Yes, the Lionesses! Brands respond to their epic achievement ➜

Ovations all round for the England women’s football team. They've been an absolute inspiration on and off the pitch as they perfectly played out the premise that if you want a job doing properly, ask a woman to do it. As you'd expect, the big brands with skin in the (beautiful) game have been keen to add their voices to the congratulatory cheers. Here's a round up of the best, with a hat tip to Sainsbury's for their ingeniously simple: swede, carrot, lime! Altogether now...bah! bah! bah!

Is this scarf actually smart? ➜

Keeping the football marketing thread running, we double-took when we saw this over on The Verge this week. It's a smart scarf that Manchester City will be using to track fans physiological reaction to games. We know that both marketing and sports performance are driven by data, but if you've ever been to a live football match, you'll understand that the physiological response of footy fans is pretty hard to miss. The referee's a what now!? Feels like this sort of wearable tech could become pretty pervasive with clubs gaining (even more) from fans and it reminds us that just because you can, it doesn't always mean you should.

Internet, we've come a long way together ➜

The year is 1996. You're one of the early adopters of a glorious new technology in its infancy. A brave new world of limitless potential and opportunity. You fire up your Macintosh Power PC, using a cripplingly slow dial up connection and access the world wide web for the first time. In a heartbeat you go from wonderment to "what the?" as your eyes are met with an unrelenting assault of design abominations. OK, expectations were lower back then, and thankfully the developments in browser technology, processing speed and connectivity have led to websites becoming way more refined, but the Web Design Museum site is a great reminder of exactly how far we've come.

Ladybird Books gets a whole new look ➜

Ladybird Books has updated its look for the first time in 100 years. In a sign of todays times, the Random House Publishing arm has been given a 'digital first' makeover by design and innovation co, Create Future. The fun and flexible new look comes courtesy of a suite of new brand style assets, namely: contemporary colours, patterns, shapes and stickers. Fear not though, the beloved ladybird herself remains unaltered. Mercifully some things are sacrosanct, even with the turning of time.
 

PFP Maker – Present your personal brand profile perfectly ➜

You might think personal brands are the enclave of celebrities and influencers but most people have at least one social media account, and now, thanks to PFPmaker, there's no reason not to put your best face forward when it comes to your profile image. To get yourself a professional avatar picture, with no studio, designer or photoshop skills required, simply: take and upload a selfie to the site, tailor your background to match your brand, personalty or mood and download. Et voila – your new picture perfect profile image.


Served straight-up fortnightly.

With a slice of insight and garnished with lots of links we think you'll like.