Summer shenanigans

5 teams, 3 hours, 13 gruelling challenges and a large dose of Collective competitiveness made our summer party 2009. We charged around London in our attempt to earn £1 from a stranger, build a bridge, be a hero and drink the rainbow. It was tough, but with a little bit of creativity and a few pub stops along the way, we made it to the finish.

After a lot of heckling and a few disputes, our judge ruled Steve’s team the winners. With congratulatory beers and hugs all round, the lucky lot were awarded a lovely Monday morning lie-in.

Kick off

ESPN has chosen Collective to create their brand new website. The sporting giants have taken on the rights to the next season of Premier League football, and we’re helping them launch their brand new UK channel. We’ll share the work with you here soon.

Summon your inner wizard

With the latest film hitting cinemas this week, Harry Potter fever is sweeping the nation - and we’ve caught the bug too. Our new Quidditch™ trainer widget has just gone live and it’s all to promote the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince videogame, from EA.

This is your chance to grab your broomstick and train for all things Quidditch – from dodging Bludgers and shooting Quaffles to catching the Golden Snitch™. It’s time to practice your magical skills and see if you can top the leaderboard, win awards and beat all your friends. The challenge is on!

Throw away your A to Z

You’ll never be lost in London again with the introduction of this new app for the iPhone - Acrossair’s ‘Nearest Tube’. Using the camera and touch screen, the iPhone’s internal compass and GPS will direct you to the nearest tube and show you how far away it is.

‘Nearest Tube’ really comes to life when you hold the iPhone up in front of you – it uses augmented reality to layer the lines on top of the image shown through the camera. It’s a great invention and fantastic if you’re wandering around London by foot.

This weekend we’ll be mostly…

Doing fabulous things for free:
- Taking a stroll around some secret West-End architecture
- Boogieing with the Soul Jazz Sound System at Café 1001
- Charity shop shopping, Mary Portas-style

Ain’t no mountain high enough

What with the tube strike and all, getting to work has been tricky this week. But the extra exercise is coming in handy for us here at Collective. That’s because we’re in training for The Three Peaks Challenge this September. Yes, it’s really happening, and it's just as mammoth a task as it sounds.

The aim: to climb Britain’s 3 highest mountains in 24 hours, all for the Wig Out charity. But don’t worry, we’re a pretty determined bunch, so it’s heads down and keep walking people! More on this soon…

Nothing like a good sing-song

A few of us popped along to the “She Says” event last night, so we thought we’d share a couple of the award-winning pieces of work that inspired us.

When it comes to recycling, a musical interlude doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But since we met Hank, the singing bottle, recycling glass is all we can think about – we urge you to join his mission! Then there’s Belgian bank Axion, who created banner concerts, bundling young musicians into banner-shaped boxes to perform online gigs. It’s a brilliant way to spark the interest of the tricky twelve to twenty-five-year-old market - and totally unique.

End-of-term nostalgia

Collective rekindled its school day memories by assembling for a Class of ’09 photo this morning. (All inspired strangely enough by the arrival of our iris shelving back from the Honda greenhouse – it made the perfect steps for us all.) Can you spot who’s the class swot, who’s the prom queen, and who’ll be kept back a year.

Dan’s engaged!

Congratulations to our lovely designer Dan, who popped the question to his girlfriend Rhi while on holiday last week. Here he is channelling the spirit of ‘Angry’ Anderson for his own Neighbours-style power ballad when he walks down the aisle next summer. Congratulatory hugs to you both from all at Collective.

Free Range talent

Collective is proud to be sponsoring Bournemouth University as they present their interactive degree show, ScreenGrab, at the Free Range exhibition this year. A few of us at Collective are Bournemouth graduates, so we’re thrilled to be able to support up and coming talent.

If you’re near The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, pop by and have a look. The Bournemouth exhibition is up until Monday 1st June, with the entire show running until 20th July. Visit www.free-range.org.uk.