Crikey, it was hot yesterday wasn‘t it? It must have been 30C in London. The Underground was unbearable.

While we were trying to navigate ourselves around the Underground, we thought this would make a handy item for this time of year. Anyone know of any paper fan printers?

The smartcode 6 sheet posters for Tate Liverpool's summer exhibition Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today have been printed and should be going up any day now.

The idea behind the campaign is the belief that a modern gallery can do more than just hang pictures on walls and throw open their doors. Audiences can be engaged with the artworks in new and exciting ways.

The campaign uses smartcodes made from cut up colour chart swatches. These codes not only deliver the ambience of the exhibition they also link potential visitors to video clips of the works on show via their mobile phones.

And although the idea has an attachment to paint and painting there is also a connection to the digital artists on show, such as Cory Arcangel and Angela Bulloch.

If you haven't got a smartcode reader already you can download the free i-nigma reader to your mobile.

Go to www.i-nigma.mobi on your mobile. i-nigma will automatically identify your handset type, download and install the i-nigma reader.

iPhone users can download the free NeoReader app from the App Store - it only takes a moment to install.

(We found the NeoReader app works better with datamatrix codes than the Barcode app.)

The video is free to download but standard mobile internet charges may apply.

Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today runs until 13 September 2009. It's a fabulous exhibition for all designer types with an interest in colour be it fashion, graphics or architecture. And oddly enough youngsters would love it too.

Thoughtful thanks to Christoph Grunenberg, Jemima Pyne and Ian Malone at Tate Liverpool for allowing us to film the gallery. Chris Chadwick and Wes Storey for being as helpful as ever behind the camera. And digital darlings Que Pasa who worked with us on delivering the video content using their Mobrool platform. When it comes to delivering a mobile campaign, you'd be hard pressed to find a more creative, flexible and friendly team.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have been invited to the second Innocent AGM.
Like many, it's been a hard year for them losing money for the first time since they
started the business 10 years ago. In difficult times they had to make some difficult
decisions, one of which was to secure and fund expansion (much to some peoples displeasure). However, with this they seemed to have steadied the ship and are now
moving forward.

I had a good day, met some good people and drank some more than more than good
smoothies. I also got to taste some new products they'll be launching later on in the year.

New friends I made were Matt who runs operations over in Paris and Ted who's in
charge of the website. I finally got to meet with Rowena, who did a great job as compare.
Had a good chat with Dan about squeezies, football and life (business and personal).

The main things I took away from yesterdays get together (and 'a book about innocent'
I got from the guys) was never, ever give in, no matter what people tell you. Always
believe in yourself and don't forget those who have helped you along the way, as it's
all about the people.

Richard, Jon, Adam & Rowena telling me the football scores as disappointing as they were!

Bored? definitely not

My new friend

Howies Manchester sample sale ends today at 4pm.

We were on hand to help howies set up for the sample sale this morning.

Then when the doors opened we ran and hid.

(Someone even offered to buy James T-Shirt off him for a fiver.)

Howies are coming to town.

The Manchester sample sale will be held at:
Triangle Shopping Centre (Next Door to Unique Boutique)
Exchange Square
Manchester
M4 3TR

Thursday 2nd - Sunday 5th April

Trading times:

Thursday 2pm – 8pm
Friday 10am – 6pm
Saturday 10am – 6pm
Sunday 11am – 4pm

If you've ever been to the Brick Lane sale you'll know there's loads of great gear to be had at a great price. You'll also know to be there early, too.

 

We're really busy at the moment with the Thoughtful Six project so unless
we win a Black Pencil in the next few months we probably won't be making
any posts.

If you have a moment you can read about the Thoughtful Six project here.

Back soon.

James, Chris & Stuart

The Thoughtful 6 project is finally up and running. We’ve moved our offices into
Stockport College, and it’s all going swimmingly so far.

We’d like to thank Mel Spooner, James Corazzo, Ian Parkin, Gary Spicer and
Keith Alcock from the College for making this happen. And not forgetting our 6 new designers, Amy, John, Lauren, Ed, Carrie and Chris. We’re really looking forward
to seeing how you develop over the next 6 months.

There will be lots of updates on the Thoughtful 6 blog throughout the project, and
we’d love to hear your thoughts as it goes along.

Click here for The Thoughtful 6 blog.

We know we're coming late to the party on this one but it's so good we had to blog it.

Created by Taylor/Thomas, (http://www.taylorthomas.co.uk) Bubblesnaps allows you
to add animated speech bubbles to your pictures. You can upload images from your
desktop or grab them from your Flickr account. Brilliant.

PENCIL: 45 Years of Creativity from the D&AD Annuals opens on Tuesday 20
January at Urbis (with a launch party from 6-8pm), and runs until Sunday 15 March.
If you're interested in attending the launch party, email simon.rousseau@dandad.co.uk

PENCIL is an exhibition of outstanding creative work in design and advertising from
the D&AD Annuals 1963-2008, specially chosen by the D&AD Presidents for each
year over that period.

You can find out more about it here http://www.dandad.org/pencilexhibition

Hello and Merry Christmas - again!

It’s Christmas Day and exactly two years since we set up in business.

There's no denying it, it's been the toughest year of our lives in every respect. And much tougher than year one. We've never worked so hard or travelled so far in all our working lives. We've had days when we can't believe our own luck. And days when the sound of
an email pinging-in sends a shiver down our spines.

But after two years we have a greater understanding of each other and recognise the personal sacrifices we make each make in order to keep Thoughtful moving forward and
a roof over our families heads.

It’s fair to say we spent the first year making lots of mistakes, trying to build relationships
as well as trying to work out how to run a business. This year we got down to doing a bit
of designing.

Last year our Christmas Speech had lots of words, this year there's lots of pictures.

We'll start with our biggest and most favouritest project of the year:

Liverpool Biennial
For ten weeks every two years Liverpool is transformed into the most amazing gallery of new art, showcasing the best contemporary artists from around the world. This year the theme was MADE UP - an exploration of the artistic imagination.

We love the Liverpool Biennial project for lots of reasons: the client was great to work with, the galleries were great to work with and we ended up with a great piece of work - which reflects what a team effort it all was. But above all that it was a project which highlighted what's so great about the business we're in - learning about new stuff.

This was a huge project for us which involved delivering the festival catalogue, advertising, visitor guide, venue dressing and city signage.

We only ever had one approach in mind from the beginning, which involved working with
Mat Maitland at Big Active.

As MADE UP encompasses many different guises, artists and venues, rather than try to boil all this down into a single image, we wanted to take what MADE UP could be in the opposite direction. Which is why we wanted to work with Mat - Mat's unique cut and paste style fitted perfectly with the brief and Liverpool Biennial.

Check out that fit...

The MADE UP theme isn't just in the content but also delivery - 48 sheets and 6 sheets were ‘made up’ from their individual elements. This poster was built up over several days so commuters saw something different each time they went past.

MADE UP 48 Sheet from James Graham on Vimeo.
Filmed by the ever helpful Chris Chadwick.

To make sure things ran smoothly, Thoughtful moved into the Biennial’s office full time to work on the project.

Here’s Paul and Stuart having just signed off the catalogue reader.

And here’s the MADE UP animation projected from FACT.

Fact animation from James Graham on Vimeo.
Animation by digital darlings Bubble.

Mat's illustrations even made the back of a bus look good.

There’s a great piece of advice in Paul Arden's book ‘It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be’. It goes ‘If you want your work to be great don't put it in the hands of other people’ - wise words, indeed - which is why so much of our time this year was spent up ladders, cherry pickers and lamp posts.

Here’s James with his squeegy in Tate Liverpool at 10.30pm.

Here's James with his squeegy out again in FACT.

We need to give a special mention to Mat (piccy below) and Greg at Big Active. They're not just talented guys, they're also passionate, professional and flexible. We were hugely impressed with their desire to keep pushing what MADE UP could be, which was a very difficult task. At the time we didn’t know what shape the artworks or the overall show was going to take. So we looked to reference the artists either by their signature style or by what they had proposed to create for the Biennial.

D&AD membership mailer

One of our first jobs was for D&AD. We were asked by D&AD to produce a membership benefits pack which could be mailed or handed out at events.

Writing by our fifth Beatle, Lindsay Camp.

Even though D&AD were delighted with the results we couldn't resist showing you the idea we really wanted them to go with...it's all in the brief.

We could also show the Membership benefits in Lego too, such as offers on Design Week, Creative Review, Phaidon Books, money off Apple products, exclusive wine, a free copy of the Annual and much more.

SEIZED!

SEIZED! is the national museum of HM Revenue and Customs. Held at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, SEIZED! allows visitors to enter the unseen world of Revenue and Customs and find out about the dangerous world of smuggling. Here’s how we promoted the museum.

Baby image by Nick Veasey.

This video shows how lenticular posters brought the idea to life.
Click here to watch (Quicktime)
Filmed by Chris Chadwick.

Howies Low Impact Advertising - test 1

Howies are smart enough to realise that everything they do, screws something up. There is no perfect clothing company. They want to be honest with themselves and with their customers about that.

What they are doing at howies is trying to find ways to lessen that impact.

So shouldn’t their advertising be low impact, as well? (At least in one sense.)

Here’s Chris preparing the boards for our first Low Impact Advertising test.

Have you spotted the obvious mistake yet? We did, but only once we had stuck all the letters down.

Mwnt beach – South Wales from James Graham on Vimeo.

Mwnt beach – Stu surfing from James Graham on Vimeo.

Making marks in the landscape like this isn’t a new idea, but it is when the medium becomes the message.

Pool Farm

This is Pool Farm in the heart of the Cheshire countryside.

It’s been converted into a number of high-spec offices.

We were asked by Stanian Architects to advertise the project. After a few discussions with the client, we convinced them to go with an idea that avoided printing 1,000 brochures and building an advertising site in the middle of the countryside. 

Opposite the development is the Thelwell viaduct – 60,000 vehicles pass over it every day on their way too, and from Manchester.

These are the exactly the people this development is aimed at.

We did a ‘Channel 4’ and positioned a 20ft inflatable arrow between Pool Farm and the Thelwell Viaduct. So anyone passing would get the illusion of a 120 ft balloon over the development.

Watch our video of the balloon here (Quicktime)

Photography by Mat Wright.

Whilst we were at Pool Farm we stumbled upon something which could help us with the Low Impact Advertising idea...

Click here to watch our video (Quicktime)

Howies Low Impact Advertising - test 2

So here’s how test 2 went with our new device.

Click here to watch our video (Quicktime)

LO'TEL
One project we really liked but never came off was for a environmentally-friendly, low-impact hotel, which we named Lo'tel.

Some non-work related highlights from the year included judging D&AD Global Awards and Student Awards...

Stu judging the Graphic Design category

..visiting Fruit Towers for innocent's first AGM - a truly inspiring bunch of people with equally inspiring offices. Getting tickets for Russell Davies' Interesting 08 - never have we felt so flat-footed in all our lives. Watching the speakers made us realise how quickly our business is changing and how we need to change the way we work and think, or be left behind.

On the down side, we got our arses slapped by another accountant, we got shafted by one client because we never got a purchase order, and whilst delivering some work, James and Stuart were involved in quite a nasty car crash just before Junction 1 on the M6 (not our fault).

Ouch.

But it didn’t stop James ringing around 20 overnight couriers from his hospital bed to make sure the work (in bubble wrap above) was delivered on time.

As far as the year ahead goes, well it's going to be tough for everyone which means we're going to have to tighten our belts a further few notches, so there won't be any champagne lunches or competitions entries again in 09.

But there are plenty of interesting things in the pipeline for us.

We'll be starting the year working with howies on a project called Royaltee, here's a sneak preview...watch how hard the groom hits his wife in the face on 20 seconds.

We'll also be starting the new year by going back to College.

Before you say anything, we know!

Each of us at Thoughtful owes a huge amount to the people who helped us early in our careers. And we intend to repay that debt by doing our bit for the next creative generation. Which is why we're very excited about this next project.

Stockport College has signed a partnership agreement with the BBC, ahead of the corporation’s move to Salford in 2011. The partnership will help to identify new talent, focus on learning and development, build relationships within communities and develop clear pathways into the BBC and the wider industry.

Thoughtful was asked to go into the college for one day a week to help a group of 2nd year graphic design students produce a book on ‘How to get into the creative industries’. The students get a live brief to work on and the BBC get a publication which they mailout - everyone's a winner.

(Currently Stockport College doesn’t give their students the option of a sandwich year. It means their placements have to be done in their holidays - which isn't ideal for the students as the longest placement they can do is around three months. Generally they’ve been struggling to find jobs when they come to leave, as they have little or no agency experience.)

Whilst we all agreed that this was a great idea, one day a week wouldn’t really give them the experience of being in an agency everyday and seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. So we went back to Stockport College with a more Thoughtful proposal...we’d close down our studio, pack up our D&AD annuals and move into the college full time.

So we start our term in January, and have a team of super-keen young designers. We worked with the whole class over a number of weeks to gauge who would be right for the project. It was a tough decision to make as there were lots who could have made it, but in the end we chose these six.

We’ll have an open door policy, so as well as working the book one day a week, any student can drop in and get involved in pitches and presentations. We plan to video and blog the student’s experience from start to finish, and hopefully it’ll become a reference point for other colleges and universities. We don't think anything like this has been done before, so watch this space.

We couldn’t end without mentioning the R-word. We asked our good friend and businessman Peter Williams what advice he had for us for the coming year, and thought we'd share it with you:

"Be in no doubt this is not a blip and ‘it will all be alright shortly’, this is the likes of which I haven't seen in my lifetime, and I've lived through several serious crunches. Travel light, be utterly realistic and you’ll probably live to tell the tale. The other important thing is to be cheerful and upbeat, and don’t panic."

On reflection, there's still quite a lot of words this year so thanks for taking the time read our second Christmas Speech. As always we hope we're around this time next year for a third installment.

Merry Christmas
James, Chris & Stuart

Thoughtful thanks to...Paul, Lewis, Antony, Paul D, Jennifer, Sacha and Sean. Dan, Ceri and Rowena. Matt and Barry. Lindsay. Matt and Greg. Steve B. Claire, David, Scania, Ade, Pete, Emma, Hayley, Aron, Lisa, Anna and Alison. Tamsin and Ruth, Rhiannon, Simon and Garrick. Adrian, Michael and Greg. Dave H. James, Mel and Ian. Sam and Rhiannon. Ian, Jemima and Jennifer. Laura, Andy and James. Margaret, Mike and Liam. Laurence and Phil. Mick. Audrey and Adrian. Jim, Debbie and Sue. Andrew, Maria and Tony. Helen and Leo. Andrew, Alex and Simon. Simon, David and Fraser. Chris Chad. Suzy. Dave, Andy and James. Kev. Dan W. Andy J and Paudie. Mike F. Graham and Robert. Sam C. Joe and Chris. And Ray.

And not forgetting Tracy, Laura and Emma.

Thoughtful thanks to Ian Malone and Dan Walmsley.

Last night was the official closing party for this years Liverpool Biennial. Lewis Biggs took the opportunity to give his thanks to those that made it such a special festival – his team, TATE, FACT, Open Eye Gallery, the Bluecoat, the sponsors who make it all possible and the volunteers who give their time to man the artworks for eight hours at a time in all weathers. We would like to join Lewis in saying that everyone played their part in making it a fantastic 10 weeks.

Last night James and Stuart took part in D&AD's 'How the Hell did that get in (the book)?' night.

Over 140 people packed into a sweaty basement room of the Slaughtered Lamb in EC1 to hear judges past and present talk about the pieces of work their jury selected.

The event was just one thing that has come out of several panel discussions and many meetings D&AD have had over the Summer on what they can do for Graphic Design. Another is cutting this years entry fee.

D&AD President, Garrick Hamm handled the toughest of audiences brilliantly which made it a fun and really positive evening.

(Thoughtful thanks to Ruth and the D&AD team for inviting us down and especially Dion the cameraman who let us film alongside him.)

Here are a few piccys...