Hasta La Ideas

With just five days until Christmas, it is high time to share with you some of the delightful Xmas-related paraphernalia we have been sent at CR Towers over the last few weeks… First up, is a link to Mother ad agency’s Twitter feed, which has recently been converted to LappiLeaks, a dripfeed of shocking revelations about Santa and his elves in Lapland. Outrageous disclosures so far include the claim that Blitzen spent nine months in the Priory grotto last year fighting Ketamine addiction. Follow the stories at twitter.com/motherlondon.

Twitter has proved a source of Christmassy inspiration to a number of other agencies and designers too. First up Wieden + Kennedy in London has created a model of Hanbury Street, where the agency is based, in its window. Each time anyone mentions snow on Twitter, a special tweet snowflake falls over the neighbourhood. You can also view the model (which was created by James Cartwright and Jaimie Barker) online at tweetsofsnow.com.

Host in Sydney has created the Merry Twitter Tree, an online Christmas tree lit by Tweets from around the globe featuring the words ‘Merry Christmas’. The tree flickers the more the magic words are spoken, and visitors to merrytwittertree.com can interact with it to read the Tweets.

Following a similar vein is Studio Output‘s A Christmas Tweet website, which tracks all the Christmas conversations taking place on Twitter, and places them into themed categories, so you can read them online.

Our final Twitter-themed piece of Christmas fun comes from Saint@RKCR/Y&R in London, who created Twitter Knitter, a project that took a selection of the wittiest Yuletide Tweets with the hashtag #WarmUpCamden and knitted them onto scarfs, which were then distributed to the cold and needy around Camden (where the agency’s offices are based). A number of the scarves are shown above. The project is now finished but visit twitterknitter.co.uk to see all its results.

Other companies are also using their online skills to be charitable this Christmas. A+B Studio has taken on the knitting theme with The Great Christmas Knitathon, which invites you to add your contribution to a virtual scarf online. Each time someone ‘knits’, the studio will donate £2 to the homeless charity Crisis. Get knitting people!

Fallon in London has set up a website with a webcam showing its office reception and its substantial Christmas tree. Each time someone shares the site, the agency will make a donation to the Ben Kinsella Trust. Visit fallon.co.uk/christmas to see the webcam.

Not everything we’ve received has been digital, however. Bless Design has created these rather fetching tea towels, to help you target your Christmas turkey or reindeer. They can be bought at the Bless shop.

Magpie Studio in London sent us these rather lovely Christmas-themed posters featuring Holly and Ivy, two London-based pensioners.

Ad agency Karmarama sent us this beautifully designed poster that pays reference to the troublesome recession we’ve all experienced this year, along with some, um, delicious reindeer jerky.

Finally, we end with a couple of images from photographer Alan Powdrill from the Vue Photography Agency, who has created a series of images titled Greasy Christmas, that focus on the good ol’ British caff at Christmastime. More of the series can be seen here. Merry Christmas everyone!