The shrimp who overstayed his welcome.

There is a gentleman in the Tastings file wearing a top hat. He has a fine suit, an upright manner and an alarming number of whiskers. He is a shrimp.

I have checked. His presence is deliberate.

He arrived as part of Tastings’ Holiday Muse campaign, with strategy crafted by Creative Director Whit. Juls’s puzzle artwork gives him an interior with a sweeping stair, roses and a tower of champagne glasses. The little Tastings mark sits quietly above the proceedings. One suspects the shrimp considers himself the host.

The puzzle belongs to that larger campaign. Its full account is being prepared in another house, where you will be able to read about the strategy soon. I have been entrusted with this particular object. Do not mistake my discretion for a lack of material.

A gift with a whole room inside it.

The original illustration is what I have retained here. Look closely and there is plenty to occupy you: the turn of the banister, the flowers below it, the figures at the edge of the room. A picture with enough life in it to reward a second inspection.

Put that picture into the form of a puzzle and the encounter changes. Someone must clear a table. Sort the pieces. Notice the small details. Spend a little time inside the world the brand has made.

I find that a rather civilised ambition for a gift. It offers something to do, and something worth looking at while one does it.

Meanwhile, at our table.

In our lounge, the bellhop has been studying one piece for a suspicious length of time. He has placed it near the champagne, near the staircase and, briefly, on his own cuff. His silence is usually dignified. Today it is strategic.

I am supervising from the armchair. A librarian has certain obligations to an orderly arrangement. Rhoda has suggested turning the piece around. The bellhop has chosen to regard this as fresh information.

The hotel photograph is our little reimagining of the puzzle at play. In the evidence pocket, you can see Juls’s original art in full, exactly as it appears in the Tastings file. Do examine the shrimp. He has dressed for the occasion.

The object gives the brand somewhere to live.

A useful question, when considering a branded gift, is what someone will actually do with it. A puzzle invites a different sort of attention from a cap, a lunchbox or a very good notebook. The choice of object determines the little ritual that follows.

Then the design has to deserve that attention. This illustration has characters, atmosphere and details to discover. The brand mark can be restrained because the world around it is doing so much of the work.

That is the kind of thinking we bring to a BRND THNGZ collection. We consider the people, the occasion and the life an object might have after it leaves your hands. The interesting answer might be something you wear. It might be something that takes over the dining table.