If you haven’t been in the UK for the last 6 months you may have escaped the media hype that a Royal Wedding is due to take place, Friday 29 May 2011 between William Windsor and Catherine ‘Kate’ Middleton. Whether you’d like to celebrate this event or are seeking some alternative suggestions for refuge we can suggest a few websites which may help.

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The Royal Wedding — Viral videos

There’s been a number of royal wedding viral videos which we’ve come across but our current favourite is the T-Mobile YouTube video designed by UK advertising agency giants, Saatchi and Saatchi which features a number of lookalike members of the royal family celebrating the big day of Wills and Kate in a unique manner. One could only dream that the contents of this video actually happen on the day.

W+K — Interactive installation

The London based advertising agency, Wieden + Kennedy decided to celebrate the agency’s shared initials with Prince William and Kate Middleton with an interactive installation in the front window of their office. Passers-by just have to stand in front of the window, line up their faces with the dotted circles in front of them — and strike their most regal pose. They then press a button (a golden crown) and their Royal portrait is taken: they will be photographed, wearing a digital crown, into their own, personal postcard which can then be uploaded straight onto Facebook so that their big day can be shared with friends and family. If you’d like to create your own personal postcard simply pop to W+K’s London office.

Royal Wedding — Souvenirs

The advent of the Royal wedding has brought an abundance of souvenirs to commemorate the special occasion, whether it be a memorial plate, a Princess Catherine Doll, a kit to knit your own monarchy, a set of elegant champagne flutes or a simply a box of condoms the UK cottage industry has it covered.

Official Royal wedding websites

There are several websites dedicated to the Royal Wedding but a few noteworthy ones you may like to visit are:

The Royal Wedding — Official Website
Packed full of information about Prince William and Catherine Middleton, photos, videos and the latest wedding plans revealed.

The Royal Wedding — Twitter page
Follow @clarencehouse for the latest breaking news on wedding plans and events on the day.

The Royal Wedding — Charitable gift fund
Prince William and Catherine Middleton have asked that those wishing to give a gift contribute to their charitable fund.

Coming to London?
If you’re hoping to join the crowds to watch events live on the day, visit the Royal Wedding page on the Government’s website for advice.

The Royal Wedding — Video message book
Send your congratulatory messages to Prince William and Catherine Middleton ahead of their wedding day by uploading your video to the Royal Wedding video book on The Royal Channel.

The Royal Wedding — Facebook
Enables you to receive the latest updates and information about Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s big day plus you can share your stories and well wishes.

Royal Wedding — Alternative suggestions

If you’re looking to escape the media bombardment of the mention of the Royal Wedding we have a few suggestions:

1. Attend ‘Escape The Wedding Camp’ at a campsite near Machynlleth organised by Balchder Cymru (Pride of Wales)
2. Use a handy application called Refynr which helps enable you to filter words such as ‘Royal and ‘Wedding’ from your Facebook and Twitter streams
3. Leave the country and book a last minute holiday from Lastminute.com which is currently offering flights and 7 nights in a five star hotel in Hammamet, Tunisia, from £279 per adult
4. Take further advice from the Independent’s ‘Not the Royal Wedding’ guide to fun this Friday.

This weeks inspiration was found via a link from the website, FormFiftyFive for the Brighton based designer Kyle Bean who specialises in hand crafted models, prop styling and art direction.

The images above are for a series of stick insects Kyle made out of matchsticks. The attention to detail we hope you’ll agree is quite incredible but what impresses us more is the patience he took to create these masterpieces. The rest of his portfolio is equally as impressive as he showcases his diverse model making abilities creating items from everyday objects eg cardboard boxes, circuit board components and even vegetables.

This weeks inspiration was found via a tweet from @grifter which is for the Circus Museum website which contains an extraordinary collection of circus memorabilia from Jaap Best which includes posters, photos and prints.

There are nearly 8,000 circus posters contained within this website dating as far back as 1880 to the present which come from the Netherlands to USA. When you have a spare 5 minutes take a look.

Inspiration for this week comes in the form of an action-adventure YouTube film called ‘The Chase’ which is shot through a number of computer program windows and sites, from Apple’s iTunes to Facebook, YouTube and even Microsoft Office and the Adobe Creative Suite — all on a single computer desktop. Pretty impressive.

The Chase was created by San Francisco agency Venables Bell & Partners and directed by Smith & Foulkes of Honda Grrr fame and was designed to build excitement around the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor, Intel have launched.

The inspiration we’ve chosen for this week is Nike’s latest website, ‘Nike Better World’, a website which in a visually clever way outlines the many global initiatives the company are involved with.

A combination of bite sized information, quirky navigation, a series of external website links and evocative imagery helps communicate the messages Nike want to convey in a subtle, understated manner.

This weeks inspiration was found within an article from Design Week who featured a number of Christmas cards they’ve received over the festive period.

Our particular favourite are the Christmas protest placards from creative design studio, One Point Oh.

With topical slogans such as ‘Baubles not bombs’, ‘Affordable ginger bread homes now’ and stuffed woodland creatures they definitely have raised a few smiles within the studio which is in keeping with Christmas, the season of joy.

This weeks inspiration comes in the form of some beautiful Christmas packaging designed by London design agency, JKR for the boutique perfumer, Penhaligon’s.

The packaging sees a fusion of old mixed with new conjouring up a contemporary packaging solution with a classic feel. Truly inspirational.

Jovan Buac, Senior Account Manager at JKR commented:

“This was a fantastically collaborative process with the client — we both wanted to create something unique that didn’t rely on Christmas clichés. The use of bright colours makes a real statement and ensures the boxes are not too traditional.”

Source: The Dieline

This weeks inspiration is taken from the magical clockwork Christmas scene created by Dutch design agency, Tjep in this window installation for for Italian shop, La Rinascente.

Source: Design Boom

There are times when you come across something so simple yet so brilliant that you wished you had thought of it yourself, the Official Tooth Fairy Kit definitely fits that bill.

The kit beautifully designed by San Francisco design agency, Notion Farm comes contains one letterpress Certificate of Record for filing with your local Tooth Fairy, one reusable silkscreened cloth deposit bag for your first and all subsequent transactions. The offical certificate keeps record of name, age, tooth lost, method of extraction and compensation information.

A great idea which has been extremely well executed and produced, truly inspirational.

Designer Thanva Tivawong’s Sand Glass LED traffic light system is an inspirational design concept we stumbled upon today via Yanko Design which the beauty of the idea is in its simplicity.

Potentially a problem if you’re colour blind but it’s nice to see something so commonly seen in everyday life thought about in a different manner.

When designers Lesley and Arlo Guthrie had a baby boy, Oliver they decided to tell their family and friends via the design of a very creative birth announcement.

Inspiration for the CSI criminal dossier came from Lesley’s last few months of pregnancy and in a unique, witty manner documents this uncomfortable yet joyous period. The attention to detail with the amusing copy, typography and debossing treatment of the teddy bear makes the project worthy of an inclusion into our blog. We thank @RibbonsofRed for bringing it to our attention.

Leather artist Mark Evans has captured some of the world’s most famous faces. Armed with a knife Mark has pioneered  something no one else in the world has done before, hand-etched art onto leather hides. The detail is remarkable! Enjoy!