You love it or hate it!

We’ll I’ve always loved it, (correction I preferred Bovril for a couple of weeks when I was a nipper) and especially love the recent Queen’s Jubilee connection with the launch of the limited edition Ma’amite. Celebrating 60 years of Britishness, Ma’amite was launched on 3rd April via Facebook but our little surprise didn’t arrive until yesterday via Ocado.

Do I keep it or do I eat it? I notice they’re already selling on eBay for 100% more than RRP, people really will collect anything!

PS – funny to mention Man U in my blog only days after they lost their title during the most exciting end to the Premiership football season, ever! If it was always this close maybe I’d had never stopped following the game, but then I guess Joey Barton is a good reason not to get too excited about next season, disgrace!

As the sun was shining, for a change, I ceased the opportunity to build a quick solution for shoe/storage in our hallway, having failed to find something suitable on the high street or online…

I love these little projects where you see the results quickly and can start using it immediately - albeit not completely finished but good enough until the decorators visit again!

A somewhat unusual request landed in my inbox recently, and I couldn’t resist;

“I am looking for a creative logo for my (very small) cupcake business, I currently have very little budget for this but wondered if payment in cupcakes may be of interest? :0)”

This is what you get for 24 of the best homemade cupcakes.

I found this map pretty useful when planning skiing trips to France, and will hopefully remember in future that I’ve posted it onto my blog… bet I dont!

It’s May 2nd 2012 and I can’t believe its still snowing in the french alps, wished I’d managed to make it away again but this dodgy knee is just not repairing itself.

I’ve been reading these brilliant books recently, highly recommended – you can buy them direct from A Book Apart.

I challenge anyone to disagree that this is a genius piece of creativity, no doubt currently virally weaving its way around the globe to achieve further coverage too…!

To launch the high quality TV channel TNT in Belgium, a big red push button was placed on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text “Push to add drama” invited people to use the button. And then everyone waited, and waited…

Their tagline fits beautifully with their message; TNT. We know drama.

I was a little surprised to hear about a new football sponsorship deal this morning, between Manchester United and Casillero del Diablo (my all time favorite wine), and to me its not the most natural or obvious collaboration.

I would understand Manchester United and lets say Carlsberg, or perhaps Casillero del Diablo and sailing or horse racing, but a football team and wine, to me its just not cricket – but I’m a little old fashioned at times.

The promo video on the other hand, is a creative masterpiece, full of energy and aggression, just really well made. Which reminds me of Peter Alliss commentating during the Masters golf at the weekend, saying that the crowd were restrained by a piece of string, and how the FA would love to be able to say that.

For me, football is still surrounded by violence and cheating, and I’m really surprised that this premium wine maker wanted to be linked with the football. But then I guess Waitrose sponsor Reading FC, so what do I know.

I’m really pleased today, as an existing client has chosen us to redevelop their 18 month old website, to reflect a slight change in direction and strategy for their business.

I’ve enjoyed working with Cambium since December 2010 and have built a strong relationship and good understanding of their technical and unusual proposition, and would have been disappointed to lose the client.

Its going to be an ultra quick-turnaround project, with the new website being launched to coincide with the release of their latest research report at the end of this month (April 2012).

We’ve seen the crowds chipping in to design everything from credit cards to new fashion collections, and we’ve seen a number of city-based bike rental schemes. Combing elements from all of these, The City of Bordeaux recently asked its citizens to design the Bike of the Future for its public bike rental system.

The City asked residents to submit their ideas for a new bike design through the official City of Bordeaux je participe micro-site, with more than 300 respondents taking part. Designer Philippe Starck was then brought in to translate the numerous suggestions into a single concept. The final design, unveiled at the second Cyclab event in Bordeaux in February, is a silver and yellow bike-scooter, with a foot panel placed in front of the pedals to enable users to safely push start the machine. Peugeot has now been contracted to put the bikes into production before they become part of a city-wide rental scheme.

The aim of the project was to give citizens an input into a service they will be using themselves, with the final bike reflecting their concerns over ease-of-use and safety. Government departments elsewhere: could crowdsourcing ideas from local residents improve your services?