I mentioned Cuppa a few posts ago—a site idea that’s been brewing in my head for a while. I designed it for a uni project and then redesigned it again after I graduated as I wasn’t happy with it.
This is the redesign. The main idea is that there is no brand—the site’s visual identity and content is an ever-changing entity dictated by its users. It’d basically be a site for design inspiration, discussion and advice. I was aiming to build this but I got my job at Code, so all my attention went on that. I’m going to redesign this again though, with a different and (hopefully) more useful focus.
As of today I’m responsible for Code’s social web output—the blog, Twitter, Facebook and everything else. I’m excited as it’s a chance to bust some writing chops and improve Code’s social web presence.
I recently went to a couple of courses up in Glasgow run by Patrick Collister—one on the principles of advertising and ideas and the other on the advertising opportunities in the digital space. They were both rather good and served as useful grounding in these areas.
There were various group and individual tasks dotted throughout the day. For one of them we each had to write two random words and then quickly develop a product idea or something tangible out of them (we didn’t know this when we wrote the words).
I instinctively wrote elephant and then wrote car.
The phrase ‘an elephant never forgets’ aptly sprung to mind, so I quickly scribbled after it: ‘your car never forgets’—a personal to do list/reminder application integrated into your car (and phone etc) that starts when you turn on the ignition and tells you what you’ve got planned for the day. It’s a simple idea but I was quite happy with it, even though it didn’t get any further than that.
Oh yes—there was also an apple ominously waiting for me in my hotel room.
Chatroulette
This beautiful, disgusting, hilarious site has had a profound effect on me—for better or for worse—so it’s inevitable that it’s been rearing its proverbial head during recent brainstorms.
Here’s a couple of recent ideas involving Chatroulette:
- Nike78 (see the post below) — to stimulate this project we were given a pair of Nike running shoes. I thought we should bare them on a mock-Chatroulette and chronicle the shoe’s attempts at trying to convince other shoes to ‘unlace’.
- The Election. We came to this too late and didn’t have enough time to produce anything. I came up with a few ideas, this one inspired by the—then—possibility of a hung parliament and the bickering that this was (and now is) creating amongst the parties: separate videos of the three party leaders are fed into Chatroulette using software like ManyCam (yep, that wasn’t Jessica Alba or the Jonas Brothers you were exposing yourself to). ‘They’ each have a timed stint on the site and whoever’s subjected to the most cocks is deemed to be ‘The Biggest Dick’ about all this.
Nike78
The Code creative team has been involved in Nike78, a project for final year graphic design student Paul Jenkins based around Nike trainers. Towards the beginning I was tasked with forming a rounded concept based on the team’s brainstorming. This is what I scribed:
Pulse
A living visualisation of your life in your Nike shoes.
The Pulse device is embedded in your pair of trainers and—once activated online—captures audio and movement-related data while you’re wearing them. This data is transmitted to the Nike Pulse website where it forms a live visualisation of your activities. Volume, sound type, movement, speed and tread pressure are among the sources that will feed and influence your Pulse, birthing an ethereal, flowing, energetic visual representation of where you’ve been and what you’ve done whilst wearing your trainers.
When your trainers are removed and put away for the night, your day’s Pulse is visually-remixed and broadcasted back to your shoes for display on their surface, replaying your Pulse as a spectral dreamscape and portraying the shoe’s dream sequence.
Lots to do in the coming months:
- Design an iPhone and iPad app. A self-initiated brief to do in my spare time, for one of Code’s new clients. A field trip there gave me lots of ideas. This is mainly to develop my layout and production skills, plus I want to see what it’s like to design for an iPad.
- Design Cuppa. This is an idea I’ve had brewing in my head for literally years. I mocked it up for my final major project at university and redesigned it again when I graduated. I’ve been toying with actually trying to build it, but I think it’ll be a mammoth undertaking — I’m going to simply visualise it first. It’s a start, at least.
- A new portfolio site. My university portfolio served its purpose — I got a job — and since then I haven’t had a ‘real’ site. I’m going to create a new portfolio site with my newer stuff on, with the purpose of finding some freelance work. I’ve got an interesting way of presenting it which should be rather funny if I pull it off properly.
I’ve just started watching Mad Men — I always forgot about it despite its appealing setting. Only watched the first episode so far but it seems good. It’s feeding an idea I’ve got brewing in my head…
I finished this on the plane back from New York yesterday (just thought I’d include my holiday-whereabouts—it’s why I’ve not been writing), it’s a good read. It’s more interesting from a business perspective as some of Ogilvy’s design and copywriting tips/rules are a bit brash and uninspiring in this day and age.
The Creative Office
I wrote this for the Code blog a while back—a brief photo-tour of the creative office. It’s changed a bit since; the tiger head now has a bear cousin, that wall’s been painted dark grey and the animals are surrounded by ornately-framed photos of the creative team and our inspiration (mine is Carl Weathers, and Tobias from Arrested Development).
