We’ve significant experience planning and creating NHS sexual health campaigns at Studio North, having previously worked with Greater Manchester, Coventry and Ealing Primary Care Trusts over the past few years. Our most recent work in this sphere has supported Western Cheshire PCT and their initiative to encourage both safer sex as well as an increased level of screening for Chlamydia. The creative team developed a campaign identity for RU Sure and then rolled this out across digital and traditional media. Visit www.rusure.org.uk

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We have an internal training initiative running here at Waulk Mill whereby each member of the Studio North team is taking turns to organise something a little fun to educate colleagues on any aspect of either ours, or our clients’ industries.

Last month, our official Head of Scouse, Dominic McVeigh presented an insightful breakfast session on retail marketing ably supported by a plentiful supply of croissants, pastries and coffee. Dom’s presentation was rounded off superbly with a competitive and interactive exercise based on repositioning an established but poorly performing brand (whose name we won’t mention here).

Next up is Steve Buckley tomorrow morning and we like the look of the promotional flyer…

Seeking differentiation and share of mind is no easy task. We live in an increasingly complex world of technology and multi-channel communications that make cutting through the noise difficult for even the most skilled brand manager.

I choose the word ‘noise’ carefully because so often we find ourselves readily identifying with the visual identity of a brand and of course we know just how much attention and care is paid to the graphic elements of companies of all shapes and sizes. One would only need to pick up the guidelines of most organisations to see the overemphasis of the brand in a static visual application. I’ve written about this before but, as designers, do we still really need to guideline vans, mugs, toilet roll etc as a means of justifying fee income on a guidelines project. No doubt that the logo is the king of the branding world.

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I am an advertising undergrad, and with my time with Studio North I got to work on 2 briefs, one of them being a live brief along with the rest of the creative team. During this time I was able to practice and develop my creative skills whilst getting helpful constructive feedback from the very friendly and approachable creative team.

During my time here I was able to gain a valuable insight into how the industry works, whilst also getting some very important practice on how to make a fantastic cuppa!

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel website recently challenged brands and agencies to design a creative ad campaign to run on it’s site. The winning campaign will receive 250,000 euros in equivalent CPM advertising media value.

It sounded like something fun for us to get stuck into creatively and after some initial consideration we decided to work with a small independent travel brand called Luxury Backpackers. The firm was started in 2001 when owners Jill and Carlo Nash realised they were no longer ’students travelling on a shoestring’ but actually professionals with a bit of spare cash who wished to take an extended trip around the world. Like others, they wanted to explore the world, immerse themselves in other cultures, meet travellers and friendly locals but without the flea ridden hostels, endless queues and overcrowded tacky tourist spots.

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We’ve been supporting AuKids magazine for a few months now but perhaps haven’t done much in the way of a formal introduction as to who they are, what they do and why we work with them.

In the past few years we have focussed our charitable work on supporting local children. Initially we put our support through Manchester Kids (now Key 103’s Cash for Kids), some of you may have attended or remember Bangon08 which was a huge success raising plenty of money. However, last year it felt like we needed to find an end-user of charitable donations as opposed to a mere facilitator, removing a layer of admin I suppose and getting us closer to the action where we can readily identify areas of support beyond purely financial input. So after some scouting around this took us to the lovely people at AuKids magazine.

AuKids is a joint venture between parent and journalist Debby Elley, whose twin sons have autism and speech and language therapist Tori Houghton. When I first met them at home at the beginning of the year I immediately realised we had found the right people to support, so important is their work and so obvious their passion for making it a charitable success.

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We’re pleased to announce the recent appointment of Lucy Anderson as Senior Account Executive. Lucy joins us from the well regarded digital agency Amaze and will bolster the growing client services team. Originally hailing from Lincolnshire, Lucy graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Management and Marketing of Textiles. Already getting stuck into clients, projects and general Studio North life, Lucy clearly demonstrates a firm grasp of digital strategies and social media. As always we wish Lucy the best of luck and trust she will enjoy working here at Waulk Mill.

Here at Studio North we’re always looking to support the next generation of designers, so were please to get involved with the DNA (Designers Northern Alliance) this week.

The two day event was designed to bring together representatives from industry and academia as well as showcase the best undergraduate and post graduate talent in the North West. Students from the University of Salford, University of Chester, Manchester Metropolitan University, UCLAN, Liverpool John Moores University, North Wales and Huddersfield University attended along with some of the regions most celebrated design agencies.

As well as an exhibition of the best graduate talent from universities in the North there were keynote lectures from the cream of the creative industry, portfolio surgeries, roundtable discussions and Q & A sessions.

We were delighted to help out with the portfolio surgeries. It’s always energising to see creativity in it’s rawest form, without the complications and reality of restrictive brief, limiting budget and punishing deadline!

The event and exhibition was held at The Triangle, Manchester, for more information you can visit www.designersnorthernalliance.org

The Studio North management team is proud to announce that we have achieved BS EN ISO 9001:2008 certification after an external audit. Due to valuable contracts gained with high profile public and private sector clients we wanted to prove our absolute commitment to quality by undertaking an external process. Fully embracing the ISO mantra of continual improvement we are confident that the methodology behind the accreditation will ultimately benefit both colleagues and clients in the years to come.

Better than Christmas and your Birthday put together, the World Cup is three games a day over four glorious weeks, culminating in the inevitable disappointing ending. No other thrill ride can make a man consider watching all 90 minutes of a game like Algeria v Slovenia in his quest for total consumption. Hopefully the football in South Africa will be more memorable than the tournaments identity.

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