get out of the office

branding places

http://ace.caad.ed.ac.uk/branded/

life before tuttle

http://perfectpath.co.uk/2007/08/08/social-media-cafe/

http://londonsocialmediacafe.pbworks.com/Communal+Vision

how to start a tuttle

http://tuttleclub.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/advice-to-a-new-tuttle-meister/

tuttle beginings

How it starts

http://tuttleclub.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/crowds-tribes-teams/

tuttle baby

Great piece of new thinking for workshops.

http://tuttleclub.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/our-first-consulting-gig/#comments

what if innovation employee love

Employees are the life blood of any company

http://www-theinsider.blogspot.com/2009/04/getting-it-right-what-if-innovation.html

Pirate opportunities

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Shamelessly stole this from Matt Masons blog.

progress with branding seminars

We have finally announced the date for our first seminar on branding. It's going to take place on the 28th of September in Cardiff. If you want to book at place email me or my colleague Elin at elin.williams@hoffi.com.

We are really excited about the seminars and hope everyone who comes along gets something out of it. As we have said before but it is the first seminar we have done so its going to be pretty nerve wracking, but we have been working with clients now for over four years on their branding issues so we must be doing something right. As I was saying just today to the Director of Marketing of WAG, we started as a generic design agency, and it is hard to get those words out of my head, but as we have found our feet we have moved into specialising in branding. We have developed as our clients have developed and introduced them to more and more strategy based design work for them. It's been a step change within the company but it is slowly coming together. We have always had the skills in house to provide branding in the broadest sense however the locality we find ourselves initially seemed to limit us. I think for me though being inspired by companies such as elmwood who have expanded from a location outside of London and are a hugely successful company, has made it seem possible.

What is funny about the branding process is that it is very much a process that has no really obvious visual responses until later on and the responses obviously range from brand communications through to increased turnover or staff retention being increased. Which leaves the branding process for companies looking into it for the first time to question what they get out of the system other than a larger bill but still get the same outcomes, that's really why we have set the seminars up to show the real value of branding. I would also argue as design agencies we are our own worst enemy. Mainly because from a business sense we have to show we understand design and branding so we trademark ways of working and systems which are pretty much all the same. The problem then follows that how do people gauge which companies are value for money and which are 'poly-filling'. to be continued

Slack with blogging

We have been really busy at Hoffi over the last month or so, with work on various projects and also doing our bit to expand the use of eco-design within Wales by getting involved in the initial meetings with Ecodesign centre Wales on their research project the EcoNetwork. On top of all of that Andrew is getting married this Saturday so we are getting ready for the big day and also the workload are going to be doing while he is on honeymoon.

The first meeting took place in Cardiff Bay and I thought was a great success. The second was in Roath at the Gate. I had never been there before and was quite impressed with it. The event itself was a show and tell session. I was asked to speak about a recent project I have been trying to get off the ground and also my take on eco-design and the issues surrounding it.

You can see a full report on the EcoNetwork blog