Just one final post from China…

I’ve been looking at this sign from the Forbidden City for the last couple of days (not continuously) and I’m still stuck as to what it means. If anyone has any ideas, or can translate it from the Chinese, please feel free to share.

OK, so we didn’t post any more photos from Beijing, as we said in the last post. Truth is, it’s probably not that interesting to the majority of people out there to see some picture of myself and Alistair on the back of a rickshaw, or doing some cheesy pose on the Great Wall (actually we didn’t go). But the trip was very much a success, and we met some very interesting, intelligent people. And Boris Johnson.

Alistair did a fine presentation in Beijing on our work for Silver Cross, despite the best efforts of the technical team there to cock it up.

(I think it’s OK to use the word cock on our blog, so long as it’s used in the right way. If it’s not it’ll probably read ‘mess’ in a few days and I’ll be on a verbal warning.)

Martin Darbyshire from Tangerine spoke about ‘meaningful differentiation’ and his designs for BA business class beds; Adam Devey-Smith from The One Off spoke about brand personality (who you are, not what you are) and their breaking work for Barclays; Phil Gray from Quadro showed his great work for the Q-Press and told us “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got”; Graham from Venture3 shared their superb rebrand for sky with us, Lisa Tse reminded us all “Do not be afraid of growing slowly, only of standing still”; and finally, Digby, Lord Jones, Minister for Trade made some rather unfortunate comments about eating disorders, followed by some very valid points about UK design.

It was a long way to go, but we’ve met some great people, made some useful contacts, learnt a lot about China’s business culture and eaten duck brain (tastes pretty much the same as swan brain) so it was definitely worth it. Thank you Christine Losecaat and Martin Cook for organising the whole trip - plans are already in motion for a return trip sometime in October, possibly taking in Japan too.

Finally, a nod and a hearty wave of our caps to Mr Tony Murray, the man behind How-Do’s alternative wrap, who was kind enough to meet up with us on more than one occasion and take us drinking in a portacabin in a car park. Happy days.

Yesterday we didn’t have any meetings, so had a couple of hours to see a bit of Beijing. In the interests of saving everyone’s time , it’s probably best to just post a few pictures, rather than try and write some profound waffle. More tomorrow.

Forbidden City

Tiananmen Square

Crazy rikshaw driver

Duck (RIP)

I’ve never read the book Business For Dummies, nor am I 100% sure that one exists with that title. But if it does, I’m fairly certain that quite near the front, like page 1, there’ll be a passage that says “If you are attending an international design conference in China, don’t forget to take your business cards with you, otherwise you’ll look stupid.”

Fortunately Alistair bought plenty with him, but now everyone thinks we’re both called Alistair Sim. This is why he is MD, and I am not.

(click to download flyer)

Jesse Auersalo
YCN Live

One or two of you may have noticed there’s a major world event happening in China at the moment, with some of the UK’s finest talent on show. What you may not know is that our MD (Alistair) and myself (Simon) are heading out next week to represent the United Kingdom. Yes, that’s right, it’s the 2008 China Design Taskforce, coordinated by the Creative and Media Unit at UK Trade & Investment.

The  China Design Taskforce works with British government organisations and industry trade bodies to raise the profile of British Design to buyers, intermediaries, public sector and press in greater China, and to help attract Chinese design buyers to consider British design expertise in their procurement.

Andrew Cahn, Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment says: “We’re taking a giant leap forward in showcasing the best of British Design in this booming market. The potential market for UK design will develop rapidly as China’s economy moves towards selling more sophisticated products and services in a competitive market place.”

LOVE will be taking part in two seminars structured around the theme of ‘Love & Money’: one in Shanghai on the 19^th August, and the other in Beijing on the 22^nd. Hopefully we’ll also get the chance to have a look around some of the main Olympic sites, and give Michael Phelps a few swimming lessons. Some of the other agencies taking part are  Lisa Tse, The One Off and venturethree, so we’re looking forward to catching up with a few of them there.

Four further things, which I’m going to bullet point, because I’ve done enough writing at this point:

- If anyone else is going and fancies a night out, then please get in touch.

- If anyone has any advice on where to go/ what to see/ what to take, then please get in touch.

- We’ll bring you a few updates on the trip next week.

- I didn’t forget to change the title of this post, I just couldn’t think of anything clever or amusing.

There was excitement in the agency on Friday as no one eagerly gathered around for our monthly “Don’t Bake a Cake Off”.

Set up nearly five months ago, not baking cakes was designed to help build team spirit in the agency and has proved a real hit. So far no one’s baked chocolate brownies (scrummy!), Victoria sponge cakes (not so scrummy), flapjacks (won by Anna) and muffins (no one bothered not baking anything), but this month it was everyone’s turn not to bake Carrot Cakes.

Chris G’s effort – needed more icing.

We were really impressed with the amount of people that didn’t bother to bake anything, with Chris G, Rory, Emma, Leanda and Adam F all not making a really good effort. Adam R also didn’t bake a cake, but we suspect he might have got his girlfriend not to bake it!

Hari’s entry – slightly over-done, but no walnuts was a nice touch.

It was a really close call, but in the end everyone agreed the amazing, moist carrot cake shaped like a real carrot that Emma didn’t bake was the worthy winner.

Em’s winning effort – great with a cuppa!

Next month: no one’s baking cookies!

If you’re a fan of duck-herding, ferret-racing, morris-dancing, welly-wanging, pie-eating and smoothie-drinking, and you weren’t in Regent’s Park at the weekend, you missed out big time.

After kind invitations from Dan, four of us made the trip to our capital city on Saturday for the innocent Village Fete. Despite a large downpour around one o’clock, we all had an excellent time. Except we don’t really have any good photos to show for it. Sorry. Here’s a picture of Phil after he tried to drink Tuborg through his eye.

And a close up of the table we sat at. You can just about make out at bit of Jo’s foot, top left.

If you’d like to see some slightly more professional photography from the day we’d recommend heading over to the Fete blog. A big thank you to everyone for the excellent hospitality.

An official statement from the LOVE management:

On 20th July 2008, at 1810 GMT the new LOVE website was launched.

Due to other commitments Boris Johnson was unavailable to attend.

It has been designed in Powerpoint.

It contains work designed by us over the last seven years.

There is still more work to be done on it.

We hope you like it.

You can turn the sound off if you want to.

If you don’t know who Russell Davies is, you can find out here.

Thank you to everyone who has worked on it.

Statement ends.

The ‘60s – a time of bell-bottoms, tie-dies, unruly body hair and vegetables. At the heart of this revolution was Cranks, who believed a healthy, soul-satisfying diet didn’t have to include meat, mush or stodge. They believed health and taste could go hand in hand. They believed good food could take you to a better place. They were right.

They’ve come a long way in the years since, and their latest development is a refreshing new website, which our digital monkeys have just completed. It’s filled with products, recipes, news, inspiration and information on their restaurant in Devon. So if you’re looking to eat well and feel good, we’d recommend you take a look.