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Fear not, Trisha or Jeremy Kyle aren’t in the Toucan studio, this post is about the Creative - Client relationship (thankfully)! Having just watched a very interesting talk by Mike Monteiro of Mule Design Studio in San Francisco called ‘F*ck You, Pay Me’ I thought I’d summarise what I’d got out of it, in the hope that it might help designers and clients forge more solid working relationships and avoid the situations where Mike’s words might have cause to be uttered. Now, as you may guess, Mike talked about various problem phrases that creative agencies often face after design work has been commissioned. These included: “We ended up not using the work” “We got some-one internal to do it instead” “It’s not what we wanted after all” “The project is being cancelled” And the list goes on… So how do projects end up getting to this stage? Here, we need to remember that people enter into a relationship with the best of intentions, no-one purposefully sets out to be difficult.  The fac...

It goes without saying that we live in a time of unprecedented change. Technology is moving so fast it is hard for any of us to keep up – the techies and nerds included! With so many options and communication tools at our disposal, how does one make a good choice? Every two months or so, I take part in an informal discussion group called ThinkLab ( http://thinklabuk.wordpress.com ) The group is made up of business leaders, academics, creatives and technologists, and discussions centre around the effect of new and emerging technologies upon the individual, business , education and government. In short, it aims to evaluate and reflect upon the rapid changes that technology is having upon society in general. I’m sure that I’m not the only one present who feels a bit of a Ludite whilst taking part in these discussions. Change is never easy, it is always challenging and can be de-stabilising for even the most forward-thinking individual. For the business leader new technology presents a b...

In an ever changing industry, new issues and challenges are constantly emerging. At Toucan, we're aiming to embrace these, and in the important case of sustainability in design, we are striving to create projects that are inspiring yet responsible, with the future always in mind! We believe in creating innovative and long-term design solutions for you- our lovely clients and friends. We've developed the framework below based around the four E’s of sustainability to ensure that issues are carefully considered within every design project. Education A relevant concern is the issue of professionals thinking for the short term, rather than adopting long-term design strategies. Short-term thinking may provide immediate design solutions, however, the resilience and strength of the concept can become limited over time.             Our proposal for improving this approach is to continually educate and encourage professionals to focus on...