeting the University’s strict corporate guidelines, we succeeded in getting the right balance between representing Lincoln to be vibrant and exciting, while maintaining a professional attitude to higher education.

Having been working with Heathrow Airport since the start of its ‘Heathrow Commuter’ scheme, we’ve made real progress in encouraging a high percentage of its 76,000 employees to choose a more environmentally-friendly way to travel to work. Our latest campaign offers Heathrow employees a massive 75% off Heathrow Connect Rail fares, which is a great incentive. This campaign has involved posters, direct mail, bus posters, website updates and e-shots.

Watch this space to find out how effective this campaign was!

A crackdown on graffiti in Leicester was launched in July by Leicester City Council urging local people to help wipe graffiti out. We were delighted to be chosen by Leicester City Council to produce the design work to support this campaign. The design work focussed on the fact that graffiti is a criminal offence and the objective was to encourage the general public to report it, through Leicester City Council’s customer services direct line.

We produced gritty, bold and eye-catching graphics. The design work purposely emulated the style of graffiti, so to emphasise the problem. To urge people to take action against graffiti the design work had to be striking and noticeable. The aim was not only to draw attention to the problem of graffiti in certain areas of Leicester but also to promote how we can tackle it.

The ‘Graffiti is a Crime – Seen it? Report it’ campaign is on the side and back of buses, banners, posters and billboards around those areas of Leicester where graffiti is a problem. They provide a telephone number for the public to report graffiti – making it easy for people to take action against the issue.

Following the success of the tender pack project for BAA, we were commissioned to design a piece of marketing material to promote Expo, a dedicated programme of unique and inspiring installations that will capture the imagination of Heathrow Airport’s passengers and enhance their journey throughout the terminals, providing an unexpected extra dimension to their travels.

As well as displaying inspiring and thought-provoking content celebrating the best of the UK, Expo showcases events and experiences tied into the national and global calendar. Some Expo spaces are allocated footprints in Terminal 5, both before and after security. Other installations may be more integrated into the terminals to create a multi-touch point experience or an element of ‘wow’ factor.

In order to promote the use of this space to Heathrow’s target audience, which included charitable, artistic, cultural or sporting based organisations supported by commercial sponsors, we designed a sophisticated brochure which replicated a high end art / museum catalogue to showcase this space and the opportunity available.

We selected a catalogue size to encourage the targeted user to read more and get involved. The final brochure was 391mm x 300mm and was digitally printed on uncoated stock. The Expo brand was subtly de-bossed to the front cover which created a stylish and timeless design. The brochure was posted to a specific target audience and has achieved highly effective results.

Pitching against four other design agencies on BAA’s roster, we were delighted when we won a contract to produce a tender pack for a multi million pound media contract for advertising and marketing companies.

BAA wanted us to create a corporate coffee table style brochure that would entice the country’s leading media agencies to want to tender for the contract. Not only did it need to reflect that BAA is the world’s leading airport operator, but it needed to highlight the fact that it is an extremely exciting business opportunity, and a contract that media agencies the world over would be hungry to win.

We worked around the clock to meet the extremely tight deadlines. We had just six weeks from appointment to completion. To achieve this we had to work pretty much constantly – working most evenings and weekends.

The resulting tender pack was nothing short of spectacular. Tactile, and of the highest quality, the tender pack was covered in a soft velvet black Fedrigoni Ispira stock which was printed with a spot UV varnish. We also designed an interactive DVD in flash with navigation built in which would allowed the user to view the information on as many opportunities as required. This was all packaged in a sturdy presentation box with black foam inner to hold the DVD and brochure.

The team at BAA were delighted with the design. All tenders have now been awarded and following this we have built a great working relationship with the retail and commercial team at BAA, which has led to us being awarded many additional projects.