which came first?

For the past seven months, one of our designers, Sach, has been keeping us all updated on the progress of his chickens - from painstakingly building a chicken coop by hand, to bringing the new additions home, to the news we'd all been waiting for which came last week - the laying of an egg! Here's the story so far...

Coop in Progress - To build the coop from scratch took 4 weekends' work DAY and NIGHT, 16 trips to B&Q, 67 metres of wood, 100 screws, 2 tubes of glue, two tubs of paint, 2 rolls of mesh and 4 plasters for minor injuries.

04.08.09 - After a visit to the local farm to pick chickens that had been chased by a farmer wielding a fishing net, the chickens moved in to their new home.

Completion Date - The coop was FINALLY finished and Sach was feeling incredibly proud of his handiwork.

Chicken Feed - The chickens happily munching away, having gone crazy at the sight of food!

04.03.09 - Seven months to the day after the moved in, the first egg is laid! WHOOPEEE!

letter to the editor

Our MD Lawrence picked up on a recent article in Design Week on provenance and how brands are capitalising on their product's origins, and sent in a letter to the magazine that sees the issue in a slightly different light. His missive was published in last week's issue - you can see it online here if you're a Design Week subscriber, otherwise here's a clipping (click to enlarge)...

ping pong

The studio was eerily quiet at lunchtime today. Word had got round that there was some free ping pong going down at our local food hall/shopping centre/train station/quick link to Paris - St. Pancras. It turned out to be something of a performance piece organised by artistic collaboration Search Party (find out more about them here). But for Julia and her loyal supporters (colleagues and passers-by alike) it was a sporting endeavour and a hugely successful one at that. She thrashed 'Search Party' 12-6! Take a look at the evidence...

kaffe culture

At the end of last year we were working on an unusual project for Swedish retailer 7-Eleven, which is just coming to fruition now so we thought we'd share it here...

The brief was to create a coffee thermo-mug, co-branded Shell and 7-Eleven, which would meet practical considerations (spill-proof, fits a car cup holder, insulated etc.), while being desirable to Scandinavian consumers.

While in the UK thermo-mugs are just starting to catch on (for example Starbucks' version), in Scandinavia many people have and use them, but the available models tend to be lacking in the style department.

So, we designed a premium-yet-playful mug that tells a story about the role coffee plays in the consumer's daily life (from the morning commute to refuelling later in the afternoon), hence the personal "my mug" name.

We were then asked to create the launch campaign material, which flowed on naturally from the mug design, picking up on key elements and using them on loyalty cards, posters and more. So next time you're in Sweden and feeling thirsty...

retail therapy

Nik, our creative director, contributed this piece for the 'Inspired' column in the latest issue of Design Week...

The most important thing about inspiration is to never go looking for it. It has a habit of finding you. But if I'm in need of a fix, I go shopping.

One of my earliest memories is from when I was about four years old, riding in the back of my mum's trolley in Asda back up North. I was in awe of this vast warehouse filled with shapes, colours, pictures and typefaces. I'd be dragged around Blackburn town centre on a Saturday to the food hall in BHS, in the days when its logo was a retro bold, grotesque affair (which remains on show outside the Wood Green branch in north London even now).

To this day, I find supermarkets fascinating, inspirational places - though now I'm just as a t home in Liberty as I am in Lidl. They let me indulge my passion for good (and bad) typography, and offer interesting ideas.

And it's not just the shelves that groan with inspiration. The shops themselves are increasingly becoming works of retail art - visit Anthropologie on London's Regent Street and see for yourself.

Best of all, you never know what you'll find in store, but some kind of inspiration is always available to take home - budget permitting - in a rather fetching carrier bag.

cold calling

Our new business team has been spending quite a bit of time in Scandinavia of late - Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki... Well, if we thought we were having a cold winter here in the UK, it's even colder and snowier elsewhere. Here are a few pictures Anna took in Helsinki the other week. It does looks beautiful, but most of us are more than happy to appreciate the winter wonderland from the cosy confines of the studio!

cheese and crackers

We weren't sure how to react to an article in this morning's Metro about LowLow cheese being sculpted into the shape of celebrities - Cheryl Cole, Dita Von Cheese (ahem) and Barack Obama. Bizarre, but certainly blogworthy!