I wanted to review 2011 when it finished, but things have got no less hectic in 2012. In a way, having a bit of space from something means it's easier to consider it objectively and really pick out the main events. So by means of getting on with 2012 and putting some new content up here I present to you my review of the year gone.
The Barry Horns
I got back into trombone playing in a big way, not least because of The Barry Horns, 'Welsh Football's Brass-Driven Pressure Group'. Our first public outing was around the Millennium Stadium before Wales v England, and we've been at nearly every international game since, as well as a few other notable outings. It's also been really interesting working on the digital side of the band and seeing how people choose to interact with us online. We've got a lot of excitement in the pipeline gearing up to going to Brazil 2014, so I'm sure this won't be the last you hear about us on this blog.
The Brixton Horns
Another big series of events has been getting to spend more time with the awesome Nick Briggs and playing together as a little mini brass section that one of our more regular gigs has dubbed 'The Brixton Horns'. Not an entirely deserved name in terms of heritage (or skill!) but we do both live in Brixton, so.. Anyway we're doing a bunch of shows this year with Rebel Control who I highly recommend - they have a few albums on Spotify.
Uncle Stephen
A thoroughly gutting experience was the loss of my amazing uncle Stephen who decided to take his own life last spring. It completely devastated his immediate family as well as the wider family he'd built up through generally being warm, friendly and supportive of anyone he met. As well as having been the 'cool uncle' while I was growing up, Steve gave me my first job out of high school, and the time we spent together at work gave me the impression of someone determined to keep doing better for himself, someone finding new challenges in order to push forward, with tremendous integrity. He was a man who used every experience he had as a springboard for the next one, and who finally looked like he was reaching the point he'd been working towards. Spending time coming to terms with losing him has also been about considering my own outlook on family and future, and what I dedicate my efforts to in order to achieve both.
Leaving Public Zone
All of which led me to reconsider where things were going with my own career. Public Zone had been a great lifeline to me after graduating from UWIC and coming to London, and 2 years later I'd learned and developed enough to have moved from design into a more strategic and socially-focussed role. I had so many friends there (who I'm still in touch with, you know they're proper friends then) it was a difficult decision to take. But I was a team of one within a small agency with clients whose stakeholders lives rightly demanded maximum attention, effort and thought, all of the time. There wasn't much space in the production schedule or budget to really think about how we could grow the capability I wanted to offer, and as a relative junior I had little justification or support for my own ideas on where we could take things. So it was possibly quite a defeatest approach to decide to move on, especially with nothing concrete to move on to, but sometimes the correct decision is about looking back at all the aspects in play and working out where they're going. So yes. Strangely, some subsequent developments there suggest a similar realisation across the board, so there are quite exciting times ahead for Team PZ and their massive new client list.
Bikes and Weddings
A great year for cycling around places with Alison and celebrating various friends' weddings. We spent time with some of my family in The Hague before riding up to Amsterdam for a few days, and over a beautiful July weekend we took the bikes out to the Isle of Wight for a wedding weekend filled with beaches, walks, dancing, bunting and barbeques.
Freelance life
The relative freedom of contract work meant I had a few spare weeks to work on projects that I really believe in, which co-incidentally also meant spending time out on Jamie's Farm helping with their social media plans for the future. I was also able to lend a hand on the farm, trimming back the last of the summer growth ready for autumn, with noisy machines running on 2-stroke. A lot of fun and very satisfying at the end of the day. I also managed to get a few big brand names under my belt, notably Vodafone, Premier Inn and Barclays, and working with amazing teams at Dare became the start of 2012...
Dare
The relative freedom of contract work also meant the complete unpredictability of my financial situation, and having found such a good fit at Dare it was pretty awesome to be offered a permanent role there. I've joined a brilliant team of 8 who are leading the way in this 'Experience Planning'; looking at matching customer's experiences of brands to the objectives laid out by more traditional brand planning thinking. We're using strategic disciplines like Behavioural Economics and choice architecture, user experience and information architecture: all the big words. It's based in digital but what I love about it is how we're given the space to think about the entire experience from shop floor or ATL advertising, right through digital channels and back out into the real world and actual actions.
Hopes for 2012
After a 2011 of mixed emotions I'm hoping to stabilise a bit this year. Hopefully next year's update will be a lot shorter! There's a lot in store for The Barry Horns, with the World Cup qualifying matches starting in the Autumn, and quite a few dates for Rebel Control over the next few months. We should hopefully see the project I'm on at Dare come to life and go out into the world, and I'm looking forward to all the other opportunities that will doubtless pressent themselves there. I'm planning to spend more time back in Wales and with the Bridgend family. And I'm looking forward to getting a bit more financially stable so I'm able to get on with the future.
Awesome.