Big bid binders win the day

Some great news about the presentation materials I did with 300million for property developers Cathedral: we won!

This was Cathedral's bid to develop a new library, leisure centre and residential accommodation in the heart of Clapham - where I spent much of my London life before upping sticks for Surrey family life.

I wrote and edited the (pretty extensive) documents in double-fast time, and they were delivered to Lambeth Council in the very nick of time. The result: Cathedral, very much the underdogs, won the tender. And won it by a country mile, I'm told.

No doubt this was due primarily to the extraordinary scheme Cathedral proposed, including a spiral library reminiscent of Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim in New York. (To read more, click 'Projects' on the Cathedral site.)


The library interior (image pinched from Cathedral's site with the best of motives)

Even so, Cathedral believed in the value of a professional, original and consistent brand even at this tender stage - including a strong tone of voice. And they've been generous in their apportioning of credit in 300million's and my direction. Which is very nice of them.

Cardiff Waterside website goes live

The website I wrote for Cardiff Waterside, a major business property development in the Welsh capital, is now live.

The designers were Brownjohn (their debut on my client list) and my old friends at Bounce. A lovely job they both made of it, too.

When words can mean life or death

Yet another new client this month, thanks to a kind referral from The Partners. Airwave is the company - until recently part of O2 - that runs the emergency services' dedicated communications network.

As tragic experience has shown, public networks are often overloaded in the wake of major emergencies like 7/7 or the recent floods. And even in the normal day-to-day, emergency teams need a network more resilient and reliable than the standard public services.

That's what Airwave provides. A lot of the detail is secret, and I'd have to eat my laptop if I wrote it here (or something). But suffice to say that the Airwave network is impressively sophisticated, and there's an extraordinary amount going on behind the scenes to make sure it stays reliable in even the toughest conditions.

All of which is very reassuring for me as a member of the public, and rather fascinating to talk about as a copywriter.

I've been drafted in to help implement The Partners' new identity for Airwave (above). That process began, as it must, with tying down the brand's tone of voice, and I've just completed the first of a little mountain of product brochures. Then there's the website and a corporate brochure to do. So that lot should keep me out of mischief for a while.

Making a noise for Bowers & Wilkins

One of this month's nicest surprises was a referral from designer Thomas Manss to his client Bowers & Wilkins, makers of probably the finest loudspeakers in the world. Their astonishing Nautilus speaker (shown here), the result of five years' research and development, is certainly the most amazing-looking speaker I've ever seen.

The company, which has been going since the mid-60s, is one of those wonderfully artisan businesses. One that really is founded on a 'passion' - surely the most over-used word in branding today.

This particular passion is genuine, however. It's a passion for music. And in getting to know the client, I discovered that the business was founded on the fruits of that passion.

John Bowers, a former wartime Signalman, turned to making loudspeakers for customers of his electrical store. And one elderly customer, a Miss Knight, was so impressed with his handiwork, and his knowledge of classical music, that she left him £10,000 to start a business.

Isn't that a terrific story? One hears about 'brand stories' a lot these days, and some people seem to think it's even a good idea to make them up. I can't quite get my head around that - I'm not sure I could get excited about a company based on a fiction. But a company rooted in its own craft and love - now you're talking.

Anyway, the first job has gone very well - I've written the copy for an interactive pod at the forthcoming Geneva motor show. Bowers & Wilkins is making its first foray into in-car audio, alongside another great British brand: Jaguar. I seem to have come on board at an exciting time, so I'll hopefully have more news of Bowers & Wilkins work soon.

First major project for Fabris Lane

It's official: this website works. When Andy Lipscombe of Fabris Lane - the UK's leading sunglasses manufacturer - was looking for a writer, he found my site. And now here I am, starting a major online business-to-business project for the company.

I've already completed a potted company history, a smaller job that allowed us to get to know each other, and for me to get under the skin of the brand and develop a suitable tone of voice. With that done, we're now rolling the tone of voice out into this new website.

Until it's made public, I can't really go into detail, but it has meant a fascinating trip to the company's testing lab, which is a sort of torture chamber for sunglasses. They bend them, twist them, freeze them, heat them up, fire ball bearings at them - even coat them in a synthetic sweat solution. All to make sure they won't get damaged by anything you do to them as the owner. (Well, within reason.) It was, if you'll excuse the pun, quite an eye-opener.

Watch out for more news - and a link to the finished site - in a few weeks.

Land Securities, Land Securities, Land Securities

It's been a bit like this recently. But don't get me wrong - I'm not about to complain about being landed with stacks of work from such a creatively enlightened company.

As you may have spotted in some of the design press, Land Securities launched their new corporate identity (below), designed by Hat-trick, this month.

Hat-trick asked me to get involved, and as well as creating some standard paragraphs that are now appearing on all the group's literature, I also wrote and edited the two sets of guidelines - one internal, one external.

I've also been busy with Hat-trick developing the new ad campaign for Capital Commitment (Land Securities' London portfolio), now appearing all over London.

Then there was a little book to do about the company's vision, also with Hat-trick. And a rather bigger book (this time with 300million) about all the group's London developments. Which I also helped turn into the Capital Commitment website with Bounce Digital. With whom I'm also developing a huge online archive of all Land Securities' London marketing.

So if you're one of the people I've had to turn away in the last six months, you now know part of the reason why.