Finally this month will be the last for the current Foundry34 website before we launch our new and improved site. To finish us off we have the ‘Foundry34 adventures in design’ homepage, next month will see a new site with a range of new features and a much improved client showcase area to show exactly what we have been up to. Keep checking back!

So it‘s basically an open-ended brief, which is far too tempting for us! You can find our entries below, mocking the iPhone’s versatility as there is an App for almost everything (even for dealing with classic villains such as Darth Vader), and Greggs’ hard-to-hide irresistableness even to celebrities such as Gordon Ramsey and Tiger Woods.

Remember work experience? Two weeks spent making cups of tea and doing some oh so interesting filing or lifting boxes? The time of year has come around again when we start to get calls from eager school kids or even more eager parents and teachers looking to arrange work experience.

Here at Foundry34 we try to make life a little more interesting, giving placement students daily briefs that teach them different aspects of working in the design industry. These can include typography exercises, non-literal shapes, photography and Photoshop. After a week of this, if they’re on any longer, we give them the chance to work on an imaginary brand identity brief which can include putting moodboards together, designing logos, and whatever else inspires them. In the space of ten days, these kids can learn as much as they would in a year at school.

For us though, work experience can be a real headache. For starters, there can be a full day of simply doing health and safety. Then of course there is having to take time out of busy schedules to set the kids up with what work they’re doing that day and helping them out when they get stuck. But if we didn’t think it was worth doing, we wouldn’t do it.

It’s an invaluable opportunity for school kids, whether they come to our studio or anywhere else! Work experience is a chance for placement students to be treated like a grownup and a professional, and nine times out of ten they respond very well –it’s great to see someone who is struggling at school fit in and show their hard work and dedication. For us it is about offering an opportunity and showing some trust rather than the work they produce though it is great to see the ideas they come up with. Or at the very least, we can still get a few cups of tea from them!

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March sees the launch of the Assure brand and website. Assure approached Foundry34 to handle their communications as they wanted to get away from the staid and inflexible image often associated with building control. With ‘respect for design’ as their mantra, Assure wanted to project a professional  and high quality image which could stand alongside the brands of their clients such as architects firms. The brief covered logo and brand development, design and build of the company website and graphic design for their company stationery and conference brochures and associated materials.

Check out their site here:
www.assurebuildingcontrol.co.uk

The start of a New Year and the gyms will be packed with the New Year resolution inspired masses looking to lose the xmas pounds. A far cry from the faddy diets and obscure gym programmes is start up company 2ACHIEVE who have just launched their brand and website

www.2ACHIEVE.co.uk

This company takes a much broader view of health, fitness and nutrition and how they link to overall wellbeing, life enjoyment and work performance.  They approached Foundry34 to develop their brand and website incorporating a client area where they could allow attendees of their course and members to download and access course specific information.  The site and brand speaks volumes about where this ambitious company want to be and the knowledge and skill they bring to wellbeing. Whether working for the commercial sector in improving worker performance and sickness rates or helping parents manage the eating habits of their children they balance an approachable and friendly attitude with complete professionalism.

Check out their site at www.2ACHIEVE.co.uk

A big welcome goes to the newest addition to the Foundry34 team, Simon Magill. With a first class degree from  Northumbria University Simon is a D&AD ‘in-book’ winner and has  clocked up experience at Tayburn and Creative Lynx. He joins us at an exciting time as we continue to develop into one of the region’s best up and coming branding and web design agencies.

Chris McIntyre, Managing Director comments
“Recruiting Simon shows our commitment to developing our company and team. We are immensely proud of the efforts of our existing team to put us in the position where we can continue to recruit the very best of the region’s graduates. Simon is a great addition to our team and we expect big things from him”

Simon’s role will be to bring fresh ideas to client’s brands and communications as well as working on new media and web based client briefs. We wish him the best of luck in his new role.

We did start this off as tech babble about the wonders of e-commerce and how nearly 80% of us will buy something online this Christmas and although we do some really nice ecommerce sites we thought we’d do something a little more light-hearted. We thought we’d make a collection of Christmas lists for grown up kids. We’ve started the list off from our team and we’ll continue to add the best ones to our site. Send yours to

info@foundry34.co.uk

Monday mornings aren’t known for being the best point of a week but last week proved a little worse than usual. We walked into our brand new offices to find part of the ceiling had collapsed landing neatly onto our brand new desks and workstations and generally covering everything in sight in a nice layer of dust. Oh dear we said – or something slightly less polite. Send photos of your office carnage to: info@foundry34.co.uk

Just wanted to let people take a sneak preview of some of the brand work we’ve recently undertaken with Frisbee kings Catch The Spirit. The guys at CTS run an online store selling Frisbees, providing discgolf training courses and run courses in schools. Obsessed with everything to do with flying discs they have a real passion for engaging kids in the sport. CTS approached us they wanted to develop a number of sub-brands to really capture each of the three areas they work; Ultimate, Discgolf and Discsports for schools. The new Ultimate sub-brand is shown here. A little bit 70s, a little bit retro and definitely cool. We hope to show some more samples as they develop.