The Neighbourhood - Manchester design, illustration and animation studio

No, not your typical day in the neighbourhood but a new social group set up by 3 people, one of them being our very own Head of Noise Mike.

The premise of the group is to act as a support network for those in creative positions who have a business development function as part of their role. Meeting on the first Wednesday of every month, they hope the evening acts as a place to meet new people, expand your network and share best practice.

As the group states; “Business cards are banned and leave your elevator pitch at home, all we ask is that you bring one positive and one negative thing you’ve encountered within business development during the month before”.

The first evening launched with lively debate on processes currently employed within respective roles, viral marketing and dreaded cold calling!! Overall impressions judged the evening to be a success and they hope future meet ups bring the same diversity (and banter!). Follow them or check out their website here.

There are many interesting nights to be found in Manchester throughout the year, in particular Manifest - the annual Manchester Animation Festival organized by Wes Westley (Creative Director at CITV and owner of the second largest online animation components shop) and Steve Boot (one the region's most well known and well loved animators).

As the flyer made clear for those that hadn’t been before, “It’s not really a festival as such but a good chance to have a catch up with other people involved in the local animation industry and have a drink”

This is a night where those working within more traditional broadcast animation fields can come and chew the industry fat, make some new contacts and sample some of the best animation shorts on offer. Wes welcomed everyone with a warm smile, and encouraged any newbies to mingle with the regulars.

Several studios were represented on the night including, amongst others, Mackinnon and Saunders, Kilogramme, and CITV. We also saw highlights from Aardman and Spike Jonze.

The event has been running for a few years now, and with the calibre of work on show this year will no doubt continue to grow.

Bigger, Better, Brighter, Bolder... Though not quite the 'official' rallying call from the Design Business Association, this was a sentiment endorsed by Tim Hill, Executive Director of Siegel+Gale who gave great insight into selling branding on a global scale at a recent DBA event in Manchester.

Delivering engaging and inspiring ideas is central to our creative approach as a studio, and essential at a client and brand level which is why Mike and Jon were there to explore what this means for us as a business interacting with an international audience.

Tim was quick to stress the importance of market knowledge; understanding tastes and cultural differences at a global-local level is vital, as something that works in the UK doesn’t guarantee results elsewhere. His enthusiastic vision for the future was also apparent... from digital converging with traditional principles, to new opportunities in Asia and the Far East.

His final point on identity was extremely reassuring: Be authentic, be proud, create great teams, live by your identity and make your culture part of it.

Remember this?

Well, we were thrilled to hear that the Saucy Fish Co. TV ad has been swimming its way up to Glasgow, where it appears to be hitting home creatively as well as gastronomically with a group of young students.

In Bellahouston Academy, a class of talented art pupils inspired by Tracy Worrall's fishy illustrations have created some fantastic paintings of their own to illustrate a recipe booklet. The project is a collaboration between the Art and Home Economics department, and sees the students experimenting with graphic design from an advertising perspective.

You can read more about this project, and see some of the fabulous artwork they created here.

Once every 3 months all the hoodies gather together for Show and Tell - an informal opportunity for everyone to talk a little about what they've been working on. As we continue to grow, we've found this to be a great way for each of us to keep sight of the multifaceted work that goes on here be that creative production, development wizardry, or behind the scenes graft.

This month we covered a whole spectrum of topics from growing up as a studio, developing our processes and growing our team, to the relationships we are continuing to build with exciting clients like Land Securities and Heston Blumenthal. Others chose to articulate their craft... the importance of selecting just the right viewpoint, or the reason behind being 'particular' about reflection. We also got an insight into the activities that go on here to enrich the culture of the studio, such as skill sharing, internal design projects, and the fun you can have with an Xbox Kinect!

We are excited to see what the next few months bring and look forward to sharing this with you!