Following my grumpy post yesterday on the subject of wikileaks crowdsourcing design (entries now numbering 474 with three days left to run – that’s 77¢ per design), Creative Review’s blog has picked up the theme.

This time, it’s the government. Their Start Up Britain initiative has been launched to help new businesses access tools and resources on the internet. (I’m all for it, as long as the quality of education our young people receive is addressed, since I find there’s no shortage of entrepreneurial youngsters but a lot of bright kids are sorely let down by their schools.)

Creative Review’s beef is that point 4 – Create a Logo – links through to American crowd sourcing site 99designs.

Like many of its peers, 99designs allows people to completely ignore the strategic thinking that goes into quality brand building and leap into design. Like any activity that doesn’t have a solid foundation – housebuilding without groundworks, wearing a beautiful dress without decent underwear – the immediate impact might be great but the long term prospects are less so.

More to the point, if you’re going to encourage people to go straight for the pretty pictures, at least take them to British freelancers!

Our MP, Therese Coffey, has shared her passion for Suffolk with us, providing wonderful content for the county’s tourism crowdsourcing site, My Suffolk which Spring manages on behalf of Choose Suffolk.

When Therese took up her post for Suffolk Coastal she moved into the pretty village of Westleton, and has derived enormous pleasure from her political patch ever since.

“There are too many things to say about Suffolk but I love driving over the Orwell Bridge back into my part of Suffolk – the majestic span across the river and the indication I am nearly home.

“I love the changing scene up and down the estuaries, the beach huts at Felixstowe and Southwold, the beer from Adnams, the cathedral of the marshes at Blythburgh, the pigs running round the fields along the A12, the fish and chips of Aldeburgh, the white dome of Sizewell, the tranquillity of a walk by Snape, relaxing in my local in Westleton.

“Suffolk is so special – its scenery, its sea and estuaries, its bubbling undercurrents of entrepreneurial activity, its people.”

John Lewis Partnership has launched a new unlimited returns policy.

This is a bid to improve sales, since it gives people more confidence to shop – and if they do choose to return anything, it brings them straight back into the shop again. The technique’s benefit was proven in a study of electrical retailers last year, which set out to see how their returns policy impacted on trade. Those with ‘generous’ returns policies made better sales.

John Lewis consistently demonstrates how creating policies with customer (or staff) benefit in mind also benefits sales. What other people implemented within the last five years in the name of CSR seems to be in JLP’s DNA.

Crowdsourcing has started to become mainstream – remember last year’s ‘David Cameron as Gene Hunt’ winner of a Labour crowdsourcing campaign?

For some brands, Labour included, the value is more in the action (with its implications of being willing to listen to the general public and the brand awareness resultant PR creates) than its result. I can’t help feeling this is true of the most recent creative crowdsourcing brief to come to my attention: Wikileaks.

The leaks website is offering $365 to the winner of their tshirt design competition. So far, 374 people have entered and the deadline is just under 5 days away. You can find out more here.

Crowdsourcing contradicts every argument that industry associations make against unpaid pitches. Open opportunities, encouraging hundreds of replies, against a lose brief mean that the hours put in can never, ever be equalled by the profit margins available to the winner.

This democratisation of graphic design started as soon as we moved from pasteboards to macs, and has been turbo charged by the internet, broadband and social media. Many people’s concern, mine included, is that in many cases this has led, not to meritocracy, but to a industry-wide loss of craftsmanship.

Wikileaks crowdsourcing? For a brand that sets out, in the first sentence of its mission statement, that it is for the public – and is in fact created by that same public, a bit rebellious, a bit anti-establishment; I’d say it was spot-on positioning.

Spring, Adnams and Southwold Pier join forces for charity quiz

Thursday’s beautiful sunshine provided a wonderful day for a fun morning in Southwold, arranged by three of the town’s best-known companies.

The prize quiz and Coffee Morning was organised by the creative agency Spring, hosted by Southwold Pier, with prizes from Adnams. This entertaining event was all in aid of the Suffolk Disability Fund, administered by The Suffolk Foundation, and the day was part of the global Twestival charity day.

Twestival® (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good by connecting communities offline on a single day to highlight a great cause and have a fun event.

“It was great!” says Sarah Groves of Adnams, “The quiz was super, as was the hospitality provided by Antonia Bournes – we couldn’t wish for a better venue, and the sunshine made it even more spectacular.”

Attendees came from as far as Hadleigh and as near as Southwold Post Office to enter the quiz and enjoy the Pier’s delicious cakes, and winners were presented with Adnams Fizz and bottles of beer.

“Social Media is a huge part of our working lives,” says Erika Clegg, Managing Director at Spring. “It’s great to put it to a fun use that benefits our community as well as providing entertainment on a sunny day!”

Attendees also enjoyed playing in the Under the Pier show, with plenty of suits getting ruffled by the frisking machine and exercise bed. Spring’s Lizzie Hirst live tweeted throughout and a video will shortly be uploaded to facebook and this blog.