Wieden+Kennedy is giving the local East London community a sweet treat in exchange for a good deed via a Chocolate Coin Factory installed in our Hanbury Street office window space. The machine, named Dan & Dave’s Chocolate Coin Factory after W+K founders Dan Wieden and David Kennedy, magically transforms a £1 coin into pure optimism – a traditional Christmas chocolate coin with a special W+K twist.

When a £1 coin is inserted into a slot, the peculiar copper and brass machine comes to life in a symphony of hoots, stamping and whirling wheels, and a specially designed Wieden+Kennedy gold chocolate coin pops out at the other end. All proceeds from the installation will go towards a new playground for Millfields Community School, a primary school in East London with the smallest outdoor space despite being one of the largest schools in the borough.

W+K creative team Toby Treyer-Evans and Laurie Howell collaborated with sculptor Ben Hughes, artist Joshua T Howell, sound design company String and Tins and cinematographer Henry Lockyer to create the installation, and the film was given an extra dose of visual warmth and polish by colourist Houmam Abdallah at Electric Theatre Collective.

Like everybody else, we had one of those photobooth things at our Christmas party. They print out the pics on the night and also upload them to their website so you can look at them all the next day. Each party is represented by one thumbnail image. Interesting to see that, while all the other agency parties (hello Adam&Eve, Syzygy, etc) seem to feature festive revellers in their party frocks and dickie bows, the W+K party icon is a fucking scary panda straight out of David Lynch's Christmas nightmare.