This week Creative Review have launched their 2010 annual.

Showcasing the “finest creative work produced worldwide during 2009″ the annual is jam-packed full of the best examples of visual communication.

If you should happen to stumble upon page 86 of this fine publication then you’ll be sure to find a example of The Partners work there.

Our Five-A-Side poster to promote the football fundraising event for the children’s hospice Richard House Hospice has made it into this year’s annual.

Congratulations to the team!

The Winning Idea from l-r: Alex (no, really), Jack, Sam H & Sam G

As you may have seen from a blog post on here last week, we entered a competition run by Metro newspaper and D&AD to design a cover wrap for the Metro newspaper. The winner was announced last Wednesday evening at a lovely event hosted by Metro and D&AD. We were absolutely delighted when our ‘Flowers’ idea chosen as the overall winner and couldn’t wait to see it come out in print.

Well, today’s the day. We have spent all Bank Holiday weekend getting more excited about coming back in to work today than the plentiful bounty of chocolate at our fingertips over Easter. Personally, this morning I ended up in work an hour and a half early as I couldn’t wait to get down to the tube station to pick up my copy of the Metro and see how people were responding to the cover. (yes, I really AM that sad…and I’m proud!)

We’ve all been Tweeting all weekend also to encourage our followers to send us photos from today of their #metrowrap, and the photos/comments have been coming in thick and fast all morning. Thank you all for taking part and do please continue to send us your pics as you get them, we really love to receive them. Please see below for some examples of pics sent in already…

Our friend @Ben_Millar pops the question to a lift full of commuters

Grabbing an early morning edition at Arsenal tube

Oyster roses at Bank - not quite...

The lovely @LewieEvans presents his sister with a bunch

Sarah Kwan sends us her bunch all the way from Edinburgh

@Moobs takes advantage of rare empty seats to brighten his day

Someone 'passing it on' in style

Recycling at the Royal Exchange

I sincerely hope they were intending for a pic of the paper in this one...

Kings Cross picks up a bunch

This one has really made me smile...

The Partners reception/flower stall this morning

Andy Gardner was so keen he grabbed a couple of copies...

...before using one to decorate his office. Thanks Andy.

From our friend Tracey in Glasgow

Somebody's bagged a bunch on the way home

The gorgeous Amanda arranges a bouquet especially for her friends at The Partners.

The lovely Leah mixes the real with the print

And the morning after….

The morning after feedback. Thank you too Jenni.

With examples from around the world, and going beyond graffiti and street art, this book celebrates the next generation of urban artist. Some of them are beautiful, some of them are funny, some of them are poignant, but all of them are brilliant. Of course, we have some work in it also:

We’d highly recommend this book as it’s one you definitely need to have in your collection. Personally, I love it and have it, selfishly, guarded on my desk as I keep liking to flick through it and ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at all the very clever and wonderful work. And no, on that note, you can’t borrow it. <clings tightly to book>

The Partners 2003 (top), Paul Rand 1966 (lower)

It was cool to see a discussion about the Ford Oval in the NY Times last week. We were lucky enough to have the chance to update the Ford Oval in 2003 for the centenary of the company. The mark has become symbolic for Ford, with a lot of pride invested in it – they have a saying in Dearborn that true Ford people ‘bleed Ford blue’! It wasn’t an option to do anything as radical as Paul Rand’s job back in the sixties, especially as Ford were struggling financially at the time. We also found that there were hundreds of versions of the oval all around the world (we lost count at 400), so our task was to create one that could be used everywhere. Needless to say the debates about every slight tweak were prolonged, but we were very careful to preserve the character of the ‘original’. The new Oval revealed on top of ford HQ in June 2003 was the first new standard since 1967. That made us proud too.

Ray was a straight talking, bullish teacher, who told it like it was. He taught us that the idea was king and that a simple communication is more important than the looks.  I know for a fact, I probably wouldn’t be here at The Partners if it wasn’t for him. We Wish Ray the best of luck in his retirement.

Pictures by Matt Knight of W+K

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a D&AD pub night held at the Hoxton Pony, called: An Apple A Day: Technology in design.

The D&AD pub nights are informal presentations by designers to designers, based around a particular topic, and are always lively, slightly drunken, and filled with debate. The brief was to talk about a piece of technology that changed your life. I decided to take a slightly unusual angle on this and talk about a totally unsexy, unloved technology: the intranet. Yes that’s right, I talked about a piece of technology that is even LESS SEXY THAN POWERPOINT.

I used the daggy intranet as a way to tie in a variety of exciting brand engagement projects we’ve been doing for Deloitte. If anyone is interested in more info about the content of my talk please email me and I’ll create another post.

I was pretty nervous when I turned up, and was relieved to see that there were only a couple of hundred people there, as well as stage lights and cameras set up to record the event… (!!!) Overall it was a really interesting night with some great speakers from agencies such as Wieden+Kennedy, De-construct, Tonic and Dare.

Despite my nervousness in the lead up to the event, I ended up thoroughly enjoying the experience and would recommend other designers get involved in the D&AD education activities.

I’ll make another post once the videos from the night are posted up online.

Every entry is rigourously assessed by a team of hard-nosed typographers and designers (our own Jack Renwick and Mike Paisley included), and only the best submissions are deemed good enough to be awarded. The students are also offered membership of the society, which is a nothing to be sniffed at, with only around 30% of students making the grade.

We were especially lucky to have Alan Kitching, a revered typographer, and printmaker with us, presenting the awards to students; all of whom seemed inspired and excited to get a chance to meet him. Or was it the free bar that got them going?

Congratulations to all the students who collected their certificates on the night, and of particular note, Chris Mahoney, of Lincoln University who not only managed to receive a commendation for his typographic representation of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but also collected the Vincent Steer Award; named after the Societies founder – the highest accolade available, awarded to the single most outstanding submission. Clever boy!

Chris Mahoney, University of Lincoln

Finally a different sort of congratulations go to the affectionately dubbed ‘Drunken of Jordanstone’ students from Dundee. Who managed to withold the long-standing tradition of drinking the bar dry and being the last jolly mob to leave. Well done guys and girls, you make us proud – There’s more work featured after the break…

To encourage young designers from schools and colleges, our Creative Partner Greg Quinton was recently asked by D&AD to provide some pearls of wisdom in a personal take on having a career in design:

You may have seen all the fuss about “The best job in the World”. Caretaking a tropical Island? Wonderful. Everyone thought so, but I beg to differ. Nice for a long holiday from a British Winter, but long term? I believe the best jobs mean loving what you do and I love the creative industry.

Rewind twenty years or so ago to when I graduated, Macs were grey plastic bricks called Mackintosh. Phones were mobile (if you were strong enough) but everything in the shops had a prefix of ’designer’. It was a boom time for jobs and the coolest job around was in Graphic Design. I knew I was lucky with my timing even then.

At school I kind of knew what I wanted to do: design record covers, store bags, vans – you know – cool commercial things. I knew I wasn’t an artist. The problem was that nobody knew if it was an occupation. My careers advice lady stroked her beardy chin (yep nasty) and announced “You can be: an Archeologist, a librarian or – if you can pass maths – an architect” I was not best pleased, but design simply hadn’t made it onto the list of ‘real jobs’ yet.

So, searching, I blagged a place onto our local foundation course, worked bloody hard for a year and got shouted at every day for not drawing well enough. Finally the course leader said, “I’m sorry Greg, but you still can’t draw well enough to be an illustrator (long pause) I’m afraid the only option left for you… is graphic design.” She considered this a failure. I was in seventh heaven.

College was a joy. I loved every second of it. I knew this is what I wanted to do. From being bored and pretty average at school I was finally in my element. I wanted to do this forever, but knew had to find the right place. I drew up a short list without thinking I was good enough to work at any of them. Passion forces luck (and I was very passionate) and I got out there and did a D&AD workshop, interviews by the dozen, work experiences, made tea and did whatever I could to be noticed and get recommendations. Finally I landed an interview with Nick Wurr at The Partners who were at the top of my list. He (got sick of the pleading) and gave me a job.

Fast-forward twenty years and two recessions. I’ve forgotten many things but I’ve also learnt:

Creativity can solve so many issues. By using communication and design we can change perceptions, improve our environment and add real value to businesses.

We should always remember that clients don’t owe us anything. They take risks when they buy creativity. They could always play safe. Therefore, you should always avoid arrogance and work hard to create the best possible solution for every single project, whatever the client or their situation.

Most creative people (as a breed) are ‘givers’ and are generous with their personal commitment, skill, energy and passion. For many it is a vocation. This is a strength and should never be taken for granted or abused.

In these tough times it’s important to remember that the creative industry always needs new talent. This current ‘crappiness’ will come to an end at some point. We know that clients who invest in creativity during these low points will come through stronger than those who don’t. It is the same with agencies.

Try and have the long-term view. Agencies might not be able to give you a position in the short term, but please don’t give up, If you are truly passionate about your potential please keep going. Do placements, freelance, talk to everyone, do workshops, win competitions, set up your own thing, keep your chin up and do anything to avoid compromise for as long as you can. If you are good, there is a place waiting for you.

It might just be the best job in the World.

Greg Quinton
2009

After graduating from Norwich School of Art and Design (now known as Norwich University College of the Arts) and a brief spell at Silk Pearce, Dana grafted his way to design director here at The Partners, before taking the creative director role at both Tango and Identica. In 2007 he decided to branch out on his own and create Neon Creative. The article goes on to recall a sucessful pitch against his one-time employees; The Partners; to create an identity and new name for the merger of research companies Henley Centre Headlight Vision and Yankelovich, ‘(The Partners were) the first to congratulate us when we won’, says Dana.

Who says you have to hate everyone in pitches!?! Read the article in full here.