Hootin' and a Hollerin' - The Hoot Blog

We've recently started to rebrand property developers Sandhurst Contracts. They are currently scheduled to work on several different developments in Essex, creating sustainable and attractive apartment complex's and changing unused and ugly land into highly desirable living spaces.  Read More

Rich's first regular column has just appeared in Talk Business Magazine. It's all about Pinterest and Instagram which is all the more relevant considering Facebook's recent acquisition of the app. You can download the column in it's entirety here  Read More

Recently we told you about Lisa Carpenter and her new business “The Brand Grower” we showed you the new logo we designed and now here's an update on the new business cards. Lisa took advantage of our March and April offer and scored herself some fresh and free (yes FREE!) lux business cards.  Read More

Instagram has been in the news this week on account of it being sold for a ridiculous sum of money to Facebook. I've been using Instagram for the last few months and for those of you that don't know it's a photo-based iPhone or iPad app that edits your photos with a wide range of filters, frames and blurring options to turn the most humdrum of snaps into something punchy and fun.  Read More

This week we've been working on the brand for the lovely Lisa Carpenter (go follow her she's nice) who is about to launch her new business “The Brand Grower”. Lisa is passionate about helping SME's in being the best they can and will be offering a no-nonsense business advice service so they can really achieve their goals  Read More

Is your brand a little bit werrrr? Or a little bit weyyyyy?  Read More

In our ongoing quest to keep people aware of how blinkin' awesome we are we've just sent out some new promotional material to our clients and some potential ones too. A smart little DL flyer/promo newsletter that wraps up what we've done over the last month, chucks in a bit of sound advice and looks pretty lush too. If you don't get one you can download a pdf version here.   Read More

Rich has recently written his second article for Talk Business Magazine all about how Brands can keep their design creative, inspiring and interesting to their clients. The ultimate aim of which is to eventually bring you new an repeat business. It also includes FIVE ways to get creative on the cheap which lets face it - we can all do with a bit of. Download the article after the jump.  Read More

Would you look at this cute little bugger? Look at that nose. You just want to ‘parp’ it don't you? This doggone friendly canine is part of the latest brand we've been working on lately for property finding specialists the Norfolk House Hounds.  Read More

We thought we'd have a bit of fun in the Hoot House this week and give a bit of love to our home town. As admirers of all things lovely and vintage we've created a homage to those ads of yesteryear, in all their out-of-fit glory. Chuck in some classic Futura, a slice of brush and by jingo we'll have them flocking here in droves. For those of you that don't know Southend sits on the Thames Estuary around 30 odd miles or so from London.  Read More

In the Hoot House this week we have a special offer for any new customers. Any new client that takes one of our new branding packages (starting from £295.00) in the month of March will receive 100 full colour luxury business cards*. These little beauties are double the thickness of a normal card...so that's a whopping 600gsm of business card loveliness! They're a real talking point (we should know, we have them ourselves) and they certainly impress in the networking we've done.  Read More

SeeJob are a new enterprise that get people either into or back into work. Unlike other job clubs however SeeJob aim to find people work and careers that they can enjoy. For SeeJob it's not just about numbers and getting people out the door as quick as possible - there's a passion there to find people careers they can be inspired by and keep for the long term.  Read More

In the first of a new series of posts we'd like to show you a lot more of the work we do on  aday-to-day basis. This week we've just done a new flyer for Studio One Creative Photography www.studione.biz.  Read More

In an over-saturated B2B service market it can be incredibly difficult to stand out from your competitors. Whether you are in legal services, accounting or even graphic or web design the ability to differentiate and be “unique” is something every small business yearns for.  Read More

Rich has recently written an article for Talk Business Magazine entitled “Blockbuster Branding”. It's all about how SME's can utilise the tricks and tips of Hollywood to create a pretty awesome brand. You can grab a pdf copy of the article after the jump.   Read More

It's about time we had a new Friday Arvo Playlist, so on this cold Friday Afternoon get your filth on to these little beauties. Bit of D&B, funk and I'm sure that's a “Relax” sample on Novacane which has a few naughty words on it so you may want to tune it down if there's kids about. (That's the Hoot Corporate Responsibility Charter in effect right there ;)) Enjoy 'em! http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/5shHvlbZmDwwP04cnoInir  Read More

This week we've branded like Bond, Brains and Björk. Now we've reached the zenith of our tenuous “Celebrities whose name begins with B and desperately tie them somehow into a Branding related activity” New Year email tips, with out most ridiculous attempt yet. You can stick a fork in us. Cos we're done!  Read More

It's Thursday afternoon and it's your first week back. If you are already flagging or jonesing for a box of After Eights, read Hoot's New Year Branding Tip No. 3. This one's a designed to stimulate your creative buds like Branding Scotch Bonnet!  Read More

It's Wednesday, and while you may still have a furry tongue from incessant mince pie consumption, the world still turns, so it's time for New Year Branding Tip No. 2!  Read More

Christmas good and all that? Excellent.
Now, let's get down to making this New Year one to remember!  Read More

A few months back we produced the Hoot Book of Rather Good Branding Ideas, which turned out to be quite the success with tonnes of downloads, so it was inevitable that it would be followed up with a sequel, and now we've finished it you can download it too!  Read More

Recently we've written a new E-book on Boosting your Brand at Christmas which has some fantastic ideas for really getting your Brand out there in the Festive Season. One of the ideas we've had is to produce a limited edition of our Business cards.  Read More

Bridget Greenwood is a lovely lady who is a bit of a whizz at all things social media. Through her own website, and as one half of the GoTo Girls we got chatting through Twitter and have formed a great relationship whereby we've started to work together as an ongoing Joint Venture. Bridget's pretty hot on Joint Ventures - you can read her blog post on it here.  Read More

It's been stated that video is an immensely powerful tool for any business to have on their website. The ability of it to interact with it's audience in a way that far exceeds text or imagery is well documented, and latest rumours even suppose that next year Google may only list websites in their rankings if they carry video.   Read More

Sometimes we get so bogged down in our work that we gnash our teeth every time the phone rings and we feel like cursing out anyone who dares disturb our train of thought. If this sounds like you. Take a deep breath and stop for 30 seconds...   Read More

What have Hoot and Fabulous African Women got in common? FabAfriq magazine of course! A new, independent lifestyle publication aimed at women of colour and African origin, FabAfriq has articles on fashion and lifestyle mixed with some hard-hitting feature reports affecting the region.  Read More

We're very excited about this project. We've just won the contract to be design guardians for Real Coconut Water in the UK and Europe. RCW is from Thailand and unlike other coconut waters it actually tastes good. This is because the coconuts are far sweeter in Thailand than they are in South America (where the other brands are made). We've got quite a lot of work to do on this project. The website is going to knock it out of the park - I mean just look how smashing the holding page looks. You're going to be seeing a lot of RCW so keep your eyes peeled.   Read More

Born one of 12 in 1919, he spent his early childhood running around the streets of Hoxton, building boxcars, pulling girls hair, scrumping and generally scrapping around this part of London. From a tough working-class background, he was ordered by his Dad to take up boxing not only as a way to defend himself, but to instill a sense of honour and duty. This gladiator academy would stand him in good stead as he developed a taste for pugilism and embarked on a successful career in the ring that was cruelly cut short by Hitler invading Poland.  Read More

A couple of months ago at Taste London we designed a pun filled paper for a PR stunt to promote Modern Milk.   Read More

LESA are a US based charity who help young African women in Cameroon excel in their education. Staffed by ex-pats in the US, and raising money and awareness they provide for many young girls who wouldn't benefit otherwise.  Read More

We haven't done one for a couple of weeks but we're back with an extended playlist to make up for all the misses. Grime, hip-hop and disco...but as usual your ears will be eternally grateful. http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/50x3KKFMTUvKisNGBUaRj2  Read More

So the Friday Arvo Playlist is going great guns. People seem to like it or at least give it a whirl - which is great 'cause I like to throw some obscure stuff in there amongst the more generic themes.   Read More

I'm a sucker for all vintage packaging, but this caught my eye in the local thrift shop. Totally nuts for the typography - loving that arrow. The illustration is a total gong-show too. Love the way he's wielding that implement. Dude's got that look in his eye he might press your slacks or he might go all Bateman on you instead! ;)  Read More

I didn't tweet or blog much last week, for two reasons. Firstly all the craziness that went on major English cities really didn't need any pithy comments from me, and secondly it was my little sons 3rd birthday, so I spent much of the later part of the week playing with dinosaurs, Batmobiles and trucks. We also had a big BBQ to celebrate, hence my delicate reintroduction this week.

I think it's a good chance to take stock and calm down today, hence the laid back vibe of the playlist. Go get yourself a daiquiri (personally I go lime. Tangy you say? I should coco), sit by your nearest infinity pool and get your chill on. http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/6NOef0LcvXk0TEHq7E5MNL.  Read More

It's all about the Polaroid this month. I've always been a fan of the instant camera format, and thought I'd try something a bit different for this months inspiration mood board.   Read More

For the last couple of weeks we've thrown out a genre list, but normal service resumes this week with frankly, some absolute crackers. There's some TV friendly funk, dirty, dirty disco and some classic soul. Those flappy things on the side of your melon, they're going to love this... http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/1GXuoDBApKE4Rp0MhkxqS2  Read More

Yes...Popular 80's music was frankly a bit guff. (Tiffany, Debbie Gibson T'Pau, Starship, I could go on) but...there was a shedload of good stuff that isn't cringe-worthy today.
Anyway I'm off down the shops with a roll of lino and a mullet hairstyle, you may want to listen to this in the meantime it's well skill. http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/1A6mM9Vrc6Dob2QUonDy78  Read More

I'd been aware for sometime that something wasn't right with my business. The work was still trickling in, if anything profits were slightly up and I'd been managing to coast the recession, but I'd become so insular and focused on getting the work out the door that I'd neglected all other areas of my life. I decided that a completely new approach was needed. I needed to re-brand - not just my business but my brain as well.  Read More

Thus are a Cable and Wireless company, and Dream Catchers is an internal project that needed promotion to alert their staff to a new scheme whereby the could undertake any number of tasks outside of the work place. From trekking through Africa to feeding sharks, there are loads of great expeditions available.  Read More

Time for a new playlist. Bit of a departure from the last two weeks. Start of the Summer Holidays and all we need to chill a bit, so it's a bit of a beardy-weirdy 60s/70s/folk/soul combo this arvo. Mellow man...
The Hoot Friday Arvo Playlist - Folk Off  Read More

No, not tips from me, but from the Final Cut Pro (film editing software) guru Rick Young. Rick is one of those clients that works at such a speed it really keeps every ounce of focus to keep up with him. He also recognises the concept of fair pay - which for me is just about as great as you can get!  Read More

Two things happened over the last week that made me write this post. The first was an email I got from a client I haven't spoken to for a while, he wrote,“I like the Hoot thing I see your point after reading your blog - I get it. Respect to you for re-branding your brain - impressive mate - seriously, most just curl up and die”.  Read More

As the way of things, we won't be posting things tomorrow due to circumstances that will become clear next week. But, so as not to disappoint approximately 9 million people that got their freak on to the return of the Friday Arvo Playlist last week we've bought it forward a day. This weeks genre is filthy disco. Think Miami Beach on a hot August night after a lorry carrying baby oil just shed its load. Don't forget to hose yourself down afterwards. http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/2VwbEyibFVw7itOkUkox14   Read More

Here's another first look at some brand work we're doing for Blieu at Cobalt. Cobalt are a data cabling specialist, and do all the hard work to make sure you can fanny around on Facebook, download Game of Thrones illegally and phone your mates when, quite frankly, you should be working.  Read More

I've recently flown back from France by Ryan Air, and in between being fleeced several euros for a cup of coffee, I couldn't help but notice the inside of the cabin was adorned with posters for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. On every overhead baggage compartment there was one of several posters, and when I dropped down my table to rest my over-priced beverage - wallop - another Autobot poster-cum-placemat greeted my eyes.  Read More

Calidus is an IT firm based in London providing all kinds of computer solutions for companies ranging from small local firms to blue chip clients. They came to Hoot looking for a new website - which we'll showcase as soon as the coding is finished, but it was clear to us that before we started on the web we needed to get the brand looking a little sharper...  Read More

We used to run a little section in our old smokey days where we'd thump a load of tunes out that we'd been getting our groove well and truly on to that week. We liked doing and people liked hearing it (I think!) so we thought we'd do it again. Go listen http://open.spotify.com/user/richtarv/playlist/0Jk9D07ODquoLkhID9WlDd   Read More

Over the years we've always tried to undertake a bit of pro-bono work for various charities, both in the UK and on one occasion in South Africa. As times change people and organisations move on and we've suddenly found ourselves not working for any charities or NGO's. Fearing for our souls we want to remedy that.  Read More

One of my main aims with all my clients and their brands is to get them to use good photography. Whatever business they are in, be it software, day spas or shabby chic furniture the benefits of sizzling-hot images are all too apparent. And yet time and time again we're confronted with badly lit, half-heartedly composed and, every designers pet peeve - ultra low resolution images.  Read More

Bit of a bit of a French bent...(sorry) to this post. I've recently spent some time in the Vendee region in France. For inspiration, sun and Kronenbourg. I also spent many hours playing with my daughter in the Atlantic Ocean.  Read More

We're pleased to unveil the new branding for one of our favourite clients - Leigh Sanctuary Day Spa. They recently underwent some changes on their premises, re-modelling and redecorating and creating a fab palace of pamperdom that has more than a little French influence.  Read More

The Hoot Creative Manifesto is written with both small businesses and us as designers in mind, with the aim of bringing more creativity into your workplace. It's aim is also not to vanish up it's own backside with inherent pomposity too, but we'll see.  Read More

Hello Sausage
Some of you know me as Rich from Smoke. The rest of you don't know me from Adam. Here's the deal. For the last decade I had a company called Smoke. When I started Smoke, I thought it would be cool to have an enigmatic one-word name that conjured up all sorts of sophisticated graphic design with a slick style. And it worked for a while. But over the last year or so I've been increasingly bored with that style of design. Everything was starting to look the same, and I came close to jacking it all in, but then didn't.   Read More