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It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Monday, November 26, 2012

This weekend we bid a fond farewell to our beloved terrariums and welcomed every element of Christmas to Great Marlborough Street. There's snow, oversized gifts, festive garlands and a very shiny new toy...

The first major addition to reception is that Mill Touch is here! Mill Touch was entirely developed by The Mill and is an interactive, living portfolio, illustrating the ever-expanding body of work.  Delve behind the scenes, perform text searches within the portfolio, explore content by manipulating a multi-million particle fluid simulation or use the virtual 'lens' apparatus to see before and after footage in real-time!

For the festive window installation The Mill Christmas elves teamed up with INT Works and the national charity for homeless people, Crisis, to produce a Christmas wish machine. Tweet your wish to @themillwishes and your wish will be added as a flake to the snowstorm.  For every wish received 10p is donated to Crisis, so get wishing and get tweeting. If you can, pay us a visit… it will be snowing here every day so it saves you using up a precious wish on wanting a white Christmas.

To learn more about the inspiration for the window, Alex Bec (Director of INT Works and It's Nice That) reveals all…

For those who might not have heard of you (do these people exist!) tell me about INT Works.
We're a creative agency in London, who come up with great ideas for brands and collaborate with the right experts to make them happen. So our projects are supremely varied, from re-invigorating parks to designing book jackets, to making snowstorms in windows! Our sister company is the publishing platform It's Nice That so we're always surrounded by amazing reference and brilliant people.

Who and what inspires you?
All of the brilliant creative minds we come into contact with every single day and make our ambitious ideas tangible, living things. Nothing is more inspiring than seeing an idea come to life.

How did you approach The Mill window?
We looked at the brief as a chance to try and do something really ambitious and act as a bit of a spectacle. The surrounding area will be so full of Christmas decorations we were desperate to try and do something in-keeping with the look and feel of the season, but also would make someone stop and look twice. The fact that people can also get involved in the window just by tweeting is exciting for us too.

Talk me through how "The Mill Christmas Wish Machine" works?
The storm is achieved by creating a separate space within the window, backed by a 2m x 3m clear perspex panel on hinges, and powered by two fans that have been stripped back with bespoke stands. All of this to create just the right air vortex, to turn the perfectly sized tissue paper pieces into a snow storm. There were multiple testing stages to get the storm factor just right, including creating a full scale mock up of The Mill's window in a warehouse.

What wish will the INT Works team be tweeting to @TheMillWishes?
Alex: Obviously world peace, but failing that I'll be happy with a nice big dinner with my family.
James Dougan: Turkey, beer, more turkey.

What's your favourite part of Christmas?
I love the fact everyone in our industry takes a break at the same time, and it's the only time in the whole year that really happens, so I try and make the most of the email silence!

What do you have planned for your Christmas party?
Some games, a few internal awards and a hearty feed-up with everyone who's worked so hard with us this year.