Category: Client Work

Evolve: Byblos rebranding

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Another – though in fact the first – luxury hotel rebranding project undertaken with Evolve.

I can’t put into words what a joy this was to work on, coming as it did in the midst of a couple of particularly gruelling long-term projects. I basically got to write a series of short-story-type vignettes, all with the aim of evoking the great rebrand Evolve are carrying out for the once great (and somewhat infamous) Byblos hotel in southern Spain. It all ended up going a little bit early Bret Easton Ellis, a little bit early Richard Ford, with some liberal quoting of Spencer Krug lyrics thrown in for good measure.

To round off a great project, Evolve beautifully rendered everything I wrote in print for the new owners of the hotel – something I rarely get to see.

adidas: various copy-related things

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This year I’ve continued to work with BEINGHUNTED on numerous bits and pieces for adidas – far too many to separate out here. They’re always nice to work on, and given that they generally focus on upcoming special releases and collaborations they afford me the chance to indulge the lingering, geeky interest I have in sneakers and outdoors/sportswear.

To pluck some specific things out of the air that I’ve leant my words to:

  • the string of ZX/Torsion anniversary releases
  • recent collaborations with Hender Scheme
  • various releases/content relating to adidas Consortium’s new ‘Communitas’ output

BEINGHUNTED 002: Editor-In-Chief

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Was a tremendous honour to take on the role of ‘editor-in-chief’ for the second issue of BEINGHUNTED magazine – even if the grandiose title doesn’t naturally sit comfortably with me! The project coincided with a very difficult time for my family, so I’m tremendously grateful to Jörg (aka Mr. BEINGHUNTED) for not only the opportunity but his patience as well.

I contributed the cover story – an interview with/feature on the Pritzker-winning Chinese architect Wang Shu, and one of the editorial pieces I’ve been most proud of over the past year or so (not that I have time to do as many as I like these days, sadly).

The issue also contains a condensed version of the catalogue I wrote for a GORE-TEX  exhibition that launched during Paris Fashion Week in January, and an ‘in-conversation with’-type piece on the nature of artistic collectives in today’s globalised world.

If you feel like spending 15 quid or so on a print magazine you can do that here! Or find it in various trendy magazine/fashion type places around the world.

 

act3: adidas Runners (various)

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adidas Runners is the global network of adidas-affiliated running clubs. Earlier this year, I worked with act3 on a number of small projects, helping to elevate various pieces of content about adidas Runners around the world.

From ‘trash running’ in China to conquering the gruelling Los Angeles-Las Vegas speed project, all were super-interesting (particularly as someone who is increasingly obsessive about his own running).

 

The HEINEKEN Company: content strategy and workshops

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I spent a good month or two recently working on a(n ongoing) project for The HEINEKEN Company. I probably shouldn’t (/can’t) probably say too much about it at this point, but it involved heading over to their heatwave-drenched head office in Amsterdam for a week of great workshops, and following up with a deep-dive into various content, brand and communications-related matters, many of which – there was no getting around it – forced me to work repeatedly out of my comfort zone. By which I mean: within Excel documents.

Evolve: Mount Juliet rebranding

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Earlier this year I started working with the great branding agency Evolve on various rebranding briefs for luxury hotels around the world. Mount Juliet is one such client: a beautiful five-star Irish estate with ambitions to offer something beyond the luxury golfing holidays that have become its bread and butter.

As with all the briefs I get from Evolve, I was given the freedom to push things in a more creative direction than I normally do in this type of work.

At the risk of sounding immodest (though as a self-employed millennial living in the shadow of neoliberalism and all the intense pressures to be ‘entrepreneurial’ that brings, I feel like I get a free pass), the feedback I received included the following:

“the work you did on Mt Juliet, once again it’s taken it to the next level – think there was a few teary eyes once we had finished reading it – not easy to get under the skin of board level directors in that way so really credit to you for helping us elicit that emotional response.”

Ocado: new careers site

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I’ve been working quite a lot this year on various projects with Ocado, helping them on the digital side of things as they pivot from being the world’s biggest online grocery retailer to being a tech-driven solutions company.

The first thing to see the light of day from this, earlier this year, was a new careers site – aimed at recruiting exactly the people they need to achieve their ambitious new goals. I was involved a little in the content strategy while also writing the vast majority of the copy for the new site.