Blog Theme Group

Cracking Easter sign springs up

Posted by Jo on 29-03-2010

The latest of our unique signs - which go up to celebrate certain holidays and key events throughout the year - has now sprung up outside the Old Chapel in time for Easter.

The cheerful sign is not only guaranteed to turn heads thanks to its vibrant, spring colours, but the cute Easter chicks certainly add the "ah" factor!

It will certainly be a shame to take these sweet chappies down when Easter is over - hopefully we'll get enough chocolates to take our mind off it!

Posted by Jo on 29-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Congratulations to the Powells!

Posted by Big Lou on 29-03-2010

This morning we were all really excited to hear that Amanda has finally had her baby after being nearly 2 weeks overdue. She has been blessed with an 8lb 4oz baby girl (yet to be named).

Everyone at Theme sends Amanda and husband Aaron huge congratulations on the birth of their baby daughter and we can't wait to see some pics.

Posted by Big Lou on 29-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Neil's the fatty!

Posted by Jo on 26-03-2010

As if Natalie Dobson's early dominance of the Theme Dream football competition wasn't enough, Neil Perrott has now added to Royal Holloway's overwhelming string of successes in our competitions by bagging the Who's The Fatty goodies.

Marketing Executive Neil correctly told us that the White Rabbit was late for a very important date - and now Mark has an important date of his own, running the cakes and chocolate eggs over to the expectant marketing team.

After being told he had won, Neil said: "I am very pleased to win the Who’s the Fatty prize. As most of my colleagues are on one kind of diet or another, I look forward to enjoying the prize all by myself!"

The team will get their prize after Easter - Mark is clearly hoping they'll have had their fill of chocolate and can be persuaded to give him some sweet treats to lighten their load!

Posted by Jo on 26-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Our fun day out at Littlecote

Posted by Mark, Amy and Emily on 25-03-2010

The three of us were lucky enough to be invited to a supplier day with regular clients Warner Leisure Hotels, which was held at their 16th century Berkshire hotel Littlecote House yesterday.

The idea of the day was for the marketing department within the company to meet their suppliers - including design agencies like us - and to highlight their aims for the next few years.

It also looked at some of Warner's high points from the last few years so they could point out past successes that they may build upon in the future.

But as well as providing a useful insight into the company and its plans, the day was also about fun - something we certainly had when enjoying the salsa dance lessons and the treasure hunt!

While the former involved learning some basic moves and then having the chance to perform them with everyone in the room, the latter saw us getting into teams and heading out and about to photograph ourselves in some of Littlecote's most distinctive spots.

Highlights included Mark's attempt to pose as a peacock outside reception, Amy thumbing through the brochure with one of Oliver Cromwell's priests and the girls catching some leisure club bikes down to the Orpheus Mosaic.

Sadly, neither Mark's team nor Amy and Emily's won the treasure hunt, despite Mark's efforts (unnecessarily) of posing as a yeti in the Littlecote grounds and the girls laying the medieval banquet table with jester equipment.

Posted by Mark, Amy and Emily on 25-03-2010 | 2 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Garry has football solution

Posted by Mark on 19-03-2010

Another month has passed in the battle to be crowned Theme Dream's manager of the season, and although Thoresby Terriers and Hectors Heroes are tussling for the overall prize, the monthly award just judges a team's achievements over the previous 31 days.

But although your overall position in the table makes no odds to whether you can claim the monthly prize, it generally follows that the leaders are racking up the most points each month, which is why Anna Mansfield was the only manager to break the top two's dominance - until now.

Solution United, managed by Solution Centre's Garry Simpson, has been moving steadily up to sixth throughout mid February and early March, earning him 788 points and pipping Thoresby Terriers' Richard Jee by two points.

When I phoned to tell him he'd won, Garry was delighted, saying: "That's brilliant, I'm really over the moon. I only changed my team a few weeks ago because they didn't seem to be doing too well, so something obviously worked."

Garry's excellent month has put him on the brink of the top five, which is currently:

• Thoresby Terriers 2,183
• Hectors Heroes 2,133
• 12 Disciples 2,077
• Clueless 2,056
• Rookie Rangers 2,026

Posted by Mark on 19-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Out and about with Cistermiser

Posted by Mark on 05-03-2010

Earlier this week I was lucky enough to be invited up to Earls Court for ecobuild, a trade show for companies providing green building equipment. The visit was down to our new client Cistermiser, who make water saving devices for washrooms and toilets, and whose products can mainly be seen in public buildings.

We had already designed them some advert concepts, but the company had followed our ideas through to create branded displays, invites and leaflets advertising their new product Sensazone.

Sensazone detects when someone enters a washroom, and turns on the flow of water accordingly. This reduces leakages, especially in the case of vandalised and damaged pipes - where water would previously flow out constantly, it now gets shut off as soon as someone leaves the room.

Cistermiser included a demonstration of setting up the unit, and I have to say that the ease of installation coupled with the potential saving on wasted water makes it seem a staggering choice not to fit one.

After the show Aoife Walsh, Cistermiser's marketing manager, told me she loved the professionalism in our work and that she enjoyed working with us - something we always like to hear!

Posted by Mark on 05-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Top weekend for Big Lou

Posted by Laurence on 04-03-2010

While Lou was busy at Cricket St. Thomas showing off her moves on the dance floor, the 11 members of her Theme Dream team were busy strutting their stuff on the pitch.

And top draw performances from many of Lou's stars saw her accrue 115 points over the weekend to reach the highest total. I was just one point her on 114, and previous manager of the month Anna Mansfield got 112.

Lou's fellow dancer Nick scored 105 - which is probably 100 points more than he got for his cha cha skills - and Solution Centre's Garry Simpson got 101.

Richard Jee and Natalie Dobson still occupy the top two spots, but their respective scores of 83 and 72 are among the lowest for the week.

When it comes to players' scores, Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas and Bolton's Zat Knight top-scored with 19. The gripping grudge match between Manchester City and Chelsea - which saw six goals and a brilliant hand-shake snub from Wayne Bridge to former best mate John Terry - saw Frank Lampard (18), Craig Bellamy (15) and Carlos Tevez (14) all score well.

So after a mixed week for Theme Dream - with some managing to reach the 100 mark and others not making it past 60 points - the top five are:

• Thoresby Terriers - 2022
• Hectors Heroes - 1975
• 12 Disciples - 1916
• Rookie Rangers - 1862
• Clueless - 1849

Posted by Laurence on 04-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…

Our Strictly fab weekend!

Posted by Nick on 02-03-2010

This weekend saw Cricket St. Thomas host the first Strictly Come Dancing break run by our client Warner Leisure Hotels, and some of us were lucky enough to be invited to check out the glitz and glam.

In the end it was myself, my partner Em, Theme's creative director Lou and her husband Neil - a quartet whose dance prowess ranged from the fairly experienced (Lou and Em) to utter novice (Nick and 'Running Man' Neil).

The Strictly glamour was apparent from the start, with the reception area decked out with lifesize pictures of previous winning couples interspersed with some of the most popular costumes from the series. The costumes were a particular eye-opener - unless they are made of VERY stretchy material, all but the trimmest of people would struggle to fit more than a leg in.

The Friday involved registering for your dance lessons (we opted for advanced cha cha on Saturday and advanced jive on Sunday), before enjoying an evening of social dancing and a brief introduction to the two young couples who would be hosting the classes.

Saturday morning put us through our dance paces with the cha cha, with all four of us getting to grips with the short sequence we were taught by Danny and Katie (albeit with varying degrees of competence!). The heats for the grand final were at 4pm - just enough time, then, to grab some lunch and start perfecting our snazzy new cha cha routine.

Slight problem, then, that the heats weren't quite the standard we envisaged. Foolishly, we thought everyone who opted for the cha cha would be going through the routine we learnt that morning, having also had the same six hours experience that we had.

So imagine our surprise when, having run through our 30 second routine, the backing music (and our fellow contestants) showed no sign of stopping - leaving us no choice but to repeat our sequence again. And again. And again. Needless to say, we didn't make the final 10!

The evening saw some pretty impressive dance performances from the four ballroom teachers and a guest pair of showdancers, before Darren and Lilia took to the stage to wow the crowds with their Strictly skills.

Not making it through the heats didn't dampen our spirits, and we returned Sunday morning for our advanced jive session. Having befriended our instructors the night before, me and Neil thought we would go all out to impress this time round. Not only did we go for the authentic dance look with slick back hair, but we also opted for the tight trousers and unbuttoned shirt in an effort to enhance our dancing skills.

It seemed to work - we both managed pretty well in the jive, and even got some praise from Danny and Katie after the lessons (although that was just for the dress, rather than our dancing!).

The final itself was a grand affair; all 10 couples were paraded in front of the crowd before the Strictly stars took their seats on the judging panel. The couples on show had danced together from anywhere between a few years and a few decades, and the eventual winners had only started dancing together on a Warner break a relatively short time before. In fact, they had previously tried to compete in a Warner dance final judged by Strictly's Anton and Erin, but nerves got the better of them, making their victory this time round all the sweeter.

All in all good fun, then (aside from my disappointment in the heats, of course!).

Posted by Nick on 02-03-2010 | 0 Comments | Leave a Comment…