We've gone all misty-eyed

It's been all about the nostalgia this week at Collective Towers. Michael kicked it off by requesting the Labyrinth soundtrack on the office Spotify, which led Dan and Holly to engage in a detailed and empassioned discussion of which Collective staff member would make the best Goblin King in an agency-only remake of the film. No satisfactory conclusion was reached, mostly because of the distinct lack of anyone with a blonde mullet in the vicinity.

Then it was time to move on from the elven eighties to the neon nineties. Because as of today, the office has its very own Nintendo 64, complete with the two undisputed Best Games Ever: Goldeneye and Mario Kart.

"Oh no, not Rainbow Road. My eyes!"

The arrival of the console was accompanied by a volley of trash talking, but most of it turned out to be bravado as we struggled to remember how to use the ill-designed three-pronged controller.

All of which left us wondering what the next rose-tinted arrival from the past might be. Snap bracelets? Vanilla Coke? 2Unlimited? We can't wait to find out.

Animal Magic

We have had some Friday fun today with the costumes we picked up in preparation for MIPTV. We can't say too much about it at the moment. All will become clear next week!

Chunk vs crumb

Fierce debate currently rages in one corner of the Collective studio (it's a slow month) over precisely when a 'crumb' becomes a 'chunk'. We're talking millimetres here, but it's a matter of vital importance. Early estimates vary from 5mm to a staggering 10mm.

What are YOUR thoughts on this burning issue?


Chunk or crumb? You decide


And while we're at it, exactly how much is a 'morsel'?

Snow-much fun…

With a zero-tolerance attitude to lame travel excuses that result in ‘Working from home’, the Collective were all in, full of beans and ready for war. However, without any competition available to rise to the challenge we were forced to hone our winter fighting skills against each other. Dedicated as we are to the digital world, you just can’t get a free lunchtime experience that compares to this.

Merry Christmas!

We don't do celebrations by halves... check out our website to see the extent of our festive cheer (and be sure to turn your speakers up).

Merry Christmas from all at Collective x

Christmas Party

After a small 'hiccup' (where the original company cancelled at the 11th hour), our Christmas party went with a bang. After delicious cocktails and a festive meal at Dollar Grills, we had a small awards ceremony at the Priory before being whisked off to the Empire Casino in Leicester Square for champers on the private balcony followed by some gambling - because nothing says Christmas like losing it all on red.





Lots more (carefully selected) photos on the flickr.

Movember nearly over

It's been emotional, painful, hilarious, itchy and slightly scary. The Collective team has done a brilliant job of growing their mo's over November in aid of prostate cancer. Here are some pics of the mos' Guinness-tinged final lunch (is anyone actually keeping their facial furniture past December 1st?).







More on the flickr.

If you'd like to donate to the cause, please just click the banner below.

Wig out!

Hayley set up the Wig Out campaign to raise awareness for Breast Cancer (and money for Breast Cancer Care). The idea is simple: wear a wig, eat some cakes and give generously.

Thanks to everyone, the first Wig Out was a great success. We raised £103 from kind donations and on behalf of the company, the directors donated another £50. 25% will be added by Gift Aid too.

WIG OUT TOTAL - £191.25... and counting!




As ever, check out more photos on the Flickr and vote for your favourites on the Wig Out site.

Collective Go Karting

Team Collective took to the track yesterday for a day of inter-agency go-karting. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the competitive spirit was out in full. After a tough 90-minute endurance race which saw spins, crashes and drama galore, it was the designers' team 'Make My Logo Bigger' who did us proud, scooping third place. Management team 'Irresponsibly Collective' narrowly missed out on the podium with a 4th-place spot, and the 'Young Team' kids scored 15th place despite inexperience (come on, we're barely out of our toy pedal-cars).



Well done all round. Back with a vengeance next year...

Class of Collective

The Collective team step back in time thanks to Yearbook Yourself





See more on the flickr.

Collective Tennis

A troupe of sporty Collectivites blew off the cobwebs this Wednesday with some tennis in the park. Some took it more seriously than others, with Omar and James setting the bar high with some intense rallies.



While Petter and Emma went for style points.



Joe was a fantastic ballboy (until he got tired)



And the crowd went wild...



Bring it on again next Wednesday. Well, we need to work off all the jam tarts and sweeties somehow.

Collective Poker

The first Collective Poker Night was a night of highs, low, tension, frustration and joy. Rank amateurs (most of us, really) were pitched against more established players in a battle of wits, deception and pure luck.

Kenta and Silke took an early lead....



...but flew too close to the Sun and lost it all to eventual champ Katie.



Thanks to Stephane for the venue and amazing feast. Same time next week at Jeff's?

Collective 5-a-side victory

Never mind the China Olympics, last night was the major sporting event of the year, when Collective played digital agency Fortune Cookie at 5-a-side.

After a shaky start, and going 5-1 down to Fortune Cookie, Collective fought back heroically to win 10-6 (or 9-6, recollections vary...)

Thanks to the guys from Fortune Cookie for the game.

Collective are now ready to take on all comers. Bring the noise!

Pimp our Barry

Oh, Barry. You should have known what to expect when you send round an email like this:

They say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but if we didn’t do it there would not be a proverb to warn us against such rash judgement.

With this in mind what does my ‘cover’ say about me?? Have a look at the attached image and see what comes to your mind.

I would say the following:-
Bland
Boring
Uninspiring
Dull
Couldn’t be more uncreative if it tried
With this in mind I would like to throw the creative gauntlet down in the creative pit and shout ‘pimp my face’!

With that in mind, here are some 'creative concepts' for the new Barry...

Barry resplendent as a Victorian Gent. It's 'soooo now'.



Heeeeeere's Barry



What can I say, we all have Batman fever.



Dame Barry - love the pink rinse.



A bit of a nip and tuck...



The poor man is now on the verge of an identity crisis and is talking of going to Nepal to find his true self. Help him out by voting on which look is best.

 What look should Barry rock full-time?

• 
  
  The Joker


• 
  
  Dame Barry


• 
  
  Victorian Gent


• 
  
  Heeeeere's Barry


• 
  
  Collagen pout

view results
Free vote poll

£612 raised, world saved

Well, perhaps not saved entirely, but one corner of Columbia is that little bit brighter thanks to our recent wheelchair appeal. Inspired by the kindness of Mr Hector Lopez and the nuns of the Columbian mission that visited us recently, we raised the money for two new wheelchairs for the Valencia Loaiza family. And none of us had to sit in a bath of cold beans to do it. Thanks to all who donated.

Collective did Latitude

We're back from Latitude in (just about) one piece... A great time was had by all.

We packed up from work at lunchtime on Friday and after a fortifying chip butty, hopped onto the coach.



Several hours of drinking (us) and getting lost (driver) later, we arrived on site.



We lugged all our booty to our luxury camp site, which turned out to be pretty plush indeed - replete with air beds, ready-constructed tents and toilets with soap and toilet roll!



After getting settled in we wandered over the arena, marvelled at the pink sheep, and caught a cool headline set from Franz Ferdinand.



Saturday brought hangovers for some, which was quelled by morning bacon butties and the big Collective BBQ. A fantastic spread of kebabs, burgers, hot dogs and other chargrilled goodness presided over by Team Australasia, Omar and Greg.



A magical headline set by Sigur Ros topped off the day's festivities, and the party continued in the Disco Shed into the night.



Sunday brought even more severe hangovers, but they were soothed by a lovely midday set from Joanna Newsom. We then caught the set from our own in-house rockstar Danny's band Ex-Lovers.



It was at this point, bruised and bedraggled and ready for a bath and bed, that we found out that our coach company had managed to go bust over the weekend. Cue several £300 cabs all the way back to London..



Thank you to the directors and everyone else for making it a brilliant weekend!
Many more photos on our Flickr page.

Latitude Countdown

2 days til Latitude! We're all getting giddily excited and planning our viewing schedule with military precision. And happily it looks like it's going to be a scorcher so we can leave the wellies behind.* Expect a full festival diary and photos aplenty on our return.

*We may may be deluding ourselves here. Nevertheless we have tons of booze and a fancy marquee so should all be good.