June 2009
Wind in the Willows centenary prize
My children's story Pike: How to survive predators, parents and other disasters won first prize in the Wind in the Willows centenary story competition, at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley. The competition invited writers to re-frame Kenneth Grahame's novel for the 21st century, and attracted hundred of entries. My story (the first children's story I have written) captured 'the spirit of the river and a sense of its magic as well as the essence of childhood, adventure and discovery' - that's what the judges thought, anyway.
February 2009
From coffee to hedge funds, via rugby and linguistics
One of the best things about copywriting for a living is the range of subjects you immerse yourself in. February's work included rewriting the annual report for a hedge fund manager; writing a website for the rugby charity Hearts and Balls; editing books for Edinburgh University Press; and writing editorial guidelines for a UGC website on whisky, tea and coffee.
December 2008
MasterCard Europe
News items tend to focus on one-off projects and new clients, but, as with jokes, the old ones are very often the good ones. For several years, I've done a huge range of work for MasterCard Europe, working with dozens of people across the company. The last few months have brought a typical selection of commissions: brochures; a speech for the CEO; customer communications for their training Academy; and scores of news articles for their global intranet.
November 2008
A first for me - a hotel website
Together with website designers Wired Nomad, I won a pitch to create a new website for Cringtletie House, a country house hotel in the Scottish Borders. Cringletie's grounds and views are stunning, and my only disappointment about doing the website was that it didn't involve taking up permanent residence there.
July 2008
VisitBritain Annual Review
Britain's national tourism body added me to their copywriting roster, and almost immediately asked me to write some of their annual review for 2008. I wrote statements for the chairman and CEO, and wrote up case studies and reviews of the year, all to a tight deadline. "Spot-on' and 'outstanding' were the comments from the client.
January 2008
Back to school
Tayburn designed a new prospectus for independent school Longridge Towers. The theme was 'Seen and heard'. with a warm, child-centred design. Tayburn asked me to inject the same warmth into the text. Parents, school and agency are all pleased with the result: 'a very good text which has created the right atmosphere and ... establish[ed] the right kind of tone', was the headteacher's end-of-term report.
December 2007
How public-sector writing should be done
In an ideal world, all government and NHS communications would be clear, human and free from jargon. In the real world, most of them are none of those things. Fortunately, though, there are a few exceptions ...
Keep Well is a new healthcheck for 45-64 year olds in certain areas of Scotland. NHS Scotland wanted to back the service with a website that is easy to understand and reassuring, but not patronising. The text I wrote is just that - it doesn't have stylistic fireworks, nor does it parrot the jargon of internal NHS documents. Instead, it clearly and simply tells ordinary people what they want to know. If only more public-sector communications were like it - see the website.
October 2007
HBOS Women redesign
Bank of Scotland Corporate has relaunched its Women in Business initiative, and called it HBOS Women. As part of the relaunch, I wrote new text for their website. The brief included maing the site more 'motivating' so that it generates more traffic. They also wanted a higher-brow and more experienced business tone of voice. The new site is now up and running, with an excellent design by Edinburgh agency Whitespace.
July 2007
Jolly good stuff
Wolffe and Co asked me to write a new brand text for the Jolly Good Food Company, a food wholesaler based in Dumfries. Have a look - you won't see many other food companies talking about the eccentric French novelist Georges Perec in their brand materials. I'm delighted they went with the idea. See my brand text on their website http://www.jollygoodfood.com
June 2007
Big Fish
Bank of Scotland publishes a magazine for women business owners, called Big Fish. I wrote the lead feature for the spring/summer issue. It profiles a number of women who are exploding the myth that female entrepreneurs are too scared to take on debt. All the women were great - really inspiring - and it's worth reading their advice about starting or running a business. Read the article at: http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/corporate/pdf/bigfish9.pdf
May 2007
A third annual report for Severn Trent
I've already written two annual reports for Severn Trent plc this year. (see March 2007). Now I'm writing a third report - their 2007 Corporate Responsibility report and website. This is an area the company takes very seriously, and I'm delighted to work on it with them.
March 2007
Another annual report for Severn Trent plc
I've written Severn Trent plc's Annual Report and Accounts for the past three years. They're one of my favourite clients. This year, we've taken the relationship one step further. As well as asking me to write the plc's Annual Report, they've asked me to write the report for their water business, Severn Trent Water.
Napier University
Napier University has ambitious plans to expand its activities in Hong Kong and China, and is approaching potential investors there. The university's Development Department has commissioned me to write a brochure selling the university and its development plans in Hong Kong and China. |
