Transitory Art
April 2010
Art isn’t always in galleries, and graffiti isn’t always bad. This photo was found on the internet showing that ideas can be sparked by anything.
Posted by Steve
The Winning Team
April 2010
Richard, Shane, Clare and Neil celebrated their success of winning the Roberts Bakery pitch with a trip to old Trafford. Clare and Neil pose for pictures in the dressing room under Wazza’s shirt whilst Shane takes the picture and Richard writes Burnley FC all over Fergie’s tactics wall.
Posted by Neil
Chocs Away
February 2010
For all our hard work to help launch The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity, we were given this exquisite box of handmade chocolates (picture taken 15 seconds after box being opened). The lovely ladies at the Hospital thought it fitting that as we helped raise a few pounds, we could put on a few pounds.
Posted by Neil
Website Launch for Award Winning Musician
January 2010
After a few months of hard labour we’re chuffed to bits to launch the all singing all dancing online home for singer/songwriter Afrika Fuentes - www.afrikafuentes.com
If you haven’t heard of Afrika Fuentes before, then you’re in for a treat. Afrika has already worked with producers including, Cathy Dennis, Simon&Shaker as well as pop songwriter Fabien Waltman. Afrika has also won numerous awards for her work too, including the BBC New Talent Competition.
On the website you can find out all about the girl behind the music and listen to some of Afrika’s most recent tracks on her music player. You can also keep up to date with the latest blog, photos and upcoming gigs!
Afrika is currently working on her upcoming album, which is due for release later this year.
Posted by Sam
C21 in Print
November 2009
Having recently taken the opportunity of partaking in a monthly pub quiz, two (very competitive) teams at C21 have amazingly been doing quite well!
The battle is on - Studio versus Account Handlers!
On our first attempt team studio AKA “Haddock & Chips” won the “Play Your Cards Right” round, taking home a massive £50 worth of drink tokens! On our second attempt at the November quiz evening, the account handling team helped drink the tokens in the spirit of office camaraderie and Haddock & Chips came joint second overall in the quiz - simply amazing! The surprise of the night however was finding a picture of ourselves in one of the city centre night life magazines (bottom right) which no-one remembers being taken! Next month “Spellcaster G” the team of intrepid account handlers led by Gina are determined to swot up and beat Haddock & Chips....the gauntlet has been thrown.
Posted by Steve
Congratulations Lucy
November 2009
BIG congratulations to Lucy and Alistair on the birth of baby Nicole Elizabeth!
Beautiful little Nicole arrived on the 28th September weighing in at 8lb 3oz.
The team send lots of hugs and happiness to all!
PS: When are you popping in so we can have a brew and cuddles?
Posted by Lindsay
Trick or treat?
October 2009
The highlight of Neil's week was finding this little character in his packet of Salt and Shake crisps.
The imaginatively named ’Pumpkin Crisp Face’, fell out of Neil's bag THE DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN.
Spooky
Posted by Neil
Bye Bye Becky
October 2009
It is with much sadness that we bring you news of the departure of everyone’s favourite receptionist, Becky, from C21.
Our loss is Australia’s gain as our Becks has set off to travel Down Under for several months. We have been promised regular email updates of her adventures and her Facebook page has taken a battering recently with all of us eager to see how she is coping with the backpacking life.
Everyone here wishes Becky all the best and she will be greatly missed. Those Australians are going to get the best cups of tea ever!
Posted by David
Champagne, schmoozing and £20 million!
October 2009
For those of you who didn’t know, C21 are proud supporters of Manchester based charity, The New Children’s Hospital Appeal.
As their dedicated Advertising and Marketing Agency, C21 supports the Appeal in as many ways as we possibly can! So when we were invited to their final glittering (and very star-studded) event on 22nd October at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate – we jumped at the chance!
During the evening (and after 3 years of hard work by thousands of people) it was announced that the Appeal hit their huge fundraising target of £20 million!
The announcement was made by Appeal Chairman Maurice Watkins, who was greeted by a cascade of sparkly confetti fired from cannons, and messages from celebrity supporters and families who have used the new hospital.
The C21 ladies particularly enjoyed their evening of schmoozing with the many celebrity patrons of the Appeal, although are quite ashamed of their alcohol fuelled stalking of X-Factor finalists JLS at the aftershow party!
Funds raised by the Appeal are being used to provide facilities in addition to the medical care provided by the NHS. Resources include pull-down beds on each ward so that parents can stay close to their children while they are in hospital and specialist equipment which improves the diagnosis and treatment of the young patients.
The C21 team had a fantastic evening and are extremely proud to be able to support such a worthwhile charity (plus we love the lovely ladies there)!
Posted by Lindsay
Bumper Update
September 2009
Good Luck To Lucy
Following in Helen’s footsteps, we want to say good luck to Lucy as she embarks on her journey into parenthood.
With no appearance of baby Wilding just yet, Lucy has already called and asked to come back to work - apparently the last few weeks of pregnancy are boring! Feast your eyes on the fancy cupcakes which Gina made for the mother-to-be before she left us.
Hello To David
David Clark will be covering for Lucy and will mainly be concentrating on toning down his Glaswegian drawl in order to be understood in at least one sentence he says per day. If you call in and get David on the phone, we’ll aim to transfer you to an English speaker within two minutes.
Gina’s Birthday
To celebrate Gina being only two short years away from 30, Kelly made a personalised cake for the birthday girl. Reports that Becky suffered an allergic reaction as a direct result of digesting said cake remain unconfirmed...
Go Ape
Most of us went bananas recently when Clare F suggested that we venture deep into the Delamere woodland to swing from the trees at Go Ape High-Wire Forest Adventure.
However, looking good in circulation-stopping harnesses, we managed to find our inner Tarzan and tackled the giant obstacle course using ladders, walkways, bridges and tunnels made of wood, rope and super-strong wire. Hilarity ensued and there were some very questionable zip slide landings as well as a couple of “Please rescue me, I’m stuck” moments. But we won’t mention names, will we Richard, Gina and Claire B?!
It was great fun and, as team building goes, it’s proved to be a successful exercise as we are all still picking bits of woodchip out of one another’s hair days later.
Posted by David
Office Redecoration
July 2009
The reception has been given a fabulous makeover and now looks incredibly stylish.
The redecoration was generally trouble-free. Having said that, Richard’s only two jobs were to organise a new settee and to enhance a wall next to the reception but, even as this blog entry goes live, visitors are still staring at a blank wall from an old leather bench. Promises, promises Richard...
Posted by Ian
Well Done Helen
May 2009
Congratulations to Helen and Richard on the birth of little Francesca Harriet Hewitson.
She arrived at 7.30pm on 23/05/09 weighing in at 7lb 2oz. Helen says motherhood suits her like a very expensive Gucci handbag.
Posted by Neil
A Staggering Achievement
May 2009
On May 17th two of us took part in the Bupa Great Manchester 10k run to raise money for the New Childrens Hospital Appeal.
Becky did about three training runs once the hockey season had finished and coasted around the course in 54 minutes and 40 seconds, coming an overall 9,225 out of the 33,000 runners. A sterling time and effort.
Me, the tame IT geek needed four months of seriously attempting to reduce the beer gut and managed to finish in 1 hour, 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Red faced with the effort of exertion and gasping for breath.
Next year I'll get a better time. Hopefully.
Posted by Steve
Cover(up) Girl
April 2009
Good luck to Helen as she embarks on her journey into parenthood. Baby Hewitson is not here yet, but Helen assures us that playing the waiting game with her feet up reading the glossies is very hard work. The picture was the cover of the card we made for her, and of course Demi Moore-Willis-Kutcher provided the body.
Posted by Neil
Cow Hop
February 2009
I've been dreading turning 40 for about 18 months now, to the point where people are fed up of me moaning about it. To try and make the journey a little more pleasurable I've decided to do 40 things whilst I'm 40 that I've never done before. I did start to prepare a list, but being spontaneous have decided that I'm going to do my 40 things on more of a adhoc basis. So far I have ticked off 2 things off my list which are:-
- I've never worn a fancy dress costume as an adult
- I've never space hopped in public
Enjoy the video!
Posted by Emma
Goodbye Bush!
February 2009
Probably the best negotiation in ad positioning ever!
Brilliant strategic creative thinking and timing.
Love it Love it Love it
Posted by Gina
D&AD Pencil exhibition
January 2009
Us creative types marched down to the D&AD Pencil exhibition http://www.dandad.org/pencilexhibition/ on at Urbis until mid March last week. The exhibition Showcases outstanding work from the D&AD Annuals 1963-2008 as chosen by each years president.
The highlight for me, apart from the beer, was being reminded of this classic Guinness ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJeXQniTKto for Diageo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diageo from 1999. Genius.
Posted by Ian
Giant photoshop pasteboard
December 2008
It doesn't get any better than this - Photoshop CS4 ad created by Bates 141.
See how it was done
www.flickr.com/photos/18697966@N00/sets/72157608377333404/
Posted by Ian
Fresh Digital Awards
November 2008
We were up for one (Freshest Use of Animation), but we sadly didn't win a trophy.
Things started off very civilised, but ended up a little messy with Claire and Gina throwing some dubious shapes on the dancefloor - and by the end of the night Gina seriously fell out with her shoes.
See the nominated work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwGIF2HexaE
Posted by Helen
The Boss visits the Big Boss
May 2008
Thanks to those lovely girls at the NCHA, I had the amazing experience of having lunch with Gordon and Sarah Brown at no 10 Downing Street.
The outing was definitely one for the memory books for both me and Sarah; a close call with a dodgy hairdressers in China Town, an unscheduled appointment with an alternative hairdressers further up the road - great hair thanks to Marco - and a very fraught coffee in Starbucks interspersed with applying make up, changing tights and frantic calls to check who'd managed to get to London at all (travel plans kindly screwed up by Virgin Trains!). Once we calmed down though it was champagne and teeny tiny cucumber sarnies all round!
Photo: Me advising Gordon on how not to run the economy. Next time, it might be worth taking notes Gord.
Posted by Christina
