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.
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
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.
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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.
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!
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Welcome to my blog. I am a designer and marketer. I sell canvas prints, run a T shirt company and work in viral seeding. This blog is an intersection of my interests in design and marketing.
