DownsideUpDesign

After a CreativeMornings Christmas/New Year break, it gives me enormous pleasure to introduce our first speaker for 2012, David Barrie.

In an era where we’re exhorted to be more active in our communities but struggle -perhaps through lack of practice, perhaps due to a lack of suitable infrastructure- David’s been building the platforms and imparting the knowledge to bring communities back together.

His passionate drive for participative urban regeneration has seen projects launched all over the country, successfully harnessing the latent creativity and capability of citizens to bring about positive change.

With a continued focus on how the creative sector can make a positive contribution to broader society, something that Chris Bangle riffed on at CreativeMornings/London August, David’s sure to make another great contribution to the dialogue.

Read our usual interview with David below and make sure to set your alarms for 11:00 am on Monday, January 23 to secure your tickets.

David Barrie will be appearing at CreativeMornings/London on Friday January 27th at Buro Happold at at 71 Newman St, W1T 3AH. For more information and to reserve tickets, please go to the CreativeMornings London Eventbrite page.

Read the rest of this entry »

If austerity is all the rage, someone forgot to tell the manufacturers of city runabouts. Aston Martin’s much-maligned £35k Cygnet -based on the humble £10k Toyota iQ- is just starting to hit the streets. It’s also available in an even more exclusive Colette edition.

The amusingly named Fiat Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari has been terrorising residents of Belgravia since late last year at an unamusingly steep £30k.

And the £11k Fiat 500 on which the Tributo is based is now available in a Gucci edition for a £5k premium.

Even Citroen is in on the act with the Orla Kiely-fettled edition of their quasi-premium DS3.

It doesn’t stop there, however.

Having the last laugh -as is so often the case in the Automotive world- are the Germans.

BMW Group brands Rolls Royce and Mini recently had a pash behind the bike shed and produced the Mini Inspired by Goodwood.

What do you get for your £25k premium over a standard £16k Mini? Leather, leather (everywhere), walnut veneers made at the Rolls Royce plant in Goodwood, “deep-shag” carpets and the smug satisfaction that, if you hadn’t worked it out already, you’re one of 1000 willing to pay £41,000 for a Mini.

Downsized luxury is everywhere these days; nary a day goes by when a report crosses my desk telling me that, despite the economic uncertainty, people are still enjoying luxuries, just in smaller portions. Now consumers can do it with their cars. Just don’t expect it to come cheap.

Since 2007, creative types in New York have been attending Creative Mornings, an event organised by the effervescent Tina Roth Eisenberg a.k.a. SwissMiss. These free sessions combine an inspiring 20 minute presentation (previous speakers include Milton Glaser and Khoi Vinh) with 20 minutes of conversation over coffee and bagels to kick-start the day.

Drew watched with envy as the concept rolled out to L.A., San Francisco and Zurich and wondered why there wasn’t something like it in London. To put his envy to bed, he made a really dodgy video with Raj and pleaded with Tina to let him be the host of the London chapter.

And so it was.

With the first session kicking off in July (date TBC), we’re really looking forward to welcoming the London creative community to the Sense Worldwide loft for a chat, a coffee and a Bruno’s Bacon Butty.

If you’d like to come along or get involved as a speaker or a helper, please email Drew (drewpasmith at senseworldwide dot com) with CMLDN in the subject line. We’re keen to have the talks move around in London, so if you’d like to offer up your venue, get in touch too!

In between the madness of the Christmas/New Year period and jetting off to Detroit for the NAIAS today (that’s North American International Auto Show for the uninitiated) I managed to find time to see a rather lovely little exhibition down Hoxton way.

You know the feeling well: your stomach starts grumbling, calling you to a fantabulous feast as the sun sails through its zenith. You want to relent and break free for the outside world, happy for the brief respite from your toil that lunch would provide.