Christmas has well and truly arrived at GA. And just in time for our Christmas party next week (which still remains top secret!).

Anastasia dug out last year’s decorations to adorn our lovely 6ft REAL tree with…and look at these blasts from the past. Can you name the GA director in their cunning disguises?!

Is it raining where you are? Well, it isn’t here. And thank goodness for that – as we are but hours away from the start of our sixth annual summer party. More colloquially known as GASP.

The marquees are erected, the Pimms is on ice and the sun is shining (at least for now). Unfortunately for us however, GASP is usually the cue for the heavens to open. So if you did have a rain dance planned for today, we ask that you kindly steer clear of Covent Garden and head to somewhere slightly more prepared for such a downpour – Glastonbury, perhaps?

It seems the party atmosphere is infectious as just we are putting the final preparations on our own celebrations, this musical parade came strolling past our office windows headed up by the town-crier in full regalia …

Look forward to seeing you all at Pimms o’clock!

The strategic move comes after being approached by one of Spain’s ultimate luxury brands. “They could not find a Spanish partner, so we were picked out and invited to pitch”, says Susan Clowes, account manager. “And with our understanding of how to create immersive luxury experiences online for a range of different brands in the UK, it seemed as though there was a need for our services in Spain.”

Internet usage in Spain is growing, with 21.6 million Internet users in October/November 2010 representing 54.8% of the population, and this figure is set to still rise (www.aimc.es). In the UK, online shoppers spent an estimated £4.4bn during June 2010 alone, and spent £56bn throughout the whole of 2010.

Although Spain’s online retail figures are not quite as advanced as the UK, e-commerce growth in Spain has been one of the largest in Europe (www.imrg.org). However, even with online spending on a continuous rise, retailers must constantly watch conversion rates – that is, how to turn a visitor into a customer?

“Online investment, despite the uncertain economic times, is more important now than ever, and will allow Spanish brands to break into other markets – especially those such as Russia or China where Spanish brands uphold a reputation for quality” stated Steven Wyatt, business development manager for Spain. “For brands looking to sell further a field, a well designed and developed website will be cheaper than a bricks and mortar store, and has a far wider reach too. However, in order to perform well, a website must be engaging, user friendly and have no barriers to conversion.”

Visit: www.alianzagrafica.es
Or find Alianza Gráfica on Facebook and Twitter

For more information please contact: steven@alianzagrafica.es

One that was recently sent made it to national papers. Many of you can probably recall laughing out loud to yourselves at work as you read the series of comments made by certain males about the female in question being rather attractive and wanting to take her on date. Accidentally one of them c-c’d her into the entire email thread rather than just sending his friend her email address. Their prediction “Oh my god mate, I’m going to be in soooo much trouble” was correct. It took approximately 24 hours for pretty much the whole of the UK, and likely the rest of the world, to forward this onto everyone in their contacts list. It was such amusing content, which no doubt made so many males up and down the country cringe, that most pressed “Send to all”.

With email content such is this; it is perhaps unsurprising that people don’t hold back when pressing “send”. No person’s dignity is spared at the expense of a good laugh. All it took is for the email to find its way into the inbox of a reporter at the Daily Telegraph and the Metro, and “voila” what was once a private email, became a very public one.

This is nothing new, jokey emails have long been sent between offices. However, what gives viral emails such clout these days and makes them newsworthy, is that now people can easily search for the (usually young) participants on Facebook or their highly embarrassing pseudonyms on Twitter. Just take for example one poor girl we read about recently, whose desire to echo Kate Middleton’s wedding plans were revealed in a Telegraph column just a few weeks ago. The article was spectacularly executed; it included so many snobbish faux-pas and portrayed the girl in a particularly poor light by making her look self-congratulatory, that once again it popped up all over Facebook. The Telegraph immediately censored the column, and Twitter was suddenly awash with about ten different individuals pretending to be the girl, giving an entire combined audience of over 10,000 followers’ regular updates on her supposed wedding plans. To say such incidents are not funny would be a lie.

Latest reports on this girl reveal she has removed herself from Facebook, cancelled her wedding due to a flash mob arranging to visit, and reporters from other tabloids have been camped outside her home because its location was idiotically revealed in the original Telegraph column. The two males mentioned in the previous story have subsequently been suspended from their jobs in insurance and property. It is precisely such ineptitude that makes us spare little concern for their downfall. To these men and women, we say hard luck, or quote a colleague: “They deserve a social media smack-down!”

There is no smoke without a fire, and these people clearly know how to PR themselves. Infact we wouldn’t be surprised if that was the career in which these hapless wonders were now headed. Just think, you too could have your fifteen minutes of fame with the right content!

2010 was a year when we, here at Graphic Alliance, became more environmentally aware and hope to create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable business. Whilst it is a little by little approach we are changing the way the office is run and hopefully, attitudes within the office. In 2010 we managed to recycle 2,200kg of paper and cardboard which saved the equivalent of 25 trees and 2,920kg of CO2 which was more than we managed in 2009.

We had a consultation with the charity GLOBAL ACTION PLAN, a charity who advises businesses to actively cut carbon emissions. They provided a report showing where we were wasting energy and how we could go about saving it and improve running costs. Some of it was very simple, such as switching appliances off when not in use, and making sure lights are turned off if a room is empty. Some of it takes a little more thought but it is important for businesses to take an active interest in the environment and understand what an organisation can do to create a sustainable and green business.

Since the consultation we have switched to 100% renewal green electricity; moved to plumbed-in water coolers, which save on space, cut out the carbon emissions from deliveries and reduce the amount of waste caused by plastic bottles; we have changed our printer and everyone is under strict orders to print in black and white and double sided, which over time will reduce our paper consumption by almost 40%! We also recycle all paper, cardboard and ink cartridges and are looking at new ways to recycle more from the office. All light bulbs we use are energy saving; we have even managed to cut down on spam faxes by signing up to a spam blocker service which means we only ever receive faxes which people we know have sent, which these days  isn’t very many but it really has reduced paper wastage.

We hope that 2011 will be even more successful by increasing the amount we recycle; reducing energy consumption and water usage and in the process make the business more sustainable and do our bit for the environment.

I’d love to get my hands on Desert Island Discs. You could come up with a great logo and some lovely animations of the celebrity sitting on a tiny island with their favourite things, an old record player with the playlist running in the background, maybe even video of the acts in concert. What a pleasure it would be to mock up Nick Clegg and his stash of cigarettes, Sir Tom Jones with his bucket and spade, and Arthur Scargill gazing at the Mona Lisa.
Andrew Rees, Senior designer, Graphic Alliance

Which TV or radio series would you bring back to life?  We’d like to hear your thoughts!

Graphic Alliance fashions website for Vivienne Westwood with ‘blank canvas’ pages.

Graphic Alliance has created a new website for fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

The site, which launches this week, acts as an online base for the Vivienne Westwood brand, as well as having e-commerce functionality. The consultancy developed creative concepts for the site in collaboration with the team behind fashion magazine Tank.

The site has been designed as a blank canvas, on which dynamic elements can be placed as the client or designer wishes. This has been created using a content management system developed by GA. Consultancy managing director Linford Haggie says, ‘There’s no order to it – no grid. It’s as close as a website has got to the style of editorial design while still having an e-commerce function. ‘

Visitors to the site can move elements around on the homepage, including links to the brand story, the collections and the online store. If a user redesigns the site, then navigates away from it, it will remember their bespoke designs for the next time they visit the site.

A navigation bar also provides links, and a button on the site allows the users to flip between ‘random’ and ‘grid’ settings.

The blank canvas concept is used throughout the site, apart from point-of-purchase, where clarity is required and a grid system is used.

The site uses fashion photography and archive material, to reflect Westwood’s history.

Haggie says, ‘We wanted the site to reflect the brand, which is unconventional, quirky, eccentric and chaotic.’

He says GA was appointed about nine months ago and has been working on the site for some six months. He says GA and Tank previously worked together on the designs for fashion site Because.

Westwood was last week awarded a special commendation in the 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize. It was also announced that she will be customising next year’s Brit Awards trophy, as part of a branding exercise led by Manchester consultancy Music.

Visit the new Vivienne Westwood site and tell us what you think. Click here.

With luxury fashion retailers stepping up in the online arena, so too have online men’s fashion retailers. In 2009, the market for menswear online grew by 1.5 % in 2009 to reach £9.5 billion (according to Mintel’s Men’s Fashion and Lifestyles UK April Report) – despite the recession. Mr Porter (net-a-porter but for men) launches soon, TopMan has had a site redesign (it also previously engaged in a music partnership with channel 4 on MySpace) and Lyle and Scott launched its first mobile commerce site earlier this year. Add to this that an item of men’s clothing is sold on eBay every 9 seconds (a piece of women’s clothing sells every 5), and it would seem as though the male demand for fashion online is certainly growing. So, let’s take a closer look into how and why the demand for menswear online continues to grow…

One of the key opportunities for brands looking to grow market share lies in meeting the demand for fashion advice via digital channels. Men’s magazine FHM launched an online menswear shop in November 2009, and one of the most popular parts of the website is the ‘what to wear’ section which attracts 10% of all page views.

Now, apologies for the sweeping generalisation but, as a rule, men do not enjoy shopping. Walking around the shops, getting advice on size, style, fit and fashion … it’s boring and intimidating to many men – hence the popularity of the online ‘What to Wear’ section or ‘Style Guide’. They are the perfect, non threatening place for men to get fashion advice they can trust.

Due to this, website functionality such as virtual wardrobes, advice and bespoke tailoring are beginning to feature more and more on menswear sites, helping men who are usually poor at high street shopping choose the right style, look and cut of clothes from the comfort of their own home. For example, Hawes & Curtis have launched a ‘Fits Me’ tool while Thomas Pink offer help videos on their site (similar to French Connection’s Youtique).

Additionally, when it comes to clothes shopping, men are often creatures of habit, and so by helping a man find the perfect style or fit, it is likely that he will become a loyal customer who will purchase again and again.  It would seem as though using digital to educate customers and make them feel more comfortable about shopping is proving to be a valuable tactic…

However, alongside the habitual male online shopper, there’s also another male market – one which is keen to buy based on the latest trends. But where do these trends come from? Magazines and popular culture – yes, but do not underestimate the force of the high profile male blogger. Blogs like The Sartorialist, Style Salvage (blogging boyfriend of Susie Bubble) and Hypebeast have hugely increased in popularity over the past couple of years and menswear companies are starting to take note.

The shift occurred last year when, for the first time, bloggers were seated in the coveted front row seats next to Anna Wintour and the usual sprinkling of famous faces. Marc Jacobs even named his ostrich bag ‘BB’ after the blogger Bryanboy. Why? Because some of these fashion blogs are as influential as editorial coverage. They are opinion formers with an often huge following (more than 10,000 people read Susie Bubble’s blog every day) and fashion brands and labels are itching to get involved. This is why so many companies today view blogs as a valuable platform and are choosing to boost their digital marketing strategies through engaging with specialist bloggers.

Men are certainly becoming more web savvy when it comes to fashion and my advice to any online menswear brand right now would be this: think about what attracts or deters a man from shopping for clothes and fashion, make him feel comfortable, play up to his senses and entertain him by applying this to a variety of online channels and media, and do not underestimate the power of blogs!

Job Description:

Graphic Alliance’s success has been driven by its strong client relationships. Your task is to develop existing client relationships and give strategic direction on the accounts that you manage or bring in. You are required to be financially literate, both to help develop business cases for new work and to oversee all financial forecasts and reconciliations for clients. You should position yourself alongside the client’s marketing team to develop long-term mutually beneficial relationships that ensure the ongoing success of the relationship.

Your role has the following key objectives and measures:

1. To manage the strategic direction of your accounts

2. To provide digital and online consultancy to your clients

3. To generate new project work from your clients where appropriate

4. To ensure we have one quarter visibility of budgets and financial forecasts

5. To improve client satisfaction wherever possible

6. To act as a point of contact and consultation by clients

7. To ensure the consistent flow of work generated, through the team

8. To ensure collaborative ways of working between teams within GA

You will own the conversion of all the revenue for your allocated clients, as defined by the company budget, into contracted revenue within the financial year. You will also own any incremental new business revenue from your allocated clients that meet your targets. Therefore you will need experience of digital strategy, interactive design, user experience, web content and editorial, eCommerce, software development and online marketing and SEO.

You will need the following skills:

- Strong negotiation and leadership skills

- Team leader and team player

- Ability to get involved, get your hands dirty

- Strong relationship management skills

- Good understanding of digital marketing

- Ability to drive business

- Strong communication skills

- Great attention to detail

- Able to work at high speed and intensity

- Accountability for members in your team

- Enthusiasm, energy and hunger for success

- Personal drive to deliver value to end customer

- Someone who always looks to over deliver

- Ready to step up where necessary

Please email CVs to Alison Young – alison@graphicalliance.co.uk PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF APPLICATION RECEIVED IT IS NOT ALWAYS POSSIBLE TO REPLY.

Graphic Alliance is one of the UK’s leading digital agencies with offices in Covent Garden, London. Many of the world’s most important brands trust us to look after their online presences, from eCommerce website through to Facebook and Twitter. Our core expertise lies in creating online destinations and influencing people to visit them. Graphic Alliance services iconic brands including Vivienne Westwood, The Conran Shop, Charles Stanley, Theo Fennell, Silver Cross, Temperley and the Qatar Financial Centre.

Launching today in Covent Garden as part of The London Restaurant Festival (4-18 October 2010), Street Kitchen will go on to visit two other landmark London locations finishing at the closing ceremony of the festival in Old Spitalfields Market on 18 October.

The New York-style street van will be selling a seasonal British menu, serving dishes such as Home Smoked Salmon and Braised Featherblade of Beef. All dishes will cost between £4.50 – £6.50 and food lovers can follow daily updates @foodinitiative, @chefjun and @streetkitchen.

All the produce and beverages are sourced directly from sustainable and organic UK farms and producers in a celebration of what the UK has to offer. Mark and Jun have also enlisted the help of the Ecological Economist, Dr Daniel Lopez Dias, who will help them consider the impact of all their consumptive choices to minimise the environmental impact of the project. Even more impressive is that Jun and Mark have put their own personal money into this project and that proceeds from the sales will go to charity group, Action Against Hunger.

So… what are you waiting for? Great British food to celebrate Great British produce and all for a good cause! Yummy!