Going to celebrate with an oatmeal and raisin cookie and a nice cup of cha.

Much Googling and discussion of flags past and present ensued, but one clear winner… Japan, sums up the nation so perfectly - orderly, simple, beautiful, spot on.

We take flags for granted, but at some point someone sat down and said ‘what do we want our flag to represent?’. Thinking we may try and design a Dandy flag!

Why not have your own go, it’s fun.

We like howies here at Dandy. We like their clothes. We like the little messages they put on the labels in their clothes. We like their attitude to business and life and that you can borrow books from them if you promise to give them back. I just got their first email newsletter – Tea & Wisdom – which had a link to this video. It makes us want to go out on our bikes in the mud.

Clearly Sara has extensive experience in this area, but I find it a real shame that any one of a broad range of creative talent in and around Nottingham were not used to create the identity for the new venture. There is plenty of excellent creativity around the city that could, and would, have thrived on creating a suitably contemporary and imaginative identity.

It’s doubly disappointing as Nottingham as a city is currently very proudly nailing its colours to the mast in relation to creativity, by bidding to be ‘World Design Capital’ in 2012 - highly commendable, and something I wholeheartedly condone. But if we’re that good, how come we can’t use our own designers when it comes to major design project within the city?

If we don’t, or won’t, invest in the talent on our doorstep, how can we expect to be taken seriously when we promote ourselves as a creative city?

I’m not sure whose decision it was, or how it was made - but I suspect we can be sure that if Leeds, Manchester or Liverpool were to need something similar, one suspects they would look locally. Something to keep in mind if as a city we are to aspire to compete with other major cities in the UK.

But such strange times can bring opportunity, new thinking, and can let people who have so far not managed to be heard above the political “don’t worry we know what’s best for you” cacophony of government, finally get their ideas across.

Creative thinking in all its forms, and I don’t just mean nice picture and words here, is absolutely crucial if the world, society, economy, whatever you want to call it, is to move on and develop.

Now take Iceland, surely there cannot be a country so desperate for new direction and new thinking after the complete collapse of it’s banking system.  Well Monocle did an excellent set of articles devoted to that very issue, and very insightful it was too, well worth a read (it may only be available to subscribers).

Even more inspiring was the fact that a group of Icelanders decided to form a ‘Ministry of Ideas’ (it’s all in Icelandic I’m afraid!), not the touchy feely sort - but a genuine group outside of the normal parameters of government, involving the community, to really explore ideas on where Iceland could go next and how it could get there.

Their numbers have grown and they are beginning to have genuine influence, which is great to see.

So it begs the question, why can’t we do the same? It would be fantastic to see the creative industry and the more forward thinking areas of Britain’s business community get together - blogs, workshops, whatever it takes… and raise the profile of a genuine ‘ideas’ based economy.

I see no sign of Gordon setting up a ‘Ministry of Ideas’ so let’s grab the name before it goes. All ideas and comments welcome.

After Matthew Dent did such a revolutionary job with the new British coinage, the bar has been set pretty high - but that just shows the gang at the Royal Mint are open to new ideas and approaches, which can only be good.

So come on all you budding history-making designers out there, pick up your pencils, your country needs you.

I’ll let Dr Ben Goldacre go into the lack of scientific evidence to support these claims, but as someone who loves language, has an active social life, is interested in a wide range of cultural activities and enjoys gadgetry, I find this demonisation of technology – and younger people – a bit tiresome.

Firstly, if English standards are declining – if kids can’t spell, construct a sentence, write a job application or concentrate for more than five minutes – it’s not technology’s fault. I know plenty of adults whose literacy levels are poor to say the least. Surely it’s up to parents and teachers to ensure young people are taught, in an engaging way, the basic mechanics of reading and writing.

Secondly, that the English language is being dumbed down is an argument as old as language itself. As a copywriter, I regularly come across people who hate to use an informal tone (using don’t instead of do not, for example) even though it’s appropriate for the piece and the audience. People have always fretted that language today isn’t what it was when they were growing up. But I think this misses a crucial point: that the English language is constantly in flux.

In his excellent book, The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg romps through the centuries, describing how English evolved to become the dominant language in the world precisely because of its Darwinian ability to adapt and absorb new words. As a result, our English is a beautiful magpie of a language, stealing shiny gems from Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French, German, Indian and, more recently, American English and West Indian.

I suspect that a lot of people are frightened by new technology and the way it’s changing how we communicate. Marshall McLuhan famously said that the medium is the message; that the medium we use affects what we say and how we relate to each other. Take texting. Should we really worry if someone writes c u l8r? Not especially, provided this isn’t the language they use in a different medium; a school essay or letter to an employer, say.

Thirdly, I’m unconvinced that the internet is turning us into a society of social hermits or cultural Neanderthals unable to function in the “real world”. Anecdotally, virtually everyone I know on Facebook or Twitter has plenty of friends and interests, and is perfectly comfortable in real-world settings. Social networking is merely an extension of their busy, active lives. 

Of course, there’s a lot of pointless chatter on social networking sites (there are plenty of pointless TV shows and books), but they’re also brilliant for bringing distant friends together, for motivating community activism, for sharing ideas, tips, links and cultural activities. Surely, as with television and the printed word, there’s room for both frivolity and inspiration, entertainment and education.

New technologies will come and go, and the way we communicate will change with them. There will be new ways of interacting that will infuriate and bamboozle some, only to be embraced by others. Self-appointed guardians of what’s proper will lament that society, the English language and the young in particular are going to hell in a handcart. They will blame technology and cultural influences.

What we really should be doing is taking greater responsibility for the education of our children, so they’re as ready to write their university thesis as they are to update their Facebook status.

There were a few companies out there that really set the benchmark in terms of standards and approach, and acted as a good benchmark for how Dandy would work.

One such company was Pentagram, who I’ve long admired for their simple, pure and clever design approach.

They particularly excel in producing logos, or as they quite rightly term them ‘marks’. So much so that they have just published a book of four hundred marks produced by the company since 1972, quite an achievement, especially when you see the quality of the work. Get yourself a copy, every aspiring designer should own one.

We’re currently at around twenty and counting, so some way to go to catch them!

We did their rebrand for them around a year ago, and it was fantastic to see all the new style beginning to roll out across the farm. Anthony has done a fine job sticking to the brand guidelines and keeping the value of the brand intact - good job Ant.

Even the little animal characters have names now…

Swifty the Tortoise
Chip the Chick
Puddle the Pig
Morag the Cow
Granger the Goat
Compost the Rabbit

Pop along and see them, you won’t be disappointed.