The launch of the Timberland Urban Adventures P.O.S. campaign took a very different slant to any brief Portfolio had previously tackled.

The campaign was designed with an urban twist aimed at the younger consumer, transporting the brand from its typically rural roots to the urban jungle. Portfolio were commissioned to direct and produce the gritty photography for the P.O.S found in JD stores across the UK.

As it turned out, people couldn’t wait to get involved creating and maintaining green spaces and new habitats for wildlife. Our work got them to stop sitting in front of computers and televisions, and, instead, to start enjoying the soul-nourishing reward of nature with all its sights, sounds, textures and aromas.

Apparently, for the volunteers, pulling their wellies on, grabbing a spade and getting out in the fresh air with all its wonderful sensory overload did as much good for their heads as their efforts did for the environment. Whilst they were doing some real physical activity and doing some good for their surroundings, the volunteers also got to feel good about themselves and savour those experiences in the company of kindred spirits. They say hard work never hurt anyone, but this project proved that it can actually help people.

After considerable deliberation, we developed the logo, which simply and easily combines the magnum and the lobster tail. This would become the central notion around which the distinctive and yet uncluttered atmosphere would flourish. Just as a confident chef understands to err on the side of simplicity, and let the ingredients speak for themselves, we realized it was important that Thermidors was perceived as a brand of quiet elegance. We pared back every element, so as to enhance the quintessential, clean brand experience and to reflect the refined but understated environment.

To fully engage the teenage age-group, the brief demanded peer-to-peer delivery, bite-size information and high-impact branding. The concept was therefore focused on mobile and online communication channels to generate a more targeted response amongst the teen audience by way of a micro-site and supporting printed literature.

All the information was intended to demystify and de-stigmatise the subject and make it something young people could actually talk about with their parents. If they could have a chat instead of a shouting-match about piercing, and have a chance at a better relationship, then as far as we could see, that was more than we could have hoped for.

www.theholetruth.co.uk

The bigger picture was to try to uncover new talents, who might have the potential to be coached up to a world-class standard to represent the UK at the next Olympics and beyond. So they weren’t messing around. The classes were on after school, for kids to do 5 hours a week. There was badminton, table tennis, volleyball and judo. And it was our responsibility to raise awareness and get the kids moving. No pressure, but if we helped Wigan Athletic to get it right then the country might have a crop of new Olympic hopefuls, who might have otherwise slipped through the net and grown up watching telly instead of playing sport.

We obviously weren’t going to be just pruning a couple of shrubs. And then the tools were deployed. Serious ones, everything short of Napalm. We were going to be really bush-bashing; to thrash a vast, and apparently impregnable thicket into something altogether more user-friendly. And like a battalion of drunken musketeers, we hacked our way to glory. Many blistering hours later, at the end of the big dig, there was a wonderfully clear new area of pastureland and a lot of us looking past our best. But we were happy.

Available to anyone over 16, whether they’d never swum a stroke or were a proficient swimmer looking to improve their techniques and confidence in the water, the lessons were being offered at pools across the region under the Swim Bolton brand.

Diving straight into the brief, Portfolio produced creative centred around an illustration style evocative of the ‘Learn to Swim’ campaigns of the 1970s. These helped demonstrate that the lessons were suitable for all ages, shapes and sizes; removing any sense of self-consciousness that might prevent people from taking up swimming.

With press ads in the Bolton Scene magazine, 6-sheet posters across the city centre and leaflets and application forms in the participating leisure centres, the result of the campaign was more Boltonians taking the plunge, thanks to Portfolio’s efforts.

We have been lucky enough to support Rowlinson with everything from art direction and photography – product and lifestyle. Exhibition work, including onsite project management. Point-of-Sale, advertising and corporate branding. All of which we believe has given us a really good understanding of the industry and its ‘back to school’ demands.

Their team were taking local school kids on trips to Seven Acres Nature Reserve, where they were not only getting involved in some hard graft, but they were also learning about the power of transformation and what’s possible. The area has been rescued and utterly transformed for people to enjoy as a sanctuary, after its harsh history, when it was used for bleaching as part of Bolton’s cotton industry. Alongside the team we helped teach the kids how to cook outdoors and how to make shelters, which certainly challenged them, but definitely made them smile. Lots of pictures were taken and resource materials collected to give the earthy, highly visual website the look and feel we had in our mind. Just knowing the difference we could’ve made to kids’ lives that day has made any effort we put into the project more than worthwhile.

www.7acresproject.co.uk