This blog has been a bit quiet recently for a number of reasons, but I really had to write about the fate of England’s World Cup bid a couple of weeks ago. I had great fun working on the bid, and was really hoping to become the first lethargic graphic designer to win the World Cup. Instead, I guess I made it to the finals and lost on penalties. My old PE teacher would never have predicted I would enjoy a brief career in international football.

The cover of the latest Private Eye caught my eye at the weekend. Take a good look at the banner above the rapidly balding head of Prince William on the left there. That’s possibly the last look we’ll get of my Supporter typeface at work, with the bid in tatters, the typeface is destined for retirement. It had a short but illustrious career, rubbing shoulders with royalty and being really very visible over the final few days.

The bid team did a fantastic job over the last two years, and on the day itself the English presentation was miles ahead of the others, but every expectant hope back home was about to be dashed. Still, at least they got a free T-shirt…

So alas, it was not to be, and whether the cause was bribery, politics, oligarchs or legacy, at least no-one is blaming the typography…?

Let’s cross our fingers for 2030.

I saw this picture in the paper at the weekend. It’s our new Prime Minister jogging at the G20 summit with the Spanish Prime Minister. Thing is, seeing as we are both rivals to host the 2018 World Cup, Mr Cameron has cheekily donned his England United, The World Invited T-shirt. The Spanish guy seems to be a bit annoyed. I was quite pleased.

Only just over two weeks left to make use of that slogan, as the decision will be announced on the 2nd December.

Fingers crossed…

This made me laugh. From The Independent’s Dave Brown.

Although, if Gordon Brown is toast, David Cameron is crackers.

(Maybe that makes Nick Clegg marmalade?)

International readers: If you don’t know what this is all about, it’s now known as ‘Bigotgate’

As those who know me will attest, I’m a glass half empty kind of guy, although I like to label it realism rather than pessimism. Anyway, it means that I have a soft spot for self deprecating humour, you know that very English under the radar sort of stuff.

I saw this on the tube the other day…

…and it made me think that negativity is underused in advertising. Ads always focus on positivity, sometimes to the point of arrogance or desperation, so it’s nice when they go the other way. Somehow it seems more sincere, even though it’s more contrived than ever. Maybe it’s a sign of the times. Bleak austerity Britain has had enough of Barry Scott shouting at them about how clean his pennies are.

Let’s think a little bit about Dixons for a minute. I can’t remember the last time I bought anything there, as everyone who knows their stuff buys the things they sell online instead. If you were the bosses of Dixons you must have been getting pretty worried recently as the whole retail experience moves into the ether, people flock to electricalbargainzRus.com and your stores sit there ironically eating up their own electricity.

I love the fact that someone really got under the skin of how people perceive stores like Dixons now and subverted it into a nice little well judged piece of despair.

And let’s not forget the past masters of the art, Marmite, who deserve some sort of advertising valour medal pinned to their chest for displaying adverts of someone actually vomiting their product.

Maybe it’s because I involuntarily dislike being sold to, or because I move in marketing circles, I can hear the squeal of the truth being stretched a mile off, but it feels like this sort of attitude gets through my defences much less opposed. I might not buy my next TV from Dixons but they made me smile. Perhaps I’ll buy a memory card or some blank CDs…

This is St John Street in Farringdon, London. The building on the left is where I work, and the building on the right is, well, where other people work.

These other people were getting pretty carried away last week with Post-it notes. It looked like they were having the mother of all meetings which had spilled from the wall, all over the windows. Either that or they were trying to solve a murder. When we noticed this in our studio, we felt similarly inspired and thought we should say hello…

…and bit by bit we managed to have an entire conversation in stickie notes from either side of the street. I expect productivity took a bit of a hit.

Then the knock knock jokes started…

…but misfired once we realised we were being led down the old ‘Doctor Who’ road. Nice try.

It even started getting a little bit amorous at one stage…

…before moving the relationship online. (ooer)

And getting a bit more creative.

By Friday afternoon it was decided meeting up for a beer in the pub would be a good idea. Bit of a no brainer really.

The dress code was wear a Post-it and everybody got along just fine.

Thanks to everyone involved, most of whom had the presence of mind to take pictures which I’ve shamelessly reused here. Ryan, Mike, Leisa, Laura, Stuart and others. There’s a Flickr group here and one of those new fangled Twitter hastag things too.

So, there you go, it’s easy to make friends. Expect to see this crop up in a mobile phone advertising campaign near you soon. Orange/O2/T-mobile/Vodafone, if you’re reading this, we’ll split it 60/40 but it really needs to be shot in California with a bland and inoffensive acoustic guitar soundtrack.

I went a long to the private view of Wallpaper magazine’s Type Tart exhibition last night to see if my contribution had made the cut among some of the more well-known contributors.

The idea was to create a tart card – those things in London phoneboxes advertising *ahem* ‘personal services’ but dedicated to a typeface or letter of the alphabet. Lots of great *ahem* ‘entries’ there were too. I think the one below was my favourite…

Now I know I’m getting old as some were definitely a bit *ahem* ‘graphic’…

Click here to see all the pictures I took on the night.

You can also see all the entries and contributors on the Wallpaper website. There’s still a few days left to catch the show at KK Outlet, and it’s all in aid of the St Bride Library.

Oh, and yes, my design was in the show, even if nobody noticed it due to bad Feng Shui. That’s my excuse anyway…