Fall for our roundup

Pomak and the Painter

Over the years we have built up good relationships with clients based overseas, such as New York, San Francisco, Dubai and a little closer to home in Ireland. At the beginning of September, one of our senior designers, Jem, flew over to Dublin to oversee the installation of an exciting new project. It called for us to use some old techniques and methods we had not used for some time. One of the highlights was using Dublin based signwriter, Colm O'Connor, who brought some of our icons and messaging to life on real wood. You can see him in action in the video Gentlemen of Letters.                                                                                                                                                                  

We are still trying to work out if Jem was more impressed with the painting or the pint of real Guinness before his flight home.

Totally Bricking It!

September 24 has seen the launch of ‘The Art of The Brick’ at Truman’s brewery - to put this plainly, it's an entire exhibition filled with lego sculptures! That's right, childhood dreams do come true.

Created by New York Artist Nathan Sawaya, the sculptures are bound to leave both children and adults in awe. The highlight has to be the 20ft dinosaur, but there are also some special London influence pieces.

Reasons to be Creative

At the beginning of this month, our very own Jem Pomak went to his very first design conference and learnt a very pertinent lesson:

"The running theme of Reasons to be Creative seemed to be “design what you know and love”, although that might have just been my dreamy-eyed first-conference-wander talking. One speaker in particular, James Victore hammered home how important it is to design boldly, saying “If it doesn’t move you, how can you expect it to move anyone else?”. It was just one little thing but it really hit home, as an agency we do design with passion but it's not something I'd consciously thought of before.".

Our picks from LDF

If this year's London Design Festival has been a bit overwhelming for you we have picked a couple of our favourites for you to have a look at.

1.Dominic Wilcox’s stained glass car

If Dominic's self-driving car is anything to go by, the future is going to be a beautiful place! Wilcox predicts that by 2058 (very specific) it will be safer to ride in driverless vehicles than ones controlled by humans. Our client, Transport Systems Catapult agree, as they're currently trialling driverless pods.

2. Dan Tobin Smith, The First Law of Kipple

Dan's latest installation draws inspiration from the sci-fi writer Phillip K Dick, who stated that endless clutter builds up in a persons life as ‘kipple’. Through Dan’s Studio there is a pathway defined by the absence of miscellaneous clutter. From afar, it would be easy to think that the items have been spray painted to achieve the effect, but look closer and the sheer scale of the project becomes clear.

A tricky start for the iPhone 6

With more competition than ever before, Apple-sceptics had a fun September. Initial reports that iOS8 had more bugs than usual were joined with complaints on-line that the new iPhone 6 was actually bending!

Many have been quick to jump on the Apple bashing wagon with the likes of LG being swift to take the mickey “Our phones don’t bend, they’re naturally curved :) #bendgate.” (However, if you are going to poke fun at iPhones, then using one to send the tweet is probably not the smartest move!)

This all highlights the importance of some serious testing before launching something, whether it's a bendable phone or a mis-interpreted logo!

The science underdogs

This week the world of Science has recognised some of the contributions made to mankind that make very little difference (even the underdog needs a bit of recognition).There are some truly cracking entries, but we've picked our top three:


1. Researchers who have studied the slipperiness of a banana skin
2. Pork strips stuffed into peoples noses to stop severe nosebleeds.
3. The men who dressed up as polar bears to study reindeers reactions (sadly we do not have an image for this one, that said our imagination does a pretty good job).

Luckily some of our science based clients are striving for slightly more ‘impact’ and ‘imovation’.

Challenge over but not out

Well, Sam completed his Challenge-Charlie 97 days of running with his final 12k along the banks of the Bosphorus with our MD, his Dad, desperate to complete it with him.

In a tremendous effort by Sam he has raised thousands of pounds for the Team Hutton Just Giving page from sales of the now iconic ‘Join Us’ T-shirt and donations. You may have seen some of our team out running in our shirts over the bridges along the Thames on a Wednesday after work (finishing with a well earned pint at the Mudlark!).

The last weekend park run on the 14th September will be a difficult one to forget, as Sam was joined by many of those who had run with him for one epic run (and picnic) in Battersea Park. What has been truly inspirational is the lasting effect these runs have had on people, transforming non-runners into runners. We certainly intend to keep it up, so if you fancy joining us let us know... we’ve even got some T-shirts left so you wont feel left out. To find out more about the actual Challenge and Sam’s 97 days of running, visit the website. Well done Sam - we’re all proud of you, and a little bit fitter!

Sorry, summer’s gone

Now that the summer has come to an end, illustrator Seth Armstrong’s feature ‘Book your Stay’ in Mr Porter reminds us of the hot days and holidays past, as we now wait for the wind and rain of Autumn. Armstrong paints some of the world’s most famous novels held up agains the background of the novel itself. The results are something to behold.

Challenging Design

Cyber Security Challenge (CSC) aims to uncover hidden cyber security talent from across the UK through competitions, challenges and learning programs, and then work to develop their skill sets to help them enter the industry.

It’s an exciting world, and their work uncovers some immense talent (we attempted one of the competitions, and it’s fair to say we didn’t make the grade!). However, the complete redesign of their website was a challenge more up our alley.

CSC asked us to provide a dynamic new design, supported by a whole new CMS. To improve on their out of date and inflexible system we suggested Wordpress as the best platform. Due to its blogging past, many dismiss Wordpress as an inferior CMS option, however, don’t be fooled! It’s moved on leaps and bounds over the years, becoming the most popular platform in the world. With a global community of developers and resource, Wordpress is ever improving making it a powerful and future proof solution. And being selected by a company specialising in cyber security must give it some brownie points!

All design requires a good foundation, so at the start of this project we worked closely with CSC to define how they wanted to feature their content, along with identifying their target audiences and the journeys they’re likely to take on the site. From here we created a sitemap and a series of wireframes to define key areas of content.

Once we had a plan in place we were able to move on to the look and feel of the site, creating a homepage with a dynamic ‘magazine’ style, allowing different types of content (article, video etc) to be added helping to keep it looking fresh.

The final stage is the build, during this time we also fine tune aspects such as the responsive layout. Although this is addressed early on, it can’t be finalised until the site is constructed - for example the initial breakpoints were adjusted to better fit Google’s small Nexus 7 tablet screen size.

The site is then ready to be unleashed on the world, and is transferred over to the chosen hosting provider – in this case Skyscape who supply and manage incredibly secure website hosting – website security is an obvious requirement given the subject matter! Take a look at the site and let us know what you think.

News nuggets

A cut above the rest

As part of our work with Better Bankside, we've produced an invitation for an exclusive reception and private view of Matisse's exhibition the 'Cut-Outs' showing at the Tate Modern. We used a fancy paper technique called duplexing (which bonds two or more sheets of paper together) to show a play on the exhibition title through the design.

James joins

James has joined the tothepoint throng as our new Head of Digital. He moved from the distant plains of Yorkshire to London back in 1998, having graduated in Graphic Design at Nottingham Trent University. Digital has always been James’ focus and passion, and his strong foundation in both designing and producing digital projects means he is equally happy conceiving killer concepts and enhancing UX as he is coding. From HTML, CSS, through to actionscript, Javascript and PHP, James is the man to both liaise with development teams as well as demystify their dark arts for the client.

Quick response

Responsive websites are a common thing in today’s multi-device world. However the effect that they have on logos leads us to question if responsive logos should also exist. There’s nothing worse than squishing your identity to accommodate a smartphone layout, why not adapt it to maintain its lovely logo-ness when on a small scale? Just drag your browser in to see it in action.

Here a cat, there a cat…

You know we can’t resist anything with fur (we say “we”, we mean Katie), however this is a data experiment masquerading as fun. The University of Florida use the co-ordinates embedded in the data of images posted to social media, combined with the search term “Cat” (duh) to plot the felines “homes” on a map. As an exercise on what you can do with data that’s freely available online, it does highlight the amount of personal information we have out there in the ether. On a shallow level, it could have looked prettier…. Feline curious?

Hot off the press

A copy of Design Genius by Gavin Ambrose has just landed on our desks, the reason we bring it up is because we feature in it, or more specifically an interview with Simon regarding our Yahoo! and Newsprinters work. Our pieces focus on the business of design and also using tone of voice within creative. The book is of course full of plenty of other great work, and well worth a read....FYI pages 72 and 206 are of course the best. Available in all good book stores soon.

Something in the air

The recent Airbnb rebrand has created somewhat of a stir, and has faced both praise and backlash through the “empowering” channel of social media. Certainly division of opinion is nothing new where logos and brands are concerned, so is this now just amplified through social media in today’s world? We think many aspects of the brand are lovely. The Create platform not only allows users to create their own Airbnb logo for their profile, but also acts as a space for people to share their stories. The website also has some great features, with a really simple UI.

Making an exhibition of ourselves

As is the glory of living in London there is always something going on, and at present there are several somethings we just had to share! Firstly there is the Digital Revolution at the Barbican, an exciting exhibition that allows you to play in laser fields, visit old games and explore the digital world. There’s also the Quentin Blake show at House of Illustration, showing a mix of his work but don’t expect too much focus on Roald Dahl. The National Theatre has also launched Watch This Space, a mixture of live theatre, dance and performance spanning South London.

FYI grammar’s not dead

The Evening Standard recently posted an article by Lucy Tobin about grammar in email, and it got us thinking about how we use grammar today. Although we have been known to hunt down rogue apostrophes, we also find the evolution of our language fascinating, not so long ago words like critic and gossip were invented and language played by a whole different set of rules. So although Lucy makes some valid points we think we shouldn’t get so hung up on rules that might be outdated.

3D CMYK

3D printing for the mass market as been on the cards for some time now. However with beta apps and stores being launched by Ebay and Amazon this month, it seems the day may be closer than we think. Don’t get carried away though, we’re still some way off printing whatever our heart desires – unless that happens to be a Bobble Head?

June gems

Challenging Times for Team Hutton

Our MD and FD, Simon and Gill, were off to watch their eldest son Tom in his latest Team Hutton challenge, the aptly named The Trihard Half Ironman in the Lakes. Tom had originally decided on doing his first Triathlon, but on second thoughts signed up for the epic half ironman event with his good friend Tim.

We don't think either of them quite realised the difficulty of the challenges they'd signed up for, but of course they finished triumphantly! Their epic feat started with a 1.2mile (1.9k) swim around Ullswater Lake, a quick 'transition' as the pros call it (and trust us, there's no time for a pit stop not even for the supporters!) then a 56 mile (90k) cycle ride; including the very tough climb up Kirkstone Pass, after another transition they moved on to a "gentle"half marathon across fields, up fells and back down a narrow road. Tom made it over the finish line achieving his target time of under 7hrs - 6hrs, 51mins, 38secs. We're all very impressed, and a little bit worried about what he'll attempt next (or if he'll try and get us along).

Talking of which, Tom's brother Sam has created his own challenge - 'Challenge Charlie'. He'll be running every day for 97 days, we'll be joining him on one of his shorter runs but anyone and everyone is welcome... Find out more here. Or if you don't fancy a run but you'd still like to help, their Just Giving page is here.



Community spirit

We’re lucky enough to be part of the lovely Bankside area, which is supported by the team at Better Bankside, who are our local business improvement district. As well as being a levy payer, we’ve also worked with them for many years and most recently produced a leave behind for them. The concertina booklet promotes the work they do in the area as they lead up to ballot again next year.

Spring in your step

We kid you not, there is a cave in Wales filled with giant suspended trampolines. With Summer almost here we think it would surely make an amazing summer party, you guys pack the sandwiches and we’ll start up the minibus. What are you waiting for.

Rolling out Croydon BID’s brand

You may recall our work with the Croydon Business Improvement District (and if not you can refresh your memory here), well it’s safe to say there’s no rest for the wicked. This time we produced a bespoke 6pp folder that shows off the town using some great nighttime aerial shots, which are unveiled as you open the folder. The bespoke cutter guide also works to the BID swoosh, which features heavily in the brand. Along with the folder we also produced a 16pp roll fold, which acts as a leave behind for businesses and members of the public to help explain what the BID are doing.



Let me Google that

Google Cultural Insitute have just launched their street art project, where you’re free to browse the globe discovering artists, their collections and their history. It allows you to see many pieces that may eventually disappear as our landscape changes. Ultimately it’s a nice way to get some trendy culture without leaving your desk. Go exploring. 

Into the fold

This month we worked with the guys at HQ Head Quarters salon (check out our blog post on them a few months ago) producing a folder for them. They had some great shots of the interiors, which were the crowning glory. The folder has a matt laminate all over, and a spot UV over the image to give a great contrast and really let the photos shine.

Wait, let me take a selfie….

No, there are no selfies in the Iphone Photography Awards. Just a collection of stunning images taken with the “humble” iPhone, not all are by pros in fact many are taken by chance photographers. Ultimately they remind us there’s more to camera phone photography than #nofilter. Get inspired.




All roads lead to Rome-an Road in Mile End 

Ok, so maybe that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it and it also isn’t entirely true. None the less, there’s a great festival going on at Roman Road in Mile End, it’s a celebration of its history and its present. With plenty of guided tours and events there should be something for everyone. Enjoy the festivities.

Sunshine with only a chance of showers? That’s Pimms O’Clock!

Call us optimistic, but we think that summer is here and that can mean only one thing, Pimms on the lawn (or wherever you may have to hand). So in honour of this spiffing British drink we thought we’d share this epic list of Pimms recipes, there’s more to Pimms that lemonade. Cheers old boy!

Guinea pigs are the new cats.

You hopefully know by now that we can’t resist a meaningless yet cute animal post (such as this Owl assisting its designer owner), so we just had to share BooBoo and her friends and their regular photo shoots. Who knew guinea pigs where so photogenic? Work it girl.

Going digital

tothepoint launches a new digital arm 'ttpdigital' to focus on digital design and communications: www.ttpdigital.com

The world of marketing and communications is changing fast. It used to be the case that websites and videos were a low priority luxury that companies could afford to ignore (or merely pay lip service to). However that has changed and digital is more important than ever.

We’re not claiming that print is dead, or even that it’s on its way out. However, it is an undeniable fact that most people's first introduction to a brand is now through some kind of digital medium - usually a website, but sometimes a video, email or even an app.

And this isn't just affecting traditional print-based design, it's having a huge effect on the idea of branding too - when people's main experience of your brand is on your website, can we still treat the branding process in the same way? Your logo now has to work hard on a huge variety of sizes, screens and formats - and the brand experience must be in tune from your poster campaigns to your annual report and your website(s).

This change isn't slowing down either - whether you're a fan of them or not, the use of smartphones and tablets is increasing year on year and it's not limited to the 'early adopters' or young geeks. Your site is as likely to be seen on a nice big Windows laptop as it is on a tiny iPhone - and so we need to turn to new ways of doing things like building 'responsive' websites that reconfigure themselves to make best advantage of the screen size they're viewed on.

Recognising the importance of this, tothepoint has been a truly 'integrated' agency for quite a while. We don't believe in separating design for print, web, video or any of the other media we work across - we think it's essential that the brand comes first and that it works successfully and consistently across all required materials. However, we also acknowledge that for many companies, digital now comes first.

So, we've created a new digital arm of tothepoint dedicated completely to the pursuit of digital excellence: www.ttpdigital.com

Whether it's a new website for a startup company, an animated corporate video that has to explain the intricacies of a company USP in an engaging way, or e-newsletters and analytics, we thought it was time to highlight our expertise in this area and show the range and depth of our work.

Our new website is now live and you can browse over some of our work, or read (our admittedly 'techie' focused) blog.

Let us know if you have any comments about the new site - we'd love to hear what you think. And of course, if you have any digital projects for us - just get in touch!

September's newsround

Have a break, have an OS


In a slightly bizarre marketing mash-up, Google and Nestle have recently joined forces and named the next version of Google's Android operating system (version 4.4): 'KitKat'.

Google has been alphabetically naming each successive version of its OS after some kind of sweet since V2.3 'Cupcake' - followed by 'Donut', 'Eclair', 'Froyo' (Frozen Yoghurt), 'Gingerbread', 'Honeycomb', 'Ice-cream sandwich' and current version 'Jellybean' - so the fact that the latest iteration is named after a chocolate bar isn't such a surprise.

What is odd is that as far as all were concerned the next name would be 'Key Lime Pie' (an admittedly odd choice) - with the KitKat name seemingly coming from nowhere at the last minute. It's also the first time Google (or ANYONE as far as I'm aware!) has ever thought to promote their OS by getting friendly with an existing, unrelated brand.

Could this be the start of a strange marketing trend, or is it just Google being a little kooky? And if it follows the same convention for the next version - could Nestle's 'Lion Bar' be gearing up for an Android make-over?

I do wonder if they've both considered the potential implications of the deal. This could be perceived as Nestlé basically endorsing Android phones, which may then be seen as 'anti-Apple' due to the two tech companies ongoing rivalry - and Nestlé really doesn't want rabid Apple fans mounting an anti-Nestlé campaign!

more info (BBC)


The Gold standard

The usual media frenzy took the interweb by storm last week as Apple announced its newest update to the iPhone range. There have been rumours for a while now that Apple has run out of steam when it comes to innovation and sales are slipping against arch rival Samsung and Google's Android OS. So, did its new phone set the world alight once again?

Well, not so much, but to be fair, Apple seems to be on a path of refinement and minor improvements recently rather than throwing as many features as possible at their handset (certainly something of which the Galaxy S range is guilty). Many were expecting a high end iPhone and a mid-range 'economy' version this time round. However, we seem to have been given an expensive option and a REALLY expensive option. But, when Apple sees itself as more of a luxury brand - why do cheap? No doubt the varied colours of the 'C' model will sell well amongst the younger audience, whilst the 'bling' of the new Gold iPhone 5S may do well among the glitterati.

Feature-wise there's nothing too ground-breaking, but the new fingerprint scanner could end up being a game-changer. It's not certain quite how accurate it is in the wild, and how Apple might then use the new security feature to connect other apps/services, but if it works as advertised, it could open up a whole new world of in-phone-payment that its competitors can't even get close to yet.

And talking of competitors, Microsoft was very quick to parody Apple's new creations - which would have worked well if those ads weren't so poor - they've now been quickly pulled after Microsoft admitted they were 'painfully unfunny' - oops!

more info (the verge)


Ya-who?

So after 30 days of teasing, Yahoo! finally launched its 'real' new logo to the world. Did it make sense of the plethora of design variations previously shown? Has it moved the company forward and refreshed the brand? For one of the Internet's earliest and longest surviving players (it's 18 years old - which is about 180 years in web years!) it will be interesting to see how it is received by users and non-users once the initial parodies and criticisms die down.

Marissa Meyer, Yahoo!'s new young and energetic CEO writes all about it in her personal Tumblr blog (well, it would be Tumblr as she oversaw the purchase of that company not too long ago) – and goes into detail about the design process ...

http://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/60336044815/geeking-out-on-the-logo

In her words:
"I love brands, logos, color, design, and, most of all, Adobe Illustrator. I think it’s one of the most incredible software packages ever made. I’m not a pro, but I know enough to be dangerous :)"

One would think it's a rare CEO who gets their hands dirty with this sort of thing (or even knows what 'Adobe Illustrator' is). Although, having said that, Rupert Murdoch essentially designed his own News Corp logo not too long ago, skipping the need for an external design agency, or even Adobe Illustrator. Is do-it-yourself brand design the new trend? If so, are these 'dangerous' times for brand agencies?

The jury is still out but as one of our clients we see this as an opportunity to help evolve and support the new brand. Our work so far has ranged from standard signage and wayfinding to the more adventurous art installations we produced for their Rolle office last year. This work demonstrates the life that can be brought to a brand through creativity and that a brand is far more than just a logo.

Only time will tell if this new logo can last as long as the previous one - but if stock price is a good measure, perhaps the refresh really has worked a charm! http://mashable.com/2013/09/12/yahoo-stock-30/

more info (adage)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

So while Yahoo drops the 'flat' and brings on the 'chiseled' 3D look, the rest of the big search boys are changing their logos too - and 'flat' is definitely the trend du-jour.

Microsoft's big Google search challenger 'Bing' has just announced its logo has had a makeover - it's now bright yellow instead of the original blue and much more angular than the previous version - and flat as a pancake of course.


And if rumours are true (update: turns out they were), Google is also going through a logo refresh - dropping the long-standing drop shadow and 3D bevelled effect and going for a simpler, flatter (there's that word again) identity.

This new version first started popping up all over the company's services, but was then officially announced a few days after Bing's updated identity.

So, can it be a coincidence that all the big internet search brands are refreshing their logos at the same time?

more info: 

» bing logo change (the verge)

» google logo revamp (BBC)


A shriekingly good light show


Had a bad day? Feel stressed and need to let it all out? Why not pop along to the ‘House of Pain’ on Borough High Street, where you can unleash a cathartic scream or yell, with each scream generating an instant light show that illuminates the whole building.

We tried it out and it’s a lot of fun, but be warned, people on the street outside the building will hear you!

Part of this year’s MERGE festival, the ‘House of Pain’ is open between 5pm-10pm every night until 21 October.

And finally...

We're hiring! We're looking for a front-end web developer with an eye for design so if you're interested in joining the lovely ttp team or know of anyone who would fit right in and push new ideas, get in touch. For further info have a look at the opportunities page on our website or check out our Linkedin ad.

August's newsround

From brand new phobias to the perils of relying on the cloud, here're a few news bits and pieces that caught our eye during August...

No Mo

 

Not only have we made up a brand new phobia, but apparently half of us Brits suffer from it -'nomophobia' - the fear of not having access to your mobile ('no mo', get it?). As Facebook / Twitter / Candy Crush Saga or just plain email addiction increases, will we start to see nomophobia hospitals opening around the country for all those who've had their phones stolen? Maybe even walk-in clinics for those who just left it in the car that morning or helplines for those who've used up their monthly internet allowance?

A scary thought maybe - but then it's that scary we need a word for it in the first place. And whilst we may think it slightly ridiculous now - just try a 'digital detox' and see how long you can last without it - perhaps not quite as long as you thought?

more info (the drum)

How to do renovations right.

 

The National Trust owned stately home Cliveden in Buckinghamshire is currently in the middle of a £3.4 million renovation, with the vast series of works anticipated to last five years.

And, being a caring organisation, The National Trust was worried about the disruption the renovation would cause to visitors, especially as part of the restoration plans involve the property’s historic staircase. So, to counter act the disruption (and inject some fun into the process), the trust has installed a 16.5m slide that lets visitors slide from the roof of the terrace down to the gardens. Now, that's our type of historic sightseeing!

More info (design week)

Jerry's map

 

 

At 79 years young, Jerry Gretzinger and the map of his fictional world have been causing a stir in the design world. For 50 years now he’s been working on the map, which now spans over 2,500 pieces of A4.

Jerry adds to the landscape each day in his coffee break, drawing a card from a specially customized deck to decide what sheet he will work on. And don’t be fooled, this is no half hearted attempt, Jerry has created airports, high courts, cemeteries and train stations. The map is coloured to represent different altitudes, and to bring it to life further, he adds tickets, photographs, magazine cuttings, drawings and other bits and pieces to the existing pages to create textures and layers.

The images and a few brief blog posts really don’t do Jerry’s life-long project justice, so if you’re still curious then watch this brilliant short detailing the Jerry’s whole process.

More info (it's nice that)

Gathering Clouds

 

Amazon is slowly taking over the world. And I don't mean Amazon's impressive online shopping service either - I'm referring to Amazon Web Services (AWS) - possibly the largest 'Cloud' service around. Most people don't realise that many of the big web services - from Flipboard to Instagram all run on Amazons servers. In fact it's only when something goes wrong do we realise the implications.

Last week an AWS outage took down Instagram, Vine and several others (including Amazon.com too). Being taken offline is pretty serious for anyone, but for an internet only service it's disastrous. Are these web-based services relying too much on Amazon's Cloud? Perhaps, but it's doubtful that any competitor can ever offer 100% up-time. The answer then is that more companies will have to spread their reliance around as much as possible - otherwise the next outage could leave us all in the lurch! Maybe this Cloud thing is a little less fluffy than we'd imagined?

more info (techcrunch)

 Shut the Gates on your way out

 

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO announced his decision to step down - leaving a very different Microsoft from the one he inherited 13 years ago from good ol' Bill. Has his reign been a roaring success? Well if you judge his on-stage performance - he certainly thinks so! (yes, that's real). However, looking back we struggle to see the real vision he's brought to the company - for every success (Windows 7) there's been an equal failure (Windows Vista) - for every innovation (Metro interface design) there's been a cheap knock off copy (Zune).

In fact it's been remarked that Microsoft really doesn't know what to do when its out in-front - it's only when some young upstart (ie. Apple) comes along that the company realises that it has to up its game - but then that's where Microsoft can be dangerous. It does seem to be turning around and realising the up-hill climb its got to face to get back on top (finally, the Microsoft team is starting to think in 'joined-up' terms - desktop, living room, mobile all now sharing a similar approach). Let's hope his replacement just has a little more vision.

more info (the verge)

update: since writing the above it's emerged that not only has Microsoft bought Nokia (for cash no less) but the current Nokia CEO is rumoured as a replacement for the top job at Microsoft... hmmm almost like it was all planned...

At a loss

 

Poor Katie lost her iPhone this month, and being the foolish renagade she is, it wasn’t insured and didn’t feature any of the techie tracking or back up apps on the market now. 

We thought she couldn’t be the only ill prepared smartphone owner out there, and clearly Gizmodo feel the same, as this month the technology blog reviewed the best apps to have in your arsenal just in case you ever lose your phone.

Of course just being sensible with your phone is still the best defense, but Katie does like to live on the edge.

More info (Gizmodo)

Timelapse Photography re-imagined

 

Fong Qi Wei's timelapse photographs are a beautiful, yet frankenstein-esque, look through time and capture the stunning effect that sunrise or sunset can have on a land or city scape. The only thing to do with these images is simply enjoy them.

More info (FQW Images)

Newsround

Well, July has come and gone - bringing with it all manner of weather (although pretty much all of it good - makes a change!). There's also been a smattering of interesting news, here's a few things that caught our eye...  

Polishing the Chrome - Google takes on Apple TV with a budget offering
The house of mouse - the original inventor of the mouse dies aged 88  
What does Wifi look like? - art and science merge in these wifi visualisations
to Ћ point - a new symbol for 'the' is proposed, what the..?
A (webcam) view from the top - no time to visit the Eifel Tower? This is the next best thing!
Does X mark the spot? - Oxford Street has a brand new identity
Jane Austen and trolls - it is a truth universally acknowledged, that something needs to be done about trolls


Polishing the Chrome


Google, one of the largest and most influential companies in the world has been desperately trying to break into the TV space for quite some time now. From Google TV to their Nexus Q - so far, they've not had much luck.

Their most recent product launched this week aims to turn this around. The Chromecast is tiny (see image above) and isn't much bigger than your average USB stick. It's designed to plug right into your TV via an HDMI socket. It's essentially a TV extender turning your dumb, non-connected TV into a Netflix or Youtube player (and you use your phone/tablet as a remote control). At only $35 it's quite the bargain - and while anyone with a set-top box or other Netflix capable hardware won't really get much extra benefit, it does make us wonder what the point of those expensive 'Smart TVs' really are.

But will it succeed where their other efforts have failed? We'll probably have to wait till next year to see who the leaders are in this much fought over streaming hardware / broadcast service sector. For now, the Chromecast is available in the US only, rest of the world to follow.

read more (The Verge)

 The house of mouse


Doug Engelbart, one of the many unsung heroes of the computer age died this month at the age of 88. He's the man we can thank for creating the world's first computer mouse in the 1960s - long before it was taken up by Xerox / Apple in the 1980s. The mouse revolutionised the way we interact with the computer and brought precise and intuitive analogue control that's still unbeaten today (touch screen controls may be everywhere right now, but don't offer the speed or pin-point precision the mouse still gives us).

Although there are well over a billion mice around the world, unfortunately he wasn't the millionaire he could have been as, despite patenting his invention, the patent ran out in 1987 - just before the mouse became the popular and ubiquitous device it is today. His first prototype was a simple wooden box with two metal wheels and three buttons on the top - which pretty much set the 'mouse' style for many years to come. Later the rubber ball was added for smoother movement, the mechanical parts finally being replaced by the optical mice we use now.

 read more (The Guardian)

What does WiFi look like?

 
click the image to view larger

Our cities are full of all sorts of pollution – from noise and crowds to light to smog – but what other things fill the air that we can't see or sense? Artist Nickolay Lamm decided to try to visualise one of those unseen forces: the Wifi signals that surround us, emanating out from almost every home, business and coffee shop. He studied how Wifi signals work and transmit taking current data from DC.gov to pinpoint their exact locations and then visualised these waves using central Washington as his backdrop. The resulting images are both beautiful and disturbing - the city is awash with what look like swirling forcefields of electronic communication.

read more (Motherboard)

to Ћ point



It was proposed this month that we should be adding an extra character to the English language. Paul Mathis thinks that as 'and' (which is the fifth most used word in the English language) has its own character, the ampersand, then surely 'the' (which is the number one most used word) therefore deserves its own shortened version? You can't fault his logic there. And, to save us all having to replace all our keyboards or add new characters to every major font, his proposal is to use something that already exists but is little used (a Serbian language character) which is a combination of 't' and 'h'. This would become a short-hand for 'the' in the same way we use '&'. He's going to need quite a lot of support for it to catch on, but it's an interesting idea. What do you think, could you see yourself using 'Ћ' - is it needed? And if so, will we need to change our logo?  

read more (Design Week)

Does X mark the spot?

 

London’s Oxford Street unveiled its new identity this week, giving us a look at the latest interpretation of destination brands, on the back of others such as Victoria and the proposed Northbank. The new identity sees the name shortened to 'Ox St', which is concern enough given this is a global tourist destination, and names like Bond Street, Mayfair and Oxford Street are iconic destinations. Will calling it 'Ox St' undermine this recognition and cause confusion? Plus, the new logo, with its 'X' device, arguably places too much emphasis on the local vicinity around the Regent Street junction which is already highly successful with big brand tenants such as Apple, John Lewis, Liberty, etc.

If the intention is to 'reignite London's love affair' with the street then it is arguably neglecting its less successful element (the east end). Most destination brands focus on the total visitor experience or the values they represent. Oxford Street is a long, straight shopping thoroughfare, in the same way that Regent Street is a crescent and Covent Garden is a series of lanes around a central piazza. The ‘X’ places too much emphasis on a single part of it, albeit a very important part, which is already highly successful, and we would have liked to see more made of the area it represents.

What do you think of the new identity? Let us know in the comments section below.

A (webcam) view from the top

The Google Cultural Institute and the Eiffel Tower Operating Company have joined forces to bring us three online exhibitions based on the iconic French monument, including a panoramic view from the top, just in case you can't make it there yourself. Known affectionately as the "Dame de Fer", or "Iron Lady", she stands at 324 metres tall and with almost 7 million visitors a year, is also the most visited (entrance fee) monument in the world.

Jane Austin and trolls

Back in April it was noted in the press that with Sir Winston Churchill set to replace Elizabeth Fry on our £5 note, there would be no women (other than the Queen of course!) on our currency, prompting a high profile campaign led by Caroline Criado-Perez against the decision. Last week the Bank of England announced that Jane Austin will be the new face of the £10 note, leading George Osbourne to tweet “Mark Carney's choice of Jane Austen as face of £10 note is great. After understandable row over lack of women, shows sense and sensibility." We applaud the decision and George's play on words.

This campaign also led to some truly vile misogynistic Twitter trolling and raised an important and ongoing debate on the role of social media platforms in dealing with trolls. In response to criticism of its handling of this latest hate campaign, Twitter has said it's aware of the way some people misuse the platform and is launching a feature that allows users to report individual tweets. It will be interesting to see exactly how this works and what impact, if any, it has on trolls and the number of abusive tweets sent.