Harrison + Co Creative

Starting them early

2010-06-14T11:39:00.002+01:00

I gave my daughter a brief to design an Ad for our agency… this is what she came up with.

Royal Veterinary College

2010-04-30T09:52:00.004+01:00

Hot off the press is another bright, bold and colourful piece of work. For the Royal Veterinary College we designed and illustrated an upbeat Undergraduate Prospectus for 2011/2012. The eye catching approach is designed to excite and inspire 18-year-olds who are dreaming of applying to the UKs premier veterinary college.

London Sinfonietta

2010-04-30T09:52:00.002+01:00

The arts is a sector that we have extensive experience in and gives us the opportunity to produce inventive design work. London Sinfonietta asked us to produce a piece of print to promote a 'mini festival' that will be held over three days at the end of April. We responded by digging out our brushes and paint - sometimes it's nice not to go straight to the computer to get a project started! The result is an A2 poster that folds down to an A5 flyer, printed two colour using black and a very bright fluorescent green ink.

Brighton Festival

2010-04-30T09:50:00.000+01:00

It's February, that must mean the launch of Brighton Festival 2010. This is our fourth year of working with Brighton Festival on the brand design, which includes the Festival brochure, 48 sheet posters, advertising and a plethora of other applications. This year sees Brian Eno as the Festivals' guest artistic director. A great coup for the Festival and an amazingly creative person to work with. We used one of Brian Eno's images for the front cover of the brochure alongside a piece of long exposure night photography by Brighton based photographer Alex Bamford.

Read the Design Week feature here.

City Reads

2010-04-30T09:47:00.000+01:00

We have been busy working away with Brighton based City Reads, this is another long-standing yearly project. This year's City Reads book is 007: From Russia With Love. We designed the event literature in the style of a 1960s movie poster, complete with an 'aged' creasing effect to add a little authenticity. The City Reads literature design is based on an A2 folded sheet that cleverly folds down to A5. When unfolded the 007 movie poster feel is quite striking. The format works really well for mailing and also for displaying in libraries. An economical and creative solution.

Barclaycard

2010-04-30T09:46:00.001+01:00

We love it when one of our clients gets some well deserved recognition. Barclaycard emailed us a few weeks ago to share the excellent news that the range of consumer credit cards that we designed have been awarded 'The Best Credit Card Design' at a national credit card industry awards event. Congrats to all the marketing team at Barclaycard! And we'll give ourselves a well deserved pat on the back for the design effort too!

Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund

2010-04-30T09:42:00.000+01:00

Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund asked us to design a souvenir book for an event they were holding at the National Portrait Gallery. The event was to raise awareness of the political situation in Zimbabwe. A Getty Images photographer has been working with Prisoners of Conscience to highlight the plight of ordinary people affected by the unrest in the country. Our book made best use of the striking images while keeping the text and layout simple.

The Beautiful South

2010-04-30T09:41:00.001+01:00

Tourism South East will now be known as 'The Beautiful South', following our rebrand of the organisation. We were appointed last October, having been approached by Tourism South East for a credentials pitch. The hand-drawn identity has been created by us with help from lettering artist Carol Kemp. A palette of green, gold and blue has been applied to the identity, which was unveiled to the travel & tourism industry this week. Advertisements, media supplements, brochures and a website will be changed to incorporate the new identity, which will appear in a series of campaigns.

Click here to read the Design Week Article

The School of Pharmacy

2010-04-30T09:40:00.000+01:00

We're very excited to announce that we have been appointed by The School of Pharmacy (part of the University of London) to design their upcoming annual review. Our brief is to evolve the look & feel of the current annual review with a more flexible and welcoming approach to the content, as well as showcasing the institution's new 'Molecular Pharmacy Wing'. The £5m architect-designed wing houses research laboratories equipped and furnished to the highest specifications.

Click here to go to their website

London Sinfonietta

2010-04-30T09:39:00.001+01:00

We've been quietly working away with another new client, London Sinfonietta, since October last year. Since then we have designed a series of promotional flyers for some of their recent performance events. London Sinfonietta is one of the world’s elite contemporary music ensembles with a reputation built on the virtuosity of its performances and ambitious programming. Their mission is to 'place the best contemporary classical music at the heart of today’s culture'.

Click here to go to their website

What Makes a Graphic Designer?

2010-04-30T09:38:00.001+01:00

Chris Harrison, our creative director, was invited by a graphic design industry magazine, Design Week, to put forward a voxpop in reply to a comment that the Conservative MP Greg Hands had made about the NHS 60th Anniversary branding. Read the full story and Chris' response here.

Referring to public-sector identity work, Tory MP Greg Hands has claimed that modern graphic design software packages ‘surely allow anyone with an average brain to design something as good as, or better than, what we see in front of us here’. How would you respond to this assertion?

Design Week response from Chris Harrison:
"First, using design software doesn’t make you a creative designer. Ideas come first, not software. It then takes experience to craft a compelling concept into a robust piece of design. To raise the standards of public services through design takes time and imagination - and that can be done - but it also takes a client with vision to commission and select design that will make a tangible difference."

Brighton Festival with Brian Eno

2010-04-30T09:34:00.003+01:00

It's Brighton Festival time again! We've started work on this years Brighton Festival brochure, with the exciting news that Brian Eno will be the guest artistic director for the 2010 Festival. The former Roxy Music keyboardist Eno is to curate a series of events across Brighton Festival, including his own soundscape works. He will also display 77 Million Paintings, a continuously evolving ‘visual music’ image-scape. We can't say any more at this point, other than we're very excited to be working on a project that has become a big part of our yearly calendar. Watch this space for what will prove to be eye-popping graphics c/o Mr Eno himself!

Harrison & Co tunes up Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment campaign DESIGN WEEK Wed, 7 Apr 2010 | By Tom Banks

2010-04-07T13:17:00.006+01:00

Harrison & Co is creating a poster campaign and season brochure for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

The work has taken a creative approach based on a personal photography project by creative director Chris Harrison.

The orchestra is a period instrument ensemble which uses original instruments from the Age of Enlightenment (roughly the period from the late 17th century through to the end of the 18th century). Harrison was charged with creating a 2010-2011 season campaign for the orchestra thatwould cover public and member brochures with a print run of 50 000, advertising including London Underground posters and billboards, and digital iterations to be used on the organisation’s website.

The consultancy was invited to present creative ideas in February, and Harrison turned to a self-portrait project, using gaffer tape for inspiration.’I know how brave the orchestra is with its marketing ideas, and thought something bold and graphic would lift this year’s campaign,’ says Harrison.

’Its tagline is “Not all orchestras are the same”, and this campaign plays with that - one lady turned up to the shoot with a viola from 1666,’ he adds. Enlisting a studio in London’s Bethnal Green and photographer Eric Richmond, Harrison invited 20 musicians over two days and photographed them in front of a purpose-built wall that was constructed out of MDF, plastered and lit.

The shapes and arrows are ’an interpretation of sound’, says Harrison, who is trying to recreate the look and feel of ’doodling on a picture’. ’It brings out their maverick nature really well,’ he explains.

William Norris, the orchestra’s marketing director, says the campaign will begin to roll out at the end of this month.

Behind the scenes at our Christmas card photoshoot

2009-12-17T17:08:00.004Z

The shoot was great fun to do and the atmosphere in the studio was like a Christmas party, we got into character and Adam at Garage Studios shot some portraits of us individually while the rest of us were getting ready. See the individual portraits here.

Geeky Christmas jumpers

2009-12-17T17:07:00.002Z

For those who didn't see our Christmas card for 2009, here are some of the 'behind the scene images' and a look at the finished result.

Snap, Create, Discover...

2009-11-06T12:23:00.004Z

We can help you unleash your brand’s potential. We now offer existing and potential clients three distinct workshops to do just that. The first one calls upon photography and creative associations to capture your brand values and aspirations. Secondly, our creative workshop helps to unlock your organisation’s creative potential by demonstrating through visual exercises that we all have the ability to contribute at a creative level. Finally, our business workshop gets down to the nuts and bolts of your organisation and applies creative thinking to overcome thorny problems.

Snap – Photographic Brand Workshop
To help VisitBrighton review their brand values we organised a workshop with a difference. Armed with only a simple Lomo film camera and a list of themes that represent our own fair city. The aim was to take a fresh look at Brighton as if viewed through the eyes of it’s visitors, and therefore VisitBrighton’s clients. An enlightening and enjoyable day with the added benefit of collecting a new set of photographs that could be used as reference for ad campaigns and creative briefs.

Create – Creative Potential Workshop
‘I didn’t know I was creative!’ Just one reaction to this enlightening day held for the benefit of NHS Managers from all over the country. Our Creative Director, Chris, gave an informal presentation to demonstrate that creativity is an inherent talent that we’re all blessed with from birth but isn’t nutured beyond childhood. This workshop proved that everyone is creative and all that’s needed is the confidence to reignite that creative streak.

Discover – Business Brand Workshop
With the help of Rod Petrie, Business Coach and Director of a renowned design agency, we facilitated a one-day workshop to help a young website company review it’s existing brand. Interestingly, where we thought we’d just be taking a look at their brand values, vision and mission, it actually opened up more questions than answers. It prompted discussions about the company’s business structure and direction it should be taking. Not quite what we were expecting, but then to work well, a brand really has to work from the inside-out.

Royal Veterinary College

2009-10-08T12:40:00.005+01:00

Earlier this year we had the opportunity to go along and meet the Royal Veterinary College, to talk with them about the potential of helping them with their design projects. Well, a few months down the line, here is the fruits of our creative labour – a postgraduate prospectus – 80 pages long containing detailed course information for postgrad students. The prospectus was printed litho and thread sown in sections before being perfect bound. Hot on the heels of this will be an undergraduate prospectus and an annual review. Watch this space.

Higher Education Academy book

2009-10-08T12:36:00.004+01:00

We have designed a 280 page book to accompany a two day academic seminar that will take place in York at the end of October – titled 'Dialogues in Art & Design' – for 'Higher Education Academy: Art Design & Media Subject Centre'. The book is a collection of academic 'trigger papers' on a wide range of issues that effect the way art and design is taught in art colleges and universities in the UK. We chose a textured craft paper by Colour Plan for the cover, which was finished off with a foil emboss of the Art Design & Media Subject Centre logo.

GPC card design

2009-10-08T12:35:00.002+01:00

UPDATE: THe GPC card design has been featured on Design Week! Click Here to read the article!

As a result of the expertise we have built designing credit cards for Barclaycard, we were commissioned by Buying Solutions to rebrand their Government Procurement Card. Buying Solutions is an Executive Agency of the Office of Government Commerce, part of HM Treasury. We have also written and published a full set of user card design guidelines, which include details design and print information.

"When Buying Solutions embarked on changing the design of the Government Procurement Card, we needed to identify a capable design house that had up-to-date experience of commercial card design. Based on a combination of capability, expertise and value for money Harrison were selected and have produced an excellent result for us." Jim Parkinson, Head of Payment Cards Team

Hotwired

2009-07-17T16:59:00.004+01:00

We were approached by Mat Mckinley, a musician and composer based in France, to design a brand identity and packaging for his new venture – a weekend course in musical production. The courses title, 'Hotwired', informed the vibrant and electric imagery that we commissioned and art directed. The final design will be rolled out across eight text books and two portfolio cases. Mat plans to launch the courses over the internet and offer weekend workshops and distance learning courses.

London Metropolitan Universities Magazine

2009-07-17T16:58:00.006+01:00

Another edition of London Metropolitan Universities quarterly magazine. We have designed and art directed the magazine for the last 2 years, which started with a complete redesign coupled with a review on how to make the magazine more economical to produce. The magazine remains vibrant to read and economical for the London Met to produce. Everyone's happy!

Brighton Dome & Festival corporate strategy report

2009-07-17T16:56:00.003+01:00

Hot off the press comes the Brighton Dome & Festival corporate strategy report. We have designed the report to clearly communicate the renewed vision and purpose for the organisation. The document charts a course and clearly communicates the renewed vision, ambitions and purpose for the organisation over the next three years and further into the future.

Creating an Authentic Brand

2009-06-19T15:30:00.007+01:00

Some of the last monoliths of the industrial age, the motor and banking industries have come perilously close to collapse.

The motor industry in the US has had a particularly bumpy ride. Globally its poorly selling products were out of step with the rest of the world and finally the penny dropped. General Motors’ humongous Hummer looks more like a soon to be extinct dinosaur and the hybrid fuel / electric option seems less like a fanciful fad and more of a reality.

With intervention from the Government our banking system seems to have been saved from disaster, and now the UK’s economy has even been described as the strongest in Europe by a Nobel Prize-winning economist. But do we really need the existing system to survive? We’re starting to do things in a different way now, this new digital age has led to more readily available information and choices. For example. new online finance facilities such as Zopa.com will not only lend funds but will let you invest your own money to the pot in return for a greater return than most high interest bank accounts.

Underlying the failures and successes of all businesses at the moment, or even politics come to that, is a sense of honesty and purpose. The consumer has taken back some of the decision making and this time they want value, authenticity and transparency, not the glutony and tunnel vision of the past.

Not all institutions have fallen foul of the new order – the Co-operative Group have recently seen their operating profit rise by 11%. They attribute this to a focus on more social responsibility and being community driven. They have an ‘authentic and compelling purpose’. What can we learn from this? We believe that the next generation of brands will need to explore and discover exactly what their ‘authentic purpose’ is, and that purpose should be put on an equal (if not higher) footing with the historical ‘pursuit of profit’ model. Neil Crofts, a well known thinker and champion of ‘authentic business’ says:

“[a brand with] a well articulated authentic purpose
inspires and motivates every member of staff, every
day and in every action and interaction. The clarity of
purpose facilitates innovation and problem solving as
well as engaging partners, suppliers and the media. All
of this is available to almost any business in almost
any market sector and all they need to do to get there
is to articulate their authentic purpose and align the
business around it. Businesses who clearly articulate
their purpose are like building a pyramid rather than
a tower of blocks. The growth may not be quite as
spectacular, but the positive purpose inspires loyalty
and support, which make for rock solid foundations
that remains stable even in challenging conditions.”

Your brand’s values and authentic purpose have never been more important. Our consumers, clients and audiences are on the look out for experiences, products and services that represent their highest values. They’re prepared to pay a bit more for it, but they want it to be ethical, efficient and truthful. The best policy – an honest and authentic brand.

Click here to download as PDF

POSTER - Art Design & Media Subject Centre

2009-06-19T14:48:00.006+01:00

Art Design & Media Subject Centre (part of the Higher Education Academy) asked us to design a poster. Sometimes it feels right for us to think outside of the four corners of our computer screens. On this occasion we decided to find a forest and wrap a group of trees in a piece of 50m fabric… The image is a cerebral look at ADM's purpose – 'supporting and developing learning and teaching in art, design and media in higher education'. More images from this unusual and fun photo shoot can be seen below! Art direction by our designer Rob Sollom. Photography by Phil Bedford, a graduating art student from University of Brighton

A few more photos from the day:

WEBSITE - Coryndon Cabinet Makers

2009-06-19T14:45:00.002+01:00

We have designed and programmed a website for our long standing client, the high end cabinet maker, Coryndon. The site is designed to have a timeless and classic feel. It incorporates HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming to enable the user to view the case studies in a clean and simple way. To see the finished website click here.

BRAND - Trafalgar Accounting Solutions

2009-06-19T14:43:00.002+01:00

Trafalgar Accounting Solutions asked us to design a brand identity for their new product offering – 'Salary Now'. The idea behind the scheme is that IT contractors that Trafalgar represent can now receive their salary within days of issuing a time-sheet to their contracted employer. The idea for the identity is based around the USP of protecting and covering yourself for the future by being able to access your salary sooner.

Brighton Festival Branding at Victoria Station!

2009-05-15T12:18:00.001+01:00

On The Politics Show - Police Values

2009-05-15T11:18:00.005+01:00

Chris had 15 mins of fame last week when he was asked by the BBC Politics Show to create a campaign that would soften the image we have of the Police. You can watch the 5 minute film here.

Here are a few of the things we came up with for the campaign (click to see them big):

Amazement - The Spraying

2009-05-15T10:05:00.013+01:00

The charity Creative Futures, who help disadvantaged people to make art, set us the challenge to design and produce and art catalogue to accompany an exhibition we named 'Amazement'. Budgets were tight, so we decided to be creative. To save money on printing we decided to leave the cover unprinted. To brand the cover we made a stencil and hand finished all 500 catalogues.

A labour of love on this occasion, but the final result was 500 absolutely unique catalogues that felt like a piece of artwork themselves:

Photos taken by Cerys Jones

Three Blind Mice

2009-03-27T17:06:00.005Z

Carole Britten, Head of Marketing at Brighton Festival, taps out 'Three Blind Mice' for us over lunch in a Chinese restaurant.

Amazement

2009-03-20T16:16:00.009Z

Creative Futures enable marginalised people to be creative and gives them a platform for their work. They have got an exhibition coming up and they have asked us to design the art catalogue. Here is a video we have made to showcase the work.

Amazement
Wednesday 25 March
2-4pm
Crawley Library
Southgate Avenue
Crawley RH10 6HG

Invest in your brand during a recession

2009-03-11T09:52:00.003Z

The obvious response in a recession is to cut-back on all unnecessary expenditure, trade-down and look for better value. This could also mean that you’re standing still, playing a waiting game, not venturing into anything new or investing. How insecure might this make your staff and clients feel about your business?

Brands should use this period of insecurity to make assurances of quality as well as making reassuring signs that help the consumer go through an uneasy period with greater confidence. The moral support that is provided by a brand at this time could go a long way towards building enduring bonds with the consumer in the future.

There are huge opportunities for those prepared to swim against the tide. Be an organisation that builds people’s confidence (‘we’re doing fine’) and wins people’s trust (‘we’re not going anywhere’). Dare to be different, be bold, offer something that you haven’t offered before. Motivate people out of their inertia by proving that
you can be innovative, positive and trustworthy. Apple, during the dotcom downturn, increased R&D budgets, invented iTunes and continues to dominate the category.

Recessions call for a greater focus on value, this is no bad thing and probably long overdue. Brands need to rationalise and assess what’s unnecessary and wasteful.
This focus on value helps identify better processes and/or lower costs which in turn helps the consumer get better value. Recession is the real mother of invention.

The best way to go through a recession is with the knowledge that it will not last and that it is important not to overreact and back-off if even if at times it may feel like it is going to go on forever. Always remember, the recession will go away but your brand won’t. It’s important to not make decisions that will affect the long term standing of your brand. Stay in the game and you’ll come out of this stronger.

Thinking long term is important for brands. Brands with a strong strategy come out of recessions stronger and the weaker brands fall by the wayside – the ability to display character and focus on value provides the difference between success and failure. Tough times don’t last but tough brands do.

So, here are some things to ask of your brand:

Are you confident? And do your employees share that
confidence? To keep the good ones, and keep them
upbeat, involve them in building your brand. Confident
employees breed confident customers.

Are you clear what you stand for? Now’s a great time
to simplify your brand structure, strip out complexity,
cut out sub-brands. A brand rationalisation could cut
costs too.

Do people trust you? The only way to build trust is
to do what you say. Is what you say you stand for the
same as what customers actually experience? And
ensure you improve on that experience – you’ll get a
much better return than just spending on marketing.

Are you projecting your difference? Be absolutely
clear what makes you special, and why customers will
want to pay a little extra for it. Identify the one
biggest thing that makes you different, and increase
that difference.

Are you inventing your way out of recession?
Use your brand to inspire new services, new products,
even new businesses that can stimulate demand, wake
people up, get them out and spending.

A thank you card from Amber

2009-02-26T13:56:00.005Z

How sweet! Amber, who was on work experience with us a few weeks back, has sent us a very nice and very creative thank you card.

a m a z e m e n t

2009-02-26T11:38:00.006Z

We have just taken on a charity client who enables disadvantaged people to create art and gives them a platform for their work. They have got an exhibition coming up and they have asked us to design the art catalogue. Our idea is to hand stencil all 500 brochures with the word 'amazement'. We wanted the catalogue to have a unique collectors feel. Each one will be unique and original as we will vary the colours and textures. Its a great opportunity to work on social responsibility project and a chance to be very creative at the same time! Hope you like it.

Brighton Festival 2009

2009-02-18T15:00:00.002Z

Time to unveil the Brighton Festival brochure for 2009. We've been working closely with the Brighton Festival team and the studio of Anish Kapoor to bring a new direction to the look & feel of the Brighton Festival brand. Anish Kapoor (guest artistic director to Brighton Festival for 2009) produced the cover image this year. He used wax and paper to make a highly creative statement about this years Festival, which explores cultural, philosophical, spiritual and political ideas – both abstract and specific. For the brochure this year we created a clean look & feel that made good use of white space. The typograpic style is a mixture of a traditional serif font, Adobe Caslon Pro, and a very modern font called 'Progress', which we used at a very large point size for dates and event headings. Overall the brochure and branding is an eclectic mix of classic and modern styles, but still distinctly Brighton Festival. Our branding will now be rolled out across street banners, posters, tickets, advertising, t-shirts and lots more.

NHS, 'what do you think?'

2009-02-18T14:58:00.001Z

We've been working with the NHS to help them gain greater patient experience feedback. The challenge was engaging patients to come forward with their comments, compliments, complaints and concerns. We came up with the universal symbol for 'good' or 'bad', thumbs up or thumbs down, the aim being to keep the message very simple and very compelling. Feedback will be used to by the NHS to measure standards of care and give greater clarity to the areas that patients feel need greater attention. The campaign will initially be launched in Essex with the branded material being used on posters, flyers, fridge magnets, staff z-fold booklets and an internet micro-site. A week of PR around the campaign is also planned.

Soda, an effervescent brand

2009-02-18T14:56:00.003Z

Soda are a collective of multi-skilled people from wildly different walks of life. They work with public sector organisations to help them to see their challenges with clarity and from a new perspective. We felt that the deep blend of the Soda people could be the clue to the idea behind the logo. Our idea is a bunch of multi coloured drinking straws standing upright in an invisible glass. We also came up with them name 'Soda', which expresses the vibrancy and energy that they bring to client projects.

In addition, we have been working with Soda to map out their 'brand journey', part of this was to help them articulate their values, as follows:

• Flow. A boldness to ‘let go’ and explore new possibilities and ideas.
• Connection. A deep empathy for the greater good. We’re in this together.
• Centredness. Being mindful of our purpose and understanding it’s value.
• Curiosity. Taking the courage to ask the ‘what if…’ question. Stay curious.
• Usefulness. Only using what’s needed. Respect for resources and environment.
• Butterflies. In tune with our ‘gut feeling’. Trusting our instincts.

"Hey, isn't that Rob Sollom?"

2009-01-21T10:16:00.004Z

We’d like to welcome Rob Sollom as the newest member of our team. Rob has been freelancing with us for the last few months. We are over the moon to announce that Rob is now a permanent member of the Harrison team. Rob attended Camberwell College of Art which he graduated from in 2007 with a BA(Hons) in Graphic Design. A highly creative guy, Rob brings to the team a real passion for creative ideas and a keen eye for contemporary typography. Rob has already been earning his stripes by immersing himself and making his mark clearly seen on one of our biggest yearly projects, Brighton Festival.

Masquerade website

2009-01-21T10:09:00.001Z

We’ve been busily working away on a new website for Brighton’s much loved and long established costume hire shop, Masquerade. We wanted to express the creative and quirky nature of the Masquerade brand. The website homepage shows the rich array of the types of costumes and styling that Masquerade can supply. The menu buttons for the website are made up of a fan of vintage playing cards, which add to the fun and intrigue of the website. We have also been advising Masquerade on how they can leverage the power of social networking to raise awareness and build a ‘fan base’ for the brand. Masquerade, “where your flights of fancy are given wings!”

Robin Hood swigs ale again

2009-01-21T10:04:00.002Z

Robin Hood is making a comeback. We have been helping the publisher, Little Brown, to promote and market a new novel called Outlaw, the story of Robin Hood, told from a more gritty and bloody perspective. Part of the marketing campaign is a giveaway bottle of ‘Outlaw Ale’ that will be used to promote the new novel to retail buyers. We’re also designing a bound proof cover for the novel which will feature a hand-torn ‘wanted’ poster as part of the front cover. We predict Outlaw being a rip roaring success.

Children with Leukaemia

2009-01-21T10:01:00.001Z

We were asked by the charity Children with Leukaemia to design the face of their ‘Paper Plane Challenge’ campaign. The aim of this initiative is to engage with primary school children, setting them a creative and innovative challenge of making, designing and flying hand-made paper planes in order to raise funds and awareness for Children with Leukaemia. We created a little pilot character called ‘Pepe’. We applied the branding to posters, leaflets, stationery and a website. Chocks away!

Our 2008 Christmas card

2008-12-15T15:46:00.005Z

Have a heavenly Christmas. With love from the Harrison Choir. x

With thanks to Rector Fr. John Joyce for allowing us to use Holy Trinity Church, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex.

(No choir boys were harmed during the making of this card.)

Brighton Festival news

2008-12-10T12:39:00.005Z

Above: Cloud Gate, Millenium Park, Chicago by Anish Kapoor

Brighton Festival will be never be the same again. The Festival have really shaken things up for their 2009 programme by appointing the Turner prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor as it's guest artistic director. This is very good news for us! The brochure and branding campaign are taking a completely new direction with some interesting twists, turns and visual surprises in store. Wish we could say more about it right now, but it's all still under wraps until mid February 2009. Needless to say we're very excited to be working with Brighton Festival for a third year running, and we're also looking forward to seeing our branding ideas take flight with the added inspiration of Anish Kapoor's creative direction. Watch this space!

Glyndebourne Opera

2008-12-10T12:21:00.001Z

We've been busily beavering away for the last couple of months on two new CDs for Glyndebourne Opera. The two new releases are Beethovens Fidelio (pictured above) and Pelleas et Melisande by Claude Debussy. The CDs are packaged as case bound books with over 100 pages in each which includes the full libretto, typeset and lovingly (painstakingly) laid out in four languages. Our heads were spinning by the end of the project! But it was all worth it, as the final artwork looks great. Big pats on backs all round for everyone involved.

Glyndebourne celebrates 75 years

2008-11-03T14:55:00.008Z

2009 sees Glyndebourne celebrate their 75th anniversary. They are marking the event by holding a very exclusive anniversary gala. We were asked to design an invitation for the event – our solution was a mini photographic brochure. The Glyndebourne logo was printed using silver foil on the cover, and as a nice finishing touch we added a sheet of lightweight tracing paper between the photography plates.

Break into an Erica Spindler novel

2008-11-03T14:42:00.007Z

Little Brown publishers asked us to help them launch their new author Erica Spindler into the UK market. Erica Spindler writes crime, think Cagney and Lacey with a touch more blood and drama and you get the picture. Little Brown commissioned us to design a 'bound proof' that the sales teams could use to whet the appetites of trade buyers. We added in an extra twist by suggesting that the bound proof be packaged in a police evidence bag – adding a touch of fun and drama at the same time. Neat.

Visit Brighton – a warm welcome in the winter

2008-10-02T17:34:00.002+01:00

Visit Brighton asked us to design a brochure to promote our city to visitors over the winter months. The challenge was to showcase Brighton and communicate the plethora of events and activities for city visitors over the winter period. Our solution was to design a brochure where a small section of each spread became a mini ‘what’s on’ guide. This was tied in nicely to the overall content message by using highlight colours. A copywriter was commissioned to write the text that promotes each event in a succinct but engaging way. Harrison handled the print for Visit Brighton, who ordered 40,000 copies that will be distributed across the south east of England.

Love is (branding)

2008-10-02T17:32:00.000+01:00

Here’s a little taster of something you can expect to receive from us soon. A poster to (shamelessly) promote ourselves. The idea was to design something that really sums up what we offer, and put simply, to reflect how we help our clients to ‘bring their brands to life’. We invested time and energy to design this bespoke poster. It was crafted, nudged and tweaked until we thought it communicated that special something – the time, care and creativity that we put into all our client projects. If you’d like to receive a copy to brighten up your office, email posters@harrisonandco.com

Looking Out

2008-10-02T17:26:00.003+01:00

We recently completed a branding project for Art, Design & Media Subject Centre (ADM) who are part of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Our branding is the face of a major research project that ADM-HEA are conducting on behalf of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The audience for the research project are creative professionals who teach part-time in art & design colleges across the UK. A design that would intrigue and appeal to their creative eye was needed. Our solution was a simple and contemporary use of typography, with the added twist of an optical effect to draw people in. This was then applied to an A2 poster, A5 flyer, web banner and branded stationery.

Aurora summer party

2008-07-20T22:27:00.002+01:00

We were invited to the Aurora summer party. This is Jem Mills (Aurora MD) laying on the afternoon's entertainment. Pretty cool MD, eh?

PoC Annual Report

2008-07-18T17:49:00.003+01:00

We have designed the annual report for The Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund (PoC) . We have worked with PoC for the last 4 years, and we design their annual report every year. PoC is a charity dedicated to relieving the hardship of prisoners of conscience and their families by providing relief grants. PoC was originally established in 1962 as the relief arm of Amnesty International. If you would like to make a donation to this worthy cause please click here.

ZAP Celebrate 25 years

2008-07-17T17:52:00.003+01:00

We have designed a book for ZAP to help them celebrate and mark their 25 year history. We wanted it to be a 'visual scrapbook', very punky and quite rough and ready. We felt that this kind of look and feel reflected the anarchic, slightly chaotic culture at ZAP.

LPO, Shostakovich 10

2008-07-17T17:42:00.003+01:00

Another one of our CD designs for LPO. Shostakovich’s Tenth symphony was composed it in 1953, a crucial year for Soviet art, and indeed for Soviet life in general. We selected a very typically Russian themed image, the twist being the hatching effect across the photograph. I think we've designed over thirty CDs now for LPO, and this is one of the nicest.

Glyndebourne – 'Fact Finding Mission'

2008-07-16T14:37:00.006+01:00

Glyndebourne invited us to the opera last night. They are a new client of ours, so it was a bit of a fact-finding, champagne-drinking, opera-listening mission. It's a hard life…

Ann MacFadyen

2008-07-15T14:10:00.002+01:00

A little job for Ann MacFadyen to help her promote her astrology business – 'look to the stars and find yourself'!

European Union Youth Orchestra

2008-07-15T14:02:00.003+01:00

Another summer, another tour. European Union Youth Orchestra steps out their summer '08 tour with copies of their tour brochure – designed by us – tucked under arms and crammed into violin cases. They will be given away free at their concerts (and hopefully not left behind on seats afterwards!).

We've rebranded Accelerator

2008-07-08T20:53:00.006+01:00

We've rebranded London's original Business Incubator, Accelerator. Thanks to Sharon Hughes (Accelerator's most wonderful Marketing Manager), and our vision for their brand, Accelerator now have a new image that reflects the abundance of help and guidance on offer to growing small businesses within the ICT sector.

Lawnmower man

2008-06-24T09:31:00.000+01:00

It's Simon's birthday today. Here he is showing off one of his pressies – a new lawnmower. Hours of fun ahead then…!

Visit Brighton brand identity

2008-06-23T15:57:00.000+01:00

Our branding for Visit Brighton. (We're very pleased with this!)

In the thick of it…

2008-06-23T15:10:00.000+01:00

Goodbye sleepy village, hello hussle and bussle of Brighton (where did all these people come from?). We've moved offices (at last), you can now find us here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=l&view=map&hl=en&q=Harrison+%2B+Co+Creative&near=Brighton,+Brighton+and+Hove&ie=UTF8