JC Report features PSFK

The JC Report, the web's leading fashion newletter, interviews trend setters and fashion experts for each newsletter. The latest issue features Piers Fawkes of PSFK and asks for his opinion on the intersection of fashion, trends and technology. "We're finding that fashion spreads beyond apparel in more and more ways. Before we may have had our clothes, our car, and our house. Now we also have

Flavorpill F-List

The weekly newsletter Flavorpill has launched the F-List, a brief guide to, amongst other things, the best music, artists, DVDs, fashion, magazines and blogs of 2005. The selection also provides a good snapshot of what is likely to break into the mainstream during 2006. "Think of it as an A-List of up-and-comers: our newest tradition, the F-List is Flavorpill's snapshot of emergent cultural

Microsoft/IDSA Design Competition

Microsoft and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) recently held a competition to find the future of the PC experience. Contestants were asked to "envision how form factor influences the digital lifestyle in four categories: personal productivity, entertainment, communication & mobility, and living & lifestyle."The whole concept of asking outsiders to contribute to your brands R&D

Howies

I seem to be the only person I know that hadn't heard of Howies. This clothing brand was recently named one of Britain's coolest brands by Superbrands. Founded in 1995 by a couple of skaters and outdoor sports lovers, Howies never try to be 'cool', just good, honsest and thought provoking. Their website is one of the best around and the clothes are right up there too. Tags: howies

Blowback Magazine

Blowback is a new monthly magazine that has hit the streets of the UK. With editorial along a similar line to Vice and Good For Nothing, Blowback has the slightly unusual honour of being produced in Birmingham. It therefore avoids much of the London bias normally found in popular culture magazines. The writing is to the point and obviously the work of twenty somethings, as they make obscure late

Trends for 2006

In true trends blog style I thought I'd publish a few things that I reckon will be big in 2006. So here they are:1. Vodcasting to take off and spawn advercasting - thanks to the iPod, PSP and increasing2. Krumping to dominate the hip hop scene and lead to companies tying in with product and merchandise lines3. Death of CDs / portable media to become increasingly obsolete -4. Year of the media

Squidoo

Squidoo is a forum for anyone to write about the subject they consider themselves an expert in. Despite the terrible name, I've come across two really great lenses so far one belongs to the doyen of planning, Russell Davies, and the other is the work of Victor Eylis who's written a lens on trends featuring some of the leading trend and pop culture sites. Squidoo Tags: squidoo

PSFK T-shirts

In true consumer created content style, over on PSFK we have asked readers to come up with some t-shirt designs. And boy do they look good. You can order them here and do some cool things with them, maybe even mash them up. Tags: psfk, tshirt

Tube Time Travel

It's not often that someone takes a classic design and actually improves it. But that's exactly what a young Swedish design student has done. Oskar Karlin has produced this map of the London Underground and it works out the distance of stations in time all from his nearest station, Elephant and Castle. The full story is here. Nice site Oskar. Tags: Design

Power of Dreams

Here's an article I posted on IF this week: I saw the new Honda 'film' for the first time last night and was blown away. We've mentioned on this site before (here & here) that advertising is not just about entertaining the audience, it's about selling a product.The best ads do both.The new Honda campaign is cut from the finest advertising cloth. There's a story within the ad, there's the brand

Marvin Gaye & Massive Attack Mash-up

Anyone who is yet to be convinced by mash culture need look no further than Futuro's wonderful mash of two classics. Marvin Gaye's wonderful What's Going On? is layed over one of the 90s greatest tunes, Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack. You can download it here.Tags: Music, mashup

Pandora

This is a top site: PandoraPut in your favourite beat combo/diva/troubadour and it finds similar stuff for you to listen to on your computer. Very good.Tags: pandora

Hannah Martin

Is a young British designer who is starting to make a play. A graduate of London's prestigious St Martins College, Hannah designs stunning women and men's jewellry. Her current collection is heavily inspired by rock'n'roll but she has also produced more intricate pieces such as the Braille Bracelet pictured left. The piece contains a message written in Braille that adds an extra element to the

My Trainers

Ok, so I was a little bored last Saturday morning. I thought I'd photograph my favourite trainers from my collection. They are starting from top left, Nike Zvezdochka, Nike unknown, Nike Cheyenne, Nike Mach Runner & Nike ACG.Tags: Trainers, Sneakers

One Eyed Fun

Seth Godin's blog directed me to this rather bizarre but interesting blog. I wonder if this movement will gain any real momentum. It does want to make you cover one eye with your hand though.

Monster Mash

If you're a fan of mash-up then I've got the perfect site for you. In the late 90s DJs started to make a name for themselves by 'bootlegging' records, putting an a cappella vocal over an instrumental version of another famous track (my favourite being Mojo's Lady mixed with Brandy and Monica's The Boy is Mine - I don't know why but it just worked for me). This has moved right into the mainstream

Nixon Watches

I'm always on the lookout for cool digital watches and was doing a little bit of coolhunting on flickr when I came across Nixon. Nixon produce a range of mid-price watches and most are pretty run-of-the-mill. The red, industrial looking digital watches however, look the business. Tags: watch, digital

Play/Create

British Designer, Daniel Brown, has an excellent site up at the moment. The site is called Play/Create and is very aptly named, encouraging people to mess around with the shockwave movies that are fully interactive. Brown was the London Design Museum's Designer of the Year 2004 and has worked on projects for a wide variety of clients, including Playstation, Warp Records, BBC, VW and Vodafone.

Amaztype & Mashapplications

Amaztype is a flash based navigational tool for Amazon. Using its very simple interface users can search for either books, music or films. Once the search is on Amaztype pulls together all the images of all the relevant books, cds or dvds and spells out the search word. The titles are navigable with basic information available and an option to click through to the title's Amazon page.This really

Adicolor Correction

Apparently:"Originally, the Adicolor was a shoe that was launched in the 80’s. It was a special model that came with pens so you could customize your own shoes. When the 35th Anniversary series came out, they used the Adicolor name for the Adicolor Superstars.Now adidas will launch a full series of Adicolor: 6 series each sorted by color. The first one is a white series delivered with pens. The

The Constant Gardener

http://static.flickr.com/28/65137642_5aadaa3168_m.jpg">This weekend I managed to pop along to our favourite cinema, The Coronet, and check out a movie I've been looking forward to for a while. Based on a John le Carré novel, the Constant Gardener is a beautifully shot film. Directed by Fernando Meirelles of City of God fame, the Constant Gardener maintains the pace and colour of Merielles famous

Interview with Next Big Thing

I recently met up with William Higham of Next Big Things Research, a London trends agency, and posed him a few questions. 1. You're from a music background, how did this get you interested in trends?I started off interested in the bands and then, the longer I was in it, the more I became interested in the audience. Plus I’ve always been interested in how popular culture shifts and mutates. I have

Xbox 360 Ad

Can be downloaded here. It's pretty cool. I like the proposition, that anyone can play. It's evidence that the gaming companies are moving away from targeting the teenage geeks and positioning their products as home entertainment centres.Xbox 360Tags: xbox360

Adicolor

You may recall that I had my very own experience of Nike ID back in September. Well now you can do the same with the Three Stripes too. Yes Adidas have launched Adicolor, your opportunity to mess about with your Stan Smiths, Micropacers and Gazelles. First launched in 1984, the ADICOLOR project was the earliest customization program of its kind. Buyers were given a pair of all white Adidas and a

Microzine (One)

Microzine, the cool gallery/store from North London is branching out."Tomorrow sees the launch of ONE - a collaboration with Microzine and Exposure; same Microzine spirit, different postcode.""The space is gallery-esque and the finds the usual über limited edition treats. Highlights of current stock include adidas/mcm collaboration kicks (there are only 125 in the world and they have five here),

I love my adidas

I love my adidas is a cool new blog on the block. Some excellent shots of rareities and new releases. These mash-up Stan Smiths caught my eye. Tags: adidas

A dot for every second in the day

One day measured in a pixel per second looks like this. It's incredible to break down the complexities of a whole day and see it illustrated in such a simple manner. Check out the time now here.via: RM116

The Hide Magazine

Hyde is an online magazine published 4 to 6 times a year in irregular intervals aiming to provide a forum for different kinds of unrestrictedly-practised art. "In each edition, we would like to give comers and artists the opportunity to present themselves and their work, while the selection of the artists is based on the planned topic." "We try not to focus so much on a certain genre or style

Annex 3

For a friends birthday this week we all piled along to London's latest eatery, Annex 3. Brought to you by the same people behind Loungelover and Le Trois Garcons, Annex 3 is pretty much what you'd expect from these gastronomic entrepreneurs.Hassan Abdullah, Stefan Karlson and Michel Lassare have made the decor of Annex 3 a mish-mash of 80s technology, fin de siecleopulencee and 60s swinging

Krumping

I first came across the phenomenon that is Krumping back in the summer. The New York Times had an article about this craze that had hit Los Angeles. Well, fashion photographer turned director, David LaChapelle, has created a feature length film on this manic dance craze. Krumping is a fast and aggressive form of dancing that appears to almost be fighting. Invented by Thomas Johnson, a birthday

Lavazza Calendar 2006

Lavazza have released their 2006 calendar. You can see more of their beautifully shot calendar here. Tags: lavazza

Samsonite Marc Newson

:trends: favourite Marc Newson has designed a line for Samsonite. Famous for his work with Nike, G-Star and Ford, to name but a few, Newson has now trained his sights on reworking luggage.'Combining ground- breaking mesh materials, courtesy of previous work with Nike, with an eye-popping colour scheme, apparently courtesy of the Teletubbies, the results have moved Samsonite to herald his

H+L Films

Last week we posted on the rather marvelous Hart+Larsson. Well they emailed me the other day to let me know that they'd added some short films to their site. And what marvelous films they are. Must views are 14 and Wow and the beautiful Yellow Springs Ohio.Tags: film

Nike Football Ad

Brief Blog has a post about the latest Nike Football ad that has hit the Mexican streets. A quite superb example of outdoor media, this ad is a great idea beautifully executed. Mind you, it can't be all that hard to work on the Nike Football account eh?Tags: Nike, Football

Revver - Flickr for video

Revver has just launched and it's aim is to be the Flickr of videos. As with Flickr you can upload and tag but this time it's video rather than photos.Good luck to the guys at Revver but I hope someone like Flickr comes and does it better.Tags: revver, video

Home of the future

Philips have displayed their vision of the future for consumer electronics. And it is a return to the past. Gone are the overt symbols of affluence such as huge TVs, telephones and stereos. Instead these crucial items are integrated with everyday furniture that serves multiple functions."This sketch by Philips Design CEO and Chief Creative Director Stefano Marzano in 1999 sets out his design

ULTra

London has, for once, got ahead of the game when it comes to mass transit systems. 18 of these driverless pods are coming to Heathrow so that passengers can travel from their cars to the terminals quickly and easily. The ULTra pods are electrical and follow a route that is electrically tagged. When used at Heathrow the pods will arrive within 1 minute of being called and will normally operate in

Hart+Larsson

Hart+Larsson is the creation of two New York creatives. With a background across a wide variety of media they have created the most expensive shirt in New York and are expert at finding words that begin with the letters H or L and then putting them together. Fashionistas and Film Critics these guys clearly know their design and write some top copy. They've also got a penchant for the great Neil

Paul Smith Curiosity Shop

Paul Smith opens his latest store today. But this time it's got even more of a PS twist to it. Basically, it's a shop full of all the bits and bobs PS has picked up on his travels - either a bizarre or a bric-a-brac stall, depending on your view. The difference is that PS has added his own little touches, so it might be that the antique Chesterfield sofa has a shocking Paul Smith pattern on the

i-swing

Toyota have unveiled their version of the Segway at the Tokyo Motorshow. Once again displaying the innovation that has made them one of the biggest car companies in the world. The i-swing works by the driver leaning in whichever direction they wish to travel. According to Toyota it is 'a new personal mobility vehicle that allows drivers to express their individuality'.Tags: Toyota, iswing

Interview with PSP's Carl Christopher

Last week on IF I interviewed Carl Christopher, Sony Europe's head of events and marketing for the PSP, and we talked about Sony's innovative approach to the launch of the PSP. Well worth a look. Tags: PSP

Plej - Electronic Music from the Swedish Leftcoast

Plej are the greatest musical discovery of 2005. Their album Electronic Music from the Swedish Leftcoast is an incredible example of how to get emotion and beautiful subtleness from electronic music. A combination of jazz, electronica and downtempo house, this album is minimalist and yet has incredible depth. You can read my first thoughts on Plej here.Tags: Music, plej

American Apparel

I love American Apparel. Their brand is great, their ethos is great, their marketing is great. But... their logistics SUCK. For the last month I have been trying to buy two medium size sweatshirts from their Carnaby Street store but everytime they've only had XS, S or XL sizes. And everytime I go in, they promise the delivery is coming next week. I would use the website, but I know their sizing

The End of Coolhunting

The LA Times has published an article about the death of coolhunting. With the proliferation of the web and in particular blogs it is no longer just professional coolhunters and trendspotters who know about the latest and greatest scenes, products, looks and fashions. 'Today, fads ping across continents and disappear so quickly that the coolhunter, even the whole notion of "cool," has become

SVSV - aformofwar

The second Serum vs Venom collection was announced last night. Collection 2 continues to draw upon traditional street wear cuts, this time utilizing materials such as fireproof CarbonX and sustainable fabrics such as pure bamboo and soy, while continuing to use touches of exquisite vicuna and pure cashmere."The mixture of fabrics is both highly functional yet eco-friendly," said Jenna Rivers,

I Want That One

Apple seem to have a habit of releasing products on the same day as England matches at the moment. After all the hype, speculation and rumour, Apple have finally released the much vaunted iPod Video. Another opportunity to eat into the PSP's market. First Apple released the Nano almost straight after the PSP launch, now they've produced a product that competes with the PSP directly. Not only does

Football Calls in the Ad Agencies

The Guardian has an article about the extent to which English Premiership clubs are having to go to in order to attract fans and fill their giant stadia. For the past 10 years Premiership football has been on the rise but for the first time since the creation of the Premiership, clubs are struggling to get the punters in. Manchester City, Chelsea, Fulham, Southampton, Charlton and Aston Villa

Coffee or Sex?

Dunkin' Donuts have released the results of a survey they conducted recently which shows that more adults would give up sex rather than coffee. According to Trendcentral 'Just like that other primal urge, people are looking for more variety than soy milk or extra foam in their caffeine, and don't want to just choose from a list of frappalatteccinos anymore. Along with t-shirts and sneakers,

Nokia 888

Nokia believe that they have seen the future of mobile phones and it sits on your wrist. The Nokia 888 concept phone is an all in one communications device. Designer Tamer Nakisci describes it as follows:*technologies that are used It uses liquid battery, speech recognition, flexible touch screen, touch sensitive body cover which lets it understand and adjust to the environment. It has a simple

No Garlic Please

No Garlic Please is the latest offshoot from We-make-money-not-art, the excellent blog on all things new and interesting. No Garlic Please concentrates its energies on design, architecture and household interiors. Simple and elegant design is the order of the day whether it be the products featured or the site itself. Tags: Design

Think Different

I've just posted this article on IF. You may need an account but here's a quick preview:'Apple have been one of the most successful brands of the 21st century, of that there can be no doubt. They have gone from strength to strength across their product line and this has seen their share price rocket. But how much of this is down to dancing silhouettes and how much of it is down to the innovative

New Guinness Ad

The latest in a long line of blockbuster Guinness ads is about to hit UK TV screens. However, prior to its launch on national television, Guinness have released it onto the web. This follows a whole host of other advertisers who have decided to release their ads to an online audience first.Brands (although not all agencies) are starting to realise the implications of the Internet on their media

Another day , another PSFK post

Fast Company have a brief write-up on PSFK, the excellent trends and marketing blog that I contribute to. Keep up the good work guys. BLOG: PSFKWHO WRITES IT: Brand consultant Piers Fawkes, creative director Simon King, and their trend-watching entourageWHY YOU SHOULD READ IT: While it rarely identifies original trends on its own, PSFK does a good job of rounding up global cool news and cool

PSFK ideas hunt

Another blog that I contribute to PSFK is on the hunt for some great ideas:'Need funding to help your idea become other folk's inspiration? Two Fortune 100 companies (in beverages and health & beauty respectively) want to meet people with superb ideas in early October to help bring your ideas to life.PSFK has been asked to help find 25 clever persons to attend a round of 'speed-investing' in

Just For Kicks

News from Crooked Tongues:'Just For Kicks is the first film of its kind to present the underlying drivers and players that fuelled the global sneakers revolution and its $26 Billion global market. Far from a formal history of the sneaker industry, Just For Kicks offers a fun and colorful insider's history of hip hop's most treasured fashion item; revealing behind the scene stories with exclusive

Wee House

The trend for sustainable, affordable and desirable houses has been knocking about for some time. From the floating houses of Berlin, to the nooks and crannies housing of Hamburg. However, one of the most interesting pre-fab builds has been created by Alchemy Architects and is now being used by Marriott Hotels to promote their new room designs. The Wee House is beautifully simple and is modular

Le Parkour

The coolest sport in the world (except football) has had a mini film made of it and it's awesome. For more information on Le Parkour check out its official site here.Tags: parkour

Personality Brands

The history of brands has been littered with various ways of making them more personal and creating an empathy between brand and consumer. Of late, brands seem to be creating more and more products that have very obvious personalities. From Peugeot and the fly swatting to the Puma ads that place their shoes in with the animals you are made to feel like the product has its very own personality and

Burton Store NYC

Josh Rubin has an interesting post on his Coolhunting blog. The snowboard and apparel company Burton has opened a store in New York's Soho but in order to give you the full experience of using their apparel they have built in a freezer. 'the store includes the full range of products from each of the Burton brands: Red, Anon, Analog, Gravis and of course Burton. The highlight is their 20 degree

Maharishi Skate Boards

Protein seem to have a little bit of an exclusive on the new Maharishi boards. They feature the DPM Series 1 camouflage patterns.'Each pattern contains references to the natural world in line with the theory set out in the 944-page camo encyclopaedia DPM Disruptive Pattern Material. The book, also available from dpmhi, emphasises camouflage's natural roots and artistic influences over its

The Brilliance

The Brilliance is a great US blog that looks at pretty much everything that crops up in the lives of Chuck and Benjamin, two artists.This is how they describe themselves: 'THE BRILLIANCE exists to serve as a resource for people of all interests around the world. When we launched in the spring of 2005, we started out with interviews from the likes of photographer Kareem Black,

PSP Fashion Event

Sony have organised Pret-a-PSP, a fashion show to promote the latest accessories for the PSP from the likes of Fendi, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Anna Sui. This is yet another example of the ever narrowing gap between technology and fashion. With fashion trying to grab hold of the new opportunities that mass technologies such as the PSP and iPod represent, whilst the tech companies piggy

iPod Nano

No real surprises with the Apple announcements today and certainly nothing revolutionary which was a bit disappointing. Apple announced the iTunes phone to no-one's surprise, they did however introduce the rather more exciting iPod Nano. This will replace the Mini and carries a 1.5 inch colour display, with 2gb and 4gb hard drives available.Tags: Design, iPod

Trainers vs Sneakers

Flickr has been getting a reputation as a great trend tracking tool. So inspired by the PSFK cool hunt of a few months back I thought I'd have a quick look at what patterns are emerging in the UK vs the US. Now this isn't the most scientific way of researching but it acts as a pretty good guide as to what is going on amongst the Flickr demographic. By typing in 'sneakers' to the Flickr search

Nike ID Experience

I've just had my first full Nike ID experience from start to finish and it feels good! Back at the beginning of August I reported on a cool new Nike product that was to be released in September, the Nike Hammer watch, so I immediately began looking for this good looking piece of kit. My first port of call was obviously the Nike website and then the Nike ID site where, lo and behold, was the

Recycled Trainers

Going green is a huge trend right now. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware as the mainstream media push the environment back to the top of the agenda. This trend is not passing the fashion world by (just look at American Apparel's sustainable collection). Anti-Apathy have produced a Worn Again trainer range which are made entirely from recycled things - whether it's a prison blanket or a

SVSV

The Serum Vs Venom label is about to drop its first range and to celebrate they're holding an exclusive knees up at the Teatro, MGM Grand, Las Vegas. Sadly due to prior engagements I can't make it but it sounds like a top night with SVSV giveaways and some big names showing up.You can view the current SVSV collection here. Tags: Fashion, SVSV

Connecting People

Online social networking has been around for a long time now but has yet to really take off in the UK. However, a couple of programs released this week may change all that.There has been a lot of hype (or should that be talk) this week surrounding google talk, the new VOIP service from google that allows users to instant message and talk over the web using their gmail accounts.The second is imeem

Beastie Boys Remixed

The whole mash-up trend has been bubbling along for a while now and the Beastie Boys, innovators that they are, have tried to bring this and the do-it-yourself creative philosophy to the fore. To encourage fans to interact more closely with the music, the Beastie Boys have released acapella versions of their songs, along with BPM information so that they can be remixed, mashed up and played to

Nike Mash-up Classic Hoodies

Nike have created the ultimate mash-up clothing. You will very soon be able to create your own jackets and hoodies. Beneath is having an event on this Thursday on August 25th to launch the new Nike classic hoodies and windrunners which can be zipped together. It just shows how quickly a trend can break into the mainstream. via hypebeastTags: Nike, Mash

Japan to Have VR TV by 2020

We Make Money Not Art have a really interesting post that follows my post yesterday on BT's futurology. 'The Japanese Communications Ministry is to establish a research group that will work to commercialize virtual reality television by 2020.VR TV will enable images to be seen in 3D from any angle at a quality equivalent to that offered by high-definition TVs, and allow viewers to feel and smell

BT Technology Timeline

BT's futurology department have once again gazed into the future and seen smelly TVs, space elevators and thought input to computers. Using a rather lovely flash animation you can view the predicted developments of industry and lifestyle by clicking on their strands. BT researcher and editor of the timeline Ian Neild said: "The timeline enables organisations to design technology and products with

Winter 2005/06 Maharishi

Maharishi have just launched their new Autumn/Winter 2005/2006 collection and this year it is inspired by a collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation. The marketing campaign for the new seasons collection was inspired by photographs of Warhol made-up and dressed as a woman, taken by Christopher Makos in 1981. The new collection itself can be found here and there are some lovely tweed pieces

The Future of Downloading

Seth Godin, one of the most influential marketing bloggers, has a very interesting post on his blog today regarding the way that the Internet is set to turn the music and movie industry on its head. Again. He talks of a web where you can no longer file share copyrighted material so free sites become bigger and bigger and the free content becomes better than the paid for content until the guys

PSFK

As you may have noticed, possibly having come from there, I have started posting on the excellent PSFK trends blog. PSFK is a collaborative effort run by Piers Fawkes and Simon King (with support from a diverse group but also Guy Brighton). I hope you like what you read on there. If you're a planner or brand manager there's also the ideas blog IF.Tags: Trends

Directors Label

The excellent Directors Label have added some more directors to their DVD series. On the heels of Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham come Anton Corbjin, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek and Stephane Sednaoui. My favourite, on first impressions, is Jonathan Glazer thanks to his work for UNKLE, Guinness and Sexy Beast. via MoochTags: Design

Airside & Mums.net

Hot London design studio, Airside, have teamed up with Mums.net and Mothercare to produce a catalogue for new mothers. Beautifully illustrated as you'd expect from the studio that produced Lemon Jelly.Tags: Design

Nike Hammer Watch

Nike seem to have a habit of knocking out great looking products and the Nike Hammer looks the business. It's a very aggressive looking watch but with a funky and playful strap. As a watch it can sustain shocks and is water resistant up to 50m. It's out in early September and will cost £100.via T3

Suburb store visit

Suburb is a new concept store that has recently launched in London. Its main trade is high quality, fair trade cups of coffee but in addition to this, Suburb stocks some of the coolest records about. As a concept this draws heavily from Starbucks who have sold the soundtrack to your latte for a while now. Suburb, however, offer you a choice of 49 specially selected albums from the likes of Lemon

Comme des Garcons & North Face

The trend for collaboration and cross pollination of brands continues with this interesting project between North Face and Comme des Garcons. It's a great opportunity for Comme de Garcons to educate those who would have had little exposure to the brand in the past and for North Face it provides a bit of couture cred. The jackets themselves are pretty cool football casual style jackets. via

Into the Storm with BMW

BMW have created an online publication around aspirations which they want their customers and brand to identify with. Produced in association with BMW, edited by Johnny Davis, Into the Stormasks "Who's your hero? And what does it mean to be noble and good in the 21st Century?"Beautifully produced in flash, Into the storm is a really nice lifestyle magazine with some great photography and

Micro Persuasion's 10 Trends

Blogging and PR guru, Steve Rubel, has posted a great little feature on the top 10 trends for the next ten years. Basically Steve wanted to work out what was next now that blogging and podcasting has hit the mainstream. Steve picks up on 'the long tail' , basically big companies will increasingly make their money not from the 'bestsellers' but from the product variety. In addition Steve

Sony PSP London Promotion

Today's Urban Junkies newsletter covers the latest efforts of the Sony PSP marketing team. They have asked a group of talented designers and artists to come up with their own designs for guitar shaped cut outs which are to be distributed around London and are yours to keep should you find one. The rest of the cut outs will be on display in the awesome Oki-ni store, Saville Row. Tags: Marketing

BBC Collective

The good old BBC has launched an excellent new online magazine called Collective which contains some great features with the likes of Chris Cunningham, Chuck Palahniuk and Bloc Party. There are also tracks to listen to and film clips to watch. There are also forums to have your say on the latest and greatest books, films and albums. CollectiveTags: Magazines

LE GUN

The second edition of LE GUN is now available in London for just £8!"Following the huge success of LE GUN, the magazine that brought budding artists work together in an extraordinary display of illustrative and narrative talent, a second edition (LE GUN 2)is now due to be released. This edition comprises of not only new artists work, but also pieces by established artists such as Sir Peter Blake

Silence on the streets of London

I have just witnessed one of the most amazing events of my life. To express sympathy at the atrocities of 7 July 2005 the whole of the Kings Road stopped work, travel and shopping to line the famous London thoroughfare and stand together in silence. It was a truly stunning moment and a tribute to all those who died in the attacks last week. For possibly the first time in my life I felt genuinely

Collaboration & Co-Creation

Influx Insights have published an email containing interviews with leading innovators from various industries. John Thackara, author of Into the Bubble, argued that 'Nearly all the most important design projects nowadays are collaborative' whilst Jody Turner, CEO of Culture of Future, believes that 'We are currently in a co-creation culture, meaning the lifestyle need of the consumer strongly

Sávio Palmerston

Hailing from Brasil, Sávio creates gorgeous lomographic shots and the results are stunning. I came across his work whilst doing a 'lomography' tag search on flickr. For more of these gorgeous compositions check out Sávio's page.

Landmark Houses

Entrepreneur Jeremy Paxton has commissioned an ambitious architectural project built in the Cotswolds at the Lower Mill Estate near Cirencester. 'The 'Landmark Houses' programme is envisioned specifically for the site at Lower Mill Estate, in the Cotswold Water Park, where we have invited a number of architects, such as Will Alsop, Eva Jiricna, Sutherland Hussey, Richard Meier and Partners, Roger

Cars of the Future

The World Automotive Design Competition took place in March of this year and threw up some great ideas. The premise of the competition is that young designers from all over the world create a concept for a mass production car that is in line with today's budgets for their own country but could be sold throughout the world. 'The vehicle had to be easily recognized as coming from a particular

Exploding Dog

Send Sam at Exploding Dog your phrase and s/he draws something inspired by it. A really nice and interactive idea. Not only can you have a t-shirt printed and sent to you, Sam has also produced a couple of books of he/r work. Thanks Alexawww.explodingdog.comTags: Design

Motion Watch

A gorgeous watch designed by Yves Behar, the Motion is a simple digital watch that has a couple of interesting features. The silicone and steel band only reaches part of the way around the wrist which gives the appearance of a suspended face. The digital screen itself can be read either vertically or horizontally depending on what mode you choose - the idea behind this is that it is easy to read

Sinister Jewelry

I'm not a huge fan of jewelry and adhere to the old adage that the only piece of jewelry at man should wear is his wristwatch. However, for the ladies it's an entirely different matter and if I were to recommend a style right now it would be the oversized gothic jewelry that is becoming popular. The BBC2 show Dragon's Den had a great jewelery designer recently who won the backing of a couple of

Leon

When you're busy in central London but can just about make 30 minutes for lunch where should you head for? You can do the Starbucks, Pret or Cafe Nero thing but it's just the same old, same old. So why not try out the hottest new restaurant in the capital? Leon is a delightful addition to Carnaby Street. Situated just outside Liberty's, Leon provides an incredible mix of foods from around the

The KDU

The KDU is a New York based communications agency who work with the most cutting edge brands. They describe themselves as a 'global creative collective dedicated to creating and managing innovative design driven brands and experiences'. Their clients include Serum vs Venom, the Royal magazine, and Jb Classics. www.thekdu.comTags: Trends

Tipping Point & Medici Effect

These are two books that just ooze with creative juice. Having read Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point in just a day whilst on holiday and having read the Medici Effect by Frans Johansson, pretty quickly on the tube I have been inspired.Both books demonstrate how we can be more creative. The Tipping Point demonstrates how it is small things that can make the big difference whether it is cleaning

Nike Flip N Switch Sandal

Nike have finally released a mass market product based on the limited edition Zvezdochka. The Flip N Switch sandal is made up of two components a perforated outer that has a sole slotted into it in the same way as the Zvezdochka. www.kickshawaii.comTags: Trainers, Sneakers

Account Planning

This is a subject that is becoming ever closer to my heart. And I have been looking for a few blogs that relate to this. The two top blogs are Russell Davies (former W+K now Nike) and John Griffiths (freelance planner). Whilst Griffiths has an in depth look at the art of planning Davies provides a day in the life of a planner and has links to his former employers blog and his side projects. Both

Puma & McQueen

The trend for designers and sportswear to collaborate continues. Following hot on the heels of McCartney for Adidas, Yohji Yamamoto for Adidas, Starck for Puma and Marc Newson for Nike, Puma have announced that Alexander McQueen will be designing a new range of trainers for them. The new line of men`s and women`s footwear created by PUMA and Alexander McQueen will launch in Spring 2006. Known for

Sea Orbiter

'French marine architect Jacques Rougerie has designed a floating research lab called the Sea Orbiter, intended to observe ocean life and the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere.The Sea Orbiter will simply be driven by currents and is designed to have a lifespan of 15 years. And according to the French Musée national de la Marine, the project seems to be moving along at a rapid pace,

Nokia 770

A non mobile phone offering from Nokia, the 770 is in fact a handheld PC which allows you to surf the web etc from anywhere with a wireless connection. It does everything you'd expect from a PC as far as web browsing is concerned (RSS, PDF, Flash are all supported) but it's tiny. The great news is it's pretty damn cheap and is out this year. via engadgetwww.nokia.comTags: Technologyhttp://

Advertising

There are a couple of excellent adverts on British television at the moment. The Heinz efforts for their baked beans product line is witty and engaging with it's use of stereo types giving the beans their very own personalities. My other favourite is the Aero advert that makes me turn the volume up on the TV as soon as it comes on. Beautiful art direction and a great choice of soundtrack make for

iTunes

iTunes will support podcasts in it's 4.9 incarnation. Steve Jobs has announced that the apple music application will now support podcasts the rapidly growing audio equivalent of a blog. Podcasts have so far remained fairly leftfield despite massive off and online hype. However, this addition to iTunes could bring it to a full mainstream audience and podcasts could be about to tip. via

Puma Summer 05

Apologies for the lack of posts recently but due to holidays and a new job there hasn't been much time to sit down and type let alone sift through all the emails that are sitting in various inboxes. Anyway enough excuses because one email that I have checked out contained Puma's new Summer 05 catalogue and it's quite a treat.My favourites are:the Siena shoe (based on an original 60s football shoe

Svedka - Garden of Sweden

A promotional blog the way a commercial blog should be done. This has been put together by Svedka a Swedish vodka company and it showcases relevant stuff and has no product shots, banner ads or fictional stories about brand heroes. via PSFKgardenofsweden.comTags: Marketing

CSS Reboot

Holds a great collection of the best CSS based designs. CSS Reboot is the brainchild of Benjamin Adam Howell and Matthew Pennell their aim:'To bring together web professionals who design with CSS and standards in mind to launch their redesigns on May 1st along with all the Flash designers. This way we can both participate and show everyone just how great semantic, accessible design can be.'As an

All Terrain Boarding

Having never really been one for extreme sports or even skateboarding I have been surprised by the interest that I've been showing in All Terrain Boarding or Mountain Boarding as it is also known. The sport is based around a skateboard deck which has pneumatic rubber tires instead of solid wheels. The board can be used offroad thanks to the size and composition of the wheels, people have been

Established & Sons

Established & Sons is a brand new British design and manufacturing company who are about to take the furniture world by storm. They use the latest crop of British talent to design mouthwatering designs and then use British manufacturing know how to produce the items. The idea behind this is that they will promote great design whilst reaffirming belief in British manufacturing.ProductsTags: Design

Airside Studios

Not only do one of the guys at Airside make-up half of Lemon Jelly, they also create some stunning creative. With an impressive client list and even more impressive work Airside Studios are one of the most talented design agencies out there. You can view their work for yourself here.www.airside.co.ukTags: Design

Nike Air Force 1

Slammin Kicks of London Town are giving away a pair of these and I've only just noticed that the deadline was today 26 April. So if you want them you are going to have to beg for them to extend the closing date. Did I mention that they are signed by Jay Z?www.slamminkicks.comTags: Trainers, Sneakers

Free Music at Amazon

Amazon are giving away free mp3s. For anyone who wants to check this out it is available here and includes the likes of Bloc Party, Air, Zero 7 and Thievery Corporation. Tags: Music

American Apparel

This lunchtime I popped out for a quick field visit at the American Apparel store that has opened on Carnaby Street. The store has a subtle 80s feel to it gone are the ubiquitous LCD screens of most high streets and in their place we have early 80s looking monitors. The clothing is a minimal version of Gap - all the garments are made from cotton and have a real athletic summery feel to them. The

Josh Rubin - Coolhunting

The biggest and best coolhunting blog has been revamped. Josh Rubin has given the sight a complete makeover and the results are pretty cool. The name of the site has also changed to just coolhunting. Keep up the good work Josh and team. www.coolhunting.comTags: Trends

Thwart Design

Offer some excellent do it yourself examples in order to recreate classic designs. The best of these is the set of Eames cards. Thwart Design offer a very simple explanation of how to do this using old photos. www.thwartdesign.comTags: Design

George Logan

George Logan creates gorgeous photographs and as a result he counts Orange, Yamaha and 7-up amongst his clients. This year he won the Association of Photographers Gold Award for a personal project that juxtaposed wild non-indigenous animals against typical British landscapes. www.georgelogan.co.ukTags: Photo

Adliterate

An interesting and thoughtful blog all about advertising.'Adliterate.com is dedicated to radical thinking about the future of advertising.It is created in the belief that most people in this hugely conservative industry greet change either by sticking their heads in the sand or by giving up and wandering off to pastures new.'www.adliterate.comTags: Marketing

What's on your ipod?

Inspired by George Bush's ipod revelation, The Independent has recently run an article asking this very question. They asked a cross section of celebrity society including Sean Connery and Nitin Sawhney to play their ipods on random and see what came up.Tags: Music

Nike Free Ad

Today, April 20th, Nike will launch their new ad campaign for the Nike Free. Created by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam the ad will celebrate the freedom that training bare foot gives atheletes. I hope it's up to the usual Nike standard.www.wk.comTags: Marketing

All been done before

This site has some great advertising campaigns that appear to have more than inspired others. Maybe lightening does strike twice.Tags: Marketing

Nissan Cube

Back in 2002 Nissan showed off its Cube II prototype. This was then released in Japan and caused something of a stir. It also provided some competition for the Toyota Scion XB. The Nissan Cube's design team had four key themes of "naughty, relaxing, compact and agile" are embodied in the design. They sought a design with clear originality, functionality that provides "joy of use, and

Flickr Blog Lomography

The flickr blog is a great source of stunning photos taken by the likes of you and me. The lovely people at flickr trawl through the chaff and give us the wheat here. This lomography set really caught my eye. flickr blogLomographyTags: Photo

Shotgun

The Shotgun site gives you the opportunity to own gear from the hottest new designers and also pick up classic pieces. Featuring original Adidas garments (not rereleases), Umbro by Kim Jones, and Ziad Ghanem; Shotgun has a diverse and brilliant range of clothing. The one drawback is that to own this cutting edge clobber you have to become a member, which costs £10. Mind you that's not bad

nyclondon

R. Gardiner has set up this beautiful photo site and it is stocked full of wonderful black and white shots depicting both cities. Winter in New York is a particularly lovely photo set. However, the most stunning photos are on his blog. Walking the Circle Line shows absolutely stunning shots of London including a marvellous one of the Monument. www.nyclondon.comTags: Design

Marc Newson interview

I'm not obsessed or anything... honest! Another Marc Newson interview published on CNN.The guy is talented though. "I'm crazy about anything that's space-related," he said. "In fact the sneakers I designed for Nike were indirectly designed for some Russian cosmonauts. I was invited to a number of launches in Baikunor [cosmodrome] in Kazakhstan.It's a very difficult industry, as you can imagine,

Nokia 8801

Following hard on the heels of Motorola's RAZR comes the imaginatively named Nokia 8801. They are really pushing the fashion over function in the mobile phone world which has certainly raised the game when it comes to looks but how long until we get both form and function in a phone? The 8801 looks very good, the screen acts as a slide down cover for the keypad and seems pretty slick. But the

Fading Adverts

Fading Adverts is a photo site of very old adverts that have been allowed to fade naturally. Primarily focused on New York the site is a great showroom for some real treasures that we normally ignore or just don't see. www.frankjump.comTags: Design

Pantone Home Colors Forecast 2006

Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today unveiled the eight most directional color palettes for the home furnishings market for 2006."In 2006, home furnishings colors will show some interesting new directions, especially in very original, intricate, and not-at-all-formulaic combinations," explained Leatrice Eiseman,

Starck

Excellent and interesting interview with Philippe Starck. Includes tantalising hints about his future projects including a hydrogen car. www.timesonline.co.ukTags: Design

Camper Wabi Somier Sol vs Puma Starck Sandal

A great idea is a great idea but these two are a little too similar in design. Can it just be coincidence? Camper Wabi Somier SolPuma Starck SandalIncidentally they're both pretty cool. Tags: Trainers, Sneakers

PSFK Coolhunt

Fellow trend blog PSFK have started a global cool hunt using Flickr. It's been coming - first the post on the end of coolhunting, the rise of folksonomy and now this. Anyway, to enter you need to take a photo of anything you think is cool and then post it to the PSFK GLOBAL COOL HUNT group on flickr. The guys initially want photos inspired by mycooljeans. Full details hereHappy hunting. PS

The Tower

Burj Dubai is about to become the most exclusive address in the world. It promises that "There are a select few who possess the vision, resources, and the opportunity to live in the world’s tallest building. If you have that opportunity, you are assured not just unparalleled luxury, but a place in history. And in Dubai’s future."Inspired by the Hymenocallis, a Dubai flower, architect Adrian Smith

Strip Bracelet

Is a simple strip of silver, complete with Hallmarks, which you bend around your wrist to create your very own, bespoke bracelet. "It's delivered to you in a felt case and poses a dilemma: do you dare to bend the precious beauty of the material into a bracelet? Whoever dares has a home-made product by the Swiss/English designer Rolf Sachs." via MoCo Locowww.chihapaura.comTags: Fashion

Beautiful site

Minimal Gallery is a gorgeous website showcasing some great photos. The images are displayed as a large slide show and are under categories such as colors, feelings, light, motion, people, and shapes. You can also choose to view the photos as a random file. All really rather wonderful.minimaldesign.netTags: Design

Video Blogging

A report on the BBC website quotes Google co-founder Larry Page stating that they will very soon be launching a video blogger. "In the next few days, we're actually going to start taking video submissions from people, and we're not quite sure what we're going to get, but we decided we'd try this experiment," said Mr Page.www.bbc.co.ukTags: Technology

Mandarin

An article in this weeks Sunday Times highlights that New Yorkers are increasingly encouraging their children to speak Mandarin. Believing that China will be the economy of the 21st century they are trying to give their children the edge. In fact, certain New York schools are adding Mandarin to their curriculum. Thanks AlexaTags: Trends

stitch'T

"stitch'T was born out of a fascination with all things vintage and authentic. What was once a hobby of countless journeys to thrift shops accross the country and tripsdown the aisles of secondhand stores quickly turned into a passion for preservationand art.A tribute to two american icons, stitch'T products blend the rich history of quiltingwith a contemporary classic - the t-shirt.Taking full

Paper Bags

These always look pretty cool (unless you're drinking out of them) and Wemakemoneynotart have found a great brown paper bag. Designer Paperbags are currently on display in Montreal design gallery 'Madam Edgar' and are available for auctions on eBay. www.madamedgar.comTags: Design

Folksonomies

The Guardian Online blog has an interesting post on folksonomies. Bobbie Johnson argues that as it stands, tagging is too much effort for most people and that they want content to be organised. Well that's a fair point but it does take away some of the joys of being part of a network. If you want to connect with like-minded people then the chances are you will use similar tags or even have your

Tantek

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.comTags: Design

Flickr related tag browser

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

Practise - London

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.

noWax

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

Springspotters

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.

Philippe Starck Sandal

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

Legal TV Downloads

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

Spreadshirt

'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

Philippe Starck

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 Luxistwww.askf6.comTags: Design

Podcasting update

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 ClickzThis 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

surface 2 air

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

In brief

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.ukBacon 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

OpenAd

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

Full Circle & Tiger of Sweden

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

PSP Casting

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

50 people see...

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

Screen Typefaces

'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

Logo RIP

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.comTags: Design

Abbey Road Film Festival

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 '

Yoko Ikeno

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 IkenoTags: Design

Plej

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

Tagging & Folksonomy

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

Nike: new branding approaches - Curation

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

Google X

Google has released a version of its search homepage that has the characteristics of a Mac OSX dock! Very gimmicky but I like it.GoogleXIt seems to be down at the moment for a live version try here.Tags: Technology

NYPL Public Library

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

Lomography

As a follow-up to Josh Spear's post on CoolhuntingI 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.comTags: Design

Launch of 3.5 networks

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.comTags:

Public Lettering

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

The Grey Sweatsuit Revolution

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

Wooster Collective Mobile

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

Skype

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.

Adidas One Ad

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 Agendawww.boardsmag.comTags: Trainers, Sneakers

Flashforward and Flash Film Festival

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

Tank TV

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.tvTags: Trends

Lights lovely lights

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.comwww.gnr8.bizTags: Design

Audio Cubes

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

Julian Lwin - light fascination

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.

Futuro Flamenco

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

Karma Loop

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

Moscow Style

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

Adidas One

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

Without milk

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.

Zopa

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

Maharishi DPM B&W Speakers

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 ProteinMaharishiB&WTags: Music Design

Trackies

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.ukTags: Fashion

Music for Imaginary Runways

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 '

Future Transport

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.infowww.peugeot.comTags: Transport

Open Source Marketing

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

BYOB - Build Your Own Bag

'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.BYOBTags:

Casa Camper

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

New Segways

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

Pimp Watches

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.comTags: Technology

CSS Zen Garden

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

Soft Service Tees

Inspired t-shirts by Michael Sy. Michael creates gorgeous customised t-shirts by creating variations on his own designs using hand painting and embroidery. The results are lovely t-shirts that will make you stand out. www.servicestudio.comTags: Fashion

Human Clock

This lovely website tells the time. What's so special about that? Well it tells the time using photos submitted by real live people. So, 11:31 was spelled out by some orange peel in Somerset and 11:32 was a shot of a shot of shot of someone holding a CD with the time on it on their computer screen, if you follow. www.humanclock.comTags: Ideas

Marc Newson

This Australian designer first came to my attention late last year when he collaborated with Nike on the Zvezdochka shoe. Since then I've taken a closer look at his work and want to share it with the world! Thanks to his recent exhibition at London's Design Museum I was given the chance to see many of his designs up-close and personal. These included: his 1986 Lockheed Lounge, his 1999/2000

Odeo

These guys believe that podcasting is the future. Odeo are a company who believe that podcasting will be the next blogging and plan to make money from its growing popularity. They aim to 'enable this new distribution channel and medium by creating the best one-source solution for finding, subscribing to, and publishing audio content.' It will be interesting to see how a non-visual medium takes

Asia the new cool?

Will the 2000s be to Asian culture what the 80s and 90s were to black culture? Already this decade we've had the bollywood trend, the increasing influence of asian sounds is impacting the mainstream with asian tinged tunes by Missy Elliot and Talvin Singh (Winner of the Mercury Music Prize 1999). In addition, we have the impending release of Harold And Kumar Get The Munchies - not a cultural high

Flat-pack everything

According to Design Boom IKEA will soon be releasing flat-pack housing. This could be a major major bonus in the UK, especially in the south east. However, I hope they make them a lot prettier than the one in the example. For some interesting houseboat designs (kind of relevant) look at this on Gizmondowww.ikea.comTags: Design

Great idea

Josh Rubin has a great post on his site today, K adorable. The premise of K adorable is that you pay an annual subscription and as a result are sent five t-shirts with exclusive designs over a period of time. I love the idea of getting the freshest designs almost every other month delivered to me - think of the possibilities for other mediums!www.kadorable.comTags: Ideas

Wonderland Magazine

For those of you lucky enough to receive BBC2 they've had a pretty cool programme called Dragons' Den on. The basic premise of the show is that budding entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to secure investment finance from the Dragons... elite business experts. The business experts are all successful entrepreneurs who will stump up cash for ideas they truly believe in. Any way in the last show one

/ Magazine

'The magazine has your typical fashion, art, photography, and articles but in a different form. These topics aren't treated as mere topics. They are each embraced in their own unique way. Everything in the magazine is raw and real. It's contributors are both famous and unknown. Everyone is someone to / and the pages show that. Homeless people become contributing photographers, friends become

Power Unit Studio

Once you delve inside this website there are some lovely, simple house designs from Power Unit. All gorgeous to look at and presumably not too expensive to build. I want one!www.pus.jpTags: Design

Bleach

A cool London design agency with some lovely illustration in their portfolio. Not only that but they also have an excellent online magazine - this issue is titled 'Dirty'. Definitely worth checking out. My favourite? Why, page 17 of course.www.drinkbleach.co.ukTags: Design

Grime

The latest sound to emerge from East London the UK's creative hotspot for sometime. Mashing up UK Garage, Dub and Hip-Hop it's already had mainstream recognition in the form of a Mercury Music Award for Dizzee Rascal in 2003. Could 2005 be the year that it makes it?www.beinghunted.comwww.dirteestank.comTags: Music

Personal transportation

Recumbant bicycle pods and motopods - people want their own personal space when they travel - I keep on seeing recumbant bikes in London and followed a velomobile for 5miles on my way home the other night. Not only that but check out Josh Rubin for the latest and greatest recumant bicycle.Velomobiles - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VelomobileMicrocars - www.gizmag.co.uk/go/3647/Segway - segway.comTags:

Get fit and stop the fat

Increasingly people are becoming more aware of the dangers of modern life - be it processed foods, too much salt, Dasani, obesity etc. People are trying to become more healthy; from medicine (natural herbal remedies & homeopathic) to going down the gym (although not to come out looking like Brad Pitt, just staying healthy). This has led to a rapid increase in the number of gyms that aren't a

Interactive habitat

Grafedia turns New York into a potential webpageGrafedia , created by John Geraci, is hyperlinked text, written by hand onto physical surfaces and linking to images, video, sound files, etc. It can be written on walls, in the streets, or in postcards, on the body as tattoos, or anywhere you feel like putting it.Viewers "click" on the grafedia hyperlinks with their phones by sending a message

Recycled clothing

Not only is everyone making there own media now they want to make their own clothes. From screen printing your latest Photoshop creation on to a t-shirt to customising those jeans that you'd never wear otherwise, people are doing their own thing. Next up recycled clothing. And also an increase in the number of trendy thrift stores and second hand boutiques. Noted in Covent Garden, Brick Lane,

Portable video

Everybody else - Creative and Archos, has brought out a portable video device to complement their MP3 players - why haven't Apple? Presumably they are going to once they have sorted out all the legal stuff to support an iMovie store. Why else would they have brought out the nice but pretty pointless ipod photo?However, the Sony PSP could blow ipod, Archos and Creative out of the water. Amazing

Wirelessly wired

Do anything anywhere with the spread of Wi-fi and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). You may have heard of Skype, far and away the market leaders, quite simply Skype allows you to actually talk to your buddies over the internet using VOIP. This is either free, if calling another internet device, or very cheap if you are calling a mobile/landline.The proliferation of wi-fi is leading to a

Do-it-yourself-cos-the-media-isn't-good-enough trend

Blogs continue to dominate and proliferate - this will be assisted by the wide adoption of RSS.A direct result of RSS has been the invention of Podcasting which is set to become a huge phenomenon. - bored of your radio station? do it yourself and let everybody else listen in. Not only that but using Apple's iLife you can create your own music, radio shows and even movies.www.apple.com/