D&AD is an educational charity that represents the global creative, design and advertising communities. Since 1962, D&AD has set industry standards, educated and inspired the next generation and, more recently, has demonstrated the impact of creativity and innovation on enhancing business performance.

The deadline for entries is looming – winners announced the week of 26 April.

Good luck!

Our CEO, Christian Schroeder, authored a piece that was featured in Design Week’s Business Insight section.

Despite the long-held view that the strategic direction of brands is the responsibility of advertising agencies, Christian says that the advertising industry is in disarray as it struggles to come to terms with diverse media platforms and channels.

Christian explains that the branding and design industry are perfectly placed to take on a more central role in the future of communications, “But we are only going to earn that position if we can show that we have the hunger to claim it, the quality of people to maintain it and, most importantly, the confidence to own it.”

“We should be brave enough to look outside our immediate sector and finally understand that we are in the business of ideas that make a commercial difference, and not the business of design for the sake of design.”

To read the full article, check out Design Week’s website.

On 1 December, our work for the rebrand of BBC News was crowned winner of the Benchmarks Awards for the category ‘Media Programmes.’

Put on by Design Week, the Benchmarks are designed to set a standard in the recognition of excellence in brand communications. Entrants are judged on the consistency of the brand message within the programme or across the campaign, overall creativity and innovation achieved within the constraints of the brand guidelines. The judges also consider the appropriateness within the relevant market sector.

For more, see a list of all the winners, check out the shortlist or see Design Week’s feature covering the event. Also, keep an eye out for the upcoming Benchmarks Awards book, accompanying a future DW issue.

We’re excited to begin work with airtours, the Hannover-based luxury travel operator of the TUI group.

We’ll be working with airtours on a refresh of their brand identity including logo and strapline, as well as tone of voice and supporting materials for travel agencies.

The appointment is part of a holistic rebranding programme, which includes WPP sister agencies Wunderman Hamburg (Marketing) and Cohn & Wolfe (PR).

For more on the project, click through to W&V, marketing-blog.biz, Horizont or new business.

We voiced our views on the recent pitch to create a new brand for London, which called for unpaid creative work in the first stage.

‘The tender is potentially a lovely PR story for the GLA, and it will produce some beautiful design, but free creative pitching does our industry a disservice,’ protests Lambie-Nairn chief executive Christian Schroeder. ‘It allows people to believe that we can come up with meaningful design based around some pretty creative work.’

To get in on the debate, add to the plethora of online comments or check-out the letters to the editor, voxpops or additional stories in Design Week, Marketing Week, or the Creative Review blog.

News of our work on ITV’s flagship daytime show, This Morning, has been reported in both the Media Guardian and Marketing.

We partnered with ITV to create a new identity system for the programme that reflects today’s This Morning.

Sophie Lutman, our Creative Director who led the project explains: “This Morning has developed over the years into a programme that is truly unique. Its new programming covers so many aspects of the modern-day lifestyle, which presented us with a real opportunity to do something different in the world of daytime TV.

We brought this to life with a new identity based around the idea of a scrapbook, comprised of useful snippets of information that make life easier and are important to each of us in different ways. Building on from this, the introduction of sub-brand chapters within the show enables audiences to create their own viewing experience.”

We created title sequences, in-programme graphics, brand guidelines, and style templates for future.

We might throw a little impromptu launch shindig here at Greencoat House as it goes live on 1 September @ 10.30 GMT. Until then, see the new look on This Morning’s website.

Lambie-Nairn’s Munich team will be on the ground at this year’s Medientage München, running 28-30 October 2009.

With 8,000 attendees from Germany and abroad, several hundred registered journalists, around 500 speakers, and about 90 discussion panels, Medientage München is a calendar highlight in the world of media and communication. Experts in the fields of TV, radio, print, mobile communication, internet, multimedia, advertising as well as politicians and others working in the film industry come together to analyse future trends and set the tone for the year ahead.

If you are planning on attending, do make sure you come join us for a drink and a chat or simply to see our work. We’ll be right next door to CNN, stand number R2.

We look forward to seeing you in Munich, or for further information email info@lambie-nairn.com.

Our creative work for Hotels.com can be seen Monday nights on Five in the UK, as Hotels.com has taken up sponsorship of The Hotel Inspector.

The campaign helps promote the Hotels.com promise to help its customers “wake up happy” and drive brand awareness amongst the show’s travel and internet-literate audience. The spots feature a range of destination references as Hotels.com helps inspire those looking for summer sun hotels.

The current series of the show follows the award-winning hotelier Alex Polizzi, and granddaughter of Lord Forte, as she visits failing hotels and bed and breakfast establishments around the country and by giving advice and suggestions tries to get their owners to reform them into profitable ventures.

Our newly designed reusable bags for Sainsbury’s are starting to hit the shelves in select stores across the UK.

We were appointed to the Sainsbury’s roster in 2005, and began work on the reusable bags last winter, having been appointed on the strength of our ongoing relationship with the retailer.

Internally referred to here at Lambie-Nairn as ‘Bags of Personality’, images of the new range have been featured in both Design Week and Packaging News.

For more background on the project, check out the press release.