Asbury & Asbury

Pentone Hard Sell

Do you want to buy a mug for Christmas? And do you want to place an order before midday on Monday 12 December? If so, read on!

Two and a half years ago, we produced some Pentone mugs – an extension of our Pentone system for dividing written language into different tones of voice (a not-entirely-serious system).

Since then, the mugs have been selling at a slow but pleasingly steady rate, to the point where we’ve now SOLD OUT of Pentone Yorkshires. If you’re the owner of one, consider thysen lucky.

But there are still three varieties to choose from:

Pentone Mug: A true mug’s mug. If it’s not right for you, then it’s definitely right for one of your friends. You know the one.

Pentone Sympathetic: A mug that offers both tea and sympathy. And we all need a bit of both now and again.

Pentone Stirring: A mug that stirs you. Recommended for important business meetings and major sporting occasions.

All mugs are finest bone china, made in Britain, dishwasher and microwave proof. The best thing about them is their size – we find they’re ideal for a good brew, and the white interior allows you to judge the colour of your tea more accurately.

Order very quick if you want one before Christmas – for deliveries within the UK, we need the order by midday Monday 12 December. (If you’re outside the UK, it may already be too late – maybe next year.)

All deliveries come with a free set of Pentone swatches.

Buy now, pay now.

And a reminder that Pentone Yorkshire has SOLD OUT.

A word of thanks

We've just taken delivery of this Lego set from Andrew Arnold, fellow 26 member and Communications Manager at Lego.

It's part of a swap deal involving a set of Pentone mugs, which are now making their way over to Andrew in Denmark. We suspect we got the better side of the deal.

The swap came about through the Creative Review Tweetup last week, at which Lego was the main sponsor. The event gets a good write-up over here.

Let's mingle

Tomorrow night is the Creative Review tweetup at the Design Museum, where everyone is invited to bring along a piece of work to form a mini-exhibition.

I'm planning to attend and thought I'd write this new Pentone for the occasion. (Pentone being our system for dividing language into tone of voice samples, as Pantone does with colour.)

It should be a fairly accurate reflection of how tomorrow night will go.

The gift of Music

Before moving on with the serious business of 2010, a polite thank-you for gifts and cards received over the festive period. The stand-out item was this Woodcraft Construction Kit from design company Music. Slightly random gift, you might think. But it turns out it's one of many items featured in their forthcoming book Stuff We Really Like. It came gift-wrapped in flatplans from the book itself, with a personalised bookmark. That's a proper Christmas mailer.

Makes our Pentone card seem stingy by comparison.

 

Mug Plug

We’ve mentioned them before (here and here) and now they’re finally ready. (Hear, hear.)

Yes, you can now enjoy your tea in whatever tone of voice you like. Sympathetic. Stirring. Yorkshire. Or plain old Mug.

They’re all available in the ambitiously-named ‘Shop’ section of the website. Possibly the only retail outlet in the world that specialises in mugs and poetry.

Have a good browse around – and remember, you pay if you break anything.

Mug shot

Just got the latest samples in of our Pentone mugs. Shouldn't be long now...

Something's brewing

Working on an extension of the Pentone system at the moment. (We had to do mugs eventually.) Got the first proof back from the printer – a friendly place in Stoke-on-Trent where they call you 'me duck' and mugs are 'beakers' and they don't do Pantone Cool Grey 7, they do 'charcoal'.

There'll be a set of four mugs available to buy online, hopefully a few weeks before Christmas. So stick the kettle on and watch this space.