Month: December 2014

Say cheese!

Posted on by Paul

Last night we had our lovely gathering of clients, friends and colleagues. It was a great celebration of another year for The Allotment and was an evening of beer tasting and cheese. So, so much cheese!

Thank you to everyone who came along. A special thanks to our Brian and Tom who organised the event and also to Viv, my wife who organised the cheese (I think we will be eating it until 2016!). Also to Mike Feather who took some great pictures – thanks Mike. And finally to all our creative partners – illustrators, writers, photographers who support and inspire us with brilliant words and pictures all year round.

A very, very Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.

Why is design important?

Posted on by Paul

Why is design important?

I suppose because history is about the past and design is about all of our futures. It’s focused on making things better – breaking down barriers. Its about inspiring transformation and progress rather than dogma and blandness.

Tom Peters, who wrote a brilliant book called Re-Imagine, amongst many others, could see the value of design to business . This is what he captured about design in his book:

“Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation.” A quote by Steve Jobs, who knew a thing or two about building a successful business.

“If there was no design there would be nothing to do, and nothing would progress or get better. The world would fall apart.” Anna, aged 11 (Design Council research about the meaning of design).

“Design is not a surface thing or prettying thing.”

“Designers are people who think with their hearts.”

“Design is not about like or dislike. It’s about Passion, Emotion, Attachment.”

“Design is the No.1 DETERMINANT of whether a product-service-experience stands out or not.”

Top 5 in UK for branding

Posted on by allotmentuser

Design Week have recently released their renowned annual Creative Survey to the public, with creative agencies, and the industry as a whole looking on anxiously to see who made the top 50. Being just 4 years old, making the survey alone is a great achievement, however we’re delighted to announce that in the overall top 50 agencies in the UK, The Allotment came in joint 28th alongside global advertising agency, BBH.

What’s more, in the branding category, we came joint 5th in the UK.