Everyday Cog

It’s that time of year again. Gráinne and Susan from Arts Council England popped in to talk about this year’s Annual Report design (our 3rd for them). They brought biscuits.

Ocky tries out his sea legs on The Great Map, the National Maritime Museum’s new installation, for which we’ve been doing some work recently

Nicola’s been getting her hands dirty. She’s painting some batons to finish off our new wall-to-wall pin-boards.

We celebrated our 22 year anniversary on Saturday. Usual tradition is to have a discussion and planning day around this time of year, so we headed down to sunny Kent, to Michael’s house, where we enjoyed a day of talking, planning and sunshine.

Jon has his guitar gear with him today, it’s a Fender Telecaster with Seymour Duncan Quarterpounders, through a limited edition Fender Deluxe valve amp, so we’re told.

Ross has been to the Commonwealth Foundation today. He’s been taking some measurements of their reception area, ready for the installation of the new wall graphics we’ve been working on.

On his way home, Ross stopped to watch the sunset over The Thames – it’s nice having a studio so close to the the water on evenings like this.

Ross went to ‘Museums Showoff’ – the regular ‘Open mic night for everyone who works in or loves museums’. He got to see 10 fast and furious 8-minute presentations, on all sorts of subjects.

Today was an all day planning meeting with Graham from Cast. Brian from Tincan led on the whiteboards.

We’ve been sent a Yellow Swan (number 000349) by designer Alessandra Caputi. It’s part of an experiment to see who far they fly. Follow their exploits: http://coglik.es/18fghnM

Jon and Ross have been building and photographing boxes for a project we are working on for The Beaney

Ross has been in Chelsea today, to see the exhibition that we’ve been working on with the RHS. It celebrates the centenary of the Flower Show in the form of a giant marquee, inside the great pavilion.

Gráinne and Susan from Arts Council England have been in, to see our work in progress on this year’s Annual Review (our third in a row).

Annelise has been to the DBA Effectiveness 365 Seminar. There were insightful talks from design agencies and clients about how to ensure design effectiveness is engrained into your business strategy and ensuring that it’s part of your everyday process.

Ocky’s been at the Charles Dickens Museum this morning, art directing photographer Andrea Artz as she shoots their upcoming marketing campaign.

Ross has been to the Hackney Downs ‘Open’ Studios evening. Alongside all of the exciting artwork on display, he spotted one of the ’Writing Britain’ exhibition guides that we designed for the British Library last Summer.

Last week, Annelise went to the DBA’s Design Effectiveness 365 seminar. Today she gave the Cog team a presentation, telling us what she learnt and what she found insightful.

On his way in to work this morning, Ross noticed a poster we designed for the Royal Museums Greenwich’s Alice Kettle exhibition.

Ross and Jonathan have been at the creative coal-face today. Tea goes in, ideas come out.

Michael spent most of the day on trains, to and from Bristol. In the hour in between he sat doodling in a very hot room.