A lesson in being prepared

An all-day power cut in Shoreditch is testing design groups’ resourcefulness. Moving Brands has two office spaces on opposite sides of Charlotte Road and has squashed everyone into its smaller mews space, which is unaffected by the power outage.

‘People are sitting in a meeting room with their laptops, but they are having really interesting brainstorming sessions and talking about stuff they don’t usually have a chance to, so it’s quite good,’ says Moving Brands managing director Geoff Linsell cheerfully. He’s been talking to Radley Yeldar, also based on the affected side of the street, where it’s business as usual. The group installed a generator in their garage a while ago which is finally justifying its existence.

’When I heard that, I thought “God, I’m not a very good managing director – I don’t have a generator”, says Geoff. ‘But then I thought, “actually, hang on, we’re not in India”’. EDF Energy has told Moving Brands that the power will be back on at 7pm tonight…