There's a great vogue for character design at the moment in the applied arts. Of course this is hardly new: one thinks of Frostie's Tony, the Sugar Puff monster and Snap, Crackle and Pop.

But recently the design industry has seen the inexorable rise of cute character design, much of it taking inspiration from Japan. The trend has given rise to exhibitions, books, advertising campaigns, not to mention the vinyl designer toy phenomenon.

The Pictoplasma Project http://www.pictoplasma.de based in Germany charts these trends, mounting exhibitions and in 2007 publishing 'The Character Encyclopedia.' From Flat Eric for Levi's to Vauxhall's C.M.O.N.S, characters add considerable value to brands.

Which is why we at Libertine have adopted the Earl of Rochester as our figurehead. Although utterly different from the character design phenomenon, our reasons for plumping for Rochester are threefold:

a) he was the quintessential Libertine, who died young of his excesses in the time-honoured tradition of all good poets

b) he was an accomplished poet, and playwright, who penned the memorable 'Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery' (available in all good bookshops)

and finally c) he had a pet monkey.