Productivity App of the Month - August: Morning

We’re the generation of texters, tweeters and “phubbers”. For many, a cursory glance at their tablet or Smartphone has replaced the morning coffee, and this month’s app holds the mirror up to our cultural technophilia.

Online metrics: avoiding a false economy

If you’re using online stats to justify a campaign, you’re missing the point.

We’ve recently come across this particularly striking picture campaign for Unicef. Simple in design, it delivers an incredibly poignant message to brands and creative agencies alike: Likes and follows are not a currency.

'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' launches viral marketing campaign

As social media channels continue to grow their ability to inform our lives, film studios are relying heavily on 'see and share' content designed for moviegoers. This social networking trend has taken a step further this year with new campaigns for X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Steve Barnes' week in pictures

Ever wondered what do the Idealogy team get up to on a daily basis? Well here's 'the evidence' and a sneaky peek at the weekend too. Nothing too incriminating (yet!)

Monday – The start of the heatwave… iced water all round!
Tuesday – Lunchtime arrival of the Southampton Rhinos
Wednesday – It’s all in the planning!
Thursday – An evening float to cool down at sun down
Friday – Friday night Party Rhino
Saturday – My weekend Basecamp
Sunday – After a snap and a thud, maybe I’m too old for rope swings??

Splines, Nurbs and Bézier curves?

Learning any new piece of software can be a daunting task. As a designer who has spent the best part of 20 years using Adobe’s Creative Suite, you find yourself using an ever-familiar layout of tools and menu items. Like muscle memory, these become second nature. Paths. Crop. Select. As designers, we all get to grips with these ever-familiar terms. So when I took on training for Cinema 4D, it came as some surprise to be faced with a whole new array of technical terms. Booleans. Splines. Nurbs. Hypernurbs. Bézier Curves. Bézier Nurbs. Bézier Splines even. These may sound like the kind of jargon you would expect to hear in a science fiction movie (“Activate the Hypernurb!”), but they are actually some the core elements to creating material in Cinema 4D. Bézier Splines, for example, is a method for creating soft, spatial curves. Hypernurbs, allow you to take geometric shapes and sculpt them into smooth, rounded objects. But why these strange names? Where did they come from?

Cowes Week 2013 - Sunshine, smiling faces and many Mojitos… but no sailing!

We love our annual Cowes Week ‘outing’. It’s the perfect opportunity to down tools for a few hours, jump on the RedJet and cross the Solent to relax, chat and absorb all that the final day of Cowes Week has to offer. Admittedly in our case that is mostly in the form of beer and cocktails – but hey that’s what it’s all about by that stage in the Regatta isn’t it?

 

1. Has anyone warned them we’re coming?

2. What you looking at!

3. Is that a burger?

4. Fish ‘n Chip snack

5. The consultancy team – relaxing

6. Family fun

7. Ted the amazing Pimms drinking dog

8. Many Mojitos

9. Group hug

10. Lovely ladies

11. Limbo Lily

12. Dangerous Dave

13. Mine’s a cup of Tea… just joking

14. I need a P please Bob

15. The Coconut Cocktail Queen

16. The happy couple… and friend

17. This is our best side

18. Red Arrow madness

19. The Idealogy team on tour

20. Old friends in the party spirit

21. Fantastic fireworks

22. Sing along… we did!

Simple launches Global websites – yes that’s plural!

I’ve been involved in many global web launches over the years, but none quite as ‘all consuming’ as the launch of Simple for Unilever. The project that started in July 2012, finally launching in July 2013, with the rollout the US site. This site being the last of the initial six (UK, US, AUS, NZ, CA x2) with lots more sites planned globally.