Following my excitement in the discovery of Asimo earlier in the month, I was delighted to read today that machines aren’t yet capable of passing as humans. They are getting close though. This weekend was the Turing test, which is part of the Loebner Prize. It seeks to determine whether a machine can pass as a human. Five judges each converse with one computer and one human and then have to guess which was which. As one of the judges reports in the Times today its not as easy as you might think.
Posted by Tasha on Monday 13th of October 2008 at 4:01pm
Launched at the Paris Motor Show, the GTbyCITROËN is the first ever car to be specifically designed to bring the virtual and real worlds together. Visitors can actually drive the car in a true to life simulator on the Citroën stand.
The press release says: At almost five metres long, GTbyCITROËN packs the latest hi-tech racing equipment into an exaggerated sporty frame. Planted on 21-inch, diamond-effect, aluminium wheels, the car’s gullwing doors, over-sized rear end with mobile spoiler, gaping air intakes and flat underside exude the qualities of an accomplished racer.
But is it real?
Will it ever go into production? Or is it merely a mule to plant a brand into the mind of a 10 year old gamer?
There’s loads more images, renders, sketches, and some great shots of the real vehicle being created over on the SeriousWheels website.
Posted by Richard on Friday 3rd of October 2008 at 11:49am
Here in the busy ICM studio one of my current projects is working on a set of brand guidelines for a major rebrand project.
Whilst looking around on the internet at how other companies and corporations have composed their own identity guidelines, I found this:
A booklet of identity guidelines created by (and for) a guy in Australia called Chris Doyle. Chris works for a design agency based in Sydney called the Moon Group and recently entered this booklet and himself into an Australian design competition.
Here’s his colour palette:
His alternate colour schemes:
Definite no-no’s!
And the obligatory exclusion zones!
Personally I think this is a fantastic piece of work! Well done Chris, the next time I need a Chris Doyle I’ll use the Full Colour Seated Casual with leather jacket and flip-flops!
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 1st of October 2008 at 1:34pm
As regular readers of our blog will know, we’re big fans of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (or as I prefer to call it, the atom-smasher, far catchier).
It’s common practice for CERN to shut down facilities during the winter months for routine maintenance. Interestingly you can keep an eye on all the clever chaps in white coats with a couple of ‘live-feed’ webcams by clicking here.
Posted by Richard on Tuesday 30th of September 2008 at 3:14pm
So… who remembers the Arctic Roll then? School dinners, tea at your mate’s house, pudding when your mate came round for tea. It was a staple. Well apparently it disappeared about 10 years ago (who knew?), but now it’s making a comeback!
So there I was aboard a magnificent tall ship thinking how absurd, a Yorkshireman aboard a ship that regularly travels the globe.
Than walking back through Falmouth town centre I stumbled across and exhibition of old photographs taken by a Yorkshireman, Geoffrey Robertshaw, aboard a tall ship over 70 years ago.
The photographs were taken on a Kodak Number Two Box Brownie, and, although they are around 75 years old, the quality is remarkable.
Geoffrey Robertshaw took pictures of his ship mates, rough weather, and general life onboard. He also kept his own personal diary which, being a seaman, he called a log. Every day of his voyages are recorded along with the date and ships position.
Alongside the photographs are entries from his log.
Day 14 Thursday March 8th 1934
At 4.30pm the sailmaker reports a cyclone heading straight for the ship and consequently all hands are called to make fast all sails except the two lower topsails.
All hands are completely tired, hungry and wet through to the skin, work like Trojans almost through the whole night.
It is impossible to explain what it is like to anybody who has not been afloat onboard a sailing ship deep laiden with cargo, the lee rails at times submerged, a deck standing waist deep in water, hail squalls incessantly beating down into their face almost blinding them, every man – mere boys – worn out.
The exhibition is an amazing account of a life that seems so far removed from anything today. It was enlightening to see that Geoffrey truly loved his way of life despite the adversity.
During my recent holiday in the South West I realised my break coincided with a great maritime spectacle that only comes to these shores once every decade or so.
I was lucky enough to board a racing tall ship days before setting sail for Funchal on the coast of Madeira in a race against 16 similar vessels.
As part of the regatta in Falmouth prior to the Funchal 500 event several ships were open to the public to get up close with a racing giant. My choices of vessel to board were Russia’s Mir – obviously the biggest and scariest looking craft (and crew!), Uraguay’s Captain Miranda – unfortunately closing for crew lunch, The Pelican – a pompous looking ship from Great Britain, or the extremely colourful Cuauhtémoc – the Mexicans.
These guys were far the most welcoming, enthusiastic and entertaining crew. Had an extremely well turned out ship. It was also lunchtime on board and the aromas from the kitchen were fantastic.
They also had this great notice before boarding:
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 17th of September 2008 at 2:54pm
In Richard’s absence, he’s on holiday this week, I thought I’d better take up the mantle of blogging about CERN, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, who are going to try to replicate the beginning of the Universe. Since they failed to set off the Large Hadron Collider (the machine that does the experiment) last time and we were all terribly disappointed when the world didn’t end, it’s time for news sources across the net to discuss Why the fascination with the end of the world?.
There’s also a great video of an asteroid hitting the earth on you tube, which you can watch below. I recommend it with sound.
So as the world probably won’t end this week, we’ll keep you updated on what, if anything, actually happens. And if the world does end, then you probably won’t need us to tell you.
Posted by Tasha on Monday 8th of September 2008 at 12:28pm
Well now there’s a new kid in town that hopes to be next in line. Will this be the browser to end all browsers?
It will be called Chrome and it’s from the guys at Google – you may have heard of them. A browser application seems like a long-overdue logical progression for Google, who already have great applications and utilities such as Picasa and Gmail, not to mention GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still holds roughly 80% of the world’s browser population and this is what Google want a slice of with Chrome. Initially launching as a Beta for Windows in over 100 countries, Mac and Linux versions will follow shortly after.
As a recent convert to Firefox (why didn’t I change sooner?), Chrome is going to have to work very hard to seduce me away from my browser but I shall certainly look forward to giving it a trial run.
Lets hope there is more to Chrome than just a shiny surface.
Posted by Richard on Tuesday 2nd of September 2008 at 10:08am
Imagine my shock when I read an article stating the guys behind television’s Masterchef, one of the few culinary programmes I can stand watching, are preparing to launch a range of pre-packed ingredients and ready-meals!
Surely the whole point of Masterchef is about the love of good food, made with fresh ingredients. And absolutely nothing at all to do with convenience. Forgive me if I’m wrong but I though Masterchef was all about discovering and nurturing new culinary talent?
I wonder what this will do for the credibility of the television programme?
Masterchef chicken-dippers anyone? Ready in 30 seconds!
Posted by Richard on Monday 1st of September 2008 at 1:32pm
An unknown Chinese worker has become an internet sensation after her smiling face was left on an Apple iPhone that was sold to a customer in Britain, who then uploaded them online.
The girl, an employee of Foxconn which assembles the phones for Apple in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, was photographed by a co-worker who was testing the iPhone’s camera.
The co-worker then forgot to delete the pictures from the phone and it was then shipped to a customer in Kingston-upon-Hull, who last week posted three images on the MacRumors.com website.
The posting received hundreds of responses, some iPhone owners joked that they were considering returning their phones because they did not ship with the woman’s photo pre-installed!
Foxconn has described the incident as a “beautiful mistake“ and has given an assurance that the iPhone girl and her supervisor would not be penalised, according to a report in the China Daily.
Posted by Richard on Friday 29th of August 2008 at 12:42pm
Not in a refrigeration sense of the word obviously.
It was announced recently in the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is about to spend $300 million dollars on making their brand ‘cool’.
Probably a similar sort of ‘cool’ to that of Apple.
Call me cynical (and slightly bias) but I don’t think its possible. With Microsoft you’re trying to make an operating system cool. With Apple you’ve got a great looking product, a far superior operating system, and a ‘way of life’ buy-in that Microsoft could only dream of.
Yes, us Mac-users are a little smug and self-congratulatory. What’s wrong with that?
I’m sure the guy with an Audi RS4 is slightly more smug than the guy with a Hyundai Sonata.
Over recent years Apple has used celebrities in its advertising, with the likes of Bob Dylan, who has promoted iTunes, and Jeff Goldblum, who appeared in a number of ads promoting Apple computers.
Microsoft have elected comedian Jerry Seinfeld to boost sales of their ailing Vista operating system. They’ve also enlisted the help of a ‘cool’ agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Rumours in the Wall Street Journal suggest Microsoft won’t rely entirely on celebrity endorsement for the ‘cool’ campaign, and is likely to include footage of a group of students who said that they did not like Vista and instead were trying out a version of Windows called Mojave.-...
Call me shallow but this is possibly the best piece of news I’ve heard all year!
I only hope it lives up to the expectation…
The Cartoon Network, part of Warner Bros. are to bring back The Banana Splits for a series of comedy shorts in the US in September.
Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky will also appear in a series of DVDs, live concerts, music CDs, and online games.
Jordan Sollitto, of Warner Bros. comments; “We take great pride in having carefully updated the look and feel of the original show for today’s kids while retaining all of the elements that made the original Banana Splits such a hit.”
For those younger readers (that makes me feel old saying that), The Banana Splits first appeared in 1968 as hosts of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, a show created by Hanna-Barbera that featured comedy and music videos.
A costumed rock band, they are comprised of Fleegle (dog), Drooper (lion), Bingo (gorilla) and Snorky (elephant) who hang out in their Banana Pad while playing music and telling jokes.
Here’s a short clip for your delictation:
Posted by Richard on Friday 22nd of August 2008 at 11:51am
Imagine my raised eyebrow for a minute when I read the headline Mazda rolls out fresh identity.
My immediate thought is ‘great, about time, they were starting to look a little dated and they’ve been pedalling that infernal ‘zoom-zoom’ for far too long’.
And then I read the article…
Japanese car manufacturer Mazda is to run a phased marketing campaign to introduce its revamped brand identity to UK consumers over the next three months.
We’re off to a good start, this sounds promising…
All marketing communications, will feature the updated branding to coincide with a relaunch of the Mazda website. It will then roll out an ad campaign from October to promote the new look.
Brilliant, nice and assertive, no messing around…
Although it is retaining the ‘dynamic wing’ graphic element its logo, as well as its eight-year-old strapline ‘Zoom Zoom’, all text and car images will be set at a 30 degree angle. The company logo will also be set against a 30 degree white stripe.
What?
You said ‘revamped brand identity’?
This is reheating yesterday’s leftovers. Can an existing brand be ‘revamped’ credibly? I’m not sure it can. A brand can evolve over a period of time, this is something quite common in the automotive industry, to good effect. But revamp?
The dictionary definition of revamp is to renovate, remodel or transform. Is this what Mazda are doing? Sticking an existing brand and strapline on a 30 degree angle?
I would love to have been in that meeting!
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 20th of August 2008 at 3:07pm
Last weekend I spent many an hour on the streets of York, generally getting lost in the maze of alleyways and diving in and out of shops to avoid the showers.
One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing the paintings of the Grand Tour.
Before you think ‘hang on, Richard’s gone all arty on us‘, this is a bit different.
It’s a fantastic collection of 49 works of art from Caravaggio to Constable, faithfully reproduced and framed by Hewlett Packard using the latest technologies to overcome the obvious problems of hanging a piece of artwork permanently outdoors.
The origins of the Grand Tour date back to the 17th Century, when the wealthy upper-classes would undertake a journey of cultural enlightenment across Europe, in a life-enhancing trip that could last them months or even years.
The National Gallery and HP have taken the idea of the Grand Tour and turned on its head. Rather than the public seeking out its art – art seeks out its public, invading their everyday lives and revealing treasures just around the corner.
It was interesting how some paintings almost merged into the surroundings, York being a perfect backdrop to the dramatic masterpieces. I found myself saying ‘ooh, there’s another one‘ time and time again, it’s a far more pleasant experience than walking silently around a stuffy gallery of museum.
Posted by Richard on Monday 11th of August 2008 at 3:49pm
Here at ICM Towers we’re constantly on the lookout for new ways of conserving energy and resources. From printing fewer emails to sorting our rubbish for recycling, we’ve realised every bit counts.
Check out these fun ways to turn off the humble light switch…
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 6th of August 2008 at 1:54pm
Whilst camping by the side of a lake this weekend I was frequented on several occasions by our old friend, the duck.
A debate quickly started about the humble duck as to whether they were friend or foe, good or evil. As someone lucky (or unlucky) enough to reside next to the Leeds to Liverpool canal I’ve witnessed my fair share of duck related incidents to reasonable qualify as ‘intermediate duck expert’.
From these experiences I can comfortably say the duck is borderline evil. Have you ever asked two ducks to be quiet? They will stop quacking and glare at you with a look of superiority similar to that of a grammar school headmaster. Then proceed with the quacking slightly louder than before.
Further research into the good duck/bad duck debate and I find this:
Words fail me!
Obviously the pure white ducks are high-ranking evil! Be careful out there, don’t be seduced by webbed feet and fluffy underbelly, these guys mean business.
Posted by Richard on Monday 4th of August 2008 at 5:52pm
As a lover of all things Sci Fi you would have thought that I would have loved this, but apart from being really cool what is the point? Am I getting too cynical? I do want one though, hours of fun.
Posted by Tasha on Monday 4th of August 2008 at 3:56pm
Some of you may recall my lengthy blog about the imminent discovery of the elusive Higgs Boson, a subatomic particle that will hopefully be created by the French and Swiss Large Hadron Collider or as I like to call it: the ‘end-of-the-world‘ machine.
After a bit of Googling I realise the Higgs Boson has been with us for ages, right under our noses. Why haven’t I found it sooner? Here it is:
So… There I was, feeling all proud of myself for having been organised enough to put my washing in the machine first thing in the morning (read: whilst I was still half asleep), so it would be ready to hang out when I got home from church. The sun was shining, I’d stopped off to buy a washing line in our friendly local supermarket, and I’d wrestled with it to put it up in the garden (with the invaluable help of one of my housemates!). All was well with the world, and as soon as I’d put this lot on the line, I was going to chill for a while in the garden, with a glass of OJ and my lunch.
Then… Disaster! As I was unloading the machine I thought – what muppet put some wire in here? and then I realised… that wasn’t just any wire – that was the wire that went to the headphones for my iPod! My iPod! Oh no!! (It’s ok – I knew that the Pod itself was safe and sound in my bag, but even so!) I was apparently that muppet.
I flapped them about a bit. Then I resigned myself to the fact that they were ruined. But, I thought, I may as well just stick them in the sun on the window sill and let them dry out totally.
So last night, I picked them up and tried them… pure perfect sound – all the treble and the bass and all the bits in between! They’re good as new, just as if nothing had happened to them! Yay Apple! Yay Me! Yay World! All is good again – I can go to the gym without fear of boring my brains out before I’ve finished 10 mins on the reclining bike! Hurrah for technology!
So I thought I should share this wonderful news with the world on this blog, and to make it a little more interesting I’d stick a picture of said headphones in.
(Here it is for those of you who are getting impatient!)
For the build up to the launch of BMW’s 2009 7-series, the German manufacturer has built the world’s largest egg timer, and stuck their new model inside it!
The Moscow launch of the new 7 Series, BMW’s most luxurious model, was a glamorous black-tie event with the motto ‘Never Stand Still’.
The 12 metre tall egg timer can be seen in front of St Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin, which houses the Russian government.
Suspended in a bubble block of Baccarat crystal and powered by temperature change, Jaeger LeCoultre’s Atmos 561 mechanical clock is the work of Australian designer Marc Newson.
Using small temperature changes in the encapsulated environment for power, Atmos clocks can run for years without human intervention. Their power source is a hermetically sealed capsule containing a mixture of gas and liquid ethyl chloride, which expands into a chamber as the temperature rises, compressing a spiral spring; with a fall in temperature the gas condenses and the spring slackens. This motion constantly winds the mainspring. A variation in temperature of only one degree in the range between 15 and 30 degrees Celsius is sufficient for two days of operation.
Is this a small glimpse into the future of power generation? The principle seems blindingly simple.
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 23rd of July 2008 at 11:31am
2 – Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. You may want to hit refresh to get something that really fits your band name.
Growing up watching a film like ‘The Goonies’ I always dreamed of an adventure for buried treasure. But at 8 years old, digging a 2ft hole in the back garden with a trowel was about as far as I got, my only treasure in that hole… a slug. So a chance to find some real Doubloons would be a treat. I may have a chance yet if this tale is anything to go by.
It is the only Standard Model particle not yet observed, but would help explain how otherwise massless elementary particles still manage to construct mass in matter. In particular, it would explain the difference between the massless photon and the relatively massive W and Z bosons. Elementary particle masses, and the differences between electromagnetism (caused by the photon) and the weak force (caused by the W and Z bosons), are critical to many aspects of the structure of microscopic (and hence macroscopic) matter; thus, if it exists, the Higgs boson has an enormous effect on the world around us.
Still with me?
At his point I should point out that if you look up ‘Higgs Boson’ on wikipedia it says ‘All or part of this article may be confusing or unclear’.
Well you’re not wrong there!
The crazy guys in white coats in CERN have been busy creating The Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator complex spanning the border between Switzerland and France near Geneva. LHC will smash together opposing beams of either protons or lead ions inside a massive circular accelerator.
Basically, when they switch it on (in about a month’s time, although it’s been delayed more times than a Network South East train) it could create a microscopic black hole that swallows up the Earth, the universe and all the lost socks from every washing machine everywhere! Yes folks, it’s the end of the world time (again).
Except it probably isn’t.
Those in white coats say _’Although stable microscopic black holes are not expected in theory, study of the consequences of their production by cosmic rays shows tha…
Take a close look at the picture of Paris above, which has been altered slightly for artistic effect. The orange square is Place Vendome. It’s also a bottle of Chanel No 5.
Coincidence? Apparently not.
Coco Chanel designed the Chanel No 5 bottle in 1921 to match the shape of Place Vendome, where she lived for 37 years at a suite in the Ritz.
Here are some pictures of the bottle design, showing its evolution through the years. The first two are from 1921, which suggest her original inspiration might not have been the Parisian square. The third, from 1924, looks slightly octagonal, but the stopper is more so. The fourth, from 1950, is closer to today’s shape, but still not quite the same shape as Place Vendome.
The basic shape has become iconic with the brand, being used for a number of other products such as the Chanel Premiere watch.
So is it coincidence? Was it truly designed this way?
Suddenly I’m looking at Otley Road, Headingley in a different light – will it appear in my next piece of packaging?!
Posted by Richard on Friday 4th of July 2008 at 1:24pm
Thursday 19th June 2008, for some a sad day, for some a momentous day in history.
Bill Gates has officialy retired from his duties at Microsoft. He insists it’s not actually a retirement, more a ‘re-ordering of my priorities’. A nice way of putting it.
When Bill announced plans to step back from the running of Microsoft, he had become the world’s richest man, with a fortune of $50bn (£27bn) and a new idea for changing the world: giving it all to charity. He will gradually hand over day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft to a new generation of executives, leaving him with more time to spend with his family foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to funnel his fortune – 95 per cent of it, by the end of his life, he says – to projects that promote health and education for all.
Not bad for a Harvard drop-out.
Thursday 19th June was also the day I started using Apple’s Keynote software (an alternative to Microsoft’s Powerpoint) with some fantastic results!
Maybe Bill’s software will be put into a corner of the room to enjoy retirement too!
Posted by Richard on Friday 20th of June 2008 at 11:49am
The official mascots of the Beijing olympics. Consisting of five members that incorporate fish, giant panda, fire, Tibetan antelope, and swallow designs, they roughly correspond with the five elements of Chinese philosophy: water, metal, fire, wood, and earth.
The Fuwa each have as their primary color one of the colors of the five Olympic Rings that stand for the five continents. The five Fuwa are named Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini.
The history of Olympic mascots is somewhat turbulent. Atlanta 96’s Izzy was not well received, Barcelona’s Cobi in 1992 was initial described by the designer as ‘a dog that looks as if he has been run over by a heavy goods vehicle’.
It’s a pretty complex brief; design a mascot for an event that is participated, attended, and watch on television mainly by adults. Yet our cute metaphoric friend must appeal to children of all ages.
As well as all this it must have a strong message – the initials of the Fuwa in Chinese come together to create the Chinese message Běijīng huānyíng nĭ or, Beijing Welcomes You.
Oh, and it has to look good on pencil sharpeners and lunch boxes too!
Posted by Richard on Monday 16th of June 2008 at 4:29pm
It’s a pretty regular phrase I hear from my fellow social-networkers. As we ‘mature’ (if that’s the right word) through our networking life, the transition from MySpace to Facebook seems a fairly natural one…
But word on the street is MySpace are launching a global redesign next week with improved navigation and search capabilities designed to increase user engagement and broaden the site’s demographic.
It’s a direct attempt to claw back some of ‘us’ that have moved over. According to Comscore MySpace’s unique users have been in steady decline in the UK, falling 14.3% year on year to 8.47m in April 2008.
Facebook remains the UK’s most popular social networking site after experiencing a 7.2% rise in unique users from March to April, according to the latest Comscore figures.
They had 14.35m UK unique users during April, which was up an incredible 288.9% on the 3.69m users who used Facebook during the same period a year earlier.
So keep your eyes peeled on June 18th for the MySpace redesign, which will feature a MySpaceTV player that includes features to make it easier for MySpace members to embed and share videos (sound familiar?).
Whilst I admire healthy competition, surely there’s enough room on the internet for both social networks to survive? After all, we all want different things from our networks, isn’t that why we all ‘moved over’ in the first place?
So will we all be swapping back?
Will our Facebook friends disappear one-by-one?
Only time will tell.
Posted by Richard on Friday 13th of June 2008 at 12:49pm
Much as I dislike Sky News, they do occasionally come up with a great story that isn’t covered by my beloved Auntie.
This time it’s unicorns… or rather – one unicorn, in Italy. Really and truly. They think it’s a genetic defect, because its twin is ‘normal’ – but how cool!
In the immortal words of Bobby from Dungeons and Dragons “Uniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”
Posted by Siân on Friday 13th of June 2008 at 9:48am
I don’t normally go ‘Oooh’ when I see a new concept from BMW . The first time I saw the ‘flame-edge’ design of the 1 series I thought it looked like a bit of a banana, but in time the design grows on you and becomes more acceptable.
The latest GINA concept from BMW takes the vehicle surface to whole new level, stretching a lightweight, flexible fabric ‘skin’ over an articulated metal frame. Enabling you to change the shape of the vehicle.
I particularly like the way elements of the vehicle’s exterior can be altered dependent on various conditions; driving during the day? No need for lights…
Driving at night? Expose lights:
Loads more technical information on the GINA concept can be found here.
Posted by Richard on Thursday 12th of June 2008 at 1:12pm
Stumbled across these mini-people today. Absolutely fantastic! They appeal to my sense of amusement at distorted sizes. A little bit like miniature shoes for kids.
Sixty years have passed since Edwin Herbert Land started something that has changed the photography world, it was the first Polaroid instant camera. Since that day, thousands of children, adults, photographers and artists had snapshotted the world, and now all that could is coming to an end.
After sixty years the Polaroid Corp. is leaving the film business and closing plants in Massachusetts… no more instant cameras, no more instant films…
Does it also means no more instant photographers?
I recently discovered an artist in America who took a Polaroid-a-day for a large period of his life. Jamie Livingston took a Polaroid every day for 18 years, including the day he died in 1997.
Family and friends got together and put on an exhibition of his 6000+ images. It looked like this:
I know of people who are trying to emulate this on Flickr the photo-hosting site, but it just doesn’t hold the same meaning as a Polaroid. The ‘instant-ness’ of a Polaroid can’t even be captured with a mobile phone camera.
There’s something quite wonderful about Jamie’s photographs, they aren’t a collection of forced poses or composed shots or juxtapositions, he isn’t looking for something funny, weird, or ironic. These photos are as simple as memories.
They don’t always make sense, they don’t always fit into some grand theme or design. Here is a memory. Here is another. All you need to know is: this was then, on this date. This happened, I was there. Do you remember?
A wonderful legacy to leave behind.
Posted by Richard on Monday 9th of June 2008 at 11:15am
London-based designer Kacper Hamilton has created this wonderful set of glasses based on the seven deadly sins. It’s a really simple concept beautifully executed, backed up by great photography.
Which sin is your favourite?
Posted by Richard on Friday 6th of June 2008 at 4:09pm
It’s 7.30 on an innocent Thursday morning. I’m half way through my morning coffee ritual at the station, watching the mass ranks of commuters pour into the city.
The man in front is flicking through the daily news, scanning the usual politics, world events and sporting achievements.
Then I spot it.
A headline to end all headlines (courtesy of those doom-mongers at the Daily Mail):
This is one of the secret passages below Leeds Town Hall. The image is from a blog I came across yesterday while joining a Facebook group called Secret Leeds.
Having only moved to Leeds about six years ago and never having lived in a city before I am always fascinated by the urban landscape and how quickly it has changed over the last 100 years. Just in the time I have lived here sections of Leeds have changed rapidly, not just building, but also disappearing below the city. I remember a bar in the Merrion Centre called Bar Phono, which is now a newsagents and the entrance to bar is blocked up.
For three decades, George Plemper’s photographic record of South London working-class life gathered dust in carrier bags, only disturbed each time he moved home.
He hoped that one day the images might be recognised as a significant social record of a community and a landscape. At the time, in the late 1970s, this was not a fashionable photographic subject, so Plemper’s hopes seemed as unlikely to be fulfilled as his mother’s fantasy that he might become chairman of ICI.
It would be nearly 30 years later, with the emergence of a new media platform that gives us the potential to be producers, broadcasters and exhibitors, that Plemper finally unpacked his bags.
The turning point came with the launch of Flickr, the webpage that does for photographs what YouTube does for home videos and Facebook for friendship.
Following on from my post last week about the most complained about adverts in 2007, the corresponding news article (including my two-pence-worth) was in the Yorkshire Post last Thursday.
For those that missed it, the article can be found here.
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 7th of May 2008 at 11:19am
Opinions on what is controversial, shocking and graphic are quite wide-ranging and different. It’s nice to see the Advertising Standards Authority seem to have a consistent grasp on what is and isn’t a valid complaint.
Graphic and controversial advertising will always have it’s place in one format or another, agencies just need to learn how and when to use it. More so than other advertising forms, a consideration for time, place and target needs to be at the forefront of the creative decision.
Miles of media inches have already been given over to a fat orange man slapping someone in the face to sell a fizzy drink – I think he pre-dated happy-slapping by a good few years. The Tango ads were a prime example of the ‘shocking before thinking’ approach of an agency on the strive for a fresh approach. Was this advertising successful? Yes, probably more than anyone could have imagined. But was it successful to the right audience? For the right reason? That was to sell more Tango, wasn’t it?
Here is the new age of advertising, does the product have to feature anymore? Do we need a man in a suit holding product telling us to ‘buy this, it’s great’? We’re now in a time of ‘I have to have that product, it’s the one with the weird/crazy/shocking/bizarre advert’.
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 30th of April 2008 at 5:24pm
Aah, those were the days; recording songs off the radio on a Sunday afternoon, making mixtapes for girlfriends, loading favorite computer games (yes, computer games on cassette), how times have changed.
There’s a great online celebration of the design of our humble cassette to be found at www.tapedeck.org where you can search through galleries of cassettes by different manufacturers, tape length and quality.
Call me a geek but I find this kind of nostalgia for ephemera quite captivating.
Posted by Richard on Tuesday 29th of April 2008 at 3:56pm
So you’re thinking this is going to be a rant about the price of petrol and diesel, the cost of your favorite tipple, immigrants, the government and so on.
But you’d be wrong.
There’s far more serious and pressing matters afoot. It’s affecting the last bastion of this United Kingdom…
Tea breaks.
Have you not noticed the national fig-roll shortage? Last summer whilst we wallowed around in the rain and gloom, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries had a scorching hot drought. This badly affected the fig harvest. In fact the Guardian recently reported that a species of pollenating wasp which attends to the fig flowers was laid low by the hot conditions hence the poor yield. The situation has been compounded even further by the a FSA finding that some batches of the heat stressed figs are showing above permitted levels of a naturally occurring fungal toxin. Fig roll manufacturers such as Jacobs are looking to America to source their figs to fill the immediate stop-gap.
The situation is said to get worse as stocks run low.
Now if it were just fig rolls I could just about cope but it gets worse…
Our good friends at the FSA would like to see the complete removal of the six additives, E102 Tartrazine, E104 Quinoline yellow, E110 Sunset yellow, E122 Carmoisine, E124 Ponceau 4R and E129 Allura red AC from foods.
This may sound like science to you but it means the end of the Battenburg cake as we know it to me.
To aid the situation, feel free to send any unwanted biscuits and cakes straight to the ICM studios. Dark chocolate Hobnobs are going down particularly well during this difficult time.
Posted by Richard on Friday 25th of April 2008 at 3:52pm
Surprisingly, I found something genuinely interesting to watch on television last night. It was BBC’s Made in England series which, I realise now, coincided with St. George’s Day.
It’s a regionally made programme that takes various artists out of the regular comfort of their chosen art – for example West Country singer Seth Lakeman went to the West Midlands to record with inner city Urban musicians, Jazz musician Courtney Pine went from the busy streets of London to the calmness of Northumberland’s Holy Island.
The beauty of Sky television meant I could watch the programme scheduled for the Yorkshire region whilst recording on from another region – in effect, I was doing the same thing!
The one I chose to record was Photographer Harry Cory Wright who traveled from the East of England with it’s calm marshlands, to Bristol in the West with it’s diverse cultures and lifestyles. At first Harry found it difficult to find anything of interest, struggling to refocus his eye onto a new and unfamiliar subject, but eventually everything became clear.
The results are amazing, two very different, yet equally beautiful photographs. Taken using an old 10×8 inch plate camera which gives so much detail even the most advanced of today’s digital camera would be hard-pressed to compete.
I suppose the moral of this ramble is; sometimes it’s good to move our eye away from what we know and what we’re used to.
The whole Made in England series can be viewed on BBC iPlayer
High resolution versions of Harry’s images can be downlo…
I have recently become addicted to Digg. Following months of stumbling I am now a digger. And while digging stuff I found this global map of happiness. So I’m off to live in Mongolia.
On the serious side though this is pretty fascinating. Just take a look at Africa. And no one would be happy if Roman Abramovich was one of their fellow countrymen.
Posted by Tasha on Wednesday 23rd of April 2008 at 1:41pm
Just read about this on Brand Republic. Burger King are to offer an £85 burger.
The world has gone completely insane, what are they thinking. Stick to what they know, their customers don’t want this, they want cheap food quickly. Hence, it’s called fast food.
Posted by Tasha on Tuesday 22nd of April 2008 at 5:04pm
If like me, you’re constantly thinking about design, gleaning inspiration from everything around you, you’ll know that after a while it becomes difficult to find new colours and colour combinations for projects.
Why use hundreds of words when six will do?
Here’s something that’s happening a lot in literary circles; six-word novels, six-word poetry and six-word reviews.
Check out this six-word review of bands and their tracks at the recent South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
My favorites include:
Their poor singer has a cold.
I welcome the horns. But otherwise…
and the beautifully crafted review of The Clutters’ track ’9999 (Ways to Hate Us)’
I just found one more way.
Posted by Richard on Tuesday 8th of April 2008 at 4:19pm
On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.
Some time ago I spoke about time traveler John Titor and caused a small amount of controversy at ICM as we debated whether time travel was possible. Obviously none of us are physicists so the majority of our arguments are based on our own beliefs.
However, Darren, one of the key sceptics, has found proof that time travel is possible. Click here to discover the truth about time travel and possibly John Titor.
I love this stuff!
Posted by Tasha on Wednesday 26th of March 2008 at 1:45pm
A true visionary, his ideas and beliefs were way ahead of his time. A writer of both fiction and non-fiction, he is said to be the man behind the whole concept of geostationary satellites as we know them today.
In astonomy circles the geostationary orbit around Earth is often referred to as the Clarke belt; a fitting monument to a great man.
Posted by Richard on Wednesday 19th of March 2008 at 1:45pm
Chocolate pencils come in a number of cocoa blends that vary in intensity, and chocophiles can use the special “pencil sharpener” that comes with our plate to grate chocolate onto their dessert. Pencil filings are usually the unwanted remains of sharpening a pencil, but in this case, they’re the star.
Posted by Richard on Thursday 13th of March 2008 at 5:46pm
The new Fiat 500 has started to appear around the streets of Headingley and it seems to be this years’ ‘must have’ fashion accessory.
Like the New Beetle, Audi TT, and Mini Cooper, these tend be driven around for a year to 18 months by young Estate Agents and over-priced Hairdressers until the next ‘fashion’ automobile comes along.
With exception of the TT these cars have all got something in common – they’re a rehash of an original, an original design classic in most cases. The original VW Beetle and Mini where both great pieces of automotive design that also had that little something extra – a soul.
As an owner of an original Beetle I gave mine a name. I wouldn’t do that with a modern car, it just wouldn’t be right.
So where will all this lead – will the up-and-coming automotive designers start looking back at recent history for more vehicles that have soul – Morris Minor, Vauxhall Viva, Ford Anglia?
I don’t know about you but I’d take the original over the rehash everytime.
Posted by Richard on Tuesday 4th of March 2008 at 1:52pm
To pardon the pun, I too was a little shaken by the events at 1am when the world went wobbly for five seconds. For me it’s a pain and pleasure thing – I like thunderstorms but don’t want to get hit by half a million volts, I like being on top of hills in a strong gale but down want to be blown off my feet.
Those five seconds of shaking are a fantastic reminder that we’re not in control, Mother Nature can still give us a wake up call when she feels like it.
More fun was had in the 20 minutes after; as I lie awake wired on adrenalin, wondering whether what had happened had actually happened, I switched on the TV to find out which news channel would be the first to get the BREAKINGNEWS graphic up first!
Sky News won by a whisker albeit they were struggling to fill airspace with newsworthy news.
A phone call with a woman in Lincoln, with similar experiences to my own, revealed that the earthquake was as minor as my first predictions confirmed. Nothing damaged, nothing broken, a book had fallen sideways on her bookshelf (not actually off the shelf).
The next guy from Sutton-on-sea had heard lots of ducks quacking just prior to the quake. I think this guy’s onto something, maybe San-fran doesn’t need complex and delicate seismic monitoring equipment – just a group of early-warning ducks!
By this time the newsreader was clearly grasping to get hold of anything remotely sensational – the third caller recounted how she looked outside straight after the tremors to see all her neighbours’ bedroom lights illuminating (probably to the same resounding ‘What the f…?’ as my household) but as this was now some 25 minutes later everyone had gone back to bed.
And with that, so did I. Happy that a UK earthquake will hopefully never be as devastating as those …
Welcome to my first attempt at blogging. I have so far stayed away from blogging as there hasn’t really been anything I feel strong enough about to start a discussion. Now, I have!
You may or may not know that, in May this year I am getting married. Before everybody starts “oohhing”, “arrhhing” and saying congratulations I think I need to dispel some myths about this happy occasion.
Myth 1. The bride gets everything they want and goes a bit Bridezilla:
False! The groom does have a say. It’s only fair as it is there day as well. This is something that from the beginning that I made sure of. My groom to be (Matt) have very definite ideas about what he wants and that is great. We agree on most things and anything we don’t agree on we reach a happy compromise. On the other hand it is nobody else’s day, but they do insist on having their say and are quick to criticise.
Myth 2. Organising a wedding is fun and a happy time:
It isn’t. Please see above.
Melissa’s Advise:
Put your foot down at the beginning with any strong willed family members (usually female). As the bride you will be at the front line of the wedding war and as far as they are concerned you are the enemy. The two main pieces of advise I have been given which were so valuable where:
‘Don’t take it to heart.’ & ‘Don’t focus on the small stuff’ none of it really matters. These last two pieces of advise came from men, the only sex with any sense when there is a wedding apparently. Since then I have tackle the arrangements as I would a work project and it seems to work for me.
I just have to say Congratulations to Caroline our Accounts Director on her forthcoming nuptials. You have it all to come and I will help where I can during this traumatic t…
I recently moved over from a CRT monitor to a TFT monitor. Since then I’ve had to get used to cleaning the TFT screen dry (not using a spray-on cleaner and a cloth) and wondered if there was a product out there that would get me screen ‘squeaky clean’.
I do understand that it will be an extra match, but surely this undermines the whole structure of the league and the tradition of football. The idea is that each team
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