Our latest website for Marketing Manchester is a microsite showing a short film about the future of Manchester’s transport system and its the first of our sites to be hosted on our new wind powered servers. Our own site (currently undergoing a compete overhaul) will port to wind power when the new site goes live next month. You can view the Marketing Manchester site here.
Tags: 21st century transport, manchester, Marketing Manchester, wind powered server
More news about Richard Hawley’s Second Life island! Its just been selected to appear in Linden Labs ‘Showcase’ section both on the Second Life website and in world through the ‘Showcase’ tab in ‘Search’. To quote the website, ‘The Showcase section highlights some of the best inworld locations and Resident creations. For new and existing Residents alike, this is the place to go to explore and discover what’s most exciting in the Second Life world.’ Well - you can’t say fairer than that!
Tags: richard hawley, second life
We’ve just found out that our Second Life island for Richard Hawley and Mute Records is a finalist in the ‘Interactive’ category in the Y Design Awards. The Y Design Awards are part of London Design Week and they serve to recognise creative talent through the use of digital technology. The judging panel includes the near legendary (and one time Mancunian) Malcolm Garrett so we’re well chuffed to be nominated. The awards ceremony takes place this evening so we’ll post an update tomorrow (hangovers permitting).
Tags: Awards, mute records, richard hawley, second life
We’re delighted to announce that our direct mail campaign for Sandbox at the University of Central Lancashire has been nominated for a Roses Award in the (you’ve guessed it) Direct Mail category. Winners are announced at the awards ceremony on 19th October.Sandbox is a new facility that uses state of the art technology and ‘Lego serious play’ to help large companies looking at organisational change. Our direct mail piece is a cellophane wrapped lego model of their building that contains a leaflet detailing the services they offer.
It’s been a busy couple of months for myself and Martin, frantically designing The Warehouse Projects 2008 annual campaign, today finally sees the new website go live. Closely followed by a series of flyers and posters, promoting an outstanding array of musical highlights that feature something for every one from the spiky 80s influenced pop of Black Kids to the experimental electronica of Warp Records and Squarepusher.
For this seasons website we wanted to differentiate each of the separate events. To achieve this we’ve added an events profile page where each event has its own personalised flyer representing the style of that particular night. Around 80% of these we’re designed in house with the remaining few produced by the external promoters of their event. Below are a few of my personal favourites, which coincidentally are the nights I’m most looking forward too.
The main branding for The Warehouse Project 08 is an ‘Acid House Dove’ that has been psychedelically dyed (Photoshop, not ink. No doves we’re harmed in the making of this image) in the Warehouses recognisable colours, giving it a fresh take on the styling that has gone before but whilst still retaining the same image sensibilities. Why the dove? well the brief this year was to look back at the Acid House era and original warehouse parties that swept through Britain in the late 80s, we thought anything that used the Acid Smiley would have been too clichéd so instead delved into the fashion and paraphernalia surrounding those heady days and came up with ‘Acid House Dove’. Top one, sorted, nice one geezer… etc. 
Tags: acid house, black kids, square pusher, the warehouse project, warp
We finished Phase 1 of our Second Life project for Manchester Business School a month or so ago and, although the site is currently closed to public access, we’ve just been given the green light to show you some pictures. Here’s a taster but you can see much more and a description of the build on the Second Life page of our site.
The great news is that we’ve also been given the go-ahead for Phase 2 which we’ll be working on over the next few months. Keep an eye out on the blog for more news and developments.
Tags: Manchester Business School, second life
Hurrah – we’ve just become one of only 17 companies based in the UK to be officially accredited by Linden Labs as full service developers for Second Life!
And talking (literally) of Second Life I’ll be in Preston on the 2nd July giving a presentation on the subject. I’ll be looking at how businesses and educational institutions are using virtual worlds to create content and engage with users on a level that is impossible through any other medium. Using two of our own projects as case studies I’ll be looking at specific issues of monetisation, data gathering and brand engagement. I’ll be joined by Sean Singleton from Skive who’ll be demonstrating how large corporations are using online gaming and Stuart Nolan of Hex Induction who’ll be talking about cross-platform collaboration and the whole thing will be chaired by our good friend Louise Lynch from Libra Television. The event, titled ‘Hyphen – joined up thinking’, is the first of a series of three organised by Creative Lancashire and takes place at Uclan’s Sandbox facility. Come along – to register click here!
Tags: Creative Lancashire, Hex Induction, Hyphen, Linden Labs, second life, Skive, virtual worlds
That’s not a description of what I did last night (I wish) but the title of a new exhibition at our local hostelry ‘Common‘. Every few months or so the good people at the aforementioned boozer invite artists to come in and repaint their walls on a theme of their own choosing. Well this time round its the turn of our very own Paul Hemmingfield, who, being a good Sheffield lad, has decided to graphically illustrate, line by line, that great hometown anthem ‘Common People’ by Pulp.
The launch party for the show is this evening but I popped by yesterday afternoon to see how he was getting on. Looking surprisingly calm, I found Paul huddled in a corner meticulously cutting out stencils of 70s inspired wallpaper designs, and surrounded by numerous multicoloured tins of emulsion paint. Apparently he’s been doing this since 7am every morning for the last week (he’s taken a ‘holiday’ to do this!) and that doesn’t include god knows how many late nights and weekends spent planning and designing the space. The result is typical Paul - hard-edged graphics with a left-field wit, detailed but not self-indulgent.
Sadly I’m on kid duty tonight so can’t make the opening but if you find yourself in Manchester’s Northern Quarter anytime over the next four months pop in to Common and check out Paul’s work.
Tags: Common, Paul Hemmingfield, Pulp
Technology is wonderful… especially when its flawed.
It was a flaw in some server-side coding recently that allowed Second Life builders to once again create ‘mega prims’ - that’s really really really big ‘primitive’ (or basic) objects in case you didn’t know. Long long ago the creation of these exceptionally useful building blocks had been banned by the powers that be, but thanks to some programmer’s late night oversight a small window of opportunity occurred last week, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for us! You see we needed some really really really big objects for our current Manchester Business School Second Life build, so with a little help from one Nicholaz Beresford, we set to and created a wealth of objects so big you could build a whole universe(ity) with them. You’ll have to wait till the launch to see what we’ve done with them but believe me - its gonna be big!
As to the window of opportunity - well sadly (as of Thursday 15th May) that particular opening is well and truly closed.
(Nick B - if you’re reading this we’re buying you dinner!)
Tags: Manchester Business School, mega prims, second life
‘When the weather is high, have a drink and a drive’ urged Mungo Jerry back in the 70s, well actually no, don’t. Not unless you want your car wrapped around some tree trunk and your teeth scattered across the bonnet. I find it amazing how attitudes change over the course of time and how something that would have once seemed perfectly acceptable is now frowned upon as idiotic, and quite rightly too.
Anyway, old Mungo has just been on the radio which got me thinking about the changing tide and current shift to being more ecologically responsible by, well everyone it seems. Glancing at my clothes today it occurred to me that I’ve become organic all of a sudden… without even having to try that hard. My jeans and shirt are organic cotton whilst my fair trade rubber soled trainers are too, and no they’re not some tie-dyed hippy nonsense but from my favourite Mens shop in the heart of Manchester called Oipolloi. What’s more I didn’t even buy them because of their right-on ethics but because of their style, and I think that’s key in creeping towards a greener future. If it appeals on an aesthetic level as well as to your conscience then you’re more likely to buy whatever it is you’re holding in your hand and If everything you’re browsing is made with environmentally friendly and socially aware methods then all the better, you can then just worry about squeezing into that pair of new jeans on a sunny Saturday afternoon shopping session.
OK, maybe I need to swap my Rose tinted sun glasses for some more realistic ones but one step at a time yeah?
Tags: Mungo Jerry, Oipolloi, Organic
