Welcome to the Liv Design blog, an eclectic mix of great design and quirky finds

Liv Design's Creative Director, Scott Johnson, was a guest on BBC Radio Nottingham yesterday morning with Frances Finn. Frances interviewed Scott about Liv Design's Top 10 predictions for style and design for 2010. For more information visit the Liv Design website . You can listen again via the BBC Radio Nottingham website by clicking here . Scott features after the one about bra sizes!...

If you're bored of the little neoprene-esque zippy jackets that your Apple laptop usually wears, why not get one of these! The BookBook, produced by US Mac lovers Twelve South, features a velvety soft padded interior with dual zips and two tough, rigid leather hardback covers with a rigid spine. Available in Classic Black and Vibrant red Sadly it doesn't fit my 17 inch MacPro... www.twelvesouth.com/products/bookbook/

Our Creative Director, Scott, will be on the Frances Finn Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Nottingham on Monday morning. He'll be chatting to (and be heckled by...) Fran about his design and style predictions for next year.

Without sounding like a 'trend forecasting' company we thought we'd share our views on what we think will happen in design for 2010. It's a broad brushstroke and covers a wide variety of media, but focusing on design and style in general. Based on how styles have been changing over the past 12 months and what's been happening in the design industry as a whole, here's what we think you can expect to see more of across the creative industry this year. 1). The Moustache Expect to see a variety of manly top lip creations appearing in stylish promotions and advertising across the world. A mix of 70s, 80s and turn of the century wax creations will provide a host of Tom Selleck, Kitchener and Sherlock Holmes look-a-likes. 2). Colour Garish florescent 80s colours will disappear, thankfully, having been done to death over the past year. The use of White in product and automotive design will fade away with the public hungry for something a little warmer and exciting afte

Christmas and the New Year have come and gone, the buying frenzy is over for another year. Manufacturers and designers can rest for a few months before starting all over again for next season. There have been some great Christmas designs this year. Ted Baker produces their usual irreverent take on the seasonal festivities. NEXT had a great simple but coherent campaign design, and Marks and Spencers continued with some great retro/nostalgic packaging. For us, Marks and Spencer's most successful products this Christmas was their biscuit tins. There was a great Nordic themed design from half Finnish and half English illustrator and print-maker Sanna Annukka for their Swiss biscuits. Sanna also illustrated the Cravendale Milk packaging. Also a fave was M&S's amazing embossed 'Book' tin for their chocolatey selection biscuit. Roll on next Christmas! Check out www.sanna-annukka.com

It's great to see Royal Mail getting some things right. Despite recent bad press about strikes, poor service, and the announcement that the cost of stamps is going up again, it's nice to see they can still produce some great products. January 7th 2010 sees the release of the new 'Classic Album Covers' stamps. Stamps should be a thing of beauty, they should be seen and appreciated, not locked away in a collector's album. Perhaps this is a great way to get a younger generation involved in the forgotten medium of 'post'. Album covers are an artform in themselves, and something to cherish. They provided not only an aural soundtrack throughout our lives but a visual soundtrack too. They feature some great classic covers, our favourites from the 10 are Led Zep IV, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd's The Division Bell . Oddly, no Beatles though. Check out the full set at: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/jump1?catId=32300674&mediaId=11