What is it about the end of the year? Time seems irrelevant as we hurtle towards Christmas. The beginning of November was a lifetime ago and a whirl of activity as Tangent supported the production and presentation of seven different initiatives for COP26. We’ve written elsewhere on this site about these projects: some websites, some full brand identities, some site dressing and some that were a mix of everything.

The websites: the council led information hub for Glasgow’s residents Get Ready Glasgow; the city-wide effort to get people and businesses to sign the Glasgow climate charter over at the Sustainable Glasgow website; People Make Glasgow Greener, the resource that helps Glaswegians to make their city as sustainable as possible; and the COP26 catering microsite arecipeforchange.com.

We dressed Construction Scotland’s Innovation Factory for their BE@COP26 showcase, which was a serious feat of project management due to a last minute change of location. For people paying attention, BE@COP26 showed off a sneak preview of our upcoming rebrand for CSIC, due to be unveiled in full early next year. BE@COP26 also featured exhibits from two other initiatives we branded: Transforming Timber, which aims to revolutionise the UK construction industry by using renewable Scottish timber to create highly engineered construction materials, and GenZero, which aims to set new sustainable standards for the design and construction of schools across the UK.

COP26 was a strange time for Glasgow. It’s hard to be the host city of an event no-one thinks will be a success. When we’ve worked on city wide projects before, like Commonwealth Games or the world Gymnastics Championships, we’re dressing the city for something joyful, something to look forward to. Few people looked forward to COP, knowing it would bring disruption and likely disappointment. However, there were some memorable moments that made the whole thing feel surreal to those on the ground - Greta Thunberg doing some exceptionally Glaswegian chanting in Govan, Leonardo Dicaprio inexplicably in a pub in Maryhill, and AOC discovering the similarities between Kola Champagne and Irn Bru. There was also, much more importantly, the pact made by the attending countries to slow the creep of climate change. I’m sure most people reading this will have read analysis of the pact written by a more informed hand than my own - we’ve certainly all been made aware of the tearjerking difference between ‘phasing out’ and ‘phasing down’. In very brief summary, the pact doesn’t go far enough to keep global warming where it needs to be, certain countries refuse to relinquish coal, and politics is still governed by the economics of fossil fuel companies. A anticlimactic, fully expected result from the conference - but the lingering memory for Tangent at least will be us in the crowd at George Square (8,000 strong apparently), listening to Greta, surrounded by likeminded people.

In other news, founders Dave and Andy caught some winter sun in Dubai, where they were invited for Expo’s St Andrews Day celebrations. The bagpipers over there are just as good as the ones at home on Buchanan Street. Take from that what you will! We also had (continue to have, to be honest) an internal debate about when is too soon to listen to Christmas tunes. Unfortunately for the harmony of the studio, for some it’s never too soon and for others even one bar of Mariah Carey is enough to induce retail work history related PTSD. The ayes tend to have it though, so no doubt our studio will be merry and bright for the rest of the year.