My decade of design at ICG

Time flies when you are having fun and since joining ICG way back in September 2004, our Creative Director Simon Couchman has been involved in shaping the direction and vision for the creative agency. Here, he reflects on some of his highlights of the last decade:

1 The ICG Stripes: From our walls to our plants pots, mugs and bean bags, our ICG stripes have become our distinctive brand, selling our story in super bright colours. I love it when we wear the colours, consciously or not!

2 ICG People: We like to think of us as one big family, and over the past 10 years I've been able to work with lots of very talented people, and made a good few friends along the way too.

3 Our Christmas Gifts: Often a dreaded project of an agency, the annual ICG Christmas gift is a pleasurable challenge clients and colleagues have received a range of socks, scarves, sweets and mugs, all in our colourful stripes. In addition to the exciting presents we also send our annual highlights book, which is a great way of sharing our yearly achievements.

4 Published Work: All creatives love recognition from their peers, and ICG's work has been featured in a number of international design publications. Personal favourites include the six page feature of ICG's own branding in Design Matters: Portfolios by Maura Keller and Tashen's Brand Identity Now! which featured double page case studies on our branding work for Blackpool Airport, League Football Education and W.T. Sea Air.

5 Branding Businesses: My first task at ICG was to provide brand ideas for a mortgage agent. A decade later and ICG have helped hundreds of businesses improve their brand image. From airports to holiday parks, logistics to tech firms, helping companies create a strong identity is often the foundation of all our work that follows.

6 The ICG Office: From the outside the building may not of changed much, but open the door and our office has been transformed into a hub of creative thinking from our bean bag filled thinking space to the brightly coloured cafe, all in our trademark colours!

7 Staff Trips: A highlight for everyone at ICG, our annual post Christmas staff trip has become legendary. With Bruges, Prague, Barcelona, Edinburgh and Dublin already ticked off, the challenge is finding new destinations to visit!

8 Pitching and Winning new work: When the opportunity arises, it is great to assemble the creative teams and put our very best into preparing pitch creatives and ultimately winning new accounts. Our high success rate is proof of our commitment in delivering the best from the very beginning.

9 The Evolving Agency: Rapid growth and keeping pace with emerging technologies have both been major factors in how the agency has evolved in just 10 years responsive mobile websites, social media and multi-channel TV are just three examples of new platforms that have taken.

10 Awards: It is great to see ICG gaining accolades for its creativity and innovation and we have become increasingly successful in being nominated and winning leading industry awards. In fact, it's the Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBAs) today, and ICG are finalists for three awards, including Creative Agency of the Year.

LINK:	http://www.icgonline.co.uk/blog/2014/09/12/my-decade-of-design-at-icg/...
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