The Woolworths Effect

It's not just the employees that will be affected.

Small Bears Christmas

We hope that you are all having a wonderful Christmas. Roll on the new year and the challenges ahead.

Best Agency Christmas Piece So Far

Nice work for Christmas by AKQA.




Whilst this year's effort by W+K is an interactive Christmas card maker in their window (which is lovely), nothing beats last year's Christmas pudding bin bags, that combined usefulness and creativity.

Really Nice

Lovely way to show some of the most interesting data around.

Magic

This guy should be a copywriter. Whatever he was on, he still managed to ride his BMX and come up with those lines.

We applaud you.

Viral Heaven

A list of the year's 'Top 10 Virals' has been published by the guardian. We've seen nine out of the ten, which may mean we spend a bit too much time on the web. Either way, it's mostly agreed that these are virals, bar the Nike "Fate" ad which resembles a TV ad more than it does a viral, especially as it was shot by David Fincher. To us, virals are more like the Wassup 2008 video, which uses an ad we all know in a new clever way.

Make The Can Fist

Awesome Campaign for Tango, saving the drink from going to the dogs in its fight against those smoothie drinkers. The video is awesome and we like the stencils you can download and spray yourself. You can also watch all the original, old-school ads and look at how Tango is doing on the 'Tangometer.'

May just go down the shops and demand a can of Tango with my Tango fist now.

Warm Fuzzy Data

I went to the Science museum over the weekend to play around with all the fun interactive stuff in the 'launchpad.' Also checked out The Listening Post which we wrote a small piece on in Contagious Magazine during the summer. Thought it a good idea to check it out again, as it's truly inspiring and leaves you wanting to know a lot more.

The Listening Post works by filtering words written in chat rooms across the web, and producing these on screens in real time. It's created by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin, two very clever guys. We hope you manage to check it out before the exhibition closes as our words cannot do it justice.




We got thinking about what else has been produced since the Listening Post and discovered a piece of work by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, called We Feel Fine. It works in a similar way and is just as visually impressive.



Its nice to see work that inspires.

We Hope You Smile

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

On days when you feel down or like your not sure about things in life, we suggest you watch this. Sure made us feel more positive and that humans can be nice.

Death Match 2 - Can you handle the payne

Plans are already afoot with the next Death Match fundraiser for our degree show. It should be back in February but we're letting everyone know early to avoid disappointment. Any Farnham based readers can join the Facebook group here. Should be even better this time but, we have a lot of work to get out the way first.

This time the tournament is titled after the raining champion, lets hope it spurs him on to defend his crown.

Happy Birthday Wilf

Twenty Two yesterday, Wilf had a party to celebrate. A good time and hangovers were had by all.

Bad Sign

Our local Thai restaurant has got got some new signs up, now we've never been in there, mainly due to a mates recommendation, but we noticed this today. Its a shame, as if it had of been better, we might have given it chance, but then again maybe we should just go in to see if they are as crazy as their sign is.

Ikea Site 'Come Into The Closet'

This site popped up today, its a load of fun and displays the product in a nice way. The whole site is linked to music, so the movements of the site are controlled by the music that plays. Therefore Ikea allow you to upload your own songs and personalise it, which is quite a nice trick. Especially if you enjoy watching the characters moving around the room to Dubstep. A simple idea that works really well. Check it out.

Also if you haven't seen Ikea hacker yet, please have a look, another really simple and cool idea.

The Sales Team

We've just finished a brief that was intended to promote the notion that the VW Golf S was now at a lower price, it was tough but ended up being a lot of fun.

Based on the idea of a lower price, we decided to promote the notion that Volkswagen had lowered their advertising spend in order to bring a better price to its customers. Although, this still needed to be promoted, therefore we based our campaign on the idea of a mythical VW sales team and their efforts the bring this new price to the customers attention.

We wanted to use low cost media in order to demonstrate the idea of the low ad budget. We created a viral documentary on the team, along with fly posters and a pirate radio station run by the team themselves.

Excuse the bad acting, although we hope the idea comes across.

Sigur Ros

Went to see Sigur Ros on Friday night, an amazing gig, awe inspiring music and visuals. Left feeling inspired and wanting to influence the people around us. Waterfalls in front of the stage, confetti flying above us, blinding lights and shivers up our spines.

Makes you think, when you look back, you will always remember that night. Did anyone else see them?

VW Brief

We've been busy pulling hairs out over a brief for VW, it's been hard work trying to match a brand with such a effortless style about it. Both Wilf and myself see the 'Night Driving' campaign as a favourite, and can't stop watching it. Nor can I stop myself listening to those magical words by Dylan Thomas, pure genius.




Now back to work, but with a glint in our eyes.

Inspiration

We discovered this whilst looking at data visualisation/ Processing, it's amazing. A really nice piece of visual art, could be perfect for VJ'ing. If you are going to watch this then we advise, you turn on the HD, wack it onto full screen and turn all the lights off.

It's the perfect way to end a day of working on briefs, we've made a lot of progress over the last few days, just over a week until deadline for our three briefs.

Enjoy.


Solar, with lyrics. from flight404 on Vimeo.

Dissertations

We've both been very busy recently with our dissertations, and some uni briefs that are exciting. Apologies to anyone that has checked back to see a new post and been disappointed, things might be a bit quiet for a bit whilst we slog through the mountain of books that Wilf and myself have to read. To give you an update:

I am focusing on the subject of 'Web 2.0' and how it can help us to produce Advertising that has a positive social impact and truly improves the quality of peoples lives. Much of this includes the notion of 'Ethics' which I believe to be an important thing to have in any profession. It is with this, that I ask any of you reading to maybe have a think about the possibilities that marketing through web 2.0 can poses. Particularly the idea that through the channels we now have at our disposal, do you believe it possible to have two- way communication, or is all this open source and consumer freedom false?

Answers on anything from a postcard upwards please and if anyone would be willing to sit down for a wider chat, drop us an email.

A relaxing image to take our minds off the dissertations.

Little Big Planet

We thought this game was worthy of a post, we love the animation style, it's so different to any other game around. Not to mention we love the the open source nature of the game. The idea that you can create your own levels and then share them around the community as well as play other peoples levels is not unique, but this game does it in such an original way.



Little Big Planet Trailer from sophie laFraise on Vimeo.

Tired Of Dominos

After the Guinness 'Tipping Point' this seems rather dull and doesn't really do the brand many favours.

Tracing Light

Over the weekend we got involved with a project commissioned by our university and undertaken by artist Tine Bech. She has worked on various projects involving the manipulation of lighting and this recent project involved exploring the uses of Graffiti lighting and LED Throwies. Tine also produced a permanent piece of art on a bridge next to the Farnham Maltings, which uses motion sensors to change the colour of the bridge lighting as you alk along. To mark this, we help an open workshop for the community to learn more about the uses of LED Throwies, teaching participants how to build their own Throwies and the various uses they have.

We also had a photography workshop that allowed attendees to play around with the light streams and camera shutter speed, which was a lot of fun.



If you like the look of the above photos, then there are lots more here.

How To Relax Between Briefs

A package arrived at my door today, two boxes worth of Sega Lock-On. Yes, we now have the retro laser-gun game at our disposal, as well as instant access to our childhoods. One of our mates bought some on eBay and after a drunken night running around the streets with the sounds of targets bleeping around us, we were hooked.

So from now on, whenever we get frustrated at a brief or can't decide how best to tackle it, we'll let the Lock-on decide. That's all for now, we're off to play with guns in the dark. Just to note, we're not addicted to guns and stuff, as looking at our recent posts, Death Match and now this, it does look like we are warmongers or the like, honest that's not the case. Maybe.

AdEaters

We went to AdEaters last night, which was an experience. Some really good adverts, that maybe you think just how clever some people are, whilst at the same time we witnessed some awful adverts that make you think how the creators keep their jobs.

Overall a nice experience and we also managed to meet some nice people including Wal & Jai from Creative in London. Was just a shame there wasn't more groundbreaking work on show, although it was a cool experience to watch our industries craft on the big screen.

The Death Match Final Standings

Here is a list showing the order in which assassins were killed, we hope it means there are no disputes between assassins.

Disqualified For Not Killing

John Dobbs
Tom Tsappis
James Pierson
Cass Gregan
James Corlett
Lee Sullivan
Ashley Summers
Ewan Guilder

Resigned Gracefully From Tournament

Panagiotis Papamatthaiou
Chris MacFarlane

Killed During Tournament (Starting From First Killed)

Ben Ring
Jamie Kendall
Carmen Rohsmann-Sinnott
Jack Attridge
Rachel Bean
Alistair Singer
Dave George
Kate Herron
Lauren Cautley
Sam Heasman
Will Jenner
Vanessa Peters
Gaow Changsomboon
Mike Thomas
Emma Wood
Matt Hawkins
Karl Littlejohn
Jemma Akister
Helen Gabriel
Melissa Gillespie
Chris Horrex
Alex Battershall
Timothy Holt
Christina Bruce
Andrew Tarrent
Reece Starr
Luke Middleton
Amrit Kaur
Dave Lawrie
Ed Coleman
Chris Pike
Sam Ely
Reuben Millmore
Jamie Wood
Anthony Woodley
Claire Pinegar

The Finalists

Lauren Dyer
Hannah Vyner
Steve Martin
Matt Roach
Greg Nicholls
Amiirah Nobbebacus

The Ultimate Assassin

Chris Payne

Death Match will return, so share what you know and we hope to get even more people playing next time. Any thoughts on it, post on our comments section.

An End To The Mayhem

The final details were sent to remaining assassins on the Monday, including information on Aurelio Gonzales and his plans for the day. So at 3pm, the Bureau took on the role of bodyguards for Aurelio Gonzales, transporting him from the lion and lamb statue to the meeting point in the park.

The first event of the final occurred literally at the moment the final started, with 'The pizza guy' dashing out of Starbucks and behind a pillar, unfortunately for him, his Wario- like snigger alerted the Bureau, who quickly shot him, disabling him for twenty minutes. The Bureau then set a course to the park through the back roads of Farnham and then along the high street. Whilst walking along the street we came very close to shooting an innocent lady, as she walked round a corner right into the Bureau's path, we pointed our guns at her, trigger fingers itching. She let out a whimper and shouted, but the Bureau ignored her, more focused on the task at hand.


Then we made our way to the park, walking through the entrance we noticed another assassin, stalking slowly behind us, but he soon scarpered. Once set up in the park, with entrances covered and Aurelio near the centre, we began to patrol. First noticing an assassin entering the park and then hurriedly leaving, followed by 'the pizza guy' sprinting towards Aurelio, gun in hand. Luckily we caught him just before he could get in range to shoot.

The park soon became overrun by assassins, with five of the finalists all surrounding the perimeter, waiting for the chance to strike. Whilst with only two bodyguards protecting Aurelio, the Bureau were outnumbered. The resolution to the situation came when the two female assassins made a dash for Aurelio, whilst 'the pizza guy' tried his luck from another direction. These attempts lead to both bodyguards chasing away assassins and leaving Aurelio alone. At that exact moment, another assassin jumped over the park wall and sprinted towards the target, whilst both bodyguards were busy, he took his chance and pounced. Using a weapon that only held enough water for one shot, Chris Payne managed to assassinate Aurelio Gonzales and bring Death Match to a close.


So despite the best efforts of the other assassins, it was the perfect timing of Chris Payne that managed to defeat the Bureau. After this, we all had a talk about the week gone by, past kills and what they thought of it in all. Whilst one angry assassin turned up late, with a friend, the two of them had been using walkie talkies to try and track down the Bureau but had failed to notice that a different path had been taken and therefore spent all the time waiting for Aurelio to walk past.


So after over a week of hunting things will be returning to normal, although one day the Bureau will return and on that day the mayhem will start all over again.

Aurelio Gonzales

The above photo is of Aurelio Gonzales, he is the new target for the remaining Death Match assassins. He is a distant relation of a member of the Bureau and is in Farnham to sign a huge oil contract. The Bureau has decided that they do not wish this to occur and wish remaining assassins to kill him before he signs the deal. Due to a clash of interests, the Bureau will still be protecting Aurelio Gonzales so as to not draw attention when he is eliminated. Although, as we will be protecting him, we can disclose the details of his whereabouts.

He will be leaving the Lion & Lamb statue at exactly 3pm and taking an unknown route to the park near the police station. Once there he will wait to meet the other parties, this is the time for you to strike. Just remember that Bureau bodyguards will attempt to stop you. Aurelio Gonzales will also be wearing his trademark red fez...

Good luck and remember that the first assassin to kill Aurelio will be named the Ultimate Death Match Assassin.

Death Match Photo

A very nice image that was taken by our friend Bim, she has a blog which you should check out. Its going really well, we only have seven players left after removing some non active members of the tournament, which we hope will make it a little more harrowing for the remaining players.

Day Five, Stay Alive

The Bureau woke up to day five with a headache, the reason for this being the previous days antics. Our leading assassin (6 Kills) managed to gain entry to a targets house and stalked through the rooms until he realised that his target was not home, although others were. This resulted in one of the housemates locking the front door with all the locks she could get her hands on, locking the other housemates out in the process. This meant we had an assassin without a house, whilst still being hunted by the top killer. A very harrowing situation to be in, no place to go and the knowledge that you may soon be hunted again.

Our top killer so far.

This led to the Bureau receiving lots of calls and an increasingly large headache. Luckily for that assassin her hunter was killed that evening after he left work, although he is still top with six kills. It was also lucky that on Friday morning another housemate returned home and managed to bash all the locks off the door. So security at last for our assassin, but it goes to show the drama that has been going on over the past few days.

The Bureau also managed to catch up with 'The Pizza Guy' an assassin that had converted an old pizza box into a tool to hide his gun whilst attacking unsuspecting targets. He stalked around the university halls in search of his target and even returned to a house twice in search of a target. The target's housemates liked the idea so much, that they said they would even help him out with the assassination by arranging a time for him to come round when the target was in. Whilst other efforts of 'The Pizza Guy' have been luring unsuspecting classmates into meeting up with him, promising to give them information on their own target before he assassinates them; another involved a straight chase down the road after a target....Be warned 'The Pizza Guy' is still out there...

'The Pizza Guy'

As I write this, at the end of the fifth day, we have 14 players left. So if you are left in the game, go out and hunt. Hunt until day turns to night, until your trigger finger get so cold that it doesn't move, you only have two days left. The more assassins you kill, the closer you will become to the the ultimate prize....if we don't have a winner by Sunday afternoon, the rules will all change and you will regret not hunting more targets down.

Good luck assassins.

Drive-By On Day Four

First of all, sorry that we haven't been able to post for a few days, things have been very hectic.

Day four started in a frenzied fashion, way before classes had even started, the day produced its first kill. Whilst walking along the road, an assassin realised that a car was slowly following him and a friend. At that moment the car rushed past with a jet of water shooting from its window, luckily missing the assassin. Sadly for him, the car then pulled up and his hunter chased him along an ally to make sure the job was done. It's been a feature of the last few days that cars have been used when hunting targets, one assassin even using his motorbike and referred to himself as "The Black Knight."

A failed assassination attempt by two pairs of assassins. It ended with one pair trapped in their car until the other car left.

Was a good laugh for The Bureau who watched it all unfold.

That same day a member of The Bureau was involved in their own soaking. After driving a housemate/ assassin around for a while in search of their target, it was decided to try their house again. Unknown to the assassin, was the fact that not only was their target home, but all the other members of the eight person household, whom proceeded to soak both assassin and Bureau member. The assassin was very cheesed off, yet another attempt foiled by these housemates whilst the target peeks through the window with a grin on his face. Although it must be said, after the soaking of The Bureau member, there will be consequences and The Bureau will soon be out and about with super soakers and water balloons to avenge the soaking.....

You have been warned.

Day Three Of Death Match

As i write this, we have 25 people left in Death Match, although kills have started to slow down. It's now been narrowed down to two types of assassin, those that hide in their houses and don't hunt at all and those that have been constantly on the hunt for their next target.

Whilst the Bureau made a decision to keep the cowardly assassins in the game, we know they do not have the skill to win the tournament and are therefor, are happy to keep them in as pray for the others.


Our highlight of today was a failed assassination attempt that turned into a water gun kidnapping of an innocent housemate. All this was relayed to us down the phone by a screaming assassin, those of you that know the Bureau, will know that we just laughed. Whilst another assassin has reached the mighty heights of six kills, it was this assassin that laid siege in the kidnapping, he is very determined. Those of you not with the mental toughness to hunt him down, we pity you.

Tomorrow is another day of hunting, good luck and make the most of your surroundings.

Let The Killing Begin

Well, Death Match is underway and we've already had 16 kills. A fundraiser for our degree show, Death Match is a water gun assassination tournament based in our university town of Farnham. We took inspiration from Street Wars, an American organised Water assassination tournament. The game has been organised by Myself, Luke and our course mate, George and we have about 60 people playing, all trying to 'kill' each other. So far, Farnham has been witness to assassins disguising themselves as Pizza delivery men; fellow students looking to collaborate; innocent, helpful passers-by and Inspector Gadget. Assassinations have taken place in cars, in doorways, in hallways and one whilst the target was asleep in his bed, things can only get messier!

Our assassins have been distributed Target Packs, with a target card and rule sheet, as seen below:

As well as the 'Ultimate Assassin' trophy that will be given to the winner, we have a prize for the most kills, which is currently being strongly contested by the Inspector Gadget lookalike. We are also encouraging the contestants to document their missions so as to dispel any possible disputes that could arise, and to create a bit of competitiveness. We have been suprised by the dedication shown by a few contestants, particularly so early on, and so have their targets! We've also been asked by some of the brave fallen to host another Match so they can reap their revenge - something we would be more than happy to arrange. Our only regret so far is that we can't get involved in the match itself.

New Project

Our new project starts tomorrow, we're looking forward to it. It lasts a week and it may be quite intense, but will try and post up some news throughout the week. It's all to raise money for our degree show which we hope to hold at Free Range. More will be revealed soon.

Insane Diesel Advert

Not sure if this is real, but if it is...well it pushes the idea of viral ads to the max. Our thoughts on this are that Diesel may be following a tactic once adopted by Benetton, that you don't need to show your clothes to get attention for a fashion brand. It links to the shop fascia that was created for the Carnaby street store.

Hot Drinks & Gluttony

Working on a brief for Twinings sub-brand Options with our planner mate George. Have invested in a pile of Options to see what the products are like to use. Does anyone else find this useful? As we don't always do this but we thought it would be nice to take a trip to the supermarket, as fun things always happen there.

Also, both Wilf and myself are obsessed with the Wario takeover of YouTube, so damn good.

A Small Step But A Good One For Pantene

Ok, today I watched a new Pantene ad that was four minutes long and only shown once (Shown in Thailand.) This sounds quite familiar to a current trend, what with the 'watch your own heart attack' for the British Heart Foundation or the Honda 'difficult is worth doing' spot, although the second being much better simply for its live airing and sheer balls.

Patene for as long as I can remember, have not done much more than the pack shot and product demonstration style ads. So this advert marks a step forward in my eyes, it may just be them catching up with the pack, such as Unilever's Dove 'campaign for real beauty', but its a start. It has an emotional depth to it and something for consumers to identify with, this being the challenge of feeling good about yourself.

The ad has a more emotional feel to it, although my lack of knowledge of the Thai market means that I can't really say if it is bang on, but it does do something for me. My only issue with this is that I don' believe it to be a great tale and this is where it may fall short. Maybe also the decision to air it only once, when I think that a story such as this could also be shown in cinemas, where consumers are ready to be entertained. It may have been a market based decision to use the Internet rather than anything else based in Thailand.

Lets hope that the more emotional strategy is pushed more in the UK, it would be nice to see what could be done.

Our Mate Jeff

Whilst away at Bestival I went to see a artist by the name of Jeffrey Lewis (Pictures of Bestival and a post are to come, once photos are developed.) Not only was he a very cheerful guy, despite the rain. After his gig, he was then nice enough to step the other side of the barriers and stand in a huge wallow of muddy water and have a chat with us (Even if he was flogging his comics as well.)

So, I bought one of his comics, which is actually rather neat, some nice stories and for only three of our great British pounds. The main reason I'm writing this post is out of respect, for a man whom still is down to earth enough to speak to everyone and write comics that have a real heart and soul to them.

Not to mention, his illustration is damn hot. Check him out.

15.09.08 (Following The Trend For Once)

dim3 ak7ion

Progress Report & The Start Of The Degree Show Plans

It has been a while since we managed to post, mainly due to moving around, attending Festivals and the like. So, just an update for those out there that pop by, our new University room is on its way to gaining our contribution, which is a few posts below.

Whilst we are also in the process organising the foundations for our degree show, which we hope will do our three years justice. If anyone has any tips on this subject, it would be very useful, or anyone first hand experience, it's all welcome.

Psycho Buildings At The Hayward

All summer I've been trying to find enough time to get my arse down to the Southbank to have a look the Psycho buildings exhibition at the Hayward gallery. Despite my best efforts, my rowing technique was rubbish (I maintain that Wilf is 'the' rower of the team but as he could not make the trip, I was left stranded on the boating lake for several minutes.)

I really liked the idea of the boats on the roof, it made it feel less like a wanky exhibit and much more about the visuals. Some of the other pieces were interesting for the sheer thought and the simple yet effective ideas. These pieces of work, similar to the best adverts, were simple, well produced and keep you captivated. The most uplifting feeling was that, it seemed that all concerned understood the power of architecture and its power to tell a story and make a difference. A nice thing to do when stuck for inspiration.

A Simple Thought

It's been a while since I traveled with an airline of any good reputation, due to student finances, but I'm pretty sure that this is something that could be done. I think most airlines have in-flight magazines, which they use to plug a few things and I'm sure earn money from advertising, my issue is that these are printed on paper.

I've been on a few planes that have interactive screens in the headrest in front of you and remotes in the armrest. These are normally used for watching films on, or playing games but I'm sure that you could read things from them as well. Therefore, why can't airlines publish their magazines in a format that can be shown on the screen and selected with the remote or by touching the screen.

It seems like something that would be seamless and easy to use, not to mention that it means wasting less paper and allowing for links to other parts of the system. For example, if a film review was written in the magazine, you could have a link to the featured film, that is, if the airline was showing the film. I'm sure this would not only benefit the quality of the service but it would also be doing something to help out our nice planet, even if they refuse to do much else.

Trip Into The Past (MOB)

Hello,

It's been a while, today whilst Wilf was working I took a trip to the museum of brands, as I've been trying to crack some copy which was causing me issues, I think it's better now and I rather enjoyed myself. It was extremely interesting to see how some things hardly change, even if they way we perceive them does.

I sat watching some really memorable TV spots for a while, at least an hour, some classic Hamlet ones.

Some of the copy on the posters was unreal, the way communication took place decades ago seems more to the point. It may just be the fact that we are bombarded with lots of useless messages on top of the good stuff, but I cant help thinking that we now consider many more factors when thinking of ad's.

Check it out.




Also, thanks to everyone for the comments on the last post, if you have actually decided to keep reading, then this is for you. Plans are underway to get the idea from the blog wall to a physical one.

An Idea On Ideas

As part of a project myself and Wilf are looking into, we would like your help. I'm not sure about how many people will read this post, but it is a hope that those of you who do read this, will want to help us.

Our University has recently re-branded to call itself the UCA, after obtaining full status, combine this with the influx of new students that will join our ranks in September and we have the potential for exciting change and some exciting work.

Myself and Wilf have decided that we would like to attempt a project to inspire our fellow students to share their thoughts and build a buzz around the campus. We would therefore like you to tell us your answer on the following question:


"What does it feel like when inspiration strikes?"

Maybe it was when you solved your first brief, when you got the last word on the crossword. The moment you invented a groundbreaking theory that will be shown on TED for years to come or when you decided on a name for your child, no matter what it was, we are sure at one moment in your life, you had a special inspired moment, so please share that feeling with us.

We hope that we will then use your answers to start the project rolling, putting them up on a wall on campus and encouraging students to add to the collection. We hope to add a bit of insight and analysis into fags breaks throughout the campus.

Thanks

'Say hello to my little friend'

The world changed once man made light was introduced - it allowed us to work half a day extra of course! But now that it costs so much, both financially and environmentally, we are beginning to see the introduction of LEDs as a low cost, high impact resource and we couldn't be happier. These little beacons have been very kind to Luke and myself, letting us know that the Playstation is working, and that the TV is still wasting 85% of its power on standby and of course, using them for our own creative purposes. We only hope that more people begin to see the benefit in these genius, tiny gems, just take a look at this article from the NY Times, and the picture of the Marcus Centre in Milwaukee to see just how much of an impact they can have.

Film In Data Form

We are both very big film fans, many a time have I sat in the corner whilst Wilf shoots down my critical viewpoint, ashamed of the fact I thought Matt Damon was good. Then I noticed this Data Visualisation graph, it tracks box office takings in the US of past and current films, its neat. After seeing the Radiohead House Of cards video, that was created through only data visualisation, I 've become addicted to the topic. You should check out the guys site, he has many other graphs and lots of other interesting sections. I must also say, Contagious Magazine brought it to my attention. http://xach.com/

Firefly On The Blog

So after a day on the blog, both myself and Wilf have been thinking of how to get conversation going, after having a quick brainstorm we decided to get visitors to talk on the page, not just through comments, but whilst reading the blog overall. Therefore Wilf has enabled Firef.ly for all you guys and gals that want to have a conversation with us or any visitors, its at the bottom right of the screen, or the little switch below our posts(Makes the screen go a nice orange tint.)

The hope is that it will enable feedback on the blog to become easier, as well as giving us a chance to have a chat with you all. I must say, thanks to Rubbishcorp for the original post on his blog that brought it to our attention. Lets hope that this catches on, as we like to have a talk every so often, plus it beats Facebook chat. The best thing about this, is that if you are on an enabled site, you can send a twitter update from the site, possibly recommending what you've just read.

Innocent Village Fete Fun

Yesterday I (Luke) went to the Innocent Village Fete and lots of fun was had whilst running from tree to tree. Sadly it is not the habit of this team to take umbrellas out with them (Hoods being the choice of the youth) and therefore I spent most of my time under a tree watching the folks dancing at the alfresco ballroom. The whole feeling of the day was great and the team at Innocent even entertain you in the queue for the toilets.

I think that these kind of events can sometimes be done rather badly, but congrats to Innocent for pulling of a great weekend. It was nice to see a whole range of causes about the fete and I've even made a pledge to walk more. It must be said, when a brand not only promotes itself in such an easy going manner but also manages to help out many good causes, you are sure to go down a storm.