A year ago today, we decided to make a commitment to a company who we love. We told them that we would send them an idea or thought which we hoped would push their business on, just a little bit further. But not just one idea every so often - we decided to challenge ourselves and send a new ‘thought’ every day for a year.

It didn't matter if we were busy doing other things, or if we found it hard to get access to a Mac, or even if they were just too busy to read it - the idea would get sent, no matter what. They got one on Christmas Day, every bank holiday, and sometimes even two in a day if we were feeling particularly inspired. The company who has been receiving our ideas is howies, an ethical clothing company based in Cardigan Bay, Wales.

Before we started TFTD, we had some contact with howies. They liked what we were about, and we liked the way their company was about more than just selling clothes - they want to make people think, as well as buy. So we wanted to find a way to put put ourselves at the front of their minds every day. It would have been easy to give them a Thoughtful-branded mouse mat, or Post-It notes with our faces on, but thats not us, and its certainly not them. howies are into ideas, and they’re always looking for ways to do things better. TFTD seemed like a great way to get on their level.

The first few weeks were great, we had loads, but soon enough, what we thought was a relatively easy task started to get a bit more difficult and forced us to think harder...much harder. Our first ideas were written down in advance, meaning we could come in each day and just copy-and-paste each new idea into an email. But the lists dried up quicker than a slug taking a salt bath. So everyday (from about four weeks onwards), we would all sit down in the morning and discuss what was going on in the world and how howies fit into that world - it was tough, but we enjoyed every minute.

We don’t mind admitting some of the ideas were a bit rubbish and off the mark, but some were OK, and some were just so brilliant, we couldn’t believe David knocked them back!

OK, we’ve given away our ideas for free, and we’ve spent a huge amount of time thinking about them. But in return, we’ve learnt so much about new subjects, people and technologies which we would never have, which we feel is an essential part of being a designer. And it got us much closer to a bunch of people we greatly admire.

We make a point of trying to push ourselves everyday, regardless of budgets, timings or distance - which is why we seek out companies like howies. We believe we’re good for each other.

We dont mind if others out there take on the TFTD idea for their clients, though like we said, it isn’t easy, but it’s definitely worth it. Here’s why.

Thanks to our past placements, Steven, Hugh and Sarah who have also given their ideas.

An idea we had for a poster, if Audi ever came a knockin’. It’d be specifically aimed at creatives.

And if we were designing envelopes, we’d have to borrow a few Citroens.

Back in July, howies launched a T-shirt design competition in preparation for the opening of their new T-shirt print shop. The winning design would end up on a howies T, and be sold on their site. Thoughtful love a good competition, and we’ve never done T-shirts before, so we spent a sunny afternoon thinking of a few.

We had loads of ideas for the T, and we couldn’t decide on a final one to enter, so we put them all in.

Unfortunately, ours didn’t make the grade but you can see our rough ideas here modelled by Doh Boy.

Well done to the winner, Clive, you can buy his nice design here.

A thought which made us wonder: Should the Design Week awards
lightbulb be changed to a more energy efficient one?

I saw that new ad for Barclaycard last night – the one with the two guys from Green Wing, at a vineyard.

Seeing the grapes hanging in a bunch made me think they could make the natural shapes of the countries in which they’re grown.

So, this morning I had a go.

If there’s anyone out there who can take this further, feel free.

Stuart.

The Serif are running another good Redesigner brief again. This time it’s to design a badge for the Serif. We’ve had these lying in the bottom drawer for a while and thought they’d be perfect. We did four because we felt they belonged in a sett.

And no, we don’t condone bullfighting.

Have you heard of the Global Ideas Bank? If not, we'd highly recommend taking a look. The GIB aims to promote creative ideas to solve problems in society. It’s a kind of think-tank that anyone can take part in. You submit ideas to the GIB, outlining the social problem, and then giving your solution. Other subscribers can then vote on the feasibility, originality and humour of your idea.

Last year, we submitted an idea in response to the Live 8 concerts. It scored Feasibility 50% Originality 40% Humour 13%.

The Problem:
Donating more money to developing nations.

The Social Invention:
Organise a Live Aid tribute event, with the very best tribute bands and artists. The event could travel to different cities throughout the year and be held in huge venues. Interest from the public be would high due to the fact there would be acts playing that people will never get to see again eg. The Beatles, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix etc. And because the event would be staged in large venues, it would be almost impossible to tell the difference between the tribute act and the real thing (unless you’re in the front row). The money from ticket sales would be donated to developing nations.

Bon Jovi or By Jovi?

It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s Big Brother season, and another three months of boys and girls desperate for their 15 minutes. We’ve made a pact this year not to get involved, although last years pact failed miserably. It’s got us thinking a bit though about how much we’re all watched on camera, in our daily lives without knowing it. Various pages on the internet will tell you the average Londoner is caught on CCTV 300 times a day. That’s incredible isn’t it? In one month you could be on someones video 9,300 times. And that figure is sure to rise. A lot of towns and cities have webcams now so you can be the one doing the watching.

And here’s Chris and Laura being watched in Liverpool via the Mathews Street webcam.

The amazing Google Earth program is already starting to evolve into live feeds too, so no-one will be safe. We had an idea though, that could exploit this voyeuristic madness. And it involves the Economist. It’s worth pointing out that Thoughtful have no association the Economist, but we thought our idea would work best for them. We see it as a natural progression from the bus top ads they’ve ran in the past.

Anyway, here it is. The copyline is a bit like one they’ve done already, we just wanted to illustrate the point.

We think when Google Earth develops the technology to regularly update or stream footage live, there’ll be a lot of people on rooftops with paintbrushes.

At Thoughtful, we like to use a little less whenever we can.

We often send out short letters printed on the inside of an envelope, which got us thinking...

Here’s an idea we had a while back that’s still stuck in our bottom drawer. It’s pretty simple really, the photographer takes shots of stationery pieces that then become the stationery. Like this...

If there are any photographers out there that would like to bring our idea to life, feel free to use it.

Swatch have opened a new shop in town, which gave us an idea for a catalogue.