Tag: Edinburgh

Edinburgh Fonts

Fonts play an important role in shaping the identity of a city. New York Subway has its Helvetica and you can see Univers Bold Condensed all around London. Edward Johnston’s classic type, designed for the city’s underground system, is also recognisable by millions around the world.

We recently started Edinburgh Fonts, an Instagram project which explores Edinburgh’s fonts used around the city – from shop fronts to street and floor signs. As we’ve been living here for quite some time, we though it’d be a great way to find inspiration and help us discover new details around the streets of Edinburgh, the city we thought we knew so well.

We’d like this project to be as collaborative as possible so if you spot any interesting fonts around Edinburgh, you can submit them on Instagram and Twitter using #EdinburghFonts. We’re looking forward to receiving your submissions!

https://instagram.com/edinburghfonts

April 22, 2015
CreativeMornings/Edinburgh: Gerry Farrell

Gerry Farrell, former Creative Director at the Leith agency in Edinburgh and founder of Gerry Farrell INK spoke at CreativeMornings Edinburgh last month on the topic of ‘Ugly’. During his talk, Gerry shared some of the highs and lows of his creative career and challenged us to used his F.L.I.P philosophy when faced with a difficult situation. Feeling Less Immediately Pessimistic (F.L.I.P) is about understanding that every crises has different outcomes and consciously deciding “not to turn things ugly”.

Gerry believes that not being pessimistic can be a solution to creative problem solving and supports his theory with examples from his career in advertising. His talk was full of great advice for anyone working in the creative industries – from dealing with feedback, difficult briefs or unhappy clients – the decision is ours whether things going to work out or not. It’s easy to be cynical and work with the first idea that comes to our head but we need to study what’s out there and challenge it in order to produce better creative work.

Photos by: Eoin Carey
Video by: Future Positive Studio

March 5, 2015
Outwitting the weather with Joules

Tom Joule started British lifestyle brand Joules in 1989 designing colourful polo shirts. Throughout the years, Tom grew a customer base who appreciated the design and quality details in his clothing, and sold his products at country fairs across the UK. But when the foot-and-mouth crisis struck in 2001, Tom lost his main selling platforms due to many of these fairs closing down and decided to diversify Joules into a mail order business, growing the product range and later opening his first shop in Market Harborough, next to his father’s café.

Joule brought innovation and modern edge into the rather traditional countryside clothing market and today, Joules is one of Britain’s most loved lifestyle brands, producing clothing, accessories and homewares.

There are some great lessons to be learnt from Tom’s business story and his ability to innovate and adapt to change. That’s why we were excited when Joules approached us to ask if we wanted to test something from the men’s range. We picked the Rainier mac coat and the Ewan jumper, and took them with us on a morning off in Edinburgh.

We decided that the best way to test the clothes, and see if they could help us outwit the weather, was to wear them on a hike up Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh’s own dormant volcano from where you you can enjoy breathtaking views of the city. If you have visited Scotland in January, you probably know that the weather isn’t too pleasant around this time of the year, but despite the wind and cold temperatures, the Rainier coat and the Ewan jumper managed to keep us warm and let us enjoy the city views!

February 1, 2015
CreativeMornings/Edinburgh: Ian Sharman

CreativeMornings is a free, monthly breakfast lecture series for creative communities started in NYC by Tina Roth Eisenberg aka swissmiss,. Each event is free, and consists of an inspiring 20-minute talk plus free coffee.

The first CreativeMornings/Edinburgh kicked off last month with a lecture by Ian Sharman, designer and tutor at Edinburgh College of Art. Ian tackled the theme of Education, expoloring how future graduates view the transition from “creative education” into “industry” and how continuous learning is fast becoming a key requirement to their creative happiness.

We’re excited to be involved in organising CreativeMornings in Edinburgh and filming the lectures. We invite you take a look at the video from Ian’s talk below, especially the very interesting Q&A and discussion at the end.

Photos by Gemma Lord

January 14, 2015
Small Business Saturday – Edinburgh

Taking place on Saturday 6th December, Small Business Saturday is an initiative to support, inspire and promote small businesses on that date and beyond. This US-imported celebration hopes to give more visibility to the independent retailers that make the streets of each every city more vibrant and interesting.

Now on its second edition in the UK, we’ve wanted to support the campaign featuring some local entrepreneurs that have recently opened their own businesses in Edinburgh. We asked them what they enjoy the most about being a small business and we photographed them outside their stores, but we encourage you to pay them a visit and discover what they have to offer inside!

Richard Conway of Stag Espresso

Richard is the owner of Stag Espresso, an independent café operator with two venues in Edinburgh, Dovecot Café and the recently opened Stag 2 on Victoria St. The new location offers great coffee, cozy interiors and a small magazine shop run by Analogue Books.

“Autonomy is everything but power to choose other small businesses to work with is the best thing about running my own business. A friend who bakes our cakes now supplies cafés across Edinburgh, my dear friend Laura makes the best soup in town and our relationship with Analogue Books at Stag 2 is really important to me.

The second thing is unique to cafés. Standing behind the coffee machine listening to a group of regulars chatting about their week. A group that didn’t know each other until their morning coffee routine synced and now they catch up in their favourite spot every morning. It is the best part of my day, it’s immensely satisfying.”

Warburton Gallery India Buildings, Victoria St.

www.StagEspresso.com

Caroline Walsh of Archipelago Bakery

Caroline opened her own Bakery on Queen St just a couple of months ago. Focusing on natural and organic ingredients, Caroline works with other small businesses and supplies them with a healthier and more honest alternative to industrial bread.

“I am passionate about using organic flour and quality ingredients and making the bread by myself every day. I have done it every single day since I started [start at 5am and finishing at 4pm or sometimes 5pm…] but I love what I do and I have really loyal/wonderful customers who are the biggest reward. I am also trying to add a much healthier slant to all the lunch specials I do as there is a big of an obesity crisis going on in Scotland. I want to be able to do salads that are tasty and healthy but I don’t have the space for this yet.”

39 Queen Street

www.archipelagobakery.co.uk

Stephen Kirkwood of Century General Store

Stephen set up Century General Store a few months ago. This shop in Marchmont sells everyday products – from fresh bread and pastries to provisions, plants and magazines – with the hope to find their place within the strong tradition of independent traders in the area.

“The thing I enjoy most about running my own business is that I can push and test myself in ways you cannot when you are an employee for someone else. It’s a great feeling being able to create something from scratch and watch it grow and see where it takes you.”

100 Marchmont Crescent

www.centurygeneralstore.com

December 3, 2014