Part of the pleasure of being freelance is that I get to work with lots of different incredibly talented people.
I’m often around The Message Trust in Manchester. Not only is The Message home to some of Britain’s finest youth evangelists, but they’re supported by a truly first class team of creative professionals.
I work closely with the Message:Creative guys on Flow magazine which goes out three times a year and in my estimations is one of the most exciting supporter magazines out there. No two issues are the same – we’re always working on the most impactful ways of communicating stories, using the best writers and photographers we can find.
We do thorough debriefs each time and there’s a real feeling every issue that this was the best yet – but that the next one will be better. That’s priceless: a focus on continuous improvement that I think comes from the dynamic of an in-house team working with committed external people. Issue 6 is coming up and it’s good – but it’s not as good as Issue 7 will be.
We’ve also recently worked together on a refresh of their website. I’ve done a few of these in the non-profit sector and I know that normally a website relaunch is a long and painful process. In the capable hands of the Message team however, the job took weeks rather than months. Shortly after the new site went live, we did a review and made a few tweaks. The web guys didn’t blink – they just got straight on with the business of making things better.
There’s a lovely camaraderie stemming from a shared commitment to excellence and a healthy humility before the job that makes working with the Message:Creative guys nothing but a joy. And you always get a good cup of tea too.
Filed under: Newsletters and magazines, Website content, continuous improvement, design company, designers, flow, manchester, message:creative, the message, web, website
