We start with part of a campaign that has and will no doubt earn the creator, True North, a well-deserved haul of awards. "Stripes", part of the campaign series promoting Art at the Imperial War Museum North, was one of those pieces that hits exactly the right note and you just know it works. The other two pieces in the campaign ("poppy" and "paint box") were strong and given more room we would like to have shown them off too.
Without wanting to sound repetitive, our next feature is also from True North, although this time it was with one of those briefs that makes us all salivate - generate a response to a "guarantee to beat" rate offer for business from Bank of Scotland. Humdinger. This could well have been a dull piece of direct mail and instead, forget all of the traditional attempts to target businesses, we have a simple idea and one that works. "Paper bag" may not be the newest idea around, but clever copy and a slant makes it work very well.
So as not to be outdone by the True North boys, we also have another strong team of North-West origin. Origin.
Origin enjoyed a fair bit of success throughout the awards but two of its pieces were judged to be particularly strong, both in the corporate identity brackets. The first, for The Alliance of Literary Societies, was a simple idea, elegantly executed, while the second featured piece was one of my overall favourites in the whole of the Fresh competition.
The Bolton Indian Cricket Club's new corporate identity is a hit into the car park if ever I've seen one. It embraces the culture and nature of the club perfectly.
Tequila\Manchester's promotional work for the new Nissan X-Trail in its "X-Treme state" is brilliant. Talk about perfectly conveying the vehicle's off-road credentials. I love brave clients, but to allow the agency to (rumour has it) saw its car in half so as to create the impression of it climbing out of the ground takes some guts. But for the impact it doubtless created, the gamble must have paid off.
And the final award in the North-West goes to ... Mycock.
Er, that's poor old Danny Mycock, the now infamous freelance art director (whom we understand is a mate of those True North boys). I thought what I endured as a Bun Gay was bad enough, but I imagine what poor old Danny must have endured throughout his life must have been excruciating. But every cloud has a silver-lining and a gift of an opportunity to produce one of the most eye-catching corporate IDs I have ever seen (the paper is made of a soft fleshy pink material - I kid you not) is Danny's.
Plus the admiration of the judges.
GOLD AWARDS
BEST ART DIRECTION
Title: "Stripes"
Client: Imperial War Museum North
Brief: Connect art and war and attract visitors to the Imperial War
Museum North
Agency: True North
Creative director: Ady Bibby
Writer: Tony Veasey
Senior designer: Stu Price
Designer: Chris Jeffreys
Photographer: Tim Ainsworth
BEST CORPORATE IDENTITY
Title: "Mycock"
Client: Danny Mycock
Brief: For Danny to get his name noticed
Agency: Danny Mycock/True North
Writer: Danny Mycock
Art director: Danny Mycock
Senior designer: Stu Price
Designer: Chris Jeffreys
BEST CORPORATE IDENTITY
Title: "Bolton Indian Cricket Club"
Client: Bolton Indian Cricket Club
Brief: Develop a new identity on the back of league promotion
Agency: Origin
Designer: Simon Allman
BEST DIRECT MARKETING OR MAIL
Title: "Paper bag"
Client: Bank of Scotland
Brief: Generate a response to a "guarantee to beat" rate offer for
business from Bank of Scotland
Agency: True North
Creative director: Ady Bibby
Writers: Caroline Ogden, Derek Fraser
Designer: Matt Maurer
Illustrator: James Blinkhorn
BEST CORPORATE IDENTITY
Title: "The Alliance of Literary Societies"
Client: The Alliance of Literary Societies
Brief: Create a new identity
Agency: Origin
Creative director: Mark Bottomley
BEST USE OF POINT-OF-SALE
Title: "X-Trail X-Treme state"
Client: Nissan GB
Brief: Raise awareness of the X-Trail in a way that would perfectly
convey the vehicle's off-road credentials
Agency: Tequila\Manchester
Writer: Julian Gratton
Art director: Simon Rowlands
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