marrakech

I'm about as spiritual as a sock (writes Jessica), but on my first night, sitting at a rooftop cafe overlooking Jema Al Fina listening to the call to prayer I certainly felt something stir inside. Mind you that could well have been something to do with the amount of food my friend and I had eaten earlier. There were so many amazing market stalls selling colourful dried fruits, nuts and aromatic spices you could bottle the smell of Marrakech and sell it.

We spent the first part of our holiday exploring the narrow winding streets the locals call the souks. You can buy everything from your own authentic tagine to sequin-embellished sunglasses. After exhausting our shopping budget we set off on a real adventure - a two day drive to the Sahara desert. I can't do the desert justice by describing it but the photo at the end can give you some idea of how remote it really was. I travelled with two local guides and my friend Hanna and the four of us drank Moroccan tea and watched the sun rise over the sand. We were only away from the office for a week but it felt like we'd had the trip of a lifetime in those seven days. Incredible.

(that's Hanna walking up the sand dune in the last picture)

happy new year resolutions

It's 2011, so that means some of us are making resolutions to either give up, do more or change something in our lives. Chris Streger came up with the ide of the 'To Resolve Project', a challenge to illustrators and designers to create an iPhone wallpaper featuring their New Year's resolution. The results are some of the best looking resolutions I've seen, and although I'm not normally very good at sticking to my resolutions, I will keep checking Chris's blog to see what others are (rather beautifully) resolving to do.

all we want for christmas...

pie cases

Although they've been available in the shops for quite a few weeks, now seems like an appropriate time to share these mince pie packs that make nice use of the festive design we created for Planet Organic to use across a whole range of packaging and point of sale.

the x factor

There was a bit of a buzz in the studio on Monday morning, after one of our clients - Aerobility, who we've talked about before here - featured on Sunday evening's X Factor. Click here to watch the clip on Aerobility's blog.

post secret

Last night I went to the RCA's annual Secret Postcard exhibition. I've heard of it before, but never been, and really enjoyed it. The thing is that a whole load of artists - from famous ones to students - are given a standard issue blank postcard to do what they like with/on, then the cards are sold anonymously for £45 each, and only once you've bought it do you find out who the artist behind it is. You can find out more here. And here are some of my favourites (I seem to go for the prettier ones, but there really is something for everyone there)...

Bess

cake porn

A top tip from Nik for next time you're out and about in Soho. Swing by Brewer Street and treat yourself to something sweet from Cox Cookies & Cakes. It's a new "bakery" by the shoe designer Patrick Cox. "When I first heard he was doing it, I just thought he'd be jumping on the cupcake bandwagon, but when I stumbled across the shop, I was pleasantly surprised. Imagine a black, neon sex shop staffed by preposterously handsome young men in studded leather aprons selling nothing more than innocent little cakes and the like. It's quite amazing, and just shows you don't have to be girly to do sweet..."