My son has started playing chess (or chest, as he used to call it when he was cute) at school. So I thought I'd buy a chess set. The problem is, if one is design savvy, that they are all rubbishly old fashioned and anachronistic. Except this on. Designed in 1923 by Josef Hartweg when he was in the Bauhaus School. Each piece represents how that piece can move on the board. It's beautiful.

Recently we completed the identity for Hôp Namô a Vietnamese street food restaurant which just opened in Boxpark Shoreditch. Namô is a well know restaurant in Hackney with a great reputation for top quality Vietnamese food and Hôp Namô will be no different. The food is made from traditional recipes with a modern twist. It's delicious and a very nice place to spend a long lunch or just grab a quick bite. You can have a look through the identity we created here and don't forget to pop by for a bánh mì and to check the place out.

I like this. And I don't like books. I like Kindle. But I like this.

Buy it for your Nan for Xmas.

http://kapitza.com/products/organic-book

We've done a couple of events for Freedom from Torture now and they're always brilliant. This one was no exception. We did the catalogue, invites, signage and website for their 2011 Art Auction. A special event which raises a substantial amount of the money needed to keep their doors open. Art was kindly donated by established artists such as Julian Opie, Antony Gormley, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Quentin Blake and Paula Rego to name a few. The final figures aren't in yet but based on the furious bidding on the night it went very well!

And hey, they even painted a 12 foot tall mural of the event logo 3fish created on the wall outside!

Have a look at art.freedomfromtorture.org to see the work that was up for auction.

www.freedomfromtorture.org

A few months ago I decided to treat myself to an apple product only I didn't know what to get. In the end size won out and I got an iPad. Everyone thought I was mad. Why an iPad when I didn't have an iPhone? I couldn't explain it fully, but I knew I made the right decision and ever since I've been happier than a pig in the proverbial. Until the other day that is, when I ordered something on a very nice Friday afternoon. Everyone else has one and it's hardly a shock for a designer to have an iPhone but I do. So now I have finally succumed to the pressure of Apple's marketing and I feel great about it. Of course Jo and Duncan think I'm silly (they have Androids) and there's a bit of debate over black versus white and whether or not Siri is a load of codswallop but for now I'm chuffed.

I live in a flat. No, don't be silly, it's okay. It's right by Victoria Park and the architectural practice that designed it was the Basil Spence Partnership. They diid some good stuff. And my flat is good. However sometime in its life over the past 40 years, someone who lived here decided to put beading on all of the doors. Beading; totally incongruous. It's a 70s flat. It looks awful. Anyway, I tried to take a bit of it off one of the doors to a cupboard, but there is so much paint on the doors it is impossible. So, we found a local place which will take the beading off and strip the doors for us for a small fee. 

None of this is exceptional design-wise, except for the fact that I have taken all of the internal doors off their hinges in my flat. Including the built-in cupboards. So my house has no internal doors.

And it's wierd.

Even though we don't reallty close doors, having no doors is strange. I feel exposed.

That said, I think I like it.

I might not put them back once they are stripped...

This is real open plan.

I'll ask Francesco, but I think that ombra means shadow in Italian. It is also the name of a new Italian restaurant/caff on the end of Vyner Street, just around the corner from where I live in Hackney. My lovely wifey and I had dinner there tonight, we had an Italian cured meat platter between us, steak tartar, spagatini with pesto and potato, and panna cotta, with two glasses of Campari and Prosecco, and three glasses of wine... and it was under 50 quid...

Go, but don't tell anyone, because it will get too busy and too famous and I won't be able to get in any more.

Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are targeting the African and Chinese communities in the UK in a bid to attract people visiting friends and relatives abroad. 3fish worked on 3 creative routes across the 2 airlines including direct mail, mobile advertising, and online digital media. It goes live today. To read the press release in Marketing Magazine, click here.

We have just added the lovely Hannah to our website. She's the newset fish, started on Monday. And while I was looking at her profile page on our site I saw Phil's and Eve's* photos.

Separated at birth or what?

Probably the best bit of software I use is Apple Logic Studio. Imagine Illustrator that works with sound and you are only still halfway there. It is beautiful, powerful and intuitive. And it's even better now that I bought this Editors' Keys keyboard. It has all the key command shortcuts written on the colour-coded keys. It makes editing and recording sound even more of a pleasure than before.

The problem is that it is an American layout. And not a standard one at that. All of the keys are in different places, not the QWERTY keys, but the odd ones that you use more often than you'd imagine. Plus, the § key is next to the space bar on the left and I keep pressing it when I try to press Apple...

I'm having to rethink how I use a keyboard.

Which is exactly the same as me retuning my guitar I suppose.

Which is good for me... I suppose.

First(ly) I appologise about the missing gerrunt in the title of this post. I didn't add it on purpose, to make a point, but no one will realise so I'll carry on.

iOS 5 is very good. No suprise there. Every time Apple upgrades its OS (either on its mobile devices or on Mac) it's a winner. I particularly like the quick use camera function and the iCloud photo streaming.

But this isn't an iOS piece, it's a 'I can't believe I've used an app that actually works in a very different way, but it still works very well' post.

Check out the LinkedIn app for iPhone. It is nothing like any other app I've used and it works really well.

Which is unusual. 

I told you that I was relearning the guitar. I am. But it's hard. So every now and again I tune my axe back to good old EADGBE and play a few rock'n'nroll licks. Songsterr is a site I've found that shows you guitar tab transpositions of a load of tracks. There's an iPad and iPhone (and probably Android) app that are great too.

But what I really like is that the site is really well designed and works like a dream. I wish I'd done it.

Life is pretty good here at 3fish and a big part of that is the amazing projects we get to work on. Often they take us on a whirlwind journey of paper sizes, pixels and pantones. Occasionally they take us somewhere else. 

One of the last projects I was fortunate to work on was for the Freedom from Torture event at the top of the BT Tower. The event was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of John McCarthy's freedom. 3fish created the invitations & handouts for the morning flight pass, a wondrous trip to the 34th floor and the evening event, an auction in aid of Freedom from Torture also held atop the tower. The event was a sellout and it was pretty clear that all who went were thrilled by the experience.

Head over to http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/feature/5404 to check out photos of the event and see the good work they're doing.

At 3fish we don't specialise. No sir, no ma'am. Not in medium or sector or target market or anything. We do this because we believe that if you do the same thing day in day out you create a creative muscle memory. If you only do one thing you end up doing it the same time in time out. Maybe not on the surface, but the thought processes you put into the project end up being the same thought processes you've used a hundred times. You can't help it. It's good to mix it up and do something that throws you outside your comfort zone.

That's why I've decided after 32 years of playingthe guitar to adopt a completely new tuning. 

The new standard tuning was invented by Robert Fripp and extends the guitar's range by  four semitones in the bass register and three in the trebble. It also means that everything I've ever learnt is now redundant. To all intents and purposes, I'm learning to play the guitar all over again.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I am middleaged. I am having a midlife crisis. Other people buy Harley Davidsons. I bought a Gibson Holy Explorer. It is beautiful. I have been playing AC-DC tracks on it. It's a Whole Lotta Rosie.

It's back

After a couple of months in dry dock at Captain Francesco's base deep in the Lewisham System, the 3fish Indperial Star Destroyer is back where it belongs; on display in the 3fish window. Swing by and have a look, you won't be disappointed.

But don't get cocky kid.

I have been using an Apple laptop for the past 11 years. When 3fish first set up I had a G3 PowerBook. Since then I have had various models, including a titanium G4 PowerBook, one of the first 17" G4 PowerBooks one of the first Intel 15 MacBook Pros, one dual-core 15 and about three dual-core 17" MacBook Pros. Day to day, I'm using a fully specced-up 17" and it rocks. It can do anything. But it's not really that portable. It's like a desktop in your bag.

That's why my favourite EVER MacBook is my 13" MacBook Air.

I can use it anywhere. The battery lasts for a week. It runs what I want super quickly with its solid state hard disk. I can cut cheese with it.

It is the mobile device of choice. And I have an iPad.

One of the side effects of spending so much time together is that we're turning up wearing matching clothes. This can only be a Good Thing.

Cigdle (pronounced Cheedle) is back in Istanbul but still working remotely for 3fish. In fact, she's doing some great work for Beachcroft that we are presenting next week. That said, she is more pregnant that is feasible. Have a look... I'm sure she won't thank me for this photo. Sorry Cigdle.

R

Yesterday was Cigdem's leaving do. And today is her last day. The consequence of the former is that I have a Raki-induced hangover the size of Hackney Marshes. The consequence of the latter is that we will all miss her very much. She is a great designer and a lovely person.

I can't moan too much though (about her leaving, I've been moaning all day about my hangover) 'cos she is returning to her native Turkey to have her baby and be a great mum. 

Good luck from all the fishes.

They say that a fish only grows to the size of its tank. That's why we are expanding our tank and sharing our space with builders, electricians and decorators in an attempt to make the most of our space. It's going to look fantastic when it's done. But for now, here's a work in progress pic. And watch out we might even have a studio warming party. I'll let you know if we do.

I have a guilty secret. It is something that has caused me considerable ridicule and lampoonment from my work colleagues at 3fish. The fact is, that in a graphic design studio where everyone uses Macs, I choose to use a Microsoft mouse.

Yes, you heard right. Microsoft.

Is it because I have a secret love of PCs? No. When I’m in front of a PC I’m a little ashamed to say that I am virtually clueless as to where anything is, or how to do even the simplest of tasks. 

Is it because I harbour a deep-seated resentment towards Apple? No. In fact quite the opposite. My first computer was a Mac. At university we were all taught on Macs. Now I use a Mac every day at work and would never even dream of using anything else. Like almost everyone in the office I have an iPhone, which I love.

My girlfriend once even accused me of having Stockholm syndrome whilst we were talking about my affection for Apple. (For those of you who don’t know, Stockholm syndrome is the psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors.)

As if to prove her point, a while ago at 3fish we decided to commemorate 25 years of the Mac with a series of desktop wallpapers to give away as freebies to clients and friends. I decided to do a take on the famous Milton Glaser ‘I Love New York’ logo, replacing NY for SJ and the heart symbol for the Apple Logo. If you haven’t already guessed, SJ refers to Steve Jobs, the charismatic co-founder and CEO of Apple. If you’re interested, the wallpaper, along with all the others designed by the fishes, is available to download here.

Anyway, we digress. All this is just a roundabout way of making the point that my use of a non-Apple mouse has nothing to do with some kind of anti-establishment sentiment. (And yes, I think it is fair to say that Apple has now become the establishment, having recently pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world's biggest technology company.)

Rather, my gripe with the Apple mouse has more to do with its design. Now, I realise this is a pretty strong statement to make – especially when directed at a company as fanatical about design as Apple. Even more so when you consider that Apple are widely credited with having invented the mouse.

The problem I have is this – while the mouse is clearly beautiful, it doesn’t fit that well in your hand. The shape is a perfect ellipse, but the cavity of your hand when you hold a mouse is not. Sure, you can hold it and move it around, but a mouse is a tool that many people use all day every day. It becomes tiresome to use.

You might even say the guys at Cupertino are sacrificing ergonomics in favour of aesthetics. Less ‘form follows function’ more ‘form follows emotion’. And who can blame them? It’s a philosophy that has worked brilliantly. Can you imagine Apple being quite as successful if their products weren’t so achingly beautiful?

In a way, I wish the cavity of my hand was perfectly elliptical, because sometimes I do look down at my mouse and think “you should be a pure white orb and not a grey plasticy funny-shaped object”.

Until that day comes however, I’ll settle for my not very beautiful (but very functional) mouse made by the good people at Microsoft. 

Unless, of course, I get an iPad…

We have a vacancy for a mid/senior designer

This doesn't happen very often, but we are recruiting. We need a middleweight/senior designer. If you think it might be you, send your CV and a small portfolio and one page of A4 saying why it should be you to 

someone new@3fishinatree.com

And good luck.

A few weeks ago we launched a quiz for KLM aimed at the gay community:

www.theklmgaygetaway.co.uk

It's doing quite well so far ...but this Saturday, the legendary Mr Stephen Fry was kind enough to twitter about it, creating a HUGE surge in interest.
Thank you Mr Fry!

Following the newspaper run, it felt only right to throw a party for our friends. Matt and Di were challenged with picking up a rather hefty order of fish and chips totalling to 70 portions – quite the spectacle!

It has been a while since our last post but during that time 3 fish in a tree turned ten. To celebrate, the studio put together a small run newspaper, each of us contributing a lovely page design.

Dear 3fish,

     Thankyou very much for letting me apart of this company for two weeks for work experience. In that time i Have learnt a lot of new skills and have seen the world of graphics. I'm very lucky to get a placement here, I've met some really nice people and they've helped me and always answered my Questions. In my two weeks that I have been here i have worked on Mac laptops helping to design logos for companys. I have used programmes like Photoshop, illustrator and Indesign, i have learnt a lot of useful skills from these programmes. My work didn't just end at the office, I went around taking pictures of simple and complicated things with Ricky's camera and have also helped Eve taking pictures of Ribbons, I helped Matt too with his energy books. People have helped me much more than I have helped them, they really know their stuff.

One final thankyou to everyone, in helping me towards my right career path. Hopefully i will see you guys again soon and I really have met some genuinly nice people here. This didn't feel like work, it felt more like a holiday.

Now before I go me and Eve have drawn some pictures of everyone to represent which animals they are if they were to be in animal form. Some are quite strange. I hope you all have a great laugh at these pictures

Ricky- Parraroo

We just had to pick two animals for Ricky, he's so special and unique and just a really great person. We picked a parrot to represent the colourful side of Ricky. He's not afraid to wear what he wants, and that's a

good thing. We also picked a Kangaroo because they're such bubbly, likeable creatures and Ricky is very much like that. A mama kangaroo would do anything for her young, and like Ricky he'd do anything for his

employees. For the time I've worked here, he's been such a fantastic supervisor, not only to me but his other co-workers aswell. Always offering to bring stuff in like Dvd's and like the brownie guide code: lend a

hand and he does just that. I appreciate everything you've done for me and you're a great person to talk to NOT mouthy at all. Thanks for all your help Ricky, stay amazing.

James- Kuala bear

We picked a kuala bear for James because like him Kuala bears are loveable and cuddly, They sleep 23 hours a day and the rest of the time they eat and James loves food. James has helped me a lot 

with my work here and even gave me a cool website to buy my T-shirts from. James has a great sence of humour and can be really funny sometimes. Thankyou for helping me James You've been

fantastic.

Di & Matt-Lovebirds

Sorry if i embarrass you in anyway but you guys are so perfect for eachother. When a lovebird find his/her partner they normally last forever. Di is such a seriously lovely person and she's so pretty!

Matt does not look his age (I will not reveal it but i do know how old he is)or anywhere close, he look years younger! He again is a very likeable person and funny too. These two people are genuinly

very nice. We picked Di & Matt as love birds because whether they're together or seperate they both look adoreable. Thanks Di for letting me be here for two weeks, you truely are amazing and naturally

 very beautiful. Matt you've helped me alot and yet again you too have been amazing. Thankyou to both of you and I really do appreciate

Natt-Chipmunck

Natt you have a really great sence of humour and can sometimes come out with some funny jokes. Like a chipmunk you are very cute and Your hair is just so lovely. You are very nice and talkative. Thankyou for helping me.

Paul- Dollyphant

We picked both dolphin and elephant for Paul because like Paul they're both very intelligent creatures. We could not pick which anima to do for him so we thought what the heck lets pick both. Paul is very hardworking and he seems

to be an expert in Design. He's very adventerous with his camping and bike riding. Thankyou Paul you are friendly.

Maiko- Panda bear

Like Maiko Panda's are very shy and timid creatures. Maiko is very friendly and sweet. She's very hardworking too.

Cidgam-Ant

Like a ant Cidam is very hardworking. She's friendly and always relaxed.

Tom- Gorilla

Tom you don't look anything like a gorilla but you are calm and cool. You laugh at my jokes which means you have a great sence of humour, lol joke but seriously you do have a great sence of humour.

You're a patient person who dresses cool, not that unpatient people don't dress cool. Thankyou for helping me with my work and for being a great person.

Eve-Ostrich

Last but definately not least, It's Eve. This Ostrich is wearing bright red lipstick because it's a very crazy ostrich and So is Eve. Eve you're mental and don't ever change! You're so cool and pretty. It's been

great working with you and thankyou for helping me with my work. I wish you good luck with your next placement (not that you need any luck) as you too are leaving. You have thought me to use certain

bits from photoshop which I  can learn from. Thankyou for all your help and for being a very funny person.

I bought the Southpark Avatar app for my iPhone to keep my six-year-old son happy on train journeys and then I got addicted. So I made a bunch of 3fish Southpark characters. Then Cigdem joined in and made Rids and Eve.

Ha ha. They are going to be our website photos next week... have a look. 

Made by Matt for Alastair: felt Alastair doll

Made by Duncan for James: electric thump piano

Made by Paul for Cigdem: Turkey cake

Made by Nat for Chris: I hate cushions cushion

Made by Di for Ricky: ginger threesome

Made by Ricky for Di: balsa wood lamp

Made by Christian for Paul: a gansta P Riddy tee

It was our Xmas lunch yesterday and we all had to give each other a present. But to break with tradition a little and to add a bit of extra fun we decided that everyone had to make their present. The results were fantastic, truly witty, clever, beautiful and thoughtful. But most of all: creative. I'll post them all up here for you to enjoy one by one. Cigdem, James, Alastair and Nat haven't bought their pictures in yet, so I'll post them tomorrow.

Here's number one, made by James, for Matt: a gay Airfix Spitfire

I have just attended a seminar on diversity in design and whilst it turned into a seminar on ethnicity, not diversity, I did learn some pretty interesting facts:

93% of people who work in design in the UK are white*

68% are male

60% are younger than 40 years old

65% earn less than £20,000 a year

Now I don't know what constitutes * 'design in the UK' but these figures are awful. We all have a duty to try to change these statistics and make design a more equal place and a fairer place for everyone.

I'll let you know what we plan to do to help.

It's the 25th aniversary of the Apple Macintosh this year, and where would we be without them? Erm... the same probably but we'd be using PCs instead. Not that we're Mac Anoraks or anything like that (well... maybe some of us are) but we do love our Macs.

We've cellebrated by designing some desktop patterns/posters for your pleasure. Have a look on our site: www.3fishinatree.com/downloads/desktops .

...super.

We get loads of emails asking if we have any work placement opportunities. And the people asking range from designers with a few year's experience, through recent graduates and second year undergraduates, to year 10 school children who want two weeks to fulfil their national curriculum. Most of the emails and CVs and portfolios are simply underwhelming, a few are absolutely great, but most aren't, however today Di got an email from someone in year 10 that really stood out. Simply for the following line.

"... and I'll do as I'm told with a big smile on my face."

I think I might write that into people's contracts from now on.

Monday sees the first day of the Official 3fish Conker Knockout Challenge.

Fighters will be required to enter one conker and fight their way to the top. Obviously, 3fish staff are eligible, but anyone with a vague 3fish link can enter. Entrance fee is a pound and winner takes all. Come on, what are you?

Conker or plonker?

Any time I see any design work we've done in print, or an ad we worked on on a billboard, or an illustration we slaved over out there (like the time I saw something I'd done decorating a plate in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC - well it was on sale in the shop there) I am dead chuffed. And it should have been like that when I saw a proof cover we worked on for the new Iain Banks novel recently used in a magazine reviewing the book. The novel hasn't been released yet properly, and they shouldn't have used our cover, but they did and there it was in lovely four colour print.

Unfortunately the magazine was SciFiNow.

I don't think anyone I know will see it, I have to admit.

Still it's 3fish work and it's in print.

This week we'd like to introduce you to Tom. He's a recent graduate from Nottingham Trent University (Where our James went). So far he's worked out great, being a good laugh and doing some cracking work with Matt and Rick. You can view some of his mad cat skills here.

When the time comes we'll show what the 3 of them have been working on, we think it looks ace.

Our D&AD Award Winning Director Matt Dent (what a mouthful) is this months guest writer on the 2nd best design blog on the web Noisy Decent Graphics. He's already written a few articles and a little bird tells me the next article is going to be based on patterns - released this Saturday. Jump over and have a look there's some great stuff up.

So this morning we was all doing the usual lark around and have a giggle, it's Friday so why not, then our placement Emma decided to disclose something not so nice about herself. I mean we thought our pal Mals tongue thing was weird but this is a whole new kettle of 3fish!

Check it out or send us your nastys!

It seems like two minutes ago that Mal said hi and walked into our design lives. Now she's gone. Flying back to Baltimore Saturday. She drank Stella and bought us cheesecake and was a good designer. I think we'll miss her. 

I won't miss the creepy thing she can do with her tongue though. Euw.

Yesterday was a day for brollies, galoshes and at the very least a jacket. Sadly I had none of these. This was how London looked at 5.45pm from the Oxo Tower's viewing gallery.

Hey, four years ago I got a call from an American student who wanted to spend six or eight weeks with us at 3fish over the summer. Now I'm normally very receptive to this sort of request, but my congenital inability to get my shit together means that the best laid plans never really see the light. This time however I did the do and she kept in contact and we all got it sorted and Rebecca rocked the 3fish boat.

We kept in contact and she told us that every year her university invites a visiting lecturer over for a week to spread the word and generally make the students over there feel like they are getting some attention. I was well up for a US holiday at the time and I nagged her to let me be the one who flew to Baltimore to impart my graphic design knowledge. Well they fell for it and I flew over and it was great and I made some great friends and I think a lecture theatre-full of american graphic design students saw what 3fish and I was about. It was good. So good that the university approached me to see if that they could send a placement student (an intern they call it) over to 3fish every year to spend six weeks with us learning the way of the fish. I said yes. They ran a competition and whittled the entrants down to two worthy students and we picked one to come over. 

Last year we had Justin and it was a scream. (I might write a retrospective blog about that if news gets scarce, but for now believe me.)

This year we picked Mallory.

Obviously we had no idea if Mallory was (is) a boy of a girl, but we liked her/his stuff and the decision was made and we were excited. 

***

As it turned out Mallory didn't have a penis and was excited too. I'll tell you more as it unfolds.