As part of our ongoing work and commitment with design courses at universities we were approached by one of our previous placement students (Emily Mason) from Nottingham Trent University to promote their special fundraiser, Going, Going, Gone.
Emily wrote to us saying “I’m part of the committee on my course, and we are trying to raise a lot of money for our end of year degree show and one of the fundraisers we are putting on is this Friday (3rd). We are doing an auction of some work that we have been able to get hold of and are hoping to raise some money. I was wondering whether you would be able to post the auction onto your blog?”
There’s going to be some great talent on show, including work from Nous Vous, It’s Nice That, Disney,Design Museum, Graphic Nothing and YCN to mention a few so get yourself up there and bag yourself a Christmas design treat! It’s all for a good cause.
Going, Going, Gone is on 3rd December, at Hopkins (formerly the Art Org) 3-21 Station street, Nottingham, NG2 3AJ. Doors open at 18:30 pm, the auction will start at 20:30pm. All proceeds will go towards the 2011 Graphic Design Degree Show. Minced pies & mulled wine provided. Please R.S.V.P. by contacting ntudegreeshow@hotmail.co.uk
The world is full of user generated content competitions these days, whether it’s crowdsourcing a logo through to making an ad to win a holiday, we’ve seen it all.
Which is why it was so refreshing to see the How Low Can Your Logo campaign…..They’re not looking for the sharpest talent out there with skills Banksy would be envious of…..they’re looking for the worst! So take off your Designer’s hat, forget everything you know about connecting people with a brand and go wild.
If you don’t fancy industry infamy forever more and quite frankly your name associated with a hideous creation, then maybe you just fancy viewing and rating the works of art others have produced (we’ve chose to share our personal favourite above).
The lucky winner will receive an array of glittering prizes, which amongst other items includes; a laserdisc player, a copy of Robot Monster (arguably one of the worst films ever) and 12 months subscription to Print magazine! Good eh!
Maybe this is how Gap came about their new logo?? Just a thought….
As social networking sites continue to grow in their dominance of the web, it looks like it might all end in virtual tears when it comes to slicing up the display ad pie!
It looks like Facebook could be planning to use it’s users data to place highly targeted ads across the internet, mainly by not only knowing who their members are, but by also knowing what their friends like…..It’s safe to say this is a fairly clever move, unless of course, we are all friends with people who are nothing like us. Google on the other hand, owns a vast amount of personal data but has promised not to use it to profile their users. They do however, have AdWords & AdSense, which use keywords to target individuals based on what they are currently searching for. Both of which are highly effective ways of reaching customers but doesn’t it all feel a bit Big Brother? Then again, isn’t that what successful advertising is all about; understanding your customer, their motivations, likes & dislikes…because without this insight, surely we’re all just batting in the dark.
Stumbled on an very interesting development at google – google goggles. It allows you to search the internet by taking pictures on your mobile phone. I found this on my iphone, after installing the mobile app as safari was so sluggish. The mobile app is a free download, and its search is really quick on iphone but the built in camera aka “google goggles” had me taking pictures of everything in the office to see if it would recognise what it was.
Take pictures
It had no trouble with the underscore business card, got it right away. Starbucks coffee cup – it got that too. Nurofen logo – no problem – it even told me the cheapest place to buy them online. Got me thinking, what can’t it recognise?
At the moment it can recognise text, landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, logos and even wine bottles. I’ve not tested it enough yet, but its such a great idea given the amount of mobile phones with half decent built in cameras. The core idea is such a good concept – like that building in the city, not the gherkin, the other Dallas inspired one, what’s that called? Take a picture, wait a few seconds – ah its tower 42 and its the second tallest skyscraper in the city of london, and the 6th tallest in London as a whole – wow!
Looking at the buzz online it seems to work really well for landmarks, logos, books, cd covers and games – but works less well for everyday objects which in all honesty is not surprising. I can see it getting better and better as people try and get their object to be recognised. It almost makes a whole new genre of seo via images. I know images have always played a big role in helping natural search results but this turns that on its head.
What next
So the question I have now is, how the heck do I get my image indexed so that it appears in goggles? Or rather what is the quickest way of getting an image into the goggles world?
So for instance, goggles does not recognise what the entrance to underscore towers, it just thinks its a door. Its not just a door, its the underscore door. Where would I upload the image so that goggles would notice it, and say “ah that’s the underscore office”.
If you want to test drive the goggles app, then you can find more information at Google goggles
Twas on a cold, winters night on the ninth November, when Ralph Lauren showed the world what a show they can put on and boy was it that?! This hugely innovative masterpiece was to celebrate the launch of their new, Bond Street flagship store as well as a decade in digital.
This spectacular light show, featured a giant polo pony & 50 foot models seemingly walking towards you. The whole event was brought together by sound and a fragrance mist filling the air.
The concept is based on some rather swanky technology called ‘architectural mapping’ where 3 & 4D images are projected on to a wall to create a movie that seems so real it’s as if you’re part of it.
In case you missed it, you can watch it here….
Maybe this is what all fashion shows will look like in the future?!
If ever there was a sign that social networking is as much a part of our lives as going to sleep every night then the Queen setting up a fan page is certainly it. As Facebook gets ever nearer to the 600 million user mark, it seems only right that the Monarchy finds a way to connect with people.
But don’t expect any drunken updates at ridiculous hours, or the Duke hi-jacking her page when she’s not looking, as this seems likely to be a heavily moderated channel of communication. Only yesterday dozens of anti-monarchist comments were removed from the page after saboteurs clicked the ‘like’ button, just to vent their feelings towards the Royal Family. Whether you agree with their comments or not, surely this is another example of censorship, essentially restricting people’s freedom of speech? The whole point of social media, is to build a community where people can express their views and opinions in an open forum. If moderators are going to remove anything negative and leave only the positive stuff, surely we are not getting an accurate picture of what others actually think? Having said that, it is totally fair to remove abusive posts where offensive language is being used, but possibly there is a way of engaging people and changing their perceptions?
Underscore for one, is excited about the prospect of playing Farmville with HRH on Facebook and if she is looking for someone to manage her social media presence, she knows where to come…..we’ll be good, promise!
Now, here’s a frightening thought for you.. Christmas is only 7 weeks away , that’s 51 days…there we said it. Doesn’t it seem to get earlier each year that goes by? We at Underscore got a bit of a shock when we heard HMV are launching their Christmas campaign ‘Get Merry’ tomorrow as it just seems too soon. Maybe it’s because it’s 17 degrees in London at the moment, it’s hard to think about Winter.
HMV’s festive campaign features a number of household entertainment names as 3D baubles hanging from a Christmas tree and will include everyone from Lady Gaga through to Take That and the Mario Brothers. You’ll be able to see the TV ads from tomorrow, followed by online and in-store activity the following week.
How prepared are you for the festive period? We haven’t started our Christmas shopping yet….Actually if you’re thinking of something for us, the team at Underscore Towers love chocolates (just a thought).
To date, there have been a number of interesting crowdsourcing campaigns, some good, some bad, but none received the same backlash in the social space as when Gap decided to ditch their iconic logo for what looked like a helvetica computer generated image. Whether the ‘crowd sourcing’ line was a coverup for the agency that designed it or not, it begs the question of whether handing over your brand’s heritage to the worldwide web is right for your business?
Some people have taken this concept one step further and have relinquished their whole lives to you. Fascinating and engaging, these social experiments allow you to take a glimpse into someone else’s life and actively control what they do, from what they eat, to when they sleep and who they date. One such example is of a chap called David (@davidondemand), who decided to put his life into the hands of his twitter followers, don a web cam and undertake whatever tasks they set, for a whole six days, (including getting a tattoo of the Twitter whale)
Why? to snag a ticket to the Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival, courtesy of his employers Leo Burnett. The result? A huge amount of exposure for said advertising agency as he completed a number of tasks during the event and actively engaged people with the brand.
Like any aspect of marketing, crowdsourcing can be hugely effective when done correctly as it takes away the broadcasting element and allows consumers an opportunity to engage with a brand and ultimately have a say in it’s destiny.
We’re pretty sure, it won’t be right for every single brand but what we do know is, it’s exciting to think what else might be round the corner in the ever changing world of digital!