After a training regime that included runs on the beach and chips on the beach, the now two strong Rufus contingent of Ang McChin and Vince Moron joined the many thousands of professional runners and kind hearted souls for the 30th Great North Run. Madden had decided to leave Rufus and pursue other interests, however reports that he was unhappy with ‘chips on the beach’ are wide of the mark.

It was difficult, a blister attack for Moron and Lycra stopping the blood circulation for McChin meant a world class time was way beyond their reach. We finished the race, just before the guy dressed as a donkey and one chap in a mankini.

“I’m not gonna lie, I hit a brick wall at mile 3 and spent 10 miles eating ice lollies, biscuits and jelly babies”

– Vince Moran

The good news is, with the help of Lauratron Smith, we managed to raise £470 for Cancer Research. If you want to see who has donated to us or be kind enough to donate yourself, please see our Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/team-rufus.

“I can’t beleve he ate so many ice lollies, biscuits and jelly babies….it was like a fat kid breaking into a sweet shop”

– Ang McChin

We’re all healthy now and look forward to running next year.

Rufus are proud to present the new Jordan Engineering website.

Jordan Engineering Services Ltd is part of the Redhall Group Plc. The company has a successful history stretching back to 1964, and provides value adding, cost effective, engineering, procurement and management solutions specializing in long-term relationships within the process industries. Jordan Engineering are the leading sub-contract precision engineering solution providers based in the north east of England. The website we created has a wide range of images taken from each aspect of their speciality and detailed information to support each one.

We decided to try something a bit different this time around and are very happy with the way the Jordan Engineering website turned out.

To see more about what Jordan Engineering offer, click here.

Anyway, Paul came back with some stunning images and we have uploaded them onto flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rufusshmufus if you would like to see if you can spot your house or who’s car is on your drive!!!

We made some great new friends while we were there – Helen and Malcolm from ‘Helen Hendry, artist in chocolatier’ (mmm, their luxury hand made chocolates were to die for!), Chris Blacklock from ‘K2 Sound’ and John Davidson from ‘querido & davidson innovative eye care’. John won a £250 design voucher, which was wrapped in a Rufus chocolate bar. Well done John! We’re looking forward to working with you.

The Sunderland Echo Portfolio Business Awards had a brand new look this year. Rufus were invited to rebrand the awards, to modernise the visual image and in turn create more interest in entering, sponsoring and attending these prestigious awards.

Each year the awards celebrate the achievements of the Wearside and East Durham business community. More than 330 people attended this year’s awards ceremony which took place at the end of October at the Stadium of Light. The number of guests attending increased on last year’s numbers and overall entries were also up by 15% on last year.

As part of the rebrand Rufus also designed the entry packs, invitations and bespoke winning trophies, which are made from solid glass individually etched with the new logo and winners’ details.

The overall winner, ‘Sunderland Echo Portfolio Business of the Year 2008′, was Calsonic Kansei, who design and manufacture heater and air conditioning systems, engine cooling systems and exhaust systems for the automotive industry, employing over 2000 people mainly throughout the North East.

Other winners included Tom Barraclough, of Thompson Building Centres, who won the ‘Employee of the Year’ award (sponsored by Gentoo Group) and Barclays for ‘Employer of the Year’ (sponsored by Fusion).

We invited Dandy Events, Sunderland City Council and Business Link to join us on our table for the evening, where we were wined, dined and entertained by the legendary Red Dwarf and Brittas Empire star Chris Barrie.

To view more photos from the event, please click here

This was really unexpected. To win in the ‘Best Food and Beverage Offering’ category was excellent, but to win ‘Brand of the Year’ too?! We’re thrilled to receive such an accolade. The fact that the awards are national is fantastic for Adventurelands, Rufus and the North East.

- A shocked John and Nikki Trewhitt

“We must thank the team at Rufus, who designed, and have since managed our brand. We work closely with Rufus to ensure our brand is consistent across all our materials – this helps our customers understand our offer as well as making the ‘Adventurelands’ brand more recognisable too.” said Nikki.

It’s excellent to see another one of our clients doing so well and our own work being celebrated on a national level. Good design is fundamental to creating a great brand that people recognise and value.

- Ian Wright, Rufus MD and record ‘cup-of-coffee’ drinker

Photo left to right: Ian Wright (Rufus Managing Director) with Nicki Trewhitt, Angela Cooper (Adventurelands Manager) and John Trewhitt

Codeworks Connect is the trade association for digital businesses working in North East England, which was set up in 2004, to provide first class support to businesses working in the region’s thriving digital sector.

The membership came about after Rufus were invited to one of Codeworks’ legendary ‘Think and Drink’ events.

We were impressed with what Codeworks had to offer in terms of support for local businesses in the digital industry, so we invited Julie Moore, Codeworks’ membership executive, to our place to tell us more about it.

- Alex Haswell, Rufus’ Marketing Manager

It’s early days, but already we’re taking advantage of what they have to offer, like PR support and the funding of graduate placements. It’s excellent value for money and the connections we will make at their events will be worth while too.”

www.codeworksconnect.net