The launch of Beyond 21
Ex Leeds MD, Jayne Barrett, is heading up our new learning and development programme, Beyond 21. We’ve invested cold, hard cash in our people because nurturing individual talent makes us all stronger. Beyond 21’, entitled so because it is the age at which most people in our industry leave full-time education, includes activities built around four core areas that are intrinsic to the success of our business - creativity, people, future and sharing.

Awarded 2 stars in the Sunday Times Best Company to Work For
Elmwood has been recognised for its commitment to motivating its staff by the Sunday Times.

Investors in People
Elmwood retains its Investors in People standard and was commended for its sustained commitment to staff development.

Elmwood puts its money where its mouth is
Elmwood’s entrepreneurial arm, Elmwood Ventures, has created an exciting new tea brand, Make Mine a Builder’s.
Make Mine a Builder’s comes just at the right time to put an end to recent reports that Britain sells the worst cuppa in the world. And it has the backing of Britain’s most famous tea connoisseurs – builders! In partnership with the Federation of Master Builders, we’ve set up a Foundation to attract younger people into the trade.

Jo Coomber starts as Managing Director, Elmwood Edinburgh
After a thorough search we’ve found an outstanding new MD to head up our Edinburgh team. Jo Coomber joins us from Sony Ericsson.

Nick Ramshaw appointed as Director of Leeds Media
Leeds Media works to develop and promote the city’s media, marketing and e-business sectors and has 240 members based in and around Leeds. Nick is already a member of the Design Business Association’s board and in his new role he will look to raise the profile of design and media specifically within the Yorkshire region.

New MD for Elmwood London
Nicolas Mamier joins Elmwood, bringing with him 13 years of international advertising and design experience gained in agencies including Publicis, Bates Europe and Seven Worldwide. He’s also worked as part of NBC Europe’s marketing team, and was Managing Director of Scholtz and Friends, London, before joining us. Nicolas is a French national who has lived in the UK with his wife and daughter since 1994.

Officially the most effective design consultancy in the world!
We scooped two more prestigious awards at this year’s Design Business Association’s International Design Effectiveness Awards (IDEAs). This brings our total to 14 clear wins at the event (not to mention all the other finalists and commendations), making us the most successful consultancy in the entire history of the event. So we thought we’d big it up by claiming we’re the most effective design consultancy in the world. (Come on, you can’t blame us for shouting about it!)

Jonathan to chair Design Skills Advisory Panel
Jonathan has been chosen to chair the panel as it begins to assess responses to the Design Council and Creative & Cultural Skills’ ‘Keep British Design Alive’ consultation.

Elmwood Leeds in top three companies to work for in Yorkshire
Elmwood has been highly commended as one of the best companies to work for in Yorkshire in the Yorkshire Post’s Excellence in Business Awards. We were shortlisted due to our inclusive approach and the judges (Bradford School of Management) felt that Elmwood had a great attitude towards the continual development of employees.

Elmwood on show in The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
Elmwood was announced as the first of ten winners of the Design Business Association’s ‘Canny Can’ competition, and all winning designs now form part of an exhibition at the Museum.
Group Design Director, Torben Dunn, says;
“On the back of the ever increasing interest in sustainability, the idea was to create a can design where the hero was the can itself - where it had its own green ‘authentic attitude’. Stuffed full of organic orange juice the can wishes the drinker to hurry up and scoff the content so it can (pun intended) be recycled into an aeroplane. It’s a powerful combination of great standout and strong copywriting.”

Celebrating Yorkshire Day
Elmwood London hosted an exhibition of Yorkshire creativity to mark the importance of Yorkshire’s role in the Government’s goal to make the UK the creative hub of the world. Guest speakers were Antony Gormley, famous sculptor of the Angel of the North, and Andrew Marsden of Britvic Soft Drinks.

Elmwood launches online grammar clinic
At Elmwood we’re passionate about language, and we wanted to share some of our expert knowledge. We encourage all writers to write creatively – and that sometimes means breaking the rules. But it’s difficult to break the rules if you’re not sure what they are in the first place. We have launched the online grammar clinic as an easy to use resource which can be bookmarked and referred to time and time again.

Jonathan wins award for promoting Leeds as a centre of marketing and creative excellence
Chairman Jonathan has been awarded the Leeds Media Profile Award at the Leeds Media Annual Lunch this month.
The award is given each year to the person or company that has done the most to raise the profile of Leeds as a thriving and creative centre for the media and marketing industry. Jonathan was deemed worthy of such an accolade due to his success in bringing international business to the city and Elmwood’s achievements in general.

Elmwood Edinburgh rebrands major TV broadcasters
The new unified identity of Scottish TV and Grampian TV has been revealed this month as stv. The two broadcasters, owned by SMG plc, are effectively ITV in Scotland, delivering the ITV network feed together with regional news and sports programmes.

TV viewers across Scotland switched on to a new look for their favourite peak time TV stations with the launch of stv, the most dynamic re-brand in the history of the channels.

Elmwood wins for the fifth time!!
Elmwood has been named Design Consultancy of the Year, for the fifth time in ten years, in the Robert Horne North of England Design Consultancy of the Year awards. As well as winning the overall title, Elmwood also topped the poll in client satisfaction, an area which is of the highest importance to our business.

Jonathan Sands is asked to speak at the PLMA’s Packaging Design Summit in Amsterdam.

Elmwood London hosts the DBA & WKS Salary and Charge Out Survey Report to DBA members.

Elmwood gains 1 star in the Sunday Times Best Company to Work For

Joe Rogers appointed as Managing Director of Elmwood, Australia
Joe comes from Canada and has worked in the UK for Checkland Kindleysides, a leading retail design consultancy helping such clients as Vodafone, Kohler, Hammonds and Levi’s. For the two years prior to joining Elmwood, Joe worked for Extreme Group, one of Canada’s leading advertising agencies, and so brings a vast amount of experience and expertise to our offer down under.

Mobius Awards
Elmwood has won 2 international awards – a gold statue for copywriting for our Moo notebook and also a 2nd place certificate for outstanding creativity for Hull Cityimage’s Wilberforce brochure.

Elmwood launches Wordplay writing courses
Elmwood has long championed the importance of language in design and branding and we’re now launching our own writing courses, under the banner Wordplay©. Designed to benefit people in all areas of business, the courses come at a time when effective use of language has never been more essential.

 

Non executive directors strengthen leadership team
Elmwood has augmented its leadership team with the addition of three new non-executive directors - Lord Newby, Richard Watson and Brian Child.
Lord (Dick) Newby is the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman in the House of Lords, a member of the Economic Affairs Select Committee and Convenor of the Yorkshire Peers Group. He is also Chief of Staff to Charles Kennedy.
Richard Watson is a futurist and creative strategist based in Sydney. He is the founder of What’s Next – a bi monthly newsletter about new ideas, innovations and trends. 
Brian Child was Chief Executive of advertising agency McCann Erickson Manchester from 1989 until his retirement in 2002.
Elmwood will benefit from their objectivity, diverse experience and expertise. Their role will be to question intelligently, debate constructively, challenge rigorously and decide dispassionately.

Streets Ahead
Elmwood has mapped the entire length of Oxford Street for consumer trends and insights and has created a 20m version of the street that was launched in ASDA’s head office. The aim of this exercise is to encourage our clients to keep their heads up and look at what is going on around them in order to stay ahead of their competition.

Jonathan appointed to George global brand council
Jonathan Sands has been appointed as a member of the George Clothing global brand council. 

Design Consultancy of the Year
Elmwood has been named Design Consultancy of the Year in the Robert Horne North of England Design Consultancy of the Year awards at a ceremony held at The Room in Leeds. As well as being named Design Consultancy of the Year, Elmwood’s identity project for client Richardson of Sheffield also won the award for best piece of work and Jonathan Sands Elmwood’s Chairman was voted best design head.

Launch of own-brand strategy and visual identity for our first Australian client
Elmwood has been appointed to work as partner with the Australian retail giant Coles supermarkets in the delivery of a fresh own-brand strategy, including positioning and creation of visual identity, following an invitation extended to Elmwood’s Chairman, Jonathan Sands, by Coles Myer Managing Director Strategy & Development, Food, Liquor and Fuel, Peter Merritt.

Elmwood Edinburgh MD takes DBA to Scotland
Nick Ramshaw is appointed a director of the Design Business Association, with specific responsibility to help grow DBA membership and design community in Scotland.

More success for Elmwood in Scottish Design Awards
For the third year running, Elmwood enjoyed multiple successes at the Scottish Design Awards. Having won 3 categories in 2003 and 4 last year, Elmwood’s haul this time round was 2 category winners, 1 category finalist and 2 of the 4 finalists in the prestigious Scottish Designer of the Year 2005 award. The highlight of the night was 2 wins for Moo, Elmwood’s new self-promotional book. The heads-up, inspirational notebook won both the Best Use of Paper and Best Item of Self Promotion categories.

Elmwood opens not one but two offices down under
Due to the huge success of the project, Elmwood has just opened up not one but two offices, in Melbourne and Sydney and the guys out there are excited about growing the business.
Elmwood’s creative director and his family from Halifax have moved out to Melbourne along with 2 of Elmwood Leeds’ top designers, in order to service Australia’s largest retailer Coles Myer Ltd throughout the delivery of Coles supermarkets new own-brand strategy.

ASDA – 20 year anniversary
Elmwood has worked closely with ASDA at all levels of the business (from ASDA brand to the Corporate team) for 20 years now, providing support and strategic input to successfully reinvent the brand from an ailing supermarket chain to a world-leading retailer. Instrumental in helping to differentiate the brand and shape a unique superstore culture, Elmwood as lead agency has, throughout the entire ‘renewal’ process, produced key stakeholder communications such as the annual report, and strategically overhauled ASDA’s own brand packaging.

Elmwood wins more Benchmarks than any other agency
Elmwood has won and was a finalist in two other categories at the Benchmark Awards. The Serious branding programme won the professional services category, with our work for Bradford Centre Regeneration and Hull Cityimage being finalists in the public sector and Not for profit categories respectively.

Elmwood appoints Group Design Director
Elmwood has appointed Torben Dunn as Group Design Director, to oversee the creative output, whilst Creative Director Richard Scholey concentrates on heading up Elmwood Australia.  Torben joins Elmwood from JKR, where he has been Design Director for the past 5 years.  Torben’s experience in branding and design has been gained over the last 18 years working with clients such as SC Johnson, Guinness, Heinz, Dulux and McVities. 
His role at Elmwood will be to raise the creative profile of the business and to ensure that Elmwood’s designers achieve their full potential.

Elmwood London moves
Elmwood London has moved into the former Private Eye Soho offices - a move driven by greater demand on the business as its client base continues to grow.  Looking forward to next year Elmwood is currently exploring further opportunities for growth in Singapore and North America.

Dipping in at Elmwood London
The new home of Elmwood London, at 8/9 Carlisle Street in Soho, formally opened its doors on Tuesday 22nd November with a champagne reception attended by many of our key clients. To mark the creation of Elmwood’s creative lounge, the audience of marketing and design professionals was treated to two presentations on the future of marketing and brands. Greg Nugent, Head of Marketing at Eurostar, mused on how to raise the profile of marketing within organisations, as well as providing a revealing insight into how the sub-Channel carrier planned to capitalise on the London/Paris Olympic bid, no matter the winner. Adam Morgan, author of Eating the Big Fish and The Pirate Inside, talked about his theory of the brand as a country, with its own unique culture, language and rituals.

Elmwood – Seriously Effective!
Last night we scooped the award for best in the corporate branding (design and implementation costs under £100,000) category for its identity and applications for Serious in the DBA’s International Design Effectiveness Awards.
This most recent award, reaffirms Elmwood’s position as one of the most successful agencies in the history of the awards, coming in at no. 7 in the effectiveness league tables, beating the likes of Interbrand and Enterprise IG.

February - Scottish Design Agency of the Year, 2004
Elmwood Edinburgh wins the Drum Magazine Robert Horne Scottish Design Consultancy of the Year 2004 in only its second full year of business, an achievement that many of the more established agencies have failed to emulate.  Individual poll results included being voted 2nd by their peers, 3rd for creative work and 3rd for financial performance, as analysed by accountants Baker Tilly. 

DBA appoints 2 Elmwood Directors as Regional Heads of Development
Elmwood’s Nick Ramshaw (Scotland) and Jayne Barrett (Leeds) have been appointed as 2 of the 5 regional heads of development, to promote the design industry outside of London.

HBOS plc appoints Elmwood Edinburgh
Elmwood Edinburgh appointed by HBOS plc to design and produce its annual report and accounts, which has a 3,000,000 print run and is being designed in Scotland for the first time.

Sweeping the board at the Scottish Design Awards (again!)
We were awarded 3 category winners and a commendation. We won the Annual Report (Scottish Ambulance Service), Promotional Literature (Curtis Fine Papers) and Stationery (360 Ambient Media) categories, with the commendation for Direct Mail (In Sickness and in Health). And to top the evening off in style, Paul Sudron was invited back on stage (yet again) to receive his award of Scottish Designer of the Year 2004. Another great night for Elmwood.

Pie & peas for England!
Engl& Pies & Peas event at 7 Poland Street to mark England’s match against Switzerland in the Euro 2004 football championships. Wayne Rooney ensures the evening goes with a swing as England win 3-0. A good time had by all.

ASDA awards Elmwood the ‘Excellence in Service Award’
We have been awarded a unique award from one of our longest standing clients, ASDA.  The "Excellence in Service" award was presented in recognition of the creativity, commitment and energy Elmwood has delivered to ASDA over the last year, in particular.  The ASDA brand team also stressed the value of the enjoyable working relationship they have with Elmwood.

11th Design Effectiveness winner

Elmwood wins its 11th International Design Effectiveness Award in the packaging category for Debbie & Andrew’s sausages. Projects for Asda and Whyte and Mackay are finalists.

Appointed to BBC and BT rosters

Elmwood is appointed to the rosters of the BBC and BT.

Sweeping the board at the Scottish Design Awards

Our work was recognised with four award wins at this year’s Scottish Design Awards - Hot Tin Roof (Best Stationery), Curtis Classic posters (Promotional Literature), Scottish Ambulance (Best Annual Report) and Straight From The Horse’s Mouth, our own book which won a Commendation.

Nick Ramshaw joins Elmwood Scotland

Nick Ramshaw takes up the helm as Chief Executive at Elmwood’s Edinburgh office. An experienced Account Director joins from Pure where he was Business Development Director.

Elmwood Scotland opens for business

Elmwood opens its third office with a city centre office in Edinburgh to service a growing number of Scottish clients with guest speaker Andy Hornby, HBOS Plc Retail Banking Chief Executive.

Design Consultancy of the Year

Elmwood voted Design Consultancy of the Year in the Robert Horne North of England awards. Director of the Year awarded to Elmwood Chairman, Jonathan Sands.

Design Effectiveness

Elmwood’s creative team confirmed winner of the International Design Effectiveness Award in the packaging branded non-food category for its work with Richardson Sheffield Laser Scissors.

Roses coup

Elmwood picks up two Roses Design Awards: ’Best use of Typography’ for its graffitti inspired book ’Free’, created for client Papierfabrik Scheufelen; and ’Best use of Paper’ for its self promotion book ’Straight from the Horse’s Mouth’.

Dr Jon

Elmwood Chairman, Jonathan Sands celebrates 20 years at Elmwood and receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield.

9th DBA Design Effectiveness Award

Elmwood win a 9th Design Effectiveness Award under the print category for ’This Is Not Real Art’ booklet promoting PhoeniXmotion, a coated paper produced by Scheufelen.

Launch of Elmwood London

Elmwood celebrates the opening of its brand innovation centre, The Nursery, in London’s Soho with a new identity and an event at the newly opened London Eye.

New Elmwood identity

The new identity uses overlapping shapes to communicate key purpose ’ Wherever brands and people meet, we’re there to improve the experience’.

Elmwood Trust launched

A proposal to make all Elmwood people owners of the business is agreed. The groundbreaking scheme makes every Elmwood person a shareholder in the business.

New MD

Jayne Barrett is appointed as Managing Director of the new set up with Jon Sands remaining as Chairman.

Children’s Forest award-winner

The Childrens’ Forest website we created for client Yorkshire Water wins six awards at The Roses.

Northern Design Agency of the Year

For the second year running, Elmwood is voted Northern Design Agency of the Year. Client also voted us most strategic agency and we won the Peers Award.

Mobius Awards

We won five awards at the Mobius Awards in New York.

Working with London Business School

Elmwood takes part in London Business School’s Future Media Research Programme.

Elmwood’s 10th Anniversary Book

Publication of ’Elmwood 10’, marking Elmwoods first decade as an independent design company.

Elmwood chairs RSA

Elmwood Chairman, Jonathan Sands, appointed Chairman of the RSA’s Design Advisory Panel.

8th Design Effectiveness Award

At a ceremony in London, Elmwood receives its 8th DBA Design Effectiveness Award in five years.

Keith Kirby joins Elmwood

Keith Kirby joins Elmwood as Managing Director. He was previously at Wolff Olins, managing the launch and international development of the Orange brand.

Elmwood presents to FIFA

The Elmwood team along with Michael Owen, Sir Bobby Charlton and Geoff Hurst fly out to Zurich, to present England’s World Cup Bid to FIFA.

Elmwood appointed Asda Wal-Mart lead agency

ASDA now part of Wal-Mart, appoints Elmwood as its lead design agency.

Jayne Barrett joins Elmwood

Jayne Barrett joins Elmwood the team as Account Director, after a secondment as head of corporate affairs at Hanson PLC in London.

Design Company of the Year

Elmwood voted the North of England’s Design Company of the year.

Elmwood moves up creative league table

The Design Week creative award league table places Elmwood at 15th nationally (one of only two design companies from outside London in the top 30).

The FA appoints Elmwood

Elmwood chosen by The FA to design and produce its bid to bring the World Cup to England in 2006.

The first edition of VIA

Elmwood’s journal of creativity is launched.

Elmwood represented at Windsor Castle

Elmwood advises Government

Elmwood Chairman, Jonathan Sands, joins the working party advising the Government on the Competitiveness White Paper.

Elmwood and the RSA

Elmwood Chairman, Jonathan Sands, is elected to the RSA Council.

Elmwood represented at Buckingham Palace

Elmwood represented at Downing Street

The first Elmwood conference

The first Elmwood conference focusing on creativity heralds a series of London events featuring Advantivity and speakers such as Edward de Bono.

Three DBA Design Effectiveness Awards

Elmwood picks up a further three Effectiveness awards for ASDA and Terry’s Suchard.

Northern light Jonathan Sands

Just as he was about to take up the chair of the Design Business Association, Jonathan spoke to Andy Gilgrist about his plans for the DBA’s future.

The internet arrives at Elmwood

Elmwood is fully linked up to internet and email.

Elmwood wins its first DBA Design Effectiveness Award

A DBA Award is presented to Elmwood for its work for Somerfield Medicines.

A star is born

Mitch, Elmwood’s favourite dog-in-residence, is born in The Lake District.

Elmwood goes digital

All Elmwood design projects now produced digitally. Every Elmwood desk now has an Apple Macintosh. Bye, bye cow gum. Bye, bye word processor.

Elmwood co-founds European design network

Creation of Totem, a network of independent design companies with offices in Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Oslo and Stockholm.

First international design award win

A Clio statuette is presented in New York to Elmwood team, Julia White and Tony Gamble, for their packaging design for Young’s Foods.

Elmwood becomes an independent design company

Jonathan Sands leads a management buyout of Elmwood from its previous owners, a Leeds communications group.