To help celebrate Sean Walsh's birthday (director of Expedition Engineering), we were asked to produce a beer label.
We based the designs on the traditional look and feel – using flourishes around the label and hop illustrations, whilst the name of the beer (and possibly/hopefully future beers) was inspired by structural engineering terms. The idea is to link the wonderful terminology to the flavour of the beer to give an indication of what the beer will taste like.
So: Bench Mark = your traditional standard bearer (low percentage beer)
Other names we had passed around included:
Dragon Beam = a slightly hoppier tasting beer
Kicker = Very strong beer!
Shear Stud = Not for the faint hearted…
Etc etc..
Working alongside Think Up, thomas.matthews designed and created the Institution of of Structural Engineers' stand at this year's Big Bang fair. The stand encouraged kids that thinking, making, testing and playing are all exciting parts of a structural engineer's job.
Kids (of all ages) created structures of all kinds from the 1,500 octagon provided, some of the highlights including towers, bridges and even a Stegasaurus. For more images look here.
What will 2011 have in store for us all? For a lucky few the year will start with a lovely little present from us. Keep an eye out in the mail to see if you have received one.
We’re excited to be involved in branding the first selection of products from the newly formed Design Products Collection.
Working with Tord Boontje and Gareth Williams from the RCA we have created an identity that combines refined graphics (allowing the products to take centre stage) with commissioned poetry (inspired by the individuality of the products).
To find out more about the products visit the Royal College of Art exhibition (23 September – 7 October) or go to design products collection.
Our stationery is being showcased in an exhibition on new ideas and research on plant based materials. The tunnel entrance to the museum has been converted into a living greenhouse, inviting visitors to consider the relationship between design and the natural world.
Innovation Greenhouse is a project curated by Kingston University in partnership with the Design Museum and staged as part of the London Design Festival at the V&A (The London Design Festival runs from the 18–26th of September).
Our quirky shop made from recycled retail items and emergency relief equipment hopes to educate and inspire people to donate and upcycle.
If each UK household donated just one extra black bin bag of clothing, 25 million bags would be saved from landfill and over £740 million would be raised for charity. To discover how you can do more with your unwanted items go to www.redcross.org.uk
thomas.matthews invites you to the inaugural V&A Summer Camp.
A free two-day celebration of the virtues of self-reliance and resourcefulness, this year’s event offers opportunities for you to share your design knowledge and skills. Each tent is a creative hub where you can explore different design processes with leading designers, artists and makers.
Working with the V&A team and Mark Garside (Crystallise), thomas.matthews has produced the identity concept and graphic design for the Summer Camp. The concept came from 'un-picking' the design process and empowering the public to realise they knew more than they thought they did.
Our concept will interject the graphic design of the event programme – through annotation and design mark-ups, it will reveal the story that has lead to the making of the piece. i.e. from initial idea through to production.
The back of the programme opens up to reveal a poster framework. Using the information they have learnt from the programme and with various cues, tips and a clear grid, visitors are encouraged to make their own poster, reflecting on the event.
The event runs from Friday 30 July, 18:30–22:00 to Saturday 31 July, 13:00–17:00. So come along and be prepared to roll your sleeves up. Who knows – you might discover you know more than you think you do.
While in New York we spent a day at 'The Arm' letterpress and type foundry studio in Brooklyn. We created two prints and spent hours sifting through their amazing collections of type. Thanks to Mike for helping us out with the Vandercook SP-15 press that day and to the rest of the TM team for arranging it all.
Our very own super designer / illustrator / printmaker and all round good guy 50s style rocker, Mr Davo Waters wed the girl of his dreams, Rebecca in a superb event last Saturday. The team had a great knees up to celebrate with friends and family, we all wish the happy couple a wonderful honeymoon as they soak up the sun and coffee in the downtown of the Big Apple. Congratulations Davo and Rebecca!
We are excited to be helping to take the debate from the staffroom to Parliament – designing the campaign and raising the voice of teachers and lecturers above the party politics of education.
The Big Rig is a two-day construction event designed to encourage unskilled and unemployed Londoners to make the most of the employment opportunities in the burgeoning low-carbon construction sector – we designed identity and outputs, including event packs and information banners.
Over forty participants are given an array of low-carbon technologies – solar thermal water heaters, PV panels, super-insulation – and an three story scaffolding frame.
Working in teams they have two days to use the components to build a low-carbon all-weather shower facility.
We are looking for an inspiring and driven individual who can span strategic planning and resource management. We require someone with the entrepreneurial skills and experience to work with our Directors to discover and explore new business opportunities, instigate and cultivate client relationships and contribute to pitches.
As a dynamic, medium-sized studio, this role will not solely focus on developing new business, but encompass managing and expanding our existing portfolio of high quality projects.
We want someone who:
has exceptional communication, research and negotiation skills
is responsive and intellectually astute has at least 5 years experience (with proven account management and business development skills) and practical knowledge of the creative sector
is able to create, compose and edit written materials for pitches and presentations
has a strong grasp of of PM methodologies including budgeting, planning, managing, scheduling, project scoping and profitability
has an understanding of/ interest in sustainability
is interested in a full-time position
Please send your CV to studio@thomasmatthews.com
or to our Studio Manager at thomas.matthews, 8 Disney Street, London, SE1 1JF.
Last week’s Greenpeace newsletter had another one of their arresting headlines: “Activists are stopping climate destruction now! Early today 13 activists locked down cranes at one of the largest pulp and paper mills in the world.” With the UK still being a major importer of illegal timber and the global pulp and paper industry in the top 5 polluters, we cannot shrug off our industry’s part in this story.
Let’s look at the impact of print and no better place to start than with paper. No matter what your paper choice is, this will be a big chunk of the footprint for your piece of print.
Currently the overwhelming trend in sustainable print design is in specifying FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council, www.fsc.org)-accredited papers. This is miles better than a virgin stock (a paper stock with no recycled content) where there is no record of where the wood pulp has originated from – as is being highlighted by the Greenpeace campaign. What this ‘chain of custody’ system does not reflect is the carbon impact of paper, which is important when some FSC pulps are shipped from places like Brazil and ends up being a sizeable chunk of your print’s carbon footprint. By choosing a post-consumer recycled paper stock you can bring down your carbon footprint from between 30% up to a whopping 70%. Imagine the size of the Daily Mirror’s footprint if their newsprint wasn’t from a recycled stock sourced in the UK.
With this in mind it was interesting but ultimately disappointing to read in last week’s Printweek environmental newsletter that the paper company UPM will be supplying 9 million sheets of copy paper to the United Nation’s Climate Change talks in Copenhagen. My disappointment does not come from the choice of company; UPM’s credentials have rigorous environmental targets. My dismay originates from the type of paper chosen. UPM’s ‘Future’ grade (with a strapline that states ‘the best future ever’) seems to have good creds when it comes to chain of custody, including FSC, PEFC and the EU Eco-labels so no wood pulp from Indonesia. But why, when the eyes of the world watch and scrutinise this conference, would you default back to a virgin paper stock? Surely this would be one place where we could exemplify the great qualities of a paper that has been out in the world before and has returned as a new white (though maybe not ultra blue-white) stock, ready to be recycled into a new stock again. And following this how satisfying would it be to receive a piece of paper knowing that it had been recycled from the past papers of this conference, that had fulfilled its work relaying all the important information with clarity and when it had done its task had been recycled and remade ready for its next important job. Future paper’s specification is literally blinding – “an ultra-smooth, high-white paper for accurate and dazzling colour reproduction” with as far as I can see not a jot of recycled content contained within it.
Here at t.m we are continuously amazed how some of our more enlightened clients that boast extensive environmental management policies do not extend such regulations through to their marketing and print. It may seem to be a small issue swimming among the bigger fish but it’s the one that most will see. It must, more than anything, set the sustainable benchmark as a standard and show that companies hold true to their environmental ambitions even through to their choice of paper.
Knowing what I do about the energy cost of virgin paper and the potential saving from using a post-consumer stock, and adding concern by campaign groups like Greenpeace, I wonder what kind of message they are sending with this choice. I imagine there are other economics involved here as 9 million A4 sheets constitutes a lot of paper (and water – an average sheet of A4 paper can contain up to 10 litres of the stuff), but is it really crucial to have such a high specification?
In the end it seems to come down to why whiteness is so important. I am left wondering if this paper was chosen as part of a secret plan that renders the conference delegates so blinded by the frightening statistics printed on this ultra white paper stock that they are moved to take immediate and drastic action to halt global melt down. I hope so.
Ration Me Upis a monthly Carbon Ration Book created by The Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It (and designed by thomas.matthews). It was launched at NEF's 'the Bigger Picture Festival of Independence' in October and is on its way to Copenhagen for the Climate summit in December. www.theministryoftryingtodosomethingaboutit.org
There was a time when such a Ministry and such a book needed not to exist – but that day has passed.
Now, at the end of the first decade in the 21st Century we are speeding towards troubled times and uncertain futures. But it is times like these that demand us to come together with a united response so that we can attempt to limit the damage of many wasteful years. If we now try to put right our wrongs, tea can be drunk and life can be enjoyed once again.
In anticipation we have prepared this monthly ration book to teach each us all of the true cost of our day to day necessities and habits. We recommend that you become accustomed to its content and tasks associated with calculating your monthly carbon usage. For it may well be that in the future, if we do stand true to our country’s commitment of reducing our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, such rationing will be enforced.
The upcoming years may be painful and troublesome but if we use this book as a tool to remind us that action must be taken now, by government, by business, by countries, by all, then we stand a chance of happiness. Use it to evaluate your life, use it to lobby your government, use it as a reminder that doing absolutely nothing is no longer an option.
Stand strong and save.
Yours,
Sophie Thomas
A Minister for the Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It
The Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It are:
Clare Patey – Artist
thomas.matthews – Communication design
Cathy Wren – Installation Designer
Dr Victoria Johnson – Research
Corrina Cordon – Project Manager nef
Jonathan Atkinson – Project development and management
Jenny Hayton – Costume Advisor
Tim Mitchell – Construction
The Useful Simple Trust launched with a big party at the Village Underground last Thursday. The great and the good came together under a large domed light to help us celebrate and hear more about the venture.
We created a series of limited edition prints based around the usefulness of a simple orange bowl. Members of the studio were invited to contribute by either illustrating, screenprinting or letterpressing on top of the bowl image to create something amazing.
Useful Simple is a trail-blazing endeavour. It operates through pioneering design projects, as innovators in design education, and through real-world activities in sustainability and communication. It offers an alternative to profit focused, socially unaware business models and opens the door to the new and the good.
The Useful Simple Trust is an employee benefit trust. So far it comprises 45 beneficiaries, 7 trustees and 3 companies: thomas.matthews, Expedition Engineering and Think Up.
With an exciting programme of speakers tackling design and sustainability you can't afford to miss this year's LDF sustainability hub free event. One week to go, and places are filling up!
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