I thought I'd post this because it's a really great example of what can be achieved using plain old HTML and CSS. Ceci n'est pas flash indeed.
tantek.com
Tags: Design

This is a brilliant little flash application that provides a gateway into the world of Flickr. You enter the tag you wish to search for into the box and the application then finds all the images under that tag. Not only that, when you click off the main part of the page it zooms out to reveal all the related tags for you to investigate too. This could have amazing potential in an e-commerce environment.
www.airtightinteractive.com
Tags: Flickr

This is the website of a really hot London design studio. Founded by James Goggin after finishing at the Royal College of Art it has grown into something of a design collective. Their clients include Channel 4, Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and the Design Museum. In addition, James runs All Weather, a clothing range featuring some really nice t-shirt and sweatshirt designs.
www.practise.co.uk
www.practise.co.uk/all-weather
Tags: Design

Holding ipod parties has been going on for some time now. As far as I know it started at the Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes bar in Shoreditch and was also adopted amongst some BBC employees. Anyway, it's now been commercialised, slightly, by noWax. The premise of noWax is this: we bring the equipment and you bring the tunes, either on your ipod or another mp3 player. The next noWax party is at the Barbican on 30th March.
www.nowax.co.uk
Tags: Music

Moment of excitement just now as I decided to read the monthly Springwise e-newsletter. I was reading the first article about zopa.com (posted on this blog at the beginning of March) when I got to the end only to see my name as one of the accredited sources! I feel officially important. You can read it for yourself here.

Puma have launched a Starck Sandal for Spring Summer. The most wearable of Starck's work for Puma to date. 'The Starck-PUMA sandal is constructed from a lightweight, fully injection-molded T.P.U. shell and a comfortable compression-molded E.V.A. midsole. It too has the micro-herringbone non-slip outsole tread design for better traction on wet surfaces.'
It's another playfull and funky design from Starck and seems to be part of a trend that started with the Nike Newson Zvezdochka and has since been adopted by Camper (with their 3 part shoe 'Wabi') and Crocs.
www.puma.com
Tags: Trainers, Sneakers

Both the BBC and Channel 5 have reached the conclusion that downloadable TV content is the future. The BBC is currently trialling IMP (Interactive Media Player) allowing users to download programmes within a week of them being aired. Channel 5 has announced the launch of downloadable content for £1.50 per programme. This price seems a bit steep considering that the programme is free to air and that various studies have found that the maximum users are prepared to pay for content is £1. However, it is good to see both organisations working towards 'broadband tv'.
www.bbc.co.uk
www.five.tv

'Spreadshirt allows designers to market a range of clothing from dresses, underwear and jackets to t-shirts, sweatshirts, and caps.

Surfers who fancy themselves as the next Stella McCartney can add their own designs or catchy slogans to over 50 products.

Spreadshirt then creates an online store where the designer can set the prices for their new collection and add the new store to their own website. That's where the work ends for the designer, as Spreadshirt handles payment, manufacture, shipping and customer service.

The Spreadshirt model has taken Europe by storm over the last three years, with over 60,000 designers and website owners creating their own clothing lines.' via dexigner
www.spreadshirt.net
Tags: Design, Ideas

Starck is teaming up with F6, a Geneva conglomerate to create Starck Hotels. Starck has designed several hotels before but these will be the first with his name on the sign. According to the press release Starck wants to create a place where “people are more awesome, are more sexy, are more smart, more sparkling.” via Luxist
www.askf6.com
Tags: Design

Warner Brothers have agreed to sponsor The Eric Rice Show. They will be mentioned whenever an exclusive track that they have provided is played. via Clickz

This follows Heineken creating it's own podcast back in December. The BBC launching In Our Time and Fighting Talk. The UK's Virgin Radio also launched it's own podcast in early March.
Tags: Technology

This is the really interesting site of surface 2 air. The site is designed to look and feel like a classic Mac interface. Windows can be opened and closed, and folders explored. Based in New York and Paris they work as a creative design team with works ranging from work for Nike's concept space in New York to creating their own range of furniture.
They also have their own boutique stores which sell original surface 2 air clothing.

'Comprised of 4 Americans, 2 French, and 1 Argentinian, these young individuals have taken it upon themselves to push against the walls of lethargy in order to create something new and different, yet not to partake in fad or trend. Their goal is to shape a new tradition in fashion and art, to combine the fine with the commercial, to find a meeting point where everything melds together- a new sense of communication.'
www.surface2air.com
Tags: Design

Bust-Up gum - A chewing gum which the makers say can help enhance the size, shape and tone of the breasts has proved to be a big hit in Japan. via www.bbc.co.uk

Bacon Whores - 'Finally, you can have tasty, sizzling bacon, without all the shopping, planning, and preparation. Just schedule your appointment at baconwhores.com, and our trained experts will come and prepare bacon for you, exactly the way you like it.' Some nonsense worth noting. via Agenda

It's not often that a truly brilliant idea comes along but this could well be one of those. OpenAd is a depository of creative ideas that can then be bought by brands either for a year or forever.
'OpenAd is a global platform for the buying and selling of advertising, design and marketing services ideas. It enables the direct connection between the creators and buyers of ideas. We also enable companies and agents to licence the use of these concepts.'
In other words if you think of something that would work well for a brand you create a white labeled version and sell it on OpenAd. So from now on every time you have a great idea do something about it and post it on OpenAd. You could have just written the next 'Just do it'. Genuine Open Source marketing?
www.openad.net
Tags: Marketing, Ideas

Much has been made of the new Full Circle concept store in London's Covent Garden so I thought I had better check it out. The store itself has been lauded for its movement theme with furniture moving around almost taking you by surprise.

My experience of the store was pretty mixed. Upon entering I was slightly disappointed as it looked like any other mid-priced fashion brands store. There was very little evidence of movement except for the spinning mannequin in the window. As I started to peruse the rails I noticed that the flowers 'planted' in the floor were not static and in fact they could pop out of their metallic hiding places any time they liked. In addition, some of the mirrors were rotating as was a rack of t-shirts. Despite the run-of-the-mill men's clothing this store was looking slightly more interesting. The best effect though were the shadow projections onto the canvas around the changing rooms - an effect that suggested women were changing in the nearest two rooms. However, for all this the store was not quite the kinetic minefield that I was hoping for and to top it all off the ambiance of the place was slightly off. We were inundated with staff and some 90s trance was, for some reason, coming through the soundsystem.

If you are around Covent Garden the store is probably worth a quick visit and the women's' line is pretty decent.

Another Covent Garden store that has recently undergone a refit is Tiger of Sweden. For a long time this has been a favourite of mine as it combines some sharp tailoring with some excellent casual/sports wear. The store itself has gone very 1980s in look with dark walls and floor with a single thin red line crossing the floor at a 45 degree angle. In complete contrast with Full Circle the staff were attentive without being intrusive and the store music was the latest Thievery Corporation album (not cutting edge but in fitting with the rest of the store). Sadly they have removed the women's collection but the word was that a new women's boutique would be opening in the near future.
www.fullcircleuk.com
www.tigerofsweden.com
Tags: Fashion

No sooner than podcasting starts to become part of the lexicon a new technology comes along.

Video 9 is a free tool that will manage and convert video files to play on your PlayStation Portable. The cool part is- you can add Videora and using RSS, and BitTorrent subscribe to video feeds. While this is just another example of podcasting, videocasting, etc... the really interesting thing here is that many portable devices capable of playing audio and video are hitting the market with applications that can automatically grab and convert stuff you want from the cloud using RSS and BitTorrent. Music, Audiobooks, eBooks, how-to videos, movies, TV, it's all starting to really happen. via Makezine
Tags: Technology

Neil K or Brevity as he's known on Flickr has come up with a great application that blends images that share the same Flickr tags. This allows compositions to be created with no human involvement - the program selects the images from the specific tag and blends them with no thought as to how good or bad the results look. In '50 people see' Brevity has chosen the Flickr tag 'shadow' and the results are rather lovely and abstract.
Tags: Design, Photo

'Bill Gates wants computer users, well, Microsoft users, to have a more enjoyable on-screen reading experience -- so much so that he made improving reading on the screen one of his top five priorities.

Beginning in 2006, Microsoft says it will ship with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading.

The Microsoft collection includes two serif, three sans serif, and a monospaced face for use in programming environments. They are intended to be text typefaces as opposed to display faces that are used in larger sizes for headlines. Some of the new fonts are suitable for print as well as on-screen applications.' via Poynter Online
Tags: Design

This site showcases all the corporate marks that used to be. Like the name suggests they've actually put the logos in a graveyard - genius. Nonetheless this provides a great library of all the badges that used to adorn our favourite brands.
www.logorip.com
Tags: Design

From the 19th March to the 3rd April the world's most famous recording studio, Abbey Road, is opening its doors to the public to showcase the films that have been scored there. 2005 is the 25th anniversary of the studio's involvement in scoring and Studio 1 will host a cinema whilst Studio 2 will have an exhibition of photographs. Movies range from 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark' to 'Backbeat' to 'Shrek'.
www.abbeyroad.co.uk
Tags: Movies

Stunning illustration from this New York based artist. Featured on the cover of Vogue Italy last year her work is a mixture of traditional japanese style and contemporary subject matter. Born and raised outside of Tokyo, Yoko spent several years in Milan and Paris assisting fashion designers and working on personal art works.
Yoko Ikeno
Tags: Design

An amazing slice of relaxed Swedish house. 'Electronic music from the swedish leftcoast' is the best album I've heard in quite a while. The beats are relaxed, the depth of the sound is incredible and the music holds your interest as sounds float in and out of the mix. In their words 'We wanted to make playful and experimental electronic music. Music that is soft and soothing yet keeps you on your toes waiting for the next move.' This album comes very very highly recommended.

You can also see what Plej have to say for themselves on their blog. You can buy the album from Amazon.
Tags: Music

Tagging and folksonomy are two words that have been flying around the net thanks to social networking sites such as del.icio.us and Flickr. If you've ever wondered what the tags at the bottom of my posts mean well they are Technorati tags. Tags are a means to order the web and they are applied by the user. For example, when I published my photos from a trip to New York I tagged them NewYork so that others could view them if they looked for photos of NewYork. Because the user tags things themselves rather than placing them in pre-existing categories it is called Folksonomy.

The great thing about tagging is that it is spreading throughout the web and thanks to various programmes you can do some pretty cool things with tags.

Spell with flickr is a word generator that uses tagged photos from the Flickr archive. Fabulous! Simply type in a word and see what happens.

You can do something similar over at amaztype - an Amazon visualiser. Type in a word and the result will be cover art from Amazon. You can click on the books and they show up in amazon.

See also Clive Thompson's post in collision detection on Krazydad's Color Fields Colr Pickr enabling anyone "to point to a particular color on a color-wheel, and the app displays a set of Flickr photos that are all precisely that hue". via Smartmobs
Tags: Technology

On the plane the other day, I fell into conversation with a guy from Nike. (The first rule of anthropological engagement: talk to everyone, all the time, about anything they will talk about.)

He told me that a new way Nike creates meaning for the brand is through a process called “curation.” A creative team from Beaverton takes a sport and dives into its history and material culture. They are as curators examining the material remains of the game. In the case of soccer (football), they went to England to visit a famous public soccer pitch. They found a sign in the clubhouse that read something like “no boots in the shower.”

Perfect. “No boots in the shower” is going to appear on packaging. It may appear in advertising. It’s a phrase that captures the ambience of men’s sports: the hectoring tone of the club house, the sheer density of the male athlete, the inextinguishable need to spell out the obvious. via Influx
www.cultureby.com
Tags: Marketing

Google has released a version of its search homepage that has the characteristics of a Mac OSX dock! Very gimmicky but I like it.
GoogleX

It seems to be down at the moment for a live version try here.

Tags: Technology

Whilst I'm posting on images I thought I'd add another rather good site. Apparently there was so much traffic going to the NYPL when this launched that they had to go offline!
'NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.'
www.nypl.org
Tags: Design

As a follow-up to Josh Spear's post on Coolhunting
I thought that it would be worth drawing attention to the Lomography website. This contains some great examples of what Lomographic cameras can do - the pictures have a very distinct look to them and there is a really nice Flickr tag devoted to lomography.
It's the original 'point and shoot' camera.
www.lomography.com
Tags: Design

It shouldn't but it does.
What?
Astound me.
What astounds you?
The sheer speed at which technology moves. I haven't even got a 3g mobile phone yet and I know in the USA they are rarer than a blue moon yet LG have just successfully trialled a 3.5g mobile phone that can deliver data speeds of 14mbps!

The always on always connected digital life is actually here. via Gizmondo
www.lge.com
Tags: Technology

A site devoted to the way we are communicated to for non-commercial reasons. The site takes you on a journey through central London stopping off at various landmark sights. These include Kings Cross and St Pancras stations, the British Museum, the British Library and the Coliseum. The site examines the typeface, position and size of the lettering providing a revealing and incredibly interesting insight into London's typography.
www.publiclettering.org.uk
Tags: Design

Building on an interesting post from Influx (Friday was a pretty good day for posts there)I've looked a little deeper into the Grey Sweatsuit Revolution. These guys believe that by expressing yourself differently in the way you dress is merely perpetuating the fashion industry. In order to be truly different and to fight fashion they persuade everyone to dress the same. Because of this fashion can no longer jump onto the next trend because there will not be any other trends except the by now ubiquitous grey sweatsuit.
These guys want to kill off fashion trends by being instigating the trend to end all trends. They just want to be comfortable and help those with no dress sense. But are some grey sweatsuits more equal than others?
www.thegreysweatsuitrevolution.com
Tags: Fashion

Wooster, the online urban art group, have released select pieces of their work for download to your mobile phone. In their own words:
"Our goal with the Wooster Mobile project is to provide artists with a new revenue stream and at the same time, generate funds for a terrific cause.
Each artist receives a royalty payment from every download you make of their work. In addition, all of the Wooster Collective revenue is being donated to a wonderful non-profit organization called Keep A Child Alive. Keep A Child Alive provides life saving drugs to children and families who are dying of AIDS in Africa simply because they don't have access to the drugs that can save and prolong their lives."
This is a great initiative, with some cool work available for download. via Textually
www.woostercollective.com
www.keepachildalive.org

For those who haven't heard Skype is here! Skype allows you to call people over the internet as if you were dialing their number on a phone and it's free. Not only does it allow you to call people on the internet but you can also call people's land-lines or mobile phones. And there's more... Skype have just released a beta of Skype In allowing mobile phones and landlines to call you on Skype. Brilliant. Via Engadget
www.skype.com

I might not like the shoes but the ad for the Adidas One is pretty special. TBWA/Chiat/Day produced it and the legendary Spike Jonze directed. It's a beautiful dreamlike ad - the kind of slick dreamworld we've grown accustomed to Spike Jonze creating. via Agenda
www.boardsmag.com
Tags: Trainers, Sneakers

The 13th Flash Film Festival is a celebration of the best Flash work on the web. It has the following categories: Application, Art, Cartoon, Commerce, Educational, Experimental, Game, Motion Graphics, Navigation, Original Sound, Story, Technical Merit, 3D, Typography and Video.
Last years entries saw some really great work - check out Fuel Industry's lovely typography and the beautiful Weapons of Mass Destruction. The festival is on from the 6-8th April in sunny San Francisco.
www.flashforwardconference.com
Tags: Design

This site showcases the latest and hottest work of young film makers. Although it is a subscription based service unregistered users can review a selection of films. The films themselves are well worth signing up for and vary greatly from the simple animation from Klega to the fairy tale/nightmare ballet of Esther Harris.
www.tank.tv
Tags: Trends

The wonderful Design Sponge has a great post on some beautiful ambient lights from Generate. Also threre is a gorgeous wearable necklace light called Moi. Loving the light - it gets you through the last of these winter months.
designsponge.blogspot.com
www.gnr8.biz
Tags: Design

Whilst we're talking about light, Gizmodo have a post on their blog about blocks 'that can emit light and process sound in real-time, based on their relative location to each other. A signal processing network is created and altered by moving the blocks around, allowing a musician to interact with his tunes in a more physical manner. Each cube is programmed and recharged via USB.'The project, by Stanford students all started when 'The idea for the audiocubes first came to mind when I was discussing tangible user interfaces with some friends who worked as recording and sound engineers.'
Audio Cubes
Tags: Music

MoCo LoCo have a gorgeous post showcasing the work of Julian Lwin, a British designer working in New York and London. 'His work explores the relationship between the material and the immaterial qualities of lighting...' Julian's latest work includes a modular screen that glows different colours depending on it's proximity to movement and also a room divider which glows red, green or blue. Lovely.
www.lwindesign.com
www.mocoloco.com
Tags: Design

London's Notting Hill Arts Club has a great night this Saturday. 'Martin Morales’ Futuro Flamenco started as an idea to represent the music of Andalucia in its full context, from traditional Flamenco to the gas-fulled rock of the Spanish Gypsies and bass heavy beats of the guitar sampling producers. Over the last 3 years the night has developed into much more. Kicking off on a journey that starts in Granada via the Sacromomte hills, Futuro Flamenco travels onwards to Madrid, Marseille, Napoli, Istanbul and continues into areas in which Flamenco becomes an attitude where the musical DJ pillages any funk they can find.'
Having listened to Futuro Flamenco's recording and the Arts Club's pedigree, I highly recommend this night. Thanks Lex
www.nottinghillartsclub.com
Tags: Music

Some nice streetwear from this online store. 'Karmaloop was founded in 1999 to battle the evil forces of McFashion. In a world populated by Abercrombie Zombies Karmaloop was created to provide a universally accessible alternative - a boutique to outfit cutting edge culture. Plus, it seemed like it would be fun to start a web site & get free clothes.' Great foundations of a business. They also have an e-zine with interviews and all that's going on in urban culture.
www.karmaloop.com
Loop e-zine
Tags: Fashion Trends

London design agency Troika are releasing a book called Moscow Style. 'Celebrating the rich creative scene of the Russian capital, the book showcases the most innovative practitioners working in graphics, fashion, architecture, art and design... It is the third in a series of books on cities featuring fashion, photography, graphics, architecture and art from some of the most innovative practitioners working in Russia today.'
www.troika.co.uk
Tags: Books

One word: ugly. But it is incredibly clever. In short, the Adidas One is a 'shoe with a built in microprocessor... that understands and adapts to give you the level of cushioning you need...' It also adapts to suit your individual needs.
What I find interesting about this (not the computer, the Micropacer had one back in 1984) is that whilst Adidas have gone ultra hi-tec Nike have done exactly the opposite launching the Mayfly (that falls to bits after 100km) and the Free (designed to feel like you are barefoot). Good luck to Adidas but I'm defiantly with Nike on this one.
www.adidas.com
www.nikerunning.com
Tags: Trainers Sneakers

Photographic artist Emma Black recently held an exhibition of her work at Kingly Court in London's Soho. Unfortunately we missed it by a day but we still had a good look at Emma's website. The photos are lovely compositions and can be very poignant. Putting model toys into these environments really brings out a human side to the plastic figures. Wedding night is particularly lovely.
www.withoutmilk.com
Tags: Design

Zopa is basically ebay but for money. It provides a meeting place for borrowers and lenders whilst also vetting borrowers to ensure a satisfactory credit rating. Rather than borrowing from a bank you can borrow from someone just up the road at a rate that you both think is fair.
'Lenders can choose what rate to lend at and, by looking at the markets, decide what sort of people to lend to and when.
Borrowers can choose to take a rate offered or to wait and see whether the rates drop. Both avoid paying needless chunks of commission to Financial MegaCorp plc and can get better rates of interest as a result.'
It shows just what can be done using the peer-to-peer/ebay model. I think Zopa is going to make an awful lot of money.
www.zopa.com
Tags: Ideas

Maharishi, one of my favourite clothing brands, and B&W have collaborated on a pair of speakers. While I appreciate Maharishi's clothing design and use of DPM (Distinctive Pattern Material), its application to a pair of speakers does nothing for me. via Protein
Maharishi
B&W
Tags: Music Design

It's been a mad day and it's still not over but I've just found a lull in which to bring the world's (well who ever actually reads this) attention to this superb website. Trackies is basically a website for old skool sportswear, in particular the infamous tracksuit. There are some great shots and descriptions of iconic sports apparel.
www.trackies.co.uk
Tags: Fashion

Agenda Inc, a US pop culture consultancy, has conducted a survey on all the tracks played at fashion shows. The result is Music for Imaginary Runways, a pdf list of all the tracks and the claim that 2005 will be the year music and fashion converge more than ever before.

Another US pop culture consultancy, Influx, has posted an article arguing that there is a new genre of music emerging called 'Mash-up'. This is when a group of bands get together and play bits of each others songs. It sounds pretty cool but isn't it just doing what thousands of bands have done before, jamming and playing cover versions? I'm sure mash-up has been around for a while anyway - we've had the bootlegging trend and this is just an extension.
www.agendainc.com
Tags: Fashion Music

The 3rd annual Peugeot design competition has thrown up a rather gorgeous winner, the Peugeot Moovie. 'The main idea behind this project was to create a small 2 seated city car powered by electric power.' The result is rather stunning.
via www.mooch.info
www.peugeot.com

Tags: Transport

You may have heard of Linux, a complete computer operating system designed by a mass of programmers from all over the world for free. This took open source principles - projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public - and created an operating system. Well, the idea of open source is now the future of marketing, according to James Cherkoff in a very interesting article available from Change This.
www.changethis.com
www.opensourcemarketing.co.uk
Tags: Marketing

'Motivated by a desire to make building with fabric as easy as playing with Lego blocks, we designed bYOB (Build Your Own Bag), a flexible, computationally-enhanced modular fabric-based system. When modules are snapped together to form an object, they become part of a sensor network and begin to communicate with people, other objects, and their environment.'
Very interesting stuff chaps.
BYOB
Tags: Fashion Design

Back in 1999 Camper shoes were massive in the UK since then it has expanded fairly rapidly but this Spanish company hasn't rested on its laurels. They have recently launched Casa Camper, a hotel based on the same principles as their footwear. Situated in Barcelona, Casa Camper is located in a 19th century building. The hotel offers innovatively designed suites and rooms but also unique policies on tips, smoking and signage.
www.casacamper.es
via Influx
Tags: Travel Design

The Segway Human Transporter has been around in the US for some time and you can even buy them on Amazon. Despite their relative popularity over there I am yet to see one in London. However, this could all change with their latest updates to the range. There is now an off-roader, golfing and updated starter version.
Basically the Segway is a self-propelled, two wheeled platform with a built in gyroscope (to stop it falling over) ideal for getting to and from the office. via engadget
www.segway.com
Tags: Transport

I almost bought one of these and had it not been for Starck's release of his new LED watches it would be on my wrist right now. The Pimp watches hark back to the 1970s when LEDs ruled the roost and boy are they cooler than LCD. Get some unique Japanese style for just a few yen.
www.tokyoflash.com
Tags: Technology

In the process of developing this blog and teaching myself rudimentary web design I came across this rather wonderful site. The site has been developed to showcase the beauty of CSS design.
'The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list. Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into this very page. The code remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external .css file. Yes, really.'
I think all the designs are lovely and really display just how versatile CSS is. However, my favourite is Contempo Finery. a beautifully simple example.
www.csszengarden.com
Tags: Design