Class of 2008: Public Relations with Media BA (Hons), The University of Huddersfield.

The blog features urban style and designs, from trainers to suitcases and even invitations sent out by fashion designers. I think this a pretty cool design for an invitation. It stands out, which is something I think all good PR communications should do. Also it cleverly ties in with the company’s name, Original Fake.

For PR projects at University I’ve tried to make unusual invitations and fliers. For Mogul magazine I printed invitations on to ohp transparencies, with the title ‘It’s clear to see you’ve been invited to the Mogul magazine launch party’. I also made fliers for Mogul magazine designed to look like pieces of toast, with the slightly clichéd slogan of ‘The best thing since sliced bread’.

As part of my Formby project press pack, promoting the town to tourists, I designed postcards to give out to journalists. It might not be the most innovative way to reach your publics but I still think there is a place for fliers and invitations in marketing. After all it grabs your attention a lot more than a simple invitation via e-mail or fax ever could.

Have you ever created any interesting fliers or invitations, or used a cool design to stand out?

Thank you to everyone who helped me with interviews:
(Alphabetical as always)

Heather Constantine, the parliamentary researcher for Ann Widdecombe

Iain Dale is a political commentator who blogs at www.iaindale.com

Sarah Halton of Tangerine PR

Roger Haywood the former CIPR and CIM president.

Ian Green the director of media at Green Communications

Johannes Kokert and engineer at Leica Microsystems in Germany

Simon Law, a junior product manager at Amadeus in France

Thibault Masson, the founder of international online marketing consultancy Fashion Fox

Katie McLoughlin of Trinity Mirror North West

Alexander Petricca, a professional photographer and blogger in Liverpool.

Douglas Smith the former CIPR president and MD of Parliamentary Perceptions

Margaret Tarpey the MD of Concept Communications

Nina Watson, the senior account manager at Concept Communications

Paul Watson the Global IT manager of Rolls-Royce Energy

Philip Young, a senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland and prominant PR blogger

Special thanks also go out to:

Maxine Barnett who organised the ‘Two PR Greats’ lecture and introduced me to Douglas Smith and Roger Haywood.

Anne Gregory whose lecture on ‘Public Relations and its Struggle for Respectability’ at the Bradford University School of Management helped me enormously.

What I need is some extra time, an excellent spell checker and the ability to type several hundred words a minute.

What I don’t need is someone getting a little too trigger happy with a bulldozer and cutting through the network cable, bringing the entire university network down along with all the e-mails that I desperately need from people I’ve contacted. And it’s raining!

Andy Green of Green Communications, who is the honorary research fellow at the University was also there offering an insight into the public relations world.

Roger Haywood left me very impressed with his tales of public relations past and his hopes for the future of the profession. He offered us advice for when we apply for jobs, saying that we should includea photograph of ourselves with out CV. To make it truly standout from the hundreds of other applicants who might be applying for the same position. A great little piece of advice I think.

Douglas Smith invited us into his world of political public relations and lobbying. He presented us with a three-page handout containing plenty of information on how to succeed in the political arena of public relations. Although this is not an area that is of particular interest to me, I found it incredibly useful with regards to my dissertation and my plans to discuss political blogging.

Best of all – the event was free!

For those of you that don’t know, the Opus Project is an iniative by the University of Huddersfield to promote creative works and designs by current and former students.

I’ve also discovered Skiddle, which is a great website that allows you to sell tickets to your own events online. The only hitch it that they charge the customer a 10% booking fee, but that’s not uncommon.

Have you experience any website’s like Skiddle or better? I’d love to hear.