Floyd

I’ve not made this general knowledge, generally, but over the last 18 months I have been making a rather belated attempt at breaking into that other Crucible of creativity, the Performing Arts. In particular acting.

I say belated as being 35 some may say I’m a little too long in the tooth to be scaling the walls of stage craft and castings but thus far I haven’t done that badly. When I started I wouldn’t have thought that after 18 months I would have appeared in over 12 short films (some as the Lead), 2 radio drama’s and a theatre premier, but, it’s happened anyway.

The latter is the subject under dicussion right now.

Poster for the premier of 'The Interview' at Dewsbury Town Hall

‘The Interview’ is a new play, written and directed by Jayson Bartlett and showing for 1 week only at Dewsbury Town Hall in late March early April and is a truthful and realistic portrail of the plight of Jewish, Gypsy, Polish and handicapped people in Northern Europe from the rise of Hitler to the conclusion of World War 2. Sounds like a lot to cram into 2 hours doesn’t it, but the vehicle is a genius one.

The play takes the form of an ‘interview’ between a journalist and a survivor of Auschwitz, Ms Ruben, and the narrative unravels through her recollections and flashback scenes which share the stage with the interview. With a cast ranging in age from 11 to 65 and with scenes depicting scenes of great emotion, social upheaval and breath-taking attrocity ‘The Interview’ transports the audience back to the times of the Nazi regime and dares to discuss the less explored corners of the events of those times.

The director, Jayson Bartlett, has spent 5 years planning, researching and writing ‘The Interview’, including spending 12 months in Germany and Poland conducting the interviews with holocaust survivors which form the backbone of the play. The play has now been approved by The Holocaust Education Trust and has been added to The National Curriculum. On conclusion of this initial run in Dewsbury ‘The Interview’ is already set to tour and there is even talk of a West End opening.

As with so many of the cast I have the privelege of playing multiple characters in ‘The Interview’. Firstly, Pawel Greenman, a quietly spoken gentleman who tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and the horror brought upon him by the SS. Secondly, Mr Earnest Schumann, who with his wife discovers the fate of his mentally ill son. Finally, and perhaps quite comically for those who know me, I have the dubious honour of appearing as ‘the voice of’ Adolf Hitler.

Why am I regailing you with this wholly undesign related ramble? Well, you didn’t think I’d become involved with something with increasing public exposure without stamping the Floyd badge on it somewhere did you? Yes, of course the poster (pictured) has been taken care of by dear old Floyd as well as the programme of course.

You can view video of rehearsals and find out more at the Facebook Group by clicking here

There is a Phoenix rising from the ashes of our beleaguered Construction Industry.

Kinghorn & Co. is built upon years of Construction and Asset Management knowledge and is about to burst onto the scene offering to help streamline operations and cut costs for Property Management Companies across the country. Floyd has created their new logo which was designed to encapsulate the strength of their experience and also their relevant knowledge of todays market.

Kinghorn & Co. - New logo

Floyd seems to be working with quite a few new businesses recently who’re set to storm their particular corner of the market and Airpod no exception.

Dealing in Shopping Centre Advertising, Airpod are bringing a fresh approach to what to date has been a stuffy, uninspiring profession. It stands to reason that a business that thrives on vibrant, eye-catching visuals should take that ethos and spread it throughout it’s own operation but it seems only Airpod are currently grasping the nettle and charging forward with it.

Airpod - NEW PrizePod Logo

Airpod have recently decided to promote their offering and inspire Booking Agencies as well as Network Owners to use their new online booking engine by running a quarterly competition. Floyd was approached to create a name, identity, DM postcard and landing page for this long running piece of marketing activity. The result was ‘PrizePod’.

PrizePod DM Postcard

As you can see from these visuals, the first quarterly prize is an iPod Touch.

Whether you’re in the field of Shopping Centre advertising or not, take a look at their website to see more about how they’re revolutionising the world of billboard advertising.

http://www.airpodmedia.com

Airpod - PrizePod Landing Page

The new brand is created and now it’s time to implement that new brand across all Seasons Group materials. The first trip out for this new look, feel and indeed think is the labeling of the Seasons for Coffee packaging.

The initial assumption from Seasons Group was that the only denotation of flavour or variety on the new, improved labeling of their Seasons City Roast, Rainforest Alliance and Cafe san Anise bean varieties would be the name itself. Well, that simply wasn’t enough for Floyd. As with so many multi-variety products the combination of product family and individual identity is paramount when attempting to develop a memorable and stimulating product feel.

The NEW Seasons for Coffee Bean Variety Packaging

Colour of course plays a significant role in achieving this, but in addition the individual cup images reinforce the visual message that each variety has it’s own personality.

Let Floyd know what you think of the new packaging for Seasons for Coffee’s delicious roasts. He’s always keen to hear know what you, the discerning design audience think.

Starbucks, Costa, O’Neills etc, etc… We all know these names as the fore-runners in the caffeine injection market. Well here’s a name to add to the list. Seasons for Coffee.

Seasons started out some years ago as a supplier of high quality soft drinks ie. Coke, Lemonade etc to the dispensing market (to you and I that means the little nozzle at the bar that squirts into your Vodka to make sure you make it to the end of the evening). Well now, Seasons have branched out and are now taking on the fine coffee market with their selection of quality blends.

NEW Seasons Group logo

To maximise the impact of this new thrust into the market place, Seasons decided they needed to upgrade their branding and marketing. Enter Floyd!

Seasons Logo Suite

The existing Seasons logo was based around a four leaf Clover/Shamrock (who can tell the difference?) and Seasons Management were keen to retain this element in the new brand. It was also necessary to take into account the other services Seasons offer and bring them into line with the main brands.

Floyd decided that the best way to denote between service types was through the use of colour.

Here’s the result!

Ever company would describe themselves as ‘professional’. Who wouldn’t? But every now and then you happen across a company who really does take that mantra to heart. One of Floyd’s clients has even gone so far as to call themselves ‘Professional Group’.

Professional Group’s profession (bit of a mouth full) is demolition and remediation. Now demolition should be a word all of us are familiar with, even if it’s just from the 80’s favourite of ‘The Demolition Derby’, but Remediation may well be a word you’re not familiar with.

The NEW Professional Group Brand Logos

Remediation is (in laymans terms) ‘getting rid of the crap from a building site’.

Now this may seem like a fairly expected given in the realm of demolition but ‘crap’ can mean a whole cornucopia of different things. Try chemical waste for instance? Asbestos? Not just your common or garden rubble and twisted iron work. Hence the name, ‘Professional Group’.

Andy Shepherd, Commercial Director of the newly formed but vastly experienced Professional Group, asked Floyd to create news brands for each angle of the Professional Group offering which worked together to form a recognisable image, a connection between the services. You see before you the results.

These new brands are now ready to be rolled out across all Professional Group’s marketing literature, some of which is in production right now, and will be the anchor point for Professional Groups success in the future!

New VIVO Serviced Apartments Website

It’s LIVE!!

We’ve waxed lyrical about the new VIVO Serviced Apartments website before, well here it is in the flesh.

There’s no need for Floyd to go on and on about the new site, you may as well explore yourself so….

http://www.stayvivo.com/site

There aren’t many building companies that can claim to be in good health right now. You’re more likely to hear about a property developer going into administration rather than announcing new contracts, but with Triton Construction we’re talking about a different animal.

Floyd were approached to create a website which brought the web based portrayal of Triton Construction into line with the quality of their building projects.

Triton Construction - Homepage

This project was a bit of a rare dream for Floyd. With such fantastically aesthetic projects (and photography to match) it really was a no-brainer as to what the focal point of the new site should be. Along with the bread and butter work of every builder were gorgeous ‘Grand Designs’ style conversions, sustainable Alpinesque School buildings and even a Lock-keepers Control Station.

Really, all Floyd had to do was create the picture frame in which to display them and the Content Management System to update the site and Robert’s your Fathers Brother!

See the new site at http://www.tritonconstruction.co.uk/site

It’s not every day someone says to you, “I’m opening a new hotel”, but that’s exactly what the Operations Director of Newmason Properties said to me in October last year.

He wasn’t exactly right when he described Newmasons new venture as a ‘hotel’. What was actually in the pipeline was something far better, a very stylish and contemporary Serviced Apartment offering.

Now for those of you who now have a very furrowed brow let me explain. Imagine staying in a modern 2/3 bedroom apartment in a beautifully appointed and landscaped development with gym, bistro and tennis court available to you, as well as having canalside walks directly off the development and paying (in a lot of cases) less than you would to sit and watch TV on the bed in a standard hotel rabbit hutch? And all this only 12 minutes on the train from Leeds City Centre. Sound good?

Serviced apartments aren’t a new entity in our lives but the location and facilities on offer here make it a seriously different option for both business and leisure travelers.

The upcoming VIVO Serviced Apartments website

Floyd set about creating a new brand for the venture, even creating the name, VIVO, from the latin “to live”. The patently tricksy strapline is pure Floyd as well, ‘Overstay. You’re welcome.’ The stationery is printed and in circulation and now all that remains is to launch the website, with video walk-throughs of all the apartments, local information for tourists and online booking.

Floyd will update you when the site hits t’interweb!

Aurora Fine Art are constantly coming to Floyd with a tasty morsal for us design types to really get to grips with. This new collection from shining star in the art world, Todd White is no exception.

Having produced the brochure for Todd’s last sold out collection Floyd were the natural choice to design the next. The ‘After Hours’ collection sees Todd continuing down a darker, more brooding path when compared to his earlier work and Floyd just loves it.

Todd white - 'After Hours' Brochure

Originally hailing from Texas, Todd is now a full fledged and paid up member of the Hollywood set and with his growing reputation his name is beginning to challenge his art for the limelight. With this position in mind Floyd decided that Todd could take a more personal place within this latest brochure. The piece is littered with shots of Todd in his natural habitat, that being the position of ‘people watcher’. The moody shots really bringing to life the scenes and experiences that spawn Todd’s ever popular work.

Floyd’s very much looking forward to the next collection. Roll on next year!!

Todd White - 'After Hours' Brochure

Todd White - 'After Hours' Brochure