CALM's devastatingly simple suicide campaign ➜

125 people in the UK take their own lives each week. It's a hard fact to absorb and The Last Photo is an unblinkingly effective campaign for CALM which humanises the devastating loss behind it. As a population we've grown blasé to statistics, but it's heartachingly difficult to look away from these candid final images of outwardly happy people and not want to start a more open conversation around suicide. Love and respect to Adam&EveDDB for producing such a simple, sensitive and powerful campaign.

Hip hop goes first class! ➜

Hip hop x Royal Mail, is not your average mash up, so creative kudos to design studio Dorothy for attempting to bring these odd bedfellows together. They've reimagined 42 seminal hip-hop albums as a series of oversized postage stamps with Dr Dre, A Tribe called Quest and Lauryn Hill all featured. Good news; you can buy them all in one handy sheet at the link above. Bad news; if you adhere them to an envelope, it'll be returned to sender. Hip hop officially holds no sway with the UK's prissy postal service, however beautifully its represented.

London 2012 – when logo designers had to be rehomed ➜

Interesting behind-the-curtain piece on the London 2012 Olympic logo here. It was an unquestionably bold and controversial design – hugely dividing audiences when it was unveiled 10 years ago. This, via Wolff Olins, the team who created it, gives some insight as to the depth of (ill) feeling. At odds with the conformity of legacy Olympic logos, it stood out for its neon colourways, ragged letterforms and unapologetically punk style. As the ceremonies and events unfolded though, it seemed to solidify itself as the perfect emblem for a host nation with such a disruptive, pioneering and creative history.

Last night a DJ scooped my ice ➜

Is there a more welcome sound in summer than the sweet melodic tinkle of an ice cream van? Absolutely not! Greensleeves, Waltzing Matilda, The Entertainer – they're all ice cold classics. So why has Haagen Dazs' decided to override those cheery chimes with the bass-bin thumping beats of some celebrity DJ's? Oh yeah, marketing! They've pimped a HDICV (that's Haagen Dazs Ice Cream Van) with decks, woofers and famous-ish disc jockeys. Keep your ears open as it travels from London to Edinburgh this summer.

UX troubles abound for parents ➜

When the worlds of digital design and parenting collide, the outcomes are likely to be humorous. Every parent of a small child can relate to this detailed assessment of toddlers and their abject failure to comply with usability standards. We also hear reports that parents of the earlier and older child version models; Adolescent and Teen releases – are experiencing similar failures, primarily around start-up and shut-down modes.

The Drumbeat Drop is our candid take on the weird, wired, wonderful world we work in.


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