A village on our terrace
Where once there were toxic gas spewing air conditioning units, now there is a sweet little sheep village created by the very lovely Jessica Dance and Rob Francis. Even more reason to stare out the window and daydream.
A village on our terrace
Where once there were toxic gas spewing air conditioning units, now there is a sweet little sheep village created by the very lovely Jessica Dance and Rob Francis. Even more reason to stare out the window and daydream.
A masterclass with Larissa Joy
Our very own Larissa Joy is hosting a lunchtime masterclass with Stylist magazine this Friday. Career advice, entrepreneurial dreams, achieving balance and a mesmerising fluency with the Drink-Spotty Book will be featured from 1pm - 2pm GMT.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drink-Spotty-Book-Pelham-Witherspoon/dp/0593010078
Check it out here:
http://www.stylist.co.uk/stylist-network/lunchtime-masterclass-larissa-joy
Will Self displays true Envy
at the Monday Club
On the 20th June The Assembly was host to the third Monday Club going sin by sin through the seven deadly ones. The evening was a celebration of Envy with delicious green food and drink and enviable tunes.
Kathryn Busby from The Equality Trust discussed how if we were more equal, we’d be better off as a population and if there was greater equality there would be less envy.
Will Self took then took to the floor to point out that Envy is a first class sin; not to be confused with its younger, less serious sibling - jealousy. An uncomfortable, provocative, funny, entertaining romp through the big E ended with a tale of a 450,000 year old axe and a reciltal of the wonderful poem by Clive James - The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered.
Sloth is next. Stay tuned for details.
Relic’ing a few Fenders
For one of our lovely clients we’re helping with some music festival sponsorship and as prizes we’re giving away a few stunning Fender guitars. But not brand spanking new ones. Oh no. They’ll be lovingly relic’ed by Katie & Kerry and will be 3 of the most sought-after six strings around.
Many months in the making
After many months of hard work with wonderful teams at Ernst & Young across many parts of the business, from all over Europe, America and AsiaPac our first work makes its appearance in the FT this week. Many campaigns to follow in the coming weeks so you’ll be seeing a lot more.
It’s a Set Up
Hot new author Felix Riley released his first novel. He’s not completely new to the writing game having dabbled a bit before become a City financier and escaping that gig minutes before the global financial meltdown. We’re proud to help Penguin market Riley’s thriller, The Set Up; a novel filled with money, greed, sex, greed, power, greed, deceit, greed, egomania, greed and greed.
Cooking with colour
We’ve paired stylish chef Esther Röling with delicious Turning Leaf wines to create a menu that matches perfectly with the wines and the senses. Testing dozens of recipes and drinking many, many glasses of wine was a tough job but someone had to do it.
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
An NYC installation
The very talented Kyle Bean created this for us. He’s now helping us create some very exciting installations for windows in Times Square NYC.
Doing something funny for money
Some of the best character animators in the world helped us develop a range of designs for the 2011 Red Noses.
We’re getting greedy
Our next Monday Club event is on 9th of May and the salon will feature all things greedy. The line up is just being finalised, but we’re gutted that Gordon Gekko can’t make an appearance.
Working our way up the league tables
We’re very happy, but not satisfied, to be 11th on the AAR’s list of most new business wins in 2010. We’ll be celebrating with some deep-fried goodness at Poppies.
Cult of the brand
Certain corporate HQs can sometimes remind you of places of worship. The Zen-like Nike European headquarters in Hilversum is one such place. Instead of crosses we find ticks everywhere and instead of monks and priests we find the employees of Nike. Apparently, they genuinely get annoyed if they see that you’re wearing Adidas. A glib observation?
The management consultant, August Turak recently spent 6 months living with trappist monks and discovered these 7 organisational principles.
#1 – Having a high overarching mission worthy of being served.
#2 – Selflessness; dedicated pursuit of a noble, well-articulated, mission.
#3 – Commitment to excellence.
#4 – A ruthless dedication to the highest ethical standards.
#5 – Faith; through boom and economic bust.
#6 – Trust; deployed throughout the organization.
#7 – Living the life; a rigorous methodology of reinforcement.
Not sure whether this applies to Nike’s business but it seems like a pretty good way of getting people to believe in your business nevertheless.
The poetry of hip-hop
“Hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of any great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough.” Jay Z, Decoded
Hip Hop, despite its success still aches for respect and recognition. Having already achieved it as businessmen, rappers would now like you to see them as artists – proper artists. Poets, even.
The release this month, of Jay Z’s ‘Decoded’, a collection of footnoted lyrics accompanied by biographical anecdotes and observations, marks the next front in this battle.
And he is not alone. Adam Bradley an English professor and, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop writes, “The best MCs—like Rakim, Jay-Z, Tupac, and many others—deserve consideration alongside the giants of American poetry. We ignore them at our own expense.”
He urged fellow English professors and scholars to expand the poetic canon to embrace rap. ‘Book of Rhymes’ uses the terms of poetry criticism – assonance, alliteration, exaggerated stress patterns - to admire both the content and form of rap lyrics.
For anyone, with even the vaguest interest in the English language both books make for compelling reading.
For more info see this article in the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/12/06/101206crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=1
The Monday Club - An evening of Lust
Our first Monday Club of the year was a steamy affair. The theme for the 2011 is the seven deadly sins and Lust was the topic of the first salon, with presentations from Sam Roddick, the founder of erotic lifestyle boutique Coco de Mer and author and TV personality Hallie Rubenhold. There was lusty music, aphrodisiac snacks and sexy cocktail that was originally created for the Museum of Sex in NYC.
Bring on Greed in May.
Taking ideas on the road
Exciting times with Ernst & Young as we develop work together with teams across Europe, America, China, India and Brazil.
