Why thriving, vibrant creative communities matter to us all.

In the UK, the creative sector is currently growing faster then the economy as a whole, which in our current economic climate is a great driver for providing employment.

It's a real UK success story. According to the Creative Industries Economic Estimates report 2010 produced by DCMS, the creative industries in all their diverse forms represented 5.14% of the UK's employment total, 10.6% of exports and 2.89% of GVA (Gross Added Value). According to Wikipedia, the manufacturing sector accounted for 8.2% of the workforce and 12% of the national output. That's a pretty incredible statistic! In terms of the benefit to local communities, the creative sector firstly has a lot to offer local businesses. There's a creative heartbeat in every successful business – take Apple as the prime example. For creatives, taking risks and pushing boundaries are part of the norm, and this is what drives fresh new ideas and innovations.

Brands are now well established as a key component of a businesses ability to compete, and creatives are at the very centre of building successful brands. Secondly a thriving and vibrant local creative community enriches all our lives and makes our community a much more interesting place to live in and to experience. How can commercial creative businesses such as ours help? By giving our creative sector a Voice to the local business community and local community as a whole – commercial creative companies are in the business of effective communication. We also have a responsibility to help nurture the creative talent of tomorrow which keeps our sector strong and competitive.

Creative businesses can do this in many ways – engaging with art and design students on projects, mentoring, work experience, apprenticeships, part employment so they can afford to pursue university degrees in this difficult economic climate, etc… And we can build a clear and persuasive case for greater investment by Government and private business. We need to prove the indispensability of the creative and cultural industries to business and society as a whole.

However it seems clear that today the creative sector can no longer rely on Government for generous grants and subsidies alone to survive and flourish. It has to learn to operate commercially – and that's where commercial creative companies can provide direction. Mathew Taylor, CEO of the RSA says: "With substantial cuts in public funding and very little sign that private philanthropy is filling the gap we have no choice but to refresh the case for the importance of the arts and develop innovative business models which enable arts organisations to flourish in this difficult environment."

This can and should be a liberating experience – empowering artists, creative practitioners of all disciplines and non-commercial creative organisations to take financial control of their own destiny rather than relying on subsidy, through acquiring commercial business practice tools. I've recently been invited to join a steering group for the Creative Sector in Bedfordshire. I'm really looking forward to exploring how eat with your eyes can make a contribution as a commercial creative company to the Bedfordshire creative community sector.

The opportunity is to align the commercial and public arts scenes much more closely together, so the benefits to both can be reciprocated, and so we can speak more loudly and coherently as one strong voice.
I'll keep you posted on progress, and welcome any ideas anyone has as I undertake this journey.

Tony

Table Type Soy Sauce Bottle (1960)

Instantly recognisable and familiar to everyone, the classic soy sauce bottle is, or has been in everyone’s kitchen cupboard at sometime or another.

A simple study of form and function that works together, a perfect form that is both elegant and practical. The Table Type Soy Sauce Bottle is a great example of a creative modernist design that owes much to Raymond Loewy’s streamlined style.

As a form, the bottle designed by Kenji Ekuan is reassuringly familiar yet mildly exotic. The design was conceived in 1960 and was an immediate success. The design has practical and sturdy elements, such as a wide base for stability and the flowing tapering form suggests a teardrop and gives the bottle a soft organic shape. However this is sharply contrasted by the iconic red flat-topped cap, which has an ingenious double opening ensuring against drips when pouring.

It took three years for Ekuan and his team to arrive at the dispenser’s transparent teardrop shape. More than 100 prototypes were tested in the making of its innovative, dripless spout (based on a teapot’s, but inverted). The design proved to be an ideal ambassador. With its imperial red cap and industrial materials (glass and plastic), it helped timeless Japanese design values - elegance, simplicity and supreme functionality - infiltrate kitchens around the world.

Ekuan wanted a design that could be placed directly on the table and would make elegant centrepiece. Originally the Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle was intended to be part of a table-top condiment set, but this never happened.

The successful design is made from dishwasher safe glass, it’s refillable and virtually unbreakable - an item intended to keep, re-use and enjoy.

More than 300 million dispensers have been sold, in more than 70 countries. In 2007, to mark its 50th year in the United States, Kikkoman issued a gold-capped version, and the company has also given souvenir bottles, bearing the image of Mickey Mouse, to groups of schoolchildren visiting the factory. But Ekuan’s original design persists.The Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle may be just a sauce bottle but it shows that simple design principles mixed with functionality can have a longevity and become true design classics, everything has been considered even it’s re-use, quite futuristic thinking in the 1960’s and it still looks as contemporary and modern as it did when it launched 50 years ago.

Frazer Morgan

Food Sells

Now I may be showing my age here, but back in the day everything from cars to chocolate bars were being sold with some oozing sexual undertone.



But gone are the days of a seductively bitten chocolate bar or a bikini clad girl draped over a bonnet. Food is the new sex that sells. Car manufactuars are making cars out of cakes in the television adverts, rather then showing their latest gas guzzler speeding round a coastal road driven by some chiseled chin Lothario, accompanied by a panting, pout lipped companion.



Even the press adverts extol the benefits of writing on fruit, rather then displaying the retaining skills of their models bikini. But this shift isn’t just the provenance of the motor industry, even the media are using food to capture their audiences attention with this latest advert from Sky.

So why this shift? I think it’s because food appeals, it makes your mouth water! Food can offer an experience that is achievable to everyone. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy working here so much, we understand the power of the food experience.

Steve Humber

Brand Building - Off the Wall Thinking

Offices were once designed to keep people apart and controlled. Partitioning, deliberate hierarchy and closed private meeting rooms. At EWYE we work as far from that concept as we can push it, to stimulate creativity and the flow of new ideas.

Open desks, open meetings, open everything. Everyone knows every project here and that’s how we like it. That’s how we get deep into a concept quickly. We all collaborate, share thoughts, stick our noses right in and we question and challenge everything to stimulate creativity and discussion. We do this as a team, because we are a team. It’s what any good agency does to be honest, but we go a little further in our own unique way. We’ve gone beyond our sketch pads and flip charts, and our strategy now adorns our office walls. We are literally immersed in our food ideas and strategy. Surrounded by seasonal references, examples of every food retail concept. Every creative benchmark, everything that takes branding and marketing for food retail to the next level. Our offices are now a physical example of our collective approach and passion for what we do. The really nice thing is our space constantly evolves with new influences. It’s really organic – like the seasons. Our offices have become who we are and what we stand for. Take a peek in to our home of work… 

Steve Oakey