I was looking through some boxes in the loft at the weekend and I found this – one of my first pieces of ‘real’ design work. Even at the age of nine I was very sure I wanted to design things, I think that nine year old boy would be pleased with how things have turned out! – Mat

Visited the Urbis gallery today to visit the UK’s first exhibition to chronicle the rise of Hip-Hop culture in the UK; Homegrown. It was a nice surprise to see a few of our record sleeve designs for Ninja Tune subsidiary Big Dada make the ‘Wall of fame’, nestled in amongst Mercury Award Winner Speech Debelle and UK legends TY, Wiley and Roots Manuva.

On a sadder note the Urbis in Manchester is about to close, to be reborn as a football museum, I was really impressed with this blog entry from blogger, ‘Shrieking Violet’ on the subject.

Read it here

We are all individuals with distinct personalities. So how did so many of our businesses end up looking the same?

We reckon that Brand is one of the most precious commodities you can develop as a business. Brand is what fills the void between what something costs to produce and the figure someone is willing to pay for it – so it’s a no-brainer to have an aspirational brand right because you’ll make more cash?

But are we all growing increasingly cynical when it comes to the promises brands make?

Regardless of the size of the business its brand must be founded on an honest reflection of its core values and the unique abilities and input of every stake holder who makes contact with the customer.

If you get a sec, let us know what good brands you love and why…

…and a few bad brands that you don’t like.

…and maybe even down-right ugly brands who you’ll never use again.

C’mon, time to get it off your chest.

We love print, love it.

We’re also fascinated with the nature of technological advances in the world and how they impact upon how we use print. Since the introduction of e-mail and the concept of the ‘paperless office’, paper usage has massively increased because the rate of information exchange has exploded as well. We have more information at our fingertips so naturally we want to access it -  and the vast majority of us would rather read a paper copy. Who knows how Apple’s new iPad and the new generation of e-readers will further affect the printed word.