Meet Tom, he’s spending the next 3 month’s with us on placement as part of the Manchester Masters scheme. He’s one of the chosen 10 on the scheme this year, so it’s an absolute pleasure to have him on board helping out on all things marketing. Why this picture? I have no idea, answer’s on a postcard please.

…well, not quite as he’s probably a bit little to be networking yet!

Big congratulations and lots of cooing to our client Emma James from Thirsty Thursdays who gave birth to beautiful baby boy Fox on 14th September.

The lovely Fox weighed in at an eye-watering 9lbs 9oz. Well done Emma! We hope to see him in the Creative Spark office very soon, so we can turn him into a computer geek!

Baby Fox Sumner, born 14/09/09

Emma, Baby Fox and his big brother Rock looking pretty chuffed with his new brother!

Last week saw our Work Placement’s Desk™ in use once more by the hands of Jamie Johnson, an aspiring young designer who’s currently at sixth form and looking at pursuing a career in the design and web industry, following in his father’s (Pete Johnson of AWA Manchester) creative footsteps. He got stuck into designing magazine and CD covers with an enthusiasm that should see him do very well in the future.

If you’d like to do a work placement with us yourself, please drop us an email with your details.

Yesterday saw our first visit to the Big Chip Awards, and whilst we didn’t win, we had a good night with the folk from Manchester United Soccer Schools, Ricky Gervais(ish) and Bill Bailey.

Congratulations has to go to our friend and collaborater Ian Hogg who snapped up two awards for a great piece of CGI animation with ahd imaging. Watch out for next year, we’ll be back to get some for ourselves!

Snarling Liam

Last weekend saw most of the Creative Spark gang haul-ass down to Heaton Park through the driving wind and rain to watch Oasis in their massive homecoming gigs.

Despite the rubbish weather, we all had an amazing time. Oasis played a big set of 24 favourites including Masterplan, Half the World Away, Champagne Supernova and Live Forever.

Kasabian were also amazing and we all wished that we’d got to their secret gig in HMV on Market Street on Monday.

Gemma and Georgina get into the Golden Circle

Andy's Mad Fer It

Noel givin' it some

Oasis ripping up Heaton Park

This weekend Carl, our studio manager, finally got to say hello to his daughter Nina after nine months of excitement, nerves and outright fear. We’re all looking forward to meeting her soon and finding out whether she’s as cute in real life as she looks in these photos!

How old do you have to be before you can use a Mac nowadays anyway?

Rob and Graham (aka Teacake) are joining the Creative Spark team for the next couple of weeks after Noise Festival set them up with us through the Dream Jobs scheme. After just a couple of days they’ve bought us Fruitellas, made a few rounds of brews and initiated the welcome decision to go to Subway for lunch; they know how to endear themselves with us. When they’re not involved in an intense session of fruit-chew-purchasing, Team Teacake will be busting out some fresh design! We will keep you posted!

You can follow their progress through their own eyes at their Teacake/Noise Festival blog.

This week our latest work experiencer and fan of Japanese culture, Mark Adamson, brought us the tastiest Eastern treats we’ve ever been brought; assorted packs of Pocky ’stick things’. Opinions were divided on whether strawberry could topple the might of the obvious-but-delicious chocolate, but we managed to keep the rioting under control and everyone had a great afternoon wearing out the floor between their own desk and Mark’s, such is the almost Pringle-like addictive quality of those yummy little sticks.

Meanwhile Mark’s made a great start to his two weeks with us crafting some beautiful Eastery work that a few of our luckiest clients will get to see very soon!

Our very own Andy Mallalieu is taking part in this years Noise Festival, a showcase for the best new creative talent aged 25 and under, in film, architecture, fashion, music, design. His work is featured on the latest nationwide campaign material, so keep your eyes peeled. And if you have a spare minute you can give him a helping hand by voting for his work here