At Milestone we’re very happy to be a finalist in this year’s Roses Design Awards. We’re in the category of Corporate Publication for our design of RAC’s prestigious Report on Motoring 2009.

The Report on Motoring is an annual publication first launched in 1988 and has become widely regarded as the voice of Britain’s motorists. It’s based on the views of 1,150 drivers in Britain and provides a snapshot of motorists’ attitudes and behaviour with regard to their vehicles, the road network, government transport policy and other drivers.

We’ve worked on the Report for the last two years, giving it a strong visual impact that brings the facts and figures to life. PR results from the Report campaign have been significant, delivering a major return on investment for RAC.

View the 2010 Report:

http://www.rac.co.uk/report-on-motoring/report-2010/

View the entry and other nominations:

http://www.thedrum.co.uk/events/75-roses-design-awards-2010/categories/

Pull up in your car at a country park venue, grab a gourmet burger, fries, drink, popcorn. Pick up some fantastic RAC freebies while someone cleans your car. Then switch off, sit back and watch a movie. Not bad for £15 a car or even £30 if you’re a non-member.

On Wednesday night a gang from Milestone went to see Grease at Alexandra Palace on the RAC Drive-in Movie staff night. And it was great fun. This series of events is a concept we came up with for RAC back in December ‘09. And now it’s happening – delivering the most amazing brand experience for those lucky enough to get a ticket.

It’s a truly integrated marketing campaign featuring events, competitions, radio, PR, social media, web, press and more. If you’ve missed it this year, let’s hope they run it again next summer. It’s worth joining RAC for this alone!

The annual Milestone Beer and Boulles evening was hastily scheduled in this year to take advantage of the rare balmy evenings (one year we played in the rain!) Held at the Royal Oak Pub near Marlow, which has a magnificent flood-lit petanque court. I’m not sure the exact difference between Boulle and Petanque but I believe it’s something to do with the number of balls you’re chucking.

There’s not many sports that everyone can compete at on the same unlevel playing field but this is one of them. Richard Collins was the overall winner with a consistent display of jack-touching accuracy. But we all had good fun. And good food. The only problem – we finished all the Rebellion Beer!

I see quite a lot of scooters on the roads these days. Mostly they’re nasty high pitched things ridden wildly by scrawny youths with one hand full on the throttle, the other texting. But I was a scrawny youth myself once and rode a scooter too. It was a 1966 Lambretta SX 200 and it was just the thing to be seen on during the mod revival of the 80s. I haven’t seen it since 1989 after a nasty altercation with a Volvo.

So, I was very pleasantly surprised to see two classic ‘Lammies’ drop in at Milestone last week. The two vallient scooterists were client, Phil from Denman and his friend Connor. They were travelling back from a European Lambretta rally in Spain to Belfast and decided to pop in, as you do. Quite a feat on these 40 plus yr old machines – although there was a gear cable repair needed, yards from our office. The matching sixties caper movie suits were a nice touch too.

So another bank holiday Monday and what to do. We were recommended Bourton-on-the-Water with a ‘watch out its dead popular’ warning attached. Regularly voted one of the prettiest villages in England, Bourton-on-the-Water has more than its share of Cotswold houses and cottages, many of them three hundred years old, some dating back to Elizabethan times four hundred years ago.

Amongst the may attractions is the Cotswold Motoring Museum and what a treat.

The collection neatly represents a slice of motoring history from the 20th Century. The big showstoppers are, of course, the over 40 cars, the caravans, the motorcycles, the dozens of bicycles, but what will really take your breath away is the huge amount of related material. It is the showcases packed with motoring paraphernalia, the old garage equipment, the walls filled with enamel signs, the petrol pumps and globes, everything connected with motoring from branded hat pins to an AA box. It’s a graphic designers sweet shop.

My personal favourite was the 70’s room including a caravan packed with nostalgia and glass cabinets heaving with classic 70’s graphics.

And just when you think it’s all over situated within the museum is the toy collection, the room is almost full of every dinky model and magazine imaginable. If you’re a fan of model kits, you can see many of the wooden, plastic and metal kits that have been on sale through the last fifty years.

While we didn’t get around all of the other attractions the Dragonfly Maze designed by sculptor and writer Kit Williams was well worth getting lost in.

In line with our CSR policy at Milestone and good old fashioned credit crunch thrift, my husband Paul and I have created a recycled and reclaimed vegetable garden at home. Even the greenhouse was a hand-me-down from our Creative Director Peter Wilkinson. Much of the other materials like bricks and timber for raised beds, seed trays and pots came from Freegle or from colleagues and neighbours. Much as I like the new Innocent Veg Pots, I thought it was high time I fuelled my office lunchbox with my own organic produce. And, already peeking through the potting compost in recycled newspaper pots are tomatoes, beetroot, rocket, kohl rabi, fennel, carrots, broad beans, cucumbers, lettuces, chillies and more. Visitors to Milestone may well be able to take home their own veg pots if this lot comes good. Watch this space.

Lunch in the making...

For chilli growing tips visit Ian and Paul’s blog at www.ilovechillis.com

This Easter Milestone’s Sutton and Collins families slipped down to South Devon for some sea air and pasties. On day one we took in two local treats: Burgh Island with its famous art deco hotel and Britain’s most flooded road which took us there. The road from Aveton Gifford to Bigbury-on-Sea is remarkable. It follows a stunning river estuary and at high tide floods for almost a mile. If you time it right and make it to Bigbury-on-Sea high and dry you can then run the gauntlet a second time by strolling out across the sand to Burgh Island. We were all hoping for a ride back in the sea tractor but the tide refused to come in that day. Max even buried himself in the sand in defiance which resulted in this amusing snap. Fans of the art deco period of design and all things Agetha Christie should make a bee-line for Burgh Island. But take a tide table or wellies.

So the saga begins at last and it has been a long time coming. It has been an ambition of ours to create a modern, energy efficient comfortable home and for many good reasons. We bought the house about 12 years ago and to be honest didn’t think we would stay in it for too long but circumstances changed with the arrival of our son. We soon realised that its unique position and proximity to schools, work and amenities was ideal. This was coupled with the fact that we had been talking of finding a slightly run down house in about half an acre of land which we could do up and then realising that we had been living in it all along.

The motivation was driven by a desire to restore a property under our own criteria and to include practical energy and water saving measures. I have always been an environmentalist long before the current threat of global warming. My interest stems from a simple principle, look after the planet and the planet will look after you. My main concerns have been over things like pollution, intensive farming, GM etc. And then came the threat of global warming. whether or not you believe that global warming is happening mankind aided or not, changes are happening. And in addition to this the cost of fuel is going up and the availability of drinking water is decreasing. So our motivation became threefold.

1. To live in a technologically modern house
2. To generate as much of our energy as possible for environmental reasons
3. To generate as much of our energy as possible for financial reasons

27% is the amount housing contributes to our CO2 emissions. That’s twice as much as air travel

For some ten years now I have been a judge for the Green Apple Awards an independent, non-political, non-activist, non-profit environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world. It is as a judge that I met Jerry Harrall of SEArch Architects and having been very impressed with his work asked him if he would put some ideas together for us.

Check out the blog here: The Comfort Home

It was many years ago now that Milestone got involved in the Green Apple Awards. It all started with the conception and production of an interactive CD rom on noise pollution. It was commissioned by South Bucks District Council and intended for under 11 year old’s. SBDC entered it into the Green Apple Awards and it won an award. I was invited along to the awards where I met the organiser Roger Wolans. I was very impressed and felt compelled to offer our help, that was over 10 years ago now.

The Green Apple Awards are part of the Green Organisation an independent, non-political, non-activist, non-profit environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world.

Set up 1994 experience has shown that many have followed the examples of environmental best practice demonstrated by the Green Apple Award winners.

The Green Organisation is funded by membership and sponsorship, with valuable support from the Environment Agency, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, the Municipal Journal and several other professional bodies.

Since then I have had the privilage of Judging for both the Green Apple Awards and the Built Environment Awards.

This year saw the 16th International Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice. The Awards were presented by star of screen and stage, former Bond-girl and keen environmentalist; Alexandra Bastedo, at an exclusive event at the House of Commons on November 17th, attended by more than 400 guests and VIPs.

Winners included: FIAT GROUP AUTOMOBILES UK LTD, BELFAST CITY COUNCIL, SHENZHEN MISTAR ELECTRONIC CO, CHINA, NGOMONGO VILLAGES / GLOBOVILLE COLLEGE, KENYA, INCHCAPE FLEET SOLUTIONS, NISSAN MOTOR GB LTD,
To name but a few.

Welcome to our first post

Whilst 2009 has been an uncertain year for everyone so far, at Milestone we’re really excited about the many new things we’re involved with. We’re delighted to have new people and clients on board this year. And we’re about to launch our new blog – Milestone Digital. It’s a great way keep up with what’s going on in the branding, design and digital communities and share what we’re passionate about…