Small Bears And Bogeymen

Young Team of the Year

2011-04-11T14:42:00.003+01:00

Woah, only just realised it has been November since our last post....I blame the copywriter personally. So...

It's that time of year again and as the sunshine began to grace London's shores we headed over to the London Art House for the Young Team of the Year competition run by the Newspaper Society.

Another one-day competition, the idea is to answer a brief in 5 hours and present it, all with the focus on local media. Our brand this year was Mars and the brief was pretty good, focusing around their sports credentials. Once again, our good friend and fellow YCCer Julia Earthrowl came up trumps (the girl with the Midas touch obviously - she came runner up in the UK last year, then only went and won Best YET in Belgium) with her partner and also fellow YCCer, Polo.

There was a pretty impressive judging panel lined up, featuring Shaun McIlrath (ECD of Iris), Phil Kitching (DCD of Iris) Paul Belford (ECD of Thisisrealart), Tiger Savage (ECD of Tiger'sEye), Joe De Souza (CD of Karmarama) & Sam Ball (CD of Lean Mean Fighting Machine). Stef Jones (CD of Big Al's Creative Emporium). As with last year, once the judges arrived, they went around the groups seeing if they could offer bits of advice before the final bell went.

We'd love to show you what work we came up with, unfortunately all our scamps were destroyed in a mini flood at the Art House. It does sound like a bit of a 'dog ate my homework' tale but we can assure you our ideas weren't THAT bad.

There will be a full write up of the day on the YCC website soon so if you'd like to read a bit more, head on over! In the meantime, congratulations again to Julia and Polo and to runners-up Dave Wigglesworth and his partner.

PS cheers to Mike for me pilfering his pics and list of peeps. You know I love ya!

Don't say I never told you Mike was a sexy bitch

The Young Creative Council

2010-11-10T12:47:00.007Z

The last few months have seen us become involved with the Young Creative Council. We blogged about Unite II, a portfolio night that went down a storm, and have been organising a few bits and bobs around that. One of the things we've been trying to organise is to try and get regular contact with universities around the country and start to work with them. So, Luke and I headed on down to UCA Farnham along with a few other grads in the hope that some of our enthusiasm and stories of our own experiences would rub off and inform the next generation of grads about some of the goings-on in the industry.

A few Mondays ago, Luke and I journeyed down to our old uni, UCA Farnham, to give a little talk on our progress in the industry and for us in particular, to give the YCC a face (albeit a couple of ugly faces) to some of the newest grads.

Some of the lovely Farnham-ites

It was great to see how our old course had grown. When we were there our class had about 30 people. The first year now has 65 students – quite an impressive increase. More impressive still was that most of them turned up again after lunch! We obviously didn’t bore them enough.

Fellow grads who presented with us were Louis Downs, a spirited entrepeneur, Lauren Dyer, now at DDB Health, Helen Trickey and Becky Coyle (UCA Epsom grad) from Rufus Leonard and Will Marsden and his partner Jordan Down from Ogilvy. All of us offered a slightly different perspective; Louis has gone it alone since graduating, having dabbled in publishing, web design and branding; Lauren (who is easily the most motivated person I’ve met) tried to encourage people to avoid fear and ‘do’; Helen and Becky described their respective roles at the agency, from branding to digital design; and Will and Jordan described their experiences or differing cultures at agencies and their way of approaching and delivering work.

As I’ve said, the purpose of our talk was to offer the students a bit of advice from people who have just gone through what they are about to go through. Luke and I found that once we left uni, we weren’t under-prepared but we certainly didn’t expect the situation to be as it was. We don’t in any way profess to know everything or to have it right – but who does? All we can do is offer our perspectives and hope that our mistakes can be built on by others so that they don’t make the same mistakes.

University is the perfect place for groups like us to have contact with – our experiences are still very fresh in our minds, and we know what extra stuff we would have benefitted us whilst there. As well as that, once students graduate their time will be taken up with searching for work and worrying about money (now more than ever), so getting in as early as possible can help to avoid or at least curtail certain of these issues.

Again, as the YCC, we aren’t a bunch of know-it-alls – we’re learning from all this too – we’re just willing to have our brains picked and are more than willing to help out anyone who thinks we can provide it to.

http://youngcreativecouncil.wordpress.com/

YCC Unite

2010-10-13T11:54:00.006+01:00

So it has been a long time since our last post, we have been very busy with a number of things - YCC being the one we're going to talk about!

Last Thursday, the YCC held our second Unite event, a night showcasing some of the best graduate portfolios out there. The turnout was really impressive, with over 20 teams in attendance and a host of industry representatives from agencies like Inferno, RGA, AKQA, Glue, M&C Saatchi, Work Club, JWT, Ogilvy, Arnold KLP and Creative Orchestra.

The aim of the night was to try and start a precedent within the industry, grads in particular, where the attitude of self-help and 'doing' is ever present. What the members of the YCC may not necessarily have had when we were looking for jobs is what we are trying to offer, and to create a group of future industry leaders who are united in one goal. We are not here to mentor, but we can offer a perspective that not many others possess as we’ve just gone through the process and know what is lacking.

In the wake of the event we’ve had a few people comment, namely Andy Sadoz from Work Club and Chris Arnold of Creative Orchestra. Chris' article on Brand Republic hit the nail on the head, and after all the work that went into the event, it was great to see that those already established in the industry can see how the YCC was born out of necessity - as Chris says "A group of young creatives who rather than sit on their arse complaining there's no jobs and the pay's crap, are getting out there and changing the game."

We may not be experts in our chosen field, but we are the most recent bunch of grads to get jobs after the recession and seeing as all of us are employed at agencies, we can offer those a year or two behind us some first hand advice that isn't available all of the time. Our main aim at the YCC is a sort of selfish selflessness, if that makes sense - the reputation of British teams is suffering (we have been told by a few people that some agencies would rather not hire British teams as they’re perceived as less forward thinking) and we are not prepared to let that happen. Grads from places like Sweden, Brazil and Holland are extremely impressive, and have a lot of backing behind them. If we want the next generation of British graduates to be competitive and among the best in the world, then it is up to us to affect this change.

As the YCC mantra dictates, "People who do, change the world. Everyone else is just living here." We'd rather not just live here.

Visit the YCC here.

Lissie

2010-08-19T10:45:00.007+01:00

Well after a number of weeks of inactivity on this blog we're back and with a piece of our work! We have been busy to the max the last few weeks, having just finished an extended stay at Sony Music under the tutorship of Steve Milbourne and Phil Clandillon, two of the coolest and nicest guys we could have hoped to work for. We originally came into the Sony fold for a few weeks to produce 'something' for Lissie - a girl with one of the most amazing voices we've heard and down to earth nature to go with it. Steve and Phil are known for their low budget, high impact stuff and amongst other accolades, were Best in Book in this year's Creative Review Annual, so to say we were bricking it would be an understatement. To see why, some of their work is here for you to take a peek at.
To cut a long story short, our concept was an interactive music video to be controlled by the weather. By clicking on a weather map under the video, the weather data is pulled and represented by the performances of Lissie and her band. After a few evolutions of the idea, the execution was refined and trimmed down to make it work by the boys and Simon Poon Tip, producer extraordinaire and all round lovely bloke. The website was made by the guys at Half Cyborg who did an awesome job, we think it looks lovely. So, I guess there isn't much else to say from this point other than enjoy, here's the link again.

Awwwww, ain't they cute?

2010-06-20T16:22:00.002+01:00

Wishing my partner in crime, Luke and our goody buddy Alfred Malmros the best of luck in Cannes this week. Enjoy the yachts, parties and booze! (Oh and cheers for leaving me with all the work, you monobrowed bastard.)

An unusual update

2010-06-10T17:42:00.002+01:00

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, we've finally managed to get a quick post in.

Last week we started working at Sony music and will be for here for several weeks. It's a pretty exciting project to be involved in and we're hoping that it'll be our first piece of work that really becomes big.

We'll try to provide a few updates.

A Grown Up Meeting

2010-05-25T22:56:00.005+01:00

Last weekend Luke had the interesting job of documenting Innocent's AGM with the use of an iPhone taped to a big orange helmet.

You can see the photos that were captured here, along with a few tweets to add a bit of context. What you might not see are all the faces of the people he walked past on the journey from his house to Fruit Towers or hear the laughter of the people on the tube. That he will be keeping to himself.

The Consumer Cam as it was named, was dreamt up by the gang at RIG. They were asked to make sure the show the day from the consumers point of view, instead of what Innocent wanted to put across. Something that really shows the nice human side to the company and their attempts to be honest in what they do.

The day itself was really rather good, with tasting sessions for new recipes, Q+A sessions with the founders and fun presentations to understand the goings on behind the scenes.

More of the highlights can be seen on the Innocent blog and a video below of all the pictures sped up.

Well who's a lucky boy then?

2010-05-19T21:15:00.010+01:00

He's a man's man, according to Foursquare anyway

As well as having been crowned Cyber king of the Guardian competition, Luke was also deemed most manly man of all by FCUK, who were using Foursquare checkins to judge by. In a busy, busy two weeks, he graced with his presence, Wembley stadium, Charlton's mighty Valley, and the not so mighty Selhurst park, as well as a host of burrito joints and pubs. The cunning stunt also decided to name my house in tribute to someone dear to my heart, for which he will eventually pay dearly. As he deceived FCUK of his true manly actions, he has been instructed to buy me some nice socks to appease me for the time being. The joys of being in a creative team, eh? Here's the article. And here are our stalk co-ordinates Luke, Wilf.

UPDATE: Having worked with Luke for 2 years now, I was shocked and horrified to see this in a phone box up in town one day, I am considering contacting FCUK to have his title removed as this is clearly not manly behaviour and he's been hiding this secret life from all of us...

Shocking, I know, but I guess we all have secrets...

In other news, the 'boy' has also been selected to be the "outsider" at the Innocent AGM, which is happening this coming Saturday. He'll be giving us a bigger report on that after it's all happened. Follow the meeting on Innocent's Twitter accounts here and here.

We've been

2010-05-19T18:05:00.015+01:00

Enjoying spending some time in the company of other creative teams, attending industry events, competitions and generally working on our book. It’s been a busy two months, full with highs and lows but it’s been fun that’s for sure. The main highlights are below, some of which may be old news for some readers who follow our twitter.

UK Young Lions winners 2010

Luke entered the Guardian Cannes Young Lions competition with our good friend Alfred who is a very switched on lad (Wilf could not enter as he works freelance and is not based in an agency). They did well, claiming a runners-up spot in the print category. Happily, they won the Cyber category with the idea shown in the film below. It means they are heading to Cannes to compete against teams from across the world and to show the world what the UK has to offer.

Centrepoint - Websites Sleeping Rough from Alfred Malmros on Vimeo

The Newspaper Society

A few weeks ago we also attended the ‘Young team of the year’ competition (Run by the Newspaper Society). We were given a brief to produce a campaign for Strongbow that would run in local media. We had to present our idea to a panel of top judges by the end of the day and the experience of generating ideas in a room full of other teams was pretty rewarding. After speaking to most of the teams, it seems like there was a very similar thought in each teams idea but the teams that won managed to quickly convert it into an original execution. Afterward, some lovely people with cameras asked us all to explain our idea which you can see below (Best to click through to watch it on YouTube).

Err, yeah.....

We didn’t win but the two teams that did were given the chance to go and face the rest of Europe on another brief at ‘BestYet team of the year’. And we can now report that one of the UK teams (Gavin and Julia) won the competition.Below you can watch a little piece of content that the Newspaper Society have produced to generate views of the work and interest in future competitions (Again best to click through to watch it on YouTube).

An inspiring project

2010-04-21T15:20:00.006+01:00

This is one of the best ideas we’ve seen in a long time and it’s spurred us into writing a post on here again.

Introducing Robin of Shoreditch, a collective of people that are using their talent to help the people of Haiti, in the best way they can. They've developed the 100 Brands project. An idea that we should all inspire to create once in our careers, an idea that helps people for a good reason. We cannot fully do it justice, so it’s best to watch the video below as to fully understand how important it is as a project.

The 100 Brands Project from Robin of Shoreditch on Vimeo.

You can view each idea they produce on the 100 brands project channel and get a more in-depth look at how the project progresses on their blog.

You can donate money directly to the project here. Let's try and held those in need, rather than bitching about an ash cloud. Spread the message as wide as you can and lets help them get the attention of those brands.

Look what Garth said on twitter

2010-03-17T14:42:00.003Z

Garth crooks sent this tweet out shortly after the Chelsea game. It's since been deleted but we've got a screen grab that we took last night. He makes a valid point.

Lara Croft changed our lives

2010-03-16T21:27:00.003Z

Luke wrote an article for our university alumni magazine, here is for those of you lucky enough to have not studied at our campus:

It turns out that we have something that past students have lacked: we are digital natives. We’ve grown up with the exhausting coverage of reality TV and shared our lives online through Instant Messenger, Facebook and MySpace. We have a different understanding of communications. Mine personally changed the moment I explored the globe with Lara croft on my games console. It was this work, along with many others that pushed expectations further; since then I’ve become easily distracted and I’m not the only one.

It’s become second nature for many of us to use laptops or phones while watching television, or to even play online games and talk to strangers around the world. It’s changed the way we interact with others and interpret media and brands are learning this all too well. In the past, the consumer was faced with a barrier of print or television advertising that enforced the brand’s image. Now we use the Internet to find out what really stands behind that wall in an instant.

Technology has forced brands to re-think how they are perceived and act accordingly with smarter, adaptive and considered communications emerging. The best examples of these are Whopper Sacrifice, the Facebook application, Nike+ – the running tool that uses iPods to motivate the user and monitor their performance – or Fiat eco: Drive which allows drivers to use data analysis to understand how they can drive economically and reduce their damage to the environment.

These are compelling, long-term ideas that create publicity through their innovative and useful nature. It’s a reflection of the development in the industry that these ideas blur the lines between product design and advertising. Ideas now run along multiple narratives at once, with consumers interacting in real time across media, gaining an extra understanding of the brand in each medium. And we are skilled in this very understanding through years of gaming, watching television, surfing the internet and reading.

This is what forward-thinking agencies are looking for: an ability to create ideas that work in real and online worlds, but, most importantly, merges them together. It’s a mindset that many of our generation display, yet fail to harness. And the way to do this is best summed up by Samuel Beckett “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”. Yes, we should experiment with what we know, learn as we go, and adopt techniques as we have new technology. To do this, we need to learn the skills and software required. Learning how to code or to capture film is more important than ever. It’s this DIY attitude that will provide experience, understanding and sharpen our ideas for the current climate. What’s more, through building sites, hacking technology and creating content, you could become essential to agencies looking to identify with modern consumers. Just remember: it started with playing games, watching films or reading, and it’s important to keep that sense of fun every time you experiment.

Chat Roulette

2010-03-07T20:22:00.001Z

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Made up of boys, girls and perverts.

Thing’s we haven’t tried but one day hope to understand

2010-02-11T18:02:00.006Z

It’s been a while since we’ve written anything of great length on here. Partly due to getting a bit tired of wanting to take our thoughts any further than our heads. Yet we’ve also spent a bit of time trying to do a few ‘actual’ things rather than just noting down thoughts on here.

It’s become clear that you can sometimes suck all the life out of ideas by over-analysing and for any creative’s that cannot be a good. It’s much better when you just understand and enjoy the human aspects of what makes something good, rather than ripping it to shreds, advert or otherwise.

As an aspiring team, we’ve tried to always have an opinion and stay open to viewpoints (Neil Perkin once wrote about how important it can be to employ young people who blog). What we’ve been thinking about recently is how we can put this enthusiasm to good use. Show that we understand what’s expected and then transfer that learning into our work in a less obvious manner. Simply, show what we’ve understood from our experiences outside of the industry.

This desire could well have come from working outside of university for a while, with Wilf working freelance on web and design projects and Luke learning his trade as a copywriter at Tag. It’s proved eye- opening, you become keen to use your skills for outside projects as well (Even if we do spend most of our spare time working on our book).

It’s taught us that there are a lot of ways to express our creativity than what you are taught in university; the most rewarding of these is investing it in something you feel passionate about. To help us sum it up better, here is a nice video by Nick Roope where he says this about an Orange project “Don’t tell them together we can do more. Show them together we can do more”.

In any case, it seems that it can only benefit us if we attempt new personal projects and experiences. As it’s only with experience that you really progress.

Useful

2010-02-08T18:49:00.003Z

Some rather nice little notes on each of the slides. It can be easy to forget the simple things at junior level so it's well worth spending a minute over to make sure you don't loose track of what's important.

Handy tips for creative thinking

View more presentations from Dave Birss.

Tumblr Gold

2010-01-18T23:35:00.002Z

Sometimes Tumblr contains complete junk but it does uncover some absolute nuggets.

Like below.

We heart The Teens' Speech

2010-01-05T12:27:00.007Z

The Teens' Speech by Poke is really rather good. It was a piece created to inspire younger people to think about their future and to also persuade adults to take more care in their actions, as one day these young people will inherit it. Not to mention, show that these kids are not just a mass of aggressive hoods.

Below is the final film that was shown on the myspace homepage and on youtube. There are many extra pieces on the blog, in particular these excellent findings and Poke man Andy Whitlock has got some nice stuff on his site about what they had set out to do.

The post that started last year and won’t end till the next

2009-12-27T16:00:00.020Z

We had intended to try and write about our favourite work from last year in quite some depth but that’s fallen by the wayside due to heavy drinking and bouts of food induced coma’s. Instead here is a small list with a few slapdash words.

whopper sacrifice – Offering you a simple reason to take annoying people of your friend list and changing behaviour on Facebook.

Baker tweet – Real time updates so that you can get the freshest baked foods. Not to mention some great writing.

Chalkbot – Writers were able to inspire riders during the tour and promote the Livestrong cause.

Facebook showroom – Using Facebook’s features to spread news of the Malmo store opening.

Best job in the world – Promoting tourism to Australia with a whole load of PR behind it and a very effective idea.

Philips Carousel – Great piece of work but not sure how much it actually sells the product as there isn’t even much association.

McDonalds favourite – Amazing writing and pretty bang on what Maccy d’s is all about.

Monopoly city streets – Got off to a bad start but its good that the brand is experimenting with digitalising its games.

The Zimbabwean trillion dollar billboard – Just a very powerful idea.

The Obama campaign - Simply the most advanced campaign for government ever held. Embracing the views of the people as well as clearly stating his views for the world to review.

The Newspaper club – Taking digital design into the real world. Holding a physical piece of paper when you read can be a very nice experience and just look at wired magazine for an example of an enriched physical experience.

via chinmay22

As for this year, we’re not making any resolutions or predictions. Instead it’s more about making sure that we take part in lots of random acts in both advertising and life as a whole. Taking inspiration from Dave Trott here and his stories that show just how much you can learn if you throw caution to the wind. Guess we'll have to see how this has gone by the end of the year.

It feels best to use the words of a great man to bring it all into context.

“Don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity.” Paul Arden.

Sony pitch win

2009-12-08T22:21:00.006Z

Photo via Ian Muttoo

Over the last month or so we've had the pleasure of spending of our spare time helping out at Anomaly London. Today the news broke that they have won they have won the two-way pitch with Fallon for the Sony Europe account. A more informative news story can be found here.

We've been lucky to share some time with Johnny Vulkan (Who inspired Luke to write his dissertation on branded utility and the future ethics of advertising.) Mike Byrne and Paul Graham; assisting and listening to them work during the pitch, which has been very valuable. Seeing the application of their strategy through to creative ideas. What's more, we even managed to get an idea presented and overall its been rather rewarding.

Its also interesting to look at how they solve business problems overall, rather than just create adverts. So we look forward to seeing it come together. It can be summed up by this quote from Ben Moore (Sony VP of Communications)

"We are looking for great strategic thinking that leads to great creative execution. To get there we were looking for a new advertising model that puts brilliant people, who instinctively understand digital but who have an agnostic view, at the heart of our approach. Anomaly will give us that."

Thanks to Everyone at Anomaly London for the late night grub and words of wisdom and a special thanks to Alfred for his continued support.

The weeks gone by

2009-11-25T00:29:00.010Z

The last few weeks have been rather busy but the D&AD digital workshops are now over and this is an attempt to get some thoughts down before things pick up again. It feels good to have things out of our heads onto something slightly more solid, not to mention it’s forced us to try and make sense of what we’ve been told.

Post Profero:

We were told that it’s easy to produce a piece of utility without a big idea. That can mean that you jump straight to execution, rather than considering exactly how it will be a solid piece and not just throwaway. Its important that we spend time considering exactly what you’re trying to say or do with the utility and how it can be supported.

If you really want to sell an idea, see if you can get it made yourself or with the help of others, particularly if its something that takes existing behavior and attempts to change it. As if you can prove it works in the real world and not just in concept, then it’s a lot easier to sell the work.

Post The Viral Factory:

Making something viral seems to be about gaining an understanding of what makes people communicate and about knowing the culture you are trying tap into.

Not to mention, it’s only a viral if its actually ends up with a huge amount of hits of effects everyday culture.

Does a viral have to be film based, what about a piece of music or those stupid little restaurant vouchers? Although they are not considered ‘creative’ that are very popular and if you could take this idea and transfer it into a more expansive creative idea then you may be onto a winner.

Maybe the best type of viral is to conduct experiments and then showcase those, as if you’re doing something groundbreaking and exciting then you’ll attract attention. This ties into the sponsorship model rather than actually having an end frame at the end. So maybe create this real life activity and although your brand is in the background, it could gain recognition for its understanding.

Sharing content on facebook and such has become a huge deal. If your share a viral, then its saying something about you to others. This is bad but sadly its true. Particularly for younger teens, who can encounter huge amounts of pressure online.

Post R/GA:

They looked at the work that was produced from the briefs we were given by all the agencies during the workshops. The main feedback was that they wanted our work to be more finished visually, which represents the dilemma. As we’ve had several crits were we have been told to stick to the scamps, until you’ve had so much feedback that you know an idea is going to stay in your book. That’s when you work the idea up.

So if those of you who care to read this want to share your personal experiences on the comments section, we’d be interested to see the current trend?

Very good utility

2009-11-20T10:09:00.004Z

An app for Emirates by the very clever gang at Lean Mean. Its a utility app that takes an image of your face and uses your mouth to convey french phrases.

Looks fun and useful.

Oh Thierry

2009-11-20T09:40:00.000Z

Click the picture to see it in full.

The return of the Ashes (for now at least)

2009-11-12T15:04:00.006Z

Another post on some sport-related activity, however the story is pretty darn interesting and infuriating. We have been greeted today with the news that the Ashes is set to return to its rightful home, the 'crown jewels', on terestrial TV, and all seems to be fairly well and good about that. However, looking further into the story, this national (and international) event has effectively been used as a gold bar, passed 4 years ago to Labour's most trusted media ally, News Corp, and now has been ripped back.

Before we get wrapped up in a proper rant about this which will end up in me being sad at not having Sky, the revenue that clubs and players receive is vital to these entities and their continued existence. Whether it's proportionally fair etc is another matter we won't get into. It seems that the resistance to broadcasting national and club events on premium channels is coming from the bodies themselves, as they seek to maintain financial stability on a grass-roots level. The government doesn't seem to be too worried about this, which is a worrying sign, and there is no mention of any further government investment in grass-roots level sports (of course there wouldn't be, we're in a recession) or sports in any capacity. To put it simply, a fit, healthy nation will be a happy, productive one, and grass-roots are massively important to this. Although the current system in place will obviously take a few years to yield results, there are troubling signs across a number of sports, namely football and cricket, that they are not working well enough.

This continuing lack of faith from one of the only bodies that can actively and healthily invest in not just a business project, but a population, is troubling as we continue to rely on premium initiatives - a lot of which are beginning to lose ground and the ability to captivate minds to more open initiatives. It will be interesting to see over the coming years if this will change in any way, my initial thoughts are no, however you never know if a true representation of the digital world made its way into the sporting world, be it a mindset or a training regime, then we could have something that transforms the way we interact with sports and eachother.

Changing history one pixel at a time

2009-11-06T16:35:00.005Z

I recently came across this lovely set of photo manipulations on Relleno De Mono's Flickr page which are some of the nicest bits of photo manipulation I've seen in a while. It reminded me of other instances where, either for political motives (before/after), or for more creative purposes, such as Tom Hanks in Forest Gump, people have taken a part of history and completely altered its significance and meaning. More recently the utterly disappointing Watchmen, had a very nice title sequence which did set a nice scene. I've always liked it in films which you know aren't to be taken too seriously, begin to supplant their reality into ours, which is why this next set of TOYIB's images are just brilliant:

Best Halloween Costume Ever

2009-11-03T12:35:00.003Z

This is an awesome idea for a Halloween costume. Done by Eric Testroete, it gives reference to his professional background and we like how he's turned it into a project. Lots of nice photos of it on his portfolio site.

NFLondon

2009-11-02T22:26:00.007Z

This has been in the news for some time, and as the NFL has already staged on game over here in the UK, it probably should come as no great suprise that the organisation are seriously considering exporting the game to our shores in more permanent capacity. I can see nothing wrong in one sporting organisation wanting to ply their trade for a game or two in a foreign country, as it has multiple benefits for the clubs, the players (financially and, as I naively hope, socially in that they come across new experiences and fans), and the fans themselves who don't normally get to see these games in the flesh.

If you were to read further related articles, you may have come across speculation that the Super Bowl of all things could be held in this country. I have watched two Super Bowl games on TV before and thoroughly enjoyed them. I do quite like American Football and other US mainstream sports as does Luke, but our sports of choice are 'proper' football and the rest of the British mainstream sports. I couldn't imagine watching my beloved Charlton playing the F.A. Cup final in Dallas, not just because I don't think it won't happen (it will I tell you!), but because I'd expect it to be at Wembley or at least within a train ride to the ground as I'd see it as a discourtesy to all the fans - some of who put vast amounts of their lives into their clubs - to deny most of them the chance to watch what could be a once in a lifetime event.

I think that the whole situation would be very different if the proposals in place were for exhibition matches, in which case the whole financial incentive for the clubs is seen as beneficial as well to the fans back at home, and of course it must be nice to see people across the World flying your colours as well. However when it comes to something important, ie the league/title etc, I reckon that the reception that would receive in this country would be very different and completely hostile. Can you imagine a Liverpool/Utd derby for 3 points in the Premiership outside of Old Trafford or Anfield? Well, for United I can seeing as most of their fans are from Kent or Croydon or abroad, but you get my point. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of resident fans of the NFL to see if is simply my overreacting or whether they'd share my concerns. As it is still just speculation at the minute however, I shall now rest my keyboard til further announcement. In the meantime, watch this - the second one is pure reflex genius

Football Hero

2009-11-01T22:26:00.005Z

This is a really fun idea.

Promoting Kasabian and their new album and also Umbro's Tailored by England strategy.

Has Google just killed SatNav?

2009-10-30T16:10:00.003Z

3:47 is my favourite bit, although the iPhone positioned itself as the ultimate handheld device, the utilitarian features of Android phones and the like, and also the growing market for cross-platform applications, are surely going to outway future offerings from Apple? More to the point of this post, I think the video is pretty self explanatory. Wilf iPhone rant over.

Thoughts From Greenroom

2009-10-15T23:11:00.005+01:00

This week we went to Greenroom as part of the d&ad digital workshops and it was an interesting experience.

The brief was for Rowntree's Randoms and the ideas shown by the group showed an improvement in our eyes. So much so that so of the ideas lead us to think about a few things, thus the reason for this post.

Firstly, there was a nice idea about digital screens. It got us thinking about the use of screens for content generation. After all, billboards have normally been used to display messages, not in the creation of them. It’s something that could be very useful for user-generated campaigns, which mostly seem to rely on the user going to a site or filming it on their camera for uploading. Instead you could buy space around the city so that users could partake in the experience during their daily routine. All you’d need is a camera in the board and enabling it to showcase the footage when active. This thought links with this footage that’s been doing the rounds.

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

ARG’s are very nice and can turn out to be amazing campaigns (We created one for our final major project, to help the Science museum attract more adult visitors.) What you should remember is that they need to tap into the culture of those you are targeting if you want them to be a success. In most cases, this means they only work for fanboys of films, music, etc. There is every chance that you could create an ARG for a something with less value, yet it would have to be the most amazing story and pr stunt ever.

Lastly, someone asked a question about keeping up with technology and if it mattered to the CD. He replied with a rather nice answer that we cannot remember but in our head we’d sum it up by saying, It doesn’t matter what technology you are using, what matters is that you are tapping into the culture in the right way.

Speechbreaker

2009-10-11T20:58:00.003+01:00

Speechbreaker went live on Friday and its awesome. Interesting to see how this will affect the views of younger voters who might enjoy it as much as we have. Well done by those at Lean Mean.

Increasing The Peace

2009-10-07T12:43:00.003+01:00

Having been on placement at Lean Mean last week, we missed the first workshop of the D&AD digital workshops. So last night’s workshop at Digitas was our first chance to meet the rest of the workshops gang and everyone we had a chance to talk with seemed rather decent. Its also clear that as a group, there are many people from different backgrounds which produced some ideas that we’d never have considered, making it a really interesting first session for us.

The crew at Digitas were really welcoming and had a lot to say about the ideas on show. A particular highlight was the fact that a fair few creatives attended, as well as planners and other members of the agency, which made for some well-rounded feedback. There was a lot of talk about social media and providing platforms for communication, something that we identified with after watching the video below a few days ago. Its nice to feel like this thinking is spreading and we hope to learn from it, particularly the idea that although media has become all fragmented, TV still provides an event and digital of any kind can help to connect this event in an interactive form.

5D Conference : New Television Pt 4 - Kevin Slavin from Dave Blass on Vimeo.

Video via Gareth

Overall, it was another helpful and interesting workshop and thanks go to Maurice over at Digitas for the drinks as well.

New York Reminder

2009-10-02T09:08:00.003+01:00

Saw this and it made us think of New York this summer, and how nice it was to experience it all.

Found via AndyKinsella

Forwards

2009-09-28T18:29:00.003+01:00

Last week ended well and this week has begun with us tasked with attempting to crack some awesome briefs.

And it feels like we're learning, which makes a change.

We've come a long way...

2009-09-28T14:58:00.007+01:00

Chevy vs Chevy

This lovely, violent demonstration of how far safety has progressed in cars definitely hits home, and shows us how much 50 years can make a difference. Although it may not seem like a huge difference in that your car is royally buggered in both instances, I'd prefer my legs not to be pinned to my chest like a Ryanair flight, as is the case with the original. The leg room provided post-crash by the modern car looks a lot more inviting...enjoy!

Placement With 'The Fighters'

2009-09-22T23:34:00.005+01:00

This week we started our first placement.
It's been good so far and we're excited to be given a chance to learn from an awesome group of people.

Crazy Stats

2009-09-20T21:45:00.001+01:00

The stats about the phones compared to the original MIT computer is mind blowing.

Small Thought

2009-09-14T21:45:00.003+01:00

Issues with iTunes made us think about how we listen to music these days. Apart from iTunes, we personally use Spotify, Deezer and The Hype Machine (The last being a personal favourite.)

So Hype Machine in particular has its own online feed of songs, which randomly generates new tracks that seem to relate to the popularity of each track in musical blog land. Which to us is awesome, as most of the people that write music blogs are the people that go to tiny gigs that you can't be bothered to attend. Then you get to sift through all their hard work for little musical nuggets, making you feel like your down with all the new music and before all the commercial hype and blah. Anyway, we digress.

Our point is that Spotify or preferably the Hype machine should broadcast on a digital frequency (If they do not already.) Thus allowing you to listen to the random stream of music whilst in your car or on your snazzy new iPod with it's in-built radio. Wouldn't that be ace, then the blogs would really get a following and build an even larger community. This might already exist, but if it doesn't then maybe we should make it happen. Any thoughts on this, let us know.

Dangerous Graffiti

2009-09-11T13:39:00.008+01:00

Graffiti by Agents of Change, secrets by MI6, all natural cola by Red Bull - creativematch

Can't help but think that in the 'real' world, these guys would have been blown out of the water within seconds. Still, the effects are pretty cool, especially with the light being drawn and being fixed, as opposed to being viewable only through a frame.

A few years ago the guys at GRL did their own 'Ghetto Matrix', using a number of cameras, interspersing stop motion with real time to nice effect. We thought that this was a pretty good attempt at bringing light drawing into reality, something which Red Bull took to the next level.

To Be In School Right Now

2009-09-08T14:05:00.005+01:00

President Obama gave a speech to the school children across the USA, to those of all ages who are about to start the next year of their life in education. He did an excellent job. You can read the whole speech here, but below is a small section for inspiration:

"But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country."

A great speech. As for the kids, how wonderful it must be to know that others believe you can face the challenges ahead of you.

Magical TV

2009-09-04T15:59:00.004+01:00

Not the biggest fans of most ads on TV, especially the Poo at Paul's low point. Although, we are massive fans of most of the 4creative ads and a personal favourite is below. It shows that there is still some great Tv work, even if some people say the UK is at a creative low.

Customers Think You Are C**ts

2009-09-04T15:39:00.004+01:00

Photo via Bonnie Almedia

Recently a family member has been plagued by bad customer service, particularly by an Internet provider who tried to charge for an extra two months even after the provider had been switched.

So, this family member calls up and kindly asks if they can take this charge from the bill, yet the bloke on the other end of the phone replies with something similar to “Sorry, I can’t help you. You will just have to pay it.”

Sadly for the bloke who was in the overseas call centre, this family member likes a good argument. They then started to shout down the phone till and eventually demanded to speak to a supervisor, at which point the employee said this “Was not possible.” As you can imagine, the noise levels in the house suddenly became a lot higher and this continued for an hour or so. Eventually a rather frustrated figure walked back into the room where we all sat rather sheepishly and muttered, “They will call back tomorrow.”

The next day the phone rang and a Scottish bloke on the other end asked for the family member. And after a few minutes it was all sorted, with the man on the other end of the phone stating that “He’d be pissed off too.”

This got the cogs turning a bit and we’ve come to the conclusion that no amount of advertising will work if you have a bad product or customer service. It may well mask the flaws or get first time buyers to purchase the product, but the changes of a repeat purchase are low. To us, it seems that the best option is to work hard to make sure you have a reliable product and to secondly make sure you have a good support system for your customers. We think that there must be a way to bypass the bad training and lack of understanding that most people encounter with customer service.

With this, we’ve been throwing a few ideas around and are going to try and work on something to try and make the customer experience a little more bearable.

We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Wise Words

2009-08-30T22:23:00.003+01:00

(Via Stan Lee, created by Russell Davies.)

Another dedication...

2009-08-15T12:40:00.003+01:00

...to Les Paul, who died in the early hours of yesterday morning. A true guitar legend, co-designer and name on one of, if not the, most sexiest guitars ever made.

This Is A Post In Dedication

2009-08-07T17:15:00.001+01:00

For John Hughes.

We Have Mostly Been

2009-08-07T16:09:00.006+01:00

Working on our entry for the D&AD digital workshops, which we submitted on Weds.
The brief was to persuade more football fans to purchase a replica shirt from the Nike online store rather than club shops.
Pissing around with stamps Wilf bought from FailBlog.

Developing some ideas we've had for our book and drinking lots of beverages, both alcoholic and non. The drinking bit has mostly been in the company of people who have some interesting things to say about advertising, including a rather fun first meeting with Sam and an eye opening chat with Alfred.

Worth A Look

2009-08-06T13:55:00.002+01:00

A good presentation for those looking to the future and wising up.

Post Digital Marketing 2009

View more documents from Helge Tennø.

El numero nueve de Liverpool

2009-07-28T17:55:00.003+01:00

Whilst researching some stuff for the D&AD Digital Workshops, we came across this gem from the people who brought us the Next Level viral. Lovely bit of humour in this ad, and matches our expectations on how far we reckon Liverpool would go to hold onto the Spaniard.

Whopper Idea

2009-07-24T10:40:00.003+01:00

Nice Burger King idea. Wondering how many times the players will actually celebrate in this way.

But then again, countless fans will when playing with jumpers for goalposts. More here.

The Phone Apple Should Have Thought Of

2009-07-15T22:30:00.004+01:00

Go to the website via the pic...
Wow, aren't mobile phones great??

Muse

2009-07-14T01:52:00.005+01:00

Muse seem to have created an ARG, and we reckon it'll be big amongst the huge crazy Muse fanbase.

Looks like some sort of political war between asia and the states or something of that nature. Its called Project Eurasia, you can find it here.

We like ARG's in the right context, we created one for a uni project with the Science Museum Lates. Let us know what you think.

On Your Bike

2009-07-13T13:31:00.001+01:00

This is well good, relates to the post below for sure.

Thought For Today

2009-07-13T13:24:00.002+01:00

Real people do real things that brands cannot without looking false.

So instead just help people with their stuff.

You Like It, As Do We

2009-07-10T00:58:00.005+01:00

Everyone seems to like this and we have to admit we are fans as well. Not sure what the process behind it was, apart from the fact that they seem to be fans. What does seem important to us is that it feels human and done with passion, thats no doubt the reason why everyone likes it.

Via Dan and several others.

Verbals Picks

2009-07-10T00:24:00.002+01:00

A quick one, just to promote our mate Chris. He blogs here, he's a film production grad with a love of music and other creative stuffs.He's a good source of music.

New Beginnings

2009-07-03T13:20:00.000+01:00

So we spent a day at D&AD New Blood, which was rather helpful and attended some awesome workshops particuarly with the creatives from LBi who have a really interesting way of thinking which we liked. It was an informative day, allowing us to have a look at some of the other courses and have a chat with those grads that may be our peers in the years to come.

We also had a look at some of the work producued by those we inspire to work for at the 'Everyone starts somewhere' exhibition. It must be said that, some people complain that D&AD does not do enough for those trying to get into the industry, yet to us it seems like they provide the perfect platform for graduates to launch their careers from.

The first website produced by Flo Heiss

Then came our rather hot graduation day, something we've been looking forward to for the last year. After getting a taste for the industry with our dissertations and placement unit, we've been eager to finish the uni work so to just get some alone time with our book, and finally that time has come.
We've recovered from the hangover but not the sun burn.
Now onto the website and hard work.

Yonks & Yonks

2009-06-30T00:49:00.004+01:00

Summer photo

Been very busy blokes recently with some interesting stuff going on. Firstly we both took a break after finishing our degree, visiting Valencia and Download.

Since then we've had crits with a few people, all whom have been honest and generous with their time and given us some good tips to improve all round. This last month has been full of personal commitments and the usual moving home issues. Yet tomorrow should be an eventful day, we're off to D&AD New Blood and are booked into several workshops which we hope will teach us a thing or two.

Whilst on Weds we're back in little Farnham to graduate, with the two of us both collecting first class degrees which makes us smile a bit. Once that's all over, we will finally say goodbye to our all consuming 'university' and move back home to south London. From then onwards, we will be much more regular with posts and hope to get the portfolio up to scratch.

We will also have our new website up very soon, which can't come soon enough. Maybe see you at New Blood, otherwise the next post may contain some stupid graduation pictures.

Our Show

2009-06-02T01:02:00.003+01:00

Dialogue went really well overall, more to be posted soon when less busy/tired.

Deadline Awaits

2009-05-20T03:18:00.003+01:00

Thursday is our presentation day for the FMP, so with only a few hours to go we wanted to put a post up to commemorate our big white board, without it we'd be unorganised fools.

Lots still to tick off it before the presentation, but we're slowly getting there.

Dialogue: Our Degree Show

2009-05-12T22:35:00.012+01:00

Our degree show is only a few weeks away (28th May) and we've been working very hard on it. It's something that we've been developing for the last eight months and hope to feel very proud of it when the opening night comes along. It's been a long process, which started with our fundraiser Deathmatch and has continued with the implementation of the show itself. We've been part of a central group that has been in charge of the management of the show and our mate Dave has done the design work for it, with us giving a helping hand.

This post is us inviting anyone who takes the time to read this blog to come along to the show and check out the site for everything you'd ever need. We built the site ourselves and have been in charge of all it's content. It is going to be a huge source for information and we have the intention of using it to create a dialogue with those in the industry. With this in mind, we've already managed to get Dan Germain from Innocent to write an excellent post about what counts when getting a job. We hope you feel compelled to share your thoughts with us on the site, we appreciate all advice. It's not just for us, it's for any Grad that is thinking about the joining a communications industry.

The show also has a Twitter and Skype account so that you can contact us however best suits you. If you can't attend the show, then you can always Skype us and you can have a chat to some of the students as we will have a live link for anyone that wants a chat. Just add: dialogueshow

The details of the show are in the image below which is actually the front of our invites, please note it down in your calender. If you'd like a PDF invite, just give us a shout and we'll send one over.

Screw The Card Complex

2009-05-11T01:44:00.003+01:00

For one, most corporate business cards are crap. Agencies should let their staff have their own versions. Secondly, this site is really nice thought, it's dedicated to people who have done something positive after losing their job.

After all, the job shouldn't define you.
You should be defining the job.

F*ck Water

2009-05-08T18:18:00.002+01:00

Bloody love this. There is something awesome about a rubber duck with super powers.

Found via Ben Kay's blog.

Human Interaction: Good Vs Bad

2009-05-05T11:25:00.004+01:00

Not normally the types to write a post on adverts we don't like, we feel particularly compelled to write this after a conversation on the train this morning.

There are people within advertising that see digital and above the line as two different disciplines, we know people that think its just web banners and Facebook fan pages. This should not be the case.

The internet and digital in general are there to assist human interaction, all the gadgets in the world should only be utilities, after all that is the purpose of the internet. Overall, to us it seems that if you don't really include this basic understanding then your digital or non- digital will not resonate. This leads us to the reason that we are writing this, the horrible T-Mobile flash mobs.

First, these events show the sheer amount of money that T-Mobile have to throw away on adverts rather than spending it on their customer service (bitter customer experience.) Second, these stunts have a very forced nature. We don't care if you pay for Pink to be in the crowd, what we would appreciate much more is if you didn't shove a camera in the face of all those singing away. Now I am not saying that this wasn't an effective idea, but when the idea becomes more focused on getting footage to seed on the internet, than actually have a feeling, then you know you've lost your way.

In comparison we have Tweenbots, a lovely experiment by Kacie Kinzer, a student at ITP. It may be a month or two behind the times now, but it's the best use of thinking we can recall right now. It uses a small robot to impact upon the citizens of NY, giving them a glimpse of something more personal than just a piece of content for a viral.

Tweenbots was an investigation into human nature - into the reactions of the everyday person. The content and films were secondary to the impact upon those affected. Brands don't need to copy this, but they do need to understand that the very essence of this supposedly 'digital' mentality should be to impact/ assist upon people during their day, not to use them as feed for online content.

Oh, just to note. There shouldnt even be a 'digital' mentality, it should just be about a basic understanding of how we all react best with interaction and using whatever method is best to do this.

FMP Logo Development

2009-05-05T10:36:00.001+01:00

Thoughts anyone?

Friendship Data

2009-05-03T18:06:00.002+01:00

Nice graph on online friendship, which is something we've been looking at for some recent projects.

Catgut Video

2009-05-01T14:51:00.002+01:00

Catgut - Television from Craig Bilham on Vimeo.

Done by one of the blokes at our Uni, very nice video.

Takeover

2009-04-28T19:44:00.002+01:00

Nice takeover by Honda of Vimeo, not keen on the ad itself but love this.

Epic

2009-04-25T20:30:00.000+01:00

Just watch

Stick Em' Up

2009-04-24T14:24:00.002+01:00

Made a nice little sticker for a campaign we've been working on.

Perfect With Sunshine

2009-04-23T17:47:00.002+01:00

Nike, James Jarvis and et al made us smile with this video.

Onwards from akqa on Vimeo.

(Via @contagiousmag.)

Bikes And Stuff

2009-04-22T22:10:00.002+01:00

This video is getting quite a lot of hits right now and it's actually bang on the mark with a brief we've been working on.

Enjoy.

Street View

2009-04-21T11:44:00.002+01:00

Looks like Google are checking out Croydon. We found the car parked up, so maybe they were having a cuppa.

Just glad there were no angry residents.

Waiting

2009-04-20T14:11:00.009+01:00

Looks awesome, makes you realise how hard it can be to judge awards.

Hasty BBC

2009-04-20T00:50:00.005+01:00

It hasn't been a good week of football for our creative team, first my team relegated, now Luke's beloved Red Devils are out the FA Cup. The BBC however were all too keen to report an early victory For Man Utd (seen above) much to my amusement; a mistake that was later rectified to show the true result, as seen below.

In Hard Times

2009-04-19T23:39:00.001+01:00

For Wilf.

Death to the Addicks...

2009-04-18T19:00:00.009+01:00

Well, as the title says, death to the Addicks. If you are a Charlton fan like me (Wilf) or in fact any of the other teams that have been unfortunate enough to be relegated this season, follow my advice, and get pissed!

The demise of my local club has been swift and pretty devastating - 'how could this happen?' is a question that will be ringing in our ears for a very long time. It is now the third time I've witnessed my club relegated (twice from the Premiership, and now the Championship) and as with most other Charlton fans, this is probably the bleakest of recent times. Our club has a strong history of coming back from having nothing - 18 years ago, we didn't even have a ground and had to share with our local rivals Crystal Palarse. Unfortunately for me, I was a wee lad then, living in Hong Kong so don't have those days in my memory to comfort myself. The task ahead is all the more daunting due to the imminent departure of our best (hahahahahahahahaha if you can call them that) players. All I can do is retain hope that we can pull ourselves back together and beat the Millwall twice and my other team, Yeovil, next season. Bring on League One.

Ah well...

'At Valley, Floyd Road, the mist rolling in from the Thames,
my desire is always to be found at Valley, Floyd Road.'

Want A T?

2009-04-16T14:47:00.003+01:00

Howies the lovely clothing people that seem to want to help us all out, have introduced a nice scheme for anyone who feels a bit creative. It's called Teepay and it lets you produce T-shirts with Howies help and you might even get some money from it.

Howies are a really nice crew and so far it seems like Timberland haven't ruined them.

The Annual Report

2009-04-14T20:45:00.004+01:00

We received this in the post a while ago and it was well worth the investment. Its the 2008 Feltron Annual Report, by Nicholas Felton (His work is also done under the studio name of megafone.)

We are suckers for data visualisation and mapping, and it's something that we are looking into for our university final major project.

Mr Felton is also behind Daytum, which we've been using for a while now.

NIN Access

2009-04-13T12:51:00.004+01:00

Really like this, it's the future for music and is exactly the mindset that inspires us. The GPS related chat feature is the best function, it has the potential to change the experience of seeing a gig for those who are present or watching on the internet.

Wierdly nice stuff

2009-04-09T20:54:00.003+01:00

This is very random and odd, but if you go 22 seconds in to the video, you have something really nice to look at. I've never really liked clapping or at least gone out of my way to look at clapping movements, but this amazing display of clapping by the North Korean hierarchy has had me watching this snippet over and over and over again. The movements are all very robotic and look like they've been performed in a certain amount of pain, however the end effect is the most synchronized mass-clapping spectacle I have ever seen, and may hope to see. Enjoy.

Matthew Dent

2009-04-08T00:21:00.005+01:00

Matthew Dent is an illustrator and was nice enough to do this image for us as part of his IYN project.

Cheers Matt.

Old-done-new

2009-04-02T12:28:00.004+01:00

We love it when we see anything with a new perspective, this is certainly a new look on a classic.

BSA

2009-04-01T20:53:00.005+01:00

Deadline time for our Brand Sector Analysis unit last week.

It was loads of work, but we're pretty pleased with the result of our report on the Science Museum.

We Are Art Directors

2009-04-01T20:26:00.002+01:00

From the guys at KK Outlet.
It's good to spread the love.

In your face parents!

2009-04-01T01:12:00.004+01:00

We had been told that something like this might happen
when we play computer games. Now, we're not too sure.

According to researchers in the US, all our hours of convincing ourselves that leaving the PC or Xbox alone to get on with our work was the best course of action, it seems that (and also for the sake of our eyesight) we were wrong! Groups of adults were tested in large numbers (22 students, yup just like us), split between Sims 2 and Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament. Those in the action half recorded a 43% increase in their ability to detect different shades of grey and 58% increase in ability to detect fine differences of contrast, whilst the boring old Sims lot scored none.
Thus, we have deduced that it is now more useful for creatives and those who look finely at bits of colour to play action computer games than it is to read a book on it. And also for the sake of our eyesight, we should be doing it the honour of honing its skill in detecting a fuller spectrum of tones and colours...by playing games.

Cake

2009-03-24T22:40:00.003Z

Ate this cake the other day, it was really nice. It was for a birthday, so there was a reason for the lavish cake.
What we're not sure of, is how do they make the amazing patterns on the sponge?

If anyone knows the truth, let us know please.
Maybe we should just ask Fallon or Skoda.

Power To The Masses!

2009-03-16T16:29:00.006Z

This post may be old news now, but we feel that this exciting breakthrough is well worth a mention as it could change the way that we use computers, our consumption rates and also the fate of electric cars. Read this for further information...

Masterpieces

2009-03-16T13:15:00.003Z

Saw this today on the Guardian site, it's created using Brushes on the iPhone.

It's made us think about the notion of masterpieces. We had a debate a while ago, wondering why we hardly hear about modern masterpieces, there's loads of work in the Tate modern, but nothing is really described as a modern masterpiece. Besides, we aren't really fans of what is considered contemporary art.

Maybe, masterpieces are dependent on the context of when they are made. Lots of paintings were created a long time ago, that will forever be considered masterpieces. Does that mean that the masterpieces of our time, should use technology that is specific to what we use now.

In this case, the work linked above by Jorge Colombo could be considered a modern masterpiece. His skill in creating pictures on a tiny screen using his fingers, that could easily have been created by an abstract artist with a brush, show huge amounts of skill. So could it be that we just need to push the limits of current technology? Masterpieces on canvas are gone, we should now explore other possibilities.

Wish We Had This When We Were Kids

2009-03-11T17:16:00.004Z

The genius people at Total Immersion have developed their product to the next level. We've been following these guys since we fist saw Augmented Reality during our days at Contagious for Radio 1's 'Band in your hand.' They have just realeased some work with Topps Baseball cards that kick the crap out of those old football cards that we used to collect. It's such a clever way of taking an out-dated product and reinventing it for the current generations.

Also, whilst on the subject of AR, this work for Lego is awesome.

Topps cards work via Contagious mag.

Friendly Kitchen

2009-03-11T11:16:00.005Z

In our otherwise messy kitchen, we now have this gem. Thanks to housemates Chris & Chris for the new addition.

This Is Reality

2009-03-04T02:02:00.003Z

Nice Ad by the Coen bros is below, it's direct and hopefully a brutal kick in the face to the coal industry. It is all in aid of 'The Reality Coalition' which has a very nice website, with lots of information to help the likes of us wise up to how we get our energy. We can't really do the cause the justice it deserves, so please check out the website. Although we hope that this at least goes some way to raising the profile of the cause.

Torture

2009-03-03T14:42:00.005Z

The Bacon Explosion, it's something we saw during DM2 and have finally managed to get round to posting. The only way to describe it is a lump of meat, that seems more like torture. It reminds us of the kind of meal you'd get at an all you can eat rib shack and whilst we're a fan of ribs, the Bacon explosion is a bit too much.

Anyway, it's kind of scary the amount that people can eat.

Amusing

2009-03-03T14:32:00.001Z

We like this blog a lot, it's called 'Snacks & Shit'. It's all about rap lyrics, and shows just how stupid some of the writing can be.

It's a really good read.

Catch Up

2009-03-02T20:35:00.002Z

Back log from DM2, few posts to lay down. First, the notorious David after dentist, and Christian Bale. For our own self amusement.

Hmmm....

2009-03-02T15:41:00.013Z

Anyone else notice the similarities between Skittles' new web-integrated website (above) and American Digital agency, Modernista!'s website (below) which has been live for quite some time? Whilst Skittles do pull off certain aspects well, for instance the YouTube channel, most of it is lacking and is a disappointing rip-off unfortunately...

Don't Panic...

2009-03-01T14:20:00.000Z

The DM2 Standings

2009-02-27T14:15:00.000Z

Disqualified:

Andy Tarrent
Joanne Jordon
James Hyde
Jahied Ahmed
Michael Fisher
James Corlett
Matt Roach
Oli Dougherty

Eliminated (First Kill of Tournament Through To Last):

Karolina Alasaustra
Matthew Brock
Sam Heasman
Rory Elphick
Kaylie Nugent
Cass Gregan
Lauren Cautely
Hayley Morris
Unai Arrillaga
Reuben Millmore
Mark Hall
Chris MacFarlane
James Cook
Emma Wood
Kirsty Bane
Rachel Bean
Amy French
Hannah Vyner
Kate Herron
Greg Nicholls
Lauren Dyer
Alex Battershall
Sam Green
Gabriele Donada
Gaow Changsombo
Jamie Kendall
Amiirah Nobbeebacus
Kat Turngate
Mike Baker
Salome Van Leuven
Jamie Pither
Riccardo Servini
Callum Jenkins
Dave George
Claire Pinegar
Zac Moss
Chris Payne
Daniel Goodall
Reece Starr
Jamie Wood
Christopher Eyles
John Dobbs
Alastair Singer
Steve Martin
Chris Pike
Anthony Woodley
Luke Smith
Lulu Evans
Matt Hawkins
Alex Milnes
Timothy Holt
Becky Pollack
Sam Ely
Oliver Haynes
Helen Gabriel
Elliot Gregory
Stephanie Kennedy
Carmen Rohssmann-Sinnot
Chris Horrex
Jemma Akister

Ultimate Assassin & Most Kills:

Jack Attridge (11 kills)

We hope that all of the players have enjoyed themselves, several eliminated assassins have voiced their want for another tournament before the year ends. The Bureau are very busy, but would be happy to oblige if we see a large interest. If you do want to play, please leave us a comment on this post, so we can judge if we can run another tournament.

The Bureau may be back, but for now, stay alert as you never know who may be hunting you.

The Ultimate Assassin

2009-02-24T19:19:00.002Z

We have a champion and he goes by the name of Jack Attridge.

Our Ultimate Assassin

His tournament ending kill was executed with precision, as he snuck in Akister's back door and into her kitchen. When faced with three girls, he sussed his target and sharply whacked her.

We praise this assassin for his dedication and determination, with a total of eleven kills, he is the ultimate assassin, with his closet rival on six kills. Therefore, not only is he the overall winner, Jack also claims the 'Most Kills' award.

The Bureau salutes you for managing to wipe out all other players without the need for a final showdown, Mr Attridge, the Bureau will be in touch for future missions.

Well done. Commiserations to all those that failed, you were simply not good enough.

The Cold Morning Killer

2009-02-24T16:46:00.001Z

There have been important events over the course of the last twenty four hours. First of all, one of the tournament favourites has been eliminated, yes, Sam Ely is out. After his heroic efforts, he has been gunned down by the tournament's current leading assassin.

Next, it is our job to inform you that the tournament itself is now a two assassin race, which we shall give you more information on later in this post. For now, we have another story to tell, this time the assassin has been nicknamed 'The Cold Morning Killer' or 'CMK' for his sheer direct approach.

So yesterday afternoon was turning out to be rather quiet on the kill count, with only two kills. Then we got word that the CMK had taken out an assassin near his own house and was quickly making tracks to hunt his next target. This target happened to be his girlfriend, he therefore lay in wait at hers. When she arrived, we are informed that he acted casually, cuddling and kissing as couples do. Then, as if he was joking, the assassin shot his girlfriend in the face, several times before continuing the couples fun. He then muttered, 'You're dead." To which his girlfriend assumed he was joking, yet after a matter of minutes, it dawned upon her that she had just been eliminated.

The CMK then went to bed, ready for the morning and his next targets. The Bureau were then woken up this morning, asking where in Farnham the target's road was and after giving direction the assassin went for his first kill of the day at 8am. He sneaked into his target's house, up the stairs and into a bedroom, which turned out to be a housemate of the target. Silently closing the door, the assassin went into the next room, yet his target was not in bed. Creeping back down the stairs, he heard noises from a downstairs room and burst into their living room, to face two lads asleep in front of the television. The CMK immediately recognized his target and shouted his name, then, as the target opened his sleepy eyes, a jet of water hit him the face.

Spurred on, the CMK raced to gain another kill before the morning lectures, he walked across Farnham to the location of his next target. He tried the front door, which was locked, yet noticed the target's bike was still at the house and could hear noises. He again lay in wait in the bushes, with a super-soaker to attack the moving target. As his clock hands struck 10am, his target left her house and cycled past him. Just at that point he sprayed her right in the face, stopping her in her tracks and leaving the target covered in water whilst she screamed.

At this point the CMK had gained six kills and this meant there were three assassins left.

The CMK made his way to lecture, a tricky situation due to the fact a classmate was hunting him. So at this point, Death Match was a three-way race, leaving all assassins feeling nervous. Finally the CMK escaped, and was given a lift to track his target, whilst searching, his hunter spotted him and a chase ensued.

The CMK and his driver managed to loose the assassin, and went in search once more, however whilst stuck in traffic his hunter snuck up behind the car, opened the unlocked door and shot the CMK in the face. Leaving DM2 with two assassins standing at this point in time, the question is, who will win; Jemma Akister or Jack Attridge?

Eliminations

2009-02-21T13:35:00.001Z

Yesterday eliminations were made to rid Death Match of any assassins that were not up to the task. Therefore, those that have been eliminated have received a message confirming that they can no longer continue, after all, we are seeking the best. So, the tournament continues and the assassins that remain have all killed at least one target; this is where it will get tougher.

We are now left with eleven assassins and it may well be the case that the remaining players receive new targets. Which means you should all be on guard at all times, you never know who may be hunting you next.

DM Day 4: In Hiding

2009-02-20T02:07:00.006Z

Today has been interesting, we've had several disputed kills, some which turned out to be lies and others which turned out to confusion. As it stands, we have twenty assassins left, with three days for someone to claim the title.

So, hiding, it seems that a few of the remaining assassins are either very ineffective or are in hiding, most probably cowering in their rooms. In desperate hope that they may be able to get a cheeky kill and win the whole thing, well think again. The Bureau won't stand for it and as many of you will already know, those that have not killed will be struck off tomorrow evening. So if you're reading this, in your room with your curtains drawn and door locked, smug and satisfied, we hope you realise that only the brave and determined win DM.

On another hiding note, it was a member of the Bureau's pleasure to play host to one particular assassin today. By this, we mean that an assassin paid this member's house a visit in order to eliminate a housemate. He knocked on the door, asked if his target was around and for his phone number (Just for a chat your understand.) Yet he was denied flat out. So this assassin took to waiting on the step, with a notebook in his hand. He spent over a hour scribbling away in his book, which we figure to be the book for his DM tactics. Eventually the assassin became anxious, so he opted to hide in a bush, much to the amusement of the housemates, who decided to make the assassin a cup of tea.

After all this, the assassin finally gave up and wandered off, only to be seen at around 7:00pm where he finally killed his target. He was waiting in the car park, when his target came past, at which point the assassin dashed towards him, super soaker in hand and drenched the target at point- blank range.

To this assassin, we applaud you. We have started to believe that you could well prove everyone else wrong, well done Jack Attridge.