A game of cat and mouse

May 17th, 2012 — 10:01am

One of Spring’s magical additions to the Tide Mill renovation project was the Mouse Game.

We commissioned an illustrator to create beautifully detailed colour images of twelve mice. These are hidden around the Mill, and those who find all twelve win a chocolate mouse (made by Bex’s husband, artisan baker Johnny Spillings). It’s been hugely popular, with the chocolate mouse supply having to be replenished regularly.

A sweet touch was to give each mouse the name of someone from the Tide Mill team, either from its trustees or suppliers. Here’s Nigel, named after the estimable Nigel Barratt.

Screen shot 2012-05-17 at 09.51.36

Spring’s Simon Hazelgrove, with characteristic modesty (yes, really!) declined the opportunity to be remembered in perpetuity as a mouse. But the Tide Mill trustees haven’t let the matter rest there – so Simon turned up for a site inspection this morning to find that the Mill cat has been renamed.

Screen shot 2012-05-17 at 09.55.27

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Blog Post written by Erika Clegg

Comment » | Arts, Community, Design, East Anglia, Fun, Springers, creativity, suffolk, tourism

Springers Complete the Suffolk Sunrise 100

May 16th, 2012 — 3:10pm

The sun was shining this Sunday as two Springers, Simon and Lucy, set out from Framlingham College for their 100km cycle ride. The weather held perfectly for the day and hundreds of cyclists enjoyed glorious sunshine as they criss-crossed the Suffolk countryside in aid of Actions Medical Research. The route took the cyclists south from Framlingham towards Woodbridge and Orford, then northwards towards Leiston and Snape and finally back towards Framlingham via Rendham and Bruisyard. The distance in total was just over 100km at 65 miles and the finishing line, again at Framlingham College, was a welcome sight. A worthy cause and a great day out, both Simon and Lucy thoroughly enjoyed the Suffolk Sunrise 100.

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Blog Post written by Erika Clegg

Comment » | East Anglia, Fun, Springers, suffolk

Why ‘Winebook’?

May 10th, 2012 — 3:13pm

When Spring relaunched the Adnams wine catalogues this year, we completely reinvented the format.

New page size, new paper stock, new finish, new editorial style, new imagery and new design. Our brief was to communicate their wonderful wine offering in a way that would allow them to grow its loyal audience. And one change, whilst tiny, was to us the greatest representation of this relaunch. What had been the Adnams Wine Merchants Catalogue became known, simply, as Winebook.

Screen shot 2012-05-03 at 13.22.52

Why?

Right at the start of the project, we were keen to establish how to maximise the catalogue’s longevity. In an increasingly frenetic age, keepability is an unusual and highly prized thing. When you consider the investment it takes – financial, emotional and in time – for companies like Adnams to develop loyal customer relationships, ongoing touchpoints are a fundamentally important part of any campaign.

Our initial conversations with Adnams marketing team, wine buyers and consumers revealed some fascinating insights into wine customer behaviour, and how it has changed over the years. One thing which has not changed, however, is the desire to learn, to talk and to make notes. Adnams, being one of the first wine merchants to provide really detailed notes in their catalogue, has long been at the forefront of an information-based approach to wine selling.

The website now allows Adnams’s wine team to provide even more detailed notes as well as video wine tastings, interviews with wine makers and commentary on their approach. This, we realised, has freed the catalogue up to be a more tactile, adaptable document.

We selected a matt, pulpy stock which positively cries out to be written on, creating designated ‘notes’ areas but also designing the pages to allow plenty of scribble room. Through our designers’ use of colour and font, Adnams customers’ notes, doodles and scribbles will add to the character of their Winebook.

Of course, this is entirely appropriate to the new world in which consumers’ opinion counts for a lot and is readily available via social media. In allowing Winebook recipients to document their thoughts, Adnams has demonstrated their willing to embrace this way of communicating with their customers, across all channels.

The book is created to be a proper handbook – providing instant reference and first point information across Adnams’s wines, spirits and beer range, some corporate information and peeps behind the scenes of the wine department. In every way, the old catalogue has become a new beast altogether.

So the term Winebook is a small change, which many will not even notice, but which to us is a proclamation of something really quite important: innovation.

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Blog Post written by Erika Clegg

Comment » | Catalogue, Copywriting, Design, East Anglia, Marketing, Southwold, Springers, Uncategorized, creativity, food and drink, suffolk

Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize

May 10th, 2012 — 10:39am

We are delighted to share the shortlist for 2012′s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, which sees much-loved novelists Sue Townsend and Terry Pratchett competing, amongst a strong group of finalists, for this year’s top spot.

It is the fourth time Pratchett has been nominated for the prize, having previously been shortlisted for his novels Thief of Times (2002), Going Postal (2005) and Thud (2006). John O’Farrell and Julian Gough both appear on the list for a second time, whilst Sue Townsend and John Lanchester are newcomers.

Please follow Bollinger’s blog for further information about the shortlisted novels, their authors and critics’ reactions.

You can also read about this on the BBC news site, which has provided a great link through to Spring’s Experience Bollinger site.

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Blog Post written by Erika Clegg

Comment » | Arts, Digital, Events, Luxury, Marketing, Web, food and drink

Southwold Concert Series: Season Finale

May 9th, 2012 — 4:48pm

This Saturday 12th May, St Edmund’s Church, will welcome the season finale of the Southwold Concert Series.

Guildhall cellist, Michael Petrov, will be accompanied by Rosie Richardson as they perform a varied repertoire of Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy and virtuoso works by Chopin and Bartok.

Michael Petrov

Highlights of the third season of the Southwold Concert Series have included a Christmas Extravaganza, involving West End stars and a number of local musicians. More recently the world-renown Sacconi Quartet delighted their audience one afternoon in February.

Continue reading »

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Blog Post written by Erika Clegg

Comment » | Arts, East Anglia, Fun, Southwold, suffolk

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