New creative works section in The Drum magazine

There was no brief, just a desire to create something that would showcase letterpress print in all its tactile glory.

“I talked through some ideas but mostly about music, obscure stuff like the Red House Painters, The Pastels and the Blue Nile. A musical/colour theme evolved and I came up with the cassette mailer and music themed business cards,” said Vernon.

Impressive Print was inspired by the printing process which involves inking raised type and impressing it deeply onto soft paper using vintage printing presses.

Printed entirely on GF Smith’s colourplan range it features six kinds of duplex board, dye cutting and metallic and holographic foiling.

Shots posetd online by Vernon very quickly went global with requests for the mailer coming from Japan, South Korea, USA, Canada and Australia, taking less than two days to shift 500 copies. Orders also came in from high profile, international brands like Apple, Vogue and Sony.

999 Design has developed a campaign to launch The Observer’s Ethical Awards for 2011.

The key objectives were to broaden the appeal of the awards, express the diversity of the categories and to ensure it felt accessible, aspirational and inclusive to all potential readers.

999's approach was to avoid traditional stereotypical imagery and an apocalyptic tone and to challenge perceptions of what ethical living means.

This was achieved by creating a set of ethical characters to personify the spirit of the awards and highlight the different features of the individual categories. Feature characters include the ethical ‘Genius’, ‘Superhero’, ‘Conservationist’ and the ‘Campaigner’.

999 commissioned illustrator Olivier Goka to develop and produce the characters using found and recycled objects.

JESS Properties is a Bristol based business that boasts a property portfolio as well as two sister companies that provide a range of construction and maintenance services.

JESS briefed Taxi Studio to create a brand identity that could bring together the three arms of the business whilst remaining flexible enough to work across a wide variety of applications form letterheads to lettings boards and hardhats to a homepage. Taxi identified that at the heart of all their business activities was the unifying theme of ‘The Home’; whether that be providing, maintaining or constructing.

In order to capture this central theme, Taxi took inspiration from T.S Elliot’s McAvity (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats) to create ‘Jess’ a mischievous illustrated cat that interacts with a series of photographic objects appropriate to their application.

‘Jess’ bringing personality and warmth to what is usually a cold, corporate branding category.

Young designed the new branding and website for construction industry company Qubiq.

Young co-founders Geth & Pete explained: “Working for a client in the construction industry is something completely new to Young and maybe not something people would expect us to do.

“We decided to take this project on as the client was happy for us to put our stamp on the brief, and in the end creating something fun and playful that stands out from the usual facade of happy workmen wearing hard-hats, holding mugs of tea.”

The Big Chopper was designed by Matt Dyson and Matt Sparrow, who say the idea came to them from a joke made at a barbecue “where a mate was chopping his meat and veg on the same board”.

Phil Wright, now non-exec chairman at Chapter, joined the duo earlier this year to help bring the product to market.

Wright said: “When the guys first came to me to discuss their ideas I thought, this is a marketer’s dream, it’s just too good to be true. So we conducted some exploratory marketing and price research and found that - despite stiff competition in the kitchenware sector - the potential of The Big Chopper was huge.”

Chapter was enlisted to work on a through-the-line launch campaign, including press ads.

Samsung tasked Big Communications with promoting the launch of its new Solid Immerse handset in 02 stores across the UK.

The phone, which is able to withstand the elements, will be targeted at extreme sports enthusiasts and promoted through a campaign that uses the line “Handles anything you can throw at it”. The in-store mechanical display units will promote the waterproof, dustproof and shockproof elements of the phone, showing it being plunged into water, sand and also placed inside a wind tunnel.

Brough Lodge is a 19th century estate on the remote Shetland island of Fetlar, remarkable for its architecture, location and history. The main house is category A-listed, but is in need of major repairs. The Brough Lodge Trust and celebrated Shetland musician Dr Aly Bain, want to bring it back to life and create a place in which Shetland’s rich musical and artistic heritage is nurtured and celebrated.

O Street worked with chairman Pierre Cambillard to create an identity that reflects the vision of creating new life from the ruins and the venue’s future as a cultural centre.

Mackie’s of Scotland launched a new range of premium ice creams positioned to compete directly with Haagen-Dazs, Green & Blacks and other premium offerings. Hampton Associates was asked to design the packaging for three flavours - Belgian Chocolate, Madagascan Vanilla and Toffee Fudge.

The strategy was to differentiate the product from a traditional or clichéd premium look, and to convey the character of the Mackie’s brand - a luxury product served with lashings of humour and personality.

The ‘posh cows’ featured on the tubs are real Mackie’s cows. The agency arranged for a temporary studio and photoshoot in one of the barns on the farm - initially with real tiaras, which proved to be too small for requirements, so these were added in post-shoot.