Thought this would be the perfect date to share one of my all-time favourite pieces of packaging. I’ve had it quite a few years now, and picked it up at my local Budgens, so I have no idea who was responsible. It certainly makes a change from the usual flimsy string bag – and shows eloquently how tapping into a shared mythology can add character and humour, even to a humble bulb of garlic. The gradiated colour, gothic type and creative folding techniques are great. The die-cut crucifix lifts it into the realms of pure genius.

I’ve just realised the past three posts have all been a tad ghoulish. Pure co-incidence, I assure you. ’Scuse me... just off for a quick pint of the red stuff.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Design Week jury service.


Gown… check. Wig… check. Nose for a winner… check. 

Jim will once again be taking his place as one of the judges for this year’sDesign Week Awards. He’ll be working on the Print jury for two days in early December with a brief to take a close look at the overall standard of writing. 

It’s always a real eye-opener to take a look back at the year’s best print graphics as a body of work. Having tables and tables of work spread out before you can be daunting, but it’s a rare opportunity to see trends emerging and to measure one piece against another. In these tough economic times, it will be interesting to see whether designers are managing to pull out the stops creatively to compensate for smaller production budgets. There will certainly be no hiding behind extravagant print techniques and fancy finishes. It’s back to basics time – which in some ways is no bad thing.

Other jurors this year include friends to totalcontent like Malcolm Garrett,Adrian Shaughnessy and Sea’s Bryan Edmondson, as well as design industry luminaries including Simon Waterfall, Apple’s Harriet Devoy and Boots’ Jon Turner. You can find full details here, and the winners will be revealed at London’s Hilton Hotel on 2 March 2010.

If you’ve visited the ‘recently’ section of this website of late, you’ll know that we’ve finally decamped to a sleek new studio directly underneath our previous space (and just a short hop and skip from our bedroom).

As it happened, we also inadvertently created our first piece of external branding for the totalcontent franchise. Look carefully at the photo on the right and see if you can guess where we’re probably beavering away as we speak. The clue’s most definitely in the colour.

A new chapter in the totalcontent story. After months of chaos, mess, electricians, decorators, trips to the tip and furniture deliveries, we have finally moved into our shiny new space downstairs. The commute from bedroom to work is now a mere four paces. 

With a view of autumn-kissed lime trees and the town’s 12th century church spire, we’re calling it the studio, because we hope our creative juices will get truly fired up in there. The colour scheme – you may not be surprised to hear – is white with bright splashes of orange. Just a few pictures to hang and we’ll be right at home. 

Many thanks to the multi-talented Tony, our highly obliging next-door neighbour, for 24-hour tech-support and the all-action photo.