The Neighbourhood Feed Archives for April 2012

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!

Good stories have the ability to capture the imagination on a personal level, but when a story takes hold of the public imagination and allows their participation within it the effect can be extremely powerful. For 3 days in April the city of Liverpool was brought to a standstill by crowds of people gathered in awe at the spectacle of giants walking the city's streets. What they were witnessing was a 3 day event, a story commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster unfolding at an epic scale.

Sea Odyssey is the brainchild of French street theatre company Royal De Luxe and tells the story of a giant who died on the Titanic, his orphaned little girl, the girl's dog and her uncle, a diver who has spent a century trying to retrieve her father's last letter from the bottom of the ocean. The story took place around the north of the city culminating in the union of the girl and her uncle as they were lowered onto a boat and sailed away up the Mersey. The effect was spellbinding, inhabitants and visitors alike have been captivated by the spectacle, being transported back to their childhood in a scene from a fairytale.

Perhaps what is most encouraging about this event is that in an age when attention spans are supposedly decreasing and our collective sense of place under threat from the growth of technology, there was a real public display of engagement and ownership of the 3 day story, and a renewed sense of identity and civic pride. The mixture of story, neighbourhood pride and hope on display certainly warms our hearts here. Let's hope we see more projects on this scale in our cities in the near future.

Say hello to our two newest hoodies Luke and Leila!

After rubbing shoulders with Simon Cowell - and half the population of the British Isles - working as a runner on Britain's Got Talent, Leila has joined us as our new Studio Assistant and the friendly face of the neighbourhood. Luke is our new 3D Artist from across the pond - Australia to be precise. Luke has been working in the UK for a few years now but has moved up north to join the neighbourhood, and by all accounts is still getting used to the wonderfully idiosyncratic Manchester weather!

You can read more about them on our about us page, but in the meantime we asked them to answer some burning questions...

Your role at the neighbourhood in 5 words?
Luke: Inspire, create, innovate, storytelling, 3D
Leila: Welcomer, Biscuit buyer, Financer, Oddjobber, PhoneVoicer

Favourite 'craft' related thing to do?
Luke: Photography and finding ways to use it in creative ways.
Leila: Making boring things look pretty.

Chippy Friday or Biscuit Wednesday?
Luke: Chippy Friday, although both are foreign concepts to me!
Leila: Chippy Friday (Savoury Forever).

What's on your 'walkman'?
Luke: A healthy variety from Beastie Boys to Gorillaz to Fleetwood Mac and everything in between
Leila: Beyonce.

Special skill?
Luke: I have the strange ability to read text upside down and back to front. I'm still waiting for the day this will come in handy.
Leila: I speak Portugese.

They say you should never meet your heroes, so when Blab announced it had secured the services of Peter Saville and Vaughan Oliver for its 10th talk both excitement and trepidation (no one wants to be disappointed by their idol) were generated in equal measures amongst the loyal, clued up Blab crowd.

Both are considered great visionaries for their contribution to design, and rightly so.  Over the course of a 60-minute timeslot each highlighted a retrospective of their collection which proved that point with great humility and humour. Peter Saville preferred a Q+A with Blab founder Matt Booth asking a range of  questions submitted by Northern Digitals members. Whereas Vaughan Oliver opted for the more traditional speaker stance, taking the audience through his career by way of a presentation (all 153 slides of it!).

What’s not to like about Saville’s Factory output, or Oliver’s Pixie record sleeve creations? Both these men deserve the positions they are in today be it through hard work and creativity, or a bit of Mancunian bravado! They are who they are because of what they’ve achieved.

Whilst some skeptics in the room may have expected big egos and old guard clichés, we were actually met with two warm and individual personalities speaking honestly and genuinely about doing something they love in changing times. They won us over that evening because they spoke from the heart and told it like it was, and had been. They were true to themselves and in this media savvy, ephemeral age of the ‘next big thing’, that’s iconic enough.

At the neighbourhood we very much believe in building a community of likeminded individuals who share a passion for creativity and storytelling. We have gained a lot from our extended family of collaborators and co-conspirators, and so we like to give something back where we can.

Over the past 2 weeks we have enjoyed the company of Tom, Sarah, and Jack - 3 very talented final year students from the LJMU/Stockport College Moving Image course. We asked Sarah to give us some insight into her thoughts about entering the 'industry'...

"As a graduate entering the industry in just a few short weeks, it’s pretty daunting to think about 'the real world' and understanding what that word ‘Industry’ actually means. These past two weeks have been a great eye opener in appreciating what the future may bring. I came here with a knowledge of the visually stunning work that the studio produces, but I have also discovered the richness in personalities and talents that The Neighbourhood has to offer. The inviting studio culture encouraged here is second to none; I have felt very welcomed and useful to ‘the hoodies’ I have been placed with, consistently learning new skills and shaping my professional ambitions. Nobody is too busy to answer questions or give advice, even when they are working on big projects, and I feel much more prepared for what awaits me over the next few weeks."

We are really pleased to be able to give something back to promising, young individuals. Hopefully we can continue to nurture and share, and expand the future of our neighbourhood.

(p.s. thanks for the cakes!)

Here at The Neighbourhood, collaboration is in our DNA, and we built our studio to facilitate team working in a shared working environment.

We've a busy spring and summer of multi-disciplinary projects coming up, and are looking for a few new freelance roles to extend our growing full-time teams, to work here with us in our studio.

Firstly, we'd like to meet two Senior Architectural 3D Artists for a 2-3 month assignment in the studio.

Whilst we're here, we're also on the look out for freelance Digital Project Managers (working across online and touch applications), again for 2-3 month assignments.

And we’re always on the lookout for freelance Senior Creatives and thinkers, with a strong multi-platform storytelling approach.

If any of those float your boat, we'd love to hear from you - drop us a line to collaborate@the-neighbourhood.com.

There are several office buildings in London that boast fantastic skyline views for their occupants, but it’s very rare to find one as special as this.

This extract from our marketing images for 62 Buckingham Gate in Victoria, celebrates the unique view from the top floor terrace – a view which includes Buckingham Palace, The Mall and St James’ Park.

The building, currently under construction, is one of the ‘jewels’ within Land Securities’ expansive vision for the redevelopment of the Victoria area over the coming years.

The building is due for completion in April 2013, but if you can’t wait that long – have a look at our full project here.

The Neighbourhood is very much as it sounds; a diverse community with a broad range of skills. We love to share our community spirit with the wider world, and one way we do this is through working with universities to help inspire and develop the upcoming talent. Recently our 3D Artist/Innovation developer Stuart Dearnaley and Lead Creative Rob Millington headed off to give presentations to university students in both Huddersfield, and Salford. The students involved came from mixed media and computer science courses, so the guys had a chance to talk about some of the more innovative and technical areas we have been developing, such as projection mapping and physical computing. Here's what Stu had to say about it...

“I think it's great for us to get involved with students as they progress through their chosen courses, as that's where a lot of future talent will emerge from. We went to present the studio, give advice on how we see the future of innovation developing, discuss what we'd be looking for in potential 'new recruits', and hopefully give them some general inspiration. Whilst at Huddersfield we also had chance to meet some of the students individually, which allowed them to share with us some of the things they have been working on. There were some really interesting ideas being presented and I'm looking forward to heading back to see the work at the end of year show.”

Back in our neighbourhood we're hoping to continue to build on these relationships, and to start up new ones, so neighbourhood nerds Stu and Rob may be appearing in a lecture room near you soon!