Icon loves pancakes!
So when Shrove Tuesday came round we had a quick browse for some good recipes and found this great illustration by Kate Sutton:
So no excuses for not making any! More of her work can be seen by clicking here.
Icon’s favourite pancake fillings are:
Androulla – Lemon and sugar
Derek – Has to be maple syrup every time!
Karen – Strawberries and cream
Ian – Vanilla ice-cream
Kat – Nutella and strawberries
Claire – A few raisins, a sprinkle of sugar and a drizzle of lemon…or nutella with a dollop of ice-cream (but I never have that in the cupboard!)
We hope you enjoy your pancakes this Shrove Tuesday.
Trip to Blackpool, anyone?
This extraordinary Comedy Carpet was opened to the public in October 2011; designed by Gordon Young in collaboration with Why Not associates, it refers to the work of more than 1,000 comedians and comedy writers, giving visual form to jokes, songs and catchphrases from the past and present.
Designed using a grid pattern, the snippets of text can be read in different directions – up close and from the tower itself, with the font varying from a few centimetres to over a metre.
Situated in front of The Blackpool Tower, the 2,000m2 work of art contains over 160,000 individually cut granite letters embedded into concrete and took five years from conception to installation (worth it, we think). The comedy carpet is a beautiful, unique piece of work which pushes the boundaries of public art and typography to its limits, we just want to go and see it for ourselves now!
Read more:
http://www.whynotassociates.com/en/comedycarpet/01.php
http://comedycarpet.com/
http://www.gordonyoung.net/
Snow Globe Greetings
This Christmas, our clients will have received our beautiful snow globe Christmas cards which (we hope) will win ‘best in show’ as the most unique and clever card received. Mailed out flat, the globe cleverly transforms into a free-standing 3D snow scene with one gentle push in the right direction. Customised with a hand-drawn Icon Christmas tag, we hope this little mailer has put a smile on many a face and brightened up a few desks along the way! Wishing all our clients and suppliers a Happy 2012!
Mince Pie Competition 2011
The 1st of December – and the boxes of mince pies begin to appear in the Icon kitchen for all to enjoy… and of course, to judge which ones are best and on what grounds. This year has seen some new entries in the form of Waitrose and Marks and Spencer… posh eh? And although the Morrisons mini mince pie variety box made a nice change to the traditional version (and are small enough to eat in one bite, making it less messy to eat) the decision was a unanimous one. The winners are… drum roll please… Waitrose. It’s all butter pastry did it for us hands down. Nothing else came close. Perhaps we could judge something which are a little kinder on the scales next year, although citrus fruit possibly won’t be as fun. Ideas welcome.
Newport Food Festival goes down a treat
October saw the launch of Newport’s first ever Food Festival, attended by some of the top chefs in Wales, as well as the best food providers from the region and Newport’s most innovative culinary talents. We were proud to be asked to be so heavily involved in it’s branding and designed a whole host of Food Festival related graphics including advertising for both print and web, programmes, signage, and ‘Minichef’ and ‘Teenchef’ identities to name but a few. The branding – with a variety of tasty treats beautifully flaunted on shiny silver forks behind a skyline of the city captured the imagination of the audience as a ‘taste of things to come’ in the festival.
The weekend proved a huge success, kicking off with a festival supper at Newport’s historical indoor market which was transformed (by Icon!) into a spectacular dining venue for 170 people, setting the scene for the Saturday foodie activities. And after working so hard for the festival preparations, it seemed only right that we sit back to enjoy some of the culinary delights on offer at the supper. And we weren’t disappointed… clean plates all round. Looking forward to next year’s festival already!
Handy Advertising
This advertising campaign was produced for AT&T a few years ago by BBDO. Along with the concept being so strong, we still think the imagery used for it is incredibly striking, and worth sharing!
Human hands were intricately painted and posed to depict iconic images representing countries around the world that fall within AT&T’s international footprint.
The photo shoot for the nine initial ads took two weeks. The hand-painting took approximately one full day, with artist Guido Daniele beginning in the morning as photographer Andric prepared the lighting and retouching on the shots taken the day before.
According to AT&T’s own news release “AT&T ‘Hands’ Advertising Campaign Voted ‘America’s Favorite Magazine Ad’ by Consumers”
See more here
Happy Birthday Androulla!
We’d all like to wish Icon MD, Androulla a very Happy Birthday today (21 again!) And what better reason do we need to gorge on pizza and cake than a birthday celebration? We thought the birthday girl would love these beautiful cupcakes in the form of a rose bouquet – and we were right. They’ve gone down a storm with the whole team and if we weren’t all salivating at the thought of taking that first bite, we’d say they were just too pretty to eat. Let the party commence…
If you’d like to get your hands on a stunning cupcake creation like this contact: louiselblackwell@aol.com
From 2nd – 5th June 2011, The Saab Wales Open will be played over the same Twenty Ten Course which hosted such a memorable Ryder Cup in 2010. The competition will see many more superstars of the world game return to The Celtic Manor Resort to compete for the £1.8m prize fund. And amongst the excitement, our client ‘Newport Unlimited’ will be there promoting our city to the thousands of spectators from around the UK and beyond.
To help them along the way, we produced a lovely 16pp brochure with matching bespoke folder and newsletter. WIth the regeneration of Newport fully underway, the brochure aims to promote the city to prospective businesses and to encourage them to relocate to the area. The brochure takes the reader through a selection of case studies from current local businesses such as Admiral and Office for National Statistics, as well as guiding them through a typical day, highlighting some of Newports best bits, such as its superb location, sporting venues and business opportunities.
With the Celtic Manor being one of Newports best assets, it’s certainly a fantastic location in which to promote the city. Best of luck Newport Unlimited!
New website for ‘The Bowie Gallery’
Last weekend saw the famous Hay Festival take place in the quaint rural town of Hay-on-Wye. And what better time to launch a shiny new website for a long-standing client and friend of ours – The Bowie Gallery, run by Sara Bowie. The shop, located in the centre of Hay-on-Wye is an Aladdin’s cave of the very best of contemporary ceramics, jewellery and prints from UK designer makers. And now they’re selling on-line too – fantastic if you can’t make it to the gallery in person.
The website, designed by ICON, gives a real insight into the The Bowie Gallery, its beautiful and individual pieces on offer, and the masters who made them. We’re very proud of the result, and having just read The Bowie Gallery’s recent blog post, we think that Sara likes it too: “We’d like to say a big thank you to Icon Creative Design…probably the best design company in the world…ever! They have done a brilliant job in creating and designing our website. Not only are they brilliant to work with, they’re innovative, talented and extremely user friendly – just like our website really!!”
VW Campervan – Put a zip on it
A couple of Icon camping enthusiasts got pretty excited to see this lovely VW campervan tent on The Daily Mail Online this morning. According to the article, the life-size replica of the original 1965 VW Transporter has been officially licensed by the German car manufacturer for the first time. Claire, who owns her very own ‘real-life’ 1971 VW campervan called Chubbers is now desperate to get her hands on one as a ‘beautiful extension’ to her holiday living quarters. Your birthday’s coming up Claire, keep your fingers crossed.
