The last birthday party for a two-year-old I attended was my nephew’s.
It had everything you could hope for at a toddler’s shindig. Family and friends were crammed into a semi-detached house on a rainy Saturday afternoon, with an immense range of junk food and loud toys. I was incredibly proud of my gift (a frankly resplendent) inflatable fish shaped ball pit: a perfect birthday party, all in all.
We’re celebrating another 2-year old’s birthday at ABC this month, our own! While there will not be the kind of irritating toys childless people buy their siblings’ children, it’s a celebration, nonetheless.
The gift of reflecting
A birthday is a great time to reflect on all that you’ve achieved over the last year, because how can you move forward if you don’t take a moment to look back? It’s all go at Always Be Content, we had a lot of material to choose from.
Choosing what we’re most proud of was a challenge, but two projects stuck out to us.
Two Firsts
Recently, we worked as creative partner with the first-ever Edinburgh Business Beats Cancer fundraising and networking dinner, and you can learn more about why we were drawn to help. The goal of this event was to raise funds for Cancer Research UK’s Edinburgh Centre and Cancer Research Scotland.
Using our creative nous, we took CRUK’s iconic branding of purple, pink, blue and white dots and reimagined them. We created a whole suite of original materials in both print and digital to make this event have a more significant impact.
Our concept is beautifully realised in this gif. Funds raised at this glamorous event, signified by the champagne glass turns into cutting edge treatments, as demonstrated by the test tube.
Given that the funding goal was £35,000, and £70,000 was raised on the night, we like to think our talents played no small part!
Back in December 2018, we invited 200 special guests to join us for our first ever event. A one-off private screening of “Sing-along The Greatest Showman” to help our guests swing into the festive season.
As this was our first event, we wanted to create something different. An invitation that doubled as a volume of simple vocal exercises to help our guests be in fine voice. Each page contained handy tips, complemented by turn of the century circus advertisements, with poster titles echoing the most famous lyrics of the musicals.
A mid-century inspired illustration of the showman on the front cover surrounded by the event details resulted in a beautiful, modern and useful invitation.
What made these projects special, was at their core, each focused on helping people and making a difference.
That’s what we’re about, using our creativity to make the world that little bit better.
Recognition!
You can’t work in the creative industries without mentioning awards. We’re delighted to say, that as we take our first steps into our second year, we built upon our award wins of 2018.
We won the public sector category at the Drum Marketing Awards 2019 for our client Scottish Water.
Our client British Gas in the B2B category was also highly commended!
Lust for life
Life is not all about work, to do your best it’s important to have a degree of balance. Our team always take time to do what makes them most content.
Lou found her inner stardom by taking singing lessons and joining a choir, while Siobhan completed her first novel and has begun her second.
Andras regularly soars to new heights through his Lattice training program for dedicated climbers.
Christina collaborates on experimental visual communication projects with the Blue Room Collective.
Pete has attended over 100 yoga classes since January, maintaining flexibility and a chill attitude – the essentials for great creative work!
Your birthday review
If you’ve got a birthday coming up, it’s worthwhile giving yourself a little end of year review.
Doing so allows you to set yourself up for greater success in the coming year.
We sourced a few questions to start you off!
- Are you where you want to be?
- What do you want to achieve this year?
- Do you have the right resources to achieve?
For example, if you wanted to win an award for your industry (like we did for Scottish Water this year), who needs to be in your team?
P.S.
If you think you need professional creative support to achieve your work goals, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d be delighted to see how we can help you!
