The Surgery

Come and join the anti-boring revolution! We’re an internal comms, design and digital agency on a mission to boot boring up the bum. Who has time for boring comms, boring design and boring digital? Nobody, that’s who! Instead, we deliver killer internal communication campaigns, empowering EVP and employer brands, daring design, awesome animations, and dynamite digital and virtual solutions. And because we have fun doing it, we reckon you will too. So, if you’re bored of being bored, let’s talk and let’s work together to ban boring for good! #internalcommsagency #designagency #digitalsolutions #creativeagency

Another month wrapped, take a look at some of the highlights! 🕸👂🪩   Who knew we’d have so many insightful conversations by approaching procurement professionals with wind-up chattering teeth, and saying “fancy a natter?”… maybe it was the KitKats and Coke Zero on offer actually 🤔 #OctoberWrapped #GraphicDesign #InternalComms #DigitalAgency

Happy Halloween 🎃👻

Senior Copywriter James Blake, says his favourite project was one of the first he did for us! Back in 2019, Cadent needed our help. They needed to improve their position in the all-important Ofcom customer service table and their teams needed a motivation boost. As part of a wider internal communications strategy, they asked us to review how people were doing and what they needed to do to turn around performance. From the research, James created an engaging narrative which clearly spelled out the path ahead by setting out the why, the what, the who (not the band!) and the when. Together with a visually stunning rich picture, the narrative's 'mountain theme' showing Cadent working as a team striving to get to various bases along their journey, really made their improvement story easy to understand and act on. The Cadent team even made Cadent Mountain cupcakes, and we love the Trustpilot Yetis throwing snowball reviews at them (the campaign won an award, too!) #ILoveThisOne #FavouriteProject #InternalCommunications #NarrativeDevelopment

👀 Happy Halloween from the Surgery! 👻 As always, we're here for all your eye-C needs... 😜✨ Check out this spook-tacular animation crafted by our Head of Animation and Video, Bradley. Taking a detour from our usual vector style, he brought this playful, hand-drawn 2D eyeball to life, bouncing in the Halloween spotlight. Have a boo-tiful Halloween, and remember, for creative that catches your eye, we’re here to help. 👁️ #Halloween2024 #CreativeAgency #2DAnimation #MotionGraphics

The Halloween spirit has been high in the office today! 🧛♂️👻 From “char-spook-erie” boards filled with creepy (and delicious) snacks, to a bunting competition that unleashed our creative flair. We had some spook-tacular costumes —including Lily the office dog rocking a shark outfit 🦈— and tested our horror movie knowledge in a Halloween quiz. Congratulations to our winners, Rebecca and Francesca, who took home Yumpkin chocolate pumpkins for the best bunting and spooky snack entries 🍫🎃 #AgencyLife #OfficeHalloween #TeamSpirit #CreativeFun

Surgery Creative Director, Nick Cordell’s, favourite project? A four-year-long branding project for F1® that he didn’t do, and never happened!   As dedicated Formula One® fans, we were beyond excited when we landed a branding project for a completely new team who’d been invited to bid for an 11th place on the F1® grid. The team’s core goal was to drive equality in the traditionally male-dominated sport. It would feature both male and female drivers and engineers and include a driver with disabilities. They already had an exciting new hybrid-derived engine and needed a manufacturing partner.    Nick says, “To create the brand for such an ambitious, admirable and high-profile project would be every designer’s dream job, but it wasn’t an easy task.    “What I liked most about it was that I didn’t design it… my 18-year-old daughter did! Well, not exactly, but she had a very important ‘hand’ in it, as, after months of attempting to capture what Project Lead Arnon Woolfson had asked for, namely spirit and passion, my middle-aged, male brain realised I wasn’t the man for this job. And the Mac wasn’t the tool.    So, one night at dinner, I gave my eldest, Edith, an engineering student, a pot of black ink and asked her to intuitively paint ‘Equal’. No brief, just paint whatever you feel. The mark on the car shown, including the perhaps unintentional = as an E, has barely changed from the mark she made that evening.  What I loved about the project was the change of direction, the change in the way we thought and the unusual path we took to get there. The journey, not the destination, as it were! “   Unfortunately for F=, their journey was less successful, and after a long, long process, neither they nor any of the four bids were accepted. Such a shame, we all felt they would have been great for the sport. #ILoveThisOne #FavouriteProject #CreativeBranding #F1Branding #EqualityInSport

So… what do Dumbledore, Merlin and Gandalf have in common? They all came into the office for a staff meeting. A staff meeting…geddit? 🧙♂️ But what were they doing coming into the office for a meeting in this golden age of remote working? Could their meeting have been an email (probably not as email isn’t mentioned much in Harry Potter and wasn’t around in 500AD!) Anyway, the point is you CAN have productive meetings with a little bit of etiquette and meeting good sense. 🪄Want to know more? Have a WAND(er) over to our blog to ensure your next meeting is a magical one! Link in the comments below 👇 P.S. We’re not sorry about the awful puns. ✨ #blog #meetingetiquette #commsagency

Senior Designer Beth's favourite project was creating the artwork, designs and look and feel for the internal launch of Paramount's new streaming service, Paramount+, which had to go with a bang! ♥️   The aim was to thank and celebrate all the hard work and long hours employees had put into making the new platform. So Beth dreamt up the design theme and working with Senior Account Manager Megan and the Paramount team, the team made sure it was a memorable and successful event. ♥️   Beth said, "I really enjoyed going up to Camden to see my designs and work in action, and to be part of the celebrations was a real treat!" ♥️ #ILoveThisOne #FavouriteProject #GraphicDesign #CreativeCampaign

Pop by to say hi if you’re at the In-community conference today!