Recently by John Newbold

When I graduated from Uni a few years back I suddenly found myself staring at a black hole between where I'd been and the challenge of landing my first job in the Creative Industries. After studying Graphic Design for three years I had successfully nurtured a passion for design and a fear of getting a job in equal measures. Despite the fact that part of my course had been aimed at preparing us for the 'real world', I have to admit that part of me felt incredibly under equipped and short on ideas when it came to approaching design studios. 

The problem I was facing wasn't down to bad teaching at Uni - I still have the utmost respect for a couple of my tutors who I often realised were going well beyond what their job description required to ensure we picked up as many design skills as possible. However, now I'm on the other side of the fence, having setup a small design studio which is now growing and recruiting students itself I can more clearly see how big the jump can seem from 'eager student' to 'commercially viable employee'.

So, i'm a bit behind on this story (and on my blog) but when the new OGC logo was unveiled a few months back something happened to me which has born a new obsession for amusing designs. By now most people will have seen, read about or laughed at the new OGC logo commissioned by the HM Treasury. Aside from costing £14,000 to create and being pretty underwhelming in appearance the main focus of attention has been the completely unintentional appearance of the logo when rotated 90 degrees. Suffice to say, a few red faces must've ensued given that the error wasn't spotted until the logo had not only been unveiled but also printed on a load or collateral including mousemats and pens! The point of this blog however, isn't to talk any further about that logo in particular by instead about the joyous OCD I now have for hunting down these 'design classics'. Perhaps it's the morbid fear that as a designer myself one day I could be responsible for one of these amusing slip-ups, but either way this month has been a month of coffee break 'googles' for more of the same.

One of the top stories on Digg as I sit at my computer tonight surrounds the new 'Britannica Webshare' program introduced by Encyclopedia Britannica. The new service provides 'free' access to an online version of the encyclopedia, but interestingly only to those users classed as 'web publishers'. The definition (considering these guys write encyclopedias) seems a bit soft - "This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn't qualify." The apparent half empty offer of 'free' in this new service got me thinking about the importance of acknowledging and adapting to changes in businesses models quickly, rather than persisting long term with a strategy that was doomed from the start. In this case, even when Britannica is seemingly making strides to become more au fait with new trends, it's clear that they can still slip up with the particulars.

This week I've been deliberating on the subject of 'free pitching' in order to win contracts. As an agency, 383 Project are 'invited' on a pretty regular basis to pitch or tender for work. More often than not the potential client is after some development or concept work to be submitted as part of our 'pitch' and more often than not we find ourselves going through the same deliberations as to whether or not to meet the clients request. Now, before I go any further it's worth stating that this isn't a free pitch 'rant' per say as some of our biggest projects, and best clients, have been won through pitches. But, and it's a big but, just because free pitches can work, it doesn't mean it's necessarily the best route forward for both agency and client. As well as having several downsides for the client, there's also massive business implications for the 'losing' agencies involved as well - a side of the fence we've been on before too.

So, another week's gone by and inevitably every other sentence I hear is still carrying the words 'social networking'. Working in digital media it's pretty easy to guage when a bubbling web trend has gone mainstream - it's the point at which clients start asking us if there could be a commercial application for it. The inevitable question being, 'we've heard about this and would like to use it somehow?'. Now, this isn't a criticism of companies looking to be innovative, after all that's what keeps us in business. It is however a pretty good signpost that often the approach with tapping in to these services is born more from a 'lets have a presence' approach, rather than a 'do we have anything relevant to say that would justify a presence' approach. It's on this point then that I watched a few key 'link ups' unfold this week which paired some pretty well known names with some equally well known social media networks. The thing that made these stand out for me though was the fact that rather than being cynical attempts to create revenue streams, boost a brand or generally exploit an existing service, they all represented pretty neat ideas...

So, for my first post I thought I'd keep things short and sweet and tell you a little bit about who I am and what I do.

At the moment (and indeed for the foreseeable future!) I'm Creative Director and co-owner of 383 Project,a Birmingham-based design agency.

I've worked as a freelance designer and art director independently and for other agencies for around 4 years, growing my interest in online media and generally getting stuck in to the development of as many interesting projects and ideas as I can.

I helped co-found 383 Project early in 2006 and since then have helped to develop new accounts and clients across a range of industry sectors. Shortly after starting 383, we were named in Channel 4's Creative Class 06/07 and this year won 'Most Promising New Business' in the 2007 Creative City Awards.