Thompson Brand Partners

Hadrian's Wall

Chloe and I had a great road trip up to Hadrian's Wall today. We were picking up a new brief for a project that we won last week and as always, we made the most of a visit to somewhere really interesting and this included a walk up to the wall itself. We were obviously not dressed for a mini hike up a squelchy hillside, but this didn't stop us and Chloe's red pumps (no heels, fashionistas please note) held out.

You can see why the Romans gave up the ghost and built an enormous wall to keep out the Scots. It was bleak up there. And windy. And cold. It must have been the Roman equivalent of being sent to the Eastern Front. 

We'll tell you more about the project as it unfolds, but suffice to say it's very cool and interesting and involves light and dark. In the meantime, here's some impressive Roman masonry.

Brand workshop, Birmingham

After a mental few weeks which has seen the entire team in far flung places - Friday saw us running a brand workshop and conduction information gathering interviews in sunny Birmingham.

When we start every brand project, we spend a lot of time getting to know the client and getting under the skin of the organisation is crucial to successful engagement and always delivers lots of insights that help us make sure that the creative work is on track from the very beginning.

We're just starting a project for the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA to you or I) and the initial sessions went very well, which always bodes well for the rest of the process. 

Great news

We received a bottle of champagne and a huge bunch of flowers yesterday.

From a client.

To be honest, it's the thing we love the most - a happy client. And this case, we've got a VERY happy client. 

They were accompanied by the note below. It says it all really.

Standards for England

Here's some pics of another nice printed brand piece for our client Standards for England. It's a leaflet/poster designed especially for members of staff, handed out at a staff away day at the Lowry Centre in Manchester last week.

It's only a little thing, but it's quite important. Employees are the most important people in any brand project and clients that overlook this do so at their peril. Every brand project we work on contains a large amount of internal consultation and subsequent buy in before the brand get launched externally.

It's a simple brand piece that gives a layman's overview of the brand and what it means for everybody in the organisation and it seems to have got the new brand off to a flying start.

Stories of the World

On Tuesday this week we were involved in the launch of one of the ten major projects of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The launch of the project was held in London and it was the culmination of five weeks of the most intense Thompson activity I've ever seen. It's been a fantastically exhilarating and challenging project to deliver and we were delighted that it all was delivered on time.

Ian and Cynth attended the launch at the Wellcome Centre (part of the Science Museum) and the project was unveiled to the press. Have a look at what the project is all about here and here. It's an incredibly exciting project and we've been really proud to have been involved. 

As soon as we can 'officially' unveil the work, we will. In the meantime, here's one of the press photographs that was used as part of the launch activity. Keep the blog bookmarked or better still, RSS feed it (hark at me).

Deeds not words

Another day, another pitch. Thankfully not a creative pitch on this occasion, but a presentation nonetheless.

We've been tendering for a Museum project dahn sarf and today has seen Chloe and I travelling the length and breadth of the country on all manner of locomotives and motor vehicles to get to our destination. 

The project is for the Chatham Historic Dockyard down in Kent and we had a proper day out and as we were a bit early, we managed to see a few of the main attractions of this incredible place. It brought out the history geeks in both of us and we were thrilled to see the actual dock where Victory (Nelson's ship that he was killed on). No, really. We were. There's lots of other maritime history on offer (battleships, submarines and rope etc) and I heartily commend it on that front. 

We should find out about the pitch in the next day or so - we'd really like to work on the project, so fingers crossed on that front. 

If you wondered what the significance of the title to this post is, it's painted on one of the ships we saw today and we thought it highly appropriate to our pitch. Clients must get fed up of agencies telling them they'll do something and then not do it, so we thought we'd finish with that. Because that's what we're about - deeds not just words.

COI Regional Roster Agency

The Central Office of Information has just unveiled that 45 agencies will form their new regional marketing rosters.

The rosters are divided up into geographical lots, allowing local clients to tap into regional expertise.

We were delighted to discover that we are on three of the lots - North East (Yorkshire and Humber), East of England and South East England.

For those of you who are well acquainted with the way of the tender world, you'll know that this is no mean feat - so well done to all at our end who helped us get on these. 

Stories of the world

Stories of the World is one of the ten major projects at the heart of the Cultural Olympiad, led by MLA (Museums and Libraries Association)  in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). 

It will entail a series of exhibitions across the country, featuring collections reinterpreted by communities, historians, artists and other fresh voices.

Read up on it here:

stories of the world

Guess who won this fantastic project...

Lightest metal known to man

It's what I like about this job. Always finding out new stuff.

After spending an afternoon being briefed on a new project I learned more about metals, alloys, compounds and metallurgy in general than I learnt at school.

Don't get me wrong, Mr Griffiths was a pretty good science teacher but art was where my interests were (wrong side of the brain and all that). I digress.

Anyway, I now know that Beryllium is the lightest metal. There's also a metal called Tantalum (which sounds so cool, I feel sure that Wolverines claws should be made from as opposed to Adamantium) which is as light and strong as Titanium and that extracting and using these metals is incredibly complicated and we've a company in Yorkshire who are pretty good at it.

If we're successful in winning the project, expect more random facts about metals.

Leeds

Just putting the final touches to this year's prospectus for Leeds Trinity.

This is a great image and we've used it on the back of a fold out guide.

Leeds is a great place to be a student and not just because we've got a town hall designed by Cuthbert Brodrick.