Mailer on AceJet170

I've enjoyed the AceJet170 blog for a long time, with its mixture of found type images, vintage design and, latterly, chickens.

So it's a special pleasure for me that Richard, who writes the blog, has posted about my little ol' mailer.



As well as some kind words (and a splendid verbal flourish that suggests he has little need for my services), Richard has included a set of lovely photos. They put my own to shame, as you can see from these examples. (It's okay, he said I could borrow them.)





Thanks, Richard.

The Design Luminary Seal of Approval

Just had another nice email about the mailer:



"I thought it was wondrous... an example of what you can do when you wake up," says Michael Wolff. (Formerly of Wolff Olins, just in case you're not in the biz.)

You may consider me chuffed.

First sight of my Christmas mailer

And as many of you know, that's Christmas '07, not '08. Still, it's turned out beautifully, thanks to the very generous hard work of 300million (design) and Gavin Martin (print).



Naturally, I'm not going to spoil what I hope will be a very nice surprise, which is why you're only getting this sneak peek through the packaging.

It's not really a Christmas mailer any more, of course. By force of circumstance it's become a general purpose promotional piece. And to be honest, I'm delighted about that. I haven't done any proper self-promotion for ages. So I'm cleaning up my database, as they say, and will be dispersing little grey boxes across the land (even the world) very shortly.

Hello, johnson banks

A very welcome addition to the client list this month, in the form of celebrated design consultancy johnson banks, creators of brilliant branding and graphics and home to one of the most engaging design blogs around.


Johnson Banks' recent splendid stamps celebrating 50 years since Lennon met McCartney.

I'd love to be able to add to this news with details of the branding project Michael Johnson and I have been collaborating on, but it's super-confidential. Suffice it to say that it's really rather big.

First work with CABE

I'm delighted to say that I've started working directly with CABE - the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment - on a couple of projects. The first is CABE's own corporate leaflet, which is being designed by my old friends at 300million. And the second is a very exciting event: the world's first Climate Change Festival.



Climate Change Festival identity by Violetta Boxill

I've been asked to write a variety of things for the Festival, not least 15 new benches that will be installed around Birmingham for the week of the festivities. These benches will be strategically placed to give views of specific parts of the city, each relevant in its own way to the climate change issue. And each will carry a little bit of explanatory Reed Words copy.

This is no finger-wagging process: the point is to be positive about how we can create cleaner, greener, more inclusive and happier cities for the future. It's about making a better world for everyone rather than the usual doom and gloom.

Anyway, watch this space for more on the Festival, and my part in it.

Big bid binders win the day

Some great news about the presentation materials I did with 300million for property developers Cathedral: we won!

This was Cathedral's bid to develop a new library, leisure centre and residential accommodation in the heart of Clapham - where I spent much of my London life before upping sticks for Surrey family life.

I wrote and edited the (pretty extensive) documents in double-fast time, and they were delivered to Lambeth Council in the very nick of time. The result: Cathedral, very much the underdogs, won the tender. And won it by a country mile, I'm told.

No doubt this was due primarily to the extraordinary scheme Cathedral proposed, including a spiral library reminiscent of Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim in New York. (To read more, click 'Projects' on the Cathedral site.)


The library interior (image pinched from Cathedral's site with the best of motives)

Even so, Cathedral believed in the value of a professional, original and consistent brand even at this tender stage - including a strong tone of voice. And they've been generous in their apportioning of credit in 300million's and my direction. Which is very nice of them.

Cardiff Waterside website goes live

The website I wrote for Cardiff Waterside, a major business property development in the Welsh capital, is now live.

The designers were Brownjohn (their debut on my client list) and my old friends at Bounce. A lovely job they both made of it, too.

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.

When words can mean life or death

Yet another new client this month, thanks to a kind referral from The Partners. Airwave is the company - until recently part of O2 - that runs the emergency services' dedicated communications network.

As tragic experience has shown, public networks are often overloaded in the wake of major emergencies like 7/7 or the recent floods. And even in the normal day-to-day, emergency teams need a network more resilient and reliable than the standard public services.

That's what Airwave provides. A lot of the detail is secret, and I'd have to eat my laptop if I wrote it here (or something). But suffice to say that the Airwave network is impressively sophisticated, and there's an extraordinary amount going on behind the scenes to make sure it stays reliable in even the toughest conditions.

All of which is very reassuring for me as a member of the public, and rather fascinating to talk about as a copywriter.

I've been drafted in to help implement The Partners' new identity for Airwave (above). That process began, as it must, with tying down the brand's tone of voice, and I've just completed the first of a little mountain of product brochures. Then there's the website and a corporate brochure to do. So that lot should keep me out of mischief for a while.

Haunted by Croydon

"I can't seem to escape from Croydon."

No doubt this cry has been raised before, but never by me. And yet, in the past weeks, Croydon has become a looming presence in my life, thanks to one of those bizarre work synchronicities that come along now and then.

The first project came from writers' association 26. They'd wangled a deal with media owners JC Decaux, allowing a bunch of writers and designers to create 48-sheet posters celebrating the written word. (And the power of outdoor advertising.)

Each poster had to relate to its location, and for some rather obscure reason, had to include exactly six words. I've included a sneak preview of my solution above. (Some of the other posters are on p16 of September's Creative Review.)

Due to a rather surprising turn of events, I ended up designing my poster as well as writing it. Although I did, thank heavens, have some invaluable emergency aid from Sue Rogers - a proper (freelance) designer and good friend who was quite busy enough already on her own poster. So thanks again, Sue.

On the heels of this project came two more - and from two new clients, at that. First, design consultancy Figtree got in touch to ask if I'd help with the website, literature and hoardings for a huge new development in Croydon. Naturally I said yes, and it's all going very well. Watch this space for more in due course.

Then I had a call from another new contact: Mark Studio in Manchester. (Thank you, 300million.) They had a little project they wanted my help with - for Croydon College. Quite how such a job managed to find its way up to Manchester, I'm not sure, but together Mark and I have done some nice posters and postcards to promote the College.

There hasn't been a new Croydon project for a couple of weeks now, so I think the storm may have passed. But I shall soon be visiting the Gateway to the South, armed with my digital camera - I'm assuming the whole place will be crawling with my copy.

New work for Sightsavers

This month brought the exciting news that I'll be working with Sightsavers over the coming year, on fundraising communications with their high-level donors.

I pitched for the work as part of a team with the International Fundraising Consultancy and freelance designer Piers Rutterford. And Sightsavers reckon we've got what it takes to bring in thousands of pounds from a very select group of rich supporters.

The first creative presentation went extremely well. Rather than picking one concept, as was the plan, Sightsavers are keen to produce two or three of the routes we showed, over the course of the next twelve months. Hopefully those on the receiving end of our DM packs will be just as enthusiastic.

If you don't know Sightsavers, have a click on the link below. They do tremendous work. Indeed, it's humbling in the extreme to realise that for the price of a hardback novel, or a decent-sized round in the pub, you could give someone in the developing world their sight back.

Our work is at a very early stage, obviously, so I can't show you any of it yet. But keep an eye on the website, and I'll reveal all as we go along.

Another Olympic victory

As you may recall, I had a small hand in the films made for the London 2012 Olympic bid. And as you can imagine, that success has brought a slew of business for my client New Moon, the production company behind the films.

In amongst this slew was, of all things, another Olympic project: the Russian bid for the 2014 Winter Games.

It was a tough job. Sochi, the Black Sea resort chosen as the Russian candidate city, was the long-shot candidate. The ones to beat were the established experts in Salzburg, and a vigorous bid from PyeongChang in South Korea. But we had a powerful story to tell. Because this was a chance to transform the future of winter sports in Russia.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia's winter sports facilities have been decimated - a terrible fate for a nation still holds the most Winter Olympic gold medals.

So the Russian government had already pledged to spend billions of dollars regenerating the slightly dilapidated resort of Sochi - perfectly located at the foot of the Caucasus mountains - into a world-class winter sports resort.

Sochi's combination of balmy coastline and reliably snowy mountains meant the Russians could offer the most compact, efficient Winter Games ever - as well as revitalising sport for the nation.

Unlike the London bid, which I joined rather late in the day, I had the chance to get much more closely involved in this one, writing concepts and outlines for the films, and working with New Moon on final scripts. And would you believe it: it worked.

So keep your eye out for Sochi. You'll be hearing a lot more about it soon. And when I can, I'll get you a link to the finished films.

One deeply unpopular logo, one much more popular copywriter

The launch of Wolff Olins' enormously controversial new London 2012 logo (left) has created a welcome flurry of interest in my site.

I usually get around 60 to 80 hits a day. Occasionally 100 or so. But yesterday (6 June), I got almost 400 hits, almost all of them on the page showing my entry for the 2012 London Olympic bid logo competition (shown below).

Vast numbers of Europeans, mainly Germans, have come through a German blog about the new logo. (As a non-German speaker, I have no idea if my link was complimentary or not - any enlightenment welcome).

I was also mentioned (way down the comments list) on a Digg blog called Olympic Logos That Aren't Awful, which is nice. (The nice chap in Canada who handed me this free PR has also commented on my site.) And there was another complimentary link from someone called Machie on a forum called London Olympic Logo Yay [sic] or Nay.

All this frantic activity may explain why a Google search today for '2012 London ideas' put me top of the list (and brought in some more hits).

As I write, the visits for today have already topped 100 (and it's not yet 11 o'clock). Thank you very much, Wolff Olins. The only problem is, I am going to feel very downcast when all this furore dies down and I go back to being little old niche copywriter me.

Exodus, chapters 'Bleeurgh' to 'Grrrr'

We were only going about a mile. How hard can that be? But geography is perhaps the least important element in deciding the stress quotient of any move.

Especially when your moving day begins at 3am, with a seven month-old baby vomiting all over the bed. Which, of course, includes the only clean linen that hasn't been sealed inside a cardboard box and stowed onto a van.

That little upset heralded what was to be a two-week bout of tummy trouble for our precious little angel. And despite his lack of any vocabulary, he's managed to be remarkably eloquent about the whole situation. Which is why Wendy and I spent most of the last fortnight shambling about like two fugitives from the legions of the undead.

Inevitably, of course, I caught Oscar's dreaded lurgy. Which didn't improve my temper when we also discovered that our phones didn't work. Apologies to my readers at BT, but apparently taking your number from one house to another is enough to bring this global communications giant to its knees. Not so much Bringing it all together as Taking it all apart and forgetting about it. But hey - it only took 11 days to get us connected and online.

Meanwhile Harry, our apparently brain-damaged labrador, showed utter disdain for the enormous new garden we've given him by escaping from it. A lot. One hopes not to meet one's new neighbours for the first time at seven in the morning, because your insane dog is standing in their garden barking at them. But that's how it worked out.

Anyway, we're in now. The dust is starting to settle, and Oscar has stopped exploding every five minutes. (It's about every hour now.) And should you ever want to write to me at this madhouse we call home, you can now do so at 51 Bentsbrook Park, North Holmwood, Surrey RH5 4JL.

First work for D&AD

It's a pleasure to announce my first little job for D&AD. I'm currently working with Hat-trick on promoting D&AD Xchange - the two-day event for lecturers and tutors in design and advertising.

Naturally I'm very chuffed to be working with such a prestigious name. I've even found it in myself to forgive all those overlooked awards entries.

Look out for the new Xchange stuff appearing soon...

Making a noise for Bowers & Wilkins

One of this month's nicest surprises was a referral from designer Thomas Manss to his client Bowers & Wilkins, makers of probably the finest loudspeakers in the world. Their astonishing Nautilus speaker (shown here), the result of five years' research and development, is certainly the most amazing-looking speaker I've ever seen.

The company, which has been going since the mid-60s, is one of those wonderfully artisan businesses. One that really is founded on a 'passion' - surely the most over-used word in branding today.

This particular passion is genuine, however. It's a passion for music. And in getting to know the client, I discovered that the business was founded on the fruits of that passion.

John Bowers, a former wartime Signalman, turned to making loudspeakers for customers of his electrical store. And one elderly customer, a Miss Knight, was so impressed with his handiwork, and his knowledge of classical music, that she left him £10,000 to start a business.

Isn't that a terrific story? One hears about 'brand stories' a lot these days, and some people seem to think it's even a good idea to make them up. I can't quite get my head around that - I'm not sure I could get excited about a company based on a fiction. But a company rooted in its own craft and love - now you're talking.

Anyway, the first job has gone very well - I've written the copy for an interactive pod at the forthcoming Geneva motor show. Bowers & Wilkins is making its first foray into in-car audio, alongside another great British brand: Jaguar. I seem to have come on board at an exciting time, so I'll hopefully have more news of Bowers & Wilkins work soon.

First major project for Fabris Lane

It's official: this website works. When Andy Lipscombe of Fabris Lane - the UK's leading sunglasses manufacturer - was looking for a writer, he found my site. And now here I am, starting a major online business-to-business project for the company.

I've already completed a potted company history, a smaller job that allowed us to get to know each other, and for me to get under the skin of the brand and develop a suitable tone of voice. With that done, we're now rolling the tone of voice out into this new website.

Until it's made public, I can't really go into detail, but it has meant a fascinating trip to the company's testing lab, which is a sort of torture chamber for sunglasses. They bend them, twist them, freeze them, heat them up, fire ball bearings at them - even coat them in a synthetic sweat solution. All to make sure they won't get damaged by anything you do to them as the owner. (Well, within reason.) It was, if you'll excuse the pun, quite an eye-opener.

Watch out for more news - and a link to the finished site - in a few weeks.

Land Securities, Land Securities, Land Securities

It's been a bit like this recently. But don't get me wrong - I'm not about to complain about being landed with stacks of work from such a creatively enlightened company.

As you may have spotted in some of the design press, Land Securities launched their new corporate identity (below), designed by Hat-trick, this month.

Hat-trick asked me to get involved, and as well as creating some standard paragraphs that are now appearing on all the group's literature, I also wrote and edited the two sets of guidelines - one internal, one external.

I've also been busy with Hat-trick developing the new ad campaign for Capital Commitment (Land Securities' London portfolio), now appearing all over London.

Then there was a little book to do about the company's vision, also with Hat-trick. And a rather bigger book (this time with 300million) about all the group's London developments. Which I also helped turn into the Capital Commitment website with Bounce Digital. With whom I'm also developing a huge online archive of all Land Securities' London marketing.

So if you're one of the people I've had to turn away in the last six months, you now know part of the reason why.

The year in pictures

Along with designer friends David Hughes and Sue Rogers, I'm compiling a photo-diary of 2007, which you can see at www.photodiary2007.blogspot.com

There are already some great shots up, so have a look. And if you're really keen, you can join in. Drop me a line and I'll get you set up on the blog.

The next JK Rowling...

The leadership of writers' group 26 have come up with another fantastic project, in which I'm lucky enough to be involved.

You may remember that last year we were creating posters for every station on the Circle Line. This time we've been teamed with student illustrators from the London College of Communication (LCC) to create concepts for children's books.

With Faber & Faber also involved, there are enticing possibilities of publication in the air, and we hope at least to create another terrific exhibition at the London Design Festival next year.

I've been lucky in the random pairings, too, finding myself alongside a talented student, Alec Strang, whose work is admirably peculiar and evidently crafted with great care and skill.

As a collaborative tool, I've created a blog that Alec and I can use to trade ideas. If anyone's interested, it's also a way to follow the book's development. Enjoy...

Christmas card of the year

According to Noisy Decent Graphics, an entertaining blog by Ben Terrett of The Design Conspiracy, my Christmas card for 2006 was the best of the year.

What a very nice thing to say, Ben, thank you.

He's even included pictures and everything. Have a look.

(If you think you should have had a card and didn't get one, let me know. They've got my new address on, so they're very important.)

Good news from the IFC

Earlier this year, designer Piers Rutterford and I created a new brochure for the International Fundraising Consultancy. And recently, we met up with the IFC, and others from David & Associates, for a very jolly Christmas get-together.

It was made all the jollier when John Baguley, the IFC's esteemed Managing Director, revealed that the brochure had gone down such a storm with clients and prospects that he was about to order a second reprint of the brochure.

And they say print is dead.

Bastions of Creativity Disparaged (Part II)

Last month I was castigating D&AD for multiple typographical howlers in the latest Annual. This time, the Bastion of Creativity under scrutiny is no lesser institution than London's famous Groucho Club.

I spent a long, and increasingly cheerful, lunchtime there recently, ostensibly to take a brief from photographer Matt Stuart. As well as being a member of the Groucho, Matt's one of In-Public, a group of brilliant 'street photographers', and he's asked me to help with the words on their website.

Anyway, answering a call of nature brought me face-to-face with the sign above. What's going on with all those capitals?

A lot of business writing is afflicted with a sort of capitalisation Tourette's, with inappropriate Caps appearing Randomly all over the Place.

But I never expected to encounter such a basic gaffe within the hallowed walls of the Groucho. The club was, after all, established by publishers, and is now synonymous with London's literary and artistic set.

Perhaps I'm missing the point, however. Perhaps the sign is attempting to transform base information into golden poetry. Perhaps one can expect an anthology in due course, including such gems as:

These toilets are cleaned
Twice a day.
If you have a complaint
Please
Contact the management.

And the classic:

Now
Please
Wash your hands.

Told you so, told you so

Back in 2004, in a letter to Design Week, I wrote this:

'[Jargon] creates barriers to communication, excluding those who may not be up on the latest lingo. This is when things turn nasty: when jargon is used to make yourself feel big, and others small. The more we demystify this sort of language, and create clearer, more inclusive communication, the better.'

Two years later, on 6 November this year, the BBC reported that: 'Needless jargon in the workplace is baffling employees and widening the divide between management and staff, a survey suggests.'

The survey is by Investors In People (IIP), via YouGov. And it has, in IIP's own rather jargonistic term, revealed a 'potential "desk divide"'. According to their press release, 'over half (55%) of senior managers think jargon is harmless, whilst four in ten (42%) employees think that it creates misunderstanding about roles and responsibilities.'

It goes on: 'Over a third of employees (37%) say it results in mistrust in the workplace and makes people feel inadequate.'

Well, I hate to say it, but...

Writing for D&AD: nul points

It's always nice to receive a big, fat new D&AD annual packed with interesting work. And the 2006 book, as you probably know, came out just recently.

However cynical you are about awards, you have to hand it to D&AD for remaining the pre-eminent arbiters of each year's greatest creative work.

Which makes it all the more annoying when they fall down on the basics, namely spelling and punctuation. Imagine my horror as I opened the Showreel DVD, only to see, on the menu, a category called 'Intergrated'. Ouch.

That's not the end of it, either. My designer clients at 300million have spotted some equally embarrassing slips, as posted on their newsblog.

Martin Lawless, the Creative Director, was one of the photography judges, and is admirably cross about what he calls a 'schoolboy error' in the quote they printed from him (left). Not only that, but they also managed to repeat the offence in the very next quote.

Dear oh dear. I haven't scoured every page of the Annual, but one wonders how many other blunders may be lurking therein. Tut. Go the back of the class, D&AD, and think about what you've done.

(I don't want to be accused of sycophancy, but you should have a look at 300million's blog. It's a great example of tone of voice: engaging, witty and, most importantly, completely true to the spirit of the place. And not a copywriter in sight, which is all a bit of a worry.)

Bad Design Amnesty gets rants off the streets

Purpose Design's 'Bad Design Amnesty' started as one of those fun little ideas - an email asking people what they'd put in a 'Room 101' for design.

But it was never going to stay little. It's such an irresistible subject, Purpose was soon flooded with rants about everything from impregnable milk cartons to dangerously enigmatic shower controls and those maddening stickers that leave gluey marks all over your new CDs and books.

So it was that the idea ballooned, as these things do, into a full exhibition at Purpose's basement gallery, as part of the London Design Festival.I was one of the many who couldn't resist the call for design horrors (click here to read my anti-FCUK rant). And I was delighted when Rob Howsam at Purpose asked me to help create the signage for the exhibition. It was great fun to be part of such a brilliant idea.

If you're anywhere near the Edgeware Road, and even if you're not, I'd definitely recommend visiting the exhibition. But get your skates on - it's only on until 30 September. It's at 14a Shouldham Street (see Purpose's website for details) and the doors are open between 10am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday, and between 10am and 2pm at the weekend. Entry is free.