Noisy Decent Mike

The very nice news of today is that Ben Terrett of The Design Conspiracy has just invited me to be a guest writer on his popular design blog, Noisy Decent Graphics.

I'm very chuffed. NDG is a pretty well-known organ these days, always full of interesting news and opinions. The only thing that worries me is living up to its reputation.

(Especially as Ben recently recruited another guest writer, as you may know: Henrietta Thompson, writer for Blueprint, Dazed & Confused, the Guardian, etc, etc, etc. She blogged from Barcelona and all sorts. And she's better looking than me, damn her.)

Still, as someone once said, if you're asked if you can do a job, say yes - and then work out how to do it. (It was a US president, I'm sure. If anyone knows who, let me know.)

My noisy decent posts begin on December 3 - do come by and say hello.

Ruskin Square website goes live

Ruskin Square is a huge new development in the heart of Croydon, designed by Foster + Partners and FaulkerBrowns. Design consultancy Figtree created the identity and communications for the development, and asked me to work on the copy.

I was delighted to accept, of course, especially as this was my first job with Figtree. It all went very well, and I ended up writing a teaser brochure, the website, and a range of lines for the construction hoardings and nearby billboards.

Click here for the website. And I'll be adding more of the materials to my Portfolio section soon.

Big bid binders

This was a slightly mad project. The good people at 300million asked me to help them put together materials for a major property development bid by Cathedral.

Cathedral wanted a presentation that showed their commitment to quality and innovation. So they hired 300million to create an inspiring identity for the project (which, true to form, they did), and asked me to write a brochure to sum up the hundreds of pages of technical information they had to submit.

It was something of a scramble: as you can imagine, deadlines for this sort of thing are fairly tight. And it was one of those jobs that keeps suggesting ideas, to the point where you realise you've made several rods for your own back.

But we made it (in the very nick of time), and it looked great. As you can see, 300million pushed the boat out when it came to binders, commissioning a vast custom-made one to hold the architectural drawings (by Studio Egret West).

Those are my lines on the covers, by the way: some more of those rods I mentioned. "We really ought to have nice headlines on these binders..." Of such passing comments are desperate late-night scribblings born.

Thanks to 300million for the pic

1% for the Rainforest

You may remember that I was the first UK business to sign up as a member of 1% For The Planet, the rapidly expanding association of businesses donating at least 1% of their income (not profits, income) to environmental causes.

Well, the latest beneficiary of my green largesse is Rainforest Concern: a charity devoted to an issue that seems, bizarrely, to be rather out of the limelight these days: the destruction of the rainforests.

There's plenty of debate about aviation and climate change - no bad thing in itself - but when did you last hear much about the rainforests? And yet, as The Independent reported recently, 24 hours of deforestation releases as much CO2 as eight million people flying from London to New York. So one wonders if the focus is quite in the right place.

The recent Stern report said that up to 25% of annual greenhouse gas emissions comes from deforestation and the burning of tropical rainforests. And since 1990, 13 million hectares of forest have been destroyed every year. Yes, that's every year. One hectare = 10,000 square metres, which means we've lost about 208,000,000 square metres since 1990. Great.

These are extraordinary numbers. And of course, my little 1% looks a bit puny in comparison. But each time I go to the 1%FTP website there are more members on the list: it's a good way to feel part of something important and inspiring. So why not sign up?

My 26 poster goes up

This month saw the posters in the 26/JC Decaux 48-sheet project finally appear at their various sites. Here's mine, on a suitably grotty corner of the Purley Way, shot on a suitably grey day. (If you know Purley Way, it's just by the big Pets At Home store.)

It was nice to see the project sparking some spiky opinions in Design Week from Quentin Newark (subscribers read it here) (followed by an admirable defence from Jim Davies). As I said in a recent letter to DW (on a separate issue), this sort of knockabout debate always seems conspicuously absent from its pages. I do hope it's a sign of things to come.

There's no doubt this was a difficult project. The brief called for posters inspired very specifically by their local area - and even local dialects or accents. (Hence my sort of chav portmanteau, 'Croydinnit?' What you can't really see in the picture is the follow-up line: 'You're talking the Purley Way.')

It also insisted we use only six words – no more, and no less. I'm afraid I have to break ranks at this point, and admit that I never understood the reason for this restriction. It felt like an escapee from a separate brief, and helped make what would always have been rather esoteric posters even more obscure to a general audience.

But still, we have to tip a hat to JC Decaux for giving us pretty much free rein on their poster sites. (Although I know of at least one concept shot down for infringing the rather impenetrable advertising code.) And to Margaret Oscar of 26, who made an enormous rod for her own back with this project, and still managed to make it all work.