A little piece of Farm in the crazy City of London

Locally sourced food is ever present in today’s market place with everyone from Tesco to Jaime claiming such support for our countries producers. And some clearly do it better than others as traceability has recently shown.

In to this already established ring enter the Farm Collective. Representing in the green corner ‘the new movement in food’, FC promotes itself as using UK sourced food to provide its customers with fresh, natural, and good quality food.

The difference with FC is that they are very clear about who they buy from and are very vocal and proud of their suppliers. As the name suggests, they have a Collective of suppliers who have to fulfil a set criteria proving their ‘UK’ness’, commitment to animal welfare and the exclusion of nasties in their produce.

And having just visited the new addition to the trendy streets of Farringdon I must say, I was impressed. Greeted by friendly staff that clearly love working there, I was tempted to try the ‘Best sausage roll in London supplied by a nice lady called Kitty’. To quote the esteemed Borat, all I have to say is “Wawa Wee wa!”

The space itself is nicely kitted out with a sense that these guys really believe in what they are doing rather than just recreating a craze. The bright flashes of colour against the heritage colours and natural materials really helps make it jump out to any passing customer and the food is just there in front of you without any fuss.

Definitely one to go see and watch out for. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more from Farm Collective over the next few years.

A New Chapter

It's Saturday afternoon in London and I'm in Waterstones Piccadilly. Although it seems busy, very few people have bags and there seems a reluctance to buy and even interact. Some people seem to be buying something specific, others look like they are being dragged round. The general atmosphere seems tense and nervy.

Why is this? Why have bookstores lost their personality, their interest and their intrigue?

Well Amazon certainly hasn't helped. Online book sales are high and the technology-friendly consumer is loving cheaper books with the 'ease-at-home' style of shopping. With instant emails at sale time and recommendations on that next book internet brands are the VHS to the cinema right now.

So what's next for the high street stores? Borders have sold their UK arm. Waterstones, owned by the HMV group still have the biggest share in the market place but are struggling to maintain this in todays tough economy and the independents are falling victims to the Tesco of the world.

Is now the time for a fundamental change?

Books are a wonderful extensions of our imagination. They allow us to escape to another world, to create our own 'in-head-cinemas' and have endless opportunities. So why not embrace this and design a store based on this excitement and intrigue and make the book store of tomorrow a destination that attracts all and stimulates our senses?

We have asked ourselves these questions and tackled the challenge head on and found that there are so many new ways that the bookstore of the future could reinvent itself.

Our customer research has shown that people still love the tactile nature of a physical book but they come up against many obstacles that stop them from buying in store. We need to breakdown these barriers and as we enter the Wisdom Generation, people combined with technology will be the answer.

By embracing this combination of people and new technologies stores will have a clear point of difference over the online retailers and they will help us all to access the plethora of titles on those shelves. Combining personalities with new technologies such as QR codes (an easy way to contain information in such a small bar-code-like square) would be a great way to tell customers more about a book.

Social media allows us to instantly access millions of people and many of those people are happy to give recommendations and advice to help customers buy that next, right book.

And rather than going against products like the Kindle, take it head-on and provide opportunities to embrace the change and plug-in in store.

And there are so many more!

Many of these new opportunities have been worked in to a conceptual project at The Yard Creative titled A New Chapter. By exploring customers needs and demands we have identified a totally new way to engage with books in the real world.



All we need now is a client who wants to fight back and take the next step to help us all find that next great book!

By Steve

Urban Picnic pops UP again

Last month saw the opening of yet another UP unit in Vauxhall, the third to be opened in London.

The Urban Picnic is a great concept aimed at customers with medium to high disposable income and little time to cook a decent evening meal. With meal boxes from Morocco, Italy and Turkey the idea is simple - good quality, well balanced food that is is either cold and ready to eat or hot options that you take home and throw in the oven.

Offering chilled wine to make a completely delightful evening meal it makes UP the perfect cheat for serving a gorgeous meal from home and passing it off as 'something you just rustled UP'.

So next time you're passing and thinking of grabbing a bite to eat on the way home, try UP and be pleasantly surprised.

Sushi is the new fast food

In an NHS study published this year 90% of men and 92% of women said that 'healthy eating isn't just another fad' but government predictions have suggested there will be a rise in levels of obesity in the future, such that by 2025 almost half of men and over a third of women in the UK are predicted to be obese.

There was a time, not long ago, when all you could buy to eat 'on the go' was a cheese burger or a stodgy sandwich but now there's a gradual shift towards more healthy fast food. Wasabi in Waterloo station has just opened with a fresh, bright design, made memorable with it's splashes of lime green and a beautifully designed staircase which takes up almost half of the tiny unit.



Further out of town, and just down the road from our offices, is Sushi_n at Wimbledon station. A more natural, cosy interior using timber but with the same selection of single wrapped sushi parcels and a hot counter selling bento. Something both places could have thought about though is using sustainable, natural packaging, like bamboo boxes to take the food back to it's Japanese roots.

Sushi also embraces the 'miniturisation' trend of bite sized nutrition, so chances are it will become more and more popular in the future and pave the way for new mini foods. I'm sure our fast pace lifestyles won't change but hopefully with more healthy fast food options out there we can try and prove those Government stats wrong!

By Emily