Recycled Christmas

I'm so happy I'm going away for Christmas this year and don't have to join the buying frenzy, which I have come to detest. Don't get me wrong, I love the concept, or brand, of Christmas. The food, the gathering, the candles, the singing… It's all a fantastic way to survive the darkest period up north. And Christmas stands for something precious, for me anyway.

But all this hysteric shopping I just can't stand. Why not do something sustainable for Christmas instead, I thought, and decided to contribute to a slightly better world.

This is my recycled Christmas tree – which probably belonged to someone else last year – complete with decorated with street art angels from Cape Town, South Africa.

And here are another tip for helping shape the Christmas brand into a more sustainable tradition: Give your loved ones an experience, like a spa treatment, a movie ticket, a night of baby sitting or a ticket to the hockey game.

Merry Christmas!

Another brand not quite as stylish

I just read in BusinessWeek about another brand that's trying to shift its position in the marketplace with the help of packaging, namely McDonalds. As we all know, the giant chain has been under pressure for some years now due to health issues, and with its new and crispier looking packaging McDonalds are trying to "create unique personalities for our menu items by telling a story about each one" according to Mary Dillon, McDonald's global chief marketing officer.

Creating brand personalities, for the consumer to connect to and identify with, is an often used tool in branding, and I suppose the big chain wants to do some buddying up with health concerned people to keep its market share. According to an article on the blog Fast Food News the packaging is first introduced in the UK, the US and Ireland, adn will be rolled out world wide during 2010, so I'll have to go out and decide if it's better than before.

I'd still rather have my burgers grilled…

Drinking glögg in style

This is the time of the year for drinking glögg here in Sweden. For those of you not familiar with the beverage, it's Sweden's version of Glühwein (but in my opinion glögg tastes much better).

Blossa is probably the most famous brand of glögg around, and since 1993 they have released a special edition of glögg each year, each designed by one of my favourite design and branding agencies, BVD.

This year's blueberry edition of 500,000 bottles was released on November 3 to Systembolaget's outlets all around Sweden (and sorry, I don't think you can buy it outside Sweden). Since then the bottle has won a number of design awards for it's packaging. And it's indeed nicely designed.

And just to show you the development over the years, here are all bottles since 1993.

Here's the Blossa website. Skål!

Brand inspiration

Dispite the aftermath of a 48 hour migraine, I was determined to attend today's seminar with Mary Jo Hatch, professor emerita in organization theory who has worked as a consultant within branding in the US, Europe and Brazil for brands such as LEGO, Intel, Nissan, Johnson & Johnson and others. The seminar was arranged by Business and Design Lab at The School of Business here in Gothenburg, and it was worth the effort.

For those of you remotely interested in the connection between branding, design methods, identity and orgaizational culture, she is a person of real interest. Her two topics for the afternoon were the research she has conducted within branding and organizational culture together with Majken Schultz, resulting in the book Taking Brand Initiative - How Companies Can Align Strategy, Culture, and Identity Through Corporate Branding. Her description of her and Schulz's theories in general, and the Lego case study in particular, illustrated her theoretic models about identity, image, culture and vision nicely.

Hatch's other topic covered German artist Joseph Beuys' thoughts on social scuplture, and Hatch's theories of the connection between that and organizational culture. The bottom line was that organizations are a work in progress, and that the moment they stop evolving they become obsolete.

Hatch's seminar was a great inspiration. Her words about marketing consultants' and companies' fascination with core values will stick with me: "We live values. We don't state them."

On the way home I had to stop by my favourite burger place brand 7:ans to get myself a coffee milkshake.

I have no pics from the seminar, but here's one of her book (you find it in most online book shops).

Wine weekend

It's Friday and I have a recommendation for the weekend wine purchasing. Being a fan of South African wines I mostly favour labels like Porcupine Ridge and Roodeberg. But now I have a new favourite ("bubblare" as we say in Swedish): Lat 42. It's a Rioja Gran Reserva from 2001 and I'm not sure if you can still buy it around the world, since Swedish Systembolaget (still a state monopoly) seems to have stocked up on all of the bottles. But give it a try! It's definately worth the € 8.



Here it is. Skål!

Baking course at Saltå Kvarn

The fact that Saltå Kvarn is one of my favourite brands you probably know from before. Last weekend I finally did what I've been longing to do for a long time. I went to a sour dough baking course with Manfred, the head of the bakery at Saltå Kvarn. I'm not going to bore you with the details of different sour dough starters, wild yeast, barley bread and measurements of ecological flour, but I'll proudly show you some pics from the experience.


Sour dough day 2.


Dough sample…


Rye bread in the oven.


Sample, ready to eat…


The shop next door. For all your flour needs…

If you think it looks tempting I can only recommend to contact Manfred.

Late night peer group special

Late last night I cycled down the street of Avenyn in central Gothenburg. It's a street known for its night life, its nasty bouncers and for hords of brats. As I passed by the mosts popular hot dog place (for those late night snacks…) I suddenly stopped. In addition to their usual range of burgers, hot dogs, tacos and vegetarian dishes, I saw this sign:



Fantastic! For a mere 5000 Swedish Crowns (equals to €500) you can, if you have the right manly size wallet, order a gold plated veal burger with an engraved metal plate… Such a nice idea considering the clientèle…