I so want to go to Chelsea

Speaking to a creative agency acquaintance yesterday I was astonished to discover that he wasn’t attending the current Chelsea Flower Show or even following its progress on TV. Aghast, I asked him how he could hold his head up as a branding consultant without any knowledge of the very best of living design that the planet has to offer – and on his own doorstep, to boot. ‘I get by with a little help from my friends', he replied. I quickly realised that he was celebrating the 65th birthday of Joe Cocker, but, all the same…come on. I note from the diary of my life that it’s five years today that I appeared on Robert Elms’ BBC London radio show, promoting my book, Guinness Is Guinness: the colourful story of a black and white brand. Now, Elms was exactly the kind of person, a self-styled image guru, for whom design, albeit in the world of clothes, was his way in, his ticket to ride. Someone with Chelsea in his back yard who never had the nous to skip off the King's Road and visit the Flower Show and attempt to understand where top design is really at. Come to think of it, I’ve worked with many ‘designers’ who thought that design is what they did at their computers. Or something in the cut of their perfectly rumpled hair. I’ve never met one who has visited Chelsea Flower Show, the foremost exhibition of contemporary design in the world today. OK, there’s outstanding design in the metallic mosaic of Kyoto railway station. And there’s appealing design in the gladdening gleam of the i-Phone. But real, living design only truly exists in the ephemeral gardens of Chelsea Flower Show for one annual week in May. It’s the Hermitage come to life. I don’t want to go to Chelsea/Oh no, it does not move me is the refrain I’ve always heard from graphic designers. Given the blandness and conformity I see in much everyday branding design, I wonder where designers actually get their inspiration from. Chelsea may well be run by a set of stuffed shirts and thronged by representatives of the society of gits, but the quest for bravery in design should pull anyone who really cares about design beyond all that. You haven’t seen a gold medal Chelsea garden, you don’t know what love is.

Mark Griffiths http://www.idealconsulting.co.uk/

Gearing up for Guinness 250

My publisher, Martin Liu (Cyan Books), contacted me today to let me know about his recent book promotional activities in Dublin. This year is the Guinness 250th anniversary and it seems my book Guinness Is Guinness could stir some interest once again. OK, I published it 5 years ago now, but what has really happened of any note since in the world of Guinness? Closure of the 70 year-old London Park Royal brewery and a reprieve for the iconic original at St James's Gate, Dublin. Oh, and the launch of Guinness Red, the beer that looks light and tastes...sshhh, don't tell everyone. Back in 2004, I did some great book launch radio interviews when people still seemed interested in Guinness as an iconic brand - with Robert Elms on BBC London and Gerry Ryan on RTE 2 in Dublin. I remember telling these luminaries that future Guinness marketing was more than likely to be a repeat of Guinness past. Here was a brand whose past was too good for its present. And, true enough, in this special 250th year they'll be re-broadcasting the best Guinness TV ads of the past five decades. Pop has been eating itself for the last 20 years. Now it seems that beer is, too. Fine, there'll always be 17th March. And now there'll be 26th September - Arthur's Day. But don't blink, or you'll miss it. Me, I'll be waiting by the phone for Ireland to call...

Mark Griffiths http://www.idealconsulting.co.uk/