Fanatic.

Work Pauses for the world cup sweep stake draw. Harriet is the lucky recipient of England, Max gets Brazil, Sam gets Spain, Ian get Netherlands, Milly gets Argentina, Rob gets Denmark, Jon Free has a proxy draw as was out of the office but Dave France (UNLUCKY). So Come on Harriet and ENGLAND!!!!

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Perhaps it was her time in the Rainbows that gave Harriet, our new designer, her critical appreciation of colour. Her dress sense may have altered since this picture was taken but the shoes look surprisingly familiar. Anyway, we welcome Harriet to the Fanatic fold and coincidentally her first project has been delivering masses of stuff for a new estate agent called Blue Sky. Don’t remember seeing any rainbows on their marketing materials – not too late I’m sure!

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After designing the sub brand for Severnside Recycing's SARA awards event, we were invited as guests on the big night. It was an uphill struggle to get a bunch of designers to don dinner jackets, posh frocks and smart shoes, but it was very much worth the effort. We all had a great time at the Cardiff City Stadium... Thanks Severnside for having us, it was a fantastic evening!

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It's my last week at Fanatic after three amazing years and I can't believe how fast the time has gone! As of next Monday I'll be in a new role as web Producer with the team at Aardman Digital.

My first day feels like it was just yesterday when I met Ian, Tim, Dave and Leanne and got stuck in on the Morgan Beddoe rebrand and website development. 

Now that I'm three years down the line, and think about how much I've learnt, the people I've met and the work that I've been involved in, it's incredible to have come so far. My introduction into the world of online and digital was very much 'in at the deep end and see if you can swim'! I've loved every minute of the steep learning curve, especially developing a plethora of spreadsheets! ;-)

There have been loads of highlights for me, too numerous to list. For me though, like with most jobs, it's the people that make it; client relationships and teamwork within Fanatic has been the real highlight.

I've had the opportunity to be involved in some great work, from the concept stage right through to delivery, an experience which I've relished.

I'm gearing up to handover to my (lovely!) replacement, having said goodbye to the fantastic clients that I've worked with over the years. *sob sob*

I won't go on, but I will say goodbye and a MASSIVE thank you to Ian and the team at Fanatic for making my time here so brilliant!

Over and out.

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I've been really impressed with the new outdoor advertising from Confused.com, which employs the simple but unusual tactic of confusing you, to catch your attention.

This one was outside a service station; I walked past, realised that I had subconsciously read it and that it didnt seem to make sense, stopped, walked backwards to read it again, realised that I was confused, smiled, took a picture and wandered off thinking about how clever it was.

I've not been able to find out which agency are behind the creative, but they've done a good job! There are many iterations, including a pair of empty jeans and a chair with a guitar on it.
The combined effect of the recent TV advertising featuring 'real' people using a 'simple' website (annoying, but probably effective for those less cynical!) and their use of a new character called Confucius developed with the agency Farm, which is currently being tested in the North, are helping to the brand to stand out in a typically dry and quiet sector.

For a long time, I'd disliked the Confused.com brand, notably for that logo which looks like someone's son designed in Word. I like to think that their current agencies have encouraged them to keep it, not because a Marketing Executive is attached to the funny little man, but because people have come to recognise and form a bit of a bond with a logo which is more light-hearted and interesting than the usual corporate insurance identity. It's awful, which makes it effective.

Like other brands which shout and appear 'cheap' (Easyjet, Cilit Bang, Sheila's Wheels, etc) we love to hate them, but they do stick.

Excuse the dreadful image!

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Alex has just got his hands on the latest copy of Grafik. Believe me it is worthy of such a close examination!

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If you're an iPhone user and you havent heard of Hipstamatic yet, it's only a matter of time! I wouldnt normally blog about an app, but this is so much fun and really opens up what you can achieve in terms of creative photography.

I downloaded Hipstamatic a few months ago and haven't looked back! I think it was the best 59p I EVER spent!

This little app lets you take beautiful lo-fi pictures that all look as if they've been shot on basic plastic cameras, replicating that sought after Holga/Lomo look that is oh so popular. You can flick between different lenses, coloured gels and even choose different films, each one rendering a different effect.

My favourite combo is the John S lens and '69 INA's film, which works just brilliantly, especially in bright sunshine. So, if you want to inject some creativity into your snaps, spend the 59p NOW!

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As a designer it can be easy to make a toopo typo**, especially when your type is huge, and you've been looking at the same work for the best part of a week, and after that any word will look wrong, so often someone will shout out in our studio... How do you spell ANY? (or other similarly simple word!) as it has become a set of shapes rather than a word by this point! Also designers don't make the best spellers as rather than working in English classes we drew in the back of our books, looking forward to double art after lunch!

I saw this on the window of a phone shop though... A big bold home made sign, each letter on a sheet of A4, looking great, until the final hurdle of sticking up each letter in the correct order.

I do suspect though it is a deliberate to gain more interest... or is that a designers excuse!!! It's a good job we have Laura and Nick who did learn to spell at school!

** This blog post has been spell checked with Microsoft's finest Word

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In the spirit of Christmas, we have a new A1 poster full of colour swatches, all the colours of Christmas. It features 'Granny's jewellery', 'sprouts', 'frostbite', and about 150 others. Its got geeky CMYK values to keep us designers happy, and we have worked as many of these colours into our work this December as possible... We're spreading subconscious Christmas greetings!!

You can see the poster here.

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And lo, the day arrived... The Office Christmas Party!

So, earlier this week, it occurred to us that we hadn't organised the Annual Secret Santa, and with so little time left, we've set ourselves the North Street challenge: £5, spent on North Street, preferably after our first Christmas bevvy! Should be interesting! Photos of gifts will be posted in the New Year!

Although we still have another week or so left here, it feels like today marks the end of the year, and what a year it's been! I'll refrain from doing my queens speech bit, but 2009 has been interesting, fun, challenging, difficult but mostly full of change. People came and went, we've worked with a wide range of new clients and been able to extend our portfolio and our range of services in the directions we wanted to. To keep up to date, you can follow the blog, check out the News section, or follow us on Twitter. 

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2010....  

p.s. We are closed down over the Holidays from 23 December and then back in the saddle from the 4 January 2010. 

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