Your doughnuts are shite!!

As normal I find the classic line that will follow me i am sure.

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Crunch time!

Well what can I say, its countdown time. 

I have loved the ride, enjoy it even more if I succeed and become one of the faces for Entrepreneurship for  Sunderland. 

I think its only right that the face of Surreal however should be the Surreal Team. I love the image we generated for some PR recently. It can be disturbing as it looks so human but is not. Perfect for Surreal as we are all about What Do You See!

Fingers crossed and hopefully if we succeed the image will be a lot different in 12 months due to growth in the business.

Many thanks and keep voting

Ian 

Sunny Mondays = Happy Mondays!

Phew what a scorcher!!

How nice a weekend and hopefully it will be all smiles in the office today as the weather so effects the mood in office.

We had a really good planning meeting on Friday where I took all the staff to the Hotel Du Vin for a meeting and food. Shut the office at 3 and we stayed until 8. I then went home, the team stayed out till 3am, think I made the right choice!

Came up with some great ideas re business planning, costing and maximising margins which is so important these days. One of the suggestions from the team was 'Happy Mondays' the idea we have a meeting at 9am with tea and some kind of food an discuss everybody's weekends. The idea to get everybody into the mood before the work starts. 

Work wise, various stuff on the go at the moment and working on a marketing document that one of our clients wants to use to present us in partnership with its clients to help them maximise their potential. Its a win win as our client gets a kick back from all sales generated, they introduce we do the work. Simples!!

Just in an image from a sail we have been getting produced. The hair product company HERB UK has offered sponsorship of their sail FOC. Looking good and lets hope the Isle of Wight yacht race is a big success.

Ian

Back in the North East

To those who might be interested, sorry I have not been updating my blog. I had a very relaxing weekend and enjoyed the weather and a spot of gardening. I have the scratches and bruises to prove it.

I have also been in London for the last couple of days and struggled to get connectivity for laptop. I refuse to pay £18 for 24 internet access in my Hilton hotel. I think this is a total rip off and one of the reasons I prefer to use independent or smaller chains as they normally offer free Wi-Fi.

I was in London on business, meeting up with both Nike and Trevor Sorbie who we currently have projects on the go with.

As always, Trevor likes to go out for a few drinks so enjoyed a couple of cheeky ones in Harvey Nics 5th floor bar (he payed). Also got to see the new development in Knightsbridge that is nearing completion. The top floor apartments are selling for £100 million. How scary is that!!

Sitting at my desk now doing a lot of planning for the next development in the business. Interesting times, some great opportunities for growth as one of our blue chip client has asked us to look at a project that would take us up to 2011 with a six figure budget.

Well that's it, and thank you for voting for me in advance. If you have not placed your vote then get your finger out and help me become champion for 2009.

Regards

Ian

Late night

Had a great day at the Inspire conference yesterday. Thought Martin Lightbody and Matthew Riley were both, as the conference said - Inspiring!

Also had a good night. Maybe too good, as a little bit tired today and think I must have had cheese and crackers when I got in at 1.30.......

I say 'think', as I can't remember just what was on the kitchen bench this morning.

Was nice to meet up with the other finalists and see the diversity of businesses we all come from.

Blog short today as not to much energy and need fish and chips. Sure you all know that feeling.

Have a great weekend.

Ian

NHS Press Launch of My New Hair

Well the day has finally arrived. After 12 months of going through a tender process, the contract for the Northern Cancer Network to go live, with an Equality of Service delivered through the My New Hair network of salons, is in place.

An amazing achievement as nobody thought it possible to get this in place.

We like to think this is the famous five (we have 2 of the gang missing) who are driving the charity throughout the UK. Darren Stuart (Tribeca Hair), Ann Fox (Nurse Director for Northern Cancer Network), Trevor Sorbie MBE, Hilary Blackburn (My New Hair) and yours truly.

I know this has nothing to do with work, only that by being my own boss I can choose to support and spend as much time as I like to help launch this fantastic charity. Watch out, this is going to be big news soon and, lets be honest, we are all touched by the 'cancer' word with somebody we know or have known.

Work front... Another busy day with Derwentside Homes coming in today after being commissioned to deliver their Communication Strategy and the 'YouTalkTo' project.

We also had Gentoo in today filming for their company video about how the Communication Team works with creatives.... that's us!!

Looking forward to the main event tomorrow and have a nice new shirt ready for the days events.

Signing off until Friday

Ian

Surreal with Trevor Sorbie's My New Hair

Another good day today. Just had news from FHM (construction, not the magazine) that a brand we have been developing for one of their clients has been approved. So, all systems go as the site is currently under construction.

I have attached a couple of images of My New Hair. The charity is getting publicity in the region via the NHS in the North East. Trevor is again visiting us (he is becoming a big fan of the area) tomorrow to show his support. The tender process has now been benchmarked for launch across the UK.

The photo was taken when we handed over a cheque about 3 weeks ago for £6000 to develop the MNH website. I am one of a team of cyclists who raise cash peddling stupid amounts of miles to help cancer charities under the banner of The Tracy Crawford Foundation, named after our good friend, Tracy Crawford, who died of Leukemia. To date we have raised in excess of £10,0000.

My New Hair and you will see why we are developing a new website.

Cycle Ride For Life to see our fund raising efforts and some very dodgy photos.

I know this is not strictly a work orientated blog but thought it might let you see me as a more than just a business, which is exactly what Surreal is all about.

See ya

Week 1 Monday Lunchtime

I class last week as the prelim round and a bit of an introduction so lets get this blog moving:

This week is going to be an exciting one for the Surreal team. We are getting prepared for a number of important meetings, launches and general design stuff.

We are getting a visit today from one of our key clients, Gentoo. They are bringing around 20 focus group people to see how the design process works. We need to show them how we get to the end results on projects we work on for the Group. These focus groups are key in the development of Gentoo's direction in the future.

Surreal Creative are also the driving force behind Trevor Sorbie's new charity, My New Hair, and we have Trevor in the North East for a press launch on Wednesday. This is going to be a big media event as the North East is again at the forefront of changing how the NHS procure wigs, particularly for women loosing there hair through cancer. More about that later in the week.

Oh, and we are finalising the visuals over the next 6 months for the launch of the new Acadamy 360 in Sunderland (Formerly Pennywell School).

Just to keep things right...

...I am actually 46 not 36 as stated in the Echo. Most people would be ok with this, but to me it's not worth the grief I have had from family and friends.

I am also Sunderland born and bred. It's the business which is based in Houghton/Rainton Bridge. I was born in Millfield then lived in Fulwell till 2001. Currently, I live in West Herrington. Love both the pubs on my doorstep and walks round Herrington Park.

Over the coming weeks I will keep this blog updated with anything that has influenced both past and present. Also anything else that i think might interest you. Adiós.

Friday. Yeh!

Heading home now after a good week. We had Rebecca, a work experience student, with us this week who also brought us lots of biscuits and chocolate today, so happy days.

Rebecca definitely has the right attitude to make it in design so good luck to her.

Well, off to look after two of my nieces for the weekend and will love it.

I will be sending out the support messages next week so get ready.

Enjoy the weekend anybody who might be interested!

Busy Busy Busy

I will aim to update this at least twice a day depending on where I am.

Still buzzing after being shortlisted and had some great messages of support. I also have a lot of stick through the Sunderland Echo getting my age wrong and making me 10 years younger!!

Anyway looking forward to the voting and may the battle commence ;-)

Ian

Academy 360, Sunderland

The new Academy 360 building is coming along well and is looking fantastic. It's going to be an interesting place to study purely for the architecture, let alone the personal aspects that are planned. The mix of shapes and materials lends the whole place an inspiring ambiance.

The Academy is an amalgamation of Pennywell and Quarry View schools and is making huge steps towards a new way of 'teaching'. It will take conventional methods and make them a more 2-way, interactive experience which develops not only what is being learned, but also the communication skills of both student and teacher alike.

It's a huge task to undertake which has been well grasped by all involved. Especially when you consider that the current school year can not be stopped. All the development has had to take place concurrently.

We are proud to be part of this project, providing all printed matter from leaflets, signage and prospectus to multimedia applications and website.

The surreal face of Surreal Creative

This is us. How do we look?

Entrepreneur of the Year

It's been going on for a little while now, but things are heating up. Whatever, next? We shall see.

I'm really please to see that ifwecanyoucan.co.uk are embracing the digital age by introducing this blogging idea. It's a fantastic way to quickly and easily keep up-to-date with goings on in a more accessible and friendly way.

I'll be doing my bit to make this as interesting as possible, so check back regularly for updates.

Also, check out our twitter feed in the side bar for all the latest tweets from our Surreal world.

Ian @ Surreal