Our 2014 Calendar

The reports of the “death of print” you may have heard have been greatly exaggerated, and the positive feedback we receive every year about our calendar support the fact that it is indeed alive and kicking.

As with any self-initiated project, our calendar is a labour of “love”, as we strive to think of a new concept that will top the one from the year before. We started by putting our heads together in the Autumn. Ideas ranged from the team dressing up in all manner of outfits, to a cocktail recipe for every month (what does that say about us?), however in the end our inspiration came from the ethos that we proudly live by: “Clear, concise communication”.

As they say, practice what you preach. This year we put that into action by creating a series of typographic illustrations that visually represent us, and what we bring to our work and your brand. To really tie each idea into our brand we stuck to our black and white colour palette, using a subtle grey pantone to pick out parts of the design and lift them from the black. We then turned to the print team at Scanplus to bring our design to life, as usual their work was fabulous!

Some of you may also recall that we went one step further and animated these illustrations for the video on our stand at the recent Public Relations Show 2013, just to prove that print and digital can live together in harmony.

The Clear, Concise Calendar is being shipped out, but if you don’t receive one do not fret, all is not lost! Drop us an email and we’ll do our best to put one in the post for you. There have been whispers of a series of limited edition prints for some of the illustrations, so keep an eye on our e-news as we’ll announce them there first.

You can also download a free copy of our calendar in PDF format here

Do let us know what you think - inspiring or a waste of time? Let us know!

Deck the halls with news...

Festive Knitting

Nothing says “Festive Season” more than the gift of socks, mulled wine and rather snazzy Christmas jumpers, and they don’t get much snazzier than those created by some very talented illustrators and “printed” on a hacked 80’s knitting machine.

That’s right, you can hack a knitting machine! As proved by Andrew Salomone, who is leading this festive venture in collaboration with Hoxton Squares KK Outlet gallery.

More info (Creative Review)

A word?

What words defined 2013? For the Oxford English Dictionary, the word they chose was 'Selfie' - not exactly highbrow, this refers to the act of taking a quick narcissistic snap of yourself via your camera phone (usually accompanied by everyone's favourite 'duck face' expression).  Whereas, the Collins Dictionary chose the slightly less shallow word 'Geek' as their word of 2013. For our money, Dictionary.com chose 'Privacy' as their word of the year – and we think they nailed it.

And if we're not happy with those words, how about the words we were all searching for this year? According to Google, this is the top 10 list of searches over 2013:

• Paul Walker
• Boston Marathon Bombing
• Nelson Mandela
• Cory Monteith
• iPhone 5s
• Government Shutdown
• James Gandolfini
• Harlem Shake
• Royal Baby
• Adrian Peterson

They've even created a video that represents their view of 2013, check it out here...
More info: Google Zeitgeirst 2013

Don't forget the fun!

Did we mention that we've created a little memory game just for Christmas? If you haven't already tried it yet, do give it a go and test those brain cells of yours. There's even an HTML5 version specially for you iPad owners...

» play the Christmas Memory Game!

But if you REALLY want to give the brain a stress-test, our colleagues at The Cyber Security Challenge have concocted their own Xmas brain teaser, but be warned, you'll need tip-top code breaking skills to crack it!

The Cyber Security Challenge sets these competitions throughout the year to find young talented code breakers and introduce them to the world of Cyber Security. When you see some of the sponsors of this charity initiative you can see why they're hunting for them. We thought we'd share the challenge and see if any of you are up to the task. Follow the link below to try it out and find out more about this great initiative.

https://cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/virtuals.php

Read all about it!

This month the Independent revealed its new design, which was the result of a 3-month long process with their inhouse team and designer Matt Willey.

The Independent has changed its guise several times over the last few years with each change of editor or milestone it reaches, however this iteration of the British staple offers a much cleaner layout and differentiates it from its sister publication, i.

It’s clear from the finished product that the team were looking to create something with a more confident, sophisticated aesthetic, and this new look seems to offer clarity on the paper’s position as a compact broadsheet rather than a tabloid.

We think the use of typography and Dan Williams’ illustrations are lovely, and the clear, concise layout is of course a big hit with us!

Mmmulled drinks

As the weather gets colder and Christmas draws in, our minds turn to warming up on delicious mulled drinks (or is that just us?).

Do not be fooled into thinking red wine and cider are the only drinks to be doused in a warming, cinnamon glow. Everything from rum to pear brandy can be turned into a Christmas delight, and thankfully this post from Buzzfeed has listed all the best recipes. Go forth and mull my friends!

Tech mecca
As you know we’ve been working with the Croydon BID on re-developing the brand and websites, so of course we’re already big fans of the area, and so it would seem are some of London’s trendy tech bods as Croydon is set to become the new Tech City.

With rent in the proclaimed tech mecca of Shoreditch continuing to rise, many start-ups are looking for new areas to colonise. Believe it or not Croydon is already a hot tech scene, playing host to some big players such as dotMailer and games developer Hotgen, so it’s now starting to attract some of London’s growing digital talent. Last year Croydon took matters into its own hands and launched Croydon Tech City, the initiative is now a 400-strong community of software developers, VCs and tech start ups.

More info (London loves business)

Mimi's carefree

This month saw the release of the If Only For A Second campaign for the Mimi Foundation, a French foundation aimed at supporting cancer patients. Inspired by the quote from one patient “You know what I miss the most? Being carefree”, the foundation, alongside Leo Burnett France aim to bring this feel back to 20 patients, if only for a brief second – via the use of a unique make-over experience. The reactions are captured in this touching 3 minute video, and are also documented in an accompanying book.

Christmas Matters

It seems that everyone is getting into the spirit of Christmas, from this IT department to the clever clogs in the science industry. The guys at Matter PR (who we worked with earlier this year on their identity and website) have rounded up the best, and most amusing, of the Christmas themed stories, videos and experiments for us all to enjoy.