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Like thousands of other people, we took part in The Big Plastic Count recently and have just been sent the results.* This is an edited version from the organisers.

• Almost 250,000 people took part and together they counted a shocking 6.4 million pieces of plastic.
• On average each household threw away 66 pieces of plastic packaging, which is 3,432 pieces over a year.
• Applied to the UK as a whole, UK households throw away an unbelievable 1.85 billion pieces of plastic a week or 96.6 billion pieces of plastic a year.

These numbers are shocking – and they don’t even include the plastic waste from offices, shops and industry!  With plastic production set to double over the next 20 years, the government needs to take urgent action to stem the flow of plastic waste. 

*Source: Greenpeace 2022 

Our take on this is relying on government to make changes with legislation will only happen very slowly and even then, might not be very effective. 

We as consumers must use less plastic by finding alternative packaging options to the food, drink and household items we buy. 

Just a small shift in consumer habits could make a huge difference. For example, based on the Greenpeace numbers if people on average used just 5 less items of plastic per week that would work out at 7.24 billion less pieces of plastic a year.  Still a very long way to go but it would be a start. 

Small change, big difference.

Congratulations to all the winners and the designers that were short listed in this year’s Design Week Awards. Some excellent work! Take a look

We’re all doing our bit to recycle, but plastic waste is still everywhere. Something doesn’t add up… and we need your help to prove it.

We have joined The Big Plastic Count to help push the government, brands and supermarkets to take bold action to tackle the plastic crisis.

More details on the link below.

11,000 tonnes of electronic waste is created by old and unused chargers every year. Congratulations to London-based design studio Blond for trying to do something about it through innovative design. 

London-based design studio Blond has revealed a folding charger concept, which aims to address the growing problem of electronic waste in the tech industry. 

People could repair and upgrade the multi-purpose charger, named Fold, instead of simply throwing it away when it became useless. 

More details can be found at Designweek

We recently went to the Confex exhibition at the Excel in London with the view to meeting some new suppliers. I had some interesting conversations and with three in particular who agreed they would contact me after the show as I had some live enquires.  

Of these one did and gave me some costs as agreed. The other two have yet to make contact in just over two weeks. 

My point is why is this?

As we all know exhibitions cost a great deal of money considering the space itself, design, stand build, logistics and staff time. Why bother to spend all this money, time and effort to generate enquiries and not follow up especially where someone has shown some genuine interest? 

As a customer of Hermes, the parcel delivery company we were made aware on Friday that they were in the process of changing their name to Evri and relaunching the brand.  

In a company statement they said, ” It is more than just a name change – it is a statement of intent of our commitment to leading the way in creating responsible delivery experiences for ‘Evri one’, ‘Evri where’

Part of this change it must be said is in part get away from their perceived level of bad service and the idea is that this will give everything a fresh start. 

They have stepped away just updating the somewhat tired Hermes identity and gone for a completely different name and look. This is brave but also can be a risk as history shows. One of the most well-known of course is when Royal Mail changed its name to Consignia and sixteen months later and changed it back. Customers were quite clear; they just didn’t like it. 

Evri have already been some strong opinions voiced on social media, more about their level of service rather than the new look.

The designers for the Evri brand have come up with a distinctive look and feel using interesting very playful typography which has been carried through to some of the initial executions. Not sure how this will work longer term before running out of treatments. Visually I have to say I quite like it and it’s a bit of grower but never been a fan of taking elements of a logo and using them as some sort of a theme.

It will be interesting to see how it will be received. Mind you design can only do so much, it’s the customer service that will count in the end. 

We are an event and design agency based in Windsor and work with some of the UK’s leading brands including Virgin Media O2 and Co-op.

We are looking to build our studio team and require an experienced creative artworker, starting immediately.

You will need at least 2 years commercial experience and be expert across InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Knowledge of website design and build and any 3D programs such as Sketchup would be an advantage. You must have experience with working within brand guidelines and attention to detail is vital.

Working within a small team you will be asked to work independently and with initiative and you will be required to work closely with our key print and production partners.

Salary £28,000 per year.

Please send your latest CV to Antony Crafford,  [email protected]

O2 is the only major mobile network that isn’t bringing back EU roaming charges and they asked us to help spread the good news by covering the front of their building. Thankfully our installers aren’t scared of heights. 

When it comes to marketing a property that covers a large area, capturing the scale and extent of the site is often difficult using conventional photography. However, the use of drone photography gives you flexibility to provide a bird’s eye view from every angle and show all the details required. 

The overlaying of graphics and captions really brings it to life and puts it in context with the surrounding area which helps the selling process. 

A good example of this is the work we have just completed for Avison Young on behalf of Sainsbury’s for a site in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.  Take a look here

In the case of an emergency 

Following a series of tragic events in 2017 including the Manchester Arena bombings and the Grenfell fire, the Charity Commission for England and Wales recommended a new approach to national emergencies.  

Sector experts and emergency survivors came together to conceive the National Emergencies Trust, an independent charity dedicated to responding to UK disasters.  The Trust was launched in November 2019 by its Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Cambridge.

Whilst the charity did fantastic work, it was felt that they needed a much stronger identity in order to create better awareness and instil trust and belief in their audience, especially potential donors.

Original branding focused on the shortened name of NET, which didn’t capitalise on the required awareness, so through our branding consultancy Designroom we were asked to develop a new identity that would give the charity the clarity and stand out they required.

We brought National Emergencies Trust to the front and centre of the new identity using a bold typeface, set in caps to create real presence.  To support this, we introduced a chevron device to graphically symbolise emergency.  It was important to ensure the right balance between name and graphic to enable reproduction at all sizes.

For continuity and to keep an association with existing collateral, we opted to keep the original colour palette therefore enabling the charity to reduce changeout costs where not necessary.