My toughest commission mission yet, to land the opportunity to work for Starbucks and design the Red Cup for Christmas 2011, is off to a brilliant start! Since my last post I have received a phone call from Darcy Wilson-Rymer the Managing Director of Starbucks here in the UK, who put me in touch with Brian Waring, Head of UK Marketing. (I discovered here the challenges of remaining calm and sounding professional on the phone when all you want to do is jump about your studio and shout “YES!”)

All this was a direct response to the simply awe inspiring numbers of you who tweeted and emailed Darcy about the project (aided a little by the package I sent him in the post!). Thank you so much for your help!

Where we are at now: The Red Cup is the centre piece of the Starbucks Christmas Campaign and is created and designed at their Global Creative Studio at Starbucks HQ in Seattle, USA. Their Creative Director is a chap called Daniele Monti and it is this man, ladies and gentlemen, that I now need to convince!

This box of tricks has been occupying my desk for the last few days. A showcase of inky inspiration and of course another little letter detailing my festive hopes and dreams. Sadly, Daniele doesn’t seem to Tweet, so I’ll be relying on parcels in the post and emails.

It should take 4 days for the parcel to reach Seattle from Scotland, so it should be with him by Wednesday next week. In the meantime, I’m drafting a little email declaring my love for Starbucks, my dedication to design, my quest for the cup and -with any luck- my willingness to hop on a plane to Seattle!

Thank you again for all your brilliant emails and tweets in support of the Campaign for the Christmas Cup! The very fact that a huge corporate giant like Starbucks is pausing to listen to one little Scottish illustrator and her seemingly insane plan to win over their hearts and minds is just awesome! It shows the power of social media, dreaming big… and having lots and lots of determination.

J

PS A big thank you to all the #themeet140 peeps in Aberdeen last night who asked for updates! Great to know the home crowd are behind the campaign!