Hasta La Ideas

The above illustrated ribbon appears on the contents page of the August, Summer Bumper Book O’ Fun issue of Creative Review. It displays a code devised by its illustrator Stefan G Bucher – who created the cover for the issue and who is featured within the issue’s pages.

The code is actually a challenge to our readers (see image below to see the code in its entirety), and the first to crack it wins a prize!

UPDATE AND SPOILER ALERT (SOLUTION REVEALED BELOW): Apologies, we didn’t make clear that there are actually two puzzles to be completed here.

The text on the ribbon spells out the lyrics to Cruel Summer by Banarama:

Hot summer streets
And the pavements are burning
I sit around
Trying to smile but
The air is so heavy and dry
Strange voices are saying
What did they say
Things I can’t understand

Congratulations to Gavin Leisfield who was the first to correctly identify it.

But there is also another, even more fiendishly difficult puzzle on the page involving the code on the beach umbrella and the link via the QR Code top right. We won’t reveal the solution just in case people still want to try to crack it but Alex Johns has already done it and wins a signed, personalised copy of Bucher’s 100 Days of Monsters book.

Thanks to everyone who has emailed in their answers.