I'm guessing if you drop by the blog now and again, you'll know just how glamorous life is at MOO. Well, I say glamorous, there are times when we're not even allowed a chair, let alone a roof over our heads...

Poor dev team... They're lucky it wasn't raining.

We are allowed pie though, it's true -

To be honest, its more toast 'n' Marmite than champagne and canapés. But what's the one thing that makes us more glamorous than most? Well, it's gotta be the fact we work practically *on* a roundabout.

MOO's friend Matt Jones, of Dopplr took this photo, so you can see just how beautiful it really is.

Of course we're not the only ones that work in such a spectacular location, we count Dopplr themselves as neighbours, along with Last F.M, Schultze and Webb and tinker.it.

In fact, so marvellous is our location, two articles have been written about it in the same day! This one, by the FT and this one, by the Evening Standard. It's no longer merely 'Old Street Roundabout', but 'Silicon Roundabout'! We've hit the big time!

Read all about it, as they say..

(Thanks to Matt Biddulph for the photo)

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Nobody shout. It's Friday, and really, who doesn't need a little peace and quiet on a Friday? ESPECIALLY AFTER OUR PARTY! Ouch. We had fun! And from the great photos we've seen, so did you. Thanks to everyone for coming along last night, it was fantastic to see so many of you. After a hectic last-minute change of venue, we were all a little worried. But you can't keep a good MOOster down, and everyone made it there – and made it great.

We had Stickers, as modelled by the ever handsome MOO interns, Jake and Angel. They're photographed here by Alicia, but please, all future model bookings should come via me...

We had balloons, as beautifully shot by _sarchi

Postman Pat came along too - Alex took this photo. Pat was delivering MOO orders, placed by party people earlier this week.

There were bowler hats, like this one, modelled by Meg Pickard, and shot by Richard.

Some of which were  cunningly customised-on-the-go, like this one, shot by tommyajohansson

Each bowler hat had a sticker inside - if you found a black and white cat, you won a prize! If you found the stray ginger cat, then the boobie prize was yours... Well, we say boobie prize, but really, who wouldn't want a signed photo of Iain, our lovely project manager? On reflection, maybe the lovely lady who won it...

We had food - or so I hear. Look at these people! 'Twas gone in a flash! This photo is by Annie Mole

and this, of the aftermath by M.J.S.

It was pretty hot inside, so lots of people headed for the ouside space - and partied from light:

(photo by symphonic knot)
 
'Till dark

(photo by AnnieMole)

In a nutshell? A fun time was has by all...

(photo by _sarchi)

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And a tiny PS: look what happened today... the lunch company totally got our order wrong. We were supposed to have 29 pies for lunch, and we got...

Sixty! Sixty pies. Which makes a very happy MOO Crew:

(Thanks to blackbeltjones for the photo of Richard.)

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Thanks again for coming - and have a great weekend!

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They said it couldn't happen, they tried to cancel it, but the MOO Party Is STILL happening this Thursday night at a NEW VENUE!

Yes, just 2 days before our brilliantly planned party, The Ambassador (our previous venue) decided to cancel it. Luckily, you can't keep the MOO Crew down when it comes to a drink with friends, so the our new venue is The Vibe Bar, Brick Lane.

If you're not sure where that is, you're in for a treat. It's a great venue, easily reached from Aldgate East underground station or Liverpool Street tube and rail station. Follow the signs when you get to the venue, and we'll see you there! And Don't get side-tracked by a curry on the way, save it for afters, ok?

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Sheesh! What a palava. See, non-Londoners, this is the chaos that ensues when the sun finally does come out...

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It's all go at MOO Towers at the moment. We're bug squishing (virtual, not literal), printing, packing and party-planning.

The party's shaping up rather nicely, so we're hoping it should be lots of fun. If you're in London next Thursday, come along for a drink - and if you're quick, a wee bite to eat. If last years was anything to go by, it should be full of lovely people - and if you don't know anyone when you get there, you should definitely make a few friends before you head off home.

In the meantime, it's really exciting for us to see the beautiful Business Cards you've been making. These are a few great photos we've spotted recently - and thought it would be nice to share:

Photographer David Porter used 10 of his own images to create these beautiful cards:

And these super-cute cards were made by Lori Tingey.

Nerea Marta used a company graphic for her cards:

While these cards by Stephen Collins combine both graphics and photography perfectly.

These beautiful photographs were printed on Business Cards by Hidde  de Vries:

And finally this lovely collection, is by Arpad

But, in all this Business Card madness, we haven't lost our love for MiniCards...
(this perfect photo is by Erin Mason)

Even if first sight of these cards, by Andrew Scott did make us want to run for our dear lives.

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The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted this already, but for those who had to blink at some point yesterday - MOO's launched Business Cards! As so many of you have asked for the MOO MiniCard magic just that little bit bigger, we felt duty bound to indulge you. MOO Business Cards are a similar size to standard business cards, but with some very cool differences: Unlike lots of business cards, MOO gives you the option of a different image on every one. Using magic technology we've decided to call 'PrintFinity', you can have a different photo, logo or design on every card. So, when people ask you what you do, you can show them - everything! It's a little portfolio in your pocket, a product catalogue, a trading card, anything you like. You can buy your Business Cards in super-short runs We're an experienced bunch at MOO HQ. We've all worked in different companies before, and we still have the business cards to prove it. The traditional way is to buy business cards in batches of 250, 500, even 1000 or more, and no matter how hard you network, its impossible to get through so many before something changes - your phone number, your job title or even the company you work for. We realised if we still have stacks of old cards sitting about, you probably have too. So, we give you the option to buy in smaller batches of 50: - it's more economical (much less waste) - it gives you the chance to update your cards as you update your products or your details - it's greener - even if you're using virgin stock, at least you're not throwing it away! And talking of 'green' - there are now two paper stock options available We're slightly obsessed with paper at MOO, and take a great deal of care looking for the best paper, with the best feel, print quality and outstanding credentials. We've decided on two different stocks for our Business Cards: MOO 'Classic' - which is sustainably sourced and elemental chlorine free. Matt-laminated, it has a smooth and sturdy feel. It's the same stock you've seen and loved on MiniCards. MOO 'Green' - which is 100% recycled, 100% recyclable and biodegradeable. It's totally chlorine free, uncoated, crisp white, and prints nicer than any other recycled paper we've seen. (And we've seen a lot.) The cards come beautifully packaged Every pack of cards comes with a free Business Card holder. Designed by MOO, the box is made of recycled pulp board and fits in a briefcase or bag. We've even included two (recycled) dividers too, so as you empty the box of your own cards, you can fill it up with the ones you're given, without mixing them up. (Another problem we've had ourselves, that we thought it would be good to fix). So, there you have it. MOO Business Cards - as nice as MiniCards, but bigger, and a little bit different. We like them, and we hope you'll like them too. Oh! And if you want to see what other people have been doing, check out our ideas pages. See what other people have made, and how you could use the cards yourself.

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We've moved! Not that far away from our previous office, but far enough to require a full investigation into local pubs and sandwich shops. I'll keep you posted if we find anything spectacular. Our previous office was very nice - host to a lot of food...

a lot of birthdays...

Some sad times...

And some happier times...

We packed MiniCard Holders there:

We locked our CTO in the cupboard and refused to let him out,

All in all, we worked really hard.

But now, on to bigger and better things! Look at all this space:

It's quite overwhelming...

Luckily we have tanks, to help with our global domination plan:

And, umm... this:

But, you know. We're sure it'll all be fine.

In the meantime, we have a new member of the MOO crew. The wonderful Julien - a special intern from France! He's helping out with our localisation, and marketing initiatives. He's also set up a French Facebook group for us, and he's keeping a French MOO blog, too.

But enough of me talking, I'll let Julien speak for himself...

Hi everyone!

So I'm Julien, and I'm working at MOO as an intern since the beginning of April. And I'm French! I study management in a French Business School which is also based in London. I've been living here since September, and will move to Paris next September. I don't come from Paris but from Nantes, a wonderful city close to the Atlantic Ocean. And I really miss it sometimes.

My role at MOO is to help the marketing team and to breathe life into the French MOOers' community. If you speak French (even just a few words, we don't mind!), just have a look at my blog, or at our Facebook group. Feel free to participate, leave a message or post pictures, to show the French all what you do with your cards and stickers!

Bonjour tout le monde!

Bienvenue à tous ! Je m'appelle donc Julien, et je suis stagiaire chez MOO depuis le début du mois d'avril. J'étudie dans une école de commerce française qui a aussi un campus à Londres, et j'habite donc à Londres depuis septembre dernier. Mais je viens de la belle ville de Nantes, qui d'ailleurs me manque beaucoup.

Mon rôle ici chez MOO est non seulement d'aider l'équipe marketing dans ses tâches quotidiennes, mais aussi de promouvoir MOO en France et de bâtir, avec vous, une communauté francophone autour de votre utilisation des MiniCards, StickerBooks et autres articles MOO. Vous pouvez donc me retrouver sur mon blog (pour en savoir plus sur MOO et moi, et vous!), ainsi que sur le groupe Facebook qui vous est dédié. N'hésitez pas à nous y rejoindre, et à laisser des messages, images, photos... Ce groupe est fait pour vous ! Vous pourrez également y retrouver les dernières actualités, en français, sur MOO.

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Yes, MOO's having a Sticker Design Competition! After heading off to various conferences, we've seen a *lot* of stickers on laptops. Some are good, some are ok, and some would just be a lot cooler if they were designed by someone good. That's where you come in.

We want to create the perfect StickerBook of laptop Stickers. 90 different Stickers, with great designs, illustration or photography. Something that will really stand out, and something you'd be proud to stick on your shiny new laptop.

How do you enter? Well, it's as easy as 1,2,3

1) First, design your sticker. It should be 283x283 pixels, at 300dpi. (Or 24x24mm at 300 dpi).  You should save it as a high quality RGB Jpeg.

2) Next, submit your design to Pixish. (Pixish is free, and easy to join - so don't worry. They're nice people, and they don't do spam).

3) Vote on other people's entries and wait to see if you win.

What will you win?
Well, every entry chosen for the book will win a Flickr Pro account. We'll also choose one overall winner, who will win a £100 voucher for Magma Books. Magma are one of the best design bookshops around, so if you love design, you'll love the prize.

So, what are you waiting for? Find out even more about prizes and sizes and get stuck in!

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Well, we're eggtremely sad to say the Online Egg Hunt and the hunt for Eggs in the Great Outdoors is finally over. Friday's winners are listed at the end of this post, and winners of the Outdoor Hunt will be notified in the next 3 days. There are, however still some Eggs hidden in orders making their way across the globe, so look out for them - and if you do get lucky, fill in your details on the Egg Hunt page, to claim your prize.

Don't forget there's still the Ultimate Egg Basket prize draw too! On April 21st, we'll select one overall winner from all the correct entries we've received, to win a basket full of upto $1000 worth of prizes.

Thanks to everyone for playing! We've really enjoyed your puzzling, your teaming up, your 'Eureka!' moments, and the fantastic little poems of Corvus, our wonderful clue-writer.

And, talking of poems, we've decided to have a Mini-Challenge.
Pen us a poem about Egg Hunting, clue-solving or MOO istself and post it in the comments below. We'll pick one winner on Friday afternoon to win a special prize. Go on - you know you want to!

We'll start the ball rolling with a couple of poems in honour of Corvus, The Cluewriter himself:

Here's Alicia's poem:

He came to us, an angel
Behold in golden hues

He stepped up to the challenge
To write for us some clues

With very little notice, and very little time
He produced within minutes, his first amazing rhyme

These poems were ever so beautiful, at writing he is adept
These poems took you all over the big wide internet

He helped you find our Eggies, he helped you crack the code
And for his work, forever, our gratitude he's owed

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And here is mine:

Corvus, thank you for the help
You gave us all at MOO
How could we do a hunt without you?
I really haven't a clue.

It's been great fun
We've enjoyed the ride
We're sad it had to end.
But one things for sure,
We know it's true,
MOO's got a brand new friend.

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Think you can do better? (I don't doubt it). Well - Get cracking!

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And finally, the winners of Fridays Eggs. The Egg Scrambling Heroes are:

Egg Thirty-Eight: Alex Rea, at 11:15
Hint #1: What sort of outing might include sandwiches, kite flying and badminton.
Hint #2: What does their principle disagreement center around?
Hint #3: The last two stanzas tell you where to go on this partner site!
Still stuck? The Egg was hidden on image editing site, picnik!

Egg Thirty-Nine: Kymberlie R. McGuire, at 17:01
Hint #1: The second two blanks are decoys.
Hint #2: There's a command verb hidden in the poem too!
Hint #3: Where else might we keep sets of all our photos?
Still stuck? The egg was hidden in the Moo Pool on Flickr!

Egg Forty: Susan Amy V , at 17:10
Hint #1: Need to check the prize list? You've been to this site before!
Hint #2: You know which keywords to search for, right?
Hint #3: Every single one of you, give yourselves a HUGE pat on the back for playing along! I've been watching you figure things out and I think you're all amazing!
Still stuck? The egg was hidden on Blurb!

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Moo's having a party - and we want you to join in the fun!  At our parties in San Francisco and London we exhibited just a few different people's cards. This time? This time we want to exhibit hundreds! We're going to thread them together to make a HUGE banner, showcasing your fantastic photography, illustrations, and designs.

Want to exhibit your card as part of the banner and show your work to the world? There are 3 easy ways to take part.

1) Post us a MiniCard to:
The SXSW Banner-maker
MOO Print Ltd.,
6 Baker's Yard,
London
EC1R 3DD,
UNITED KINGDOM

(please note, we wont be able to return your card)

OR

2) email the image you'd like on a card to sxsw@moo.com and we'll use as many as we possibly can to make MiniCards
(if you'd like a credit, please include it as part of the image)

OR

Track us down at SXSWi and give us one of your cards in person.

Then the fun begins.

The party is 'People Powered'! We've joined together with Etsy, Timbuk2 and Threadless to have a right 'ole knees up on Sunday 9th March, at The Tap Room, 311 Colorado St. Austin, as part of SXSW Interactive. Why 'People Powered'? Well, because it's the customers creativity (that's YOU) that make these companies tick, and we'd like to celebrate that by shakin' you buy the hand (stealing a MiniCard) and handing you a drink. If you're in the area, do come, we'd love to meet you.

Hope to see you there!

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There's a lot of creativity lurking among the MOO customers. Sometimes it inspires us, sometimes it makes us laugh, and often the ideas are so good we wonder how come we hadn't thought of doing it ourselves. Then... well, then there's the Milk n MOO pool.

'Milk n MOOs? What can that be?' I hear you cry. Well, to quote from the group directly, it's 'Photos including milk and moo cards'. Obviously. What else did you think it would be?

These are just a few of our favourite photos:

This is absolutely fantastic, by emelynilsson. She says 'The evolution of Milk starts with MOO and ends with Butter.' (Click the image to see it larger.)

This lovely looking photo is by Extra Super Cutie. It's a nice photo anyway, but even better when you realise those are her feet, and she took the photo!

This photo by andreasnilsson1976 looks out of place in the pool, until you view it full size. Yes, that's a carton of milk, and some MiniCards right there, reflected in his eye.

And this photo, again by andreasnilsson1976 shows both milk and MOOs in a woodpile...

So, got milk? Then why not add your own milk and MOO photos to the group. Have fun!

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