One of the UK’s hottest talents and star of ‘This is England’, Vicky McClure, is officially Illamasqua’s new leading lady.

If like us, your waiting with baited breath for Vicky’s premiere in Channel 4’s This is England ’86, airing tonight at 10pm, watch her in action first in our new short film ‘Poem’. Having previously worked with legendary film director, Shane Meadows, and queen of music herself, Madonna, Vicky is the muse and star of three beautiful short films specially commissioned by Illamasqua.

The first in the series, 'Poem' has just launched today, is a poignant portrayal of Vicky’s transformation into her alter-ego through the art of making-up.

You can see the video here, and find out why we chose Vicky here.

Posted by Natalie Hargreaves.

Our long-standing client, Seabrook Crisps, has reached the ripe old age of 65, which coincides nicely with it becoming, officially*, the fastest growing crisp brand in the UK, producing over seven million packets of crisps per week to satisfy the nations’ ever growing appetite for the brand’s unmistakable quality, flavour and crinkle-cut crunch. Once tasted, loved forever.

Seabrook, which started life as a Bradford-based fish & chip restaurant in 1945, is now clocking-up an annual turnover of £28m – predicted to rise to £65m by 2015 – so this 65 year-old is showing no signs of hanging up its boots!

At the other end of the spectrum, cult hair beauty brand in the making, Cloud Nine, launched last September with three styling irons. Since then, it has also introduced the otherworldly TheO heated roller system to its range, and taken the hair industry by storm. The brand now retails in over 1,400 salons UK wide, is used by some of the world’s most famous hair stylists, such as Johnnie Sarpong, James Brown, Richard Ward and Christian Vermaack, to name a few, and has launched successfully into several international markets – including Europe, Australia and South Africa.

Not bad for a twelve month old brand.

Laura Kynaston, joint managing director at Propaganda, says: “We are extremely proud, in equal measures, of the role we have played in the success of these two brands, and are delighted to be celebrating their respective birthdays with them.

“A birthday is the perfect time to look at, and celebrate, what both these brands have achieved recently, and it looks like the next year - or even 65 years - is set to be even more exciting and successful.”

Happy Birthday Seabrook Crisps and Cloud Nine from all of us here at Propaganda.

See our work for Seabrook, and for Cloud 9 in our portfolio.

*IRI Total Market 52 w/e July 2010

A massive thanks to all involved – it looks fantastic.

View more of the work here, or read about it here.

Posted by Nicole Leavings.

New passport design.

Passport from 1852.

Passport from 1880.

Passport from 1947.

Passport from 1910.

Posted by Lee Bennett.

The following post was printed in this weeks issue of Design Week, and is a response to being asked to write about something that has inspired me. Many thanks to Lynda for asking me to contribute.

Inspired: Lee Bennett

I can trace one of my earliest inspirations all the way back to my childhood. Although it's something I greatly admire now, it scared the living daylights out of me at the time. I watched this particular film title sequence repeatedly, not because as a 10-year old I loved the typography and animation. No. It was because I found its eeriness so haunting that it scared me from watching the film itself.

Countless times I sat in my Knight Rider pyjamas (probably with a glass of soda-stream by my side), huddled behind a pillow, determined that this time I would be brave enough to make it past the title sequence and watch the actual film. But as I pressed the big green VHS play button (not Betamax thank you - my Dad was wise), the tension started. Dark abstract shadows moved slowly across the screen. As the cast names rolled up, large white panels slowly appeared one-by-one top frame. Symmetrical at first, next came the cross-bars. It was the music that did it. An eerily disturbing sound echoed from the TV speakers, building slowly to a full screeching tension just as the last letter became legible; A L I E N. That was it. Stop. Eject. And run upstairs to seek comfort and safety under my Transfomers bedspread.

I'm glad to say that I eventually watched the full film in my teens, and I still enjoy watching the title sequence today. Only not wearing Knight Rider pyjamas.

Posted by Lee Bennett.

Sophie’s boyfriend, Rob Maltby, who also suffered serious injury in the attack, had understandably kept a low profile until last December when he announced that he was ready to help the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. In June, he created a series of 15 stunning paintings that proved to be a great success and now he has put pen to paper once again.

To mark the anniversary Rob has designed a T-shirt to celebrate Sophie’s individuality, the “fantastical” nature of her style and personality. The T-shirt is available now and it is hoped that on the 24th August people will show their support by wearing the T-shirt and upload images of themselves on The Sophie Lancaster Foundation Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube.

Rob’s used his creativity to design a T-shirt that celebrates “the weird" and speaks out against prejudice and intolerance. “The design of this T-shirt celebrates the fantastical, within oneself and others. It’s all about expanding the mind; just because something’s a bit weird, and doesn’t make much sense, doesn’t mean that it has no right to exist”

Rob aims to evoke hope, faith and anger through his designs. With this in mind, this T-shirt, which depicts a beautiful orchid with a sinister twist, to communicate the support and awareness that the foundation needs to help people understand subcultures and people who choose to express themselves “differently”.

The T-shirts are available to buy now for £15.00 from www.backstreet-merch.com/stores/sophielancaster

All proceeds will go to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation to fund raising awareness and encouraging tolerance and understanding.

And make sure you take a look at the award winning film that we produced for Sophie, Dark Angel.

So what is it? It's giving confidence to our customers, it's about them being whoever they want to be, whenever they want to be and wearing what they want to wear. It's their life and they should live it by their rules. And that's the background to the shoot.

Now lets go back to July of this year. It was the Republic Autumn/winter shoot and It wasn't like a shoot in the strictest sense. Due to the nature of what we were shooting there was a different approach. We were attempting to stage the unstaged - trying to capture that moment in a night when you're having a great time, like when the DJ plays that song you all liked from Tenerife 97'. Or you know sometimes the build up to the party is the most exciting bit, when you're getting ready and gossiping, or when you arrive at a party and see all your friends.

Best summed up by Kareem Black, the NY photographer we flew over to shoot it
"All of the shots are being shot in a snap-shotty style, I don't want anything to be too posed, I want it to look like I'm a guy in the room…we want it to be realistic, we don't want it to be too posed"

So how did we do it? Well, take 1 photographer, 1 photographers assistant, 28 models, 1 art director ,1 creative director, 3 suits, 2 clients, 2make up girls, 3 stylists, 3 prop dept, 2 production, 1 2nd cameraman, 1 film crew, 1 Dulwich mansion, a load of other people who were doing jobs and about 100 mozzies biting the living hell out of my legs.

And what shots did we get?

Awesomeness 4 ways to be precise. There's the getting ready shot, the arrival shot, the party shot and the breakout shot

I think the shoot is best summed up in the party shot - every person who we recruited was in the ad, in total there was about 75 people on set. it was really like being at a party, you could see in the models eyes and body language, how they interacted. the music was pumping, everybody was dancing together like best friends - they forgot about the photographer and everybody looking on - they were at a party with their mates. You can look t the shot and every time see something else going on - we really captured those little moments.

What stood out most on this project, and why in my opinion it was so successful, was the collaborative nature of the project. Everybody knew what everybody was doing - from the exact point model 7 should arrive to what time model 9's train home was from Kings Cross and that you've got to dive out of this shot otherwise you're walking the streets of Soho tonight. A truly well oiled machine that really paid of in the great shots we got. Believe me, the 4 shots used in the ad are just the tip of the iceberg, we've got a greet library to dig into.

So that was it, the project's going live and what a blast it's been. Look out for it DPs, Single pages, 48 sheets, 96 sheets, in-store and on the web and on constant screen-saver rotation on my laptop.

See the full campaign in our portfolio.
Read more in News.

Posted by Ben Bateson.

Having recently completed an in-depth Discovery™ for new client, Republic, there’s not much we don’t know about floral playsuits and skinny jeans right now. And with a targeted above-the-line campaign launching imminently (a first for Republic), the hip high street brand is set to wow the market with more than just its cool clothing range.

The ‘YOUR RULES YOUR REPUBLIC’ campaign has been designed to drive brand awareness and increase customer affinity across all media channels, creating a single iconic brand with a distinct tone of voice that clearly speaks to the core target audience of 16-24 year olds.

Republic currently has over 100 fashion outlets across the UK and Ireland, and the campaign aims to recognise the retailer’s long-term growth plans to increase its number of stores to 250 and to triple turnover to £600m within the next five years, establishing it as a key high street player.

The above-the-line activity will be supported by a fully integrated PR and Digital campaign, which uses various social media channels to engage with, and capture, the imagination of its young target audience, as well as re-educating and influencing trend setters, fashion bloggers and the media. An exciting new direction for Republic, it’s an up-to-the-minute approach for an up-to-the-minute brand.

Jo Molineux, head of multi-channel, Republic, said: “Working with Propaganda has been a truly eye-opening experience; our new brand proposition and campaign perfectly captures Republic’s essence, and the fresh direction in which we are taking the brand. We look forward to working with Propaganda, and to taking the new brand proposition to market.”

Julian Horberry, planning director, Propaganda, said: “Our robust 'Discovery™ programme had provided us with a rich insight into consumer buying habits, and, in particular, into the needs and aspiration of Republic’s core target audience.”

“Republic is a dynamic brand with big ambitions and our creative articulation of the brand’s new proposition, together with the social platform we’ve created, has been designed to reflect just that.”

So watch this space, and get ready to make your own rules.

See the full campaign in our portfolio.