Hotbed is back

Hotbed (Cambridge’s festival of new writing) is back and here is a sneak preview of this year’s brochure. If you have experienced the festival you would have a pretty clear idea of where we were coming from with the design. If you haven’t then why not? It is a fantastic event and runs from 3rd to 12th July at The Junction in Cambridge. Book now.

Here is the cover.

And here is a spread. If you see one thing, see this from Ranjit Bolt.

We have a bike

We have a bike. It was given to us by Oliver, who was given it by Julian. We love it. It is environmentally sound. It is a joy to ride. It needs a bit of work.

 

We gave it to Rocco. He is an expert in all things bikes and a true gent. One of those rare people who really care about what they do. Rocco has standards.

This is Rocco’s tobacco and a couple of his tools.

This is our bike now. You probably can’t see a huge difference, but if you got on it and pedalled, you would know. We plan to brand it and ride it to meetings, to pick up proofs on it, go and get our lunch on it and no doubt fall off it. We’ll show you it when it is done, and in the meantime if you want us to swing by on it, give us a shout.

I prefer their early stuff #1

As we will soon be taking down our current site and replacing it with something new, we thought this blog would be a good way to show you some our old favourites – the projects that in some way illustrate our approach.

This project was for a lovely client of ours, Hapsco, who are an interior designers/property developers. They wanted us to promote them whilst they undertook a residential renovation project near Cambridge station.  Rather than getting the typical high gloss large format printing done with some images of a couple smiling and enjoying a latte with the possible addition of a blonde haired toddler or a labrador, we simply got the spray cans out.  We created a stencil of a chandelier and ran them along the wall life size.  It looked great and did much more to articulate how Hapsco do things.

More to follow.

Close but no cigar #1

We love this business, really we do, but sometimes it is frustrating, sometimes you have an idea that you think just works, sometimes your best work never quite sees the light of day, sometimes you just wonder why? As a part of this blog we are going to show some of these nearly but not quites – projects we love but for whatever reason they never quite go the distance. The first idea is one for Arts and Business East, where we were asked to develop a visual identity for their annual award show.  Using the idea of a flowering plant, nodding at the Arts and Crafts movement we developed a style which was distinctive, engaging and used the Arts and Business ampersand in a witty way. We just loved (love) it.

But hey, we just need to find a another client who uses an ampersand as a central part of their identity and are something to do with the Arts.  Should be easy enough.

And then there were five.

It is amazing really, but there is still nothing like getting a nice piece of work back from print. Receiving Oliver and George’s business cards last week was no exception.  I suppose it is what they symbolise too – a growing team that can get their hands on more creative projects, nah, let’s be honest it is the fact they are beautifully foil blocked on a 1200gsm GF Smith board.

Lovely.

The District on-board for The Junction’s new website

 

 

Following a three way pitch recently, we at The District have secured a lovely little project to get our teeth into in the shape of a shiny new website for The Junction. We are very excited about the potential of this project as it is a real opportunity to engage with all the diversity that exists within The Junction brand.

We have been working with The Junction for a number of years now and have developed a strong and successful (award winning!) suite of printed materials. In the background to this has always been the website which we have all collectively known to have short-comings but until now not had the opportunity to develop it appropriately.

Now the opportunity exists we are taking what we have learnt from the development and success of the printed materials on-line. At its centre will be a very simple and intuitve diary of events, which after initial discussions with key members of Junction staff is the key objective. Very excited to be involved. Above is a photograph illustrating a diverse family of theatre, club and music venue go-ers enjoying the new website.

Smiles all round at the Good Ship District!