Like many creative agencies, Foundry34 did it’s fair share of free work in the early days, trying to build up our folio or simply trying to get our work out there. Unfortunately free work does usually generate more … requests for free work.

The problem tends to be that rather than clients having an appreciation for the service they are getting for free, the service becomes devalued and we guarantee if you are going to have client relationship problems, it is always with people who do not value your service.

Fast forward a few years and we don’t have to offer work for free but, as always, the team have discussions about the direction of the company and our ethical policy. Although we work with charities and social enterprises on a commercial basis and make donations to charity (our chosen charity is the British Red Cross) we have discussed the idea of helping an organisation out with their advertising on a pro bono basis.

Step forward James Hirst who is about to do a worldwide cycling tour in the aid of Cancer Research. James is a friend of one of the team who mentioned it in one of our discussions and the timing seems to be about right. So James will be off on his tour next year and Foundry34 are going to be helping him out with his website (The Ride Round) and marketing to raise the profile of his undertaking. It gives us a chance to do some experimental work, help out with some great causes and show advertising isn’t the root of all evil.

We have been tasked to rebrand the organisation to allow the charity to communicate better with those they train and deliver their services to. The website will be built using a comprehensive Content Management System to allow the charity to provide regular updates, training dates seminars and events.

Watch this space for updates on progress!

Not every job has to be big to be rewarding and not all advertising is about selling products. Foundry34 recently worked on the Safer Clubbing campaign with two UK charities- Lifeline and Turning Point. The brief was simple- design a set of club flyers and posters to be distributed throughout Newcastle giving harm minimisation messages for those clubbers using or tempted to use drugs. We were more than happy to help, the two organisations clearly very experienced in this area providing us with the relevant content leaving Foundry34 to work on some back to basics graphic design; appropriate visuals and clearly presented information.