I discovered the High Snobiety blog today whilst I was searching for a t-shirt I saw in Dazed&Confused.

The blog features urban style and designs, from trainers to suitcases and even invitations sent out by fashion designers. I think this a pretty cool design for an invitation. It stands out, which is something I think all good PR communications should do. Also it cleverly ties in with the company's name, Original Fake.

For PR projects at University I've tried to make unusual invitations and fliers. For Mogul magazine I printed invitations on to ohp transparencies, with the title 'It's clear to see you've been invited to the Mogul magazine launch party'. I also made fliers for Mogul magazine designed to look like pieces of toast, with the slightly clichéd slogan of 'The best thing since sliced bread'.

As part of my Formby project press pack, promoting the town to tourists, I designed postcards to give out to journalists. It might not be the most innovative way to reach your publics but I still think there is a place for fliers and invitations in marketing. After all it grabs your attention a lot more than a simple invitation via e-mail or fax ever could.

Have you ever created any interesting fliers or invitations, or used a cool design to stand out?

Labels: blog, dazed confused, design, fliers, formby, highsnobiety.com, huddersfield, invitations, matthew watson, mogul magazine, original fake, university

Yesterday we had our photoshoot with Alex Petricca in a studio in Speke. What a great experience! Alex took photographs of us as a family in a variety of different poses from the diamond shaped bohemian rhapsody look as favoured by Queen to playing twister as favoured by the Queen. Possibly. He also took shots of my parents together, and of my brother and I, as well as some other groups shots. Plus we all had individual photos taken to warm us up, and perhaps inject a little bit of glamour into our facebook profiles.

All in all it was a great day and I think my mum really enjoyed the experience, since after all the photoshoot was her 50th birthday present from my brother and I.

With regards the weather in Huddersfield , it is snowing!

It is also my cousin's 18th birthday - Happy Birthday Lisa.

Labels: alex petrica, birthday, bohemian rhapsody, formby, huddersfield, matthew watson, photograph, queen

Dissertation asking Is blogging the future of Public Relations? Done.

Thank you to everyone who helped me with interviews:
(Alphabetical as always)

Heather Constantine, the parliamentary researcher for Ann Widdecombe

Iain Dale is a political commentator who blogs at www.iaindale.com

Sarah Halton of Tangerine PR

Roger Haywood the former CIPR and CIM president.

Ian Green the director of media at Green Communications

Johannes Kokert and engineer at Leica Microsystems in Germany

Simon Law, a junior product manager at Amadeus in France

Thibault Masson, the founder of international online marketing consultancy Fashion Fox

Katie McLoughlin of Trinity Mirror North West

Alexander Petricca, a professional photographer and blogger in Liverpool.

Douglas Smith the former CIPR president and MD of Parliamentary Perceptions

Margaret Tarpey the MD of Concept Communications

Nina Watson, the senior account manager at Concept Communications

Paul Watson the Global IT manager of Rolls-Royce Energy

Philip Young, a senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland and prominant PR blogger

Special thanks also go out to:

Maxine Barnett who organised the 'Two PR Greats' lecture and introduced me to Douglas Smith and Roger Haywood.

Anne Gregory whose lecture on 'Public Relations and its Struggle for Respectability' at the Bradford University School of Management helped me enormously.

Labels: cipr, concept pr, dissertation, formby, huddersfield, is blogging the future of public relations, matthew watson, public relations, students, university

At the moment I'm in the process of finishing my dissertation.

What I need is some extra time, an excellent spell checker and the ability to type several hundred words a minute.

What I don't need is someone getting a little too trigger happy with a bulldozer and cutting through the network cable, bringing the entire university network down along with all the e-mails that I desperately need from people I've contacted.

And it's raining!

Labels: dissertation, e-mails, formby, huddersfield, matthew watson, rain, university

I have got tickets for the skins party in Liverpool. It's on the 25th April, which is the end of term and therefore the day that I finish university. Or at least the end of my seminars and lessons, I still have an exam after that. But it's very exciting regardless. I shall keep you updated with what bands etc are playing as the lineup hasn't been announced yet.

Will you be attending?

Labels: formby, huddersfield, liverpool, matthew watson, party, skins, university

On wednesday night (27th) I was treated to an interesting lecture by former CIPR presidents Roger Haywood and Douglas Smith at the University of Huddersfield. The event was well turned out with Anne Gregory, another former CIPR president, in attendance.

Andy Green of Green Communications, who is the honorary research fellow at the University was also there offering an insight into the public relations world.

Roger Haywood left me very impressed with his tales of public relations past and his hopes for the future of the profession. He offered us advice for when we apply for jobs, saying that we should includea photograph of ourselves with out CV. To make it truly standout from the hundreds of other applicants who might be applying for the same position. A great little piece of advice I think.

Douglas Smith invited us into his world of political public relations and lobbying. He presented us with a three-page handout containing plenty of information on how to succeed in the political arena of public relations. Although this is not an area that is of particular interest to me, I found it incredibly useful with regards to my dissertation and my plans to discuss political blogging.

Best of all - the event was free!

Labels: andy green, anne gregory, cipr, douglas smith, formby, huddersfield, matthew watson, public relations, roger haywood

As part of my group's PR campaign for the Opus Project we decided to create a website, mailing list and blog. Today I launched a basic version of the website to get things started.

For those of you that don't know, the Opus Project is an iniative by the University of Huddersfield to promote creative works and designs by current and former students.

Labels: blog, blogging, formby, huddersfield, mailing list, matthew watson, opus project, public relations, university, website

The media ball is now looking likelier than ever after a meeting today. We decided what we want to do and how we're going to go about promoting the event. We now have a facebook group and the lovely poster, which I designed earlier. I'm quite proud of it, in fact I'm that proud I'm going to put it in my portfolio.

I've also discovered Skiddle, which is a great website that allows you to sell tickets to your own events online. The only hitch it that they charge the customer a 10% booking fee, but that's not uncommon.

Have you experience any website's like Skiddle or better? I'd love to hear.

Labels: facebook, formby, galpharm stadium, huddersfield, matthew watson, media ball, poster, tv head, university

For the last four hours I’ve been watching Live Earth. I’d love to watch it in its entirety but tonight is Simon’s leaving do and apparently I’d rather go to a party than save the world! That said I might walk instead of getting a taxi.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Why do we get taxi’s so often in Huddersfield? We live in the town centre and we’re poor students. Yet almost every night we go out we spend money to travel what is essentially a two minute walk. I plan to make it my aim to take less taxi’s next year. They’re only really necessary if it’s raining after all.

However, it is a lot easier to say things than to actually do things. But if we don’t do things we might not be here to say or do those things. Do you agree?

Labels: climate change, formby, global warming, green, huddersfield, live earth, matthew watson, students