As a Digital Graphics student I was encouraged by University to go on a placement year in order to gain work experience to help my employment after graduation. Past students came to University and spoke about their own personal experiences of taking their first steps into the graphic design industry. I came to the conclusion that going on a placement year to gain relevant work experience, would offer me a new challenge and improve my already existing skills. It would also be a fantastic opportunity to learn and improve my commercial appeal.

Finding a placement was a time consuming task, but I was able to get an interview. The interview was a nerve racking process, after looking at the fantastic pieces of work on the Truth website I could only hope I was good enough to achieve a year’s work experience at such a respectable graphic design agency. To my surprise I was offered a two-week trail that started the following week.

In all honesty, I’d didn’t know what to expect from a placement year as it was a completely new experience for me, but I knew it would help me in the future. I have learnt a lot from my time at Truth, especially the business side of graphic design and this is a side that could not be taught at University – real work with real clients, giving me a completely new perspective into my chosen degree subject.

Teamwork is a huge factor, whereas in University the opportunity of team does not arise as often (largely because many briefs are assessed individually). Having tight deadlines and clients has made me realise how much work gets invested into each project, teaching me how important the initial stages of your ideas are and that coming up with a variety of ideas to support the client brief is critical. Looking at each individual element of a piece of work is also essential and something Truth’s Creative Partner, Darren has taught me a lot about. Line breaks, hierarchy of type and the overall finish are as important as the idea. At the end of the day the final piece has to be something you are proud to put your name to.

The best ideas may be great from a creative point of view, but need to be commercially appropriate too. This is all part of the challenge, to reinvent your ideas to fit with the client’s perfectly.

Seven months at Truth has flown by, and taking a year out of University study has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I’ve learnt a host of new skills and have developed others. Darren and the Truth team have been a great help, as they have always been willing to teach me.

From my experience alone, I have learnt a lot and would definitely recommend it to any students considering going on a placement year. It has been an enormous help towards my degree work and my future career, which, I will never forget!
A final point NOT to be ignored is that I can certainly make a fantastic brew now!

By Dan Kinsella – Creative Intern

Things have changed in agencies over the past few years – especially with the economic climate as it is. You see I remember a time when creative came first in agencies. Maybe it still does now in many, but the focus is so much more geared towards the financial aspects of what we do, it sometimes makes me wonder if this is having an effect on creative output.

It definitely had an effect on my role as an account director in my last agency. I was spending more and more of my time justifying every second of every day spent by myself and the teams I was working with. More time spent with the financial gurus determined that I would be ‘profitable’ at all times and less time with creative and my clients. Some might say that this is a good thing; this is what we should be doing. I am not so sure.

I don’t actually think the agency I was at suddenly became uncreative. In fact they went on to win a number of high profile awards for the work they have done and are still doing. But new systems were put into place to allocate and monitor time spent on every job that came in. And it seemed to me that it was starting to affect the creative output so much so that I wasn’t proud of what we were producing anymore.

Please don’t think that I am really naïve – as an account director I know the importance of profitability, revenue and servicing clients all comes as one little package. It’s my job! But when you are expected to charge for absolutely every second of everyone’s time it does become very difficult.

Because just how do you put a cost on a creative idea or concept that is highly subjective? Sometimes the creative team will come up with great ideas in a short space of time – but sometimes they won’t. And sometimes when you think you’ve found the perfect answer to the brief – the client doesn’t agree. More work is needed – but more work costs money.

Of course every client is different. Some can be serviced at relatively low cost. Some have bigger budgets and are searching for the ‘big’ idea. And of course agencies are different too, working in different ways, which is often influenced by their size, and the clients they have. But the bottom line here is that we are all businesses and we (agency and client) need to make a profit to survive. Working through a recession means that value for money becomes even higher on the agenda and clients are questioning how we cost each job we do. Transparency is more important than ever.

So how do we balance the creative requirement with the need to be profitable? I personally think that there has to be some give and take. We are all businesses – and finance certainly does have its place. But we also have to nurture creativity because that is what makes an agency live and breath and keep the clients coming. If agencies lose their creative focus, if profit does end up coming ‘first’ then I don’t think you can expect your clients to stay. There are many different ways to look at improving the efficiency of an agency including the processes that we use. But lets not lose sight of why our clients choose to work with us in the first place (it wasn’t just about the bottom line was it…?) and remember its not always just about the numbers.

Written by
Emma Panchaud – Account Director – Truth

2013 began with bang for Manchester creative agency, Truth, with an appointment to deliver a 12-month PR and social media campaign for Crawford Healthcare. 

Following a competitive pitch process, Truth has been commissioned to support the growth of the leading skincare provider’s dermatology and wound care brands in the UK.

Truth will now deliver combined PR and Social Media campaigns for key product ranges such as SunSense, Australia’s number one sunscreen and KerraMax Care, a collection of super-absorbent dressings for use within the NHS.

Karen Kennedy, marketing manager at Crawford Healthcare, commented: “We were very impressed with Truth’s proposal and the strategic yet creative approach suggested for each of our key brands. We’re really pleased to have the team on board with us in 2013.”

Truth managing partner, Lisa French, commented: “This is a fantastic client win for Truth, giving us the opportunity to work within a new sector and continue to expand the PR arm of the Truth offering.”

“Just change the headline on version 24, stick some bleed on and make a High Res pdf”, I’ve often heard it said.

It has always amused me that some fellow colleagues up and down the years often think that producing a finished piece of print ready artwork is to add bleed and crop marks to a mac visual. Surely people still don’t believe this rings true and this preconception can be expelled?

An Art-form.
Producing artwork is an art within itself, encompassing a broad, varied and diverse set of skills, which is why good artworkers are often more seasoned candidates. Good, accurate and more importantly, correct artwork is a time-served and learned skill that only grows from a foundation of knowledge and years of experience in dealing with the end product. And often getting it wrong before getting it right!

Small errors can often come at great cost, so diligence is essential. It can be the difference between producing a dream job and a disaster. Which is why it often frustrates me that such little time and emphasis is put on artwork and it is often undervalued and underestimated, as being the fundamental part of the job it deserves to be.

State-of-the-art.
In this digital age, our advanced kit enables us to take a job from concept to print-ready without it even leaving our desktops. I will resist listing a ‘job description’ of artwork here, but in short, artwork requirements are specific to each job and unique to that job, and we now have the tools to execute every possible facet of artwork right in front of us.

But, is it better to be ‘a jack of all trades than a master of one’? So many times I have seen jobs fall over at the last stage due to small factors been over looked such as the basic size being wrong, type area or gutter being incorrect. Jobs have to be re-worked, re-done even, as they could not be produced how the designer intended! The best designers I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to work with are those that can design with artwork considered and still produce something tangible. I would call these the celebrated ‘masters of one’.

A dying-art.
I see much resonance where artwork is concerned to Darren Scott’s insightful blog posted on 21.1.13, ‘The death of Typography’. The many considerations and values of traditional artwork are being neglected. The lack of attention to detail – kerning, wrong hyphenation, bad punctuation, poor typesetting and so on. These fundamental aspects are still the cornerstone of good quality work and like with typography these essential skills and learned techniques are being lost. Either being completely surpassed, or that young people lack the basic knowledge of them.

Celebrated-art.
Artwork is the foundation of any good job, the base on which something perfect can be created; it’s the pattern from which a suit is made or the blue-print of a car. And the art of good artwork is to craft, polish and love that job to produce something both beautiful and yet workable. We love to celebrate and showcase our best work, but good design with bad quality artwork; that irritating bad line break, that annoying typo, leaves it blemished! Like a new car with a scratch on it! Design and Artwork need to be synonymous with each other and as a designer or an artworker we have equal responsibility.

The greater the understanding of the partnership and process, the greater the quality and efficiency of the perfect job, done well. And inevitably, well done!

Written by Kathryn Fox 
Senior Artworker at Truth.

This is a copy of a recent interview with Truth Creative Director – Darren Scott by The Salford Type Foundry. 

As STF is dedicated to championing fledgling type designers, education is clearly at its core. With this in mind, our Features section offers a series of interviews with leading typographic practitioners in order to obtain a greater insight into their working procedures. This is the first in that series. STF was fortunate enough to secure an interview with Darren Scott of Darren Scott Typographics at the agency where he is Creative Director, Truth in Manchester.

Darren’s typographic journey began, as detailed below, when, as a student, his first typeface Berlin(er), was chosen by Neville Brody to be included in the seminal publication Fuse (15). From here his compulsion, dedication and desire to produce typefaces saw him submit type designs all over the world, including T-26, FontFont and more recently MyFonts and Hype for Type. His commercially driven output has seen him be commissioned to design typefaces for Fanta and The People’s History Museum.
In this article Darren discusses, amongst other aspects, his type heroes, methodologies and tips for success, whilst demonstrating his vigor and continued delight in all things typographic.

Can you discuss your typographic heroes, in terms of the work that inspires you, both historically and contemporarily and the inspiration this has on your own practice.
Firstly I think it is really important to have heroes, someone that inspires you to achieve more and want to be better. My heroes were always typographers and type designers, from the age of 15, when I first saw Neville Brody’s work for Face Magazine. It made me realise that type could be illustrative and decorative and communicate a whole lot more than what the words were actually saying, and also that typography was about controlling how messages were read and controlling the emotion behind the narrative. Brody’s work was always so decorative and impactful, it pushed the layout to it’s limit. This then led me to the work of Jan Tschichold, then Constructivism, Dada and the Bauhaus.

I obsessed about the rules, the grid, white space and the importance of craft. Then David Carson came along and tore up the rules and stuck them all back together again with a PrittStick and called it ‘Grunge’. This changed everything, the rules went out the window and suddenly everyone was a designer as craft didn’t matter anymore.

I quickly became bored of this lack of structure and sought influence in the work of Erik Spiekermann at Meta Design, the Germanic obsession with the grid and precision typography really inspired me. It was around 1995 by this point and Neville Brody became probably the biggest influence on my future career path when he chose my Berlin[er] typeface for inclusion of FUSE 15 – the experimental digital typography collaboration. (I decided to put the brackets on the er of Berlin[er] as the name Berliner was already taken by an older Erik Spiekerman typeface).

This opportunity coupled with the invaluable guidance of David Crow (another massive influence) really inspired me to draw my own typefaces and not settle for what was available to hand at the time, which at the time as a student was system fonts, and a purchased copy of FF Meta which a fellow student had carelessly left on a shared Mac in the Salford University Mac suite. Meta is such a beautifully crafted font and a real icon of 1990s typography for me.

On graduation I sent a few crude fonts I had been working on to Carlos Segura in Chicago, I remember it well as his email was the first email I ever received as an employee of McCann-Erickson. He offered to take my shoddily cobbled together ramblings of typefaces and market them via his new type foundry T-26. He offered to sell all 6 once I had finished off the basic character set of 256 glyphs. Looking back at them now they are very badly produced and the character shapes are full of basic errors. But I quickly learnt from that and continued to learn, develop and release fonts.

During this period I was introduced to the late Phil Grimshaw, who was a legendary type designer and master calligrapher. Phil took me under his wing and we attended the ATypi Conference together in Reading where Phil introduced me to some of the most influential typographers and type designers of our times. People like Erik Spiekermann, Lucas DeGroot, Matthew Carter, Timothy Donaldson and Alan Kitching to name a few. I also remember watching Adrian Frutiger talk about his Univers typeface at ATypi in Lyons France. That was a real seminal moment for me as he is beyond a legend, he is a God, and the audience hung on every word he said as if it was his last. The one hero that I wish I could have worked with is Herb Lubalin, he defined American typography, his work was so ground-breakingly beautiful and reminiscent of that period of glorious American advertising.

In recent times I have been lucky enough to have some of my heroes produce numbers for our birthday posters, with Milton Glaser designing a 4 and Wim Crouwel designed a 5. Also Si Scott who does some amazing work with hand-drawn type produced a 2 and Supermundane produced my favourite so far which is a wonderfully illustrative 3, which is a real thing of beauty.

What gives you the greatest pleasure in type design? 
The greatest pleasure I take from designing fonts is firstly the achievement of working out what is essentially solving a great big puzzle, but then seeing how people interpret it and the context in which they use it. Only by drawing type yourself do you really understand the skill and craft required to create a perfect character shape, like the New Baskerville 2 or the Gill Sans lowercase g, things of such beauty, an impossible dream. I once spent a day redrawing the Pistilli ampersand just to walk in his shoes and understand the process and level of craftsmanship that went into producing such a seductive character. I remember I blogged about the whole experience and a young American Designer contacted me to ask if I would send her the artwork to have tattooed on her back. I did, and she did!

Why is type design still relevant?
Of all the design crafts typography has to be the most important. As a designer, it is the most powerful tool at your disposal and one you will use every day of your life. The ability to set type and control the connotations of the message is to control the minds of the reader. An appropriately chosen typeface can make copy appear sad, happy, aggressive, exciting, modern or traditional – it has that power. When used effectively it is without doubt the most powerful communication tool available to a designer. That is why in my opinion the most influential designers in history were also typographers or type designers.

Any key tips for budding type designers?
The one thing that progressed the quality of my type design was trying to master the drawing tools and in particular Bezier curves. These are a very important thing to invest time in mastering. Simply knowing where to place points, and how many, really improved the quality of my character shapes when designing, helping to speed up my glyph production.

Can you explain your processes of making, by which I mean how do you begin to design a typeface, where does the inspiration come from for the original characters, and how do you produce them?
Typically font design for me was always about getting things out of my system. Not being able to find the font that had the exact emotion I wanted, so I drew it. This led to further internal conflicts with myself as the process of designing any font is a long intimate one that involves many hours of spacing, kerning pairs and adjusting side bearings. You spend a lot of time doing the technical aspects and you soon disconnect yourself from the emotional and visual qualities of the character shapes. You spend a lot of time focusing on the space between the letters rather than the actual letters themselves.

This means you start to look at your own finished typefaces as pairs of letters and as character shapes and it becomes hard to disconnect from this and see the emotion again. This means using your own fonts can become slightly uncomfortable and frustrating. This meant that once I finished and tested a font, I didn’t really use them within my own design work.

However, it does give you a heightened respect for the truly great fonts like Gill Sans, New Baskerville, Frutiger, Franklin Gothic, Univers to name a few classics, and the truly great designers like Erik Spiekermann, Jonathon Hoefler and Matthew Carter who continue to produce ‘Classics’. You take more pleasure from using other peoples fonts once you really understand the amount of skill and effort that goes into producing them.

I soon realised what really gave me the most pleasure was seeing how other people interpreted my fonts and the contexts in which they used them. Once your fonts start popping up everywhere you quickly start to realise whether you achieved what you wanted or that you have created something completely different to what you intended.
Corporate fonts are very different as you are typically responding to a brief. It is a problem solving process rather than a personal piece of expression.

Usually with a headline font the client will have a basic idea of what they want and may even provide basic sketches or even a set of crude digital characters. It tends to involve a lot of back and forth with clients (who tend to be creative agencies) and with their clients too (Corporations or brands). I tend to use a paper and pencil very little to draw fonts, not because I think this is wrong, it just isn’t the way I work. I used to draw a lot of the characters in Adobe illustrator first then import them into Fontographer in the early days. I see character shapes as exactly that, geometric shapes based on basic shapes like a circle and a square, these can be manipulated more effectively digitally. I was always inspired by the simplicity of Futura, it is an alphabet of circles and squares, it is über efficient.

I don’t come from a calligraphic background and I don’t really have those skills, I wish that I did, but I really don’t have the patience for it. The thought of designing a script scares the hell out of me, and I guess that is why you don’t really see great script fonts anymore, it is a dying craft. Once I started working in FontLab it became so much easier to draw directly into FontLab and go from there.

Read the full interview in context HERE 

I love a good PR stunt and Valentine’s Day always brings out some of the craziest ideas set to capture our romantic side… or not.

As brands battle it out to grab their share of the Valentine’s buying frenzy, we see all sorts of weird and wonderful products and offers making their way onto the shelves as part of various stunts.

There was a story last week on a clothing company that is offering a ‘sex guarantee’ on its clothes, stating that customers will get a full refund if they don’t attract members of the opposite sex. Taking it a bit to the extreme there, but the small company secured themselves a mention in The Scottish Sun – not sure the brand name is doing it many favours though, Foul Fashion…

Asda always comes up trumps with its Valentine’s Day stunts. After launching its bargainous 8p Valentine’s card in 2006, followed by an even more skin-flint 7p version last year, it is now capitalising on the “Onesie” trend by launching the “Twosie” in time for this Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate confectioners are also fighting for attention, with a Texas-based chocolatier making the headlines yesterday for creating designer high heels out of chocolate. Not sure many women would appreciate this as a substitute for the real thing, but the replica Louboutins are apparently a sell out.

Even better than that, a Tokyo design firm is offering chocolate lollies moulded into the shape of your partner’s head. No joke. The firm actually uses 3D scanning technology to create silicon moulds in the shape of the person’s head and then pours chocolate into them.

With shoppers set to spend almost £8.8b on Valentine’s Day this year, according to an infographic by Shooting Star Media, it is clear why companies are keen to get their brand out there during this lucrative period.

However you plan to spend the day, and whatever you plan to give or not give as a gift, the most important aspect of all remains to spread a little LOVE. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Written by Sarah Shimwell, PR Account Director

On a recent trip to Berlin, a visit to the Buchstabenmuseum (the Museum of Letters) was high on the agenda. Founded in 2005 it’s home to a wonderful collection of rescued letters and is dedicated to preserving, restoring and exhibiting signage from Berlin and around the world.

The museum is temporarily tucked away in the unlikely location of an old shopping mall on Alexanderplatz. It boasts a modest setup with a collection of tiny rooms crammed with piles of disused letters – some broken and a bit battered, others restored and beaming bright.

The materials and forms vary greatly – delicate letters moulded from wood are displayed alongside massive groups of neon and steel. It’s a pleasure to discover and see unique crafted characters up close with every letter holding a story; everything from disused U-bahn stations to the ‘Zierfische’ sign with its iconic fishes that comes from a family-run tropical fish business in East Berlin.

With over 700 letters saved, curators Barbara Dechant and Anja Schulze are currently seeking funding for a permanent home to house the collection in its full glory.

If you are ever lucky enough to be in Berlin, this type refuge is definitely worth a visit. Whilst you’re there, head to the city’s various flea markets and you might also be lucky enough to bag an authentic piece of German signage to take home yourself.

Next on my agenda is the Neon Museum in Warsaw – a whole space dedicated to to the documentation and preservation of Poland’s Cold War era neon signs…

Written by Cathryn Ellis, Designer

Recently I spent a few years of my life working and living in London. I place working as the former since living comes second in the big smoke. I’m one of the many who chose to spend a spell of their career in the capital city, and I am often asked about how I compare life in the capital to that of my home city of Manchester.

There’s a popular belief that London is the place to be when it comes to most industries, particularly those in the creative sector. It’s hard not to be inspired, and to an extent overwhelmed, by the on-hand resources available to us as creatives. Museum after art gallery, bookshop after boutique, you can spend many an hour losing yourself in London’s creative offerings. Big creative agencies like Mother, Saatchi & Saatchi, Spin, Bibliotheque and Wolff Olins, to name but a few, flood the city and you can see why it’s described as the land of opportunity and a big draw for aspiring creatives.

Visiting the city is different and most people head for the obvious tourist landmarks, but living there you get to see the rich tapestry of possibilities it has to offer. From the trendy Shoreditch, to the tranquil Richmond, there’s something for everyone and it’s all just a tube ride away. It has a mass of cultural opportunities – you can stroll through Kew Gardens in the morning, shop at Borough Market in the day and then take in a show at Leicester Square in the evening. The possibilities are endless.

It’s hard not to get sucked in by the constant buzz of the 24-hour lifestyle in the capital and the industry itself. Days roll into each other, briefs fly past in a blur. It is a ‘work hard play hard’ culture, especially in big agencies. Each working day is filled with liquid lunches in proper pubs and that quick pint after work that turns into a rush to get the last tube home. It’s an addictive and exciting lifestyle and your workmates soon become your family, in the absence of the real thing.

During my time there I felt that the majority of people I met had moved there for work and were not born and bred Londoners. People are drawn to the capital from all over the world. The agency I worked in had an international array of staff, which meant that you were working with people from different lifestyles and cultures, with different experiences and ways of thinking. This helps to develop you as a creative. This surrogate family however does not replace the feeling you get when you’re at home and the isolation away from work is palpable.

English writer Samuel Johnson once declared ‘ when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life: for there is in London all that life can afford’. I would agree to an extent. London has everything you could want in a city, it’s an amazing place with a wealth of culture but the excitement and initial buzz does begin to fade and you’re left feeling like a pebble on Brighton beach. The tube journey to work only highlights the rush and the over population – a sea of faces you wont see again. Avoiding eye contact but unfortunately not body contact – it lacks the warmth and sense of community.

After leaving London and embarking on my final journey up the M6 I have a renewed sense of pride for Manchester. When you think of London I would largely imagine the first things that spring to most peoples minds are Buckingham palace, Big Ben, the Queen. If you asked the same question about Manchester you would probably say The Hacienda, Madchester, Oasis and the rain of course. That is what’s iconic about Manchester, although it’s also a city steeped in industrial heritage and innovation (let’s not forget we invented the first stored-program computer and it’s the place where scientists first discovered how to split the atom). Manchester has now built its modern reputation on creativity and through this we have put ourselves on the map.

Manchester has always been a hub attracting cultural diversity and creative talent. Our universities and student population turn the city into an energetic, vibrant place. There are plenty of creative businesses popping up in and around the city too (especially the Northern Quarter) and there is a growing focus on the creative community with forums, exhibitions and events like the Design Symposium and the BCN:MCR at 2022NQ. Even the BBC has now adopted its own place in MediaCity, fuelling the growing perception that Manchester is the new creative capital.

Ian Brown famously stated that Manchester has ‘everything except a beach’. I wouldn’t necessarily go this far but it does have a certain charm. Maybe it is simply because Manchester is my home, but whenever I meet someone new from down South, conversation always leads to questions about football, The Roses, The Smiths or Oasis like I’m the third Gallagher brother. Manchester has an aura and a vibe and is perceived as a cool place to be. It may be forever grey and cold but the people of Manchester have created their own community generating a warmth and togetherness in the pride for our city.

2012 was a great year for London – The Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubillee and the yearly London marathon – these events generated a renewed love for the capital. But let’s not forget that England isn’t just London and there are so many wonderful places to live and visit. I have fond memories and I do believe it’s the land of opportunity. If the chance comes along for you, I’d say go for it, live there and experience everything London has to offer. Enjoy the ride – but if you’re anything like me it wont be forever.

Quote reference – Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D Vol 3

Written by Antony Wilde, Designer

As a creative director I get to cast my eye over my fair share of portfolios from fellow creatives and I am often asked for my opinion on the contents. Lately I have found myself increasingly at a loss for words as I attempt to sugarcoat my response. The reality is; I am often left deeply saddened by the amount of students and young designers that simply neglect typography and don’t actually know an ampersand from their elbow.

As a Typographer and Type Designer myself, I am always naturally drawn to the intricacies and nuances of the way designers set type and the reasons for their choice of typeface. I believe this detail speaks volumes about the way a person approaches their work and problem solving in general. Interestingly, it isn’t the lack of detail that concerns me – these are skills you learn over time with experience – it is the lack of the basic knowledge of typography and its rules that are most alarming. Many students fail to understand basic terminology such as leading, kerning, ascenders, widows, orphans and counters. And one didn’t even know what an ampersand was!

I’m not saying everyone should know what colour tie Max Miedinger was wearing when he designed Haas-Grotesk for Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei in 1957. But the basic anatomy of our alphabet and its application surely isn’t too much to ask from any human being, let alone a design graduate.

As a young designer, I was always led to believe that if you want to be a rule breaker and rock the boat, you first need to learn the rules and understand them. The difference between incompetent and incredible is knowledge.

My greatest fear is that the traditional rules and typographic techniques that were drilled into me as a young graduate are being lost forever. Students today are either not being educated correctly or for some reason are not interested in this essential design skill. I know that the years I spent hand drawing letterforms and pestering experienced typographers for tips and advice were not wasted. I know this because they have made my life as a communicator a simpler one.

Of all the design crafts, typography has to be the most important. As a designer it is the most powerful tool at your disposal and one you will use every day of your life. The ability to set type and control the connotations of the message is to control the minds of the reader. An appropriately chosen typeface can make copy appear sad, happy, aggressive, exciting, modern or traditional.  In fact, when used effectively, it is without doubt THE most powerful communication tool available to a graphic designer. That is why in my humble opinion; the most influential designers in history were also typographers, typesetters or type designers.

A long time ago, I was taught to choose a typeface based on how it made you feel – not because you have seen it somewhere else. A lot of students no longer want to create and discover techniques for themselves; they would rather replicate ideas found on one of the many design compilation blogs. These ‘hipster’ blogs have become a short cut to thinking for many students – they don’t want to go out on a limb and experiment anymore. Instead, they create disposable design and judge its success based upon appearance on a blog. They should be creating real long lasting solutions to real problems for real clients. That is successful design.

If these skills are not passed on correctly, the future will be bleak. It will consist of generations of designers who believe that it is ok to set an email in Comic Sans!

Written by Darren Scott
Creative Director

As a nation, 2012 was British at its best. From reinvigorated Royalty to celebrating the sporting prowess our athletes demonstrated at the London Olympics; as years go, it wasn’t a bad one.

Our economy on the other hand, presents a very different picture. Whilst our patriotism carried us through in part, a double-dip recession in the first half of the year and the euro-zone crisis has knocked confidence pretty low.

So what for our industry then? Over the year we’ve seen the biggest investments in branding and marketing communications across FMCG-Food, Retail and Leisure. Discipline-wise we’ve seen the last quarter of 2012 focus on digital, consumer PR and Social Media.

Many marketers are likely to look towards reviewing these disciplines in 2013, which is perhaps an indication that they value this type of activity and can justify spend to key business stakeholders.

At Truth, whilst our focus is always branding we’ve seen many of our existing clients shift towards tactical spend that will deliver a measured return on investment. The importance of branding is central to business success; but our attentions have been placed with oiling the brand wheels to gain traction and visibility.

Truth has retained all of its clients throughout 2012 and added to its portfolio with a number of challenging, yet rewarding client briefs.

In March, I jetted over the pond to New York with Treehouse Group, presenting a strategic positioning for the team at MOM365; taking our knowledge from established parenting club, Bounty UK.

In April, we delivered 2012-2013 brand theme for the Pennine YPO, for the second year running and June gave us an opportunity to work with Shropshire-based, Rosewood Pets. July saw an additional four new clients in the agency: Cherry Lane Garden Centres, Pitchworks, The Royal Exchange Theatre and Everton Football Club.

The shift towards Social Media investment was well timed with the launch of Truth Social over the summer, headed by our in-house expert, Sophy Vanner. This is an area of our agency that is providing a neat complimentary service, whilst also keep us at the forefront of digital engagement.

In October, design, PR and social teams joined forces to launch the very successful Revolución de Cuba on Peter Street in Manchester. The bar’s popularity since launch is impressive and indicative of the trends for investment within leisure.

We’ve also enjoyed a renewed relationship with our contact at Breville, helping them to create a defined and consistent brand strategy across the business, which led to additional project work continuing throughout the remainder of the year.

Our client growth sustained towards the end of the year, with a branding project for the University of Manchester, and a new online learning site due to launch in the first quarter of 2013.

Finally, we pitched, and won work for e-tailer Country Attire and are due to start working on the project this month.

In a challenging climate the directors and myself are immensely proud of our continued success – it doesn’t happen easily, but our hard work is most definitely bucking the trend. Here’s to a New Year and increased market confidence in 2013.

Jo Scott, Managing Partner.