2023 is a time of change for Martin Hopkins Agency in case you haven’t noticed. We can’t wait to share with you some internal updates, client news and exciting developments internally!
So, we won’t keep you in suspense any longer, let’s update you on what’s been happening!
B Corp Impact Assessment
First of all, we’re still hard at work on our B Corp Impact Assessment (ICYMI – click here to read more about our journey!). It’s a long process with a lot of factors to consider, but we’re feeling immensely committed to making sure that we meet the highest standards of environmental and social responsibility and that we can say that we truly are designing for change.
Melo Wales
Over the Christmas period, we worked hard on collaborating with Dragons RFC and Melo Wales to create a mental health campaign targeting men in the Gwent area. We’re incredibly proud of this project and absolutely loved working with the fantastic team at Dragons RFC to pull it off. We hope the work we did helps to encourage more men to open up about their mental health and be unafraid to seek help if they need it. If you are looking for self-help information to support your mental health, please check out Melo’s vast number of topics, helplines, courses and resources.
Speaking of Melo Wales, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve won the contract to continue work on their mental wellness brand for another year. We’re excited to continue our partnership and shout about them both on and offline, encouraging people living and working in Gwent to access the free self-help resources and courses on offer.
And, as anyone who follows us on social media will know, mental wellbeing projects are incredibly important to us at Martin Hopkins, and we’re proud to be working on local wellbeing brands like the Integrated Wellbeing Network and Melo Wales. Our agency take mental health seriously and are committed to doing our part to promote positive mental health in our team and wider community.
Swansea University
In more exciting news, we’ve recently won a contract with Swansea University! This is a massive achievement for us, as it allows us to work with a diverse range of people and engage in some fantastic research projects that have a positive impact on the environment and wider community. It’s the perfect project for us at this time, when we’re so focused on designing for change. For instance, we were involved in discussions about a project focusing peatlands to ensure they are reinstated and protected for the local environment and animals – quite different to the sort of stuff we’re used to talking about in the studio! We’re not just working for the university, but for the people within it, and we couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity.
One of our first projects for Swansea Uni was for their new Career Boost initiative, which the whole team feel incredibly passionate about. The goal of this project is to help students who experience barriers to work experience access different career opportunities, including paid and unpaid placements of varying durations, bursaries for training and resources, mentoring, and bespoke events. We’re thrilled to be a part of this initiative which is dedicated to helping students with disabilities, mental health conditions, caring responsibilities, low-income backgrounds, estranged, LGBTQ+, those from Minority Ethnic Background and refugees to name a few. In addition to the long list of benefits this will offer to under-privileged students, we also loved working on the concept development for this project as it needed to be intention grabbing and appeal to students.
The Career Boost project reminded everyone that we’re passionate about designing for change! This isn’t just about sustainable design, but it’s a broad concept that encompasses so much more. We believe in creating designs that have a positive impact on society, and we’re committed to doing our part to make the world a better place.
Our new office space!
Lastly, we wanted to mention that we’ve recently moved to a new office in Desg, Pontcanna. Whilst the floods in February made our commute a bit more adventurous, we’re enjoying spending more time together as an agency in our bright new studio and taking nice lunch breaks in Llandaff Fields (when the weather is good that is!)
That’s all for now, folks! We hope you enjoyed reading our quarterly update and are as excited as we are about the fantastic projects we’re working on. As always, feel free to reach out to us if you want to ask about our services or just want to say hello.
Until next time! 👋
Written by Alice-Rae Pringle
Digital Content Manager
