Got some time for tea?

Tea Infographic: Fun facts about tea!

‘Ahhh’ tea, nothing seems to hit the spot quite like it, not for the Brits anyway, especially us Yorkshire folk. In the office, a couple of us can’t live without a good brew; it just makes us feel better, especially if it has been a particularly stressful day! In fact, it seems like a lot of you share our love for tea, so go grab yourself a cuppa and read all about the stuff that gets us through the day!







Yorkshire - the past, present and future of tea

Lu Lin's cubed teabags.

So, if you think of Yorkshire and tea, you think of two things; Yorkshire Tea and Betty’s. Would you be as surprised as me to find out they are owned by the same people?! Betty’s bought Taylors of Harrogate, (who make Yorkshire Tea), in the 1960’s and they have been working together ever since to create the perfect afternoon tea experience. Who is Betty you may ask? Well we don’t know, and they don’t know either, but what we do know is that if you are looking for some high-class afternoon tea, you will struggle to find somewhere better! But if you do want to shop around, Yorkshire does have it’s very own tea trail that can be found here.

Carnation Blooming Tea.

Although the traditional afternoon tea is lovely, tea seems to be moving forward somewhat. No longer are English Breakfast and Earl Grey the only variations we have heard of. Green tea, white tea, even blooming tea are now on our radar. Especially ours here at UBD, we work with a fantastic company called Lu Lin Teas, who specialise in Chinese Teas. Their futuristic looking cubed tea bags show how something so traditional is able to move with the times, and their blooming teas are a real showstopper!

Not since the 1990’s, when PG released the pyramid tea bag has there been significant innovation to enhance the flavour of bagged tea. While researching the pyramid PG even considered using a top hat shape!

Finished your brew yet? Good, so have we, and it’s about time we put the kettle back on! Leave us a comment telling us about your favourite tea.



Sources of information: 
http://www.lulin-teas.com/
http://www.tea.co.uk/teafacts
http://www.taylorsofharrogate.com/about-us/taylors-history.asp
http://www.yorkshire.com/what-to-do/delicious/delicious-tea-trail
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_tea_con-food-tea-consumption
http://www.tea.co.uk/tea-glossary-and-faqs
http://www.bettys.co.uk/About_Bettys/The_Bettys_Story.aspx
http://www.pgtips.co.uk/timeline/

Selfridge’s ‘No Noise’ Campaign- Proving the power of branding?

A screen shot of the 'no noise' website.

Have you been watching ‘Mr. Selfridge’ on ITV1? It’s been fascinating to learn about the rise of the department store, and about the characters that you could have found there. Harry Gordon Selfridge was a pioneer of his time, bringing the UK a retail experience they had never had before. It even included a bargain basement.

Selfridge strip it back to basics

Fast-forward to now, 113 years later, and Selfridges is still aiming to inspire and capture attention, the same way that Mr. Selfridge himself did when he installed the first aeroplane to cross water in the department store in 1909. That stunt attracted over 150,000 visitors! 

When Selfridges originally opened, Mr. Selfridge included a silence room for shoppers to escape from the hustle and bustle of the store. This year this room has been reinstated as part of Selfridges ‘No Noise’ campaign. Selfridges believe that we are becoming more and more bombarded with information such as advertising and branding, and have therefore collaborated with some of the world’s most recognisable brands. They have asked these brands to remove their logos from some of their best-known products in order to create a ‘Quiet Shop’, a shop free from branding.

Successful silence? Or screaming louder?

Still looks branded to us!

Although this is a great idea, and it is indeed true that we are now constantly attacked by information left, right and centre, we can’t help but question the success of this campaign. Sure, it’s lovely to have somewhere to relax on a busy shopping day, and escape from the crowds, but is buying a tin of beans that doesn’t say Heinz, yet still has their signature image on, sticking fingers up at branding? We think not.


It’s branding and novelty that make this campaign interesting. You wouldn’t go out of your way to buy an unbranded tin of Value beans, so why would you pay £1.99 for a Heinz tin? Brand recognition, that’s why. You look at the Heinz tin and think, “oh that’s quirky, it might even be collectable one day”, and that’s because it’s a recognised brand! It doesn’t have to say Heinz for you to know what it is; the Levi’s 501s they are selling don’t have to say they are Levi’s, because you already know.

Can you tell if this one is Heinz?

Good branding brings power. All the brands involved in this campaign can still be recognised without their logos, it wouldn’t work if it were any other way. So to say these products are ‘de-branded’ is not strictly true. It’s not just the logo that makes your brand, it’s the colours, the shape of the packaging, the graphics; it’s everything. And that’s what all these brands have in common, you recognise everything about them. Strip it back to a plain old can and then tell us if you can spot the difference! You couldn’t, and that’s why they won’t. 


Don’t get us wrong, we think this campaign is fun, different, and has certainly served it’s purpose, it captured UBD’s attention and got us talking about it. But rather than making things ‘quieter’, it’s really only proved that the information we are bombarded with really does stick, and taking the logo’s off a few products isn’t going to undo that. It’s just going to make people work harder to challenge, and be as successful as, the ‘big guns’, so one day they can take their logo off their product and the masses will recognise it too. And that keeps us in work!
What do you think, serious campaign or a fun and quirky way to get people talking even more about branding?


Information and images from:
http://www.selfridges.com/en/StaticPage/Our+Heritage/
http://www.georgianhousehotel.co.uk/london-shopping/selfridges.asp
http://nonoise.selfridges.com/
http://www.sxc.hu/

Yorkshire's Baa-rmy for Wool!

As we currently sit in the studio and watch the snowflakes get bigger and bigger, thoughts turn to our ‘winter woollies’, those lovely thick and snugly jumpers you save for the coldest of times. According to the weather forecast, the worst is still yet to come, so the UK will be wrapping up en masse to brave the cold. Luckily for Yorkshire we have a lot of sheep, and recently have been ramping up our wool production.




Yorkshire supplies the 'big players'


Now, you may think "wool is itchy and boring and outdated", but let me tell you, our humble county has been supplying wool to Vivienne Westwood, Burberry, Paul Smith and Topshop, as well as some fine British suit makers, and has even starred at Fashion Weeks all over the world! The latest appearance of Yorkshire’s wool came with the brand ToBeFrank at London Collections: Men, the male version of fashion week. ToBeFrank’s wool jumpers are hand spun and handmade in Malton, Yorkshire by Shepherdess Sue Wiles, who also sheers the sheep herself. Talk about knowing your supply chain!

A cold water surf company in Cornwall, Finisterre, have a similar set up, using a rare breed of sheep called the Bowmont that produce the British equivalent of Merino wool. They work with Lesley Prior, the owner of the last herd of this breed in Britain, and succeed in having a 100% British supply chain (the spinning takes place in Yorkshire!), providing a high quality surf accessory line.

According to Engineering & Technology Magazine, British wool production increased by 12% in 2011, and wool mills such as Laxton’s, Saltaire, have reopened and modernised in order to feed the demand for home grown wool products, including carpets, upholstery and even all the uniforms for the British Empire! They have also supplied Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs, emphasising the range of wools they can produce. These mills are all about listening to their clients, creating fibres they can work with for specific purposes.

The likes of the developing nations do not have the ability or the technology to compete with the skills we have here in Britain, making these mills an invaluable asset to many industries within and outside the UK. Abraham Moon, another wool mill in the Saltaire area, has been the likes of Dolce & Gabanna and Ralph Lauren for over 175 years. That’s a lot of wool and a lot of fashion!

Wool and the wider world

No matter how fickle the world gets, wool will always be there. It’s sustainable, renewable, eco-friendly and innovative, it’s now been used in sportswear, as well as suiting, and in its traditional knitted form. Companies such as Baa Ram Ewe, based in Leeds, strive to put the UK, in particular Yorkshire, back at the heart of the world of wool, and actively promote the use of British wool through evens such as Yorkshire Wool Week.
 
Here at UBD we’re quite proud that Yorkshire’s woolly heritage is been rejuvenated for the current world market. We’re proud that Yorkshire is listening to what the world wants and is able to provide the perfect products through skill and technology. Listening is a key skill across all business sectors, including ours, and we believe that it is though listening that long-lasting business relationships are formed.

The snow has stopped for now, phew! We hope you manage to stay nice and warm through this freezing weather, if you find yourself snowed in, perhaps give knitting a try, and tweet us what you make. If knitting is not your thing tweet us about the snow, or anything else for that matter!


Information from:
http://www.tbfrank.com/to-be-made/ http://www.finisterreuk.com/shop/mens/clothing/mens-bowmont project.html
http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2013/01/09/best-bits-of-london-collections-men/ 
http://www.laxtons.com/ 
http://www.moons.co.uk/amoon.asp?areaID=2 
 E&T Magazine October 2012, January 2013 
http://www.baaramewe.co.uk/our-story-z-1.html 

Images from: 
http://www.sxc.hu/

York's Affair with Chocolate

Some of the lovely Choc Affair products

Now, we know it’s the New Year, and you’re all probably trying not to think about the abundance of chocolate you have scoffed over the past few weeks, but we’d like to draw your attention back to that yummy goodness. In particular, York’s chocolate..

We have the pleasure of working with Choc Affair, a wonderful Fair Trade chocolate company based in our lovely city. They hand make and amazing array of chocolate products that definitely get our mouth’s watering. And this got us thinking, how and when did York’s affair with chocolate actually begin?
 
Sweet Beginnings

The blue Kit Kat (1942)

York’s first fling began as far back as 1725 with a lady called Mary Tuke, whose grocery shop was sold to the Rowntree family in 1862. Since then the company has been responsible for household names such as KitKat, (a studio favourite!), Smarties and Polos. Part of the success of the brand was down to a man called George Harris, who used then ‘American’ promotional methods: product development, advertising and branding, to bring those household names to life. Amazing how something that we now practise everyday was such a new concept less than 100 years ago!

Although Nestlé bought Rowntree’s in 1988, the name ‘Rowntree’ still means a lot to the city of York. Rowntree Park provides a beautiful green space for residents and tourists alike, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation helps the UK’s poverty stricken, homeless, and aging populations.

The lesser known Chocolate Lemon and Chocolate Apple

Another chocolate-fuelled romance was budding in 1823 when Joseph Terry entered the York scene. His son, Joseph Terry Jnr was responsible for the ever-popular Chocolate Orange and the somewhat lesser known Chocolate Apple and Chocolate Lemon! Kraft took over Terry’s in 1993, but the brands that the nation still love live on, and will always be mine, not Terry’s, (let us know if you remember those adverts!








The present and the future

Nowadays chocolate is much a part of York as it was back then. Although Terry’s has left, Nestlé remains in the original Rowntree’s Factory and still employs around 1800 people and produces approximated 1 billion Kit Kats a year!

Although York still seduces some of the big brands, it’s the independent, artisan chocolatiers that really give York its title as the ‘home of chocolate’, and keeps the sweet stuff firmly in our hearts. York Cocoa House combines a shop, café and school run by Sophie, a lifelong chocolate lover, who wants to share her passion with the world. Also, Monk Bar Chocolatiers, a family run company, has been making high quality handmade chocolates within the walls since 1999.

Want to learn more about York’s cocoa dusted past? All of the city’s flirtations with various chocolate companies can now be found in York’s very own chocolate museum: York’s Chocolate Story. It even has a ‘chocolate bar’ where you can really indulge; cakes, choctails, and hot chocolate are just a few of the treats they have on offer.

So there you have it, we think it’s fair to say that York has a very chocolaty past, present, and probably future. All that talk of chocolate made you hungry? Go on, have a break, have a Kit Kat, you know you want to!


Information and images from:
http://www.choc-affair.com/
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/rowntree-co-chocolate-manufacturers
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/joseph-terry-sons-chocolate-manufacturers
http://www.scribd.com/doc/78692048/TERRYS-Timeline-of-Brand-Milestones
http://www.bq-magazine.co.uk/success-story/york/y13-ss2/
http://www.yorkcocoahouse.co.uk/
http://www.monkbar.com/
http://www.yorkschocolatestory.com/

New Year, New Blog, New Beginnings

The New Year brings with it exciting times for us at United By Design. For a start, as you can see, we have a new blog!

So you’ve found us here, what can you expect? Well, we plan to showcase some of our lovely clients to you, as well as share our thoughts and feelings on current trends and goings on in design, and the wider world.

2013 brings refreshed ambition and bigger projects, something that we are embracing and looking forward to, and we hope you will stick around to be part of this journey with us! Our new Pinterest boards, Linkedin and Google + pages, as well as our Facebook and Twitter will also help to keep you up to date with what’s going on in the studio, so please make sure you like / follow / are connected to us! Our new website will be with you around the end of February too, so keep an eye out for that.

Don’t worry though! All this moving forward does not mean we have lost sight of what is important. Our commitment to our clients, and listening to their needs, will always be at the core of what we do. Us cropping up left, right and centre in your social media sphere will mean you have even more ways to get in touch with us. So we want you do just that, share your thoughts on this blog, point us in the direction of things you think may interest us, tell us what is new with you!

We hope that 2013 is already treating you nicely and that you feel just as refreshed as we do. Let us know if you have any New Years resolutions, or any goals for the upcoming year.