Sticking to tradition, GASP 4.0 kicked off to a drizzly downpour. However, the skies quickly cleared and soon enough the BBQ was was in full swing, the DJ mixing, the drinks flowing and the magician wow-ing us all with his spectacular tricks. For all of those who missed it, check out our pictures below…
For more photos from the night, click here to visit our Flickr account.
TFL’s new ad campaign on the tube has caught my eye…
The seat cover is from a design which appeared on the Northern Line in the 1930’s
This got me thinking, a. Because obviously our office is based in Covent Garden and b. As a massive geek, I was naturally quite excited and thought, yes I think it’s true, or in this case ‘tube’.
It’s a way of using traditional tube advertising but making people go online to find out the answer and lots more. An interesting way of making the tube interactive!
The point of the site is to show what a rich heritage the underground has, and what a place for art and design it is as well as providing us with lots of interesting facts. At the same time it gets people online onto the TFL site so it can promote more of the initiatives it’s currently undertaking. It’s a fun little project which I hope has caught people’s eye in a bid to show what history lies below us in London and how the underground, even as the oldest in the world, is moving with the times.
You can play tube or false online now by clicking here.
Covent Garden is a hive of activity, full of shopping, culture, history, entertainment and more. It’s also a great place for a bit of celeb spotting and “guess who I saw this lunchtime” is a first floor gaming staple! With so much to see and do in the area, many of our clients love to visit us here at GA HQ – especially those visiting from out of town. So, in case you find yourself with some time to spare and a hungry belly before or after stopping by to say hello, we thought we’d put together a list of our favourite lunch spots in and around the area.
Chequers – 47 Bedford Street
A sandwich mecca. Buy a huge sandwich of the day and get a cup of soup for free. Watch out for the lunchtime queue that often stretches all the way down the road!
The Master’s Diner – 32 Henrietta Street
Sometimes, only a good old fashioned fry-up will hit the spot. This great little greasy spoon also makes a mean sandwich.
Food For Thought – 31 Neal Street
Something for the vegetarians. Food for Thought makes delicious veggie food – but be prepared to wait. Sharing tables is the norm and the service can be slow, but the flavoursome food is worth it, so try a take-away instead.
Wong Kei – 41-43 Wardour Street
Great food in generous portions. However, this little Chinese gem is famed for it’s rude staff and brash service! Take it all with a pinch of salt and you’ll eat a good, hearty meal.
The Mediterranean Salad Bar – Earlham Street Market
For £4 the friendly staff working behind the Mediterranean Salad bar will give you a big box stuffed full of delicious goodies – from salad to olives, sun dried tomatoes and hummus. You’ll also get a massive hunk of bread to go with it.
Rock & Sole Plaice – 47 Endell Sreet
Voted one of the best fish and chip shops in London, this establishment is always packed full of tourists, luvvies, suits and trendies – but no one cares when they’ve got chunky chips and crisply battered fish in front of them! Outdoor tables come into their own on a balmy summer’s evening.
Itsu – 41-44 Great Queen Street
Yes, it’s a chain, but they do do the best sushi, soups and salads. There’s also indoor and outdoor seating.
For sit down eating try Sophie’s Steakhouse and Joe Allen.
The topic of monetizing any social media activity is spoken about regulatory at GA HQ – in fact, we’ve written quite a few blog posts about it too (see ‘How to… Monetize your Facebook fanpage‘ and ‘A little bit of give and take‘). And now there’s another way of monetizing your facebook page…
Take a look at Temperley London’s facebook page , click on the ‘Store’ tab and you’ll see a page that acts as a shop front to the Temperley online shop – directly from Facebook.
Of course, Temperley aren’t the first brand to embrace this idea (brands have been using FBML (Facebook Markup Language) in Facebook to modify pages for a while now). However, what’s so clever about the Temperley Store page is that website and social media administrators at Temperley do not need any knowledge of HTML or FBML in order to modify the page.
In fact, this page is created and controlled entirely through their CMS. So, if they wanted to change their hero product, layout of the page or link through to a specific product instead of to category pages, they could do this quickly and easily in house.
Although it seems as though Facebook will be launching a payment platform very soon, this is currently not available and (for many reasons) may not be right for them in the future anyway. So, for Temperley London, this method of directing Facebook users straight to purchase on the website is a perfect way of monetizing their page quickly and efficiently.
Last weekend was the 180th anniversary of Covent Garden’s famous market building. Like any proper birthday party, the celebrations kicked off with the unveiling of a card and cake – big enough to feed 2,000 people! At 12.30pm sharp, the GA team were there, queuing up for a slice and wishing many happy returns to the Covent Garden Market Building.
Take a look at our pics…
We all know that being green is a big issue these days. Carbon emissions, recycling, saving the environment, all to reduce damage to the environment and slow down global warming.
Well here at Graphic Alliance we are all doing our bit to save the planet, with a lot of help from a great charity ‘Global Action Plan‘ whose tag line is ‘creating the climate for change’. This is a charity which is funded by EU money and offers advice to small businesses in London. Global action plan has helped us focus on how we can reduce our carbon footprint by making us aware of little things we do on a daily basis which we can stop, such as leaving lights on when a room isn’t being used and machines being left on standby! So with these things brought to our attention we have started on the road to ‘green’ enlightenment and have received a certificate from our recycling company for all the paper, cardboard and printer cartridges we recycled in 2009 and we aim to do even better this year.
We have started by switching off monitors when not in use, turning off appliances instead of leaving them on, using natural light where possible and turning lights off when no one is in the room. Admittedly these do all seem like little things but it’s just the beginning of making Graphic Alliance a greener place to work.
Graphic Alliance sends out a warm welcome to Jade – our new office assistant!
Having previously worked at a certain high end department store, Jade brings with her some excellent skills, as well as a serious amount of glamour to GA HQ!
It’s lovely to have you here Jade and we hope you feel very welcome.
As you may know, GA’s offices overlook the garden of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, better known as the Actor’s Church. Every summer they transform their little green oasis into theatre and offer the blissfully disorientating experience of watching a play in the open air in the middle of London!
This year they will re-run their production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which is back following rave reviews last year. (GA cameos with Juliet longingly enquiring ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ from our window!)
The company will also be performing ‘Wind in the Willows’, which débuts this year. We have spied on a few of the rehearsals and it looks like a great production with a set that Ratty and Mole would be proud of.
This is one of London’s ‘hidden’ gems, and the perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening soaking up some culture and reminding yourself why our city is so fantastic!
Take a look at the Iris Theatre site if you fancy finding out more about the productions or want to book some tickets, we’ll see you there!
A new recruit has joined the team today – Soren Aarlev.
Originally from Denmark, Soren has joined the design department as an interactive designer. Welcome to Graphic Alliance Soren! It’s lovely to have you here and we hope you feel very welcome. Welcome drinks next Thursday?
A few months ago we placed Snog (the frozen yoghurt shop) in our Frame of Honour for using their unopened store to promote their social media campaigns. Finally, in a mist of drizzle, Snog has opened and we just had to put another post up on our blog in honour of it being the quirkiest shop on Garrick Street. It certainly lifts my mood whenever I walk past. In fact, with such a cute little store, there’s no need to even wait for the sunshine!
N.B. Note the excellent promotion of all their social media platforms on the store front!
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