A blog from your favourite London Copywriter has had some Big Hello magic and now refreshed. Built on the free blogging platform Wordpress.

Plastic bags are evil! We all know it, we just have to stop making them, using them and remember to take a couple of bags with us when we go shopping. Now its even easier with this little creation I came across a while back. The Flip and Tumble bag packs down into a tiny ball using it’s own built-in pocket which makes it easy to pop into your coat, handbag or backpack.

I ordered three bags from the online shop and have been using them on a regular basis over the last few weeks. They hold more than the average carrier bag and often get a “that’s a good idea” comment – we both throughly recommend them. They come in several colours, cost $12 (plus delivery) and you can order them here.

UPDATE:
You can now buy these beauties direct from a UK distributor. BAGSY IT
That will save a few pennies and save the planet some more.

Now wheres the fun in that! Get your toast just how you like it thanks to double insulated glass. Made by Magimix and available at John Lewis for £160. Full article at Telegraph

Abigail Uhteg from Presse Janvier presents her video of an epic book printing project she completed over two months at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY. See 35 hand-bound books come together in wonderful stop motion.

If you’re curious about the printing and binding processes you see in the video, read the start-to-finish details on Abigail’s website.

Very much respect. NOW, I have a press, I have two months free, now if I can just get that past my wife.
(via Veer)

2009 was a year I’ll never forget.
I married, honeymoon’d, moved to the south coast and even bought a Volvo estate. And I already know that 2010 will be another record breaking year for me.

Wishing all my readers a happy and prosperous year ahead. I am looking for bigger and more challenging projects in 2010 and am available now! So if you are (or know of someone) looking for a creative with a decade of experience please do me the favour and pass my details on.

People just can’t get enough of re-creating this image.

First in a Coffee makeover recently in Sydney, Australia, when eight people recreated her image using 3,604 cups of coffee and 564 pints of milk as part of an Aussie coffee festival.

And this one made out of motherboards! It decorates the headquarters of the computer maker Asus in Taipe.

Directed by artist Natalia Ponomareva from Russia, here is an amazing project with packaging of tea bags produced under the principles of origami. The bird forms and unfolds gradually while the tea infuses.

I was watching the excellent series “Art Deco Icons” at the weekend. This week they followed the history of Transport for London. Visiting the wonderful 1930s headquaters at 55 Broadway – now the underground station for St.James Park. (You can catch it again on iPlayer before 18th Nov)

David Heathcote tours us around the above building and briefly pauses under a framed Underground map which was drawn before the rebrand of Transport for London. Its a sprawling mess of a poster but certainly depicts how London was rapidly increasing in size, with the center of London still being within easy commuting distance from outer London suburbs.

This poster (below) prompted me to do some digging and write this post.

The re-brand of Transport for London and the ‘tube’ logo is one of the finest examples of graphic communication ever produced. In fact I never even thought about the “rectangular carriage” going down the “circle of the tube” until watching the above show.

I’m sure most people reading this blog will know the famous re-draw of the London Underground map was produced by a 29-year old draughtsmans by the name of Harry Beck. There’s been a few reiterations over the last 75+ years but in essence it’s still as clear and concise to this day as it was when first introduced. Now being used by millions of underground travellers every day – at least once the traveller realizes the Thames does not in fact flow at right angles, sometimes walking is actually quicker than going underground and the map is purely a graphic representation and not geographically accurate!

From a designers point of view, the other great thing about the rebrand of Transport for London was the typeface used. “Johnston” created in 1916 by Edward Johnston was the typeface of choice for Mr Beck and to this day is still being used for all signage, livery and marketing communications.

You’d be forgiven if you mistook it for Eric Gill’s typeface “Gill Sans” which was designed between 1927-1930, roughly ten years after Johnston was publicly released. Edward Johnston, a teacher at Central School of Arts and Crafts at the time, remarked on seeing Gill’s work “I was caught unprepared. I did not know such beauties could exist”. A super quote for one of the most influential type designers/sculptors/stone cutters/print designers of the 20th Century.

It’s an iconic tale and a perfect example of a company rebrand that has stood the test of time and been adored by millions.

Found via Mike’s excellent blog

Recommended 6 minutes

Full interview – 45 minutes

How uttley fantastic are these cookies!

Anyone know who created them – so I can credit the pastry chef?

We wandered down to Tate Modern today for a stroll in the latest exhibition – a dark lightless 13m high chamber by Polish artist Miroslaw Balka. Ascend the ramp and continue walking into the endless darkness (before bumping into the felt covered walls). You’re provided with a slightly odd, disorienting experience. As your eyes acclimatise and you exit the chamber you leave thankful not to have awkwardly bumped into another visitor.

Go experience it for yourself (in the evening) between 13 Oct 2009 – 5 Apr 2010

Designers Toolbox has a useful set of iPhone Interface elements for you to design your application with.

Download the PSD now

One of these has got my name all over it.

This morning my new MacBook Pro was working it’s daily duties. A lunchtime later and the hard drive was not booting. It’s completely dead and I’ve lost everything on the drive! Thankfully I was working off a server in the morning and the last time I backed up was yesterday.

So, ask yourself how much bother it would cause if suddenly your Mac or PC hard drive suddenly stopped working? If the answer is lots – then you’re not backing up correctly.

I’ve been using the wonderful ChronoSync for a few years now and it’s got me out of quite a few jams – including todays. Think of it as a iSync for huge amounts of data, you specify the folders you want to synchronise and ChronoSync simply keeps the latest files from each folder. You can even specify older or deleted files to be archived for extra safety. My daily backup consists of syncing 65GB of data in 3 minutes.

For just £25 it’s worth every penny. ChronoSync

Freehand Icon to match your new CS4 range of apps. Download here

BUG #5
If you’ve freshly installed Apple Snow Leopard (10.6) and Freehand won’t even open – then this will help you. The new OS can’t handle the older Activation/Registration panel Freehand uses on first launch.

Therefore you need to copy over your Registration file from an older Leopard machine.

1) Open Freehand on Leopard (OS 10.5)
2) Goto > Help > Transfer my licence – Agree
3) Open Freehand again > Activate – And Quit
4) Copy your registration file from /Library/Application Support/Macromedia/ into the equivalent Snow Leopard folder. Open Freehand on Snow Leopard.

If the above doesnt work for you – you’ll need a Volume Licence Serial. (This is not the preferred solution but Adobe has left the Freehand user no option if they do not issue maintenance updates to Freehand)

1) Download this ZIP
2) Copy the registration file to /Library/Application Support/Macromedia/ in Snow Leopard. Open Freehand.

Snow Leopard arrived yesterday. I’ve installed this on my spare MacBook for testing purposes and thankfully not yet on my work MacBook. With some further twitter research, it appears I’m not alone. Adobe is actively working with Apple to fix the below bugs – but if I were you, hold off updating for the moment.

BUG #1
Firefox 3.x crashes when using it’s download manager. specifically Adobe’s Software updates.
Solution – Use Safari until an update from Apple

BUG #2
New Apple font ‘Menlo’ crashes CS4 when you attempt to use it.
Solution – Delete this font

BUG #3
Unable to drag images from Safari directly into another application in the Dock. Be it Photoshop, Word or other.
Solution – Wait for update from Apple

BUG #4
CS4 Photoshop crashes particularly during Open and Save operations. CS3 also crashes if you try opening CS4 created files.
Solution – Wait for Apple update.