Christmas Office Treat!

We love having a treat or two in the office and now its the season when we can indulge!

Follow Jamie Olivers easy recipe and wow your colleagues with these unusual mince pies!

ingredients

• 100g/3½oz good-quality mincemeat
• 25g/¾ oz dried cranberries or blueberries, chopped
• zest of 2 clementines
• a splash of sherry or brandy
• flour, to dust
• 250g/8oz good puff pastry
• 1 pack filo pastry
• 50g/1¾ oz melted butter
• 1 free-range or organic egg, beaten
• 50g/1¾ oz flaked almonds
icing sugar, to dust

method

It really wouldn't be Christmas without being offered a mince pie, would it? I decided to do a bit of reinventing on the classic mince pie, so in this recipe I’m using a combination of puff and filo pastry, both of which you can buy ready-made in the shops for extra convenience.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/gas 6. Scoop the mincemeat into a mixing bowl and mix in the dried berries, the clementine zest and the sherry or brandy.

Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a big rectangle about 20x40cm/8x16 inch and the thickness of a pound coin. Thinly spread the mincemeat over the pastry, leaving a 1cm/½ inch gap around the edges. Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a Swiss roll, place it on a floured tray, and pop in the fridge to firm up.

Take two cupcake trays (for 12 cupcakes each) and butter each one lightly with the melted butter. Place one layer of filo pastry over the tray (you may need more than one sheet to cover each tray depending on the size of the sheets) and ease the pastry into each hole. Brush with the melted butter, then cover with a second layer of filo pastry. Brush with butter again.

Take the puff pastry roll out of the fridge and, with a sharp knife, cut it into 24 slices. Place each slice, flat-side down, into a filo-lined hole. Brush with the egg and sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top of each little pie, then pop both trays in the oven for about 25 minutes, until cooked and golden brown.

Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

Light-emitting wallpaper is here!

An enterprising young designer from the Netherlands has invented what has to be the ultimate in home illumination – light emitting wallpaper.

The luminescent wallpaper is the brainchild of Jonas Samson, who designed and submitted it as part of his final-year postgraduate degree.

Explanation

So how does it work? Well, speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Samson explained that the wallpaper actually uses existing technology, but applies it in a different way:

"The base material is made from a commercially available product that’s manufactured by a number of companies. What I have done, though, is to apply that technology in a different way."

Delving deeper, Samson revealed that the wallpaper is constructed by "sandwiching" a number of layers together that combine to produce light:

"The back layer is a silver-based solution that conducts electricity, while the layer above this contains phosphorous pigments that light up. On top of this is a flexible, transparent ITO conductor layer, with regular wallpaper placed on top to act as the final, outwardly visual layer," he explained.

Off the wall

The result, when it’s switched on, is a visually stunning wall-of-light that can be turned off and on, just like a regular light.

Although Samson first revealed his creation to the public last year, this year’s upcoming Salone Internazionale del Mobile interior design show in Milan, where he is exhibiting, looks set to make his creation a must-have for those who can afford it.

We love Apps!

Every one here at Hi Design owns an iPhone (although some are more familiar with the device than others!!) A big talking point in the office revolves around what apps we have downloaded for our clever little phones. Between us we have everything you could need to do on your phone, from paying your car parking to creating 360 degree virtual room views!

So.. you can imaging the excitement when we dicovered our wall covering supplier, Tekture had released an app to help you browse their ranges.

Their clever app lets you do everything that you can do on their website wherever you may be. In the office, on the road with a client or even in bed.

We greatly believe in the work / life balance at Hi but when its so easy and fun to work its hard to not too.

If you are interested in interior design you really must check out the new Tekture app in your app store!

The BIG office move

They say the two most stressful things in life are getting married and moving.

But imagine how much worse it could be: you’re not just moving yourself and your family, but moving a whole office with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people. People who are used to the way things are, who may not want to move, and who will all have their own concerns and needs….Marriage? That’s a breeze in comparison!

There are so many things to worry about, figuring out where to start can be just the first hurdle. What work-style will you be implementing? How much collaborative and meeting space will you need? What technology will future-proof your new offices? And how are you going to get the employees to engage with the idea, from the initial planning to the final bedding-in? And while you’re focusing on the big issues, you still can’t neglect the “little” things.

One client described how a decent coffee machine became an issue during an office merger: in one of the two offices, the employer provided free coffee where as the other did not have any provision for refreshment. During the pre-move consultations, many employees listed the coffee issue as an area of concern – were they still going to get it? It sounds so minor when compared to the major issues (like the building, design, furniture and fit-out, the location and commuting time, the technology, or the work-style), but it was something people got concerned about.

This example only demonstrates the importance of the project leaders and executives putting themselves firmly in the employees’ shoes, and providing information that’s specific to each individual.

If you’re thinking of moving office take a look our guides. They will help you keep track of all the important details so you can focus on the little thing that will help make the move more comfortable for your staff.

Too see all of our guides follow this link

WE ARE HERE TO HELP#

Open publication - Free publishing - More office design

Open publication - Free publishing - More hi design

Pushing the design boundaries - Riga, Latvia

While troweling through the web we came across this new office design in the Latvian capital Riga. The office that was designed by 'Open AD' was for the PR agency McCann Erickson.

Here is what the design agency said about the project....

The building has been treated like an outdoor environment, with indoor urban planning. Corridors are treated as streets, with benches at the end of them. Separate offices and workspaces have been treated like houses coming off these indoor street, turning the workplace into a small community with shared public spaces. a bookcase in the shape of a tree forms a central part-like area, making a garden libarary.

An igloo structure covered in old newspaper, which appears on the corner of one of these streets, is branded the Egg of Talent. “It is somewhere to go if you need inspiration, to watch a film, to take your laptop, or get your head down and think,” explains Tetere. “This was important to people working creatively in a shared environment.” Tetere adds that the project “was a good break from bars and clubs, as you are always thinking about function. We enjoyed learning about the needs of these companies and the people who work in them, and taking a creative approach to those needs.”

The team also took a creative approach to their budget, reusing and recycling materials wherever possible. When they commissioned furniture for the project, they used lacquered MDF. The panels that make up the corridors are made from recycled timber boards rescued from carpenters’ studios. The lighting is recycled from plasterboard tubes that once held bolts fabric, cut down with bulbs inserted. As well as helping to meet the budget the recycling achieves a retro aesthetic, which Tetere refers to as their “trash style”.

Open AD’s most noticeable recycling project is a large cabinet filled with a collection of disused domestic and office items, turning it into display case of pre- and post-Soviet design. “We went round second-hand shops and called friends to see if they had any appliances we could use, but more importantly, we asked the employees at McCann Erickson and Inspired to bring in objects from their homes that they didn’t need anymore,” says Tetere. “There is a big computer screen from the 1990s, an old home telephone. Some 
of the objects are ten, 20, 30 years old. I think it’s nice to come to work and see something that was a part of your home in the place that you work.”

Handelsbanken Worcester

After a successful completion of Handelsbanken Worcester we were delighted to be invited to join Phil Dutton and his team at the branches official open evening last night. The event was well received with many corporate and private customers attending. Phil as always supplied plenty of drinks and Swedish canapés and kicked off the evening with a lovely speech that complemented our work with the branch.

We wish Phil and his team all the success they deserve and hope that we will be working with them again soon.

Cardboard Office Furniture

Perfect for those looking for environmentally sustainable office furniture for either home office or commercial use, the Paperweight Desk is a simple yet functional, extremely light yet immensely strong task desk that is made of 74% recycled paper, and 26% virgin fibres created from fully managed fast growing sustainable sources.

Created by London’s Cardboard Future, The Paperweight Desk is made of grade A white double walled corrugated board, a solid board, and water varnished desk top with edge protectors. It has 2 chamfered legs that can be either inset or outset, a deep cable management tray, cable outlet slots, twin flaps in desk top for cable access, and best of all it only takes an average of three minutes to assemble! In addition to the Paperweight desk, the line of sustainable furniture also includes a pedestal drawer unit, shelf unit, fourleg table, and round table, all made from the same recycled materials.

We love this concept and would love to put them forward for one of our forward-thinkind clients. We love to support a British product and especially one that helps the environment.

If your company is intersted in more sustainable products and ideas we would love to talk to you!

Talk to us

Wallpaper you can Tear!

Wall treatments are one of the best ways to add style to your home office, but applying them can be some serious work, not to mention expensive. Luckily though, the “Tears Off” modular wallpaper created by the Latvian design company ZNAK is a relatively quick and easy way to give your office a fresh new look, all while allowing you to exercise your creative side.

Made up of specially designed perforated pieces which were inspired by the “transformation process of snakes”, the “Tears Off” wallpaper lets you create your own custom design by tearing off patterned strips of the wallpaper sheet in different formations to reveal the original wall color beneath. The non-woven wallpaper comes in 11 different colors, and can be purchased for £10.00 per sheet.

Hi Design celebrates its first independent year with a portfolio of high profile clients.

Please take the time to read our latest press release.

Birmingham based interior designers, Hi Design are celebrating their first successful year of being an in depended design practise. With a vast portfolio of projects and a thriving client base Hi Design is already looking to expand its talented team.

Hi Design started out as a sister company to a fit out contractor based in Tipton but demand became so high for their commercial designs they realised the potential of being an independent company. Since then they have designed work-spaces for the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, The Co-operative and Phones 4 U. However the Swedish bank Handelsbanken has been Hi Design’s most loyal client to date with 40 of their UK branches being designed by the creative team, including the new Birmingham head office at 2 Colmore square.

Susan Whittle, the director of Hi Design comments,
“We were thrilled to be asked to design the regional head office in our home town Birmingham. After designing so many of their branches we now feel part of the family and we consider it an honoured every time we get asked to design a new branch. We are currently working on their milestone 100th branch in Iikley so we see our successful growth as a journey that we have travelled together. I have never looked back after becoming an independent agency, I have a great team and we are currently looking to expand it.”

Hi Design is currently working on two new projects for Heathcoats Fabrics based in Tiverton valued £1.2 million and Ultra Electrinics based in Greenford valued at £6.4 million so the company needs to expand to meet the demand. The design practise is recruiting to support their sales team as they continue to develop and venture into new industries.

Designing an efficient work place

When designing office spaces we are always trying to find the client a better solution to incorporate the way their company works and operates. We truly believe that the office should evolve to the needs of the business and not the other way round.

We are constantly researching new products that can take the work place to the next level, both in terms of technology, flexibility and storage solutions.
One of the companies that share this ethos is furniture manufacture Steelcase. Their magazine this month perfectly follows our thinking in how we design offices.

To get a better understanding of how we can make your office place work more efficiently have a read and if you like what you see get in touch!

Open publication - Free publishing - More hi design

Milestone 100th UK Branch for Handelsbanken

We have recently enjoyed a great night hosted by Swedish bank Handelsbanken to celebrate the launch of their 100th branch within the UK. The launch was held at Birmingham’s Town hall and was attended by all of the UKs branch managers and their clients. We were delighted to be invited and get the chance to meet all of the people we have worked so closely with over the last couple of years. We are also thrilled to announce that we will also be helping to design and launch their milestone 100th branch in Ilkley! We love working with Handelsbanken and cant waited to get involved with branch 101, 102, 103.... here is to their successful future!

http://handelsbanken.co.uk/

Join our team

As our company goes from strength to strength we are delighted to now have the opportunity to expand the ‘hi family’. We are currently looking to join up a new member of the team that can help us drive the company even further. Hi Design has gained some fantastic clients and projects over the last year so we are confident and excited about expanding the business further. Could you be the one that shares our passion?..

New Role:
CREATIVE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

We need a highly motivated, creative business development manager who can identify, approach and convert sales opportunities for our commercial interior design & architecture practice.

This role would suit someone from within the commercial interiors industry - either as a creative looking to sell, a furniture sales rep wanting a broader offer or just someone with a passion for design with the drive and motivation to win business.

A good knowledge of interior fit-out would be an advantage.

We offer flexible hours a generous commission scheme and expenses allowance.
If you are interested in joining our family then please email a CV and covering letter to:

hello@hi-design.biz

Can you sell design concepts?

Are you enthusiastic and motivated?

Can you articulate your ideas and mix with clients at all levels?

Are you a self starter with contacts within end-users, building surveyors & landlords?

GET IN TOUCH!

CLOSING DATE: 24th June 2011

Proud of our location!

Once again we have a good reason to be proud of our Birmingham location and in particular the street we have our office! A panel of experts, including the fashion editors of Vogue and Grazia and the deputy editor of GQ has included St Pauls Square in the shortlist for the Google Street View Awards as Britain's Hippest Street.
Please follow the link below and cast your vote and put Birmingham and St Pauls square firmly on the map!

http://www.google.com/landing/beststreetsuk/#tab2

Clerkenwell Design Week 24-26th May 2011

This is a festival we thought we should share!

Clerkenwell is home to over 60 showrooms, a multitude of architectural and creative practices. This cultural hub is the perfect location to host an international festival that celebrates all disciplines of design.

With over 150 events, a series of pop up exhibitions, installations, talks, performances, music and workshops, the festival is a showcase of cutting edge design from some of the biggest names in the industry. In 2010 the design community flocked to Clerkenwell with over 18000 registered, 2011 promises to be bigger and better!




The showrooms of Clerkenwell will throw open their doors hosting an exciting programme of talks, debates and workshops. Learn about the pressing issues in design from industry leaders and thinkers. Register your free entry and receive updates of what is happening during the festival.

Click here to register and find out more.

Space saving office tools

When designing office space we are always told by the client that they want to ‘maximise their space’ so we are always looking for crateful ways to achieve this. Upon our trawls through the wonders of the web we have just stumbled upon this cleaver little design by London-based studio DesignWright. The Buro range for Lexon collects up common desk objects such as staplers, hole punchers and calculators into a stack or a line. Buro is made from ABS plastic with a rubberised finish and is available in green, grey and purple.




We think we need to make a purchase for the hi design office!

Fun and playful gothic chairs

We have just stumbled cross these very colour full and unusual chairs by Dutch furniture brand Moooi.
Dutch-Belgian design duo Studio Job (Nynke Tynagel and Job Smeets) have created the ‘gothic chair’ for Dutch furniture brand moooi.

The development of the chair came from Smeet’s purchase of a 16th century style neo-gothic chair which he brought to the table at moooi, proposing that the complex, handcrafted archetype be produced by industrial means of rotational moulding.

We think they would be perfect for our clients that need a sturdy chair that offers a focal point to the room.

For more information about the chairs and other creative pieces please follow the link http://www.moooi.com/ their designs are amazing!

We love Google's European offices

When asked who would be our favourite client to work for without hesitation we always say Google! Their innovation is shown not only in their field of work but their willingness to break the boundaries in their office designs and their European office is no exception.

Architecture and design firm, Camenzind Evolution, was commissioned to work on the project in Zurich, Switzerland, and after consulting with Google employees as to what they wanted to see, they came up with a breath-taking response. Take a tour of the building and you’re transported between a series of mini-environments, each a product of the employees’ imagination. Sailing boats, ski gondolas, penguins, igloos, telephone booths and an aquarium water lounge are just some of the sights you pass on your journey.

Birmingham's new jewel

For anyone that doesn’t yet know about Birmingham’s stunning new building... where have you been? For those that do, I hope you have been to have a look. Situated behind the Mailbox The Cube will enthuse even the most uncreative visitor. Inspired by the vision of award winning architect, Ken Shuttleworth, the building needs to be seen to be believed. Housing apartments, shops, offices, restaurants and a hotel it’s a hive of life all wrapped up in a gold glittering shell. We think the building is world class and we are proud that it is in our city... fingers crossed we get a project in there too!

Larger than life graphic wall

We would like to highlight a new service that wall covering specialist Tektura, have recently launched. As well as offering a wide range of wallpapers they can now provide custom printed wall paper to create personalised graphic walls. We used this new service for our client who specialises in surgical equipment to create graphic walls that showcase their products. Using our in-house photographer we captured their products in random patterns to produce these eye-catching graphic walls.

http://www.tektura.com/digital/

The Co-operative Training Academy

Congratulations to SkillsFirst in winning the new Co-operative Training Academy!

We were delighted to be asked by SkillsFirst to put together a design concept for an academy to help them win their pitch. We designed a suite that could be utilised in many different ways as the training can be very varied. Using the Co-operative blue as the primary colour we designed feature graphics that incorporated the Co-operatives other colour divisions.

We are glad that we helped them win the contract, a big pat on the back to all!

Connection's Is.mesh passed its test

We are happy to announce one of our favorite task chairs has just passed the BS EN 1335, parts 2 & 3.
We have specified the chair numerous times as we have always believed it to be a great product and now it has the accreditation. The Is.mesh task char has a unique integrated height adjustment with a dual mesh lumbar support - differentiating it from other mesh chairs in the market. With its light environmental footprint it’s also great for the environment... we love it!

To find out more information about the Is.mesh click on the image to be directed to the Connections product page.

Free guides to download

To celebrate us joining the fantastic new website Help Moving Office, we have put together three documents that we think are a must for anyone potentially relocating or refurbishing.

Help Moving Office provide businesses with the information, guides and contacts needed for a successful office move. They guide you through the office relocation process and give you the information you need to make the right decisions at the right time. This is something that we like to promote at hi so we are delighted to be involved.

Please feel free to view or download any of our branded guides below and take a look at the many more on offer at:

www.helpmovingoffice.co.uk

Open publication - Free publishing - More office design

Open publication - Free publishing - More office design

Open publication - Free publishing - More office design