Sammi's leaving to go back to Uni!

I’ve had an excellent year at The Yard Creative. My skills and knowledge have tripled due to some fantastic teaching, time and effort that has been put in to making my Placement a success. I feel the London experience at The Yard has helped me to grow as a person and inspired me to go on to produce exciting, innovative, customer focused design.

The Yard has given me some great opportunities this year and I’ve had the chance to get involved in some really exciting projects from every aspect start to finish. I’d just like to say a big thank you to Steve and all of the team and wish them all the best in the future.

A new Breed

The first Breed store has opened in Covent Garden's Thomas Neals Centre opposite its older brother Superdry. Pitched as a younger, more streetwise brand, the store has kept the urban feel of the arched space with concrete floors and a black backdrop.

All of this allows the bold, striking clothing to do its thing and battle it out against each other to grab your attention. The store has a good feel to it. With urban music setting the scene and good merchandising it is a nice experience.

But you feel that it's lacking something unique. Especially when you look at the website and see the quirky locations of the fashion shoot - you almost want that power generator bang smack in the middle of the store! At least then it would have that 'white piano' - that one thing that everyone remembers and uses to tell their friends about this fantastic new store.

Hopefully the brand continues to do well and we'll see if they start to have as much fun with their stores as they do with their clothing.

All tie'd up

At times like these its hard to open your first store. But that hasn't stopped the newest tie concept store to hit the streets of London!

Peckham Rye has been selling ties to the rich and famous for 4 years and now they have opened their new store on Newbury Street. Just off Carnaby street, the small store is simply but effective with friendly staff on-hand to help out.

Past customers include Busta Rhymes, Dizzee Rascal, Terrance Conran, Bond and now some of the staff here at The Yard Creative!

Go have a look and let us know what you think. We'll be adding it to our What's New tours for sure!

www.peckhamryelondon.com

What's this? - futuristic, driverless pods straight out of Basildon...

So what's this all about?

Fantabulous looking pods driving themselves around with their own little brains to help us get from A to B, quicker, easier and in a more environmentally-friendly manner - sounds too good to be true!

As it turns out these 'Personal rapid transport pods' are the latest innovation in the Science museum's celebration of 100 years of transport and are being installed at T5 as the new way to get from car parks to terminals. They work using a complex array of lazers, sensors and complex calculations to ensure they get you from A to B quickly and safely.


Yesterday saw the first of its 3 day appearance at the Science Museum as part of a celebration of 100 years of transport. The pod is the last of the innovations in the exhibition and demonstrates how a little bit of abstract thought can revolutionise the way we live our lives.

Congratulations to those chaps over in Basildon for creating a piece of history!

Can the Virtual become Physical?

We have seen many brands that originated in the physical world migrate and expand in to the virtual world of online and succeed - supermarkets, travel agents, insurance brokers, even banks.

Is it possible the other way round though? I can't think of anyone who has done this yet and succeeded.

But perhaps that's because society hasn't been ready for this flip back to a real-time, hands-on approach. Perhaps we're all too busy enjoying the wonders of global, instant access, to be ready to jump in the car and drive to town for a piece of retail therapy.

Yet trends shows us that everything goes round in circles. And just may be, now is the right time. With high street units empty and agents desperate to fill them, now could be the right time for a virtual repositioning and online to enter the real-time arena.

With the likes of ASOS posting profits of 93% growth today (well-done ASOS!) perhaps they could become tomorrows TopShop? Think about it. A brand that has turned the fashion industry upside down, changed how we buy our clothes and even encouraged men to buy from an online catalogue - why not?!

We're not saying they simply need to open a store and it will be good times all round. Quite the opposite. But what if they were to approach designing a store in the same innovative way as they launched there website. What if they were to totally change the way we buy in store, what then?

Could they, and others do it? It's a massive challenge, but we'd love to make it work!

Real Eco super model

To rival Steve's blog on the low-carbon lorries... here's the Scorpion, a hydrogen fuel injected sports car.



Basically 'it generates water from from the inbuilt tank, turns it into hydrogen and then injects it into the cars system'. It's carbon emissions are reduced by 75% and fuel millage is increased by between 20-40%!! Plus the design looks super slick, proving eco-friendly doesn't have to mean unattractive design. The Scorpion's just had it's European debut at Top Marques in Monaco so hopefully we might see it in over here soon...

Bee uber-local

The discovery that legendary food retailer Fortnum & Mason (F&M) produces and sells honey from the bees kept on its roof left us amazed and in awe. What a great idea and resourceful approach to sustainable food production!

The palatial beehives were created for the Carniolan bees and were orignally located in Shropshire, circa. 2005/06. The superior domiciles are now located on the roof of the iconic building at 181 Piccadilly.

F&M say that "they (the bees) fly high above Mayfair, visiting the grounds, gardens and squares of the best addresses in London, gathering rather superior nectar. The first batch of Fortnum's rooftop honey will be unusually fine, thanks to the wide variety of flora in the immediate vicinity, and the pollen from numerous chestnut and lime trees."

Images care of Fortnum & Mason.