Perspective on the same

Checking the news this morning, it was interesting to see two different view points of exactly the same data. Why it's important to use the internet to get news from as many different perspectives as possible.

Tension

An excellent short film beautifully shot with a superb track. The tension builds and builds until...

Metal on Metal "BASTARD" from The Glue Society on Vimeo.

via the superb 22GL

Got a dog? There's an app for that

The applications for iphone are staggering and I am currently seeding my first iphone application - Dogbook. While at first you wouldn't believe there could be an iphone app for your dog, it is actually incredibly useful. You can locate the nearest park anywhere in the world via your location on GPS, you can see what other dogs are nearby should you lose your dog you can send an 'arf' alert to other users within 15km with a photo of the dog so it can be found again. Iphone makes life that little bit easier once more. Download it for free from itunes

Record breaking cocktail genius!

Currently seeding this viral for TGI Fridays featuring some pretty awesome bar tricks - particularly like the flaming sambucca's. It's from Viral Factory who are always very good at making virals that make people have huge debates in the comments section as to which bits are real and which bits are fake. Creates a lot of buzz and 210k views in the first week is not bad at all.

Design and cycling update

The project is going well. I wanted to share the entire process with you, but as soon as I moved to generating concepts I realised that in order to protect my ideas it wouldn't be a good idea to post them on the web. While initially I'm all for sharing ideas, the tangle proof headphones experience gave me a quick introduction to intellectual property and the number one thing I learnt was do not post ideas on the web too early. I am designing a coat for women and I will share the finished product and info on the degree show.

Which means this blog shall now return to talking about design and marketing, with the occasional update on the design and cycling project.

Making cycling safer

One of the conclusions of the survey was that a big barrier that prevents a lot of people from cycling is that it is viewed as being too dangerous, and given that most of the cycling accidents are caused by a collision with a car or pedestrian, I started thinking of ways for cycling to become safer:

- Reduce the damage caused by an accident. One of the responses to my survey that really stood out was "If you cycle regularly, it is a matter of time before you are involved in an accident. All you can do is minimise the risks." Therefore there need to be more products that incorporate protection for the body when the rider comes off their bike.

- Increasing visibility. If a cyclist is seen they can be given enough space. Products should make the cyclists highly visible on the road.

-Sound. One area I was thinking of was that perhaps a cyclists needs a better means of making themselves known on the road that's more effective than the standard bell - one that can be heard by cars and lorries.

A bit of searching however and I came across this product


and this rather crazy demonstration video


Whilst this product does allow for the cyclist to make their presence known it does so in an antisocial and aggressive way. Perhaps a more 'friendly' version could be designed, one that responds to how hard you push it - making less noise for pedestrians but more noise for vehicles.

Bike in the home

In my survey, 59% of cyclists keep their bikes in their house and I'm curious as to how they are kept! Many of the respondents keep the bike in their kitchen.

This is a call for submissions of photos of bikes in the home - are they hung on the wall? Or just kept in the hallway.

here's where my bike is kept when not in use.



Please help out bu uploading a photo of your bike to the Facebook group or sending it to me in an email

The results are in

Firsty, a huge thank you to all those that took part. Here are the results from the cyclist research.

Overall conclusions

Non Cyclists
-Cycling is perceived as being dangerous by non-cyclists, despite 75% of cyclists surveyed feeling safe. Perception of safety is a key part of getting non cylists cycling as once they begin cycling and build confidence they feel safer.
-Fear of getting a bike stolen is a factor for both cyclists and non cyclists
-93% of non cyclists in London live within 10 miles of their commuting destination
-80% know someone who cycles, often they are told about the benefits but also that you do have to be careful
- Over half of non cyclists surveyed will consider cycling when the superhighways are introduced. Safety, bike parking and crime are still major set backs however.
-Cycling has to be perceived a being safer in order to get more people cycling.

Cyclists

-Cyclists have a love hate relationship with cycling. Many enjoy the benefits but find it frustrating
-Shockingly 61% of the cyclists surveyed had been involved in an accident (89% of them cycle everyday). The biggest cause of accidents are collisions with cars, interestingly, this was followed with collisions with pedestrians.
-The majority keep their bike in their house
-85% encourage friends to cycle
-The biggest downsides are theft, being sweaty and lack of cycle parking

-It was generally viewed that the best way to improve cycling in London is to educate and train cyclists as well as other road users
-Cycle lanes were generally critisised for having poor road surface or being poorly designed. Some even wanted cycle lanes removed altogether, believing that cyclists are better off sharing the road.
-Many suggested a change to traffic lights, with a green cycle light to allow bikes to set off a few seconds before the rest of the traffic.

A key quote that stood out:
"riding regularly its not a question of if but when you will be involved in an accident. all you can do is minimise risk as much as possible."

I have included both survey results here:

Survey Results - Non Cyclists in London

View more presentations from Lee Washington.

Survey Results - London Cyclists

View more presentations from Lee Washington.

Thanks for your comments

A quick note to say thanks for your comments so far - it's really good to get feedback, particularly when I start posting up the initial ideas.

Thanks also to those that filled out the survey.

I would still love some more responses from the non cyclist - so if you live in London, but do not cycle, please take a couple of minutes to fill it out here

Housemate in accident

This week my housemate was knocked off his bike and sustained a head injury requiring nine stitches. He wasn't wearing a helmet. There's a full account on 22GL

As my project progresses I am focusing more and more on the safety elements of cycling and how this can be improved.

Week two

Large goods vehicles are the main cause of death of cyclists in London, and this is an area that I am examining. I conducted an interview with a very helpful driver called Ray who let me sit in the cabin and experience the view of the road. Visibility of cyclists was is huge problem, especially when the LGV turns left and the trailer moves.

Bike Tree

Slightly cheesy production values but an excellent solution of storing bikes out of the reach of criminals. I would however imagine that this is prohibitively expensive and would require maintenance - all things that would prevent an employer or council installing it.

Nike Plus

Nike plus represents the commercialisation of a sporting activity with a series of products that are designed to encourage running and increase the enjoyment of running.

They may have asked themselves the question “How do we get more people running” just as I am asking “How do we get more people cycling?”

How they did it:
-Integration with ipod and iphone
-Create a community, the world’s largest running club
-Provides tools to help you improve your running
-saving your runs
-Rewarding you by telling you how many collories you have burnt
-Allowing people to be competitive
-Making it fun
-The more you run the higher your level
-Integration with social networks

Perhaps something similar could be developed for cycling? A way of recording your journeys, how much money you've saved (in my five years of cycling I've probably saved about two and a half thousand pounds. That's the first time I've thought about that)

iphone Arider

Personally I see a lot of problems with this design. Firstly you lose vision in one eye due to the eyepiece, or at least you'll struggle to focus between that and the road. Then you have the iphone on your head scenario - it will be annoying if you need to change where you're heading to, having to unclip it and then replace it each time. Not to mention, that it's easy pickings for an opportunistic thief to grab it out of the helmet. A bit too much overdesign in my opinion.

Light Lane

Whilst offering no more protection, the light lane does at least show the overtaking vehicle how much space to give the cyclist.

London to New York

LONDON TO PARIS from Amazing Grace on Vimeo.

Week One

A good start to the project, currently researching.

I visited Sustrans and spoke to them about their efforts to get more people cycling and what discourages people from cycling.

I spoke to the London Cycling Campaign about HGV vehicles - the biggest killer of cyclists on London's roads.

I did surveys at bus stops, asking people what were their reasons for not cycling - most replied to say that it was too dangerous and their were no showers at their work.

I've spent a great deal of time photographing cyclists behaviour and looking for design opportunities here.

I met a HGV driver and learnt about what it is like from their perspective, even getting the chance to sit in the cab and see the road from their point of view. Despite the mirrors their are still blind spots and when turning left, when the cab moves independently of the trailer, they lose a lot of rear vision. Plenty of opportunities here.

Design + Cycling

I have returned to university for my final year. My self initiated project is looking at ways in which design can encourage more people to cycle in London. Over the next five months the blog will be devoted to my findings in thsi area.

It would be great if you could get involved as much as possible.
Please join theFacebook group
Follow the project on twitter

If you cycle in London, please take a couple of minutes to fill out this survey

If you don't cycle in London, I'd like to know why! Please fill out this survey

Thanks,

Lee

Dyson's Air multiplier in video

I thought I'd find a video to share of the fan, mostly as my initial reaction was "I bet it's noisy". I'm not a fan of his airblade hand purely for that reason.

So here's a video, the first thing is that it's a lot larger than I was expecting (from the images it looks like it's a small desk fan.) Secondly it doesn't seem as noisy as I was expecting, particularly on lower levels. What is particularly nice is the way you can just pick it up and carry it around - the fan is the handle.

advertising on the blog

I have finally decided to take the plunge and add some google advertising to this blog. I will try and keep it as non intrusive as possible. At the moment it's just a trial run - the main purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts and ideas but at the same time, if I can make enough money to buy a beer each week, then why not have a bit of advertising?

And if it pays a little more, then I'll be incentivised to get out there and find even more stuff to write about and share!

cheers

Lee

Piano stairs

Nice video - the power of fun to change mundane activities and daily routines



Also worth noting that youtube is now serving 1 billion view per day. That's an insane amount of content, a lot of people falling off things and pandas sneezing, but also, above all, a lot of ideas being shared. The name of the logo file is logo_holy_crap_1bn_a_day Nice to see that even the folks at youtube are surprised.

Magners and Bungalow8

Magners have created an exclusive new ‘Bungalow 8’ edition of Magners Pear cider, just 500 bottles have been produced, available now, only at Bunglaow 8 London. The new design was created for Magners by Cake. Last night we held an event at the club and invited design bloggers along to view the new design. The evening was really good fun, it was brilliant to meet the people behind the blogs and get to know more about their world of blogging.

The attendees, all of which are design blogs that I regularly read, were:
It's Nice that
Form Fifty Five
30gsm
Moco Loco

All worth a visit, the bottle is a very fine example of packaging design and if there was ever an example of the intersection between design and marketing, this would be it:

Okay Studio party

Last night I went to the Okay studio party. If I had to be honest, the number of products on show was pretty slim, but it was still a very good party.

Troika talk

A very interesting talk about the process behind the cloud project

Troika from This Happened - London on Vimeo.

White Air Festival

Spent the weekend down in Brighton at the awesome White Air Festival

If you're into extreme sports it's definitely worth booking in the diary next year - the biggest extreme sports festival in Europe, alongside some awesome bands in the evening.

WWF pandas

WWF commissioned leading artists and designers to interpret the Panda collection box for an exhibition at London's Selfridges.



Found at itsnicethat

The Dock

Last night I went to the private party at The Dock For me it was great to meet and chat with designers.

I met Dominic Wilcox - a designer whose work I have admired for some time. He'd created a shoelace field installation.


Also, Will and Alex from It's Nice That, a blog which I read daily.

Then there were a few new designers such as James Patmore.


One product which stood out for my was Pyrus, a paper pulp light by designer Mark Braun.


The Dock is a very impressive new design destination in London. The White House nearby housed a series of small exhibitions in each room - felt rather like a houseparty of design. The whole place really demonstrates how much exciting design their is going on in London right now, and it's events like this that make making connections possible.

I'd really recommend heading down there if you get the chance this week.

Talk by Paul Preistman

Design Week is underway and I'm trying to see as much as I can - so many interesting exhibitions, talks and a few parties thrown in.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Paul Priestman of Priestmand Goode in the very intemate surroundings of a green house at the Wapping Project (an incredible place)

Very interesting discussion on the impact of China on worldwide design and where British design fits into this.

Paracetamol with braille

A very simple additional to product packaging that ensures that those with poor site can identify their tablets. An excellent piece of design. More packaging needs to incorporate this.



Which brings me on to a little story. My mum was at my nan's house and was made a cup of tea - when she tasted it, it was soapy. My nan had put Lenor in it instead of milk. Quite an amusing story but it made me think - it's not such a difficult mistake to make. Both the Lenor and milk are the same colour, in the same packaging with the same blue label. When both are on the worktop it is an easy mistake to make when you cannot read the label. Another area when design can intervene and make life easier.

Latest Blu animation

One of my favourite artists, Blu, has just released his latest street art/animation videos and it's incredible:



Via the awesome wooster collective

More of Blu's stuff

Latest Kluster

My latest Design Den for Kluster magazine just went out.

Viral seeding

A nice case study from Rubber Republic on viral seeding - it is all about tailoring the message to the audience which is the approach that I take - who will find the content relevant?

500,000 Views In 4 Days - BBC Viral Case Study

View more documents from RubberRepublic.

For a list of projects that I've been involved with, check out viral seeding

Guide to London Design Festival

This year’s London Design Festival takes place from 19th to 27th September and here are some of the highlights that are worth checking out if you’re in the city. My best piece of advice would be to pick up the Icon Design Trail Guide which is distributed around the festival.

Australian superstar designer, Marc Newson is creating a steel structure called Supercell inspired by marine forms at The Southbank Centre. Art lovers can either gaze up at the structure from the ground, or look down into the funnel from the windows of the Royal Festival Hall.

Spanish Designer Jaime Hayón will be unveiling what is considered to be the centerpiece of the festival, a gigantic chess set with beautifully crafted two metre high ceramic chess pieces referencing the domes, towers and spires of the city that the public will be encouraged to play with.

I'm a big fan of the work of Dominic Wilcox and he’s created a very interesting installation using shoelaces as part of Tom Dixon’s The Dock in what is set to be a new design quarter. Last week we wrote about London being the world capital of design, and for this week, it looks like it might just be.

In the West there is 100% Design which features Designersblock and in the East is Tent London

Did you know 4.0

The latest video doing the rounds in marketing land that points to how the internet is where it's at and mobile internet is set to be even bigger:



Some nice stats in there and it's nicely executed. However, let's not all get carried away here, so to play devil's advocate I thought I'd put my critical hat on:

- There is still are huge amount of the world's population who do not have access to the internet or mobile

- Engagement with TV, radio and newspapers is altogether different to the internet. When I watch TV I will watch an entire TV programme, when I read a newspaper I will sit and read the whole newspaper. With the internet, attention spans are short. People jump from page to page. The amount of engagement online is so much lower and it's far harder to make a lasting impression. The stat in the video demonstrates this - the Iran election was trending on twitter. Then MJ died and people moved on to the next thing. I suppose this could be true of newspapers and TV also. Maybe all media has a short attention span? Books are the way forward.

The internet has however completely changed the way we live, and with mobile internet set to grow - this really is a revolutionary medium.

Can you replay the tune

I have just started working on seeding this heart warming campaign for a band called One EskimO.

Their self-titled debut album provides the backdrop for a groundbreaking audio-visual experience combining music and animation in the first ever visual album “The adventures of One eskimO”

The trailer for the adventure can be found at Find little Feather and you can sign up to the quest which involves completing five challenges, with a new challenge released each week.

I posted the first challenge a couple of days back, but I really like the second one - it's incredibly simple, yet frustrating and addictive! I never was terribly good at the piano...give it a go here

The PUMA index - a genius idea

A new iphone app from Puma - the girls undress as the stock market goes down. Works for me.

FInd LIttle Feather

Robert Hammond from High Line

Just watched this. Hugely inspiring and I urge you to watch it.

Interesting things I took away:

- the importance of the logo early on
- How an image that gives peoples ideas and stimulate debate is more important than a fancy rendering of how it will look.
- How you need to prove the economic argument for a project
- Keeping the project open to suggestions from anyone

Had it not been for this man and Joshua David the project would have not happened:



I want to go to New York even more now.

Amron experimental

Some nice product design from Scott Amron - simple and insightful. Although I can't help but think the keyring key would be a bit difficult to use

Music fun at incredibox

A wonderfully simple and highly entertaining website - make your own funky music to listen to, it's all at incredibox

Kluster says

I've just started writing a fortnightly design column for Australian culture magazine, Kluster. Klusters covers art, design, music, fashion and nightlife with writers based in the cities they write about. This week's newsletter can be seen on Kluster's website Definitely worth subscribing.

Interview in Le Cool

Amongst all the excitement around the tangle proof headphones video, I nearly forgot to post up my interview in LeCool this week. You can read the interview here



My bollard also made the front cover

Video proving popular on youtube!

I put my idea for the improvement to headphones on youtube and it's proving very popular! Surprisingly so - at the moment it is on the front page of reddit and it on the front page of most favourited UK youtube with 11,600 views. I'll post it here also:



Not sure what to do in terms on intellectual property rights on this - does my video on youtube prove it's mine or could someone just use the idea. I've always liked the idea of sharing ideas but wouldn't want anyone to copy it.

Idea for an improvement to ipod headphones

Whilst on a bus I spent some time untangling my headphones which was frustrating. Then on the train home I saw this woman untangling hers:

Woman on train untangling headphone from Lee Washington on Vimeo.

A common problem. I thought about how the design of the headphones could be improved and thought about resealable sandwich bags. I decided to do a video to present the idea with a basic prototype.

Idea for improvement to ipod headphones to prevent tangling from Lee Washington on Vimeo.

Hi

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

Artists taking the lead

very exciting project from the Arts Council England in partnership with London 2012. Twelve new works of art across the country. Check out the ideas for London. Brilliant stuff. If only I'd known a couple of months back. I would have submitted Bollard lights

My favourite is Bus Stops which proposes to use the tops of bus stops as a canvas with programmable LEDs. Brilliant.

Nice thoughts of viral

Just watched the video on viral marketing. It is so true. Don't just make 'a viral' make something that is awesome, original and most of all entertaining.

Work in the 21st century

When I was at school before the internet was even invented I had no idea that work would be like this. Technology has enabled us to do so much and work so flexibly - admittedly it maybe has led to an 'always working' society but if you enjoy your work that's not always a bad thing. It also allows the day to be broken up differently. Today I got up, worked a couple of hours in my dressing gown, went for swim and now I'm back at my desk working until lunch when I'll probably go sit in the garden.

I also get a better view:




What's more. I could be anywhere in the world doing my job right now....right now I'm working in London, but if I was to go live in New York I could easily take my work with me. Technology is good.

Nice use of youtube interactivity from Samsung

I'm working with The Viral Factory, seeding this video for their Samsung ST550 and TL 225 cameras which have an LCD screen at the front so you can people photos of yourself and friends. This is a nice edition in itself - how many times have you seen people out on a night out trying to get the group shot with everyone in it?

To get this across they've created the following series of interactive videos:

Design for life not magazine covers

The interview with Jasper Morrison in this months Icon is definitely worth a read. He criticises the media for creating a culture of designers who add visual pollution to the world and advocates an approach to create 'super normal' objects. Objects that fit into their surroundings and are perfectly designed for their purpose.

When I began my degree I was more into the design art side of things. Then you realise that you are just adding more crap to the world. What is really needed are solutions to problems and nice clean, simple, elegant design. That Lasts.



Icon has a blog that's worth a visit.

Rapid protyped USB

Just stole this off a colleague's desk - a rapid prototyped Asics USB. It has instant cool appeal and I want to steal it. But I'm going to go put it back on her desk now.

Golden rules of online success

Been thinking about the internet and what makes it tick. Basic thought is that is it a medium of entertainment and 'making life easier'. If something does one or both of these it'll succeed:

Within entertainment there are elements
-originality
-humour
-reward

Within 'makes life easier' there are elements
-effort required
-information provided
-communication

Facebook - entertainment and makes life easier
Twitter - entertainment and makes life easier
Youtube - entertainment and makes life easier
Reddit - entertainment and makes life easier
BBC - entertainment
BBC weather - makes life easier

If a brand can provide something that is both entertaining and makes life easier it'll do well online.

Obviously this all needs a bit more refinement, these are just my initial thoughts. Probably could do with another word for 'making life easier' but that is what the internet set out to do. Added convenience.

New London architecture

Just stumbled upon the New London Architecture - the centre for London's built environment near where I work and went in for a visit at lunch.

Really interesting exhibitions and videos of how London's skyline is changing. I'm facinated by London's architecture and how the city is changing - new projects such as Crossrail, The Olympics and The Shard are set to make the city quite a different place over the next five years. Not to mention the revolution in the number of people cycling :)

Sam Hill Design

I first came across Sam Hill's work at his degree show when he presented a series of experiments in experience and risk value. A facinating project where he challenged himself to do increasing embarrasing things an take risks - what made it so effective is his scientific approach to it all.

His blog is also worth a visit. His post and video on keebab table is very good - he looks at the world in a very creative way.

I fixed it

A nice site of people's attempts to fix things, proving that there is a designer in everyone. Or maybe not, some of these frankly dangerous, but occationally there is a gem that shows a nice bit of problem solving.



Link here
I fixed it

Found on Brandflakesforbreakfast who found it at Urban Outfitters (both also worth checking out)

Back from holiday

Blog has been a bit quiet of late as I was off on holiday. I thought I'd be depressed on returning to London having spent a week in a beautiful village in Dorset and going to the beach.

However, on my return I had one of those days that reminded me why I live in this city and why I love it. I went kayaking in the morning on a lake near where I live and then in the afternoon headed over to the incredible Hackney Wicked Arts Festival.

Hackney Wick is now home to the highest concentration of artists in the world that were all priced out of Shoreditch. For the weekend many of the studios were open to the public with awesome exhibitions of art and photography followed by some brilliant bands. I found the whole thing very inspiring and hopefully in a couple of years I can get a studio in that neck of the woods.





Particularly brilliant was the work of Joseph Loughborough who we had a brief chat with.

I highly recommend that you check out the festival next year.



I also got my first glimpse of the Olympic Stadium. It'll be interesting to see how this area of warehouses and factory units changes over the next few years. I really hope that it doesn't get developed with the artists being once again priced out.

Pan lid cotinued...

A couple of posts back I wrote my ideas for a new pan lid - at home at the weekend I saw this which is basically the idea, although this object is a mat to put pans on - so it's this with the ring closer together so that it can fit onto any pan.



Next week I may waste some time trying to reinvent the wheel.

Work of florentijn Hofman

A selection of really interesting projects that challenge notion of space and scale.



Check out his site

Interactive video from the Met Office

Another excellently executed piece of content that hopefully gets the message across. Particularly effective as the target audience spends a lot of its time online on youtube.

Naughty Ashes Chat

Check out Tim Lovejoy's Channelbee for more

HP invent awesomeness

Response to D&AD Student Awards brief set by Hewlett Packard.

"Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive."

Filmed, edited and directed by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth
matthewrobinson.co.uk
tomwrigglesworth.com

Music: Hold Me Back by Round Table Knights
roundtableknights.ch
myspace.com/roundtableknights

A superb piece of content. Exceptionally executed.

HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

Ideas for pan lids

It drives me mad when I can't find the correct pan lid for the saucepan that I am using. If I designed them I would colour code the lid and pan - red lid handle matches red pan handle etc.

I also had this one - a lid that fits all pans.

On a small pan


On a large pan
As a heat mat
In silicon - the final product would work best in this material and would be easier to manufacture

Facebook account deactivated

This week I had my Facebook account deactivated. I was posting a video for work on a few fan walls and that was it. I suddenly felt quite lost - a lot of people I am just friends with on Facebook - I don't have email addresses, for many I don't have telephone numbers. Then there are the photos - I felt like the last two years of my life had been erased. Then it was reinstated and all is cool again.

Tonight I was watching High Fidelity where he meets up with all his old girlfriends and I had an idea - what if I was to meet up with everyone I am 'friends' with on Facebook - all 311 of them. For a proper catch up one to one. Some people I met when I was travelling, some I went to school with and some I met in my old job. Some I haven't even met at all. I think it would just be an interesting experiment. A reflection on society and what it means to be friends with someone.

Nike and Tour de France

A great example integrating digital, real, art and sport.



Found via Glue's Twitter

Building a web presence

I'm sometimes asked how to go about building an online presence - whether it be for sharing design work or people starting a business. Generally this is what I tell them.

To begin with you set up a Facebook page for people to join - it is free and provides a discussion board, people can add images and invite people - great for forming a community

Start a blog using blogger or wordpress (blogger is easier but will have .blogspot after the name) while wordpress allows for a URL and more design options.

Then of course there's twitter - easy to get started on and has added convenience of not taking much time to maintain.

For web build, there's a few programmes that can be used to build a website and it gets a bit more complicated.
Drupal CMS
Joomla
Index Exhibit (excellent for design but could be adapted)

I build a lot of my sites in Dreamweaver but the sites above are easier. If you want to add a nice flash image previewer to your site you can get it here

Stay in touch

I get a reasonable amount of traffic to this blog which is nice - acts as a nice incentive to keep it alive and well. So if you're new to the blog, feel free to subscribe to the weekly newsletter by entering you're email in the box to the right which means you get to stay in touch with what I'm up to.



Also you can follow me on twitter

Police launch Be Younique campaign with urinating man

If you wish to enter to be the face of Police for 2010 - then check out their microsite

Josiah Emsley

He's in my class at college and has a blog here. Definitely worth checking out for great photography and other design insights.

tube finder iphone augmented reality app

A nice example of an excellent application of technology. The potential to have use augmented reality to overlay information on anything is really interesting. Apparently it's been submitted to apple so should be out soon.

Observation

One of the main things I have learnt doing my degree is observation. Looking at peoples' behaviour and looking for opportunities where perhaps design can help. This will be the most important part of my bike project - why has that person locked their bike like that? Why are they carrying their shopping on their handlebars? Over time patterns emerge.

I came across this image whilst looking through this superb collection of Glastonbury photography God I wish I was there.



Could an improved Festival Wellington boot be designed?!

The Thoughtless Acts Flickr group is also an excellent place for these kinds of observations. See if you can make a few yourself on your communte to and from work. It's interesting stuff.

Bollard lights

I've completed the design and started printing them on the vinyl printer. On my way home from the studio I couldn't help but put a couple up. I'm afraid the photography is just with my mobile.

test run of bollard light

While the news of MJ's death was hitting the world, we were out doing a test run of the bollard sticker - we applied this part printed version to see how it would look. Overall a success with a bit of refinement needed - namely that I don't make such as pigs ear of sticking it down.

Here's the completed graphic that I'm hoping to print this afternoon

Light Lane

My final year project is going to be looking into ways of encouraging more people to cycle in London. Whilst researching I came across this nice concept called Light Lane

22GL Zombie Apocalypse party

Last week me and my housemates threw the end of year party with a zombie theme. The house was quarantined. The neighbours were wondering what the hell was going on. And we partied until the sun came up.