My mailshot. At last.

It's here. It's actually here. My Christmas 2007 mailshot - all pretence at a New Year deadline long discarded - has finally arrived from the extraordinarily diligent presses of Gavin Martin, via the admirably ambitious design heads of 300million.

It's become an all-round self-promotional doohickey by now - and is all the better for it, I reckon.

My initial idea - a riposte to the dozens, if not hundreds, of people who tell me it's ungrammatical to start sentences with 'And' - has become a sort of sleight-of-hand origami masterpiece. Just watch 300million's little 'unboxing' video:



The thing just opens, and opens, and opens, and opens. (And with good reason - it reflects the rhythm of my ongoing conjunctions through the piece.) I've actually pulled one to bits and I still can't really work out how it works. But it's brilliant.

So enormous thanks to Gavin Martin, for running their presses on this for real four times to make sure they got it spot on. That's not service, that's something beyond. And (there I go again) thanks to 300million: top clients, inspired designers and some of the nicest people in the business to boot.

As you can tell, I've come over all emotional and Academy Awardish.

(There aren't that many spares, but if you'd like one, let me know: mike[at]reedwords[dot]co[dot]uk.)

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.

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

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.