Vivid visited the Design Museum for a little bit of inspiration last week. Entries for The Brit Insurance Design of the Year Awards were on show and some brilliant Sustainable Futures exhibits including amazing Puma packaging and the winning insurance design, the collapsable plug by Min-Kyu Choi. Its fantastic, I could go on naming delectable design delights but it would spoil it for you when you get down there, which you should!

London Gate, Commissioned to celebrate the London 2012 Olympics

This winning entry by studio Donis is a 100 metre-tall structure to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. Named 'London Gate' the structure is designed as a temporary landmark and has been commissioned to be placed in Aldgate, east London from January 2012. Donis is an architecture studio based in Rotterdam and managed to come first in 'A landmark for Aldgate' international design competition, which included around 100 entries. The structure includes a glass elevator, very scary if you ask me.

More info: http://www.dezeen.com/2010/07/26/london-gate-by-donis/

032c

Hello! Here is an interesting arty mag for you to check out. 032c is a biannual magazine that was on display at the Design museum on our recent trip. The graphics are amazing and beautiful and the content in their own words 'both timely and timeless—a celebration of and for the most cutting-edge in art, culture, and fashion.' The mag is available at most specialist art and book shops or go on the website,

http://www.032c.com.

Cake gets healthy...sort of.

This weeks offering in the bake-off was a rather good carrot cake created by Susie. In theory its one of the healthier cakes we've had so far - Carrots and sultanas, thats 2 of your 5 a day surely?

We haven't been able to find susies exact recipe on the web but i'm sure this one's still pretty good for anyone wanting to give it a go:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4425/carrot-cake

Trifle Time

The second offering in the studio bake- off came courtesy of our accounts director Lawrence! Alas no recipe for this one as we were told it was a secret passed down through generations (or maybe tescos, we cant quite decide). Either way it was very appropriate for a hot summers day.

A skyline for london

The winner of the TFL competition to design a new skyline for london was announced last week as freelance designer Richard Coward. His illustration depicting "a 21st Century view of London’s famous skyline" will now be used across a whole range of TFL merchandise.

Find more of his work at http://www.rcoward.com/

An example of how the application will work on a mouse mat is shown below:

The Glue Society

This may not be the most recent of news, in fact it was released about 2 years ago but we though they are worth another mention. These are some ads created by The Glue Society for a vodka brand called 42 below. The tag line is 'because we can' and each ad experiments with this in ways of shear brilliance, from making an arch out of chairs to filling a beach with blow up dolls.

Check out there site: http://www.gluesociety.com/#home/the-work-content/advertising-content/42below-content

While I was studying at Shillington College in Melbourne, one of the guest lecturers was Timba, a graphic designer, artist, illustrator and independant publisher from Melbourne. (He's the mastermind behind the beautiful magazine Wooden Toy). Timba is currently living in the UK. And tonight, Thursday 8 July 2010, At Black Rat Projects in East London, Timba and Miso – 2 parts of the authors crew– will sign their book STREET/STUDIO. STREET/STUDIO is a book by Alison Young, Ghostpatrol, Miso & Timba Smits featuring work by Niels Oeltjen / Tom Civil / Tai Snaith / Ghostpatrol / Ash Keating / Al Stark / Miso / Twoone / Mic Porter and the Everfresh Crew. It offers an exclusive behind-the-secenes look at how street art has entered the mainstream and become one of the most collectable new art forms. It offers an unparalleled insight into the work of ten of Australiaís most influential, dynamic and creative artists living in Melbourne.

One night only. For more info: http://www.streetstudiobook.com/index.php?id=1

ps: Make sure to check out http://www.timbasmits.com/

The Bake Off Begins!

So the Vivid Brand bake off got off to a start yesterday with yours truly setting the standard with a Beetroot Chocolate fudge cake! Ok, so it wont win points on the looks front (image above is unfortunately not a true likeness) but tastewise hopefully it scored a little better.

If anyone fancies trying the recipe, it can be found here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/484627/beetroot-fudge-cake?binderbox=forgot

This is the actual cake incase you were wondering.

Your smile for an ice cream

I can't wait to see and try it for myself.

Unilever revealed an ice cream vending machine for the digital age. Branded "Share Happy," it is able to sense when people are near. Using facial recognition technology, it can determine age, gender, and emotion. The machine uses an interactive "smile-o-meter" to rate smiles; those with a big enough smile are rewarded with free ice cream. What is also worth noting is the ability for users to share pictures on Facebook via built-in 3G. In an age of social networking, brands providing new experiences also need to consider ways to promote the sharing of them. (source: http://www.mobilebehavior.com/2010/06/21/unilever-ice-cream-machine-detects-emotion-and-shares-happy/)

Watch "the share happy trailer" on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI-IO3kmxVc&feature=player_embedded