2010 has kicked off well for Spring – with the usual post-recession changes and some wonderful new clients working with us.

Last week we waved goodbye to the creative duo Chris and James, who are doing their own thing in their home town. We wish them luck. Their announcement precepitated a national recruitment campaign and we are delighted to welcome Rebecca Monks to Southwold from west London. Her fiancé currently works for Heston in Bray and their relocation to Southwold from the smoke will see his skills much in demand.

What we love about Bex is her talent (from a first class honours graphic design degree she has developed a great career with clients who include Tag Heuer, Toni & Guy and Nokia), her cool calm collected persona (which we suspect hides a wicked sense of humour) and her total pragmatism about the experience of clients not quite thinking something’s right, but not quite knowing why. She’s excited about working with our design team and we think she’ll be a real breath of fresh air in the studio.

We’re busy interviewing copywriters but in the meantime have three great freelancers who between them are producing some stunning work – everything from brand names and straplines, to campaign concepts, to web optimisation copy and technical information. None of them are new to us, they’d been supporting Chris with his work when the quantities built up, so it’s been exciting to give them all more to get their teeth into.

We have also been joined by designer George Bennett, a Southwold boy (our first real local) and son of architect John Bennett, who brings a winning combination of dreadful music and great talent to the gothpod.

Our PR offering was cemented as a three strong team when Georgina Wroe joined us full time as head of the department. She brings with her clients including Jimmy’s Farm and James White drink – very Spring-like clients and we are delighted to be able to formalise our PR offering, primarily working to get regional companies a strong national profile.

After a relatively quiet 2009, the new year saw us land an exciting new client in the shape of Bollinger, who have appointed us as their digital marketing agency for 2010. Our activities see us supporting their well-established events sponsorship programme, involving us with RFU Twickenham, the Golf Open, The Everyman Wodehouse Prize, the ENO and Royal Ascot, as well as Bollinger’s highly prized racing series.

Regionally, businesses have been shaking themselves down after the year before and some have turned to Spring to help them launch new projects and develop existing business. Mark Harrod and Southwold Pier both appointed us in January – the former to project him to the forefront of his market, the latter to launch their new hotel (the only one of its kind in Europe.)

At the same time we put the University College Suffolk prospectus – a  beast of a job with many hundreds of pages – and Visit Suffok’s ‘Great Days Out’ brochure to bed, two great projects that really made the most of our studio’s core graphic design activity. And ‘Best of Suffolk’, a new holiday lettings company that’s really breaking the mold with modern funky properties in our most beautiful coastal resorts, said of their Spring-produced brochure “We’re really delighted”.

Issue 2 of Yachtbuilder International – the only digital magazine in its field, designed, loaded and launched by Spring – was issued in late February, and Issue 3 is just about to start.

Nearing completion are a brand relaunch for Durrants, the Suffolk and Norfolk agents and auctioneers; a magazine-style website for the Suffolk Coast and a new eCommerce website and blog for the upmarket drinks brand Belvoir Cordials.

We continue to produce advertising for companies in the housing sector including Flagship and Anderson, and are delighted to report a gradual upturn in the market.

In late 2009 we submitted our details to the Recommended Agency Register, and waited with some trepidation to see what our clients thought of us. With an advocacy rating of an incredible 98% we were delighted with the results. Comments included: “We have worked with Spring for a while now and every time we have a new campaign I can’t wait to see what they will come up with! The whole team at Spring are hugely creative, fun to work with and produce the very best quality of work. It is a pleasure to work with them.”

We predict that 2010 will be a great year, for our clients and for us. There are plenty of prospects afoot – but we remain firm to our ethics and our raison d’etre, to help our clients achieve – and exceed – their goals.

Blog Post written by Erika Clegg

Sophie’s Hot Squash was always going to be a tough soup to beat, and so when Aprille expressed doubt as to whether hers contained The Magic, you could smell fear wafting above the aroma of red peppers and sweet potatoes.

“I wish I’d have put another red pepper in it,” Aprille said.

Sophie was visibility delighted. The first contender to her domestic throne (is that just a chair?) had turned out to be just a pretender.

“But at least I didn’t just copy a recipe,” Aprille added. A blatant jibe about Sophie’s use of a Jamie original. We told you this was going to get competitive.

The studio fell silent. Sophie had been shot down at Aprille’s OK Soup But Could Do With A Bit More Seasoning Corral.

You could cut the tension with the bread knife that James was holding.

“Good consistency,” I said, diffusing the situation by being vague. I’ve no idea what is or isn’t a good consistency when it comes to soup.

And then we all agreed that we actually rather liked Aprille’s soup. It was honest, homemade food. Good without being great. And we like her gung-ho, ‘anything in the cupboard’ approach to cooking. So we called it Jazz Soup. And it was good.

So a victory, albeit a small one, for Aprille.

Blog Post written by Chris Waters

Winter is coming. The goose is getting fat. And us creative types are getting a bit sniffly.

So some bright bod in the office suggested starting Soup Club.

Soup Club does exactly what it says on the tin. Except there are no tins allowed. It’s about vegetables, blenders and a flare for the tasty. And more than just a pinch of competitive salt. This, good friends, is culinary warfare.

Sophie was first up to the hob. Which was always going to be a bit like when U2 and Paul McCartney opened Live 8 – a tough act to follow. Soph is, after all, Queen of Birthday Cakes.

We shall name Soph’s soup Hot Squash. Not just because of its butternut squash, harlequin squash and chilli content, but because Soph regularly shuns tea and coffee for a hot mug of orange squash.

Anyway. Hot Squash was, as predicted, a broth of brilliance. A saucepan of sumptiousness. A <insert noun> of <insert alliterative noun>.

***STOP PRESS*** Sophie has just announced it was a Jamie Oliver recipe. Is that cheating?

Next Tuesday sees Aprille cook up a storm a soup bowl. We await with baited (and somewhat squashy) breath.

Blog Post written by Chris Waters

Steve wanted to see his Swap Shop window graphics in all their glory, so visited the UCS Waterfront Building in Ipswich at the weekend. He came back with these snaps.

We think they look great. You?

Blog Post written by Chris Waters