Beat the crunch – get creative with your clobber

Ah, sweet January: that long month whose only highlights are maxed out credit cards, dark days and, new for this year, a recession. Luckily for you, our 2008 Fashion Award winners, Rags to Bitches, are offering a credit crunch-defying event later this month.

RTB are running a customising workshop at Urbis on Sunday 18 January. Showing you how to get to grips with your sewing machine (or just a needle and thread), the workshop teaches some clever techniques for updating old clothes or adjusting vintage threads. And, best of all, it’s completely free and accompanied by the usual RTB Sunday teas, live music and honest-to-goodness fun.

Rags to Bitches customising workshop. Sunday 18 January, The Social, Urbis, 2-4pm, free. Email info at rags-to-bitches dot co dot uk for more details.

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Design competition winner announced

It’s always the same, isn’t it? Everyone wants everything before Christmas. And we were no exception. The deadline for the Best of Manchester Awards 2009 design competition was 17 December. Interviews were held on 18 December. And the winner was announced on 22 December. Phew.

Despite a little industry grumbling on the How Do website (sigh), we had a fantastic response to the competition. Agencies, design studios and freelancers alike got to grips with the Best of Manchester brand and came up with some startling ideas. In the end, we selected the issues-led communications agency, Creative Concern.

We chose Creative Concern thanks to a combination of factors: their design credentials, their innovative approach and their inherent grasp of what we wanted to do with the 2009 marketing campaign. As we talked through their submission, it was clear that this was an agency that could deliver not just good design but good communications and marketing as a whole.

And, now that the New Year has dawned, we’re already working hard with Creative Concern to develop what we hope will be a fitting marketing campaign for The Best of Manchester Awards 2009. Watch this space…

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