Tag Archive for anniversary

Razor is 4!

September 1, 2011 Razor's progress No comments

Oh isn’t it nice to have a birthday!

We’ve had cake (see below – courtesy of Claire – who made it HERSELF!).  We’ve had some prosecco.  We’ve had some japes.  Tomorrow night we will have a fancy dinner.

Then we will aim to have a most fabulous 4th year.

I shan’t wax lyrical about the last year because you’ll grow tired of it.  But it was GOOD.   The last few months have seen plenty of changes and I’ve no doubt that we’ll keep being surprised by the events, the people, the projects.  And I reckon that’s the point.  If you stay surprised then you will pretty much stay delighted.

So back to that cake…

Chloe

Sliding Doors

August 20, 2011 Razor news, Razor's progress No comments

Let me qualify – I don’t really understand what a sliding door is.  Other than being an actual door that slides I suppose.  I nearly titled this blog ‘one era shuts and another one opens’ but that felt a tad grandiose (and you know how I abhor exaggeration…)

But I wanted to mark what was, I feel, an auspicious week in Razor’s (nearly 4) year history.

Three much loved Razorettes have said their last goodbyes to the room on the 4th floor in Waterloo.  Debbie has gone off to seek better positions for her troublesome back, Lucy is returning to Australia and Sam Dodd is off to University to study Creative Writing.  Some of these departures were more inevitable than others but all are exciting – all heralding in exciting life changes for these three fabulous, inspiring, clever women.  We have been privileged to have counted them amongst our number for a few years.

But our numbers are swelling in return.  Claire and Rachel have been with us for a few months now – so few but so seamless that I have to keep reminding myself that they haven’t in fact, been with us forever.  Matt joined a few weeks ago and comes back on Monday after paternity leave…Steve’s fears that any of the WOMEN at Razor would have babies immediately laid to ironic rest by having a new father sooner than we have any new mothers.  Tara and Michaela form a small but perfectly formed Ops Team – Tara managing us and the office, Michaela is our very first book keeper.  I’ve already had to apologise twice for my shambolic finances (Steve has not had to apologise yet – namely by avoiding the issue altogether!)  And on Monday we are joined by Amelie – a stylish and funky researcher who we can’t wait to work with.  And we have a new intern with us too – my very beautiful and clever third cousin, Emmelia, with whom I sadly don’t share half enough family resemblance.

Elle will return in a few weeks – bronzed and refreshed after an amazing wedding and the 1st September heralds our 4th birthday.

So there’s a lot of change in the air. I COULD wax lyrical about the girls who’ve departed and weep into my hanky but I won’t.  They will ALL stay great friends – nothing is over.  But I WILL bang on about how excited I am that we’ve already met some great new people and that the opportunities to learn from them, work with them and introduce them to our clients and our values is just really, really cool.

Ta ra for now my dear darling departing Razors.

And welcome to Razor you lovely, exciting new friends.

Chloe

Annual Birthday Blog. We turn 3.

September 1, 2010 Razor news, Razor's progress No comments

Oh heavens. It doesn’t feel like a full year since the last time I wrote a ‘yay, Razor has a birthday’ blog. I know what that means. That means that I’m getting older, we’re getting older and from now on pretty much every sentence will be prefaced with ‘I’m sure time is speeding up nowadays’. How very dreary of me.

OMLG (if you don’t know, look it up)…to summarise our best bits:

-Super new Razorettes Lucy Sinclair and Sam Siva joined us. They are both Australian. Which wasn’t intentional but does mean I can practise my Kath & Kim on them constantloy. Super different & unusual. And super smart.
-Steve wore a pink hat and jacket and helped us raise a stonking amount for Barnados.
-We’ve done too much Karaoke. I HATE karaoke.
-We moved for the 4th time. We now live in the 3rd floor ‘penthouse’. We have a room with a view. And our own kettle.
-Sam Dodd changed her hairstyle 30,000 times. Today – it’s blonde wooly dreds. Coolest cat I know.
-Steve didn’t get older but in fact got 5 years younger. Yes, really.
-Debbie did lots of running. Like proper running.
-Jake came to see us a few times and we all blushed. He may not have noticed, but we did.
-Elle got engaged. We are pretty sure she’s going to ask us ALL to be her bridesmaids with Steve as pageboy. Can’t think what’s taking her so long.
-We’ve been to Paris and we’ve started planning the jaunt for this Christmas. Buenos Aires? Sydney? Loughborough?
-We won an award. That was nice.
-We designed lifesize cardboard cut outs of consumers to stand beside our clients’ desks. Wax works will follow.
-We asked a cartoonist to draw bespoke illustrations for a debrief
-We’ve held events for clients and consumers at Legoland, Henley Rowing & River Museum and some very funky pubs
-We did some groups on dildos and we kept a straight face
-We tempted Maria away from her old job and bought her a fancy new Mac so she could graphic design for us in some very cool ways. Go Tigerlilly!
-Steve and I were given amazing tea towels with self portraits of all the Razorettes on them.
-We have films of consumers doing some very strange things. And that wasn’t even for a project.
-We’ve been on stage in Prague talking about cool brands and new businesses
-We’ve been on Gastrotours and Design museum tours and tours of Soho sex shops
-We’ve talked to consumers about cake, chocolate, beer, ice cream, sweetcorn, magazines, curry, fruit juice, podcasting, ready meals, cereal, clothes and on and on
-We’ve learnt about families, the concept of taste and flavours, what it’s like to grow old, what it’s like to be a teenager, what it’s like to be a girl, what it’s like to snack and on and on

Frankly, it’s all been rather marvelous. We love our clients. We love the work we do. We love each other (not in THAT way Steve.) Here’s to next year…

Chloe

Razor turns into the Terrible Two’s (we mean Terrific Two’s)

August 31, 2009 General No comments

It’s midnight on 31st August which means it’s our 2nd birthday.

I’ve had the most fantastic 2 years EVER. I can’t quite believe that two years on, Steve and I are working with 2 (nearly 3) fabulous people in a swanky office. I can’t quite believe that we’ve got the great clients that we do and that we seem to be busier than ever.

I think back to the reasons why we started which were to do with wanting to do the same qualitative research that we loved but a little bit differently, a little more independently and for clients that wanted to work with US. And we are! I’m really proud of loads of the work we’ve done and the ways that we’re approaching things. We’ve been given some fantastic opportunities to use qual and our respondents harder and better.

In particular, I’m LOVING the communities we’re building for different projects. I feel as though I make a bunch of new friends every time I do one.

My own personal highlights (in no particular order):
- Elle and Debbie being brave enough to come work with a tiny agency (as we were)
- Standing on stage with Russell from the BBC doing a conference paper about the Archers in Barcelona
- Winning our second project from a number of new clients (1 is great, 2 is even better!)
- Founder of Gu, Jim Averdieck, sitting through an entire debrief!
- Persuading 7 respondents to come and talk live to two rooms of 20 clients about who they are and what they think of the brands
- First Shave – piloting next week.

And I’ve got loads more but reckon the list is long enough for now!

Thank you to everyone. And now I’ll definitely stop or I’ll weep.

Chloe

It’s our second birthday (which means our second birthday blog)

August 31, 2009 General No comments

It’s midnight on 31st August which means it’s our 2nd birthday.

I’ve had the most fantastic 2 years EVER. I can’t quite believe that two years on, Steve and I are working with 2 (nearly 3) fabulous people in a swanky office. I can’t quite believe that we’ve got the great clients that we do and that we seem to be busier than ever.

I think back to the reasons why we started which were to do with wanting to do the same qualitative research that we loved but a little bit differently, a little more independently and for clients that wanted to work with US. And we are! I’m really proud of loads of the work we’ve done and the ways that we’re approaching things. We’ve been given some fantastic opportunities to use qual and our respondents harder and better.

In particular, I’m LOVING the communities we’re building for different projects. I feel as though I make a bunch of new friends every time I do one.

My own personal highlights (in no particular order):
- Elle and Debbie being brave enough to come work with a tiny agency (as we were)
- Standing on stage with Russell from the BBC doing a conference paper about the Archers in Barcelona
- Winning our second project from a number of new clients (1 is great, 2 is even better!)
- Founder of Gu, Jim Averdieck, sitting through an entire debrief!
- Persuading 7 respondents to come and talk live to two rooms of 20 clients about who they are and what they think of the brands
- First Shave – piloting next week.

And I’ve got loads more but reckon the list is long enough for now!

Thank you to everyone. And now I’ll definitely stop or I’ll weep.

Chloe

Our second birthday card