The next five months...
APRIL 2021
PJRC JOBS BOOKED IN : 5 (0 cancelled) COVID JOBS: 0
THE STATE OF COVID-19
April 12 The opening of non-essential retail; hairdressers and nail salons; and public buildings, including libraries and community centres.
April 12 outdoor hospitality venues, zoos, theme parks, and drive-in cinemas. Self-contained accommodation such as campsites and holiday lets, where indoor facilities are not shared with other households, can also reopen.
April 12 Beer gardens can reopen.
Holiday has gone Amber/panic/no its green/how is it red?
With the announcement that Michael Kiwanuka's Newcastle gig was postponed for the third time and put back until 2022 our tickets were put back in the top drawer to keep them safe and there was no other choice of music this month... #kiwanuka #genius #beautifultunes #alreadyaclassic
Record of the month:
Kiwanuka - Michael Kiwanuka
No duff tracks here - beautiful sounds from Mr K.
More 70's vibes and soft smoky tunes that carry you away to darkened dance halls in the early hours as a guy sweeps the floor around your feet waiting for you to leave but you can't drag yourself away from the music. We will see you one day!
This month's reading matter:
Creative Strategies and the Business Of Design by Douglas Davis.
Turning words into inspiration.
Remember, what people are buying is your judgement, discernment and foresight.
This intangible ability is a competency to solve problems.
Those who succeeded have learned to overcome those fears with knowledge, practice and confidence...
PJRC CREATIVE LIFE...
Just when we thought the world was getting busy again April brought my quietest fortnight in my career so far - one job worth £37.50p, no phone calls or quotation requests through 11 working days. It was a bit scary - even in these strange times... it gave me time to start sorting my year end accounts and get everything in order for my accountant (more about him later). We even advertised our services...
It also gave me time to make some final tweaks to our first PJRC brochure and get it off to print (check it out on our website at www.pjr-creative.com or send a request for a hard copy while stocks last).
After a thought provoking weekend, I sat back down at my desk wondering whether to start designing some new t-shirts (we have a t-shirt company too www.pjr-creative-tees.com just in-case you are here for the first time) or to upload more images to our 'NEWLY' launched Image Library and Framed Prints website www.pjr-creative-pix.picfair.com - and yes more importantly some free advertising!
Some of my photographs that feature on the PIX website...
There was no need to WORRY!
09:27am the phone rings with a job (woop-woop) - then another and another... within an hour and a half I had booked ‘five’ new jobs in??? How do you explain that? One thing about this whole Covid Lockdown situation is that nothing is predictable.
Another was a plaque with a unicorn for a school bench in remembrance of little girl who had sadly passed away - not the nicest of jobs to have to create and a reminder that me having a quiet month is nothing to be upset about at all when I'm still fit and healthy and in a lovely relationship with a great family behind me. #bethankfulforwhatyouhave
On a slightly lighter note searching for unicorns really played havoc with my google suggestions for a few weeks...
By the end of the month we had another landmark to shout about...
We have finally made it to 500 jobs! The first four hundred flew in but it's been a bit of a slog to get the last hundred... (bloomin' Covid again).
MAY 2021
PJRC JOBS BOOKED IN : 16 (1 cancelled) COVID JOBS: 2
THE STATE OF COVID-19
May 17 Two households, or groups of up to six people, will be allowed to mix indoors and limited crowds will be allowed at sporting events.
My second AZ dart goes straight in 4 weeks early as the government get something right with the Vaccine rollout. That’s me full of protection for now (they have just mentioned a booster now)!
Record of the month:
Fatal Mistakes - Del Amitri
The boys are back after a very long absence - and we've thoroughly enjoyed their return.
More of the same. #delamitri
Listening to too many podcasts this month to read anything... here are my regulars!
PJRC CREATIVE LIFE...
May was a busy month... lots of nice jobs to get our teeth into. There was a nice 40 page brochure, some signage, a couple of flyers, a digital game pack, a webinar presentation, dabbling with bit of web design, a logo for an author (below left) and some vinyl stickers for a friends new campervan... (below right).
We also had the added bonus of a new grant (possibly) which was a little unexpected with things picking up recently but there was a change to the requirements from previous grants. This grant was based on lost earnings from February until April compared with the previous year. But we had an issue - we'd started three jobs back in July 20' which we had been drip fed information to add to their artwork over several months until it eventually ground to a halt (again) due to Covid before the end of the year. Then, after a four month period of inactivity our client decided in February to draw a line under all three jobs and asked us to invoice all the work to date (£3.5K) which would falsely improve our takings for the 'grant' time frame - just typical!
We needn't have worried - after analysing our figures including the 3 rogue invoices we still fell well inside the parameters - we were nearly 14K lower than the previous years figures and 9K lower than our first year which was a bit startling to read - great for the grant, but eye-opening moving forward (time to sing a certain 'D-ream' song I think.... )*
The month of May also saw the delivery of our first batch of PJR Creative brochures (which we were very happy with). We have had some lovely feedback - thank you all.
The new arrival...
We had been planning to purchase a new iMac in our 3rd year but, like everything else in a Covid world, it was put on hold - so the 'grant' money (now received) created the perfect opportunity to purchase a much needed upgrade for our office (and stopped us getting carried away with a lump of cash in the bank waiting to be frittered it away on bits and bobs) and its now pride of place in our office looking big, lovely and shiny!
Shiny new Mac family...
JUNE 2021
PJRC JOBS BOOKED IN : 10 (1 cancelled) COVID JOBS: 2
THE STATE OF COVID-19
June 21 All remaining restrictions on social contact could be lifted from 21st, allowing for larger events to go ahead and nightclubs to reopen (for 5 minutes) and here we are back at the start...
Record of the month:
Back the way we came Vol 1 - Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Nice to get 'Noel' vinyl on the office turntable. Packed with great tunes and a cracking new track called 'We're on our way now' which is more in the old vein of his tunes and less experimental - we'll see what Liam thinks...
This month's reading matter:
Straight Outta Crawley (Memoirs of a distinctly average human being) by Romesh Ranganathan.
I'm loving it...
Very, very funny. I can’t recommend it highly enough. ― Jonathan Ross
His ability to produce bitingly fresh gags marks him out from the crowd. ― The Guardian
Frank and very funny. ― The Daily Telegraph
PJRC CREATIVE LIFE...
We had a lovely start to June!
A lovely client that we hadn’t heard from in a long while (due to Covid obviously) picked up the phone requesting a large job, 'Festival Time' was returning so they needed to freshen up their 'Big Smoker' catering truck with a new set of graphics - happy days!
It was great to get stuck in to some work for them again... (pics to follow) but as they excitedly got ready to get their wagons rollin' another client dropped to their knees - left devastated with Boris postponing ‘Freedom Day’ for another month with no guarantees - unfortunately it left them with no options other than cancelling their ‘Festival Weekend’ as time would be just too tight out to advertise and sell tickets. Not to mention all the print work, merch and staging (gutted, more work gone for us too!) - and paying the bands (who were already booked). So with no definitive 'FD' date in place they had to pull the plug and concede defeat for the second year in a row with thousands already spent on advertising and early bird tickets - my heart goes out to them (again).
With the vaccine roll out quickening pace I had a two sets of plan drawings to do for a client to fit out a couple of chemists with vaccine booths and waiting areas - you just don’t know what’s coming in next?
We also purchased a new ‘Canon EOS250D’ camera as an upgrade on our Nikon, we're very pleased with it so far and will have to show you some of our first pics...
Our first pics - Gin, poppies and a musically inspired suitcase...
JULY - PRESENT DAY 2021
PJRC JOBS BOOKED IN : 9 (0 cancelled) COVID JOBS: 0
THE STATE OF COVID-19 today...
August 10 Total number of confirmed cases: 6,094,243 (3,036 current active cases)
Total deaths: 153,734
Total vaccinations: 3,801,960 received first dose; 3,257,931 second doses
We are still getting new variants sprouting up, there are holiday destinations opening up and closing within 24 hours (fancy a 6k long haul to Mexico for the day?), vaccine passports - do we don't we, anti-vaxxers changing their mind on admission to hospital and good old BoJo is still speaking fluent Mongolian, some things never change...
Record of the month:
Welcome 2 America - Prince
This album was originally recorded in 2010 and has been released by Prince's people. The title track "Welcome 2 America" see's Prince singing about a changing America. Most tracks are well worth a listen, but as an album its not in my Prince top 5, however, he made so many fantastic albums. It's still nice to hear something new from one of the most talented artists to walk this planet!
This month's viewing matter: (as I'm just reading boring technical stuff at the mo!)
The surprise that was... Clarkson's Farm
Me and the missus loved it...
Very, funny and surprisingly informative and it's gone down a storm with the UK Farmers shedding light on their current predicament. Worth a watch if you have got Amazon.
Another program that had passed me by was 'Snowfall' and I'm well through the second season already (gritty) and also '...as yet untitled' with Alan Davies is a hoot!
PJRC CREATIVE LIFE...
July and August so far in holiday season have been profitable - not many jobs but nearly each and everyone has been huge which has kept me glued to my seat.
We completed the 'Big Smoker' graphics for our friends at 'Texas Smokers' on their catering truck and they were over the moon - happy days!
Texas Smokers coming to a festival near you or you can check out their food at the 'Stack' or 'Trillians' (Newcastle).
...and here we are back in current times at PJR Creative at the start of our fourth year in business as we sit and contemplate how we’ve managed to get through 18 months under Covid restrictions.
After the initial shock of COVID-19 and the resulting restrictions - a few of our clients had to close due to the nature of their businesses, events were cancelled and projects were put on hold. I think we lost or clients cancelled 39 jobs in total which was hard to take at first but once the dust settled things start to change...
Boy, were we grateful for our second year in business which bulked up the coffers and gave us a much needed buffer in these unforeseen times!
Life in general had gone from full speed to a leisurely run with the odd sprint finish thrown in for good measure (well it is an Olympic year after all - but even that’s not guaranteed on the eve of the tournament).
SPOILER ALERT its just finished and we won lots of metal!
People who weren’t ‘tech’ savvy are now discussing download speeds, servers, file transfers and zoom invitations... even my mam and dad were setting up a WhatsApp account in their mid seventies and taking a turn to host a weekly ‘Kahoot!’ Quiz - crazy times indeed!
Clients were making decisions they didn’t want to make due to lack of options and timescales, 'should they open up?', 'if so - how long for?', 'how many people can fit in the office safely?', 'who should they have in the office?', 'can they trust their staff WFH?', 'can they afford it?' - loads of questions and no answers.
Companies were frightened to commit to new projects with furlough ending, 'will they have enough work coming in to match the salaries?', 'should they spend on advertising?', 'should they play it safe or speculate with money put aside for salaries and risk redundancies if it all fails?'. It was and still is all so unpredictable…
Our working practices are oh-so different - we are used to waiting 2 to 3 days for proofs returning from clients with instructions, they can now be upwards of two weeks due to staff working from home or splitting shifts.
Although people’s output maybe up WFH nobody totally knows what everybody else is doing because of the lack of everyday face to face communication. Workers miss the overheard office chats or the reactive conversations after a phone call or the second opinion on an email. The ‘can I just grab you for a quick chat?’ has vanished too and all the incidental details have turned into 'Chinese Whispers' (am I allowed to say that now- apologies if not) by the time everyone agrees to a time slot for a 'zoom' or 'teams' call.
But hey - that’s the ‘new normal’ and we have no choice but to adapt to it!
We’ve just submitted our year end to our accountants ( turnover was down by 25K from previous year) with such a profitable second year it really exaggerated the difference this year and last, but it could’ve been much worse without the self-employed and company grants that we gratefully received.
I told you earlier that my accountant would crop up again...
Somehow in that 40 minute accounts meeting, masked-up and well behaved (that happens once a year) I managed to get myself an ‘isolation period’ as my accountant tested positive for Covid 3 days later!!! I know that the virus is prevalent everywhere at the moment but of all the people to cause disruption, my accountant would have been pretty low on my list!!
Fortunately my tests were negative so I had to hastily make a couple of arrangements - work was collected instead of delivered and my clients were very understanding and everything is again back to that new normal!!
The phone is pretty quiet again but life has been busy and the promise of new work is just around the corner - I’m just awaiting content to land in my mailbox and we’ll be occupied for a good few weeks...
Gigs are back (don't you dare BoJo!) so we have the Manics and The Fun Lovin' Criminals to look forward to with Weller and Kiwanuka next year to look forward to.
Keep an eye on new arrivals at our t-shirt company www.pjr-creative-tees.com we've just added lots of new fully re-cycled tees and some Newcastle themed Tess too!
If you want some art prints for your office wall please check out our Image Library and Framed Prints website www.pjr-creative-pix.picfair.com with new images uploading all the time.
And there you have it - 18 months living and working through Covid - please stay safe folks and thanks for listening! Hopefully we can all stay fit and healthy and prosper in the months to come.
Until the next time... thanks for all your support!
Pete
PJR Creative
August 10th 2021
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