Art in the city

I had a couple of days away from Soft Octopus last week to visit London for a performance by one of my favourite bands who rarely play live. The Sound of Arrows from Sweden haven’t done a gig in over four years, so it would have been a massive missed opportunity not to take a trip to catch them live. It was well worth the trip.

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Where the heart is

It was interesting to see another of those reports about cities in the UK published this week. This one was of interest because it was specifically about the UK’s most creative towns and cities to live, work and play in. I expected my home town of Liverpool to be in there somewhere and was pleasantly surprised to see it at number two, just behind our good neighbour, Manchester. LINK to full article.

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Sticks and stones

Graphic design is principally about problem solving. The client has requirements and this is addressed by the designer using a sometimes already established brand identity and sometimes one needs to be created as part of the creative package. Fonts, logos, colour palettes, layouts, illustrations and photographs are all key components – the essential ingredients implemented to cook up the perfect design dinner.

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Liverpool Pride

This weekend, it is Liverpool Pride. There are plenty of activities and many businesses and our local authority support the occasion. For many years, my hometown didn’t have a Pride event and we were very much in the shadow of the capital and even our seemingly more sophisticated sister city, Manchester. I remember Liverpool’s first Pride event back in the early 1990s which was more of a village fête. I won a first aid kit for guessing the correct amount of condoms in the glass jar! I think there can’t have been more than 100 people there and it was so low key that few people remember it today.

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Warrington Public Health

We’ve been working with Warrington Public Health for over a year now adapting national campaigns to a local audience for many health related conditions. We’re now devising two new, separate public health campaigns for mental health and the promotion of smokefree services in the workplace. In terms of social marketing these campaigns are in the early stages of development but …

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Warrington and Halton Hospitals

We’ve recently started working with this NHS Foundation Trust and have enjoyed being able to deliver some engaging corporate materials for a couple of high profile services – Diabetes and Dementia Care. Both of these issues require a sensitive approach that is both generic and direct to appeal to a wide demographic. Working closely with leads in both of these …

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Tobacco Free Futures

Tobacco Free Futures, formerly known as Smokefree North West is an influential organisation, campaigning to make smoking history for children in the North West and beyond. We’re proud to have responsibility for a lot of the corporate design work for this pioneering organisation and enjoyed updating their brand in late 2011 to subtly reflect a change in campaign focus and …

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Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust

This NHS Trust is local to Soft Octopus Design Studio and with Andrew’s 20+ year background working in design for the NHS it makes sense that we continue to work on the design of a wide variety of materials with them. Soft Octopus has worked with LCH since its formation in 2012 and worked previously with many of its staff …

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Sahir House

Creative direction and design were provided for Sahir House’s Now+then: Three decades of HIV on Merseyside project over a three year period culminating in multimedia installations at Museum of Liverpool and Central Library. This large project was funded with a Heritage Lottery grant which allowed for a lot of creativity and experimentation. This was an ideal project because of our …

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Parkhaven Trust

Parkhaven Trust is a charity based in Maghull that provides a wide range of services to support people with dementia, older people and people with learning and physical disabilities. It was established in 1888 and has an established reputation for excellence in care. Over decades, dozens of logo variants and resources had been produced and our first job was to …

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