Happy new year to all from FreshSpark creative, we hope you had a sufficiently indulgent holiday and are feeling ready for what 2012 has lined up.
have you been meaning to get that website up and running?
perhaps your business cards or branded stationary need replacing?
maybe it’s time to refresh your company image altogether, to bring it up to date and help get you noticed in 2012?
we have worked tirelessly during 2011 to help illuminate the projects of our clients.
check out our portfolio of work.
You can also get in touch with us by using our contact form.
I watched a very interesting talk on TED recently about why Sir Ken Robinson believes that schools kill creativity. Its a subject that hit a particular chord with me, because during my GCSEs I decided not to focus on the work which I decided to be mundane and unnecessary, but instead on having a ‘social’ education, developing my skills in how to make people laugh and have a great time. Unfortunately this often led to me disrupting classes and causing chaos, ultimately leading to me not being selected for either of my first choices for GCSE, Art & Music. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life until I was 21, but all along I suspected it would have something to do with computers as we were bought our first computer when I was just 7. But how can a child today expect to know what they want to do with their life? Some industries are moving so fast now that they could be radically different in just 5 years and children starting school this year will be retiring in 2070.
Sir Ken argues that creativity should be treated with the same significance as literature and the education system should be revolutionised to help prioritise creative thinking. Young children are amazingly creative, I’ve recently lived with a good friend of mine who has a three year old daughter & I’ve never consumed so much imaginary food in my life! Children also aren’t afraid to be wrong and Robinson suggests that schools undermine creativity because they teach us that it’s good be right and bad to be wrong. Being wrong isn’t the same as being creative, but if you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.
For FreshSpark, creativity is obviously of paramount significance. Being able to provide our clients with a unique look and ability to provide an experience to their audience makes a big difference. I personally love creating the graphics that help you get noticed and it’s often not something I get right first time. Our most successful results come through a gradual process of maturation, working collaboratively with our clients to achieve a polished final deliverable.
If you enjoyed the videos or have any comments then let us know on twitter or facebook. Alternatively you can get in touch with us using the details on our contact page.
Some cool stuff to keep you occupied…
Have you heard of Graze.com? They deliver boxes of nibbly treats in the mail and have a lovely website that you can use to fine tune what you will be nibbling on. You can use this link to sign up for a free box, but make sure you cancel your deliveries if you don’t want to continue recieving the boxes. At first I was a bit put off by the fact that most of what they offer is dried fruit and nuts, but once you use their website to choose what you would like and wouldn’t like, I surprised myself in how little I actually excluded. The website itself is rich with functionality, added to the fact that you are essentially choosing what to eat as if you were reading a menu, which leads to a great user experience.
Next, The Cool Hunter brings us this video of a publicity stunt by French digital agency DDB Paris for Voyages SNCF:
Escape Machines – Surprise from The Cool Hunter on Vimeo.
A large black box placed in the middle of a city attracts a crowd as it stands motionless until an onlooker approaches. The resulting show is absolutely ridiculous and very well executed. Well worth a watch!
Another man who has brought smiles to the face of my friend’s and I this week, is Jolyon Rubinstein – a presenter and author over at online arts, music, style & culture magazine Don’t Panic Online. He initially caught my attention with his spoof reporting of the Occupy events that have recently taken place in cities around the world. Jolyon presents the peaceful protesters as blood lusting mentalists, with police ‘Frozen by terror’ as he gets into “the heart of the story” – Absolute class!
Also from Jolyon’s portfolio “Will you be my friend” – light hearted humour applying some of our social network community staples to real life situations.
If you enjoyed any of these, or have some amusing digital media of your own, then please get in touch with us on twitter or facebook.
A couple of weeks ago, we organised a shoot for Spring Gardens Shopping Centre, using as much home grown Buxton talent as we could get our hands on. We’re lucky to know Rosie Hardy, a Buxton girl with a keen eye for photography and image manipulation, who has been incredibly successful with her work over the last few years. We have worked with Rosie before, she provided the imagery for the Ciara Janson site and we would seize any opportunity to work with Rosie again in the future.
We organised a day around Buxton’s autumnal Pavillion Gardens, the Slopes and Spring Gardens, taking between 10-12 shots with an emphasis on having fun whilst shopping & the 30 stores under one roof of Spring Gardens.
Spring Gardens were eager to avoid a ‘stock-image’ look and use as many local faces as possible, to compliment some of the upcoming promotions they are currently planning. Previous marketing materials had also relied heavily on individual female models so we brought in 3 males and 3 females for this shoot to help balance things out.
There were no shortage of smiles on the day as we all know each other fairly well, Rosie has a great attitude, helping models relax and getting the right shot. The weather held out to stay dry and the light was pretty much perfect for what we were after. Rosie has loads of shots online, she has some of her best work & self portraits available on RosieHardy.com & has loads more on her Flickr Account.
Credit: Rosie Hardy
It was image manipulation that got me into becoming a graphic designer as a career choice. Unfortunately though I left a lot of my image manipulation work on stand still back in 2006, when I discovered how hard it would be to try and market the type of design work which I most enjoyed.
Credit: David Bowyer
Check out a few of my other works on my Flickr Page.
We’re also going to be giving out rewards for any referral of work which is successfully converted into a sale. Some of the goodies we will be giving out, ranges from TeaPigs Bio-Degradable tea temples, vouchers for shops around Buxton & even money if its a big job. So make clear with us that you have sent someone our way and expect your reward! If you have any feedback, let us know using twitter or facebook.
I have to help spread the word about this amazing series of videos, titled ‘Live the Language’. They were created by designer Albin Holmqvist (who did the type) and director Gustav Johansson & commissioned by Education First. This video campaign is easily amongst the most remarkable creative marketing projects that I have seen in the last 12 months. The combination of dreamy cinematography, optimistic audio and most importantly for me, well designed typography, creates a memorable experience that I just can’t stop thinking about.
The videos promote lifestyles in different cultures around the world, following an individual student’s experience in a new and exciting environment. The student in each video has a flawlessly positive time meeting good looking, happy people & exploring elements of life unique to the culture of which the video highlights. Amongst the optimism, carefully selected stills are dropped amongst the footage with well illustrated typography overlaying the footage, its like the coolest language lesson you have ever had.
EF – Live The Language – London from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.
Each video executes the main selling point beautifully – Learning Languages at Education First’s many international educational program centres – to help people study abroad and explore other cultures.
You can watch 9 of the videos here but with a little searching there are more about. If you enjoy the videos let us know on twitter or facebook.
Apparently its been the coldest summer since 1993, we wouldn’t have known as our summer has been spent in the FreshSpark Creative office. Well at least this summer hasn’t been a complete waste of time, between projects we have gradually been chipping away at our new and improved website 2.0!
We have discovered that we are our own worst enemy when it comes to working for ourselves, the amount of time that I have spent creating visuals for this website that were ultimately discarded is borderline wasteful! Now the weather is turning grizzly it looks like its going to be another 6 month hibernation in FreshSpark HQ.
It was rather difficult agreeing on a visual design that we all liked, it has to be said. Then the extensive customisations of WordPress’s powerful features & additional development had to sit on the shelf at times whilst we put our heart and soul into our clients work. Over the last few months we have designed and developed several WordPress CMS websites including FamousNamesFurniture.com, PeakDistrictHolidayHomes.com, Dtlls.co.uk and of course the FreshSpark site.
Our latest e-commerce system was completed recently for MajestikArt.com, just today we have finished extensive update work on the UKCA booking system and we’ve completed a few HTML sites for LucySpraggan.com & LynziMusic.co.uk. Phew!
With loads more work currently in the pipeline, you can expect to see a lot more successful collaborations between FreshSpark Creative and our Clients. We have a big photoshoot with Rosie Hardy coming in the next fortnight which we are all very excited about. Fingers crossed that this ‘excuse of a summer’ holds out just long enough for us to get some great, colourful shots of Buxton in all it’s autumnal glory.
