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/

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!

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.

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.

An image from the Rosunfate Collection

Between 21st March - 2nd April 2009 talented Buckinghamshire artist Steg featured in his first solo exhibition at the Agar Gallery, Henley on Thames. As a strong supported of the arts, Milestone was there to view the exhibition, and wanted to share a little about Steg and bring some exposure to his work.

The exhibition called Black and White featured a new collection of striking limited edition lithographs. Steg studied fine art painting at High Wycombe College in the early 1970’s. As in most activities he found that he didn’t quite fit with the prevailing mood of the time and decided to pursue a slightly more idiosyncratic path, effectively cutting himself off from ‘The Art World’ as he perceived it. After some time and much persuasion Steg reluctantly began to exhibit which led to paintings appearing in shows in London, Reading and elsewhere.

However during this period his work also began to appear on record sleeves. Which in turn led to his images appearing on large billboards and TV advertising, clearly a contradiction for someone who steadfastly tried to avoid exposure! It was at about this time that Steg made the transition from paint to pixel and finally found himself at home, never having been satisfied with paint, always dissatisfied with the product. Today he is perfectly happy to show and is finally prepared to admit that “the impulse and the fact are more or less in synch!”

For more information, get in touch.

Milestone new design for Denman’s Pashana range
thedieline.com

Re-branding for an almost forgotten British men’s hair care brand, Pashana, on behalf of new owners Denman. The packaging makes use of existing bottle shapes in recyclable PET material with new branding and strap line. Milestone created three ranges for twenty initial products, mixing decorative illustration with contemporary type and layout.