In November, we launched a Fashion Marketing Consultancy Live Project, a collaboration between Grain and the Fashion Marketing team of the Fashion & Textiles Department, University of East London. The project, led by second-year UEL Fashion Marketing students, aims to help students understand what it’s like working in an agency environment and to further develop creative and … Read more

Do you have a birth certificate? I had taken mine for granted until my recent visit to the TRAID offices. We’ve been supporting TRAID this year through our membership in 1% for the Planet. We chose them because of their appealing goals. TRAID is a charity working to stop clothes from being thrown away. We turn … Read more

Relations between Iceland the country and Iceland the supermarket chain have been frosty for quite some time. And the cold war warmed up in November as the country announced it was going to legally challenge the use of the company’s trademark, arguing that while the supermarket has attempted to freeze them out from using the word … Read more

It was ironic to read Cal Newport’s Deep Work on the Kindle app on my iPhone, considering that the device is full of alluring distractions. The first part of the book argues why deep, focused and uninterrupted work is valuable, with section titles including: Deep work helps you quickly learn hard things Deep work helps you produce at an … Read more

There are very few brands that are quite as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as Marks & Spencer. The marketing management must go through exceptional highs and lows during focus groups. First the moderator asks about M&S Food and Wine and hears the consumer perceptions of innovation, aspiration, quality and reliability, but when the questions move … Read more

A £600m name that no-one will ever know. DAMAC, the Dubai-based property company, has been in the news lately as it has appointed Australia’s Lendlease to build the high rise property, now known as Aykon London One, on the site in Nine Elms Battersea London. The interiors of the 50-storey building have been designed by … Read more

If you are a hardcore high street fashion brand follower, you must have heard the news earlier this month that Banana Republic is about to close eight of its UK stores by the end of this financial year. A spokesperson told the London Evening Standard: “The company anticipates that the majority of the stores will … Read more

I was very happy when the Grain team accepted my application to come to England to do a design internship! The three months I spent at Grain was a great experience for me and I found their working environment to be both professional and personal. I worked on a lot of great projects and with some reputable … Read more

We recently moved over to Google Apps, now called G Suite, and it was not a smooth ride. In fact, I was surprised how difficult it was even for someone considered to be relatively tech-savvy (moi) – I have a decent understanding of things like nameservers and different DNS records, perhaps just enough to be … Read more

When I’m not in the Grain office, I spend quite a lot of time painting and illustrating as well as working on self-initiated graphic design projects. My illustrations are mainly inspired by nature, people and fantasy fiction. Watercolour and chalk pastels are my favourite mediums to work with, as you’ll see. I find painting and illustrating … Read more

The other evening at RIBA to celebrate the launch of the new book from the Twentieth Century Society, 50 Architects 50 Buildings, four architects spoke about buildings which influenced their career. Sarah Featherstone, Cany Ash, Peter Barber and Niall McLaughlin treated us to insights on the buildings themselves, and details of how these echo in their own work. The … Read more

Driving Positive Change Sponsoring F1 gives brands huge exposure in Europe, Latin America and Asia combined with important (and relatively unique) access to growth markets in the developing world. The associations with speed, glamour and excitement are tempting for any global company and for FMCG brands these associations can be promoted through branding around the … Read more

Autumn is on its way and we’ve been harvesting a few of our recent news updates to share with you. We have the launch of a new group of colleges, a new fashion brand, a brochure for an international school and lots more to share from Grain HQ.  In case you already have next year’s … Read more

GCSE student Emily joined us for a week to delve into the world of branding, design and marketing. We all enjoyed her initiative and upbeat personality! Emily says: My week at Grain was a really great eye opener as to what working in a successful and innovative design agency was like. The team at Grain challenged … Read more