Stiff Rowlands

Thousands of lucky Marketing and Design folk will have recently received their copy of The Drum Yearbook 2010, a vital, annual directory for the creative industry. We were invited to create the design for this year’s book and based it on the concept ‘Better Together’, highlighting that our industry is greater than a sum of its parts. What better way to demonstrate this than a beautiful, robot cover image created by illustrator Barney Ibbotson which we then deconstructed to create the internal page layouts.

We were asked to contribute to a Drum article titled ‘What does your desk say about you?’. Here’s what our desk said:

Executive toys, photographs of loved ones, wilting plants, receipts and ‘I wish I had done that’ reference books are all things that seem to occupy our desk space at the moment. This doesn’t stop us seeking further inspirational work stations as we know that sometimes the best ideas don’t always happen when you’re chained to your PAYE desk. Those dongle things and the free Wi-Fi that’s bloody everywhere these days are liberating and make desk sharing or sitting in the park an easy, workable alternative for us.

More desk talk here.

What inspired you today? That’s the question The Drum asked our very own Mr Stiff. Read his response below or if you’re seeking further inspiration read the full feature here.

Music is a constant source of creative inspiration but the business behind the music we enjoy can often appear to be so far removed that it’s hard to understand how the two are connected.

There are exceptions to every rule though and any business that takes its name from the industry term for a dead duck, has to be worth a second look. I’ve always been intrigued by the story of Stiff Records, partly due to the name that we share but more importantly because of their seemingly uncompromising lack of respect for conventions and their stubborn independence.

Their artist roster and marketing were so gleefully haphazard and anti corporate that they really could only have got away with it in the late seventies and early eighties before the label imploded and went on a 20 year hiatus in 1986.

The legendary Barney Bubbles was responsible for much of Stiff Records’ early graphics and his eclectic style helped to create some of their most iconic sleeve artwork. A personal favourite has to be the Crown wallpaper sleeve for Ian Dury & The Blockheads’ 1979 album “Do It Yourself”, which came in 28 different patterns!

In reaction to the recent, controversial British Humanist Association ad campaign featuring the slogan “There’s probably no God”, The Drum asked a bunch of agencies to “dispel a few more beliefs, and shatter the illusions of millions of innocent children worldwide in the process”. We promptly set about killing off the Easter Bunny. Unfortunately for pick’n'mix fans, Woolworths got caught in the crossfire. Sorry!

Today it’s cold and raining which reminded us that our little Smoking Outdoors book got a big double page spread in The Drum the other week.

The latest issue of The Drum focuses its attention on their Top 20 creative start-ups. We are thrilled to be included alongside 19 successful, creative agencies of such high caliber and hope to prove that the statistics (that two out of three start-ups end in failure) don’t apply to any of us.

Some shameless self promotion in The Drum’s “Who’s who in Manchester” section this week. We’d like to say that no animals were harmed in the making of this ad but that would be a porky pie.

Readers of The Drum magazine (Friday, 11 January) might have noticed our cross stitched, half page ad for Planning Express. Thanks to Jez Clark for the copy and Mum for her handiwork.