Over the last year, mustard jobs have seen a surge in activity within the events industry across the UK. With Brexit, Covid and the Cost of Living Crisis significantly affecting the rate of movement within the industry in recent times. We’re breaking down the current trends, salary expectations, candidate availability and industry growth of the events sector.
At the beginning of the year we saw various external factors make candidates more hesitant about moving roles. Even though the cost of living remains high, the UK hasn’t plunged into a recession yet so candidates are maneuvering in the market again.
The events industry is booming across the UK, and Brand Experience within London remains a particularly busy sector for the mustard team for permanent and contract roles.
Covid-19 has become a memory of the past and as a result the Tradeshow Exhibition industry is back and better than ever. Virtual Broadcast has maintained popularity within the corporate space as streaming functionality is more accessible than ever. This has provided continued success for global brands looking to improve sustainability, reducing flights and event waste.
Whilst London still remains the hub of the event sector, other areas such as Manchester, Leeds and Bristol are seeing sharp growth, fueled by increased flexibility to work from home post pandemic. As a result, we’re seeing top talent move away from London.
Firstly, Sustainability. Eco washing has become a prevalent issue across the industry, with brands implying sustainability rather than working on making real positive change. As more candidates in the industry are looking to work within an actively sustainable organisation, being certified as B-Corp or part of an industry specific sustainability group such as Isla, will ignite candidate attraction.
Next up, Flexibility. As a lot of employees within the sector devote their weekends and evenings to meet the demand of the job, working the ‘allotted’ 9-5 are becoming increasingly difficult to adhere to whilst maintaining a work-life balance. As a result, there is increased pressure on employers to offer flexible hours to align with this.
The digital age has taken events to the next level. Consequently, employers are looking for event professionals with a mix of digital skills, the more digital integration the better. AR and VR offer interactivity that will engage audiences across the entire industry and showcasing any digital skills will give your CV the edge. This could include anything from working on virtual events, website registrations, video content, motion graphics, graphic design, animation and 360 photography.
Salaries have gone up drastically when comparing the mustard XP salary guide from 2021 to 2023. As an example, a Mid-weight 2D Designer working in London in 2021 would be earning around £28,000 – £36,000 but in 2023 they’re more likely £40,000 – £50,000.
This could be because a lot of candidates left industry during the Covid-19 lockdown period for job security elsewhere so there is smaller pool of candidates, as a result employers are battling for the top candidates, offering higher salaries to entice them into their role. As the industry has bounced back in full force the demand for skilled candidates has increased.
“The Experiential, Events and Exhibitions industries have fluctuated dramatically within my five years as a recruiter in this space. We’ve seen various highs and lows across the industry over the last few years, but now is such an exciting time to be expanding your business or to move into a new role.”
– Jamie Rogers, XP Divisional Lead at mustard jobs.
Hospitality, retail and branding designers Phoenix Wharf have completed a clever and colourful refurbishment of hospitality outlet Old Chang Kee in Covent Garden. The Singaporean family-run operator opened its first two UK stores in Covent Garden’s New Row in 2018 and on Goodge Street, also in London, at the end of 2019. The client, UK franchisee Sandra Leong, commissioned Phoenix Wharf to redesign the Covent Garden site earlier this year to improve spatial issues and make the store more modern and memorable. The fast-turnaround project has seen most of the new interior and furniture pre-assembled off-site to minimise store closure times and to allow the venue both to close and re-open over the course of August, with minimal final refinements completed in September.
‘The Old Chang Kee food offer had been incredibly well-reviewed since the brand opened in the UK’, Phoenix Wharf Creative Director Emma Carter explained. ‘The logistics of the existing Covent Garden site, however, offered definite room for improvement, with the store’s small existing servery counter, for example, necessitating people having to queue outside and stand aside each time someone came out. The interior colours were rather muted and the menus not clearly visible until you were inside, making the offer challenging for anyone previously unfamiliar with it.’
Old Chang Kee was originally established in Singapore in 1956 in the form of a humble stall, quickly becoming famous for its curry puffs – the Singaporean answer to the pasty, samosa or empanada. The stall attracted customers from far and wide, including many British people before the dissolution of the Crown colony in 1963. Expansion over the following decades saw the brand become a recognisable staple of Singaporean street life nationwide.
The brand’s UK outposts feature a grab-and-go concept with the aim of making authentic Singaporean street food accessible to customers in London and the UK. Its signature curry puffs – hot, buttery pastry with a spiced filling – have been lauded by eminent food critics including Giles Coren, Fay Maschler and Marina O’Loughlin. Also available on the menu are other classic Singaporean favourites, such as Nasi Lemak (coconut rice) and Laksa (rice noodles in a coconut curry broth).
The Phoenix Wharf team looked to the history and traditions of the Singaporean Shophouse in their design approach, where street food was served from ground floor premises with living quarters situated above – a set-up very much mirrored by the Covent Garden location.
The client brief was to create a more contemporary look for the outlet, moving away from the existing understated magnolia interior, decorated with lots of trinkets and wood, which had made the look and feel a little too obviously traditionally Singaporean. The Covent Garden location also has lots of local competition, with the road becoming a real foodie destination in recent years. The venue definitely needed to stand out more therefore, as well as to be easier for customers to access – and more efficient for the operator in terms of ordering and service fulfilment.
‘A clear balance needed to be struck between retaining Old Chang Kee’s brand essence and heritage and creating the desired more modern look and feel’ Emma Carter commented. ‘The bright yellow of the fascia is an established brand colour and had to stay, for example, although the tone needed to be punchier and make more of a statement, as the previous fascia had been too pale. We also introduced a blue secondary colour to the interior for the first time. This immediately adds a more contemporary note, as well as working well with the yellow. The blue has been used for the walls and features additionally in the menus and the counter-front tiling – as well as being extended to new, re-usable blue melamine crockery and chopsticks, which set off the food really well.’
Although the offer is mostly takeaway, there was also some demand for eating in, so the new layout needed to incorporate seating to meet that mission, whilst not encouraging too much dwell time, as the offer is predominantly grab-and-go there was no possibility of expansion of the very small space overall, which measures just 21.3 sqm in total. Window seating, plus two standalone tables for four were integrated, featuring loose wooden seating (re-using existing Singaporean stools), plus one new inset banquette in a teak veneer with a yellow seat pad. The banquette also has storage space incorporated beneath the seat. The new tables feature a laminate top in a rich oyster grey, which allows the food and coloured plates to stand out. Small inset planting adds a third colour into the scheme, as well as aiding acoustics and referencing the famously lush greenery of Singapore.
The previous hot food counter, located to the right as customers entered, has been replaced with a new 1.6m-counter directly opposite the entrance, with inset food tray display spaces for the curry puffs, so that people can see as they order, with a till point directly adjoining. The new counter top is a solid surface material, whilst the counter front has been clad in eye-catching and typically Singaporean Dragonera tiles, with the tiling continuing and wrapping round the right hand wall of the space.
A new gantry pelmet in plasterboard with curved timber detailing has been designed to sit above the counter, with the easily-legible menu now visible on three 50” inset illuminated digital screens. This is located well above head height and is clearly visible from the exterior. This particular store also has a step up to the entry, giving the new menu a further height advantage. The curved gantry-top detail – a shape repeated on the back wall – is a nod to the menu’s central item – the curry puff.
Storage was a big part of the new design story and the rear of the new menu and product signage – both on the rear wall and on the gantry – can be used to store items, taking takeaway packaging out of sight, for example, where it had previously been visible to customers. Behind the service counter is a new ground floor additional kitchen area (with the main food prep remaining on the lower-ground level) for sinks, hand-washing and further shelving. At the back of the public area is a condiment station with a tray drop and customer bin. A changeable poster space directly behind this also features as a concealed door to further hidden storage, making use of previously dead space above the stairs. A full-height fridge sits alongside this for customer drinks.
The rear wall of the space features new yellow tiling with a grey grout, wrapped around existing teak timber, which was too high quality to consider replacing. Further food story graphics are also integrated into this wall, along with the Old Chang Kee logo in black. A rear stair, which leads down to the lower ground kitchen area, has been discreetly sectioned off, as the occasional customer had been known to take the stair before, believing it to be a public access route.
Phoenix Wharf also had a graphic remit as part of the refurbishment, redesigning the menu and creating a new poster in a yellow frame for the right-side wall. Newly re-commissioned brand photography – featuring the new melamine serving bowls and plates – works well with the upgraded interior and graphic treatment.
‘After five years of successful trading, our Covent Garden location was in need of a redesign – both to make our grab-and-go offer more appealing, as well as to make operations a little slicker’ client Sandra Leong commented, adding that ‘this was a challenge given the tiny footprint of the site, but Phoenix Wharf were able to take a difficult brief and run with it. The new layout and design certainly have more stopping power than before and our team appreciates a better laid-out store that is operationally easier to maintain. Singaporean food and its accompanying aesthetic is also not well understood in the UK, but Phoenix Wharf put in the effort to research and understand this. I’m excited to use our new-look store as a blueprint for future locations.
“I didn’t enjoy butchering this magnificent creature, but you apparently need a wake-up call that even you should be able to understand.”
Grant Hadwin
Domicide is the act of destroying one’s own home. It can also be a tendency, carried out through the repetition of thousands of hidden actions, mostly out of sight and out of mind.
I’ve been wanting to write a post on this subject for a while, but have been holding back, waiting for a triggering moment. And last Wednesday that moment arrived when the Sycamore Gap came crashing into the cosy living room of our collective imagination.
The loss of a beautiful lone tree fuelled a predictable outcry. The media fuelled the outrage, baying for the punishment of some ‘degenerate youth’, before pivoting to turn with less outrage on a ‘crazy old man’, perhaps a ‘former lumberjack’.
What is it about one tree that causes us such outspoken agonies while the destruction of the wider world continues unabated with passive acceptance? Could this have something to do with the power of the totem, working as symbolic pressure valve to channel and dissipate our collective sense of grief and loss at the destruction of our home, releasing our outrage so we can return to business as usual?
When I heard the news, my first thought was not for the tree but for the person who had chopped it down. What could have been their motivation? For this must have been a carefully planned act, and so can’t be easily dismissed as some moment of ‘madness’. No, to me, this felt like a howl of pain, a wake-up call that I recognised immediately.
In 2007 I started a 7-year filmed investigation into the motivations of another ‘environmental terrorist’, who orchestrated another attack on an ancient tree in an apparently mindless ‘crime against nature’. But it was not that simple.
On the islands of Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago off Canada’s Pacific coast, stood a giant and genetically unique Sitka Spruce, known to the indigenous Haida people as ‘K’iid K’iyass’. Owing to the unusual yellow pigmentation of its needles, outsiders called it ‘The Golden Spruce’.
There it stood on the banks of the Yakoun River for 250 years, protected from the enveloping tide of industrial logging in its own protected reserve, complete with tourist trail and signage. Until one night in January 1997, when a lone former logger and timber engineer called Grant Hadwin arrived under the cover of darkness to cut it down.
For the Haida, ‘The Golden Spruce’ was much more than an object of scientific curiosity, a beautiful ‘freak’ of nature. For them this was a mythical being, a boy transformed into a tree, a sacred elder that stood as a wonderous manifestation of the connectedness of all things- a kin-centric belief system.
And Grant Hadwin, himself an instrument of the system of industrial extraction, had come to destroy it in a self-proclaimed act of protest. What kind of madness was this?
This is an extract from the letter that Grant wrote to the authorities justifying his actions:
“Dear Sir or Madam,
I don’t care much for ‘freaks’ whether they teach in University classrooms, sit in corporate board rooms, perform in the circus or are put on display as examples of old growth forest.
I mean this action to be an expression of my rage and hatred towards university trained professionals and their supporters whose ideas, ethics, denials, part truths and attitudes appear to be responsible for most of the abominations done towards life on this planet made in the name of ‘progress’.
I didn’t enjoy butchering this magnificent creature, but you apparently need a wake-up call that even you should be able to understand.
It was challenging to leave this majestic plant in a temporary vertical position.
The next storm will cause this one thousand year old plant to fall into or near The Yakoun River. Please find enclosed some of the last known photographs of ‘The Golden Spruce’.
Yours truly,
Grant Hadwin.”
And this was my film interpretation of the aftermath of what had happened.
What insight might this story give us into the mind of the individual who took down our cherished Sycamore?
And what does this particular choice of totem, the lone tree left standing in a sea of devastation, tell us about the timeless forces of corruption at work on humanity, and about our separation from the land, our natural home?
The Golden Spruce came with its own ancient mythology, with a story that began with the murderous arrival of the Europeans in 1774. The British came bearing ‘gifts’ of blankets laced with smallpox, hoping to wipe the indigenous people from the face of their land. 70% of the Haida population died in the enveloping plague, with lone survivors retreating into the sanctuary of the forest. Among them were a village elder and his grandson. As they fled the village, the boy ignored his grandfather’s advice not to look back, and found himself rooted to the ground, a boy transforming into a tree.
And there K’iid K’iyass stood for 250 years, one tree preserved by the logging company as a living cultural artefact, while the rest of the ancient forest was cut down and hauled to the mill, first as masts for ships of war, and then to build the frames of aircraft that brought death from the skies.
And the Sycamore Gap bears the same legacy. A lone tree, left in a sea of devastation, the land wiped clean by the civilising forces of Rome as far as the wall of Hadrian, built to keep out the savages who still lived from the land and who resisted agriculture, taxation and wage slavery. The wall was there to keep the money economy of Rome safe and sound until the empire burned under Nero, incinerated by the flames of its own self-serving corruption and arrogance.
#Storytelling #Filmmaking #Authenticity #Purpose #Meaning #FilmsToBelieveIn #DocumentaryFilmmaking #FilmProductionBristol #BristolFilmmakers #DocumentaryFilmmakerBristol
We are today announcing that after 13 years at Bristol Creative Industries, Chris Thurling is handing over the reins as chair.
Since joining the organisation in 2010, when we were called Bristol Media, Chris has been hugely instrumental in our growth and success. That includes our rebrand, building the membership, growing our visibility and launching the groundbreaking Bristol Creative Industries Internships Programme.
Taking over from Chris as co-chairs are AMBITIOUS co-founder Lis Anderson and former Aardman executive producer Heather Wright.
As Chris hands over the role, he speaks to Dan Martin about his time at the organisation, its greatest successes and the future of the creative industries in Bristol and beyond.
“In 2010 I was the founder and managing director of a digital web design agency called 3Sixty. I was approached by Paul Appleby who was running Bristol Media with Mike Bennett. Mike was stepping down to do other things and they were looking for someone to join the board who could represent the growing digital sector in Bristol. I thought it was interesting and I signed up.”
“Bristol Media was still new when I joined. It got going with some public funding, but that stopped in 2009 and the organisation moved to a membership model to fund it.
“One of the main things I’ve seen during my time is the membership model embedding itself and the organisation becoming fully self funded and not reliant on any public money or major sponsorship.
“It has survived through the membership fees which is a pretty good achievement for an organisation like BCI. That has given it credibility and autonomy. BCI exists because of its members and the only agenda is the members who support it, and not that of another organisation that is funding it.
“It has matured as an organisation to figure out what it does and what it doesn’t do. Back in the day it was pulled in lots of different directions. There were lots of people wanting Bristol Media to fit their agenda, but over time it has grown in confidence to focus on the things that it does well, not be unrealistic about what it can achieve and not be too thinly spread.”
“We had feedback that the term ‘media’ wasn’t really the collective noun that properly described the sector that we represent. Back in the early noughties, ‘media’ might have been the right word, but over time the term ‘creative industries’ gained traction and became the common parlance.
“It seemed sensible to align ourselves with the terminology that everyone was using, so it’s clear who we are and what we represent. That was one of the first things I decided we needed to do when I took over as chair. Looking back, it has been successful.”
“It is an achievement that the organisation has been financially stable and self-sustaining, even during the pandemic. That has enabled us to continue to serve members and grow the BCI team.
“Another big achievement is the new BCI board, which we appointed following the rebrand in 2021. Our focus was to have a new team of directors to help us Bristol’s creative industry in nurturing and attracting talent, connecting and growing their businesses.
“We recognised the need for our board to better reflect the diversity of talent in the city. We need individuals who can bring different perspectives and experiences and help us widen our reach across the region. An example of that is Bristol designer Marissa Lewis-Peart who we appointed to the board. In 2019, Marissa won the Ben Martin Apprentice Award in collaboration with Bristol Creative Industries.
“We introduced a new always on event schedule led by Sian Pitman, the new full time events manager we employed last year. Rather than the main focus being on the two day Vision conference that we used to run, the events are now spread out across every month in the year. This means there is something for everyone in terms of topics and price range, with some free options for people to access, particularly if they’re members.
“That has been a big success and it has made BCI a lot more visible, because there’s always something happening.
“We also introduced new formats which are tied into our mission of connecting people. These include the member lunches and Walk and Talk events. They are good ways for members to connect with each other, easy to access and something no-one else is really doing for our community.
“The social media activity, newsletter and content has been transformed in the last few years. We produce a lot of really helpful and useful content for our members.
“Finally, the Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme is the activity I’m most proud of.
“It started with the SXSW Apprentice and Ben Martin Apprentice Award, before evolving into the scheme that is running today.
“It will continue to grow and if BCI has been in any way instrumental in transforming the lives of young people who wouldn’t have had the opportunity without us, then that has got to be the biggest success.
“On diversity, so many organisations talk a good game, send all the right tweets and have all the right badges on their website, but to actually shift the dial, you need to invest proper resources and get expertise behind it.
“We’ve had rhetorical commitment for years, but BCI is now putting its money where its mouth by setting up the programme led by the full-time programme manager, Clare Leczycki.
“BCI is showing leadership in the community, which only an organisation like BCI can do because we are not commercial or competing with anyone else. We’re there to serve the interests of the membership.”
“Lis and Heather’s new roles as co-chairs marks an exciting new chapter for BCI. Having both served on the board and run successful creative businesses, they are experienced hands and well equipped to build on the successes that BCI has achieved to date. They have been key to the internships programme, getting insights on members’ key challenges and connecting them to available funding.
“BCI can continue to take a leadership role in the development and attracting of young talent into the industry in the longer term, making sure there’s a pipeline of fantastic people wanting to come into the industry in Bristol and opening it up to people from all backgrounds and the places that historically haven’t had a look in.
“BCI can also help our industry build firmer commercial organisations. A lot of creative companies are quite hand to mouth and not necessarily great at realising the value of the amazing work that they do because often they are businesses set up by creative rather than commercial people. As times get tougher, creative businesses need more sustainable business models, and not just charging by the hour but finding a way to charge more by the value that they deliver.
“Connected to that is access to finance and financial advice which small businesses often don’t have internally. A collective organisation like BCI can pool organisations together to help.
“The UK does still have a reputation internationally for the creative industries, and as the UK market gets more challenging and competitive, our industry needs to look beyond these shores for opportunities for growth.
“Finally, we need to guard against complacency and any inertia that we have in thinking that Bristol’s an incredibly successful city and we can roll along and it’s all going to take care of itself.
“We need to understand that there are a lot of other cities hungry to eat your lunch. We’re in a good place, but we can’t assume we will be in 20 or 30 years time. We need to make sure that what happened to the first generation of industries in the UK doesn’t happen to the current generation through complacency and taking things for granted. That’s where an organisation like BCI can take a leadership role in pushing innovation.”
“Consistency of messages is important. The government blows hot and cold on the creative industries. Sometimes they get mixed up in the ‘culture wars’ and think that’s it not a real and important sector.
“In schools, it’s all about science, technology, education, engineering and maths, but the arts subjects are struggling and not getting the support that they need both financially and rhetorically from the government. There’s a sense that they’re not seen as real and proper subjects.
“The government needs to buy into the fact that the creative industries is one of the UK’s strongest advantages in the world and we need to be championing and banging the drum from the top down.
“I think that the government needs to find a way to undo the damaging effects of Brexit on our sector. It has had a huge supply of talent cut off by the ending of freedom of movement, which many BCI members used to find incredibly valuable.
“Schools need to be better connected with the creative industries and it needs to happen at an earlier stage with younger children. As a school governor myself, I think that the employability side of schools is still out of date. The kind of jobs that they know about and the kind of connections that schools have with industry is pretty old fashioned. There’s an ignorance of the myriad of jobs in the creative industries that people can do.”
“If you’re a supporter of the Bristol region and the creative ecosystem, joining Bristol Creative Industries is doing your bit.
“Check out what is available from BCI. The membership offers huge value for money. There’s lots you can get out of it including jobs advertising, coming to events, publishing your content on the website, and participating in the social media activity and using it to raise your profile.
“You will definitely meet great people. There are lots of fantastic people who are part of the network. You never know how they might be able to help you and your business.
“If people stop supporting BCI, it will go. If it didn’t exist, people would want to invent it. It’s a valuable thing that has taken the best part of two decades to build. It’s a fantastic asset for the city and the region. BCI is part of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up what’s good about the region.
“Alli Nicholas, who has been at BCI for 10 years, is the go-to person for all things membership so do speak to her if you have any questions.”
Both the prevalence and effectiveness of video marketing have been on the rise since 2015. According to Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey 2023– 92% of marketers reported a positive ROI from video content.
So creating videos that are consistent with your brand and look professional is very important for marketers. But, without your own in-house production team, this can prove challenging – and expensive.
Usually businesses choose to outsource video editing – bringing in the big guns (like the P+S Video and Motion Graphics team) to craft something on-brief and on-budget, before smashing it into the stratosphere.
However, we understand that sometimes you just want to do it yourself, whether it’s a quick interview-style vid, a vlog, or a simple success story. So, how do you make it look consistent with the rest of your brand, without breaking the bank?
Fully customised to your brand (or sub-brand) specification, our Video Toolkits are the easiest way to produce brilliant content on a tight deadline or budget. Not only will your content look great, but you’ll also significantly reduce the cost of producing further content.
The toolkit includes a variety of custom-made assets, each designed to suit the type of content you’re producing. So whether it’s interviews, self-shot ‘talking to camera’ vids, or even event and webinar footage, you can use the toolkit with minimal knowledge of Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro to insert and customise your brand elements.
But it’s probably better to show than tell, right?
In the following short videos, we’ve broken down the elements that can be included in the toolkit package. This example was produced for Thrio – one of our fantastic clients – using their brand colours, fonts and adhering to their motion guidelines.
Not all of the assets featured may be required in your toolkit, and equally this isn’t the extent of what we can produce for you – it’s all dependent on the style/purpose of video content you’re likely to need in the future. We’ll make something bespoke and fit for purpose.
Logo sting for intro and transition
Custom-made animation of your logo for the start of your video.
Watch video here.
Lower-third caption
An easily updated lower-third caption that can feature speaker name, job title and company name.
Watch video here.
Divider screen title
Custom-made title slide animation with easily editable text and optional imagery.
Watch video 1 here.
Watch video 2 here.
Subtitles
Perfectly legible subtitles in your brand font, ready for editing. You’ll also notice the ‘bug’ in the top right of this example – a semi-transparent logo overlay that features in the top corner of your video.
Watch the video here.
Quote screen
Have a question, quote or fact worth highlighting? Showing it on screen will really anchor it in the viewer’s mind.
Watch the video here.
Social links
A custom scene for just before the end of the video that features your social handles for quick reference.
Watch the video here.
Transition and logo sting outro
Custom-made animation of your logo to feature at the end of your video.
Watch the video here.
So, how does this all look together? Here are a few example toolkits for you to check out:
Watch video 1 here.
Watch video 2 here.
Whatever story you want to tell, we’ll help you share it with the world, on-brand and within budget. Talk to Proctors today.
Mentor Digital has successfully completed a major contract to design and develop a cutting-edge CMS and website to effectively assist NGA’s vast community of 75,000 members. This comprehensive project encompasses a fresh information architecture and website design, accompanied by enhanced user experience (UX) and optimised user journeys throughout the site.
The primary objective was to ensure an exceptional experience for members throughout the site as well as encouraging membership renewal and the utilisation of the wide array of excellent services provided by NGA.
The website was designed by Mentor’s award-winning creative team, and includes immaculate attention to detail throughout the site, incorporating micro-animations and a seamless user experience. The site includes a complex tagging, search and filtering system which is all powered by the CMS (Umbraco V10).
In addition to developing the new website, Mentor Digital completely re-branded NGA, including a new logo, brand guidelines, and on and offline materials, all whilst creating a visual identity that effectively embodies their distinctive approach. To gain valuable insights, Mentor conducted a series of interviews with key members of NGA, as well as the board members, to gauge their perspectives on the existing branding and the envisioned direction.
Additionally, Mentor organised workshops with the project team, to assess their current standing and identify their desired future positioning. These collaborative sessions served as the foundation for generating multiple concepts to further evolve the new brand.
Click here to view a case study on the NGA re-brand.
Collaborating closely with NGA, Mentor Digital facilitated the commissioning of copywriting services to enhance the communication of their core brand and services. NGA were presented with a range of options for descriptors, statements, and straplines for the main NGA brand to aid the launch of a more confident brand positioning.
If your organisation is looking for a digital agency to work on a new or existing project, you get in touch with the team at Mentor Digital, who would love to hear about your plans.
To see more of Mentor Digital’s case studies, you can visit the website here.
To find out more about Mentor Digital’s web design and development work for Membership Organisations, click here.
We’re excited to share that we will be supporting Caring in Bristol, as part of Studio Every‘s pledge of two weeks to two charities this year.
Caring in Bristol work in imaginative and creative ways with people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, with the public and community partners to bring about lasting change in Bristol and beyond.
We will be working with Caring in Bristol to explore ways that they can expand their corporate partnerships to create even more sustainable income for the future.
We look forward to contributing to the future strategy of this incredible charity, to help prevent homelessness.
Q: What do the geographically and culturally diverse locations of Ormskirk, London, Aberystwyth, Folkestone, and Cambridge have in common?
A: they are all locations where Ralph provided Graphic Recording, on Paper, with Pens this summer!
Why the change in style? Well, actually I haven’t changed tack!
Indeed, I’m as busy as ever producing Live illustration on iPad and Visual Story Telling and Information Graphics digitally.
Rather, drawing on my graphic wall (display boards) with pens and paper is a development of my services to meet the demand for visual sense-making and engagement, in person.
Through creating large-scale visual records in real-time (my boards can take up half a room!) I have become the catalyst for bringing back that dynamic element of brand theatre and human touch to your events, conferences, and meetings that got so lost in virtual and hybrid delivery modes.
How have your organisation’s outcomes, goals, priorities, and vision changed in a world defined by greater volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity?
Whether through pens or stylus, as collective reflection, sense-making, and summary, Graphic Recording is at its core a deep listening service.
Its power is that it allows for both different voices and the whole to emerge, with the ability to shape how the conversation changes and unfolds.
As an enquiry tool it both documents and harvests this exploration, providing a visual roadmap of the way forwards.
My Graphic Recording reignites creativity at events, supercharging the moment with that spark of curiosity that creates surprise, builds expectation, and brings engagement.
And, judging by the number of photos that people take on their phones of my work to share online, they also continue to value how it provides impact for remembering key moments and reflecting on what has taken place. Indeed, clients takeaway my paper artwork roll as both an in-house reference tool to drive change and as an office wall display product.
This demand for analogue Graphic Recording further proves how deeper-level thinking can be activated through my injection of big, bold, and colourful artwork in the room. By visually grabbing people’s attention it enables creative thinking and change to flourish.
As we look ahead to the next business quarter of the year how will you make visual communication an integral part of your event to open hearts and move minds to bring the transformation you need in your workplace?
Ralph Mann, Purple Heron Communications. August 2023
The creative industries are a vital component of the local economy and here at Bristol Creative Industries, we encourage young people to look to the sector for a rewarding and inspiring career. As modern technologies like gaming, VR and AI continue to develop, we need a new generation to take the jobs of the future that the Bristol and Bath economy needs if it is to thrive.
See below for our updated guide to creative industries-related further and higher education in Bristol and Bath.
If you’re an employer or education providers, scroll to the end of the article to find out how to get involved in the Bristol Creative Industries Talent Programme, which is focused on boosting workforce diversity in creative businesses and helping to grow the talent pipeline.
A selection of the creative post-16 courses offered by sixth form departments at Bristol schools and academies:
Among the A-levels at Bath Academy are art and media studies.
A-levels on offer at this Bath sixth form for boys include creative design and music.
Bristol Cathedral Choir School
Founded in 1140 as part of what was then Bristol Abbey, Bristol Cathedral Choir School is one of the city’s most popular sixth forms. Among the A-levels offered by the school are art, drama and music.
The sixth form at Bristol Grammar School offers creative IB Diploma and A-level courses including art, dance, drama and theatre studies, design technology, music and music technology.
The IB Diploma is an alternative to A-levels which the school describes as “offering breadth of learning as well as academic rigour”.
Opened in 2016, Bristol Free School offers A-levels alongside selected BTEC Level 3 courses. Creative courses include art, drama and theatre, music and music technology and photography.
Cabot Learning Federation Post 16
The Cabot Learning Federation Post 16 is an independent provision located in two of CLF’s 20 secondary academies; Bristol Brunel and John Cabot. Among the A-levels on offer are art and design, dance, music and photography.
The sixth form at this school offers A-levels in subjects including art and photography, drama and theatre studies and music.
The sixth form at this school offers A-levels including art, design and technology and drama and theatre.
The North Bristol Post 16 Centre is a collaboration between Cotham and Redland Green Schools. Creative A-levels include art, photography, film studies, and media studies.
St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School
Located near Bristol Temple Meads, creative A-levels offered by this school are art, film studies, media studies, music, music technology and theatre studies.
Providing education to 10,000 learners across two campuses, Bath College offers a wide range of courses including post-16, apprenticeships, part-time courses, traineeships and degree-level education.
Subjects include art and design, fashion and textiles, fashion business and retail, photography, graphic design, digital production, performing arts and music technology.
As one of the South West’s largest further and higher education colleges, City of Bristol College operates from seven centres across the city. It offers a range of post-16 qualifications including A-levels, Level 2 Diplomas and BTEC Nationals.
For school leavers, several courses relevant to the creative industries are on offer. They include specialist subjects include visual arts and design, photography, fashion, performing arts and creative digital technologies (film and TV production, games design, computer graphics and animation).
The college also offers university-level creative arts and media courses in subjects including film and media production, graphic design and photography.
Facilities for students include fashion studios, film suites and a dark room.
Abbeywood Community Schools is part of Olympus Post 16 with Bradley Stoke Community School and Winterbourne Academy.
Courses include art, design and technology, digital media, drama and theatre studies, film studies, music performance, music technology, photography and textiles.
Digitech delivers a specialised curriculum for progression into the creative digital and high tech sectors. Studio schools are small by design and only take 90 students into each year group. The school opened in 2015 and moved into a new purpose-built building in Warmley in November 2016.
For years 12 and 13, Digitech offers courses in partnership with boomsatsuma (see below), Bristol School of Acting and Robins Foundation. They include digital media, e-sports, film and television, games, VR and VFX, music, photography, acting and sports media production.
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College
This college has six campuses including the Bristol School of Art located at Bristol Creative Industries member Royal West of England Academy.
The college has a very extensive programme of Level 2 and 3 courses including computer games design, film and TV production, music technology and technical theatre.
At university level, the college offers a range of subjects as foundation degrees, many of which also offer the opportunity to top up to a full Bachelor’s degree by adding a year. Creative courses include game art and production, media production and computer games design and production.
Since September 2022, the college has offered the new vocational skills focused T-levels. The two-year technical courses are equivalent to three A-Levels and include a 45-day work placement. Courses include games design, digital production and design and development.
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College
This college provides a diverse range of over 60 different A-level and Level 3 Applied General courses to 16 – 18 year olds. Courses include media studies, music, music performance, music technology, textile design and graphic communication.
Boasting ex-students including Ed Sheeran, Jess Glynne, Rita Ora and JP Cooper, Bristol Creative Industries member Access Creative College is a national college for young people looking for a career in the creative industries. It offers courses at various levels in subjects including games, animation and video effects, graphic and digital design, film, software development, video and photography and music technology.
In summer 2021, Access Creative College opened a new £5m games and media campus in Bristol city centre. It’s on the site of the former Bristol Bierkeller, host to Nirvana’s first ever UK gig, Slipknot, The Stone Roses and Arctic Monkeys. Facilities include a games lab, green screen studio, music tech suites, digital recording studio and band rehearsal studio.
Access runs degree courses in Bristol covering audio and music technology and music performance at dBS Institute, which it acquired in 2021.
The college has also teamed up with Condense and LocalGlobe to offer Bristol students a fully funded Metaverse Development Scholarship.
Bristol Creative Industries member boomsatsuma is a specialist creative industries training provider. Courses take place in relevant professional environments in the city such as Leadworks, Ashton Gate Stadium, Bottle Yard Studios and Tobacco Factory.
boomsatsuma provides Level 3 Extended Diplomas, that are equivalent to 3 A-levels, as well as BA (Hons) and BSC (Hons) degrees. Courses include creative and digital media, film and television, games, VR and VFX and photography and game art.
As a registered charity, Creative Youth Network supports young people to reach their potential and enjoy fulfilling lives. It offers free courses in youth clubs and other venues in Bristol. Subjects include music, photography and song writing.
Creative Youth Network has opened The Courts in central Bristol. It is an enterprise hub, located in Bristol’s Old Magistrates’ Courts, where young people can explore their creative potential, receive support, access mentoring, and find meaningful work.
dBs Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies
Based in the centre of Bristol, dBs is a specialist educational institute that offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in music production, sound engineering, live sound, and game development.
It is a registered Avid Learning Partner (ALP) and Ableton Certified Training Centre that works with a wide range of creative industry organisations.
Students at dBs Institute can gain real-world experience alongside their studies thanks to dBs Pro, an in-house creative audio company. Students provide sound and music for film, television, video games, art installations and more.
University of the West of England
UWE’s School of Arts offers courses in subjects including drama, filmmaking, animation, photography, media production, journalism, creative and professional writing, film studies and media communications. There are also several fashion and design courses.
Facilities include film, photography and animation studios as well as drama, acting and music facilities.
Many graduates also enter the creatives industries after studying marketing courses at the UWE Business School. It includes the MSc in digital marketing which has a module on using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premier Pro as well as the psychology underpinning related creative techniques.
UoB offers undergraduate degrees in film and television, music and theatre. Facilities include Wickham Theatre, a 24-hour rehearsal space, sound and design studios, carpentry and costume workshops, 214-seat cinema, 39-seat screening room, digital filmmaking equipment, production studios, animation and edit suites and sound rooms.
The University of Bath does not have specific creative industries courses as it focuses on engineering, humanities, management, science, and social science. However, its degree courses include management with marketing featuring a work placement.
Bath Spa offers courses in subjects including film, design, media communications, art and drama. Facilities include a theatre and TV studios.
The university also has the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCCI) which “aims to magnify research, engagement and discourse surrounding the theoretical, practical and commercial frameworks that embody the arts, media, or creative industries”.
Bristol Creative Industries jobs board
Members of Bristol Creative Industries sometimes post apprenticeship opportunities on the BCI jobs board. See the latest vacancies here.
Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme, in partnership with Babbasa and Bristol-based creative agencies, provides placements to young people from underrerepresented groups with a mix of professional skills training, creative skills training, inspirational talks, networking events, mentoring and opportunities for future employment.
The 2024 programme is currently in progress. If you’re interested in getting involved in the 2025 programme, please email [email protected] for more information.
National College Creative Industries
The National College Creative Industries (NCCI) offers specialist technical production and business support apprenticeships via Access Creative College. You can find the latest details on the NCCI website.
Broadcaster and Bristol Creative Industries member Channel 4, which has a Bristol office, offers apprenticeships. Find out more.
The BBC offers various TV production apprenticeship schemes, some of which are based in Bristol. See the latest opportunities here.
Government apprenticeships website
Creative and design and digital apprenticeships are regularly listed on the government’s apprenticeships website. Search here.
UCAS has a guide to creative and design apprenticeships here including a directory of relevant employers.
This list is not exhaustive. Email Dan with suggestions of other educational institutions and companies we can add.
A key focus at Bristol Creative Industries is boosting workforce diversity in creative businesses and helping to grow the talent pipeline for our members.
As well as our groundbreaking Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme with social enterprise Babbasa and Bristol-based agencies, we provide opportunities for members such as our recent partnership with The Early Careers Foundation which allowed them to become a mentor and support a young person in building their confidence, developing their employability skills and offering invaluable professional guidance.
We have also committed to an annual programme of round tables with key post 16 education providers in the region including colleges, academies and universities.
Our aim is to promote creative careers to staff and career advisers, drive applications to our internship programme and explore how we can promote the creative industries to students already studying.
By joining the Bristol Creative Industries Talent Programme as a partner, you’ll help to fund all of our activities that support underrepresented groups entering the creative industries. Your support is vital to ensure we have a healthy and diverse talent pipeline.
For more details, contact Alli Nicholas, BCI membership and operations manager, at [email protected], or Lis Anderson, BCI co-chair, at [email protected]
Savvy art buyers get the chance to snap up bargain artworks and join in the fun as the RWA’s Secret Postcard Auction returns.
Following the huge success of the 2022 Secret Postcard Auction, the event will run online from 28 October to 9 November, with a physical display of the artworks on show at the RWA from 4-9 November.
An unmissable event in the RWA annual calendar, and a major fundraiser for us as an independent charity, the Secret Postcard Auction offers you the opportunity to make the winning bid on original artworks by famous, or soon-to-be-famous, artists!
As the name suggests, all the artworks are postcard size – albeit a large postcard, at approximately 14 x 19cm cm (5½” x 7½”). The postcards can be viewed, and bids can be placed on our 32 Auction site. It’s great fun and bidding can get fierce but there’s plenty of opportunity to grab a wonderful original work of art for as little as £40!
This year, as well as being online, you’ll have the opportunity to get a closer look at the postcards while they’re on display in the Youngwood Room at the RWA from 4 – 9 November.
Last year’s postcards included works by Sir Frank Bowling RA, Eileen Cooper RA, Maggie Hambling, David Remfry RA to name just a few. This year’s entries have started to roll in and we can already confirm contributions from Jeremy Deller, Anne Desmet RA, Simon Drew, Gilbert and George RA, Kurt Jackson RWA, Andrew Lanyon, Sir Richard Long RA RWA, Mali Morris RA, Cathie Pilkington RA and Bob & Roberta Smith RA, with many more to be revealed.
All of the contributing artists are named, but the identity of who did which artwork is anonymous until the auction has closed.
Bidding opens for the public on 28 October and will close at 10pm on 9 November 2023.
Since its re-opening last year, the RWA has welcomed more visitors to its building than at any time in its history and brought life-enhancing creativity to people who’ve never had that opportunity before, but we can only continue to do this with your help.
As an independent charity with less than 1% of costs covered from the public purse each year, we rely on our fundraising efforts to keep the doors open and run our outreach programme, engaging people in some of Bristol’s most under-represented communities. The money raised by the Secret Postcard Auction is a vital contributor to our finances. Last year we were blown away by the support, as donations reached over £70,000, while bidders still walked away with incredible bargains.
Keep an eye on the RWA website for details, and GOOD LUCK with your bidding!
secretpostcard.org.uk