What's happening at Art Meets Matter!

In my last post you may remember something about a new sign going up on the Art Meets Matter building. Well the day has arrived. And we all think it looks spiffing. For those of you who don’t live in Wiltshire and can’t take the time for the road trip- just imagine the glorious colours and graphics of the website, but condensed. Like condensed milk, it’s slightly sweeter (and great in cakey things).

Hello dear readers. Oh how I have missed thee.  It’s very rarely in my day to day life that I get to entertain people on their laptops while they a) avoid work and/or b) avoid family and/or c) resist the urge to Google themselves. So I thank you for allowing me onto your screens and into your hearts. Or your browser history anyway.

Some of you may also have received in your inbox Angela’s first email shot. And her second.  Which took place after we explained to her that not everyone in the world shares the same name. We hope it made you laugh, as it did us. And if we could all applaud her first attempt at computer graphics. Angela comes from a time when any typesetting was done with pen and ink or a Letraset. With a little help from Alex though it all went swimmingly, causing an increase in online orders already (We’re not trying to toot our own horn or anything, as we’re not that musical). And it can only get better, so look out for more in the future. If you haven’t already signed up you can do so at the bottom of the page by entering your e-mail in the little box where it says “Get the latest news!”

In AMM news this week we have Ivan, an esteemed designer who we’re lucky to be old friends with (and who is also the dab hand behind the style of some of our products), working on the sign to the studio. Having moved into the new premises about a year ago Tony felt his time was better suited to developing a board game- so he did that instead of making a sign. Unfortunately it means some of us get lost when coming into work. But when we do manage to find it, there are little Bookchase shelves with tiny little plastic books and our names on. So that makes up for it.

At the moment we’re all buzzing around like busy bees for V-day in the Art Meets Matter studio. Buying flowers, booking an evening in a swanky restaurant, chocolates, champagne, skimpy underwear, limousines. The atmosphere is nostalgic, loving, generous and brimming with happiness. And all because we’re about to celebrate our love on a very special day. I am of course talking about Vouchers Day!

That’s right, AMM has finally found the perfect way to show you all how much we love you. No longer do you have to know what the person you’re buying for really wants. No longer do you have to suffer from being blinded by our vast range of products and cursed with indecision about which to choose for that special someone. Now you can put them in that position instead by purchasing a gift voucher to use on our website. It’s perfect for estranged spouses, grandchildren you never see, friends who are really just Facebook friends, and all the people who you actually know well and love (and know that they would love the opportunity to choose for themselves!). And on behalf of everyone I’d like to say “You’re Welcome” and also, what did you get us?

So here we are. January. 2011. We managed to survive Christmas and New Years with minimal amounts of overeating, overspending and arguing over who really won Bookchase and now it’s all, well, over. But guess 
what? Life isn’t going to wait for you to recover from the holidays, it’s going to throw weddings, birthdays, engagements, mitzvahs, anniversaries, Valentines, mothers days, fathers days, Easters, and Halloweens, until before you know it- it’s Christmas again! I’m glad I inherited The Forward Planning Gene from my mum and gran and luckily I have all of my presents for the next ten years or so sorted- if you’re not as awesome as me and you don’t then maybe you should check out the Art Meets Matter’s bags (Penguin, A2Z, and more). You can give them as gifts or you can use them yourself to carry all the shopping you’re going to be doing for the rest of the year. I personally prefer the latter, after all it’s one present sorted… yours!

 A few months ago when the weather was at it’s coldest, snow was metres thick, Angela and Kim were wading in to the office to get Christmas orders out to the public- but the office heating system decided that it wasn’t going to play ball and decided to keep them freezing their mittens off. A few shivering days and several rubbish 
ideas discarded later the heating situation is finally sorted in the Art Meets Matter office. Both Kim and Angela are now nice and toasty under a weird contraption of patio heaters and umbrellas, busy working away to get your orders out to you, or out to the shops that you buy your goodies from. A warm worker is a happy worker after all. And we all know what a happy worker is. (Happy).

Speaking of warming, we’ve been having lots of lovely heartwarming responses to the new site. It’s been such a positive boost to us to see how much people like all the hard work that has been put in. I’m not going to name names but people have been saying that the blog particularly is brilliant. The words “informative and interesting” have been bandied about as well “pure genius” and “utterly hilarious”. It still counts if I said them, right?

Meanwhile I have some top secret news. You can keep a secret, can’t you internet? Tony has been spotted boarding a plane to fly to America this week and my spies tell me he has also visited Canada (most likely 
to bring me back the bottle of maple syrup I requested) whilst that side of the Atlantic. This surely means big news for the whole Art Meets Matter team. When I asked Angela about what this trip could mean 
for the company, she couldn’t possibly comment. Probably because she’d just taken a sip of tea out of her Room Of One’s Own mug. But still.

Hello there. My name is Hattie Davis, one of the offspring of Tony and Angela, the others being, Joe, Noah and Art Meets Matter.

Coming from such a creative family it seems only natural that my interests should be within similar artistic fields. Having just graduated from my degree in Drama, I figured my next step was going to be quite obviously- blogging. This job was given to me not only through nepotism, but also because I charge very little for my writing services. Great, eh?

Because most people found Tony’s old blog on the old site to be a little, well, old. It seemed only natural that they find a younger version of him, who is incredibly more stylish, and definitely saner to try and translate the genius that is AMM into something that makes sense to the general blog-reading public. In fact I’ll probably be taking over all forms of social networking sites that AMM has its claws in, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr etc. I am after all, well versed in these sites, being under the age of 25.

What you can expect from this blog is not only some good old fashioned plugging, but also interesting links, projects that are rumoured to be happening, celebrities who’ve been kind enough to let us photograph them sitting on our deckchairs at events such as the Hay festival, inspirational designs, companies we’ve had the pleasure of working with, and competitions, discounts and special offers.

All of these are just some of the things I’ll be covering in the weekly blog. So it’s really in your best interests to make sure you follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and check this blog regularly for your injection of AMM coolness.

If you check out the contact page, you’ll also be able to contact me if you have found some interesting news, websites, photos, stories etc. about our products and you might find it featured on this exact blog that you’re reading now- if it’s interesting enough. I won’t be putting up just any old dross!