[festive photograph - christmas stockings in high street store]

back in september we reflected on the absence of opportunity in contemporary to take stock of working life, so we ought to stick by our own words and pause to reflect on 2007.

so our highlights:

• getting great feedback. tourism first had a record uptake on courses with a little help from our prospectus-cum-poster. nick at scarborough’s future says he gets lots of compliments on the renaissance newsletter. anne from lighthouse got in touch and said they had used the promotional material we designed with funding bids and had been successful - that’s just great news because of the work they do. plus lots of good stuff said and work on the back of the business coast brochure.

• getting new draught-free windows almost in time for the cold snap.

• on one occasion being invited, gently encouraged and finally pestered to tender.

• genuine close-to-our-heart branding jobs.

• collaborating with kate and john on felt. and some lovely responses.

• james’s nighttime photography [there’s more to come].

• being part of scarborough’s creative scene. really, this place has a buzz. great music events like beached and acoustic gathering, great nights like the spa open air film festival, creative coast is going well (new website in the new year), and most of all great people.

• the press and political coverage of some little signs.

• jim moray, matt deighton and the super furry animals. on the studio hifi. loud.

• still getting a buzz from seeing our work out in the world - especially in our home town.

• collaborating with other local creatives. [hi ross and gordon]

• people just getting in touch out of the blue to say they like our work. totally unexpected. we really appreciate it - thank you so much.

and finally…

• actually being able to calm down towards christmas. we’re usually working up until the last minute to get jobs to the printers for the new year. there are a couple of those again this year but we’re mostly organising the workload for january and enjoying the luxury of a proper advent wind-down. which is why i’ve been out collecting holly and making advent wreaths with my son this week instead of staring at a computer monitor. but spare a thought for rebecca whose been working extra hours on a sudden influx of website work.

so happy christmas and a peaceful new year to anyone who knows us. we’re off now until january 3rd when we’ll be back refueled and hungry for creative challenges…

conference folders, document wallets, call ‘em what you want - but when was the last time you were given a beautiful one? or even an interesting one? for some reason they’re often a little under-designed - plain white and with a logo hanging in the middle or nestling in a corner. that’s fine if minimalism is your house style, but that’s rarely the reason. actually, i’ve no idea what the reason is.

our folder design for active faith communities challenged this strange status quo of the design world. they liked the idea of colour and impact. and why not? afc are all about enriching communities and every aspect of their promotional material needs to reflect that message. following on from a subtle refresh of the logo we’d designed for them several years ago, we took the blast of coloured light and splashed it across the folder.

although we’ve blogged the multilingual poster-leaflet we designed for active faiths we haven’t talked about the logo design. this grew out of a creative session we led with afc’s staff. whilst cutting and sticking images we came across a picture of a toddler playing with a large cardboard box. this led to a discussion about kids seeing the potential in something that adults will throw away without thought. it seemed an appropriate metaphor for an organisation that helps faith communities recognise and use their potential in the transformation of communities - often groups of people who have existed for a long time and never considered the profound impact they can have in their neighbourhood. the resulting ‘exploding box’ logo has a direct link to that first session. afc’s staff commented that they really appreciated our approach in being involved in the generation of ideas.

this is also an example of where we’ve done more than just design a logo. active faith communities already had a name but no strapline. we developed a list of possible straplines based on the discussions we’d had in the creative session. unlocking potential - enriching communities was the chosen line.

this isn’t a design related post, it’s just to say that tomorrow from 1pm at sunset health club, scarborough, i will be attempting to row (on a rowing machine in a nice warm gym) for 24 hours straight, with a target of 300km in support of the stroke association.

The siemens stroke for stroke campaign aims to highlight the positive benefits of regular exercise and raise vital funds for the stroke association, by encouraging people across the uk to sign up to rowing 10km in the gym between 3rd-9th december 2007 with a goal of collectively rowing around the world - 40,076km.

i’m suspecting my biggest battle will be keeping my eyes open during the 24 hour period and hopefully i’ll be able to watch a few films through the cold, lonely night. any support for me and my friend mel who will be embarking on a 12 hour session alongside me would be greatly appreciated.

visit our fundraising blog to check our progress and watch out for coverage throughout local and national media.

we’re having the new windows installed. because we’re designers people assume that we’ll choose macs but we’ve weighed up the pros and cons and here are our reasons why we’ve chosen windows over macs:

fit for purpose: macs work great, they’re a design classic - especially a burberry, but when we’ve looked at what’s going to stop the rain coming in we think windows beat them every time. macs are great for a journey to keep your clothes dry, but windows are much better for buildings.

appearance: true, macs are versatile - they can look good with a suit or a pair of jeans teamed with the right shoes, but windows allow in a lot more light, and that’s important to a healthy working environment.

adaptability: macs have never moved on from button fastenings - they’re either open or buttoned up, whereas the latest windows have lockable openings that offer a wide range of apertures. no contest.

accessories: we were tempted on this one - a mac teamed with a colourful scarf or the right hat is a winner. however, there are some very tasteful blinds available now for windows and we’ll be going with those.

longevity: this is a no-brainer. properly installed windows will last far longer than macs - they’re notorious for wearing through at the elbows.

cost: you do get what you pay for. we could have gone for cheap macs at around £30, but will they be waterproof? your top recognised brands cost money and compared with the upvc deal that was on offer windows were the best choice.

so there you go. sorry mac lovers but windows won hands down.

we won’t be in the studio whilst the windows are being installed as some builder chappies are. the answerphone won’t be on either so if you do need to get hold of us it’s probably best to send an email. all being well we’ll be back in operation by thursday afternoon. friday.

we developed this identity for scarborough borough council who wanted to make the most of the myriad building projects around the town and draw attention to scarborough’s regeneration. the identity was launched down on the seafront complete with fanfare when the first board was unveiled for the sandside and harbour works. since then there have been boards produced for wood end [pictured], the rotunda, the spa, the sands development, the business park and most recently, royal albert park.

the challenge was to produced something that looked contemporary but also reflected scarborough’s heritage - especially as the majority of the projects listed above are the redevelopment of historic sites. there had to be some sensitivity to public opinion as at least one of the projects was a little controversial at first and subject to rumors and misinformation, so the purpose of the signs was largely to inform people of what was really happening [in the planning meetings for these the joke slogan was ‘building on scarborough’s heritage’]. anyway local residents have been very complimentary about them and we’ve received a couple of pieces of work on the strength of this identity.

we chose a child’s eye as the main image and added a reflection of the town - this seemed to match the nature of the projects as all are ambitious schemes that will have a positive impact of future generations. some of the earlier signs are now disappearing as projects draw close to completion. so that’s kinda sad as it’s been enjoyable seeing them around town, but it is exciting to see some of scarborough’s architectural and natural assets made beautiful and useful again.