Song for Someone

Song for Someone a business venture by a good friend of mine has just relaunched and now offers an even wider range of songs that are personalised and can be downloaded instantly. The site is now really easy to use, with previews of songs available for just about every name imaginable (I believe there's 400 versions of each song) Makes for a really nice last minute gift.

Augmented reality software

Interesting new technology, the user has a cube in the real world and the
camera maps the character onto it on the screen. An iphone ap came out last
week with it, and it's getting some buzz on a few blogs:
Design Boom

Etre

Has pretty limited appeal because the user has to have a webcam, but is a
nice new technology that could be incorporated into campaigns in 2009.

Freebies freebies freebies

So searches for online vouchers are going through the roof. It seems to be that the best way of promoting a product/service in 2009 will be to run a comp and place it on other websites. This week I've been doing just that for Mororola and Ben & Jerry's.

Ben & Jerry's is an interesting one - to boost interaction with their charity single music video I had the idea of offering free icecream to 20 of the people that commented. With a bit of seeding on competition sites I've seen the views go up by 250 in the last couple of hours and it now has 26 comments - some very creative entries. A few more and it'll enter the charts for the most discussed video of the day.

Both the Motorola comp and Ben & Jerry's have shown me that offer people the chance to be creative and win a nice prize and they'll interact with the content.

Double click to view the comments (and leave your own!)

Glasses for one billion people

Was just reading this on The Guardian about a pair of glasses that can be adjusted by adding or removing fluid. I'd heard about it a year or so ago, but they have some bold plans for them - one billion people need them.

I'll still floating about deciding what area of design I'd like to end up in. But I love this - the idea of truly helping people. Democratic design.

Given the state of the economy and what will probably be the collapse of the designer art market, perhaps this is the area where designers can really contribute and an area where one day I'd like to make my contribution.

Free to a good home - one pound

Just came across this ad on gumtree for our rather battered pound. Nicely done.

A new bus for London

I find this very exciting and look forward to when the new Routemaster hits London's streets. I've never been a fan of the bendy bus and believe that the public transport of a city has a huge impact on the wellbeing of its citizens.

I like this winning design. I love the return of the open hop on hop off back, the use of wood and leather and the styling - it is a nod to the original but also fresh and modern.

While much of the design may get watered down because of cost and practicality, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Something that London can be proud of. Truly exciting!

More at Foster and Partners

Merry Christmas from AKQA

A nice little Christmas viral from AKQA

Find shelter..

It's fascinating to see the way that the current economic situation is spun in adverts. Just heard a corker on the radio "Find shelter from the economic climate with the army"

Credit Crunch Monopoly

I had an idea for a version of Monopoly. Much like the version you are used to, but with each turn the price of all property increases and the money received when passing Go increases. Things keep going in a frenzy of buying until there is no money left in the bank. Then all property falls way below value, houses and hotels are repossessed and the game ends.

Motorola photo comp

I like competitions that encourage a bit of creativity and I'm currently working on this campaign for Motorola where entrants upload a photo that encapsulates their home city to a Facebook page

The work of the eight photographers were commissioned to capture 24 hours in their home city is also worth a look.

The best photo each week wins a ZN5 phone

Santa's grotto

Here's some pics of the grotto that we built for the toy shop near where I live. It took three days, was a lot of hard work but I learnt a lot and am very proud of what we put together for them.

Seizure

A couple of weeks back we visited the art installation, Seizure. Artist Roger Hiorns sealed an old council flat and filled it to the brim with copper sulphate solution. Two weeks later, they opened up the flat. It was a really good installation - completely transforming the interior with every surface encrusted with blue crystals. Superman would have been proud.

London

Came across this video on Thought gadgets


London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.

I love living in London. It's not the easiest of cities to live in and sometimes it pisses me right off but it has its moments that make me feel happy to be here.

Single? Lonely? Let Facebook help you

Talking of targeted advertising. All of my Facebook ads look like this:



I've just set my status to single, but this is ridiculous

Nearly there

It's been a while since i've posted as I've been so snowed with college - hand in is on Wednesday, then I build a window display and santa's grotto for a shop, then I'm back at work. The camera project has gone well - I'll post up a load of images when it's all done.

I've started advertising One Man Band on Facebook - will be interesting to see how the targeting marketing works. Anyone who works for HSBC, Citigroup or Morgan Stanley is about to see a Credit Crunch T shirt ad. If it works, I'll be doing a lot more.

Went to the incredible Listening Post at the Science Museum - def worth seeing. Saw Alessi give a talk at the Design Museum, saw a council flat filled with copper sulphate crystals and went to the opening of Young Designers at the Carpenters Workshop gallery. Not that I'm showing off and being all "look how cultured I am" but it's more to show that I've been busy and that I'll be posting some stuff about all of this once I get my life back!

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best

Saw this on Design Boom - a great blog to visit - I must visit it just about everyday.

Yet another chair rendering

Just learnt some 3D modelling software and rendered the Yet another chair idea, this time using the Loft tool so that it says the same from both sides.

See our impact on the planet in realtime

The skeptic in me asks how these stats are compiled, but never the less they are interesting to look at and show an insight into how much impact we're having on the planet
http://www.worldometers.info/

Today's metro

p62 of Metro

Zebra crossing lights

Streetworks are a necessary part of maintaining the urban landscape - lights need to be replaced, cables need to be laid and roads need to be resurfaced. Unfortunately in London, it seems that some work will begin, complete with bright orange plastic barriers, then nothing will happen for several weeks. This is a particularly annoying thing for me - it looks ugly and is down to terrible planning and sheduling by the authorities. For some time in Angel there have been two identical zebra crossing lights side by side, the one being replaced still works perfectly but it did not stop the council digging a hole alongside and placing another one. It has been like this for about 8 weeks. So I made a sign to highlight their incompetence.

More from Dutch Design week

Nice set of stalls that hang on the wall

Door for desk

For a couple of weeks I've been wanting to buy a bigger desk. I went on Ikea's website and found a beauty - £80 including delivery. I got the tape measure out and imagined how lovely my new high gloss white desk was going to be. Then I went to Holland and visited the Instant Design exhibition and saw how they used a door for a desk. Finding one in the basement I did the same.

Dutch Design Week

Lamp shades that are spun according to how much sunshine there is - colour and thickness varies


Nice take on the last supper


My favourite exhibition by Bob Waardenburg and Marcia Nolte called Instant Design, lot's of interesting uses of everyday objects.

Andy Warhol rejection

A friend gave me this copy of a letter to Andy Warhol. Even he was once rejected. I've framed this letter to remind me not to worry when sometimes things don't go quite as planned

Dutch Design Week

Spent the weekend in Eidhoven and Amsterdam. A friend of mine is studying at Design Academy Eidhoven. A fantastic place. Looked around the degree show and other exhibitions in association with Dutch Design Week. Photos to follow but some 'trends' that I picked up on:

-Everyone is a designer. Everyone is capable of design. Do we need designers? Ikea hacking
-Making do. Using everyday discarded objects to create functional furniture - doors can be used as tables, jars taped together become storage. It sounds like crap, but it works.
-Space saving. Chairs that fold and can be stored in a wardrobe. Inflattable tables.
-Bridging the gap between offline/online and digital/analogue. A nice chest of draws where each contains a chip and contains a file. Place the draw next to a laptop and it loads the file.
-Objects that record their surroundings. A great piece was a machine that wove a lamp shade where the colour and thickness varied according to the level of sunlight. Each day creates a unique lamp shade.

Tesco Doom and Gloom

I've had a couple of requests for the Tesco Doom and Gloom newspaper label. So here it is (click to enlarge then save it to your computer, print it and fold it in half before placing in your local Tesco establishment)

Yet Another Chair chair

An idea for a chair

Banpo fountain - Seoul Design Olympic - beautiful bridge

Doom and gloom and clubcard points too

The role of design in the 2010s

What now for design? What do you think the role of design will be in the next decade?

The price of an object will obviously be a major concern for the average consumer.
What we happen to eco-design?

For me, I think design of the 2010s will be about minismising or removing risk. Whether it be financial or in our daily lives, as a result of what is happening right now we will emerge as a society a little bit more risk averse and conservative.

Or maybe design will be about providing an escape, or entertainment.

How are we going to get 2 million people working again? If I were prime minister I would encourage people to become entrepreneurs - to look at what skills they have and turn those into a way of making an income. I believe that everyone has skills that they can offer to someone else. And if none of us have any money to spend then we may have to look into ways of exchanging skills and working together.

Any thoughts?

Sweet illustration

My housemate, Rocky Yip, did this. Sweet illustration that I'm going to put into production as a T shirt for One Man Band

241

Some logo design for a friend

Back to college

Today I returned to college for the second year of the Product Design BA at St Martins. It's great to be back and really good to see everyone. Very enthusiastic about this year. Also very important that I stike a balance between work and the course. I really want to get the most of this. The word intense was used about six times by the course head to describe how this year's going to be. So I think things are about to get even more busy.

Side table

For me the design process involves the following steps - initial idea, excitement, lots of enthusiastic work, then I hit problems, frustration ensues, then I normally take a break, then it's perseverance, some more frustation and finally satisfaction.

The top that I designed for the bed side table in my room is such as thing. It took 4 hours on the laser followed by 3 hours of rubbing the gold into the etching and another hour of polishing and finishing. But now it's done, I'm chuffed to bits with it.

Some experiments

I absolutely love experimenting with the lasers. Trying out patterns and learning from each thing I do.


(it's also nice to be talking about design again rather than ranting about banks and parcel delivery companies)

One Man Band Hangers

Fresh off the laser cutter:

Cleartouch Wedding Stationary

For the past 6 months I've been working with Cleartouch. A really interesting company that produces laser engraved wedding stationary. I have designed a new range for them from invitations to table numbers. I am photographing the product and also overseeing the redesign of the website which is set to relaunch in a couple of months. A nice project to be involved with, particularly as I have been trained on the lasers and get to design my own products.


Once the website has relaunched I will then oversee the marketing and PR. I think this is where I'd like to set up my company one day - as one that helps small businesses to develop a range of products and then market those products to the public.

HSBC: The World's bullying bank

Just had a call from HSBC practically demanding that I pay money into my bank account. I have a student account with them and am in my interest free overdraft. Unless I pay some money into the account I will start to incur interest. She wanted to know what day I planned on paying the money in how I would be paying the money in. Is this kind of harrassment even legal?

From a brand point of view this isn't exactly sensible either. All of the banks offer students accounts with interest free overdraft - the thinking being that people tend to keep a bank account for life and one day those poor hard up students will become fully fledged salary earning, debt ridden mortgaged members of society - profit for the bank in other words.

The phone call has completely damaged my opinion of HSBC - a bank that demands money two days before I return to uni. Today I swore that I will close the account as soon as I graduate. And at some point in the future when I have a bank balance again, I will write to them and recount my experience of today and tell them they will never see a pound of my money or my custom.

Nice photoshoot

Cake have just completed this photoshoot for Vinspired an initiative that sees the charity team with up with top designer Ben De Lisi and T4 presenter Miquita Oliver to call on every 16-25 year old in England to join Fashion Favours – a unique fashion collection being created by volunteers purely from recycled and customised clothing.