Showcasing Australian Creativity

Australian Edge is a really nice independent site maintained by Clayton West and Tey Vandenberg. The idea is simple: to promote Australian creativity in all forms. There's some beautiful creative work on here, along with interviews with designers, directors, animators and others. It's a real mine of talent across all creative disciplines. Australian Edge

True to type

My pals over at Made by Many have spotted a great series of postcards based on typefaces, and the subliminal messages we send out by using them. As an old-fashioned lover of type, and a member of the Metrotwin team, this article definitely hits the spot for me. You'll know from previous posts that last month we had the dream brief to create 16 new typefaces for a client. We take our type very seriously here at Lavish. Oh, and did I mention the fact I'm on a personal, one-woman crusade to promote the banning of Comic Sans forever! How do you say London in type? .

Facebook facts

Interesting information on who's using Facebook, and the opportunities for marketing that Facebook offers, which was published on my friend Iain Millar's blog this week. Who's using Facebook? .

Putting the sans in Comic Sans

Having spent many years despising both the use and users of the travesty of a typeface that is Comic Sans, I am pleased to report that the cause to ban it forever has been taken up. Since its creation in 1995, the typeface Comic Sans has enjoyed immense popularity among numerous digital type users including librarians, human resource managers, Powerpoint presenters, and Disney advertisement designers. The typeface has recently become so popular in fact that it has attracted the attention of several important typographic institutions, most notably the Foundation of National Typographers. A recent study by the FoNT foundation reveals some remarkable trends for the fledgling face. These projections are based on a scientific survey of long-term type usage trends and include a standard margin of error. The report finds that Comic Sans usage has steadily increased since 1995 at a geometric rate and is well on its way to becoming the most universally used typeface surpassing even Helvetica and Times by approximately 2018. Even more astonishing is the typographic event horizon predicted for the year 2027. The FoNT foundation has determined that according to these trends the only typeface anyone will use by the year 2030 will indeed be Comic Sans. STOP the march of the evil Comic Sans. Visit the Ban Comic Sans . website and register your support!

Big Stories Blog

We have recently launched a dedicated blog to support our Big Stories campaign, and to provide insight into great campaigns and news in the not-for-profit/third sector. Lavish has strong not-for-profit, brand, marketing and direct response experience. We have worked with leading charities, including Crisis, Public Concern at Work and the Carbon Disclosure Project, as well as some smaller ones throughout our careers. Big Stories is our dedicated not-for-profit campaign, showcasing our specialist offer and experienced team. If you want to find out more about Big Stories it has it's own website . The site is currently undergoing a design and content refresh, so it will change slightly over the coming weeks, with new content being added all the time. Lavish Big Stories blog

Nonsense

Slugs have 4 noses. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue. In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child No centipede was ever found with 100 hundred legs. Octopus have 2 legs and 6 arms. Ergophobia is a fear of work. Our eyes are always the same size from birth. that’s why some babies look like frogs. The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. The flea can jump 350 times its body length A cockroach will live nine days without it’s head, before it starves to death. Butterflies taste with their feet. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s brain. Starfish don’t have brains. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider? Right-handed people, on average, live nine years longer than left-handed people Polar bears are left-handed. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath. Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. Cartoon from Savage Chickens Nonsense from Karlology

We're moving

Due to expansion and our need for more space we are moving offices. Not too far, just down the road to Old Street. The new studio is going to be named the 'Lavish Lounge' so now it will exist online and in reality! More details next week.

Changing online behaviour to cope with credit crunch

There's some interesting research on how the credit crunch is affecting UK internet behaviour. The findings highlight three key areas in which UK online behaviour has started to adapt. 1. Consumers are searching for cheaper prices online No surprise there then that UK consumers are increasingly using price comparison and other discount websites to find the cheapest deals online. Following a 2 year decrease in traffic levels, UK Internet visits to retail price comparison sites increased by 20% between July 2007 and 2008. Similarly, searches for the summer sales have trebled this year compared with last, while consumers searching for discount vouchers have led to a 130% increase in traffic to specialist voucher websites. 2. Property searches have fallen, but traffic to House and Garden retailers has reached a new high The credit crunch has hit online estate agents hard: in August 2007, websites in Hitwise's Business and Finance - Property category accounted for 0.85% of all UK Internet visits, but last month (August 2008) this figure fell to 0.55%. Falling demand for houses is mirrored by consumer search behaviour, with UK Internet searches for 'houses for sale' down 53.1% between August 2007 and August 2008. At the same time, the share of UK Internet visits to websites in Hitwise's Shopping and Classifieds - House and Garden category increased from 0.49% in August 2007 to 0.59% in August 2008, overtaking the Business and Finance - Property category on the way. One of the factors behind the success of House and Garden retailers online has been the increase in online DIY queries, as UK consumers look to improve their accommodation on a budget. UK Internet searches for the top 10 DIY-related 'how to' queries have increased by 25% over the last 12 months. In August 2008 the top DIY search was 'how to plaster', followed by 'how to lay decking' and 'how to wallpaper'. 3. Consumers are shunning ethical consumerism in favour of energy efficiency UK Internet searches for ethical consumer products such as fair trade and organic have not increased over the last 12 months, but searches for energy efficiency terms, such as 'loft insulation', 'underfloor heating' have more than doubled over the last 12 months. Similarly, UK Internet traffic to the websites of gas and electricity providers has also doubled over the same period, as consumers hunt to find the best deal. Find out more about this research Net Imperative Source: Hitwise

Metrotwin is live

Metrotwin, the British Airways powered online social recommendations resource I have been working on is now live. It's still in Beta, and will be for a while, but you no longer need an invite to get in. As I've mentioned before, Metrotwin brings the best of London and New York together in one place. Some of the key new features are: The Metrotwin Index - an attention-based, dynamically generated score that applies to every place in both cities on the site. When people pay a place attention it goes up, and when no-one’s interested it ticks down. Metrotwin Recommends - a new personalised recommendation panel within the user profile. It works by looking at everything you and everyone else have loved, saved, visited and reviewed - and it tells you the kind of places that people like you are interested in. The ability to add links to external services (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, IM and Skype) to your personal profile City-wide map views - a nicer way to view. A Site Tour - to help you find your way around. Metrotwin has been delivered by a highly talented multi-agency team. Visit Metrotwin

Drinking vessel

Two birds. One stone.

The Sewerside Chronicles

I've just finished reading a brilliantly funny book by Tim Lay. The Sewerside Chronicles charts the story of a small fashion label based in a seaside town in North Devon. Che Capri is approaching 30, and living the dream. He and 'business' partner Travis, run Sewerside – a cutting edge streetwear clothing label. It’s the Millennium and Sewerside’s quasi-apocalyptic sense of style has won plaudits from style magazines and the fashionista crowd. However, having hit it lucky with their first collection, the money’s now running out and their dreams of making it big are fast disappearing. But somewhere along the way Sewerside stops being about the money and becomes about an ideal. While the marketing buzz on the fashion streets is ‘keep it real’, Sewerside intend to do just that. As the business chugs towards financial disaster, The Sewerside Chronicles charts a hilariously painful campaign of manufacture, retail, black economics, trade shows, fashion circles, rural deviancy, violent demos, raves in the countryside, and anarchy at Glastonbury festival. Representing the hopes, fears and the naiveté of creative industry and protest idealism, The Sewerside Chronicles provides a humorous snapshot of a time when counter culture was all but swallowed-up by its commercial counterpart. This book is for anyone who's ever run their own business, tried to make a creative idea profitable or just generally likes to laugh out loud on the train while reading. There are some hilarious extracts on the website. Buy a copy today. Sewerside Chronicles Extracts

Metrotwin press interest

Metrotwin has picked up some nice press this week. Contagious

The art of Type

We are picking up a fantastic brief tomorrow – to create 16 bespoke typefaces. For a production studio whose roots are in the creation of type, this really is a dream brief. Typography is probably my most favourite of all of the creative services disciplines. The ability to convey words and messages through type is, to me, the most creative of arts. Not only that, but from a production point of view, the rigour and rules that surround the use of words really inspire me. For me, a perfectly kerned, beautifully crafted piece of typography is very hard to beat. There are some great groups on Flickr dedicated solely to the art of typography. Take a look at some of these: Found Type Typophile Vintage Type

At the court of King John

A beautiful portrait by my wonderfully talented photographer friend, Jorge Monedero, appeared in Luxx magazine in today's Times. The specially commissioned portrait of John Galliano captures the regal presence of this unique fashion icon. The portrait accompanies an article by James Collard. View the full article snd Jorge's fabulous image on the Times website Times Online Luxx magazine .

Congratulations...its twins!

Metrotwin, the British Airways powered social bookmarking resource I have been involved with for 5 months has launched this week into an invitation only Public Beta. We’ve still got 2 weeks until the stabilisers come off and we go fully live, but you can now sign up to the site request an invite and join the community. Metrotwin is a fantastic resource which features the 'best of the best' from London and New York, recommended by the people in the know. We have been working with content partners, bloggers and of course the very talented multi-agency team to get great places recommended, reviewed and twinned. Team MT are more than a little bit proud of what has been achieved in quite a short period of time, and can’t wait to see how Metrotwin grows. Take a look at the blog or visit the site and get yourself an invite. Metrotwin .

Dear Adobe

For anyone who has ever had anything to gripe about with their Adobe products, this site is for you. Dear Adobe has the best gripes on all of the Adobe products. My particular favourites from the top 100 being: At no 15: Could you make Adobe Reader start up slower? I'd like to have enough time to go get a sandwich before I read a one page document. At No 22: Adobe Updater is the single worst piece of software I have ever seen. Please fuck off with that. and finally: At no 55: Enable auto-recover for Photoshop, so when it inevitably crashes for the 9th time today I can get back to the corporate schlock I was working on. Read the full list and submit gripes of your own...go on, you know you want to. Dear Adobe .

Mr Chips is dead

One man's dropped chip is another man's forensic investigation.

Cold War Posters and Exhibition

The V&A have produced a book called Posters of the Cold War, in conjunction with their forthcoming exhibition Cold War Modern Design 1945-70. The exhibition explores modern art, architecture, design and film in the period 1945-70, highlighting the ways in which artists and designers responded to the conditions of the Cold War. The poster was a key medium in the Cold War, used to produce both fear and loyalty at home and abroad. Posters of the Cold War surveys poster design from the late 1940s when the ‘Iron Curtain’ was drawn across Europe to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Featuring over seventy designs by some of the leading artists and graphic designers of the period including Pablo Picasso, Grapus Design Collective and Peter Kennard, posters have been selected from twenty countries to demonstrate the wide international reach of the conflict. Really looking forward to this exhibition, which runs from 25 September 2008 to 11 January 2009. V&A

What the F**K is Social Media?

Short, sweet and succinct explanation of Social Media.

What The F**K is Social Media?

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmediamarketing marketing)

Electronic Ink

Men's magazine Esquire is celebrating its 75th anniversary in the US with a limited-edition run of 100,000 copies featuring covers using Electronic Ink technology. The technology works by printing ink containing charged microcapsules, onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver - powered by a tiny battery. Esquire's 75th Anniversary E-Ink cover took more than a year to develop. 100,000 lucky customers will find an animated panel on their copies of Esquire, displaying flashing text and images, along with an enhanced Ford Flex advert on the inside cover. Watch the video: Esquire . http://www.esquire.com/the-side/video/e-ink-cover-video?click=pp

Crystal Ball

Well it seems like Autumn is prematurely here, and mentally it feels like the last quarter of 2008 has definitely started. While we have been continuously busy over July and August, there is a distinct change of pace in the last week – with clients getting focussed on the run up to Christmas and the laid-back August feeling starting to seem like a distant memory. As we go into the last stretch of the year, I’ve been thinking about 2008 so far. Without doubt it has been a bit of a bumpy ride – definitely a game of two halves to use a well-worn football pun. The start to the year was very quiet, and with reports of the credit crunch and impending economic doom doing little to make us feel better, we went into the Summer with a certain amount of uncertainty. But the second half of the year has picked up brilliantly for us. We’ve been doing some amazing things, particularly some great, very visible large format work and are still working with CDP in the run up to the Global launch of their report on 22 September in New York. So thinking about the next 4 months of 2008 – what twists and turns and surprises lay in store for Lavish? It’s hard to know in the current market, but I am convinced the biting credit crunch will continue to put marketing and brand budgets under stress. Clients will be looking to smaller agencies, with lean, agile teams and cross discipline expertise to help them maximise their budgets. I think the model of smaller and mid sized agencies sharing resources and skills will grow, as they look to be ever more effective for clients. And new business and marketing effort is more important than ever to keep in front of people when they are making tough decisions about what marketing activity to do. Only time will tell if my ‘predictions’ will come true. But I do know that Lavish are positioned better than ever before to benefit from this changing market.

How to do just about anything

It's been a bit quiet on the blog front while we've had a busy few weeks. More of that later. In the meantime, I found this great site, which has 'How to' videos on just about everything. Video Jug

Amazing projections and immersive environments

My attention was recently drawn to an amazing US based multi media design lab, through an article in Fast Company. Obscura Digital, who create their experiential marketing magic out of a 30,000 warehouse in San Francisco, have developed their own proprietary software, which literally turns any surface into a stunning high resolution video display. This means that they can create large-scale immersive environments, holographic projects, laser graffiti and motion triggered billboards - just for starters. Think Star Trek holodeck and you’re getting there. For the launch of iGoogle, Obscura turned the whole of New York’s meatpacking district into a massive outdoor art gallery for 3 nights. Over 70 artists participated in this cutting edge marketing campaign and the results were show stopping. Obscura also created amazing viewer activated and interactive displays for the launch of CS3, one of Adobe’s biggest ever product launches. I definitely recommend taking a look at the work on their site, and watch out for these guys, I think we’ll see more Obscura work - in the most unlikeliest of places! Obscura

Headshift Summer Party

Having been chained to the office for the past few weeks and weekends, last night we had some well needed social time at the Headshift Summer Party. I have been working with Headshift for a couple of months, and in that time they have moved into funky new offices in Shad Thames. Headshift is Europe's leading enterprise social computing consultancy. They are expert in designing, implementing and growing next generation social software solutions. We spent a very pleasant evening on the roof terrace chatting to various 'Headshifters' and Stuart and Tim from Made by Many. And the top bonus was - it didn't rain!

Free tool for DIY font design

There may be thousands of fonts available online, but for truly dedicated members of Generation C — who live to create their own, fresh content, that's sometimes not enough. Luckily, help is now at hand in the form of a do-it-yourself font-building tool from digital type retailer FontShop. FontStruc is a free, online tool that lets users quickly and easily create fonts by arranging geometrical shapes in a grid pattern, much like tiles or bricks. Working one letter at a time, users add and remove shapes including blocks and dots to achieve a look they like. Once they're done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application. Users can keep their "FontStructions" private, or they can share them with the FontStruct community for discussion, rating and downloading. They can also display them on other websites or blogs through the FontStruct widget. Several Creative Commons license options are available to allow varying degrees of sharing. Fontstruct Source: Springwise.com

Inhale the web

I am enjoying using Addict-o-Matic. As the blurb on the site says: Addict-o-Matic searches the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It's the perfect tool to keep up with the hottest topics, perform ego searches and feed your addiction for what's up, what's now or what other people are feeding on. Try it. It's cool Addict-o-Matic

New recruits to Team Lavish

We are so happy to announce that we've added some new top-talent to the Lavish team in the past week or so. We are really looking forward to working again with Tim, who is a senior digital creative. A skilled digital designer, motion graphics design/artist and audio/visual specialist - there's not much digital work that Tim hasn't done. Clementine joins us permanently on 1 September, having freelanced with us for the past year. Clem graduated from Central St Martins with a degree in graphic design. Since studying she has worked freelance on design and illustration commissions for a varied client base and her work has featured in branding, on advertising campaigns, wallpaper and product lines, book jackets and set designs. And Allan, our 3D and Photoshop guru is now based in-house with us at Smokehouse Yard. I think we might be looking for new offices in the very near future.....

Photoshop disasters

Nothing amuses us more in the Lavish Lounge than seeing really bad retouching, artwork or image work out there in the commercial world. Seems we are not the only ones who snigger at this type of thing. Check out Photoshop Disasters. There are some top cock-ups in April - especially the Prince Caspian on the side of the bus. What was that about reading the artwork spec....?

Project Management tools take the strain

I subscribe to Computer Arts Magazine, which I generally enjoy reading. Although a lot of the articles tell us stuff we already know, it is still a good read, and often has some quite inspiring design articles. However, this month, they ran an article called ‘Project Management tools take the strain’. As a project manager in the creative industry for over 15 years I turned with great interest to this article. Boy, was I disappointed. Apparently creative project management has 4 ingredients: - A Gantt chart to keep an overview of demands and deadlines - File naming protocol - Systems for client communication - A system to keep track of outstanding bills and invoicing – to make sure that ‘money turns up when you need it’ This is a massively simplified view of the skills required by a top-flight creative project manager. Yes, project managers utilise programmes to help them run projects – from MS Project, MS Excel, Base Camp and many other tools – but the article missed the most important ‘ingredients’ for a creative project manager. That is, it is not about the software you use, but about what you bring to a project. A good project manager has experience, initiative and insight. No computer programme in the world will make up for a bad project manager; who cannot plot a critical path on the ‘back of a fag packet’, who cannot identify and mitigate against project risks, who cannot talk intelligently and knowledgeably about project planning and who cannot work out a project budget or P+L without the aid of a calculator or sophisticated programme to ‘make sure money turns up when you need it’.

Business Guys on Business Trips

Fantastically funny site. No need to say anymore than that, but if you work in the creative industry you'll recognise plenty of these characters! Business Guys on Business Trips