December 2011
1 post
October 2011
3 posts
Dual Control rules:
Overall competition rules: Teams are required to register a maximum squad of 8. During group stages, 3pts will be awarded for a win, 1pt for a draw and 0pts for a lose - this is the same across both formats of the event. The top 2 teams from each group will go through to the knockout stages. In the event 2 or more teams are level on points, progress will be decided by goal difference then...
Dual Control - Press Release.
A Unique digital AND analogue football tournament launches in Leeds as part of the city’s digital festival.
Throughout November Leeds’ digital sector will be coming together to celebrate all that;s great and good in the digital markets and part of the celebrations will include a one of a kind 5-a-side football tournament.
On Saturday the 26th of November at Goals Soccer Centre,...
September 2011
4 posts
March 2011
2 posts
12 tags
Manchester Design Symposium...
Symposiums seem to be all the rage these days, first Liverpool (now known as, “Design Symposium North”) and now Manchester so for those of you that couldn’t/didn’t make it, I thought I’d offer you the (debatable) value of my opinion…
So yesterday, some 300 or so people crammed into a a fairly tight entrance lobby before taking their places in Manchester...
5 tags
A trip to the theatre - Yerma.
Now I’ve landed in my 30’s I reckon I’m ready to try some more grown up type stuff. So 1st on my list - a trip to the theatre.
The last time I went to the theatre was around 6-7 years back when I took Sarah to see Fame in the West End for a birthday “treat”. It was far from high brow but none the less I found the whole experience pretty dreary.
Still, time has...
February 2011
1 post
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
4 posts
4 tags
October 2010
1 post
Character Creative FC
Character’s been up and running for nearly 4 years now so our first foray into the world of corporate sports has been a long time in coming.
Thank the Lord for Powerleague then who, having recently launched a new site in the city centre, called us up and invited us to play in their inaugural “Recruitment Cup”.
“Awesome”, I thought! I play a bit and I’ve a few...
September 2010
1 post
TEDx Sheffield
I went along to a couple of TEDx events last year - my thoughts on them were a bit mixed but I figured 2nd year in and perhaps some lessons would have been learnt. And at TEDx Sheffield, I think they were.
The Showroom Cinema provided a cracking venue and all in all, an audience of some 300+ were treated to 6 real life speakers and 3 recorded lectures from TED’s online archive.
Cennydd...
June 2010
4 posts
Sh! Awards
Not a long post but wanted to mention that I made it to the Sh! Awards last week and after chatting to people, and looking around myself of course, the general consensus was this was arguably the best year yet.
Templeworks provided a fantastic venue - there’s more and more great stuff happening down there - and the work itself was top drawer.
I’ve still got issues with the way...
10 tags
Saturday night for Tapas.
A bit of light relief from my usual blog posts as, on Saturday night, I combined two of my favourite things; food and photography. I had a bash at making Tapas.
“Mmmm, these aren’t just meatballs….”
8 dishes all together and no mean feat serving them all served at once - hats off to the folk that do this for a living!
If you’re interested, here’s a list and...
6 tags
How can transcription help my website?
Looking for ways to improve your site’s search rankings? This guest post by Richard Michie, Director of Marketing for Global Lingo, will let you know how transcription could help.
Sounds like an odd question. How can such an ‘old fashioned’ practice as transcription help my website?
The answer is simple. Most website designers and Search Engine Optimisation specialists know that adding...
6 tags
2010 Leeds Uni Grad show.
I managed to get along to this year’s degree show at the University of Leeds last night, enjoyed the obligatory “glass” of wine and found some pretty interesting work.
First stop for me, obviously, was the design degree show and there seemed to be a bit of a different layout to previous years.
Each student had a small board each (pictured above) and most seemed to go with a...
May 2010
2 posts
8 tags
Advice for graduate designers.
It’s that time of year again, the sun’s beginning to shine, the sound of ice cream vans is filling the streets and I’ve started getting into planting herbs again!
Yes, graduate season is under way and hundreds of design students are emerging from their 3 year old cocoons ready and eager to join the “real” world and begin an exciting and glamorous career as a...
7 tags
Your Brand: your secret weapon.
A last minute trip but well worth the effort - this is a review of last nights event at the Rose Bowl in Leeds; How to make your brand your secret weapon.
The event was organised and hosted by Thompson Brand Partners, a great design consultancy based here in Leeds. I’m yet to work with them but know several of their designers (past and present) and they’re a super talented bunch.
...
March 2010
2 posts
6 tags
A "Knight" with Sir John Hegarty...
My first ever visit to a Creative Networks event and first off, wow - what an well organised event it was.
Arrive, get your name badge plus three tokens; one for food (which was way better than it needed to be) and two for drinks - punch to be specific.
Eat your food, drink your drinks and mingle for half an hour or so before being led into the lecture theatre for the talks - and will there be...
February 2010
1 post
January 2010
1 post
December 2009
2 posts
2010 - Twenty Ten.
Not the most original idea and perhaps a little slow off the mark but they’ve arrived and I think I’m reasonably pleased with them.
I am of course talking about the first ever Character Creative Year Planner, designed by yours truely.
There are 50 of them and the plan is to get them out to a selection of existing clients and candidates - hopefully I’ll be able to sell...
November 2009
6 posts
10 tags
How to attract talent - it's still harder than you...
Yeah there’s a recession, yeah there’s bags of people on the market but I think creative agencies still need to be working harder to attract top talent.
It’s not enough just to exist and expect the best candidates to come to you - and be grateful for a job - they’re still in high demand so you need to do more.
Here are a few ideas:
Career path:
In my experience,...
3 tags
How's best to say it?
Got got a couple of bits of great feedback on an earlier post on freelancers - one was a reminder that Character Creative doesn’t immediately come across as a recruitment agency.
I’ve heard that before and always thought it was quite a cool thing but maybe I was wrong? Like it or not, it is what we do, so if people aren’t getting that then we’ve got a problem.
So a bit of...
4 tags
WatchBit of a dodgy wine goblet metaphor and, amazingly, I actually preferred the Starbucks logo with it in!
I’m not over exaggerating when I say, this is probably the best film I’ve seen all year!
Keep your eyes peeled for George Lois in particular - he’s ace!
If you’ve got even a remote interest in Advertising then I urge you to see the film - I totally fell in love with it again after watching!
http://artandcopyfilm.com/
“Character has found us a number of super talented creatives - all of whom have...”
– Matt Pallatt | Twentysix
October 2009
3 posts
10 tags
Freelancers..... another way.
At the start of the year we (that’s Character Creative) got to thinking about what we could do for freelancers and those agencies trying to find them.
More and more of our clients were asking about them and, whilst we never turned the work down, we hadn’t formalised any offer or even a general response.
Hence we struck upon the idea of a single introductory fee for freelancers, and...
3 tags
Jamie Oliver, our lord and saviour?
I’m generally not one to throw critisims around but am I alone in thinking that Jamie Oliver is a tit?
How he’s managed to grow an army of fans, several restaurants and mulitple TV series is beyond me!
This camels back, by the way, was broken last night when enduring “Jamies America” (or whatever shite it’s called).
Normally I’d steer well clear but...
9 tags
snZero
I was a participant in last night’s inaugural “Social Networking Zero” event organised by digital media guru Matt Pallatt. Matt wasn’t in to the other industry get-togethers so, unlike many, he decided to put his money where his mouth is and start up an one of his own.
Not knowing what to expect I turned up with an open mind.
Given Matt had managed to find another...
September 2009
5 posts
13 tags
TEDx Leeds.
So after a couple of years of watching the awesome stuff at TED.com I heard about an event happening in Leeds - 3 guest speakers, 3 existing TED talks and the event presented by Imran Ali.
First up was Kevin Kelly’s popular talk on “5,000 days of the web”, recorded in 2007.
He tells us that the web was only 5,000 days and then indulges in some blue sky thinking around...
10 tags
You can't beat a good book...
Portfolios, books, work…… stuff, whatever you want to call them; after a few years of looking through them you’d hope I’d know a few things about how to put one together.
Firstly, some common sense. Think about who you’re meeting beforehand and tailor your book to them. One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure and all that - in other words, what one...
4 tags
Hello and Welcome...
I’ve been in recruitment for some 6 years now, speak to most people who’ve dabbled in this profession and they’ll tell you that’s long enough for anyone, but somehow I’m still here.
It’s a bit different for me though (I think). I’ve got my own business, no targets, no set hours, no “bonus structure” but no one to blame either….. annoyingly.
So what’s this first blog entry about? Am I a...