http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Check out whats on in the world of Marketing and Advertising. Also find out how far we have gone in our latest crusade to Créte. Whitby Morrison is a world leader in the production of ice-cream vehicles. Based in Crewe the company were looking to loan a restored vintage vehicle to be displayed at the Crewe Heritage Centre. To support the display, the Heritage Centre required a series of six information boards to explain the history of Whitby Morrison and its global prominence. The main brief from Whitby Morrison was to ensure consistency in brand identity with an execution which communicated its heritage, expertise, and investment in the workforce. The boards also had to show products and processes, all of which were to be portrayed in an interesting and informative way. When he saw the finished design in situ, Managing Director Ed Whitby said: “We hoped the boards would be impressive but they really did exceed all expectations. We’re really pleased with the result and we’ve had extremely positive feedback from everyone who has seen them". Directly as a result of the work we did on the display boards, STA has been asked by Whitby Morrison to design a new sales brochure for the company. Fri, 1st July 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Day 10 A jaded start. Oh dear… we still had around 40Km to go to The Jackdaw… and… we were… not… feeling too… well. Chris to the rescue! He informed us that “Pernod aux extraits de plantes d'absinthe” as it should be correctly referred to is a curative and was prescribed for the relief of cholera and the plague. Feeling much better for this we staggered to our machines, determined to make it to down the N44 to Rheims before closing time or before the effects wore off and we went down with the Black Death. Chris rowed, Paul jogged, Maria walked (quickly) Phil biked, Sarah swam and Ant metamorphosed the following kms to Rheims. Through puddles, over ice, around dunes and under bridges until with one almighty last push (from Phil pushing his bike that is) we arrived on the outskirts of Rheims. Now to find the Jackdaw and fulfil our quest. Just as the clock of the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Rheims struck twelve (Incidentally Note-Dame translates as and refers to Our Lady i.e. the Blessed Virgin Mary and not just the Cathedral where the Hunchback lives. As a bit of research on G**gle I noticed that The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has 784,000 digs, The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 has 629,000 digs and - get this- The Hunchback of Notre Damn has had 809,000 digs although when I G**gled ‘Notre Damn’ I was asked “Did you mean Notre Dame?”. I always find that so demeaning, don’t you? I usually shout “NO I DON’T” to myself of course.)… anyway, just as the clock struck twelve, we entered the town. If you’ve never been, Rheims is one of those ‘I must visit before I die’ places, the capital of the province of Champagne, it is also the site of the crowning of the Kings of France - not that they have Kings any more or Queens for that matter. Linked to our own dear Canterbury it is not difficult to draw favourable comparisons. Unlike Canterbury, Rheims was also home to the French Grand Prix which was last run here in 1966. Apart from its kingly provenance, Grands Prix (is that the plural of Grand Prix?) and notable architecture, Rheims is also the epicentre of the Champagne region slurp, slurp. Rheims actually stands on a plane beside the river Vesle, but stretching to the West and South as far as the eye can see are vine covered hillsides, punctuated by castles and studded with chateaux. ‘If you like Champagne, you’ll love Rheims’, may or may not have been a 70’s advertising slogan for the town, but I’ll tell you what; the place is awash with the stuff. Everywhere you went there were free tastings, and if you took a spade and dug down deep enough, you would discover Champers heaven (or hell) depending on your point of view because the soft chalk rock on which Rheims is built has been tunnelled away over the centuries to create storage rooms for all that lovely bubbly. Guess what? Remember that crazy guy Charles the Bald from Laon? Well Rheims had King Lothair he was buried here in the 10th Century and apparently never cut his hair! There’s also a statue of Saint Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake after helping Charles the something or other win some battles and so be crowned. After becoming king, Joan was made a saint posthumously so that it could not be said that a heretic had helped restore the Catholic monarchy. Oh yes, at 2:41 am on 7th May 1945, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht at Rheims. We decided to drink to that and opening a Nebuchadnezzar of Grand Cru 1910 ‘were happy in the haze of a drunker hour’ to quote a bit of Morrisey. And The Jackdaw? The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal's chair! Bishop and abbot and prior were there; Many a monk and many a friar, Many a knight and many a squire, With a great many more of lesser degree, In sooth a goodly company. Just like us 1st July 2009 10:00 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/progress.html Day 9 Saint-Quentin to Rheims 85km We left Saint-Quentin (not to be confused with San Quentin, a jail made famous more recently by The Man in Black Johnny Cash) and headed South, South East toward Laon on the old N44. (Incidentally South, South East is around half way toward South from boring old South East.. oh I’ve just been informed that’s it’s exactly half way… sorry) we’d never been there before - although we had been South, South East before - and didn’t know what to expect however, we knew it was roughly half way to Rheims and our next point of call… an audience with ‘The Jackdaw’. As per usual it was Oliver who made the first (and flawed) effort to get us going. Stumbling into the sunlight of a beautiful Picardy day, Ol mounted his machinery and took a deep breath. Along the path, roses were shining in the hush of the silver dew and Ol leaning across the oars of his rowing machine to sniff their sweet perfume, fell out of the boat and his hand was run over by a moustachioed local on an ancient mobilylette. “Sacre bleu” yelled the old geezer - and, for some reason, Ol screamed “murder”. Well it certainly sounded like murder but why he should shout murder is anyone’s guess but he did and it’s not an easy thing to do when you’re sucking your fingers I can tell you. First stop of the day was the hill top town of Laon. And boy, after cycling, rowing and running up that hill we were all ready for a great big glass of Pernod and coke yum yum. Most impressive building has to be the cathedral Notre-Dame of Laon. Built in the 12th and 13th centuries it was an outstanding piece of architecture. We strolled around the cool interior taking in the massive stone carvings then popped outside for more Pernod yum yum. Weirdest ancient resident has to be Charles the bald, a 5th century ruler who never took his hat off. The town had its high and low points - literally. After finding that we could have taken the Poma 2000 cable car system from the lower town to the upper town instead of dragging our sorry asses up the road, we were forced to drink copious flagons of Pernod to help us recuperate. If you’re interested, the Poma 2000 cable car is a fully automated system (the only one in the world… so there) it links the upper and lower parts of the town and was celebrating its 20th anniversary - so a good excuse to drink more Pernod and more Pernod. The Jackdaw would have to wait. 27th June 2009 13.51 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/progress.html This month sees the launch of the STA created MPM Overseas website. MPM approached us to create a new brand for their overseas property investment company to include design, copy writing, and the design and development of a new website. This was an exciting challenge which included a great deal of research and a steep learning curve. Suffice it to say, we are now quite expert in matters of overseas property investment but we’ll leave it to the experts to advise you. 17th July 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html We are delighted to have been appointed by craftsmen decorators Bedson Maher to produce a corporate branding suite, to include a new website and brochure. Bedson Maher Ltd has worked with clients throughout Cheshire and the surrounding areas for over 30 years. Members of the Painting and Decorating Association, the company has vast experience in offering a high quality, professional and personal decorating service to discerning private and commercial customers. Their portfolio of work includes hotels, private homes, commercial offices & buildings, churches & schools across the country. 24th July 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Our marketing administrator Maria shocked hundreds of mums and dads at Our Lady and St Werburgh Catholic Primary School yesterday by quite literally running away with the coveted egg and spoon title. The race set off to a blistering pace as contestants (some sporting really quite inappropriate footwear) jostled for position in the narrow lanes. With 50 metres to go an egg was dropped causing mayhem as mums and dads were forced to take evasive action, some leaping over the prostrate parent in their bid to be first across the line. 20 metres to go and another egg was dropped. In a vain attempt to catch it, father of two Noel Sergeant (39) took two mums and a ad out of the race, narrowly avoiding a bench where half a dozen young children sat enthralled and little realising the danger they were in. With the race descending into farce, Maria emerged like the winged Nike of Samothrace to take the title. Her time, just under 45 seconds was by all accounts a new personal best. 10th June 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Two weeks in and designer Paul has still not touched the dreaded weed. Er… by that we mean tobacco of course. A keen, some might even say enthusiastic smoker, Paul took the decision to quit because he was fed up with ‘forever standing outside The Brown Jug (his local) in the rain sucking on a soggy dog end’. Mood swings, incessant foot tapping, craving Capstans and pen chewing aside, Paul appears to be coping well. 1st June 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Arras to Saint-Quentin 62KM Crossing the Low Countries was all in all a sullen experience, the weather was bleak, the route flat and featureless and no birds sang. We were reminded of the poems of the First World War, especially those of Wilfred Owen; Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge Yeah it was a bit like that only we had to put up with articulated lorries too which is a little disconcerting especially when you’re stoking up the hard shoulder on a rowing machine - and on the wrong side of the road. Everywhere we saw evidence of the aftermath of war and this is sixty years on. The post war look is definitely not a good look. It’s almost impossible to imagine the utter desolation, fear and excitement created by war. The knowledge that if you did nothing then you’d be overrun but the knowledge that in doing something, someone was going to lose a son, daughter parent, sister. It’s futile and the thought of futility is not a good thought when you’re trying to get somewhere. Albert Camus, Andre Gide and de saint Exupery grasped at the meaning of life; why are we here? What’s it all about? Is there something else? We were beginning to think the same thoughts and then we arrived in Cambrai. Cambrai a town like a beautiful child with a mouth full of broken teeth. Perhaps famous only for the battle of Cambrai which took place in November and December 1917 and where tanks were used ‘successfully’ for the first time, the town was hammered in two world wars. Smashed and devastated it took a long time to recover… it’s still recovering. Atop the town hall stand two automatons; Martin and Martine, they strike the hours with a hammer as a reminder of a mighty blow which was struck in the name of freedom. Partly allegorical, part fact and part fiction, the hammer blow for freedom is a poignant reminder once again that this area bore the brunt of some of the heaviest bombing of WW2. It’s not all doom and gloom though. We were also reminded of a top bloke; Louis Bleriot who as any fule kno was the first man to fly the English Channel. In fact he did it exactly 100 years ago in 1909. He was born in Cambrai and like us saw a challenge and went for it. He won £1000 which I’m reliably informed was a lot of money in those days. Back to the rout and as Ant pulled us along in his slip stream, we variously biked, swam, rowed and jogged into Saint-Quentin. Saint-Quentin is twinned with Rotherham. 80% of its buildings were flattened in WW2, in the mid 1970’s it’s textile industry which had survived since the Middle Ages struggled to survive the onslaught from foreign competition and more or less disappeared. Its beautiful Basilica was virtually destroyed by aerial bombing and it suffered immense destruction during its period of resistance on the Hindenburg line. God it was a depressing day. The fatigue was not so much creeping up on us as draining our very essence. We were, cold, wet, miserable and spent. It could only get better. Tomorrow we were heading for Rheims… and the Jackdaw. Fri, 12th June 2009 12:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/progress.html Calais to Arras (98km) Flight to Arras Phew, that was a bit of a wet one. Thirty odd kilometres of watery wanderings on a rowing machine have brought us to the French coastal town of Calais. And it’s a bit grubby; there are trucks and lorries, cars and tractors everywhere and no obvious route out of the immediate dockland. Apres une heur we found an old boy who led us out of the car park we had unwittingly found ourselves in and, armed with long loaves, strings of onions and a bucket of frog’s legs we proceeded to make for Saint Omer some 43 Km away. First off was Ol… literally! He fell off his bike while attempting to bunny hop a sleeping gendarme. The gendarme was not happy and consequently our Ol found himself Bastille bound however a few choice words from Nicky (Masters Degree in French) and Ol was let off with a caution. Paul on the other hand was not so lucky, attempting to purchase a couple of packets of fags. He was misheard and when two tall, blonde Gallic men sauntered out of the back of the shop, Paul was required to do a runner which was fortuitous as this got us off to a good start and by the time he had stopped for breath we had covered the full distance (43 Km) to Saint Omer. Incidentally Paul has given up Gauloise blondes and is sticking to bleues as preferred by Paul look alike John Lennon. Not much to report on Saint Omer, it does have one of only three French copies of the Gutenburg bible and a brewery which brews the kind of beer that sells in Aldi for around £2.00 for 36 little bottles. So if you fancy a bit of light reading with your even lighter beer you know where to go. Heading South East for Arras we passed Bethune and were fascinated to find that if we climbed the Belfry tower in the city square we could actually see Belgium… after we had woken up again we plodded on. Arras was nearly 100 Km from Calais so we needed to get a move on. Phil took the incentive and straddling his recumbent exercise bike powered us to within a few KM’s of the city limits before having to nip off to the loo. (So that’s where all the free samples from the Saint Omer brewery went). This left Maria to pull on her Rocket Dog boots or salad vert chien pied gants as they’re known in France. Yes those green salad dog foot gloves really did the business and we strolled into Arras in time to catch the night flight (Should we have wished)…. See what I did there to show off? Having already mentioned Gauloise I then mentioned a second title by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Night Flight) - the first being the title of the piece ‘Flight to Arras’. Incidentally de Saint-Exupéry, like Albert Camus (a Gauloise smoker) was also a French existentialist - and you though it was just a blog about getting to Crete. Wed, 3rd June 2009 12:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/progress.html ‘The Cat’ - the new local radio station for Crewe and Nantwich was hosted this week by our very own Oliver Hancock. Working from a tiny studio situated on the third floor of Crewe’s M Club, Ol delivered the Perfect 80’s show from 7 -10 each weekday night. Despite being born in 1985 Ol’s encyclopaedic knowledge of pop ensured his devoted fans were kept thoroughly entertained. I spoke to both of them who told me “Our son is a great DJ, that diddy David Hamilton had better watch out”. Fri, 15th May 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss STA’s copywriter put down his pen for the day on Saturday to DJ at local music festival ‘One day in May’. The event which was organised to raise funds for local cancer charities attracted a huge crowd to the venue at Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire. Bands from as far a field as South Wales turned up to give their support. Fri, 15th May 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss Around twenty students from Staffordshire University’s Design Degree course signed up to take a brief from STA this week. In essence, the brief is to create a piece of business to business direct mail which will elicit a personal response from the recipient. The direct mail project will give the students an opportunity to learn first hand from professional designers and to learn a little about the pressures of working in an agency environment. Fri, 15th May 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss STA MD Chris Furness went on a recycling rampage this week and armed with an enormous black plastic bin liner proceeded to go through everyone’s waste paper baskets in an attempt to raise awareness of the need to recycle. The haul turned up plastic bottles, drinking cups, cans and cardboard all of which (As every schoolboys knows) can be RECYCLED. After making lame excuses such as “I didn’t put that in there” red faced recipients of his riposte were made to bite the bullet and at least one Eco terrorist has been put on permanent recycling duty. Anyone familiar with Black Bag the faithful border bin liner will no doubt… er sorry don’t know where I’m going with this. Fri, 15th May 2009 16:43:55 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss There’s something of a tenuous local travel theme to our business gains this month: Grasmere Vauxhall Crewe is a well established main Vauxhall car dealership and Congleton based MPM wants you to fly overseas to buy investment property - (you don’t have to fly to buy property but it helps with the continuity). The new projects will include, press advertising, point of sale, branding and web development. Stop Press: Grasmere Vauxhall are promoting Crewe live 09. Last year we developed the Crewe Live identity. This year we'll be creating Crewe Live 09 projects for Grasmere Vauxhall. http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Tue, 20 April 2009 14:53:56 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss The history of Crewe is in good hands, thanks to a new board of trustees and a group of enthusiastic volunteers led by new Centre manager Mike Lenz. The new team are looking to restore the fortunes of Crewe Heritage Centre. And we’ll be on board every step of the way. Work is progressing apace to create new branding and promotional material for the historic visitor attraction which was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1987 and boasts exhibitions by local company Mornflake Oats, a fleet of vintage ice cream vans from Whitby Morrison, Bentley cars, busses and - as it’s Crewe – the history of the railway. In fact Crewe Heritage Centre has a comprehensive collection of trains including the famous - or should that be infamous - tilting train. We’re also developing the Centre’s eagle emblem as a friendly mascot to help deliver the message of Crewe’s important industrial heritage to children. Everyone is looking forward to the April 2009 opening and it’s good to know that we’re helping our local community to learn more about the part Crewe has played in shaping the industry of the world. Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:53:56 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss Rock chick Maria made it to 40 this week despite a hedonistic life fuelled by all things heavy and metal. To celebrate, we all rocked off to the 45 club in Newcastle for a night of Wrath Child, Bon Jovi and Zep. Dressed in spandex, lurex, cap sleeved T shirts and white Nike’s, we strutted our funky stuff, pampered our poodle hair and played air guitar into the early hours of Sunday morning. Needless to say, there were a few aching knees on Monday morning. http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:53:02 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss At the end of last week, client EuroPac 3D decided to take advantage of some last minute exhibition space, they needed a whole suite of updated sales material to support their appearance. We were tasked with designing, writing and printing a set of technical folders, case studies, data sheets and promotional banners to promote the various products and services supplied by EuroPac 3D. Led by Account Manager Lucy, the team pulled out all the stops - and called up a few favours- to meet the very short lead time. We are pleased to report that we met the deadline and EuroPac 3D will be attending the exhibition this week armed with a full set of promotional sales material. http://www.stads.co.uk/news.html Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:52:20 GMT http://www.stads.co.uk/newsfeed.rss