At times like this - when staring down the double barrels of annual accounts and a VAT quarter - a person is inclined to review things. Further to that, a person will also realise that writing a blog post about those things constitutes work, not navel gazing, and is therefore Perfectly OK and Necessary.
So: 2012... Not The Easiest Year.
I'm not convinced that anyone had an entirely wonderful 2012. It was a year of highs and lows in equal measure, and a few people we know have had a truly rotten twelve months or so.
Our 2012 started off quite well - we charged straight into the year with a project for Lyle's Syrups, creating edible 'panscapes' with Andrew Stellitano that made it onto page 3 of the Metro (the holy grail for a certain type of PR).
We helped out with the launch of Brighton based bespoke tailor Gresham Blake's new Shoreditch atelier, co-hosted by Ray Winstone and attended by no less than two birds of prey and one man in a tweed jacket with a slightly shredded sleeve. Also Steve Coogan and the nice man on the right who is Famous.
Next we shot off to Oxfordshire, where - for probably the best eight birthday party ever - we took over Faringdon Hall, filling it with pastel coloured 3ft helium balloons and creating an indoor meadow with spring lambs for guests to bottle feed and a basement pillow fighting arena.
Then it was back to London and the hallowed halls of One Marylebone for an epic immersive sensory tasting experience for 100 followed by a drinks party to celebrate the launch of Carte Noire Instinct.
Then to Shoreditch for an intimate fashion week launch/dinner in the NS Denim studios (the hire people had to wrench the taxidermy'd pheasants from our locked fingers afterwards, they were adorable...).
Shortly after, it was a mere hop and a skip over to Portobello Rd for the first edition of Edible Cinema at the Electric, for which we showed Pan's Labyrinth.
Then Polly took to the road with Royal wedding photographer Hugo Bernand to help Schweppes find and crown three truly wonderful Jubilee party hosts. She followed this up by contributing to Brita's Summer Garden Party campaign in the Guardian and choosing a deserving winner for their party tip competition.
We were glad of the (not entirely unexpected) lull during the Olympics as it afforded up a wonderful opportunity to put our feet up and watch all those marvellous people running about energetically. We even got a sneak preview of the Opening Ceremony (see earlier post). It also gave us plenty of time to work on Spirited Away for Edible Cinema.
Post-Olympics it was back into things at full pelt with a very busy last quarter that included three more editions of Edible Cinema (Beetlejuice, Withnail and I - for the re-launch of the Electric - and When Harry met Sally), the launch of the new Senseo machine for Douewe Egberts at the (late) Hempel, a very beautiful and lavish 40th birthday party for our favourite private client and an interactive 'bubble' installation at the Truman Brewery for Aero.
After which, frankly, we were quite glad when Christmas turned up... not that we stopped pedalling away over the holidays, since we have a couple of VERY exciting projects coming up in February. Which is why one is in the office, on one's tod.
Thank you to everyone we worked with last year, whether we commissioned you or vice versa. It's been great. It's been really, really hard work and we've had the odd wobbly moment but we can't believe we've gotten through so many exciting projects with so many talented people in such a ridiculously short period of time. Teatime is nothing without your vision and hard work and we can't wait to see what we achieve together in 2013.
p.s. If you're coming into the office during January please bring chocolate biscuits.
