Dandy

Currently thumbing through a beautiful book called ‘Shutting UP Shop’ capturing some of the last remaining, truly independent specialist shops in Britain.

For a so called ‘Nation of Shopkeepers’ we’ve become somewhat ubiquitous on the High Street, gone is all the charm, knowledge and quirky ‘Englishness’ depicted here.

I’m sure when these shops started they had never even heard of the word ‘brand’, but they all exude it in abundance, in all the right ways - from the shopkeeper to the way they stack the shelves.

Sometime we can learn a lot from looking back, go take a look.

Recieved a lovely little Christmas package from our talented friends at Jack Design this week, beautiful tiny Christmas tree and baubles, c/o ‘The Little Christmas Tree Company’, top idea.

I’ll certainly be planting mine come the new year and hoping for signs of ‘green shoots’, something we’re all hoping for in 2011.

Do enjoy the yearly ‘Tricky Christmas Card brief’, decided to go for some hand printed cards, that personal touch! Found a lovely little letterpress wood block on Ebay, and many, many hand prints and doodles later, this is the result, hope you like…

I’m afraid I’m a bit of a sucker for quality clothes, and it’s great to see craft and artisanship making a real come back in the High Street, I even noticed Topman had linked up with Harris Tweed to produce a range of garments, a great example of how a big brand can help a small community and craft continue to thrive.

Top of my list of people that exemplify this are the talented guys at Albam, originally emanating from Nottingham and now trading throughout London, they have a passion for producing items in the right way, using locally sourced proven suppliers and, of special interest to me, are really promoting this as part of their philosophy and brand culture - good on you boys.

To convey this approach, they’ve published a lovely limited edition book titled ‘Factories’, a collaboration with photographer John Spinks, capturing the beauty and the mundane in the production factories Albam use across the East Midlands and beyond. Great stuff, and an excellent way to embellish their brand values. Grab a copy while you can!

We just produced a new little booklet of some of the work we’ve created over the last year or two. Something to give potential clients, fellow creatives and anyone who’s interested, a taste of what we’re all about.

If you’d like a copy or have anything else you’d like to know about Dandy, just drop us a line.