What a year its been… Fast cars, Champagne, Turkeys and T-Shirts…

We’ve crammed a lot into the last 12 months. COGmedia’s continuing expansion saw a partnership Lee Blanchflower Photography taking our photographic services to a new professional level. working on projects for Volvo, Angel Champagne, Nissan, Break Charity, BMW and a number of local clients including our latest joint project with Chris from Hot Hands Reiki.

The theme for the event was carried over from last years awards and with the addition a new category it was off met up the graffiti artists from Sticky Fingerz to video the time-lapse sequence that would precede that award.

January

Conference slides and helping the police with their enquiries

Started the year with the build for our first conference of the year. Cooper Lomaz got us on-board to produce the media content for their 2012 conference. Taking it from an internally produced event we set about adding the bells and whistles that go hand in hand with a COGmedia production. A conference theme based on a up and coming sporting event was chosen… Logo and supporting images were created with the company award winners being placed in gold, silver and bronze. A highlights conference opener was produced with company landmarks from the past 12 months and a photo montage of Team CL. On the night we videoed their event from start to finish whilst running the slides from the AV desk… Whilst we were all celebrating the company success a local shop owner was murdered only a stones throw away… the follow day back in the studio we were putting together the video clips from the event when a call came in from Suffolk police questioning me on my movements, its was handy being in a room full of people the could corroborate my movements, who said it was boring in the world of AV.

Business Base Banner

Febuary

Sprowston Town Council

February saw us being approached to design the logo for the newly upgraded Sprowston Town Council. Sticking with the council friendly blues and greens the concepts draw on local features as well as the traditional window associated with Sprowston. With only a couple tweaks the traditional window design was selected. Still feeling pleased with ourselves having our design selected to head up Sprowston Town Council we were then asked to design the logo for their new office space, the Sprowston Diamond Centre. Keeping with the style from the Town Council logo a clean design was produced to compliment the graphics we had designed. Again only a couple of scale and positional changes were made to get the Diamond Centres logo signed off. The final results can be seen adorning the wall outside the Diamond Centre on School Lane.

OSEC – Off Site Engineered Cassette

Norfolk Construction supply firm DGT contacted us to pitch to supply them with a graphic design and marketing services. DGT specialise in
 the design and manufacture of structural steelwork, roofing and cladding. Adding a new division to the company revolutionising the installation of floor a complete design and marketing package was called for. We entered the pitching processing quoting on all areas of the brief. After a number of meetings with the client we walked away with the logo design, promotional video, website design and technical 3D diagrams and animations with two other agencies getting brochure and marketing. With the time scale of the job being tight we offered the logo back to one of the other agencies. A WordPress site was soon live with a supporting video editing from internal shot footage and a 3D animation show the simplicities of the flooring system and speed of installation.

3D Product Visualisation

February was defiantly the month for 3D projects… our next project was package visualisation we took 3D CAD files from our client and textured the materials and applied demo branding to to allow variations in colour, opacity and texture to be shown with out producing numbers samples for their product brochure. Photo-realistic renders allowed our client to show solid print, metal foil, clear lacquered effects. The images went on to be used in their printed brochures and trade stand banners.

March

March saw a big change at Cog, Lee Blanchflower Photography joined us adding a professional element to our photographic services. Our first joint project was for Angel Champagne producing close-up bottle shots for marketing materials and to feature on billboards in Los Angeles.

After our first days studio shoot Lee and I found ourselves on the sponsors table at the Miss Universe Norfolk 2012 event which was sponsored by Angel Champagne.

Lee and I had gone to school together … lets just say a while back and had caught up with each other through the usual social media channels. Having found out out that  Lee had left the police force to come a professional photographer it seemed to make sense to get him down the studio. Very soon a project arose where I needed a great attention to detail and my current photographer was unavailable… Lee more than delivered the goods in a short time span and it was very clear the a partnership between Cog and LBP would be the way forward. His gritty approach to photography was refreshing. Capable to working with us and not for us, we could happily leave Lee to work directly with our clients knowing we would get the highest quality images to work with and with with great feedback the partnership is going from strength to strength. Lee skills don’t stop at amazing photography he’s social media skills assures the the projects we work on get the best coverage and have gained us both new clients and projects.

Ardent Budget Day Conference

Budget day 2012 saw Lee and I on another project. An existing client of ours Ardent Financial Limited approached us to organise the production of their second client conference. Like there first conference it was to beheld in the Curve in Norwich’s Forum. Ardent were keen to top their first event so we set about putting together a awesome package which would spread out of the Curve up in to Fusion, the 25m wide digital screen in the Forum. We produced a welcome animation listing all the facts and figures for Ardent over the past three years whilst all the delegates had the coffee’s in preparation the the main event downstairs. When all the guests were seated ready for the three speakers to give their presentations a quick change upstairs was underway. Go Race Events had full sized F1 racing car simulator in position which we had hooked up the the Watchout system allow cockpit view to be projected into Fusion massive screen… The results were simply amazing with the simulators view filling more than your puerperal vision you had to look around thread your car around the twisty streets on Monaco.

Our two camera crew captured all the presentations which we then edited together along with all the slides and a highlights video. A hybrid DVD was then mastered with an interactive DVD and a PC/MAC compatible media player all on the same disk. In effect we crammed near 6 hours of footage on a single DVD5 disk.

Lee was in attendance all day getting some amazing images to add to the Ardent Financial archive of events. With the usual conference stills acquired Lee then set about getting the stylish editorial images Ardent, Lee and Cog could use for marketing.

Pictures :: Lee Blanchflower Photography

April

Back to school

Redcap Associates … the guys upstairs were in the process of setting up a new academy to teach all levels of CIPS, a industry qualification in procurement. Calling the new company Anglia Business Academy David asked us to come up with the complete corporate image for him. It all started with a great cup coffee going over the ideas for a theme for the logo. We soon  came up with look David was happy to have worked up into a design. Later that every same day the ABA logo was signed off… it was on to the rest rest of the brief… business cards for all the staff came next, knowing we had to produce marketing materials and PowerPoint we chose a graphic that would on web adverts, banners, presentations and magazine editorials and adverts. Using the comparison with sustainable energy a set of windmills were used portraying reducing costs and increasing benefits to the company. Stationary down we went onto the website… with David be a keen photographer we had a great library of images to use on the site and every quickly the ABA website took shape. ABA’s first public appearance was at the the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce B2B event at Norwich City Football Club. Pull-up banner supplied by SPP Digital and rolling PowerPoint presentation were all ready to give ABA professional stand to start pitching for companies and students to

May

Break :: GoGo Gorillas Photo-shoot.

Having a close connection with Norfolk based charity Break we were please to be working with Lee on a top secret project that will be brightening the streets of Norwich in 2012. GoGo Gorillas will be raising money for Break by having a trail of colourful hand-painted primates dotted around Norwich, all of which have been sponsored by local companies and decorate by local artists. Mik Robinson created ‘Nelson’ as the demo Gorilla to help get business behind the idea of sponsoring a Gorilla. Lee and I went along on a rainy day to see Nelson being worked on at Mik’s home studio. Once the awesome paint job was finished we needed to get some photographs for the sponsorship packs and a video clip for Breaks YouTube Channel… So it was off to Carrow Road to meet up with massive Norwich City Football Club fan and ambassador for Break; Jake Humphrey in between his commentating on F1 Grand Prix. Nelson made his first secretive appearance on the river bank while Jake did a piece to camera. Once again Lee went into overdrive with Jake staging some great photographs that would go on to be used across all Breaks marketing for GoGo Gorillas. We both had to sit on the images until the official launch later in the year, with only a few sneaky candid images and whole load of puns to promote our afternoon with Jake.

June

GoGo Gorillas :: Royal Norfolk Show

What a week of filming, firstly it was off to the Royal Norfolk Show with everyone from Break for the public unavailing on Nelson and Half Nelson on the Thurlow Nunn stand. Lee Blanchflower and Martin Green and I worked the whole show ground with Half Nelson spreading the word of GoGo Gorillas. We stopped off at the Osborne Nash (The designers of the GoGo Gorillas logo) for a quick photo call, Carters was the next stop with Half Nelson playing Wheres Nelson from teh top of a massive crane. We finished the day at the EDP stand with children from schools from across Norfolk grabbing sticks and pictures on their mobiles of the magnificant primates.

Wheres Nelson
If you look hard can see Nelson in the image above

Pictures :: Lee Blanchflower Photography

Goodwood Festival of Speed

Our biggest job of the year so far for us. A Team of five were put together to assist Volvo’s technical partner launch their new hybrid electric car. We were on site for the whole event producing video content for Volvo social media division to post with highlights of each day. Lee was on hand again to supply stills coverage of the event. whilst onsite we were asked to cover BMW, mini, Nissan and Chrysler’s stands, showcasing the cutting edge technology used to gather visitors details.

Volvo took this to the next level. The Saturday found the team over at the Goodwood Race track where selected Volvo customers were treated to a track day. Professional drivers would take each driver around the track showing all the new features of their chosen car. then it was time to put in some flying laps…

July

What a Thriller…

One of Cog first clients and now landlord got us to come up the the artwork to adorn their float the Norwich Lord Mayor’s Procession and Cromer Carnival 2012. Once again Steve and the boys speared no expense to make their float one to remember. With the Olympics only a few weeks away Intouch went for a Zombie theme. Their lorry had a steel framed theatrically painted church and graveyard built on the back. Not stopping their a 15 foot flame thrower would be blast from the top of the church tower, you’ve got to love them! We designed two banners to drop down from the sides of the trailer, taking inspiration from classic zombie moves we created a graveyard scene with a member of the living dead crawling from behind a Intouch Systems tomb. Grabbing stills from a mobile phone of arms and legs we colour shifted the flesh to a rancid blue rotting colour adding open wounds and blood. even a cog was dropped into the grass surround the tomb and smashed computer hardware.

On the day of the Lord Mayor’s Procession we dressed and applied zombie makeup to fit in with everyone on the float, perching ourselves on top of the church tower we filmed the floats journey through the streets of Norwich. Ear plugs were the order of the day as a massive sound system had been installed banging out horror sound effects and the Thrilller sound track.

Check out our highlights video of the day.

Hello Ducky

August

The Burrell Partnership Website

Norwich based architects The Burrell Partnership were after a revamp of their under performing website. With its slow to load and run flash intro, confusing navigation and non SEO friendlily content we scrapped everything and started from the ground up. We started with a freshen up of the logo

Break Grand Duck Race

Lee Blanchflower, Break and Cog Media… is it me or is there a theme panning out here. From the dizzy heights of the crane at the Royal Norfolk Show its was down the the river by the Ribs of Beef public house

September

Macmillan Digital Coffee Morning

Coffee, Teas & other refreshments were be sale with all proceeds going to Macmillan. Massive thanks to Hannah Louise Snelling for baking so many cakes and savory nibbles for us to sell . Tony from Dotcolour had all the digital print services available with a donation being made to Macmillan for every purchases.

October

GoGo Gorillas :: Norwich Forum :: Watchout and PowerPoint

Continuing our support for local childrens charity Break Lee and I supported them on their annual supports conference. All day started off with Liz and I meeting up the Break ambassador Jake Humphrey at their Families House building in Norwich, Jake meet staff members and listened to examples how they had benefited from Breaks help and support. The next stop was another trip to Norwich City Football Club meeting up with Lee for the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce B2B event. Nelson, Half Nelson and Horatio (the latest addition to the completed primates) were on display to help raise the profile for next years GoGo Gorillas. Jake gave a rousing speech asking for companies to put their hands in there pockets and be part of next years GoGo Gorillas. Sticking to a tight scheduled Liz and I then went off with Jake to one of Breaks childrens homes. There he met with children from the home, hearing what it was like to live in care and having a bit of banter along the way. After a quick cup of coffee,we all hot footed it over the the Forum to prepare for that evening conference. The Watchout show was install in Fusion and the PowerPoint and video clips were loaded up in The Curve. The cameras were setup ready record the presentation by Jake which would be introducing the new strap line to the Break logo and going over how Break is supporting children in and around Norfolk.

Bernard Matthews Youth Awards 2012

Our second year working with the Bernard Matthews marketing company had us back the Open venue in the center of Norwich. This year we had 3 cameras filming the highlights and awards ceremony. Tom was on the roving camera mixing it up with the steadycam with two other cameras up in the gods following the acts and award winners. The guys from The Garage were supplying the entertainment again with some great dance numbers and amazing vocals. The event was hosted by Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood, who made all the young nominees feel at ease when up on stage.

November

Metal Frog Signage Small and Large :: Nest 3D viral Avert :: Mitie

Hot Hands Reiki

Power power of networking made for a busy November. On Dare to Fly’s recommendation newly qualified Reiki Master Chris came to use for a business startup design package… Logo, stationary, pullup banner, flyers, social media content and website. Chris came and sat with us in the studio once our first draft concepts were ready. The artwork would have to work on a business card and work clothing as well as a website so a clean design was selected. Dotcolour then took the vectored logo and produced the multi coloured vinyls ready to be heat transferred to the tunics. The website came next, Chris was open to all our suggestions and with that we booked a photo session with our business partner Lee Blanchflower Photography. Armed with his new work tops we headed over the Lee’s Norwich studio. We had a few ideas in mind for all of the marketing materials so we briefs both Chris and Lee on what we required. Back to the studio for some graphic design and very soon the photographs had been worked into the WordPress website, flyers and pullup banner. Judging by the posts on various social media websites Chris was over the moon with the whole design process.

The networking didn’t stop there, Lee had a pretty serious operation and Chris offered a course for hands on and distance Reiki… See how Lee got on on his Facebook page.

December

So why are you buying a Turkey…?

Cassandra Oil PowerPoint

This was a interesting job for a new client, We had to lift a presentation on a video clip and build a editable PowerPoint from it. We screen grabbed all the elements we would need to build the slides and with the company’s supplied logos and existing PDF brochure set about building the presentation. The client then came and sat with us to put the finishing touches before they’d be traveling all over the world to present to prospective clients.

2013

A new company for Norwich and a new client for COGmedia. On the recommendation of an existing client Chris Dalton a Reiki Master approached us to design his new business images from the ground up. We set about getting to know Chris and and the art of Reiki. Once we had our head round what Reiki was all about… and having a quick session in the studio we produced a number of conceptual designs. One of the designs was very close to what Chris had in mind and with a visit the studio he sat with us to come up with the perfect logo for his new business.

Now we had the logo it was over the website, banners, work tops, business card and flyer designs…

Hot Hands Reikis logo had to work on a number of mediums… paper, screen and clothing, our finalised design was created to allow for vinyl cutting so it was over to Dotcolour to apply the three colour logo we had produced Chris’s work tops. As he’d requested both white and black tops two variations of the logo were cut and applied.

Because we had all of Hot Hands Reikis marketing platforms we could produce artwork that would work as a business card as well as a website. Chris was open to all our suggestions and with that we booked a photo session with our business partner Lee Blanchflower Photography. Armed with his new work tops we headed over the Lee’s Norwich studio. We had a few ideas in mind for all of the marketing materials so we briefs both Chris and Lee on what we required. After a three hour photo shoot we had all the images we needed.

Back to to our studio we set about producing the artwork for the business cards. Chris signed off our first concept so it was off to the printers…

The website came next. Chris selected a theme he wished to use, so we set about putting the ideas and photographs we had into action. A clean slider for the home page had the images of Chris with lots of post production adding flames and lighting effects to portray the healing potential of Reiki. Chris supplied us with some great content and was very easy to applied imagery to complete the text on the page. In becoming a Reiki Master Chris has seen a number of patients already so we had a few great testimonials which we added the website. A QRcode for the website was created that linked to Google Analytis so Chris could track how well the his new website was working.

We’re pleased to welcome Lauren on-board as part of the team, she brings a fresh approach to design and adds a new level of illustration to our services. Lauren said “Art is my passion in life and so I’m very much looking forward to the next year since I will be working completely on my art skills and doing jobs that I love. I’m really excited to be working with the guys down at COGmedia and all the skills in illustration and animation they can help me develop! I’m also doing an Art and Design foundation diploma at Norwich City college this year, so I can broaden my skills in many different forms of traditional media too!”

The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support’s biggest fundraising event. They are asking people across the UK to hold a coffee morning, where donations on the day are made to Macmillan. In 2011 51,000 people signed up to coffee morning, raising a record £10 million. We’re going to help Macmillan try and top that this year…

Coffee, Teas & other refreshments will be sale with all proceeds going to Macmillan. Cog, Dotcolour & Redcap will be baking cakes for the day. If you want to bring a cake along to raise some cash feel free! Cog Media will be raffling off design service on the day. You’ll have to come along to see what were offering. Dotcolour will have all the digital print services available with a donation being made to Macmillan for every purchases.

Cog Media, Dotcolour and Redcap Associates will be supporting the Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on September 28th. Come and along and help us raise money for a great charity, sip some coffee and try a few cakes…

Cog Media will be offering a FREE design service on the day… You’ll have to come along to see what were offering. So make sure you bring your business cards along to be in the chance to win.

Dotcolour will have all the digital print services available with a donation being made to Macmillan for every purchase.

To find out more visit : http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk

Looks like the good weathers over for another summer… =o)  Getting ready for a few new additions down the studio that should be bring a load of colour to our services at Cog Media and Dotcolour. Watch this space for updates and your invite to see what Tony and I have been working on over the past couple of months..

Whats your colour…?

Things are moving forward at a pace now now the studio.. With the addition on Tony from .colour we have expanded our services to include large format printing. Canvases, CAD printout, Large format photographic prints, pullups, banners, posters and wallpaper. So now we turn most of your projects round in-house.

Cog Media are please to announce a few changed to our website, Our 2012 logo can now be found on our website as well as our new business cards and other marketing materials. We are excited about are new partnership with Lee Blanchflower Photography. Our partnership with LBP is stranthening our services for our growing list of clients. We can now offer a one stop design, photographic and video production service which has been getting some great feed back. Why not see how we can help you with your marketing and design needs. http://www.cogmedia.co.uk & leeblanchflowerphotography.co.uk

Intouch Systems, The Regions Premier IT Solutions Provider got us to produce content for their 2×2 42″ plasma video wall. Working from their tight brief we created a theme that will flow through all the promotional material for their cloud services.  Using a combination of 2D and 3D elements the final 2 minute video ran at on their trade stand with a custom cloud shaped fascia.

If you’re after video wall content of after hiring or installing a system gibe us a shout…

http://www.cogmedia.co.uk/plasma.html

We took our clients 3D CAD files which we then textured the materials and applied demo branding to to allow variations in colour, opacity and texture to be shown with out producing numbers samples for their product brochure. Photo-realistic renders allowed our client to show solid print, metal foil, clear lacquered effects.