The Neighbourhood Feed Archives for July 2011

You can’t keep a good city down can you, and especially not one like Manchester. We all know what happened on that balmy night last August, a night of anger supposedly against cut backs spilled into mindless violence and looting.

It was very sad to see this element erupt on the streets of Manchester, even worse for them to target those at the very heart of what makes the Northern Quarter great, it’s independents.

If anything good came out of that night then it was the united tide of support for Manchester the days and weeks after. To say to those that tarnished the city’s image that we don’t support you, we don’t believe in your actions and to prove that we’ll pick up the pieces you’ve left behind, regroup and start again.

We’ll repair our lives and businesses you’ve broken and move on only stronger, collected and together under one banner, a great deal of what the #IloveMCR campaign stood for. 

As they always have, the people of the NQ didn’t let the side down, and 2 days of music, food and dance showed them again why this part of town not only does things differently, they do them uniquely.

So, we were down in the charming village of Bray again this week to meet with Heston Blumenthal and friends to discuss our latest phase of work together (watch this space for more news on that).

No bacon and egg ice cream for breakfast though, but we did enjoy some rather special coffee, and wondered how, in the dozen or so times we've been to Bray, the sun always seem to shine!

Is it part of a magical bubble created by the man himself, we wonder?

Like eating fish but sometimes lack the inspiration to know what to do with it? Or feel like it's a lot of mess and fuss preparing?

We know how you feel, and so do the Saucy Fish Company. Their mission is to show us how simple preparing a tasty fish dinner can be and inspire with their range of fish and sauce combinations.

A new product on the market, you may have seen their distinctive packaging on the supermarket shelves designed by our friends at Elmwood.

We have been commissioned to direct and produce their first TV campaign due in the autumn. Looks like fish again for tea tonight! Watch this space.

Well the time had come to pack up the studio (for 1.5 days) and take the annual break to a pre-determined destination as voted for by the studio some months back. This year it was a choice between Madrid and York, and York if you hadn’t realized it already, won.

After a short train ride and a couple of beers and glasses of wine later we arrived in York. Whether York would be ready for Phil, Chris, Dave, Brett, Rik’s Sambuca activity and Stu’s dancing only time would tell. Sadly no photographic evidence exists of Stu’s dancing but we believe the term used was ‘legendary’.

A quaint B&B was our lodgings for the 2 days, pretty much a 10 minute walk from the town centre. Ideal for 4am nights out, and of course all that history and culture bit.

In the space of 2 days we managed to cram in cocktail making, a dinner and lunch, a visit to the races and a ghost walk. If The League of Gentleman did ghost walks – they’d be something like this.

We all left York as we found it, a little drunk and slightly tired. Leaving behind some ‘interesting’ bars and a Graham Norton cocktail or 3. Sadly we’ll also be leaving behind some of Sarah’s wardrobe, left in the wardrobe of the hotel and as yet not returned. We’ll also sadly be leaving behind Rik’s ability to drink, which would have been interesting if we’d have left Rik there with it. He doesn’t look capable, 5 ft with glasses but drinks Sambuca like tea... They raise them hard in Altrincham.

Next year we’re all agreed that a little more culture wouldn’t be a bad thing. We’ve heard Wakefield is lovely this time of year, maybe the Hepworth Gallery followed by a Rugby League game and the local conservative club for hot pot and bingo.

After a long search, many an interview and a nail biting X-Factor style conclusion, we finally ended our search for a Lead Creative to join our team.

Meet Rob, he's a top designer/animator type chap from around these parts but left for 'The Big City' to seek fame and fortune a few years ago. He's finally come to his senses and catching up with what he's been missing all these years and very glad we are too.

Welcome Rob.

What attracted you to The Neighbourhood?

I've been looking to get out of London for a while now and Neighbourhood was on my short list of good companies doing high quality national & international work. When the opening popped up I jumped at it, but it does mean moving house, getting married and starting a new job in the space of a month. Think I'm going to need a back-rub and a pint after all that, but looking forward to a new start and new challenges.

What have you missed about The North whilst AWOL in London?

Family. Northern hospitality. Rain. Cold. Fields. Hills. Trees. Reasonably priced beer. 

Name 3 key creative influences in your work and approach.

My Dad - He's a graphic designer, I probably learned a lot via osmosis from him and the things in our house.

Josef Muller Brockmann - I drew this name from a hat for a project at Uni and didn't know anything about him. The next 8 weeks were very eye opening. Still love his work and have a few of his posters dotted around the flat.

Prologue - These guys do a crazy amount of great work. The Tron stuff is right down my street.

Favourite album of the past year?

At work I’ll probably listen to some mix’s on www.r.fm or maybe the radio, like www.ntslive.co.uk. 
But to answer the question at home I tend to listen to more chilled out music. I've been enjoying Noah and the Whale recently.

Football team?

Watching: Manchester United. 
Playing: Clissold Thistle (The team I played for in London - but will be looking for a new one now!)

Give us a quote of wisdom:

"Only the madman is absolutely sure". Robert Anton Wilson. I spotted this a few months ago on www.butdoesitfloat.com and kept it as my desktop background for a while. 
The only other one that crosses my mind is "Better out than in". I think my dad told me that one. :)

Every so often we come across ideas which are a step above the norm. Ideas which have the potential to actually change the world, and address real, urgent, global problems.

With the world population estimated to increase by a staggering 50% by 2050, and with 80% of those people projected to be living in cities, the world faces urgent challenges around sustainability and simple provision of food and water.

At the recent Manchester International Festival, the visionary Dr. Dickson Despommier, author of the book 'Vertical Farming', set out his vision to provide safe, fresh food around the globe in a way that he says is impossible with modern farming. He points out that while horizontal space for growing crops is limited, vertical space remains abundant, and by developing vertical farms in disused (or purpose built) buildings within cities, we will simultaneously address some of the downsides and challenges with traditional farming, and engage citizens much more closely with sustainability.

Most exciting of all, the theory is now becoming real, with live projects in South Korea and Holland, amongst others - and the UK's first vertical farm (called Alpha Farm) is under construction here in Manchester in a disused office block in the suburb of Wythenshawe.

There are more insights into the plans, and important developments on the Alpha Farm blog.

We've been having some meetings in unusual places lately from lawn tennis clubs and world class restaurants to greasy spoons, but a ship has to be the most surreal to date.

Our friends at Hertel recently invited us to meet at their suite on the SS Rotterdam. A vintage vessel that shipped dutch emigrants to America in it's heyday, it now functions as a hotel, with restaurants, bars and corporate entertainment. It's been refurbished to it's former glory and sports some fine retro decor, especially the disco!

After a high tech 4-way global video conference call, we were treated to a full ship tour and entertained by a strange group of travelling Dutch troubadours!