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The sun was shining, the players were buzzing and the cider was flowing. What else could it be but the London Charity Softball League finals day?!

Bluestep were thrilled to sponsor this year’s games, which kicked off in May and resulted in a nail-biting final.

Each year, 80 charities take part in the softball games, which are played in Hyde Park, London, to compete for the prestigious Harris Hill Cup. Mind were the overall charity winners of the 2019 Cup, with The Foodfighters (Fair Share UK and ACF UK) winning the Bluestep Shield and Business in the Community winning the Harris Hill Plate. Well done guys!

It’s been a summer of trash talk, Twitter .gifs and Love Island giveaways and, most of all, laughs. Bluestep’s Charity Account Manager, Kendra Daly says “Each year we sponsor this awesome event and each year it’s all about having some fun with our fab charity clients.

It’s so nice be able to facilitate the event as we can be part of all the banter and camaraderie which is so important for everyone working in the charity sector.”

Bluestep sponsored the food and various competitions throughout the season as well as filming finals day so that the video can be used as a memento for all participants and hopefully it’ll build the buzz for teams next year! #PlayBall!

Wow, what a summer it has been! As well as enjoying the scorching hot temperatures, the Bluestep lot have kept busy inside and outside of the office. So, what exactly have we been up to?

Charity Softball League

This summer, Bluestep headed to Hyde Park for the annual Charity Softball League final. It was another great year, with an amazing turnout of many fabulous charity teams. As a sponsor of the event, Bluestep provided the food, as well as the laughs and great chat…and a coconut shy!

The Softball event also saw the finale of our Flip cup challenge. This year, we tasked the charities with getting their flip on. In teams, everyone has to go around in a circle drinking a beverage and then flipping their cup over. Once it lands successfully, the next person can begin. Simple enough, right? You can watch the highlights of the challenge here!

 

Bluestep Party

To celebrate all the hard work and effort the Bluesteppers had put in for another crazy year, Bluestep partied in style, and boy do we know how to party!! The teams battled it out through 24 holes of crazy golf followed by cocktail making at Revolucion De Cuba.  Whilst the sangria was flowing, the teams went head to head shaking up some rum-based cocktails which were judged by the professionals on the taste and presentation. The evening concluded with a delicious Cuban spread (and of course a few more cheeky cocktails into the night)…Cheers!

 

Birmingham Design Fair

A few weeks back, the Bluestep design and digital team headed to the Birmingham Design Festival. It was a true celebration of the design industry, full of big names in the field with top-notch talks, advice and fun workshops.

The festival was also a great chance to let the creative juices run wild and the team came back full of inspiration and motivation. There were many highlights of the festival. We learnt more about variable fonts (which we blogged about here!), women in design and designing when based outside of London, each with inspirational personal stories.

Alpaca My Bags

We all know that sometimes you need a break from being creative, and what better way to relax and unwind than… alpaca walking?  Yes, you heard correct.  The management team spent the afternoon trekking through the beautiful Northamptonshire countryside with some furry friends at Arkadia Alpacas.  Sadly, we weren’t able to bring one home as an office pet!

 

Alice Says “I Do”!

September saw our own Alice Goddard tie the knot to become Mrs Threadgold!  It was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple followed by a 2-week honeymoon to Mauritius – Congratulations Mr and Mrs Threadgold!

100% Design

The Bluesteppers headed down to the big smoke for the annual 100% Design Fair at Olympia, London. We were there to support our luxury lift client, Aritco. Bluestep designed and created an interactive configurator app for Aritco to use at the show and online, for their massive 2018 competition to win a home lift. We took this to the next level if we do say so ourselves, aiming to provide a slick user experience. You can check it out in action here.

As well as showing support for our client (and taking starring roles in their promotional video – Hollywood here we come?), we spent the day in awe of the amazing interior designers and companies showing off their best products and skillsets. We left feeling excited and inspired!

Phew, so there we have it! Summer 2018 was a great one. But now that’s all over, did someone say Christmas?!

February has been another great month for Bluestep. Interested in finding the about the latest star Bluesteppers? Of course you are...

1st Place – Yasmin

A worthy winner of the top spot this month, the work Yasmin has put into her recent projects has been truly commendable. Yas has worked tirelessly with the design team to make sure everything is running smoothly and always looking great for clients, with this hard work resulting in her being awarded a design and print project. Watch our case studies section in the future!

Yasmin has recently really pushed the design side for the charity team and has shown to be a real key member of the team. She has also stepped up and taken on the marketing across the charity team, on top of all her client work. Well done Yas!

2nd Place – Mia

Since starting Bluestep as an intern, Mia is constantly driven to make sure that every project she completes is to the best of her ability. It is a delight seeing Mia’s face when a piece of her printed work arrives in the office, proof that she is proud of the work she is producing and passionate towards every project. No matter how big or small the project is, she is always willing to help. Mia has also taken the lead on design projects recently, being the only designer present in meetings and being the point of contact for a client.

She has worked efficiently when tasked with quick deadlines and has delivered each time with creative and innovative design work.

We have had a lot of positive comments from our clients surrounding Mia’s creative work. She is a pleasure to have in the studio and a true team player. Keep up the good work Mia! We are looking forward to seeing more of the great work from you!

3rd Place – Alice

No stranger to the Bluestep top spots, Alice is going from strength to strength this year (and it’s only February!)

Alice recently landed a fantastic project, which she worked so hard for over the past 12 months and built a great relationship with the client.

Always putting in 110% and showing that she’s willing to go the extra mile, Alice is a pro at both growing her client base and maintaining a great rapport with each and every one. She leads by example and is always willing to help other members of the team out. Keep it up Alice 😊

Well done to all the fabulous Bluesteppers and keep up the good work! Keep your eyes peeled on our blog for March’s edition…

Yes, that’s right, we’re at it again. Meet the latest Bluestepper, Olivia!

Here at Bluestep, we’re always seeking to grow our team with people who are great at what they do and full of personality.

The opportunity arose for a new Account Manager, and we knew Liv was right for the position as soon as we met her!

Her love of a challenge, excellent ability to lead projects and bubbly nature made Liv the perfect fit for the role and she has already slotted into the office perfectly.

With previous experience in project management, both locally and across the pond in the USA,  we’re excited to see the amazing work she’ll help to produce here at Bluestep for our range of clients.

Outside of the office, Liv is pony-mad. She trains and competes horses and is currently training to become a qualified BHS riding instructor! When she’s not in the saddle, Liv is rowing for the Northampton team or having a cheeky cocktail with friends.

Find out more about Liv here, and to find out about our latest vacancies, get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

Congratulations to Alice, Josh and Carlene, our December employees of the month!

Better late than never, right? We know December may seem like a distant memory, but we couldn’t miss out on celebrating our stars of the month.

1st Place – Alice Goddard

Throughout the year, Alice has been amazing at maintaining her relationships with various charity clients, going above and beyond to help grow the business. Not only that, but Alice has smashed her targets with the highest individual monthly figure this financial year. Amazing!

2nd Place – Josh Crawley

Josh has gone from strength to strength here at Bluestep. His continued work with the FA being just one example of how his efficiency and determination pays off. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by our clients, who are always delighted to work alongside him on a variety of projects.

3rd Place – Carlene MacFarlane

As our office manager, Carlene is the organisation queen. December brings the annual Bluestep Christmas party. It was, as always, a night to remember! Thanks to Carlene, the evening was filled with great food, champagne and Santa himself. Her dedication and great ideas on keeping Bluestep a fun and fabulous place to work doesn’t go unnoticed.  Thank you, Carlene!

2017 was another great year for Bluestep, and we can’t wait to see what the new year brings!  Keep your eyes peeled for January’s employees of the month.

Say hello to the latest Bluesteppers!

We got January off to a great start here at Bluestep by welcoming some great new team members. Meet Alex and Claudia!

Alex Welch - Bluestep

Alex

Alex is our latest addition to the ever-expanding web development team here at Bluestep. Previously leading all things web for a photography company, Alex joins us with a great deal of experience and enthusiasm for the field.

Originally from the University of Northampton, his Media & Web Design course sparked his interest in the industry, and he hasn’t looked back since!

When he’s not making websites look beautiful, Alex loves gaming, comics and Netflix marathons.

Claudia Carr - Bluestep

Claudia

Claudia is our new digital marketing executive, working with clients on everything from SEO to social media advertising.

With a variety of marketing experience under her belt, from cosmetic companies to wedding venues, Claudia is a great addition to Bluestep. Once a De Montfort University student, she achieved a first-class degree in Advertising & Marketing Communications.

In her spare time Claudia loves horse-riding, her French bulldog and all things fashion.

 

2018 is going to be a great year, we can just tell!

Interested in joining our team? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re at it again. And this time we’re expanding our marketing team with our new Marketing Manager, Paul!

We’re on a bit of a roll at the minute with all these new starters, but with every new starter joining it means our team grows even larger, developing our skillset and improving our offerings to old and new clients.

Lucky for us, Paul popped up at just the right time as we’d been on the hunt for a Marketing Manager for a while to help guide and lead us Bluesteppers through an innovative and thriving digital market.

Paul hasn’t always worked in marketing though, as he originally had a keen interest in motorsports and worked in engineering for F1, developing engines for Jaguar Racing. Deciding to take things up a gear and chase his creative dreams, Paul left F1 behind and joined Volkswagen where he found himself a creative marketing role, allowing him to use showcase his many other talents.

After a long stint working for the car giant, Paul took a different route away from the world of motoring and joined BBH advertising agency, where he would be working with an eclectic range of clients to deliver some major advertising campaigns.

When Paul isn’t working, he opts for a more fast-paced and adrenaline-fuelled lifestyle by showing off his snowboarding skills on the slopes and jet setting across the world. As a keen traveller, Paul has a pretty impressive passport with a collection stamps from the likes of Thailand, Africa, Mexico, Sri Lanka and plenty more. Fancy squeezing us in your suitcase next time?

Paul’s down-to-earth manner and great sense of humour make him the perfect fit for Bluestep and we can’t wait to see what the future holds now that Paul has joined!

Congratulations to Harley, Aron and Chris who are November’s Employees of the Month!

It’s that time of the month again! It’s also that time of the year again too. I know I said before that it was Christmas, but this time it’s definitely proper Christmas. December is in full swing, our tree is decked to the nines, our screens are framed with fairy lights, we’ve got a steady stream of mince pies on the go and we’ve already dished out our Secret Santas!

But despite Christmas quickly approaching, nothing slows down here at Bluestep and we’ve been stacked with projects to finish before the big day. And over the past month there have been a few colleagues who have really stood out thanks to their efforts.

So let’s get to it…

1st: Harley Jacquest

Since Harley joined just over 6 months ago, she’s got stuck right in the thick of it and hasn’t shyed away from some of our larger clients like Aritco and Whittlebury Hall. She’s an incredibly hard-working and talented member of the design team and has taken every challenge in her stride. You can always count on Harley to help you out, no matter which part of the business you work in! A true team player. Congratulations Harley!

2nd: Aron Marriott-Smith

We’re pretty big on web and mobile design in case you hadn’t noticed, and we’ve had a hoard of projects through recently including the mobile-app design for Referment. With so many digital projects coming through our doors, it’s easy to forget that we only have 1 web developer! From proposals and quotes to coding websites and apps, Aron is incredibly hard-working and self-motivated, and you’ll often find him staying late to get the job done! Your hard work has not gone unnoticed – great job Aron!

3rd: Chris Mayes

Chris is a man with many fingers in many (mince) pies right now and has recently transitioned into a bit of a hybrid role, picking up clients from the corporate and sexual health sectors while Becky is on maternity leave. His proactive approach and enthusiasm has seen Chris develop strong relationships with his customers – just one of many reasons as to why Chris is making a positive impact here at Bluestep. Keep at it Chris!

We’ll see you in 2018 to announce who has made December’s Employees of the Month!

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to our Senior Designer Ollie, who has been with Bluestep for 5 years this month!

We’ve had a string of milestones lately that we can barely keep up! First we had Becca promoted to Senior Designer, then we saw Carlene promoted to Office Manager, Sarah has just reached her 1-year anniversary and now we’re celebrating Ollie reaching his 5-year milestone. High-fives all around!

And we thought what better way to celebrate 5 years than with an animation for our longest-serving animator?! Take a look below at our custom animation featuring Ollie himself (thanks Carl!).

Not only is Ollie a design guru but he’s also one of the original Bluesteppers and has seen the company grow from the small and promising start-up it was back in 2010 to the multi-million-pound enterprise that it is today.

As Ollie’s been here for 5 years we decided to keep the blog on the theme of 5. And a lot has happened since he joined, as Ollie will know, so with that in mind here are 5 career highlights about Ollie’s time at Bluestep:

1. Ollie started Bluestep as an intern in June 2012 and was offered a permanent position in September 2012.
2. His office initiation was a trip to Alton Towers! (We’re seriously jealous)
3. He joined Bluestep when they were a small team of 6 and has seen those numbers grow to nearly 30!
4. He’s worked on a variety of different projects ranging from pathology forms, campaigns, branding to animation, websites and apps.
5. Since joining Bluestep he has seen 2 office moves, plus an office expansion of our current office.

So, who is Ollie?

Ollie is one of Bluestep’s Senior Designers, lending his countless creative skillset to our client base, offering graphic design, illustration, animation, web design and much more for some major national campaigns including Choose Well, Patient Voice Panel and Referment – pretty impressive right? But he’s not just a design master, he plays an important role in keeping the cogs of the design studio running smoothly and keeping us Bluesteppers smiling!

Still not sure who Ollie is? We’ve got 5 facts about Ollie that you probably didn’t know:

We can’t quite believe it’s been 5 years already, but we want to say a huge thank you for your years of hard work and dedication to Bluestep and hopefully even 5 more years! We don’t know what we’d do without you!

Yep, we’ve bagged ourselves another new starter and this time it’s in the form of enthusiastic and experienced Dario!

We had a hunch from his interview that Dario was going to take the charity team by storm and fit in effortlessly here at Bluestep, and guess what – he has! It’s only been two weeks and we can already see the value that confident and driven Dario will bring to the team.

Originally studying a diploma in sports development fitness and coaching at college, Dario decided to jump ship and quench his undeniable thirst for sales by moving to Spain to work as a club promoter. Returning to England, Dario jumped straight in at the deep end and has been working as a Senior Negotiator for an acclaimed estate agent for the past 4 years, with a recognised talent for smashing targets out the window.

Born in Croatia, Dario likes to head back to the homeland every year and is a dedicated veteran of Hideout Festival, hosted on the party island of Pag. To get himself hyped for work, Dario enjoys listening to motivational speakers like Tony Robbins, meaning he’s always on the ball!

Welcome to the team, Dario!

Congratulations to Josh, Sarah and Janos who are October’s Employees of the Month!

The clocks have gone back, Halloween is over and it’s now November 1st, which means it’s officially Christmas right? We believe it’s a legal requirement to have Mariah Carey blasting from the office speakers until 2018.

As we see in another month, we have another set of Employees of the Month to announce! And the hard work and perseverance of October’s Bluesteppers hasn’t gone unnoticed.

1st: Josh Crawley

Josh has completely smashed his targets this month reaching 318% to target, which is an incredible achievement. It’s not just his amazing sale margins that have been noticed, but his ability to build strong and lasting client relationships is admirable and has even helped him bag VIP tickets to the England vs Brazil match! His commitment and hard work with the FA shows that Josh is ready to go above and beyond his role. Congratulations Josh!

2nd: Sarah Kilgannon

Yesterday was Sarah’s 1-year anniversary since joining Bluestep, so congratulations Sarah! This month Sarah has really stood out, as she’s been making huge progress with building her client base and expanding our corporate sector. Sarah is incredibly enthusiastic and proactive, reaching out to potential new clients, organising calls and meetings to find ways Bluestep can help other businesses. It certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed! Great work Sarah!

3rd: Janos Geczi

The Bluestep warehouse has grown rapidly over the past year and although Janos works behind the scenes, he is an integral part of the business. This month Janos has provided exceptional support to the expansion of our warehouse and has been incredibly busy the past few months ensuring this goes as smoothly as possible. His regimented organisational skills and consistent effort have helped our warehouse operations get back to normal after the expansion and has been a major influence in our success! Well done Janos!

Round of applause for Josh, Sarah and Janos for another great month of work. Keep your eyes peeled to see who’ll win November’s Employees of the Month!

Congratulations to Carl, Ollie and Chris who are September’s Employees of the Month!

At the end of each month, our senior management get their heads together to mull over who has gone above and beyond their role, who’s made the extra effort and smashed their targets way out of the ball court to be awarded employee of the month.

But, we’re a pretty hard-working bunch and we can never just choose one, so we choose 3 instead!

And this month was a tough one, as with every month, however it was clear to see why Carl, Ollie and Chris have won this month’s employee of the month award.

1st Place: Carl Lewis

With his boundless enthusiasm and ability to keep everyone smiling and motivated, Carl manages to keep everyone in the office on a thriving positive note. His innovative approach and incredible talent with animation has seen Carl bring in some great projects recently, including Coventry University and the NHS. Congratulations Carl, we can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has planned for you!

2nd Place: Ollie King

Ollie has been with Bluestep since the early days and forms part of the backbone of the business. Always dependable and hardworking, Ollie showed real qualities that Bluestep look for in employees. Throughout September, Ollie stepped up in David’s absence, helping to keep the design team working smoother than Lionel Richie and keeping ongoing projects running seamlessly.

3rd Place: Chris Mayes

September saw Chris receive his first tangible target to which he not only welcomed but completely smashed! His enthusiastic and positive personality has allowed Chris to develop a strong database of corporate clients and has even seen him helping other areas of the business by taking on some healthcare clients.

Well done Carl, Ollie and Chris for a cracking month of work! Keep your eyes peeled to see who’ll win October’s awards.

Hear what our Bluesteppers are shaking their hips to this month with our September playlist.

We like to think we’re a pretty hip bunch at Bluestep – every day is dress-down Friday, most of us are millennials, we’re up-to-date on the latest pop culture references and our music tastes are unparallelled – or at least we think so.

This month we’ve pestered everyone in the team to give us their favourite song of September, or a song that’s helped their motivation and got them through the day.

After a few surprises and a couple of cheesy ones, here’s our pretty eclectic September playlist. Enjoy!

An image of AronAron – Torre Florim – Firestarter

An image of OllieOllie – Odesza – If There’s Time (Kodak to Graph Remix) and La Ciudad – Odesza (He couldn’t decide which he preferred)

An image of ShaniceShanice – Earth, Wind & Fire – September

An image of SarahSarah – Avril Lavigne – Sk8r Boi and Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (Also couldn’t choose!)

An image of JoshJosh – Russ – No Turning Back

A small icon of staff member TomTom – Bonzai – I Feel Alright

An image of AliceAlice – Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al

An image of CarlCarl – Michael Jackson – You Rock My World

An image of ChrisChris – Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road

An image of LaurenLauren – One Direction – Steal My Girl

An image of MiaMia – Dua Lipa – New Rules

An image of Ben SBen S – Marc Cohen – Walking in Memphis

An image of CarleneCarlene – Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie to You

An image of AndrewAndrew – Pigeon John – The Bomb

An image of DavidDavid – The Kingsmen – Louie Louie

An image of Ben JBen J – Kings of Leon – Around the World

An image of HarryHarry – Camelphat – Cola

We've been saying goodbye to the blues with our new Secret Buddy system!

Thanks to our wonderful new Office Manager, Carlene, our Bluesteppers have been beating the office blues with the much-beloved introduction of her new Secret Buddy system.

So, each month we get all the employees to fill out a questionnaire with questions like ‘what songs do you have memorised?’ and ‘what do you wish you knew more about?’ plus a few others like your favourite food and drinks. We then pick a name from a box and the person we choose is our secret buddy for the month.

Nobody knows who has each other. The idea is that we can get to know our secret buddy that little bit better and brighten up their day with little gifts and thoughtful surprises throughout the month.

Then come next month, we do it all over again with a different secret buddy. It’s the little things!

Secret Buddies is just one of the many ways we try and boost employee happiness in the office; we’re also partial to an office bake-off. Eat your heart out Mary Berry.

Here are just a few of the surprises we’ve had so far…

An image of Shanice from Bluestep holding a box of gin
An image showing a wooden box filled with a mini gin set
Here’s Shanice looking pretty pleased with her new mini gin set!

An image showing a football-themed gnome
Andrew was ungnomingly left a football-themed gnome at his desk when we distracted him away from it. Sorry for the pun. Couldn’t resist.

An image showing snacks and a picture of the Kardashians
We can barely recognise Tom as he fits in so perfectly with the Kardashian clan. Although, not for much longer once he finishes off this haul.

An image showing a notebook and phonecase with the Louie Prints logo
Becca was left with a phone case and notebook with the logo she’s using for her new stationery business.

An image showing a jar of olives, harbal tea and a birthday card for Sarah's birthday
Olives, herbal tea and a tearible dad joke for Sarah’s birthday.

An image showing a brandy pic and the words 'Sunshine' typed out
Carl’s 2 favourite things! “Sunshine” and a brandy lemonade! It is England after all…

An image showing a ukelele
Chris’ love for music saw him walk into the office on Monday morning to a brand new Ukelele! Best secret buddy ever?! We’re patiently waiting for a Bluestep jingle.

These were just some of the secret buddy gifts from August and September. It’s like secret Santa, but without the wrapping paper. Stick around for our next secret buddy blog to see what everyone has hiding up their sleeves for October!

Congratulations to Carlene who has just been promoted to Office Manager/Director’s PA at Bluestep!

Our Bluesteppers are on a roll at the minute, after Becca was just promoted, we’ve now had Carlene promoted to Office Manager/Director’s PA!

Carlene started just 3 months ago when Ben was on the lookout for a personal assistant and office administrator. Thanks to Georgie’s recommendation, Carlene had an interview, got the job and has slotted into Bluestep so smoothly it feels like she’s always been here.

It’s been amazing to see her progress to a more senior role in such a short timeframe, but it’s not been easy! Carlene has brought so much to the Bluestep team in that time and we honestly don’t know where we’d be without her. She’s introduced the secret buddy system, the office recommendations box, BrightHR, and an abundance of organisation and structure to the office!

After popping some champers to celebrate, we sat with Carlene for a quick chat on her time at Bluestep so far:

It’s been a busy few months and you can really feel the difference in the office since you started. What’s been your favourite thing you’ve introduced to the company so far?

Some kind of organisation and hopefully some much-needed support for Ben Skinner.

What’s been the most memorable task you’ve worked on?

I have too many to count! This is what I love about Bluestep, the business is so varied I get involved in all sorts!

What have been your highlights in the role so far?

The Bluestep social events have been great fun, I enjoyed our afternoon tea party a bit too much! The people I work with are the main highlight, the team are amazing!

What makes Bluestep unique and keeps you wanting to work here?

The opportunity I have been given to grow and develop. The creativity and enthusiasm each individual holds, the variation of projects we do and how well everyone works together and supports each other. It’s never boring and very fast paced!

We love seeing our colleagues develop within their role, and it just goes to show that if you really put the effort in, you’ll see the rewards. We’re so happy for Carlene, it’s truly what she deserves and we can’t wait to see what she’ll bring to the Bluestep team in the future!

An image showing the illustration of a quote from Ben Skinner

Challenge accepted!

The hotly anticipated Pacesetter’s Sports Day came around quicker than Mo Farah!

The day saw us head to Wellingborough School in convoy to compete in the Pacesetter’s Sports Day to win the 1st place cup in the scorching August heat.

The healthy competition included Pacesetters, Stronglines and the Wellingborough School sports teachers. All of which were fitness and sport-related teams, except for Bluestep! But we rocked up in our Bluestep-branded sports gear, squeezed a few stretches in, and were ready to take them head on.

An image showing the Bluestep Team 1 at the Pacesetters Sports Day
We’ve totally got this.

By no means was this day going to be an easy one. One of the teams literally dressed up in army gear. They meant serious business.

An image showing the Pacesetters team at their sports day
It wasn’t intimidating enough that they were professional sports coaches, so they dressed up in army gear too!

First up was dodgeball, pretty easy, right? That’s what we thought. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a dodgeball!

An image showing the Bluestep team playing dodgeball

After some pretty intense matches and even more Dodgeball film quotes, we were left with Chris and Sarah at the end, taking us to the win.

Although we were smashing it at first, we did leave with quite a few bruises on our thighs…

Next up we had football, which luckily for us, Bluestep is blessed with plenty of staff that are big football fans and players.

An image of Carl from Bluestep playing football
Don’t mess with Carl, he’s coming for you…

We were gutted when we lost a player after a knee injury, meaning we were a player down. But, the games must go on.

An image of Becca from Bluestep playing Netball

Netball was a total breeze for us as we had Becca who plays netball in her spare time and Harry who was basically just dropping the ball through the hoop!

An image of Carl from Bluestep playing netball
Carl once again reminding us who’s boss.

After a grueling athletics round including javelin, long jump, a relay race, an 800m race and another player down, we were convinced our efforts wouldn’t leave us in last place. We’d given everything we’d got. We absolutely weren’t coming last.

We took a well-deserved break and once we were back to our normal selves (it took a while) we made our way to the award ceremony. The announcer took center stage and was ready to reveal who came last.

“In 8th place… The Bluestep Ballers”

We came last. BUT, we did win a branded Pacesetter wooden spoon, which has taken pride of place in the Bluestep office.

Better luck next time guys…

An image showing a wooden spoon with the Pacesetters logo on it

Congratulations to Becca who has just been promoted to Senior Designer at Bluestep!

There’s nothing more we love than seeing our fellow Bluesteppers do well for themselves, and with such a tight-knit and supportive team behind all of us, it’s hard not to!

Starting just 3 years ago as an intern from Northampton University, Becca has shot to Senior Designer, proving that with hard work and dedication to the role, climbing the Bluestep career ladder can be achieved with sheer determination.

After Becca was finished dancing on the tables and popping bottles to celebrate her promotion, we grabbed her for a quick chat to find out about her experience at Bluestep so far:

You’ve really helped a lot of clients to turn their brand vision into a reality over the years. How varied is your role at Bluestep and what is the typical type of project you work on?

I think every project is different and brings different challenges. Some of the projects we get here include Blue Cross’s fundraising pack that I’m currently working on and the rebrand for Whittlebury Hall. I’ve also loved creating the Tower Hamlets Together illustrations and #MyPetMadeMe for Blue Cross. And not forgetting the photos for Make Time. I had a lot of fun sourcing the actors and art directing the photo shoot!

What’s been the most memorable project you’ve worked on?

Probably some sexual health condom sleeves (they had some really interesting slogans on them!) or MooLoo’s – I had to draw a client’s stuffed toy cow as an illustration for her new shop branding. As the project went on she wanted the cow to look like her – this was hard!

What have been some of your highlights of the role so far?

I think every year just keeps getting better. I think my promotion to Senior was a big milestone for me and being awarded Bluestepper of the year. I am a fan of the Bluestep socials, they’re just full of laughs, banter and having a genuinely good time. There are a few videos of me singing floating around from these socials in the office and I also had a trip to minor injuries after one of them too (after falling up some stairs – yep, up not down!)

What makes Bluestep unique and keeps you wanting to work here?

I think it is the culture. Everyone’s drive to better Bluestep every day and the fact everyone is on the same page. I feel like I have made genuine friends at Bluestep and being able to do what you love and be surrounded by amazing people – you can’t get better than that.

You’ve certainly made an impact here Becca and we’re chuffed that your hard work and perseverance has paid off. We can’t wait to see some of the projects you’ll be working on as Senior Designer! Keep on at it, Becca.

An image showing an illustrated quote from David about Becca's promotion

With sharp, intelligent copy and the Google know-how to get that golden #1 ranking spot, our skill set has grown once again with a new Bluestepper joining the team.

Meet Tom

A millennial wordsmith is what we were looking for and a millennial wordsmith was what we found!

We were lucky to snap Tom up at a time when the company was rapidly expanding. And with so much content flowing in and out, it’s important we have a strong eye for detail around to ensure consistency and personality in every word we write.

Tom is responsible for our SEO and Copywriting services, delivering our clients with top line copy and SEO solutions that hit objectives and bring tangible ROIs. When he’s not lost in deep links and link juice, he’s knee deep in mud at festivals and gigs, as an annual Glasto goer.

With a TV and Film degree, Tom managed to bag himself a part in Hollywood movie ‘Rush’, with Chris Hemsworth – nice work!

A digital marketing background makes Tom the perfect candidate for the role, and his sociable and enthusiastic personality make him an excellent addition to the team dynamic.

Tom is adaptable and intelligent, meaning he can apply himself between the multiple demands of our copywriting sector varying from digital, social media and print.