A sad day yesterday as we said goodbye to Christine after 10 years at the agency. Christine’s done pretty much every job going at Advance but now that her studies are finished, she feels the time is right to move on.

We’ll miss her hugely.

We all gathered in the canteen yesterday to celebrate Sys Lindskov having been at the agency for an amazing 25 years.

Much like her husband Alex (26 years!), Sys has been a lynchpin of the agency for the past quarter of a century, managing our production department with an unrivalled eye for detail that has long ensured the quality of our output.

Many of us have had the last two or three weeks off but we’re back now, recharged and ready to go. The months leading up to the summer break were hectic to say the least. As well as the successful pitch for BR & Toys’R'Us, we also acquired the dialogue agency byHabit (henceforth to be known as Advance Relations).

Our clients have been keeping us busy too. In LEGO, we’ve been running a number of big projects, including Hero Factory and LEGO Universe, but we still found the time to partner with the company to win a grant from the Danish Advanced Technology Foundation to co-develop modular playware.

Our other ongoing work includes two product launches for Coloplast, 2011 campaigns for Compeed’s blister, corn and cold sore products, an image campaign for ITD and an awareness campaign for HK. All big projects and all developing well.

Meanwhile Advance Spirit continues to grow impressively. Recent newbizz wins include Choice Hotels and DSV, while big projects are continuing with ITD and Q8.

Last but not least, partner and Senior AD Gavin (above) celebrated his 50th birthday shortly before we broke up for the holidays. He treated himself to a motorbike so we gave him a cheque and strict instructions to buy himself a helmet.

Mads’ dissection of Apple’s latest gadget was featured on Gizmodo last week. Which was nice.

He also peeked inside Sony’s Playstation 3 controller:

All of Mads’ illustrations can be viewed and purchased here.

Advance is proud to announce our role in a special project being conducted in partnership with LEGO and the Centre for Playware at the Danish National Technical University (DTU).

Together, we’ve successfully applied for a significant grant from the Danish Advanced Technology Foundation to research and develop modular playware – intelligent hardware and software that uses AI and robot technology to create new play products.

A large part of the project’s brief is finding new ways to support child development through playand playful experiences and this is where Advance will play a key role, lending our insights from over 30 years of helping LEGO build its brand.

The project will run over the next three years and we’ll be reporting back here with regular progress updates.

We sent a four-man delegation to the E3 Expo in LA earlier this month. As well as our ongoing work on LEGO Universe, we’re working more and more in the gaming world and E3 is the place to be to get the lowdown on the latest industry developments.

Kim, pictured above, had the following to say:

“The big trend is the interface. All three major platforms have motion capture now and there is a big industry making controllers in all shapes and forms to suit particular game expirences and game types.

“More MMOGs are coming, in all sorts of directions. Social gaming, command and conquer and single player type shoot-em-up style. We also saw 3D screens on handheld platforms – Nintendo’s new 3DS has a 3D screen that don’t requires spectacles.

“That’s just some of it. The future’s gonna be exciting.”

Have a look at our more comprehensive report from the Expo:

As we mentioned last week, Advance recently pitched for the Top Toy account. We’re really pleased to report that the hard work paid off and we were successful.

Top Toy are the owners of the BR and Toys ‘R’ Us chains of Toy Shops in Scandinavia and Germany. We’re absolutely delighted to be working with two such massively successful brands.

BureauBiz has more details here.

Gavin gives Kim six of the best. One of the odder moments of last week.