UPDATE: You Mug

Bordering on genius...


A simple solution to an age old problem, I really hope it functions as well as these pictures suggest. I believe the designers name is Jonathan Aspinall, but I haven't been able to find a site for him or any information on production / purchase.


via core77

UPDATE - link for Jonathan Aspinall's home page, many thanks to CTH for helping track him down.

Rodney

Had a bit of sleepless night and found myself in front of YouTube very early this morning watching this..


Now I'm not really into skate boarding and freely admit to knowing very little about it, but I have always admired Rodney Mullen and this 'best of' clip shows why. He just seems to do things differently from everyone else, each trick leaves you trying to work out what happenend and some of the slow motion stuff blows your mind.

Well worth watching all the way through.

A bit of Ibizia comes to Clerkenwell

Not content with bringing back some rather wonderful biscuits Guy C has been recreating his Ibizian voyage with the help of Radio Sonica.


Apparently they provided the soundtrack to his holiday and thanks to 24 hour streaming via itunes they have been providing uplifting moments to one and all at Flourish HQ.


A pleasing mix of all things baleric with an anything goes playlist and a distinct lack of spoken content makes the station very listenable. The site also has some on the money mixes available for download.

Tune in here

Biscuits of the World Part 6

Well Guy C outdid himself this time, after his two week sojurn on the white island he returned to Flourish HQ armed with these little babies...


A fine selction of all things almond (which seems to be a bit of a running theme in Spanish confectionary - see earlier BOTW posts). My personal favourite was the long tube type thing - a great dunker that remains crispy even after a good soaking in coffee.


The packaging wasn't quite as beautiful as other offerings in the series but boy did they taste good.

What I did on my Holidays

Well mostly I ate and drank and slept and eat and swam and read and ate again.


I'm a big fan of eating and as such a pilgrimage to San Sebastian has been on the cards for a year or two. Home to the highest density of Michelin stars per head of population and (more importantly) the heartland of Pinchos - the Basque equivalent of Tapas - San Sebastian is a wonderful place to pass a few days thanks to it's beach (right in the heart of the town) and general laid back vibe.


We star hunted at lunch (Arzark and Martin Berasategui) and went Pinchos crawling at night. Popping into a bar, eating a plate or two of what looked good before moving off and repeating the process many times over proved a remarkably enjoyable way to pass a good few hours and try a vast array of seasonal, local food.


We also found time to get on the Frank Gehry tourist trail with a visit to his remarkable vineyard hotel in Rioja (a triumph of exterior style over interior practicalities) and the inevitable trek around the Guggenheim in Bilbao (a triumph of exterior style over interior practicalities).

A wonderful relaxing break and my longest sojourn from Flourish since we started.

Now it's back to work with a vengance.

Zipping Up My Boots...

Well I'm heading home after a few days working in Dubai. It's been a great experience, I've met some interesting people, made progress on a very exciting project and enjoyed myself of an evening.


It's fascinating trying to get your head around a totally different market, you can't make any assumptions based on your own experience - this has the extremely positive effect of making you question every stage of an idea, checking it works in this environment, making sure it's viable and relating it back to the customer's situation. Of course it should work like that on any project, but without being able to take anything for granted it really makes you work hard for a solution.


The city itself is changing at such a rate, the amount of development is truly mindblowing, the maps have vast areas marked as UC (under construction) the scale and ambition of the projects is awe inspiring - creeks are dug, miles of new coastline created, mountains built, beaches cooled - whatever it takes to get the desired result. I found this attitude began to affect my thinking - it grew bigger in ambition and less rooted in practicality, you truly begin to believe that anything is possible. and that's a really healthy mindset with which to come up with big ideas.

I look forward to coming back one day soon.

A Stroll Down Green Lane

We've spent a considerable amount of time over the last couple of months working for the lovely people over at Live.


They asked us to help with the creative elements of the launch of EDF Energy's partnership with London 2012. The EDF group are using their support of the games to try and persuade customers to reduce their carbon usage by 15% by 2012. They are promoting this remarkable commitment through a campaign called Green Lane.

To celebrate Live built a "Green Lane" (from recyclable materials and with a zero carbon footprint) in Greenwhich Park. It provided a stunning backdrop for the announcement as well as an opportunity for the company to demonstrate the vast array of technology they are developing to help meet the challenge.

You can get involved here