THE BLOG

31
Aug

futurefwd

22
Aug

The Revolution Is Here

Hi folks and welcome to another weekly blog by the Loft. It has been a busy week here, inside and out. With lots of networking this week but even more excitingly, lots of further evidence that the digital revolution is gaining momentum and the hope that proper design and branding shall become more important than ever before. There has never been a more appropriate time to engage in real design and we’ll explain why…

The Revolution is here, time to adapt…

Well actually it has been here for a quite a long time, ever since the inception of the ‘world wide web’ by British scientist Sir Tim” Berners-Lee in the early 1990’s. We have seen the way we live our lives transformed. Everything from the way we make our daily purchases, consume information, listen to music and more recently, in the way we engage with others. The internet has changed everything. It may not have changed us on its own, but its descendants – smart phones, e-mail, facebook, you-tube, twitter, amazon, Google etc almost certainly have. Suddenly we have access to an endless array of information and media. And we have never been more able to shape our own lives based on our own preferences, morals and beliefs. The 21st century citizen can watch their favourite music on youtube, learn about their favourite sportspeople on Wikipedia and talk to their best friends on the other side of the planet immediately. No barriers or restrictions. In the most part, we are the empowered generation. However, this has created other problems (or opportunities, depending on what kind of company you are?) As consumer behaviours have completely altered. The problem with having so much information at our fingertips is that we each have thousands more choices to make on a daily basis and less time to make them. We are much likely to stick with those that we trust, those with shared values and those that we resonate with.

And this is where the importance of brand-being comes in. What is brand-being? Well brand-being is what brand identity should be, but where it so regularly fails. Brands that have good marketing and communication to mask ordinary products/services have good brand identities but dont neccessarily stand for anything. Companies with great brand-beings inact their culture, their values and their raison d’etre at every opportunity. These companies actually stand for something, deep down to their core, they are about more than making money. Of course, every company wants to make money. But great companies, great brands do it in a way that inspires their customers, their staff, their suppliers. It comes down to the why, what and how. Companies may be great at finding out how to do things, and they all know what they do, but how many companies know why they do something? Right from those engaged at the top? And if those at the top dont know, how about those further down the line? Think of all the great companies, organisations and movements. They have a sense of purpose greater than making money. They all know WHY they get out of bed in the morning.

Why is this so important now? Well today’s empowered yet busy consumer is much more likely to make purchases based on emotions and beliefs over rational facts. They buy phones from Apple, a computer company WHY? Because they make objects that challenge the status quo. This would be as true of cars or washing machines as it would be phones. Would they buy a phone from DELL, also a computer company? Exactly, most people wouldn’t. DELL just does not have as strong a sense of purpose as Apple. The great brands also have people queuing up to work for them… Everybody from the person in the boardroom to the person that sweeps the floor knows, understands and, most importantly, contributes to the success of that company or movement. However, this means that everything that a company like Apple does, every product, every campaign, every presentation must be true to its values. Or it loses its sense of purpose, its strength of brand and its commanding position. But in the end, most consumers now have the luxury to buy almost solely based on emotions.

This is where brand-being comes in. it is no longer satisfactory to give your brand a sharp, insincere or snappy ad-campaign and force feed it to your consumers. Most of them just aren’t listening or are un-engaged. The attitude of today’s consumers is one of blind ignorance to hard selling, of which traditional TV/newspaper advertising is one form. Nobody wants to be force-fed anything anymore. How many people look at flyers, read e-newsletters or junk mail? However, if something is cool, interesting or remarkable, it can spread through social media channels in minutes and then onto mainstream forms of media. It was the impact of Susan Boyle on Youtube that made her a global star, not the initial TV appearance. This is how today’s marketing works, but the big proviso is that you better be doing something cool, interesting and inspiring in the first place. We have moved from a push system with people forcing information onto us into a fetch system where we engage with the things we like and interest us, fetching our information accordingly, but on our terms. In the end we shall do business with the brands that we believe share common values and beliefs.


Finally, authenticity has never been more important. The fact that Ferrari has been racing F1 cars for over 60 years, give them a certain validity and strength of brand, in selling road cars. People will pay a premium for buying into that history, which is absolutely priceless. For those that work for companies that don’t really stand for anything, it is time to be worried. There is nothing more dangerous than playing it safe. If Nokia, which was technically a great company in some ways, can find itself in trouble in today’s landscape, then any-one can. And ever more dangerous is those companies that are guilty of deceiving, masquerading and suppressing its customer base. Not mentioning any names… News International. The internet and social media in particular leave absolutely no hiding place.

Why is this good for design? Well generally, companies are more likely to willingly engage the skills of the impassioned few, the innovators and the creatives to try and stamp out some form of identity in today’s climate. This can only be good for design.

The majority of the information which formed this post came from some videos on the TED website. You can check out the full presentations below and I would sincerely recommend them as a useful guide in understanding today’s landscape.

The Pitch

On Thursday afternoon, after the obligatory and always-excellent Business Banter in the morning. It gave me great pleasure to jump on the train and make a rare visit to Edinburgh for the annual pitch 2011 at the beautiful Signet Library just off Parliament Square. It was an outstanding event with 5 young companies all pitching live to 3 investors for investment to grow their companies. Each gave very professional pitches that excellently showed off the strong enterprise culture we do have here in Scotland. Congratulations to Kibosh Limited who gave a fantastic presentation of their wonderful product. The emergency pipe repair. You can check them out on… http://www.kiboshpiperepair.com/fitting.php The event was wonderfully organised by Bristol company, Sift Media who did themselves proud and can also be found on twitter @siftmedia

Spark Branding


One of the highlights of the trip was the opportunity to finally see Jennifer Holloway of Spark Branding speak about personal branding. Of course, personal branding is every bit as important as company branding and it was great to see how many of the principles remain true for both. Indeed some of what we spoke about earlier about companies having values, cultures and ethics etc are every bit as important for personal brands as they are for companies. Indeed, in this the internet age, the old adage ‘people buy from people’ has never been more true and important. And like company branding, people are every bit as likely to buy into your values and beliefs as they are your skills and image. Jennifer gave a very engaging presentation with lots of audience interaction. On the basis of her presentation, we could not recommend Jennifer Holloway highly enough. You can find her on Twitter @SparkBranding

Thrive Networking

It was great to finally return to Thrive Networking this Wednesday morning. The event was expertly hosted by Ola Lopatowska and was held at the stunning Langley Suite at the beautiful Corinthian Club. The event itself was reasonably enjoyable and it was nice to meet so many new people. You can find Thrive Networking on Twitter @Thrive4Business
And the Corinthian club @CorinthianClub

Downtown Philly

And finally it is bizarre to see the centre of Glasgow being transformed into downtown Philadelphia for a film-set, but there you go. It’s great to have Brad Pitt here in the city in what I am sure will be a great film. Check out our old home, George House, transformed into the ‘United States Courthouse.’ Whatever next??

Have a great week folks…

Benedetto Bordone

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14
Aug

What We Do

Hi folks, welcome to the Loft’s weekly news. This week we shall briefly discuss the progress of our Social Media Event ‘Future Forward.’ But primarily we would like to use this week’s blog to put the loft into the spotlight and show off some of the projects we have been working on in the last 3-6 months. We hope you enjoy…

Loft In Spotlight…

We are almost into the fifth month of writing these weekly news blogs, so we thought we’d take this chance to show the level of visual quality and versatility of our own work. As can be seen from below, we define a clear message with every piece of work and genuinely treat no two projects the same. There will be some in-depth design stories to come in the following months but in the meantime. We hope you enjoy looking at our work…

Freak Dem

‘FreakDem = Fashion + Meaning’ This is the message on Freak Dem’s Twitter account, it kinds of says it all… We were approached by Freak Dem to design a ‘crest-style’ logo. After some attempts to design a traditional crest based logo. We opted for something much more radical. The logo is based on the spread of positive energy which is derived from the ‘sun’ based centre which spreads to create a phoenix acting as a symbol of hope. The logo is deliberately very symbolic and will complement the Freak Dem website due out later this year… You can follow Freak Dem on Twitter @ChiqueFreakDem

The Team

The Team is the personal training company. We were approached by Nadia of the Team to design a brand identity and corresponding poster/flyer for one of the Team’s new fitness classes. ‘Wonder Weightloss.’ We took the idea of a lady using some of the various exercises you can expect at the ‘Wonder Weightloss’ class with the parallel image of her slimming down as the concept. We then produced the various posters/flyers to support the artwork. We shall be unveiling the Team’s new website in the forthcoming month, you can follow Nadia @thedemarco

Get Giggin

One of our most recent projects, We were approached to design a logo and poster for new company ‘Get Giggin.’ They are a web-based company that shall assist young bands and venues co-ordinate their activities to produce the only place to know where to find local, unsigned bands. It promises to be a great business. They kindly allowed us to present these pieces of work, despite not having all of their details finalised on the posters, just in case you cannot find the details online. However, we are immensely proud of the grungy logo and poster designs.

PSYBT

At the Loft, we made a decision last year to donate design work to a charity on an ongoing basis. One of the charities we have worked closest with has been PSYBT who we have assisted in creating a sub-brand ‘Elevator’ for their excellent bi-monthly networking event. We have also designed the twitter account for their Glasgow branch and we shall be assisting them with their new e-newsletter system soon… You can follow PSYBT @PSYBT_GLASGOW

Making Trax

Making Trax are a great new company that takes school kids on sports tours all around the world. We were approached to design the branding and website. We created a dynamic logo that has actual ‘tracks’ at the heart of its identity. For the website, we wanted to instil a travelling theme and made use of a range of images to support this… You can follow Making Trax @MakingTraxLtd

Aillum Marketing

One of our clients and co-collaborators. Aillum Marketing are one of Glasgow’s finest online marketing companies. A couple of months ago, we began co-developing a range of new services as part of our ‘Violence of The New’ projects. These new services included amongst other things a mobile site and facebook customisation where Aillum would provide development assistance to complement the Loft’s design skills. The following images show the results of our design work which have almost been fully realised… You can follow Aillum Marketing @aillum

Renfrewshire Pubs

One of Aillum’s own projects is the pubs website ‘Renfrewshire Pubs.’ We were approached by Aillum to design a logo for Renfrewshire Pubs and also to freshen up the design of their website. You can check out Renfrewshire Pubs at http://www.renfrewshirepubs.co.uk/

Thierrys Blog

One of our most enjoyable projects recently has been to re-design the blog for wine supplier Thierry’s of Hampshire. Thierry’s take their blog very seriously with wine expert Pieter Rosenthal posting regular updates almost daily. We shifted the blog onto a WordPress platform and it played a significant part of the London International Wine Fair, which Thierry’s and Pieter were generous contributors. You can follow Thierry’s on Twitter @thierryswine Or follow Pieter Rosenthal @pieterrosenthal

Coffeze

One really interesting project recently has been to design the website for Coffeze. Scotland’s first coffee drive-thru. The site will go live very soon at www.coffeze.com Or you can follow them on twitter @coffeze

Aperture Marketing

We were delighted to finally work with Brian Canavan and Aperture Marketing a couple of months ago, when asked to design two banners and post-card for Aperture Marketing’s stand at the Edinburgh B2B show. We wanted to get across that Aperture Marketing are the perfect company to help provide strategic direction and guidance with a myriad of various marketing activities available. You can follow Aperture Marketing @aperturemarket

Maxwell Bruce

Finally, although just over a year old and not a recent project. We are exceptionally proud of the website we designed and built for recruitment company Maxwell Bruce. We think it looks like no other recruitment company website you’ve ever seen. Generous praise must go to the exceptional development skills of Robbie Donaldson who developed this site in record time. The site can be found at http://www.maxwellbruce.com/ Robbie can be found at http://www.rabmcnab.co.uk/

Funny ones

And finally, as the resident design company in our Bothwell Street Studio. We are occasionally asked (usually by Jeff Horner of The Go Group) to Photoshop the odd one-off funny poster for our friends and neighbours at the Go-Group, Business Gateway or PSYBT…

Just some harmless fun, enjoy!!

Future Forward

We dedicated the majority of last weeks news blog to Social Media Week in Glasgow, so we shall only mention it briefly this week. Indeed, this week have had two further exciting pieces of news to confirm about our event ‘Future Forward.’

The Loft is absolutely delighted to welcome Jim Henderson of Shirlaws Business Coaching onto the bill for the event. Shirlaws are a fantastic company and one with whom we share a number of important values, predominantly in building businesses with passion. Shirlaws are passionate about business in a way that we are passionate about design. We are convinced Jim will give a compelling and interesting presentation on the evening as well as play a significant part during the day-time workshop.

Secondly, we are delighted to confirm Hera Hussain as our social media hostess for the day. Hera shall be representing I A Cubed as well as her new enterprise Build Your Momentum at the event. Hera brings supreme expertiss in the field of social media and shares our desire to push boundaries with this event. When discussing the event with Hera, I told her that the event in line with our philosophy, must be ‘designed with soul.’ To which the reply ‘social media with soul’ came back. Watch this space…

Along with our partner companies, we are certain that ‘Future Forward’ will be a very special event. We hope to announce further details next week…

Have a great week folks…

Benedetto

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08
Aug

#SMWGla

Hi everyone and welcome to the Loft’s weekly news.

This week we are discussing Social Media Week, including our own event ‘Future Forward’ and also some of the other exciting events that will take place that week. We also talk about some of the great people we have met this week, their respective businesses and we briefly discuss another Comms Breakfast at the Corinthian on Thursday.

Social Media Week Glasgow

This week the schedule for Social Media Week came out. If you haven’t already heard. The 19th – 23rd of September 2011 will see Social Media Week come to Glasgow. The schedule looks incredibly exciting with a number of great events taking place throughout the city and the welcoming of companies such as Google to the city of Glasgow.

The businesses of Glasgow have already demonstrated that they are well ahead of the curve with regards to social media and this will be a fantastic opportunity to show off our talents…

There are a range of events taking place throughout the city during the week, amongst many others here are a couple that we are really excited about…

Future Forward

Along with the other events, we have registered our own event for Social Media Week this week. ‘Future Forward’ is going to be a full day event with an evening presentation, that explores possibilities in future-proofing companies and building stronger brand identities. In line with some of the great brands of the moment. We are passionate about putting design and creativity at the heart of company’s planning for future success. One of the key quotes behind the essence of the event came from David Kester of the Design Council in last weeks ‘Creative Britain in Reverse’ video campaign.

“Just look at the FTSE100 alone, the companies that use design intensively have outperformed the FTSE over a ten year period by 200%. Design is absolutely critical to our growth and economic success.”

Future Forward promises to be a great day where we generate great ideas for the future…

What has struck us most is the reception to the event by others from the city. We are speaking with a number of companies that would like to contribute and enhance the event on what promises to be a great evening. Watch this space for more details as they come…

You can check out the details of the event at …http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=98

And you can follow us on twitter for real time updates @tlcstudios The #tag for the event is #SMWFutureForward

#SMWthinkdifferent

One of the best ways to start off the day during Social Media Week shall be at Esquires Coffee shop for the daily ‘Business Banter’ As one of Glasgow’s most popular and well loved networking event, ‘Business Banter’ is usually held on a Thursday morning at Esquires Coffee shop, Glasgow.

For Social Media Week, there shall be a daily and extended Business Banter, with five speakers from various sectors talking daily about how social media has impacted their businesses. The Loft is proud to be assisting ‘Think Different’ with the ‘creative banter’ and shall be speaking about our own experiences with Social Media Week. Each of the events will have a great range of speakers, the opportunity to ask questions and to network in the same way that so many enjoy doing on a Thursday morning. In line with the regular banter format, all events will be free to attend, so make sure you check out one of the events.

The details for the daily banter during social media week, can be found at http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=314

or follow Think Different on Twitter to find out more about the banter as a whole… http://twitter.com/#!/ThinkDifferentE

T-Shirt Design Freak Out

One of the great events for Social Media Week shall come from our very own client, Freak Dem, who are hosting a ‘T-Shirt design freak out.’ The event which shall be divided in two parts. Part one shall see a range of contestants being asked to design a t-shirt on the Monday, throughout the week, social media shall be used to post the designs online, gauge reaction and eventually help decide the winner.

Part two shall be used to announce the winner, who will actually have their t-shirt produced with the proceeds going to a charitable cause to be decided between the winner and Freak Dem. All in all, enhancing Freak Dem’s message that they are more than just a fashion label. In addition to this, Freak Dem will also have outstanding gospel act, Jason Dolphin performing at their event.

To find out more about the event, check out… http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=107

Or you can follow Freak Dem on Twitter @chiquefreakdem


PSYBT Transatlantic Innovation Challenge

And finally, one of the most exciting and truly global events shall see our very own Prince’s Scottish Youth and Business Trust (PSYBT) take on Fundación Impulsar of Argentina in a live innovation challenge. This promises to be a truly global event with both companies engaging with their own social media communities and exploring ways that creativity and innovation can be used to enhance every day life. It truly captures the imagination of the brief and we shall be following its progress with interest…

Check out this event at http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=100

Or you can follow PSYBT @PSYBT_GLASGOW

Comms Breakfast

One of the best networking events around in the city at the moment is the monthly Communications Breakfast held at the Corinthian Club on Ingram Street held on behalf of Dunning Design. This event was no different with over 100 people flocking to the Corinthian early this Thursday morning to hear the talk ‘Is your Smartphone smarter than you?’

The talk was held by the very knowledgeable David Coleman of STS Digital who gave an interesting insight into the current wave of smartphones and their implications for businesses. Amongst others, one of the best moments from the talk was the funny introductory video. Check it out…

you can also follow STS Digital on Twitter @StsDigital
Or the Corinthian @CorinthianClub

Finally, to find out more about the Comms Breakfast, hosted by Dunning Design, check out @CommsBreakfast

Pieter Rosenthal, Cork & Bottle

In addition to The Corinthian Comms Breakfast and Business Banter. The final part of our incredibly busy Thursday was a very enjoyable dinner with wine and social media consultant Pieter Rosenthal at Glasgow’s Urban, Bar and Brassierie. In addition to the delightful Pinot Noire that accompanied our dinner. It was really interesting to hear the opinions of Pieter, somebody who understands wine better than most, about his love for all kinds of wine. Its very easy for people, who understands the intricacies of, in this case wine, to become snobby about more popular wines and the way they are consumed. But it was refreshing to hear Pieter shun this attitude and heed a more balanced outlook about the way wine should be drunk and enjoyed.

As can be seen above, from the You Tube video, Pieter himself, is an avid and knowledgeable user of social media. Indeed, one of his current tasks is to help educate the wine makers and distributors themselves about social media and how it can be used to enhance their communication strategies. Pieter’s blogs about wine are incredibly interesting and shall form a significant part of the next ‘cork and bottle’ website. His company ‘Cork and Bottle,’ shall also be hosting an event for Social Media Week with details to be confirmed soon.

You can check out Pieter on twitter at @pieterrosenthal

It was also worth noting that The Urban, Bar and Brassierie, provided a beautiful meal and is an excellent place to go for dinner or even an after work cocktail… Check out the Urban on twitter @UrbanBarGlasgow

Have a great week folks…

Benedetto

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01
Aug

Made in Britain

Hi folks, Welcome to the Loft’s weekly news. This week, we discuss the importance of Britain’s design and innovation culture. Talk about the ‘Creative Britain in reverse’ campaign. We talk about some of our new toys, a great evening at the Lighthouse on Friday night and celebrate the wedding of Frances & Michael McLaughlin. Finally we also pay tribute to the incredible artist, Amy Winehouse.

‘Made In Britain’

A couple of weeks ago I watched a great programme by Evan Davies on BBC called ‘Made In Britain.’ The programme beautifully highlighted how Britain pays its way in this world. However what struck me most were the significant roles the creative industries play in Britain’s economic present and future. People will lament the loss of traditional manufacturing and factories and state that we don’t make anything anymore. But what the programme shows is that we actually do have numerous companies making things, the products may not be physically made in Britain (and this creates different problems) but the intelligence and creativity of our people contribute the most valuable aspects of those products. Be it within the manufacturing process or the visual packaging. The R&D centres or design agencies tend to be in Britain where we have the perfect culture to foster these valuable activities. We should be tremendously proud of our achievements. Furthermore, we must at all costs seek to harvest this culture.

Britain has long been amongst the world leaders in terms of innovation and this has helped us develop our living standards to those that they are today. One of the great examples from the ‘Made in Britain’ programme was that of Pilkington Glass. In the 1950’s, Pilkington Glass were the first manufacturer to be able to properly mass produce glass. This innovation and subsequent patent allowed Pilkington to become a world leader in the production of glass. We can speak of innovations like this all day that are within our history – be it the front wheel drive Mini in the sixties or Seymour Powell creating the first cordless kettle in the nineties.

This form of design leadership is within our DNA. And from a business point of view, has tremendously enhanced our nation’s GDP to remain competitive in the past decades. However, two significant things have occurred. As our living standards have dramatically improved in the last 100 years, our attitude to things on an aesthetic level have also became more important. You only need to refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs to understand this.

As consumers, we now demand brands that appeal emotionally as well as functionally. Thus, design, marketing and branding have became more important than ever before. Fortunately, it is something that Britain is very, very good at.

What was also noted from the programme, was that Britain and British companies can only really prosper at the higher ends of its respective markets. Due to the price of our labour, it is almost impossible for us as a nation to export and compete on price. Thus we really must focus on being able to do things that our global competitors can’t do. And with a burgeoning middle class in China, India, Brazil and Russia, but to name a few. It is within this respect that the future is truly bright. British brands will be able to generate huge revenues for our country in the future. Be it from the technical savvy of companies like McLaren or the emotional appeal of companies such as Burberry or Paul Smith.

What was most interesting from the programme was the comparison with China, some would take its as a sign of our weakness that thousands of our manufacturing jobs were lost to China. However, the Chinese companies are only replicating technologies and processes that we have outgrown ourselves. And in most cases, when a product’s value is broke down, up to 82% of that value falls within the remit of what we do in this country- intellectual property, design, marketing and branding. This wonderfully illustrated the importance of the value chain, this is rather like a triangle. The closer, you are to the top of the triangle, the more technically advanced this activity is, it is also the most expensive part of the process. It works very much like an exponential curve, the closer your ability get to become class leading or unique, the greater its value. Take paintings for example, you may buy one for £50 or £100 or £1000. But as the paintings rise in value, they are separated in values of millions of pounds not pounds.

So it made me giggle to see Evan Davies visually perturbed by Chinese Nike wannabe Li Ning’s attempt to grow to one of the world’s biggest sports companies, not by replicating the products of their more illustrious competitors but their methodologies. However, what is important to keep in mind in this instance is that the culture that generates such wonderful creative products and campaigns for Nike cannot be replicated. The model of imitation is flattering but one that can ultimately only be second best.

As the programme summarises. As a nation we cannot compete on price, we must focus on the more valuable parts of the market, where our unique and in-demand expertise command top dollar. It is something that we are constantly looking to ingrain into the Loft’s own philosophy as we understand that the competition from developing nations, teamed with the global economy, can render our services redundant very quickly. we cannot afford to get complacent. In the case of the country, We must continue to foster and protect those things that are great. We must look to maintain our global leadership in design and creativity and our companies must innovate restlessly to become even better at what they do. In today’s global market, the term ‘made in Britain’ may not carry the same relevance as it once did but we can be justifiably proud of what we have achieved thus far and even more excited about the future.

Creative Britain In Reverse

As an interesting paradox to the previous article. We would like to make everybody aware of the ‘Creative Britain in Reverse’ campaign. We have just been stating that creativity and innovation are among the most important things we have as a nation as well as being the most vital weapons, commercial companies can use to succeed. We do have a fantastic culture of design and innovation here in Britain. Unfortunately, one that is not celebrated to its full extent. Nor is it so well understood. however, it was great to see so many great names partake in the recent video to highlight the campaign. They included entrepreneur and inventor James Dyson, fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, head of Jaguar Design Ian Callum, and noted product designers Richard Seymour and Dick Powell.

Two of the key quotes from the video were Ian Callum, design director of Jaguar… ” If you turn a thought, into a drawing, into a model, into a car. It gives twenty thousand people jobs. Its that simple.” and David Kester of the Design Council. “If you look at the FTSE100 alone, the companies that use design intensively have outperformed the FTSE over a ten year period by 200%.” Both comments show the economic and cultural benefits of great design. We must fly the flag and embrace great design.

New Toys

You may have noted in recent weeks, my personal dilemma in trying to choose a new phone. And the choice between the Blackberry Torch and Apple I-Phone. I have always been a big fan of the Blackberry but was really worried about the company’s slow pace of technical development and this was enhanced when I did a quick internet search, only to find a number of Blackberry Torch’s discounted all over the internet. There can be nothing worst for a premium brand than this. it almost makes the consumer feels that their is no demand for the product. Apple on the other hand, as the most expensive phone on the market, are in the exact opposite position. As most of you will know, I am not really a great lover of Apple’s products and what they stand for. But I must admit that they are currently giving a masterclass in marketing, branding and positioning. They do not need to resort to discounting or hard selling. They just make the best products in the market place, provide the most innovative strategies and the customers come in their droves actually. Moments after purchasing the new phone, I decided to invest in a new I-Pad for the company as well. Something that has went down a real hit with everybody that has used it thus far… Check out Raymond Brannan from the Go-Group playing with the new I-Pad on Friday. And one of myself looking a little sheepish with my new I-Phone.

GmbH Opening

On Friday evening, it gave me great pleasure to attend the opening of the new magazine store GmbH at the Lighthouse in Glasgow on Friday evening. As somebody who absolutely loves art and design periodicals and used to subscribe to several from around the world. It was great to see so many great issues from all around the world. The furniture for the store itself was pretty cool with a table being made that spells out the letters ‘GmbH’ as well as shelves being made from chip board. The event itself was absolutely packed with people from Glasgow’s creative community.

If you get the chance, check out GmbH at the lighthouse, they really do have a fantastic collection. Or check out their website at http://gmbhshop.com/ Finally for images of the store and their magazines, check out their facebook page… http://www.facebook.com/GmbHshop

Amy Winehouse

As there was no blog last week, we must convey our sadness of the passing of Amy Winehouse last week. Amy Winehouse had the kind of voice that you hear once in a generation and the lyrics to her songs possessed a grittiness and sincerity that propelled them to some of the greatest of our times. Her abuse of drink and drugs eventually got the better of her in the end. Such a tragedy at only 27 years old, she really was a lost soul. We should feel thankful that, in amongst the chaos, she did gift us those two magnificent albums. Full of incredible tales of her turbulent life and although small, an outstanding legacy of her incredible talent. One of the nicest eulogies I heard last week was ‘may Amy find more peace in heaven than she did here on Earth.’

Amen to that..

Rest in Peace, Amy Winehouse…

Congratulations Frances & Michael

Finally, on a happier note, and on behalf of everybody at the Loft. We’d like to wish all the best to Frances Maltby of the Go-Group and her new husband Michael McLaughlin who got married on Saturday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get hold of a picture of the happy couple together today but I am sure you’ll agree that both the bride and maid of honour both look terrific… Congratulations to the happy couple!

Have a great week folks…

Benedetto

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