Welcome to Direct Design

Ingres - New Economics of IT — When the business climate is unpredictable, everyone wants to find a more agile, more dynamic way to use technology and save themselves money. It is happening in design, in retail, in almost every business sector. More and more businesses (and even the Government) are now looking at the open source IT model to maintain their essential infrastructure and continue to innovate in anticipation of an upturn. As Ingres put it, "there is now a new economics of IT".

Ingres, the second largest independent open source company, have decided to create a worldwide campaign using this new identity theme, incorporating the idea into their .com site, microsites and digital marketing. In addition they are promoting the idea with their partners at events and conference around Europe, with some powerful challenges to the old proprietary software 'lock in' systems.
www.ingres.com

Desconocida : Unknown — is a political art project, devised, organised and performed by the Norwegian textile and performance artist Lise Bjørne Linnert. Through a traditional female activity of embroidery, people globally are invited to engage, protest and show solidarity with the fight against the abuse of women. As an example of this worldwide issue, the critical situation in Juarez, a city on the border of USA and Mexico is the focus of this project. In this city close to 600 women have been found tortured, abused and murdered. Hundreds have disappeared.

So far, in this embroidery project, 1,700 people in 22 countries have participated. Each participant embroiders the name of one murdered woman from Juarez onto a 2cm x 8cm nametag and to remember women worldwide experiencing similar abuse, each participant also embroiders 'unknown' in his or her own language and alphabet. The exhibition opened on 10 February at the UCA Gallery in Epsom and the book, generously supported by Arctic Paper and Fritt Ord and previewed in Design Week is now available.

Flipit — We've recently revamped the Flipit website to respond to the Christmas retail opportunity and give it a festive feel! The brand is now moving ahead with a more playful and irreverent image, so playing with our logo to create the tree was definitely the thing to do. This has also been supported with online advertising, targeted at the female design conscious audience.

2009 will see more themed ideas for the chairs starting off with a cheeky Valentine's gift and an opportunity to create your own surface graphics. If you'd like to design your own Flipit, just let us know. If you'd just like to buy one now ... just go to www.flipitdirect.com

Ingres — We’re now working with Ingres, an open source application development business who have a terrific reputation in the IT world, built on 30 years of successful database management. The open source world is fundamentally different in how it develops and supports applications for enterprises, and Ingres are refreshingly open with their customers about saving money on both adapting existing applications and developing new ones.

Although we are working in Northern Europe, this also means that we develop and share creative work across the Ingres Group and can accelerate the distribution of successful ideas. Everything is automated via a web based tracking system to give clear statistical knowledge of everyone’s interaction with customised emails and related micro-sites.

It isn’t magic but it is extraordinary how fast everything is changing. The internet is now driving the decisions and marketing expenditure of almost every business. It now allows even the smallest new business to develop a loyal customer base and build a brand.

Richard Reid & Associates — We are all looking forward to the 2012 London Olympics and the great opportunity it can offer to UK businesses... but in the meanwhile, our client Richard Reid actually received an invitation to the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. This offered the architect a great opportunity to discuss the practice’s proposed plans for Nan Sha city in China and to promote the practice across the world. In conjunction with the practice and to a very tight schedule, we designed and produced a series of three books covering their urban design and building works, a representation of a keynote address to the RIBA about city planning and a detailed presentation of the plans for Nan Sha.

The portfolio book showed work from the last 18 years with wonderful examples of some unique private houses and successful commercial projects. Our studio is actually located in a purpose built small barn style building designed by Richard Reid, replicating an original structure which stood behind the original Kings Arms pub which was redesigned as a design studio.. Click here to find out more about Richard Reid...

Keeping your life on track — Many of us don't take the time to reflect on where we are in life and what we're actually achieving. We can focus too much on our work to the detriment of our relationships and health. Peter Jackson has developed a great idea which combines talking and walking, giving his clients space to reflect at a pace which suits them.

'4mph' is focused on helping middle and senior management to explore strategic direction in their work and in their career. It's a different approach which is proving to be a very effective one. Find out about our journey with Peter here.

Summer school — It must be Summer! It's Wimbledon, it's raining off and on, the schools have finished their exams and the students are doing work experience before they go off on holiday.

Our eager young man, Ross Hardy has been with us for the last few days. He was keen to demonstrate his Flash skills, so he has produced this month's banner. Pretty flash it is too for a 16 year old. We can all learn a lot from having students working with us. We have to think quite clearly about how we describe what we do, how we think, how we work... but that is also how we work with our clients. Thank you Ross.

Better teamwork, no catches — The English cricket season is in full swing and Ed has been coming into work on Mondays with plenty of stories from his village’s latest match. In cricket, individuals usually specialise in either batting or bowling, although some are ‘all-rounders’ who are pretty handy at both. Individual skill is vital of course, but no team can win without a certain amount of effective teamwork and understanding.

In design, we also have specialists and ‘all-rounders', all with certain skills or combinations of expertise which compliment those of other team members. We've found that having some fun together, along with collective discussion and constructive criticism produces the most effective answers for our clients.

Maybe, maybe not — Whether we are acknowledging May Day as the traditional English Spring Festival or as a more European 'Workers' Day', it's good to have a short break and start to look forward to longer evenings and warmer days. The multi-coloured ribbons of the maypole reflect the brighter colours of spring, but what do all the individual colours signify to people around the world.

Colormatters.com have been running a survey since 1997 and these are the results ... Happy - Yellow. Pure - White. Good Luck - Green. Good-tasting - Red (tomato). Dignity - Purple. High Technology - Silver. Sexiness - Red (tomato). Mourning - Black. Expensive - Gold. Inexpensive - Brown. Powerful - Red (tomato). Dependable - Blue. High Quality - Black. Nausea - Green. Deity - White. Bad Luck - Black. A little simplistic perhaps but it does get you thinking...

Get in touch with what you touch — It is extraordinary how much we all react to what we touch without doing it consciously. Hot or cold, hard or soft, textured or smooth ... all effect our emotional reactions and promote responses. But it's the subtle differences that are really intriguing from a design perspective and need to be thought through.

Once you become aware of it, everything becomes touch conscious... the smooth exterior of the mouse in your hand right now ... the warmth of your mug of tea ... the texture of your desk ... your clothes etc. Masayo Ave has been experimenting with technology, touch and sensibility, and discovering the emotional qualities in materials. You can too at her exhibition at UCCA in Epsom. Read more

Change the clock … change your outlook — Winter seems to have dragged on and Spring just doesn’t appear to have started. The clocks change at the end of March so we spring forward an hour and hopefully some warmer weather will change the colours around us.

As the colours change, so does everyone’s mood and there is a more positive outlook to life and work, even if the outlook for the economy seems to be gloomy. But many businesses thrive when the economy turns down, buoyed by the knowledge that others will not be pushing as hard or communicating in the market place.

Rotten Easter Eggs — Hidden surprises in software and other media are known of as ‘Easter Eggs’. These have usually been hidden by the development team for a bit of fun and to make their own mark on the product. For example, there was a flight simulator hidden in Microsoft Excel 97 with a bizarre landscape where you could "fly" around using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

You may have discovered hidden tracks on CDs or extra outtakes on DVDs where the production team where just having fun. Unfortunately these ‘eggs’ when unknowingly installed on computers can hide logic bombs or other malware that can compromise your security system, so they are now actively discouraged by anyone developing digital products. Happy Easter!

A leap of faith or just marketing? — 2008 is a leap year as it was 20 years ago when Eddie ‘the eagle’ Edwards threw himself  off the 90 metre hill at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. He is still the most famous British winter Olympian after Torvill and Dean. He had more interview requests than any other competitor at the games but the ‘brand’ didn’t quite take off and he is still plastering ceilings and hoping that they will finally make the film of his life story.

The leap day is actually added to February every four years to bring the solar year, which is measured as 365 and a quarter days, into line with the calendar year of 365 days.

A valentine for the men-u love — Instead of waiting for your partner to take you out to dinner this Valentine's Day, why not support The Prostate Cancer Charity's campaign to treat the men you love. Go on, spoil your man by cooking a romantic, prostate friendly meal using ideas from a specially designed, Men-U-Love recipe pack.

With help from Nick Nairn and other top chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson, Mark Sargeant and Delia Smith, Direct Design has created a recipe pack for the charity that has all you need to treat the man you love and look after his health. The beautiful pictures were taken by Georgia Glyn-Smith.

Men-U-Love recipe packs are available at a suggested donation of £3. To order your copy, please call The Prostate Cancer Charity on 020 8222 7650 or visit their website.

Norwich or bust — We all piled into the company bus on monday afternoon to go to the private view of 'Cloth & Culture Now' at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich. Our colleague Anders and his partner Karin also came over from Norway to join us there. The exhibition contained work by textile artists from across the Baltic states, Japan and the UK. Having become very familiar with the work from the photos we had included in the Cloth & Culture Now book, we were impressed by the scale and impact of it in the flesh.

The Sainsbury Centre, designed by Sir Norman Foster, is a huge building with a total area of over 6000 square metres and a temporary exhibition space of 700 square metres which accommodated the Cloth and Culture Now exhibition. To find out more about the show go to www.clothandculturenow.com and to find out more about the Sainsbury Centre and its upcoming events go to www.scva.org.uk

Tasty Branding — There are not many places left where you can escape the bombardment of marketing, and we are all vulnerable to buying into the promise. Does the following appeal to you:

“Slap up Tandoori, Indian Restaurant.”

I read it, I read it again, I stopped and even took a photograph. The property looked suspiciously like a Little Chef - I guessed that the nearby M11 had failed to keep up their business...

I may have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of their goods if I was really that hungry. Their unusual signage certainly served as a novel talking point for us. Though I suppose they must lure some customers their way for them to be there in the first place. Perhaps I had stumbled across a hidden palace of the palette?

Imagine if they changed their name and applied a tasteful re-design to the whole place. Give the restaurant a quick 'slap' of paint, if you will, and it would immediately lift its appearance. It would definitely give them a fighting chance of getting my trade. But then again, I don't like curry.

Take a look at this article on the Guardian's website for some more inspirational restaurant names:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/01/whats_in_a_name.html

Happy New Year! — The festive period has come to a close and most of us have over indulged and under exerted. It's time to step back to reality.

It's that time of year when we plan to do something for the better, the dreaded 'New Year's Resolution'. Whether it is keeping fit, losing weight or keeping in touch with friends, to save more or budget better, most of us choose to aim for something. Often it is something we promised to do but neglected to finish last year. (We have resolved to keep this site active and interesting!)

So where did this idea come from? There doesn't seem to be any clear answer but there are relgious parallels to this secular tradition. For example, in Judaism's holiest holiday, Yom Kippur, you reflect upon your wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness.

Good luck with any new resolutions you may have made.

Christmas Indulgence — The origins of the modern day Christmas Cake complete with marzipan and white icing are obscure. Early versions, during the Middle Ages, tended to be more in the style of sweetened bread with fruit added. No mention is made, in early recipes, of marzipan which, at the time, was called marchpane and used, along with fresh fruits of the season, candies, nuts, sweetmeats, spiced cakes and other delicacies on or around the 6 December. This was the day when Saint Nicholas was reputed to visit the house with gifts of gold and sweets including gingerbread and 'marchpane'.

A recipe dating from 1730 shows that the UK was already preparing rich fruit cakes with traditional ingredients although it was actually called 'Plumb Cake' and cooked on an open fire. The early forerunner of the Christmas Cake would have only been available to the affluent due to the high price of the ingredients.

Our own Laurie King has moved to his own abode this year, and has made eleven Christmas cakes - he has put the rest of us to shame! He is very much enjoying having his own space to create things in his kitchen and it is his version of Christmas cake you can admire here. It is mouth wateringly delicious.