Only 133 stocking days till Christmas

Only 133 stocking days till Christmas

According to the rather pointless but eminently focused website, xmasclock.com, there are only 133 days, 9 hours, 54 minutes and 26 seconds (and counting) until the Big Day.

Our office manager, Rachel, is going to need every precious second.

For her, Christmas is racing towards us at a mind-bogglingly frantic pace.

How so?

Rachel has just completed a knitted advent calendar (yes, you read that right) comprising 24 mini-stockings, helpfully numbered so you don’t even have to count them (see pic).

And if that were the end of the matter, it would be impressive enough. But no!

This is only the first of twenty-three sets.

And that amounts to a whole lot of knitting. Another 528 diminutive Santa socks to go. We can’t even begin to calculate how many stitches she will have to fit into the remaining time.

But Rachel remains undaunted and assures us the timescale presents no problem.  She even insists on stating, for the record, that no elves will be harmed – or even involved – in the production; it will be all her own work.

The mini-advent-stocking-calendar contrivances will be presented to their respective recipients – a plethora of uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, cousin, nephews and nieces; not to mention old Granny Homer herself – on 30 November, just in the nick of time for the December kick-off. Each Lilliputian toe warmer containing a gift from a list that includes rain-mate plastic hats, emery boards, hand cream, mulled wine sachets, perfume and many other thoughtful little goodies.

So here’s to Rachel then for a fantastic idea and wonderful undertaking. Twenty three people will have their days well and truly made when Christmas inexorably rolls around.

We take our hats off to her. Our socks having already been knocked off.


Why ears are important.

Why ears are important

To get the best results you have to listen to the requirements of your target market. Fundamental really.

The case in point is from our client Clue who asked us to highlight the benefits of their software to the suspicious audience that is the police. Software designed exclusively for investigators by Clue who go out of their way to understand how they do their jobs.

They ask questions, listen to the answers and devise solutions to make things easier and more efficient for their product users. It’s simple if you know the questions to ask and can understand and evaluate the answers.

At 60 Watt we like to think we do. Right questions, right answers = right solution.

See above.


Award alert!

Award Time!

Normally winning an award involves only two things: money and talent.

The talent we modestly take for granted (we have won quite a few awards in our time) but the money?

There’s the overall entry fee to consider, the fees for each category, not to mention the number of entries in each category. (You said not to mention – Ed). For a creative agency that can add up to hundreds and more likely thousands of pounds. In bigger agencies that comes out of the marketing budget, but for tiddlers like us it comes out of hard-earned profit.

Yup, awards are not for the faint-hearted.

So you could have knocked us down with the proverbial feather when our esteemed client at Cottages & Castles sent us the following electronic missive:

“Wow! We’ve just won an award for our exhibition stand. Great. Well done 60 Watt!”

And went on to say our design had just won ‘Best newcomer’ at the Visit Scotland Expo 2015 in Aberdeen.

Our client was thrilled and, it’s fair to say, so were we.

But the best thing about it was we didn’t have to pay a single penny in entry fees.

Hurrah!


We have become a groupie.

Hamish James Hawk

We (and that should really be I) parody Margaret Thatcher’s ‘We have become a grandmother’ to bring you exciting news of developments in the music world. A world not unfamiliar to us before but now with deeper meaning for us 60 Watters, blood being, as it were, thicker than water.

You may remember Hamish James Hawk (son of our eponymous Head of Art) starting out on his musical career last year with the release of his first album Aznavour. Well since that humble beginning, his lyrical stature has grown like Topsy.

We follow in his footsteps. quite literally with gigs up and down the country: Glasgow’s Poetry Club, Sneaky Pete’s, the World Tour of Crail 2015, The Fence Collective’s annual Yellae Deuks extravaganza…and many more festivals and events in the pipeline. New songs, new venues and now, introducing his brand new band , Hamish James Hawk and the … well, the name is still in gestation (and we at 60 Watt know the angst involved in that) but will be announced in due course.

And with this brand new band come brand new opportunities. First up is the dream ticket, support to the majestic King Creosote at the Perth Concert Hall on Friday, 22 May 2015. His biggest venue to date and one that will introduce his distinctive voice to many more people.

Here is but one small quote from Nick Mitchell at WOW 24/7:

“(Hawk’s) proving to be a prolific, idiosyncratic talent, armed with a suite of songs that are full of bittersweet laments and more lyrical nooks and crannies than the East Neuk coastline.”

And now with added oomph!

New songs like ‘Hubble Space Telescope’ will have you dancing and pogoing frenetically anywhere there’s a space whilst ‘Catherine Opens the Window’ will empty handbags of Kleenex tissues.

For a memorable evening with KC and HJH get yourself and friends to the Fair City on 22 May . You won’t regret it because as Hamish sings, ‘regrets are for the old’.

And we’re not old, are we? (Don’t answer that.)

http://www.horsecross.co.uk/whats-on/king-creosote-perth-festival


What, oh what, to do at Easter?

Yellae Duck

 

Contemplating a dreary round of museum dragging and castle-bagging for the Easter weekend?

May we respectfully suggest an alternative?

The Yellae Deuks.

The what?

If you haven’t heard of it yet, you soon will. The annual ‘Yellae Deuks’ music festival held on Easter weekend in the pretty backwater of Fife’s East Neuk is fast becoming a hot ticket event (Friday night is already a sell out).

Ainster is where it all happens (or Anstruther, as the out of towners call it) beginning with the annual AIA Duck Race (sponsor a duck, lucky ducky prizes, refreshments  and the Easter Bonnet competition). You’d be quackers to miss it.

But the real action starts on Saturday April 4 at Anstruther’s Dreel Halls, when the
doors open at 7.30pm.

We’ll whet your audial appetite with the lineup:

Khartoum Heroes open; next up there’s the wondrous Gummi Bako, immediately followed by our very own favourite, Hamish James Hawk and the Homebirds.

Tickets are staggering value at only £15.

Regular readers of the blog will know of our connection with Hamish. Under the mentorship of Kenny Anderson (a.k.a. King Creosote) he’s really beginning to make a name for himself and his new work is so much more than good.

On Sunday, there’s an indoor picnic at the same venue (you can never be too careful in Scotland in April) and the music starts up again from 3pm.

The lineup:

The one and only King Creosote
Lomond Campbell
Charlie Cunningham
Dan Lyth
Sorren Maclean and Hannah Fisher

Tickets are more expensive this time, at £25 (but that does include the aforementioned picnic).

Get them while they’re still gettable here.


That old chestnut again ….

that-old-chestnut

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say.

We thought it would be interesting to put that old adage to the test by showing some of our favourite pictures. Naked, as it were.

And a few of our letter groups, sans images.

So we’ve produced especially for you, dear reader (or should that be viewer?), two 20-page booklets that showcase our words and pictures on their own. Cautiously titled The Picture Book and the Book of Words.

Printed as a run of 50 they are limited so if you would like copies please email info@60w.co.uk and we’ll get them to you tout suite.

Can they hack it? We’ll let you be the judge of that.

old-chestnut


If this is work, who needs holidays?

cc-header

Every year, for the last five years, we have had the great pleasure of designing, writing, compiling and producing the brochures for what has become a very special client, Cottages & Castles.

2015 was no exception.

It is as close to a labour of love as you can possibly get. We are blessed with an appreciative and happy marketing department. While unearthing more gems from the bottomless treasure trove that is Scotland.

cc-1

cc-2

cc-3

cc-4

More stunning landscapes.

cc-5

cc-6

cc-7

More unusual things to do and see.

cc-8

cc-9

cc-10

cc-11

More of everything, in fact, this magical land has to offer.

And when the job is done, we are surprised and delighted to discover we actually get paid for the privilege.  Ah, Nirvana!

Do yourself a favour. Order a copy of the latest Cottages and Castles brochure, or visit the website.

Stir your soul. Lift your spirits. Book a cottage, even.

Who knows? You, like us, may get perilously close to finding the meaning of life.

www.cottages-and-castles.co.uk


It all started with Howdy Doody.

It all started with Howdy Doody

It’s arguably one of the world’s most famous proclamations.

First uttered by Chief Thunderthud on the 50’s TV programme, The Howdy Doody Show.

Later adopted by headbangers, metalheads, skaters, surfers and, well, Ninja Turtles.

Have you guessed it yet?  If not, here’s some more clues.

It’s a singular word meaning positive, good and great, even greater than cool.

It’s a word you just yell out, like woohoo! (“Does anyone really yell out woohoo anymore?” Ed)

It’s rock n’ roll.  The nearest equivalent in today’s parlance would be Awesome.

Still not got it? It’s one of Bart Simpson’s favourites.

It’s the name for a brand new Edinburgh smoothie bar venture, the owner of which recently approached 60 Watt to design his brand identity. The name was a given, the design was ours to play with.

And play we did.

Our design solution and the answer to those interminable questions and clues is below.

abunga


Omni present.

In the advertising business, clients are won, wooed or otherwise ensnared in a variety of ways.

Route one: the classic pitch.

Route two: “We’ll come up with a marketing strategy which will naturally lead on to a creative solution and…bingo, you’re a client.”

And route three: the walk in. As in, “I need some ads done. You guys do ads. Do me some ads.”

The latest addition to the 60 Watt client list, Omni furnishing, falls into the latter category.

Raymond Lafferty, Omni’s proprietor, is one of the few remaining independents with a sense of taste and style and a stock of furniture pieces you just won’t find in the chain-stores.

A genuinely nice guy, he’s as laid back as one of his reclining chairs and wouldn’t know hard sell if it gave him a Glasgow kiss.

Consequently his brief for a series of half page colour press ads was a bit of a gift. Leading swiftly to our creative solution: big pictures of various hero furniture items loudly proclaiming their best features, coupled with the strapline: “Furniture so good it sells itself.”

The ads are running in the Scotsman every week for a year.  If you haven’t seen them yet, here’s a sample:

Omni Furnishing


The Mad Hatter.

The Mad-Hatter Platter

The Mad Hatter charcuterie platter. A whole lot of eating for only ten of our threatened Scottish pounds.

It seems as if a noteworthy new eating establishment opens every week in the 60 Watt ‘hood.

Just around the corner, the wonderful Atelier on Morrison Street is already at No.2 for Edinburgh restaurants on Tripadvisor.

And the latest eaterie on the scene (less restaurant, more gastropub) is even closer. The Mad Hatter is virtually on our doorstep, right next door to the infamous Diane’s Pool Hall (although don’t let that out you off).

The new owners have transformed the former sow’s ear into something of a silk purse.

Lovely decor and ambience, a good choice of craft beers, wines and cocktails and some of the best pub grub we’ve tasted.

So far, we’ve tried the chicken club sandwich, a huge, well presented baguette, stuffed with chicken, nachos and cheese; the chilli nachos, chock full of pulled beef or pork, salsa, guacamole and sour cream and, perhaps best of all, the charcuterie platter complete with Mellis cheeses (pictured above) possibly the best ten quid you’ve ever spent.

A nice addition to the burgeoning quality pub scene in Haymarket. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.