The MUJI Design Awards

Awarding simplicity...now there's a thought. MUJI, have just relaunched their website with an outline of their design mantra - simple, timeless, functional design classics. It's refreshing to see a company getting back to basics and I think they've judged the zeitgeist pretty well. In a time where our lives are getting more and more complicated, increasingly revolving around technology, I think companies who offer simple solutions to everyday problems/needs will do well. In the same way that people are switching to organic, locally produced foods, I think people will begin to look for companies like Muji to lead the way in simplifying their lives.

To emphasise their commitment to this philosphy, MUJI have recently concluded their international design competition and the winner, a straw straw clearly demonstrates what they're looking for: simple, functional, back to basics design.

I've also been watching a lot of TED recently and I came across this talk by Barry Schwarz on the Paradox of Choice. His idea is that although conventional wisdom dictates that freedom of choice is one of the fundamental foundations of a modern, free, democratic society, the western world has gone too far down this route, to the point that we are paralysed by the amount of choice we have. So instead of choice enriching our lives, it often does the opposite, making us despair over whether we have made the right choice or not.

The day after I saw this

and I annoyed a number of people behind me by faffing about, trying to pick a drink from the myriad of choices. Then I thought, wouldn't it be great if there was a coffeeshop that made things simple for us, that just served great coffee, plain, great filter coffee, instead of a venti low fat soy decaf chai latte? It might save us all some queuing time and some grey hairs!

Poladroid - More Flickr Genius

Just found this funky Polaroid converter. It's really easy to use and converts your digital photos into polaroid lookalikes. It's a bit of a craze on Flickr at the mo, check out this group and mine for more. I really like the didgeridoo man one I took, just found him practising in an alleyway in Covent Garden. I thought he was busking so gave him some money and asked if I could take some pictures of him. Turns out he wasn't a busker....bit of a blunder, but he was chilled anyway and let me take some photos.

My two cents on the credit crunch and the role for creative companies

At this year's Olympics, Usain Bolt blew away the competition and became the fastest man on earth. Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympian of all time. Apart from being the quickest in their disciplines, what do these two athletes have in common? They're different, they're extraordinary, Usain Bolt is 6ft 5ins, dwarfing most stocky powerhouse sprinters. Michael Phelps has size 14 feet, his arm span is disproportionately large. In short, they're completely adapted to what they're doing. That's all well and good, but how does this relate to marketing....?

In the wake of the announcement by Martin Sorrell I read yesterday saying that there are planned redundancies for WPP in the UK and US in 2009. It's often been said that in recessions, the more creative advertising ideas get relegated for more solid proven money drivers. But I've been thinking that this time, it's going to be the agencies that are nimble, reactive and quick on their feet and the ones that can prove that they can lead the field in terms of innovation that will succeed.

When massive Comms groups like WPP announce that there are recruitment freezes, that restricts the extent to which the operating companies can manouevre themselves. When client budget belts are tightening and when they need to grab market share with quick, headline grabbing, innovative campaigns, I reckon small, independent agencies are better placed to do this. These are the companies that don't have to abide by recruitment freezes and can make audacious pitches for client business against larger agencies, in the knowledge that those larger agencies may be struggling for resource. With the staff turnover in some large media and creative agencies so high and their lack of ability to hire new people to replace those leaving, surely it won't be long before large clients start to notice a drop in service levels?

Along with this uncertainty comes the possibility that talent, trained in the big agencies, will go with these clients to smaller agencies, looking for more creative roles and higher salaries.

A company like Ideo, while not being a media or ad agency, by being renowned for it's innovation capabilities is gaining media coverage and paper headlines. In the Guardian recently, Mat Hunter, partner at Ideo is quoted as saying that in sluggish times "you have to respond to rapidly changing consumer sentiment and this should prompt rapid innovation". It's this innovation that will make brands stand out and steal a march on their competition.

Brands like Innocent, have taken this to heart, launching new products when traditional thinking would dictate that high end, premium products like theirs would suffer in a recession. It's their guess that people still think good, healthy food is worth paying that bit extra for. So they've launched Veg Pots, find more here - they look pretty tasty!

It's these companies, the Usains and Michaels of their field, that will break records and post their personal bests over the next few years.

There's a first time for everything - Data makes me happy - Flickr Stats

Anyone who knows me will probably know that I am obsessed with Flickr. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they added Flickr stats. Just in the 5 minutes time that I looked at it earlier, I found loads of little gems that I otherwise wouldn't have known; that people have actually been commenting on my photos for a while and have added some as favourites.

They've also updated the homepage so that you can see all the recent activity on your photos, any comments, favourites or views. It's great to see this as it gives you a real idea of who is looking for photos like yours and who are the best people to get talking to among your contacts.

Plus, they link with Moo, makers of Moo Cards so on the back of the cards I just ordered, I've been able to put my own pictures. Seriously, I love Flickr!

Btw, I'm aware this is an extremely geeky post

Playtime - live a kidulthood

Just watched a couple of programmes which have made me think about creativity and how we approach it as adults.

The first of these programmes was a 3 Minute Wonder on Channel 4 in which children from a primary school in London were given free reign to give their ideas on the potential future developments and uses for various household appliances and fixtures. Among the ideas they came up with were interactive wallpapers to fit your mood, operated by a microphone implanted in your living room wall, fridges which selected healthy food for you from the shelves and beds which respond to body temperature and make sure that the lucky person sleeping on them is at the most comfortable temperature.

The second programme which got me thinking was a TED talk by Tim Brown, co founder of design and innovation firm Ideo around the idea that by embracing the idea of creative playtime, getting over our adult inhibitions, we can often come up with our most inspiring ideas. The talk formed part of The Art Center Serious Play Design Conference earlier this year.

Tim Brown's argument is that many good ideas never get voiced by their owners as they are scared that they will be immediately dismissed.He points to the layouts and designs of the offices of companies which aspire to provide their clients with creative solutions to their problems, the Google Zurich office complete with slides, fireman poles and T-rex skeletons, being just one example.

It's something which I am a firm believer in, and no it's not because I am a lazy person, I just believe that as the saying goes, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". It's in this spirit that I have been mucking around with my camera recently. I'm not saying that I've created anything fantastic, it just felt quite liberating to play around and take photos of nothing much! One of the results is below


If I can find the 3 Minute Wonder video, I will post it here soon.

On a separate note, Under Scan was closed today....due to rain, damn English November weather!

Adam Neate Free Art

This Friday Nov 14th, Adam Neate, a street artist renowned for giving away his work for free by leaving it on London's streets will distribute 1,000 silkscreen prints around the streets of London. During the night, teams will work from the outskirts of London towards the centre, leaving the prints as they go.

It's estimated that the collective worth of these prints is £1million, so if you walk past one of these prints, looking a little out of place, give it a second thought and pick it up, it might make Christmas all the merrier!

Onedotzero at the BFI

onedotzero_adventures in motion, london 14-16 nov from onedotzero on Vimeo.

A new series of events at the BFI - Onedotzero - Adventures in Motion - 14th Nov-16th Nov.

The blurb from the BFI site gives us an idea of what to expect:

the festival showcases a tantalising mix of the brightest up-and-coming talents alongside world-leading creative luminaries; an international array of creators who stretch ideas of motion entertainment, where code clashes with hand crafted, street art tussles with technology and new modes of storytelling are unleashed from the small screen to the BFI IMAX. all underpinned by a theme of citystates, a creative inquiry into the idea of how we live in the modern metropolis.

And best of all, it's FREE

Under Scan at Trafalgar Square

Next week the Trafalgar Square North Terrace will be covered in the world's largest interactive video installation. It's going to cover an area over 2000m squared. Two projectors will cover the area with over 100,000 rays of light so that anyone who walks through the space. As a person enters the area they will be detected by a camera and tracking system and a series of video portraits will be projected onto their shadows. It's going to make for some interesting photos I think, I'll be sure to take some and they will be uploaded here next week. The Under Scan project is designed by electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

A concept sketch is shown above and below is a photo of the installation in action

The Photographic Adventures of Nick Turpin

Here's an example of a brand having a good online idea to promote one of it's products only to be let down by a poorly laid out and frustrating website.

Samsung sent renowned street photographer Nick Turpin around Europe with their new 8 megapixel cameraphone. His mission was clear and simple, to take the best photos he could using the Samsung phone. Visitors to the website suggest the themes that Nick must focus on during his travels. These range from "Beer" to "Space" to "Sticker" and "Danger".

The site is well linked, Nick has a Twitter page, a Flickr gallery and you can see where he is on Google via GPS and the associated pages work well. But the microsite itself looks cheap and is annoying to navigate. It's a shame, because the quality of the photos and the quality of the idea is high,but it's let down by the microsite. It could have followed a much better formula, as shown in a website like this - put together by an amateur photographer. Anyway here's some examples of how Samsung have used various platforms to spread the message.

Reverse Graffiti

Reverse Graffiti

Where graffiti is often viewed as making marks on otherwise "clean" surfaces, reverse graffiti involves cleaning previously dirty wall with high pressure hoses in order to make a picture. This flips our usual ideas about the artform, highlighting how dirty some of our surroundings really are. The examples above come from road tunnels which are covered in layers of grime.

Reminded of the Power of Black and White

Having a browse through Flickr and thought I would post a few of my recent faves. I could spend hours on that site, the quality of photography from amateur photographers is outstanding. The three I have posted above were taken in Beijing and Shanghai by travelight and sakura love. It would be hard to find better examples of where black and white photography can work than the two above. As England gets colder and darker by the day as we push into winter, I can see myself turning to a spot of the old black and white photography!

Barack Coverage in China

Couldn't resist a quick China related Obama post. The story was front page new for most national media. I found this picture on a good blog called 56minus1, written by a fellow who takes a look at underground China and youth culture, especially things like Neocha and The Shanghai Beat. His videos have also appeared on Danwei.

(The original image comes from Danwei)