Art for good - New York artist asks Londoners how they feel about street crime
June 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Profero have teamed up with New York urban artist Paul Notzold to create two events for Channel 4’s Disarming Britain season. The events will show Paul’s work projected onto the side of buildings around London showing images relating to street crime accompanied by questions such as “How can we get weapons off our streets?” encouraging the public’s response. The public are invited to text in their answers which are displayed in real-time alongside the image. The events will be held in Brick Lane on 26th June and Shepherd’s Bush on 27th June between 9:30pm and 11:00pm For more information on Channel 4’s Disarming Britain week click here.
Book publishing for kids
June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We are always telling clients to understand their audience and talk to them at their level, but this new offering from Tikatok has made me think that this should be applied to more services. Through the site, kids can write their own bedtime story, upload their drawings to illustrate it and then share it with their friends and family through their network. For $20 they are also able to print off a hardback or paperback version of their creation to keep.
Urban Takeover
June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I just love this. Urban Takeover mixes graffiti with geo-tagging to bring an game that can be played either alone or as part of a team. Users go to the site, download stickers and then place them in areas around the globe that they would like to lay claim to. You then send a text message to Urban Takeover and formally register your claim. The website shows the areas your team have claimed and where the hotspots are to get your more points. The competitive element comes where another team can take your claim as their own, sending you a text message informing you of this attack so you can fight back. A Team Awesome project is needed I think.
Who blogs now?
June 9, 2008 | 2 Comments
eMarketer have just published a new report looking into demographics of bloggers. Interestingly enough I am often being told that blogs are a fad that 18-24’s adopt and will never hit mainstream (we have possibly argued extensively out if that’s you), but the average age is actually 37.6. What struck me the most about this report is looking at how the new generation are starting to consume media with 71% of 13-24’s watching and reading content written by others on the web and 35% of them keeping a blog themselves compared to 34% of them using the web to watch TV. I was having this conversation with Ruby last week on how we are starting to see the younger generation using technology as a matter of fact and do not see it as this wonderful `new’ thing that will change their lives. If you link to this video, you will see the quite wonderful Clay Shirky provide a wonderful example of a time when he was at his friends house watching TV with his friend and their 4 year old daughter. After a while the little girl gets up, wanders over to the TV and starts playing with the wires behind it. “What are you doing there honey” Dad asks. “I’m looking for the mouse”. To a 4 year old, a screen that doesn’t allow you to interact with it is broken. Enough said.
Philips Design Probes
June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This is a nice little series of experiements from Philips Design Probes. Through tracking trends and developments that may evolve into mainstream issues that have an impact on business, they are focusing on key areas covering politics, economics, culture, environments and technology features which will enable them to understand lifestyle post 2020. There are some really interesting projects going on including how we can create a sustainable habitat in 2020, but being a tattoo fan one that caught my eye in particular is The Electronics Tattoo.
The Orange balloon race
June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Something good from Iain Tait and the guys at Poke, a balloon race across the internet ad the furthest one wins a prize. Site owners can sign up at playballoonacy.com and register their site to be part of the fun (see balloon in the corner of this site). The one that goes the furthest in 7 days wins a £20,000 VIP trip to Ibiza for you and 7 friends. I was planning to have a year off from Ibiza this year, but couldn’t resist taking part.
Lastminute viral
May 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
OK so this isn’t the funniest viral in the world but it still made me smile. Set in Stansted Airport, characters such as airport staff, cleaners and policemen perform a song and dance to unsuspecting passengers. The viral is to promote their half-price theatre ticket deal currently running on their website.
IKEA offer furniture to The Sims players
May 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
IKEA have teamed up with The Sims 2 creators EA Games to enable users to place IKEA products in their virtual homes. The offering will be brought out as an add-on software package later on this year and will offer products such as beds, coffee tables and sofas.
Muxtaping
May 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
Muxtape is a great site that allows users to upload their MP3’s to make mixtapes for the modern era. A particularly great one from Mr Lloyd Davis can be found here.
Brand tags
May 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
Noah Brier writes one of the best blogs around and has developed an experiment called Brand Tags. The interface displays a brand logo and asks users to insert the first word or phrase associated with that brand. Noah has included a list of all the brands added to date on the site, and if you click on a particular brand, you can see a tag cloud of all the words entered surrounding that brand. To date over 700,000 tags have been added. Great work Noah, I know this is keeping you really busy so hang in there!
