Make Design Enjoy

Robots in disguise...

2012-02-23T06:04:00.000-08:00

We were up in Gloucester today with a client, they make the vehicles that tow aircraft around amongst many other massive powerful things. I snapped a couple of shots around parts of the factory so thought I'd post them up. They're great pieces of British design and manufacture, help move aircraft around all over the world and look like massive transformers!

Top of the chocs!

2012-02-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago we started something, something we were ridiculed for but we persevered like all trues visionaries. That something has grown into an opinionated, heated source of debate that everyone wants a piece of - Top of the chocs.

On a Top Gear style cool wall we each bring a bar into the studio once a week (usually Fridays) and then taste them one by one, voting and positioning them on the wall. Best at the top, worst at the bottom.

Everyone, I mean EVERYONE has something to say about the wall. It seems chocolate bars are somewhat of a sensitive point with everyone defending their favourite very strongly with the debate fuelled by sugar filled rage.

We'll tweet (#topofthechocs) and post up here the wall as it grows, we only have one simple criteria for entrants:

The bar must cost less than £1, it must be available in the corner shop, and no fancy stuff like Green & Blacks - strictly high street honeys up in here! I've posted shots of the entire wall below so you can scroll down it just like the wall itself (well, sort of, in a crude blogger kind of way).

If anyone else fancies having a go in their office please do share and in the mean time, I'm off to the gym - gotta work off all that chocolate ;)

Karl.

Funday Friday 27/01/12

2012-01-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

The brief for today's "non project work" was to do produce some simple illustrated posters using big blocks of one or two colours. After some deliberation and a few coffees we've ended up producing posters based on Will Ferrell quotes / films.

I've done illustrations of the man himself from the films Anchorman and The Other Guys, Luke then went for depicting the "Tuna Vs Lion" argument that Will Ferrel and Mark Wahlberg have in The Other Guys.

If you've not seen these two films, please do check them out. If you have a childish sense of humour like us, you'll love them.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Running a small design studio - using the right software.

2012-01-25T01:57:00.000-08:00

Producing great design is one thing, but running a studio means you need a whole lot more than just Adobe's Creative Suite.

I took me most of last year to finally settle into a system that works for us, and I found most of it through recommendation and reading up on the subject. So I thought it might be useful to post about what we use, how it helps us, and maybe it will help someone else in a similar position.

We are a team of 2 creatives, 1 developer and various contractors. We produce design, build websites, manage print and offer project management on exhibition builds etc. So we need to manage tasks, track time, send estimates and invoices - and of course submit accounts / VAT returns.

We've arrived at a solution that is the most cost effective and manageable way for us to do the above:

Freeagent (plus the Eon widget): Timeslips, Paperwork & Accounting.

Basecamp: Project & studio task management.

When I started the company I used (again on recommendation) a piece of software called Billings. It's fantastic for sole users on one machine and really gave me a lot of value when first starting out. From timing jobs to billing for them - both essential!

Last year we grew, and with new team members (full time, part time and remote) I needed a new way to assign tasks and track everyone's time.

I did a lot of looking around, and fell in love with products like Streamtime and Sohnar - but with only a couple of us these systems were simply too big. You need your own server, and those systems also both feature a chunky CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, and we don't need anything that complicated yet. But we do need to keep track of leads, who's called them and what is the next step.

I then discovered that Billings produce a "Pro" version, one which either ran off an in house server - or off their cloud based service, perfect! We could migrate all our data, use a system we were familiar with and people could login using a browser window to track their time.

Well, that worked for all of five minutes.

We found their cloud based service to be very unstable, and after a lot of patches, updates and fixes we were faced with a system that failed to work on a daily basis.

By this point we were already using Basecamp for task management and it works wonderfully, flat monthly rate no matter how many users you have. Give clients and staff access to individual projects, assign tasks, track comments, see timelines on a calendar (which you can import to your calendar) and a whole host of other goodies. Please do go and check it out. I also use Basecamp to keep track of my leads, creating a to do list with tasks for each lead. We can comment on these and keep everyone involved abreast of what stage we're at with each lead.

Thankfully then a friend came to the rescue with a system for timekeeping and accounting he'd been using for his similarly sized company - Freeagent.

Freeagent is bloody awesome! All your time, all your money (inc payroll and taxes) all in one place. You can get a 30 day free trial and I'd wholeheartedly recommend giving it some consideration. You access both these services through your browser, and both carry costs of around £25pcm (cheaper than Billings). To track time using Freeagent you'll need a widget called "Eon" this can be found over here. And it carries a one off payment of £30, you can then install it on all your Macs and sign into Freeagent through it to access tasks and projects. We then all simply submit our time at the end of every day and it syncs straight to Freeagent.

This is what has worked for us, and everyone's needs are different. If you've got any questions please don't hesitate to give me a shout, I'd be happy to help in anyway I might be able to.

Karl.

Funday Friday's

2012-01-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

We always try to make some time on Friday's to do some 'self initiated' work. Either random briefs we come up with as a team, a tutorial or something we just fancy doing!

Last Friday I was out all day, but Luke did this rather lovely hand drawn type that he's worked up into a vector. It's looking really nice, and I think with a little more flourishes could be worked up into a really nice screen print for the studio.

We'll try and post up what we get up to on Fridays (when we're not fending off deadlines!) regularly and we'd love to hear your feedback.

Karl.

Free pitching on the increase

2012-01-03T03:17:00.000-08:00

Design Week reported today that free pitching is on the increase - not a good thing to hear as far as I'm concerned. I can't say I'm entirely surprised though, with tighter budgets and more agencies popping up every day, our market is becoming tougher than ever before. New young agencies, and freelancers, I'm sure also contribute to this reported increase of free pitching.

The Design Industry Voices survey questioned a (rather modest) number of designers (496) and 71% of them said clients expected more free creative work at the pitch stage.

The age old free pitching debate I fear, will never go away. And like so many trials and tribulations we go through as owners of design agencies, big and small, if we worried about every possibility we'd never get any work done! And it is for this reason I enter this new year with hope, optimism and my head held high when I refuse non paid creative pitches.

We sell ideas, the shoe shop sells shoes, and the baker sells bread. But if you asked to try a pair of shoes for a few days to see if they made you look good, or indeed asked for a free loaf of bread to see if it filled you up as promised - I'm fairly sure you'd be laughed out of the shop.

It is madness that our industry allows itself to be de-valued by giving away our 'materials' - our IDEAS for free on the basis that we might win the work. Why, when so many industries work fine by presenting what they do, how they do it, showing relevant case studies, estimating how much it will cost the customer and moving forward from there?

I wonder if this is all our own fault? Creatives love creating solutions to problems, and wether it's a discussion over a pint in the pub, or a new brief from a client - we can't help but run away with ourselves coming up with ideas, problems, solutions and all that pretty stuff we call design. And over the years has this become more evident to clients? That this natural desire to create can be exploited, because frankly, we love it. Ironic though, that free pitching will only continue to drive up the cost of design - are clients even aware of that? For every free pitch an agency might win, they might have lost 3 others - where do clients think the cost of the lost pitches will be recouped? Probably on their bill I'm afraid.

Clients know we love designing, and (for some brands) know that we'd all fall over ourselves to work with them. So they know we're keen and raring to go, and because of our natural desire to create, over the years I think the free pitching situation has become accepted by some design agencies because it's the only way to win those big, desirable clients - and frankly, we love a challenge - and winning!

But I think design has never been stronger in business terms, and this should enable us to fight back and be respected like the shoe shops and bakeries (where AM I going with this metaphor?!). Most agencies can now prove how their input has helped to grow their client's business. And I think this clear illustration of ROI from design is still a relatively new thing for clients, certainly the ones we deal with. But by presenting great case studies, being aware of design as a business tool, showing returns, your processes and being clear in briefs and deliverables there should be no reason you can't win work without new creative ideas. And no reason for clients not to feel comfortable appointing an agency based on a credentials pitch.

We do not support free pitching, and we turn it down regularly. And I think it's far more interesting to see how we're developing as an agency by having to communicate our processes and case studies better, in order to win clients.

I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight the great work the Design Programme are doing to help battle the free creative pitching debate, please do check out their website. And the original article from DW can be found here.

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this one too so please don't hesitate to drop me a line on here or by email: studio@makedesignenjoy.co.uk

Thanks for reading,

Karl.

MDE Emergency Xmas Card

2011-12-12T03:32:00.001-08:00

We help people get their message to their audience all year round, and the festive season is no exception! We've all been there - forgotten someone's Christmas card and no time to buy them one. We designed a solution just for this festive problem - The MDE Emergency Xmas Card.

With customisable card stickers for a wide ranging audience we hope we might help get a few people out of a sticky situation this year. From your bank manager to mother in law - there's a design suitable for everyone!

Simply peel off the sticker's backing and apply to the card, then using the supplied envelope present to your 'lovingly forgotten one' and crisis averted.

We sent a tonne of these out last week, but we've still got a few left and if you'd like one please do drop us an email or tweet and we'll happily mail one out to you.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The ultimate selection box?...

2011-12-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

What would be in your ultimate selection box come Christmas Day?...

There's always one or two bars in that selection box that by the time Boxing Day rolls around you're trying to trade off for half of your Dad's chocolate orange.

So we thought, being the selfless human beings we are - we'd work out what we'd all really like to see in our selection boxes. Enter the column of chocolate...

Top of the column = high trade value :)

The lower you go, well - maybe the dog will have it.

Here is Dave pondering over the current leader board. We'll keep you updated week by week, and if you're outraged by our current scoring then by all means bring your argument to the table ;)

"Little Printer"

2011-12-05T02:06:00.001-08:00

Lovely idea from Berg a cute little printer that delivers your chosen daily info from the web. Plenty of arguments for / against how useful this is in a world where we digest a lot of info in any one day - but I think it's simply a great bit of design. Does the job in a fun and engaging way, and frankly - I want one!

Check it out in action in this video:

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

MDE Xmas Treat!

2011-11-29T04:32:00.000-08:00

We're about to send our little Christmas mailer off to print and we couldn't resist giving you a sneaky peek of the mock up :)

As soon as these are back from press and in the post we'll put up some more revealing pictures. We've got a few interesting client's xmas jobs at the printers this week too, and with talk of Christmas drinks and decorating the studio flying around we're starting to feel quite festive in here.

Karl.

Vision Conference 2011

2011-11-23T08:28:00.002-08:00

Fantastic first day downstairs in the Arnolfini at the Vision Conference 2011. Some really inspiring talks on creativity, innovation and running a creative business. Looking forward to more talks this evening, a spot of dinner and some creative banter in the bar later on. Best get back downstairs then...

Karl.

Our new business cards

2011-11-22T04:44:00.000-08:00

Our new business cards, with a little personal 'insight' into the individual. Giving a little hint to one of the parts of our new website these fresh new business cards all have a little illustration showing an insight into the individual's hobbies beyond design.

Karl.

HSP Re-brand & Exhibition Design

2011-11-22T03:26:00.000-08:00

A few pics from the re-brand and exhibition design we did this year for HSP - one of the world's leading distributors of valve solutions for the energy business. Beyond all the obvious brand, print, web and exhibition design we delivered - we also produced quite a unique handout in the form of the HSP Survival Pack.

What more could you need on a long day at an exhibition that spans over 5 halls? Food? Water? And a map?! Well, with HSP being a service driven company, and positioned right at the entrance area we thought giving food, water and a map rather fitted the bill. Over 2000 of the packs went out across the 3 day show and raised many a smile, kept the troops going and helped raise HSP's profile at one of the industries biggest shows in Europe.

And to keep track of the investment, we also issued exclusive HSP USB pen drives with technology behind them to enable us to not only drive traffic to their new website, but track the traffic driven by the USB pens (and of course - the show) independently of the other website traffic. A small but important step to helping HSP measure a return from the brand and exhibition investment.

Karl.

Marketing / Admin Assistant Wanted (Part time)

2011-11-17T04:41:00.000-08:00

We're in need of a talented and lovely admin type person to help us with all sorts of challenging, exciting and (some) boring things for 2 days every other week here in the MDE studio. The successful candidate will be required to carry out general administrative duties and to get stuck in when it comes to helping us grow the business.

A passion for business, a high level of organisational skills, a strong work ethic and a serious amount of self motivation are a must. And of course an interest or experience within the design market would be nice - but by no means necessary. This is an admin and marketing role and shouldn't be confused with being a route to any design roles (sorry designers!).

The full job description can be downloaded here.

I look forward to looking through the applications and please do pass this onto anyone you may know who might be suitable.

Karl.

Crazy Pumpkins

2011-11-17T01:57:00.000-08:00

I know halloween is a distant memory now, but check out these amazing pumpkin carvings I found online today!

Luke.

First bit of print for new brand

2011-11-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

Always nice to see our work in print, and whilst at a client's today I finally saw some bits and bobs of print with their lovely new branding on. Really loved this branding job, and the whole package looks incredible - very simple and clean. We'll show the whole case study on the new website soon, but in the mean time heres a couple of snaps of their stationery.

WEDF Typography Talk

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

A full house last night downstairs at the Arnolfini for WEDF's latest evening of design related talks. Last night was a typography special (strictly for the nerdiest of us designers!), only for people who find themselves frequently saying things like "ohh, look at that kerning" or "mmm, nice use of Gill that" - so we fitted right in!

Inspiring and in depth talks by David Quay and Jeremy Tankard, discussing the City of Bath's signage and a 5 year type design project. They've got a few pics up on Facebook so take a gander!

We love the WEDF's events, and overall they're doing a fantastic thing for the design scene down here in Bristol. Make sure you get signed up to their newsletter for the latest events - and make sure you don't miss next months - a Christmas special with the founder of 'Home' agency speaking, and then a bit of an after party in the Arnolfini bar. Entitled 'Designer Djs', I will, along with a few others, be making some loud noises on the decks to get the festive party going - one not to be missed! KL

Introducing the Douglas Halocator!

2011-11-10T09:03:00.001-08:00

Our lovely new clients Douglas Equipment are one of the world's largest manufacturers of aircraft ground equipment. Which, in short, means that all those massive tractors you see pulling airplanes around and ferrying your luggage across the runway - are in the most part, made by these clever chaps up in Cheltenham!

The first of many jobs for Douglas, a mailer to be given out at an exhibition in Munich next week promoting their new safety system. After a couple of hours in the boardroom throwing ideas around the brand name "Halocator" and a mailer concept was brought to life. And we turned the whole job around for them in record time - 3 weeks from initial meeting to having the final print in a crate on route to Munich! Not bad eh! I'd like to say a big thank you to all involved, Luke in the studio and the guys at Hartley Wilprint for turning a die cut job around so fast.

I'm off to Munich next week for meetings at the show so I'm looking forward to seeing the finished job being handed out. (And maybe getting a ride in one of the trucks!)

Karl.

Interactive PDF/USB offers 90% return from trade show.

2010-12-21T02:35:00.000-08:00

Along with designing their exhibition stand at the recent trade show over in Germany; we were also approached by our client Hobbs Valve to help measure the success of the 'freebie' handouts that are so commonplace at these shows. Their new branding, brochures and website were all launching at the show, so together we decided an effective goal to aim towards with the 'freebies' would be one of driving more traffic to the new website.

After a little brainstorming we decided to produce an interactive PDF for Hobbs Valve which was installed onto some branded USB keys to be given out as a handout at the show in Germany. The interactive PDF would give access to the basic information most potential customers would need. The layout and styling remaining similar to the website to ensure brand consistency, and using USB drives also highlight certain sustainability benefits - they could be given out instead of brochures in some cases thus reducing the client's print run needs.

Within the PDF we then placed various links to the website enabling the user to find out more information. Behind these links we placed tracking codes so that using Google Analytics we can now monitor how many of the client’s website hits came directly from the USB drives. We could then report back to Hobbs Valve on how effective the USB drives were in reaching our goal of driving more traffic to their new website.

Well, after almost a month of the show opening we are very pleased to announce the USB drives have been a huge success. Of all the USB drives given out at the show 90% of them have been used to access the website. Illustrating a wise investment and a strong return means we can move forward using the USB drives and interactive PDF knowing that they help the client achieve a solid business objective.

If you’d like to talk to us about thinking more strategically regarding your marketing please do get in touch. We’d love to learn more about your business and how Make Design Enjoy can help it grow.

Best wishes,

Karl Loudon.

Hobbs Valve Exhibition Stand

2010-12-02T00:11:00.000-08:00

After months of preparation the Hobbs Valve "Why Triple Offset?" exhibition stand has successfully launched at the start of this year's industry show - Valve World held at the Messe exhibition halls in Dusseldorf. The show launched yesterday and it has been a huge success after only it's first day. Aside from the overwhelming amounts of positive feedback regarding the design, some of which has come from some seriously big names, the sales team from Hobbs have not stopped!

The concept has really come through and the stand is attracting a lot of people onto it, they are interacting with the educational elements really well and then enjoying the comfortable areas. The team have a total of 4 days to sell sell sell, and they are off to a flying start. We'll post up full photo shoots etc to the design area of our site shortly. But in the mean time these images give a good overview of the stand design.

Düsseldorf exhibition stand pre-build sign off

2010-11-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

We had the pre-build sign off for the stand we've designed for one of our Oil and Gas clients - and we're EXCITED! The trucks leave next Thursday to Germany and the stand builders have really come through on the finishing. Laminates, carpets, lighting etc all approved. And they've come up trumps turning our interactive light up floor panels into a reality. Artwork on that is shown only as a proof and the final job is a lot more complete, but the lights work really well.

I'm not going to give much away - I'll leave that for the show pictures and video. 30th November and the show opens... more to follow soon :)

All I Want For Christmas Cards are HERE!!

2010-11-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

The packs are finally here and looking great! Massive thanks to all involved so far, printers, artists, pr people etc and let's look forward to an amazing launch night this Thursday (04/11/10) up at the White Bear pub on St. Michael's hill Bristol. The launch night is going to feature live drawing from Simon Spilsbury and one hell of a Charity art auction - huge thank you to all the artists who've kindly donated their work to support the Charity (Young Bristol) So get down to the launch night to make sure you bag a pack of the cards before they sell out, and maybe some early xmas presents from the auction.

Last years collection are still back on sale, and are actually flying out - we're shipping orders for them every day at the moment! Head over to www.alliwantforchristmascards.com to buy those, and the new collection will be live on there after the launch on Thursday evening.

All I Want For Christmas...

2010-10-19T01:27:00.000-07:00

With the ever increasingly swift approach of this year's festive period I thought I'd take this opportunity to make you all aware of a fantastic charity project we're involved in along with Ben Steers.

In it's second year the "All I Want For Christmas Cards" project is a call for submissions from UK illustrators to submit a design to be included within a series of 20 Christmas cards. The money from the sale of the card packs then goes directly to a local Bristol charity - Young Bristol. The All I Want For Christmas Cards collection for 2010 features designs from artists including Robert Del Naja (3D of Massive Attack), Rob Ryan, Simon Spilsbury, Chris Malbon and a whole host of others.

The submissions this year were really strong and after a few late nights we got the final 20 for this year's collection off to press this week. The designs will all be revealed at the launch night 4th November 2010. The launch night is to be held at one of Bristol's finest pubs - The White Bear, at the top of St. Michael's Hill (just up from Weapon of Choice gallery). We're even lucky enough to have one of the UK's best illustrators Simon Spilsbury coming down to do some live drawing on the night, and an auction of selected (and kindly donated) pieces from the illustrators. There will be some very special DJs on the night too.

The press release is below for more information and if you'd like to buy one of these packs check out the website here - www.alliwantforchristmascards.com

Don't fight it - the festive period is on it's merry little way. Just think warm fires, whiskey, cuddles, presents, jumpers, cider and some brilliantly illustrated Christmas cards!

Karl.

-------- Official Press Release --------

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS CARDS

Young Bristol announces the launch of All I Want For Christmas Cards Collection 2

on Thursday 4th November at The White Bear, St Michael’s Hill, Bristol BS2 8BS

All I Want for Christmas Cards is a festive project supporting the Bristol based charity Young Bristol. 20 UK based artists and illustrators have contributed works to create a very limited run of Christmas card packs that will contain 20 individually designed cards. All profits from the sale of the cards will benefit Young Bristol’s work with young people across the city.

Now in its second year, the All I Want For Christmas Cards collection for 2010 features designs from artists including Robert Del Naja (3D of Massive Attack), Rob Ryan, Simon Spilsbury, Chris Malbon and a whole host of others.

On Thursday 4th November, the launch night of the All I Want for Christmas Cards Collection 2 will be held at The White Bear, 133 St Michael’s Hill, Bristol. The evening will provide a great opportunity to meet the creatives and individuals involved in this year’s project, as well as offering an opportunity to purchase limited edition artworks and some of the first sets of packs. The evening will be the first chance to view all 20 card designs. Refreshments will be provided at 6.30pm followed by a live auction of donated artwork from many of those involved at 8pm.

About Young Bristol

Young Bristol is a youth work charity who work across the Bristol area and offer young people somewhere to go and something positive to do such as attending local youth clubs, outdoor activities, training courses and volunteering. Young Bristol encourages self development through providing opportunities for young people to try new things and engage in their local community.

About the All I Want For Christmas Cards

The idea behind the project was initially conceived by Bristol based illustrator & graphic designer Ben Steers who became involved with Young Bristol as a young volunteer. Ben says “At a time of year when many people focus on what they want, the All I Want For Christmas Cards project offers an opportunity to support those who need.”

For further information go to www.alliwantforchristmascards.com

For press enquiries or if you would like to attend launch contact gabby@alliwantforchristmascards.com

For all other enquiries contact ben@alliwantforchristmascards.com

For more information about Young Bristol contact Kate Gough kg@youngbristol.com

The new studio

2010-09-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Quick update on the new studio space, (only taken me a month to do this!) We're still in Bush House, above the Arnolfini - we'd quite frankly be crazy to leave this location! But moved into a bigger space now and we're all much happier. The work and banter is flowing, and thanks to a generous gift of some Chase vodka - last Friday the vodka's been flowing too ;)

A great light and airy space with plenty of room to throw ideas around and to knuckle down and get the work done, still got the lovely boardroom for meetings too! Clients and friends we look forward to seeing you here soon. We're in the midst of creating some nice designs for the outer glass walls too so no doubt that will get posted as soon as it's done (or - perhaps 3 weeks afterwards!)

All the best, Karl.

Coming soon...

2010-08-26T03:24:00.000-07:00

A good business evolves and grows, and thankfully - we are evolving and growing.

And being people who like to practice what we preach, we are in the process of re-designing our website, analysing our services and re-freshing our core brand mark to further boost the company's profile.

The good news is that the brand re-fresh is finished and website not far behind. I'm sure anyone who is a business owner, and or designer, can empathise with the difficulty in finding the time within a busy studio schedule to 'sort out' your own company's site etc. None the less, through some very anal time scheduling we're getting there and should be launching the new site by end of September / beginning of October.

The image is a sneaky peek at a very close up shot of our new core brandmark. As with any good brand re-fresh we are being very careful not to stray away from the colour scheme or font use. A re-fresh has to be done for the right reasons, and shouldn't undo all the good work you've built up for the company already. Loyalty is far easier to loose than gain!

I can't wait to see all our work live, officially released, and showing off what we do! So I best get back to writing the copy... ;)

Thanks for reading,

Karl Loudon.

Oil and Gas client website live

2010-08-26T03:16:00.001-07:00

We are really pleased to announce the new website for our longest standing client, Hobbs Valve, has gone live!

The site is the result of a lot of hard work on all parts and this really shows. The site is full of useful information, carefully designed explanations and technical illustrations of their product and industry. We are going to be monitoring the traffic closely, and reporting back to Hobbs on this. Utilising the web presence to achieve goals is our number one priority, and with a big meeting tomorrow to discuss a hell of a lot of goals, projects and avenues to explore - this is going to be one that just keeps on growing! To see the site click here

Well done to everyone involved, and here's to a continuing bright future for Hobbs Valve and MDE.

Just keep running...

2010-08-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hello blog readers!

As you may or may not be aware, in my 'spare' time I'm rather partial to a spot of training. Be it full contact kickboxing, surfing or more recently endurance racing. Endurance is something completely new to me and it's bloody hard! I've completely changed my diet and training regime. I've been training for a good few months now and have my first two races coming up soon. One is my first triathlon (in Bath) and the other the Bristol Half Marathon. And I'll be competing in both of these within 7 days of each other - I'm a sucker for punishment and I'm not very good at saying no.

I'm running the Bristol Half Marathon with one of my fellow designers (Ben Steers) and we are hoping to raise some money for an amazing local charity called "Studio Upstairs".The guys over at SU offer arts and crafts as a method of delivering therapy to people who have suffered / are suffering from depression, addiction and abuse. They have two small studios, one in Bristol and the other in London, and run by volunteers find themselves hugely underfunded.

We are hoping to raise as much money as possible to help the studio on many levels and I'd really, really, appreciate any donation you may be able to give. We've set up a web page where you can find more information, and chose to donate if you should so wish.

www.bristolrun.com

Thanks for taking the time out to read this :)

Karl Loudon (MDE Creative Director)

2 new clients in a month.

2010-08-18T01:12:00.000-07:00

We'd like to take this opportunity to welcome on board two new clients.

One an exciting new Bristol based food product (details will follow from official press launch) and the second a not for profit client based in Wales.

Initial projects include branding and exhibition designs and we're really happy to have a couple of new clients on the books, adding even more diversity and FUN to the studio's workload. We'll post up some shots of the work over the next couple of weeks.

Incidentally, both these clients have come to us after being recommended to us due to them not being happy with their current designer / agency's service. I'd personally like to thank the people responsible for the recommendations and needless to say you shall be receiving some form of thanks (drink or food related I'm sure). And also thanks of course to everyone in the team who keeps our clients happy and coming back for more.

Pearson branding job covered in Design Week

2010-07-29T04:24:00.001-07:00

Well, much to our delight our work produced for Pearson Plc got picked up in this week's issue of Design Week. A nice little entry in their always interesting "News in Brief" section. This part of the magazine covers a round up of the hottest news relating to contracts, newly released branding / projects and anything the good people at DW consider newsworthy for the UK's Design market.

Blogs away!

2010-07-27T05:37:00.000-07:00

All set up, so lets go! We will be posting work, interesting links, events and in fact anything that we fancy relating to the business and passions we have here in the studio!