Da Vinci Communications

I'm A Blogging Disgrace

It’s been nine months since the last Da Vinci blog.

Kirsty has continually delivered the prompts – “When is the next blog?” And I’ve continually delivered the response – “I’ll do it tomorrow!”

It’s not as though we have nothing to report, because a lot has happened. It’s just that we’ve been focusing on servicing our existing clients, getting the work done and winning more awards.

Of course, we’ve also been putting time, effort and funding into trying to win new business to help bump up the invoicing, because it’s still tough out there.

But enough of my prattling, let’s see what’s been happening.


Will they... won’t they...
Two of the agency’s creative pieces for the University of Liverpool have been shortlisted for awards by Communicators in Business (CiB). The annual report with the international stamp concept, in Chinese and English, is in one category. And the annual handbook for Sport Liverpool is listed in the pure design category. Watch this space for the results which will be announced at the award evening staged at Manchester’s Midland Hotel at the end of March.


Hat trick of wins for Travel Counsellors
We’ve done it again! For the third year running the agency has won a top national award at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group’s annual showcase event. Taking the award for Best Trade Media Advertising Campaign prompted MD of client Travel Counsellors to say: “Da Vinci provided us with yet another brilliant, creative campaign that enabled us to steal a march on our competitors and stand out from the crowd.” Steve Byrne added:”Da Vinci’s understanding of our business, and their creativity has played a key part in the growth and success of Travel Counsellors.” The awards showcase the creme de la creme of the British travel industry’s advertising, marketing and PR...and to win the award three years running speaks volumes for the agency’s creative team. Da Vinci used Travel Counsellors own travel consultants, their children and their pets in the “Life in the Day” campaign which focused on the flexibility of working from home.


The Games People Play
We always give our clients choice – be it concepts for ad campaigns, annual reports or invites to a cocktail – we set a minimum of three options. And a favourite ‘game’ played by many of our clients is guessing which designer produced which concept. Thankfully, they rarely get it right. Da Vinci’s designers are too professional to embrace any personal prejudices – they design for the target audience, be it a 60 year old chief executive, a six year old child..and everyone in between. But I’ll bet every one of our clients would have an inkling that whoever designed Glasgow’s The Common Guild logo (far left) three years ago, had at least a finger on the mouse that developed the city’s recently revealed £95,000 Commonwealth Games branding (left). Perhaps the client said 'make mine a double' when he saw the quote!

Steve Lord

Creative Director
Da Vinci Communications