What a year it has been! The first full year of solely running the Bank of Creativity and One Minute Briefs.
And, rather than pretend it’s all gone great, I must admit it’s not been easy.
Personally, it’s been an awful year from start to finish. Severe family problems at the start of the year left me numb and this coincided with a horrendous experience with neighbours from hell resulting in a year long battle to get them to leave or be forced to sell my own home. All of this leading to an inability to sleep for months on end.
Of course, all of this can affect your motivation to keep going and growing your business when it’s a struggle to even get up in the morning. But I did what I could to keep moving forward.
In between all of this, I took a break to Thailand to try and clear my head, which was going well until the worst cyclone for 60 years hit the island! We escaped to mainland and ended up being interviewed by the Manchester Evening News about what was happening. It’s at times like these you think everything is going against you but for the rest of the time, it was a holiday I so badly needed.
So I came back relatively refreshed and just when I thought things were getting better, I slipped a disc in my back whilst playing football. Since then I’ve been in excruciating pain day and night ever since and I’m currently awaiting an operation. The pain has been unbearable and it stops you getting out of bed for fear of the pain shooting through your body as soon as you stand up.
Suddenly, the only thing you are living for is to get some comfort from the pain. You get no enjoyment from anything in life and you become unable to do the things you enjoy. This leads to depression and can only be described as soul-crushing as you can see in this article I read where this person word for word details just how bad it is better than I could have ever put it.
So what is getting me up in the morning?
Well the One Minute Briefs community is. If I haven’t posted the brief of the day by 10am questions get asked! And I wouldn’t have it any other way. The responsibility to run such an incredible, talented and supportive community is always a pleasure and has really helped me in such difficult times.
In the video of our latest OMB event, I was in so much pain but the OMBLES got together to create our best event ever. It was also on my birthday and sponsored by Jager which I’m sure helped get me through it! To see the talks and give awards to such immensely talented and dedicated people really helped to ease the pain and it showed me that maybe it hadn’t been such a bad year after all.
In the past year we’ve run One Minute Briefs campaigns with some incredible clients including Adobe, WWF, SES Water, KFC and collaborated with the likes of Jamal Edwards MBE, Bands FC, the DMA, Vincent Kompany, Andy Burnham, The Drum, Rankin, production companies, travel operators, rappers, dentists, charities, hospices and much more.
All of this whilst creating creative opportunities to showcase work, create connections and improve the creative careers of people all around the globe. My mum’s even made a map of all the OMBLES who get involved each day. Below this I’ve shared some of the highlights of this year.
We released our third book featuring illustrations of the OMBLES on the cover…
…Featured in the National Press for our collaborative campaign to create cards with Thortful…
…Took over the #ValentinesDay hashtag with KFC…
…Teamed up with Rankin and The Drum for a fun ‘honest ads’ campaign…
…Got to meet Vincent Kompany himself following our campaign against homelessness with Tackle4MCR…
.We also built on our Bank of Creativity community throughout the year by featuring on podcasts with the likes of Tech Manchester, Social Ink, Adam Asks and Social Chain…
…delivered talks at various universities including Man Met, Leeds and at the Birmingham Design Festival…
…worked with Louise Chorley to publish the third @AgencyQuotes book…
…and hosted meetups around the world for creatives in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and even Cape Town!
We’ve worked with local communities to spread the word of the amazing new on-air, online, in-print offering delivered by Quest Media Network.
Worked with body-positivity influencer Chessie King to deliver a powerful video for Cybersmile that had over 700k views on Twitter.
Delivered a message about climate change direct to the White House for Donald Trump’s birthday with Tara Button, HeyBigMan and GAS Music.
Created a collection of videos showcasing the stunning spoken word performances of upcoming writer Emma Sykes.
Connected junior creatives with opportunities for book crits with major creative directors worldwide with Father Critmas.
Aswell as this, it’s also been a privilege to receive recongnition on behalf of everyone and pick up some awards, judge awards and even sponsor some awards this year too.
As well as joining the great team on the MPA board.
A particular highlight was being commended by the High Sheriff of Manchester alongside the Mayor and Michael Carrick for what we are doing in Manchester and beyond for the creative scene.
But none of this would be possible without such a wonderful community by my side. Together, we have made some amazing things happen and the smiles on everyone’s faces as the community did so well at the Chip Shop Awards.
Just to end, another sad moment for me this year was the passing of Isabella. A huge inspiration to me and our community for her spirit and fight. But I’m very proud of everyone for getting together to share a beautiful tribute for her. It goes to show, no matter how hard you struggle, there is always someone in a similar or worse situation.
We can only improve and move forwards by continuing to support each other and building each other up when the world can sometimes bring us down.
So, yes 2019 has been an incredibly bad year in many ways, but I’m very proud to see what this community has become and in lots of ways it has been a great year too.
All the best for 2020 everyone and thanks to every single one of you for your support.
Nick x