Collective culture corner

Over the weekend, Dan popped in to the Saatchi Gallery to see the 'Newspeak: British Art Now' exhibition. The exhibition showcases the best of a new generation of contemporary British artists, in fact there were so many to display they had to split the show into two.

Highlights from the show were Steve Bishop's taxidermy goat and cement sculpture, being introduced to Maurizio Anzeri's embroidered vintage prints, and Toby Ziegler's geometric oil paintings.

David Brian Smith - Great Expectations - Wow, 2010

Steve Bishop - Christian Dior - J'Adore (Mountain Goat), 2008

Toby Ziegler - Designated for leisure, 2004

Tessa Farmer - Swarm, 2004

The show runs until the 17th April 2011, so you have plenty of time to drop by and check it out. In the meantime, if you want to see more photos from the exhibition, feel free to visit my design blog

Fifth best digital agency in YouGov survey

YouGov has been busy asking leading UK Marketing Directors their thoughts on digital agencies and we’re pleased to announce that Collective has ranked joint fifth in their Top 100 Digital Ad Agencies list.


The full results will be published in Marketing Week this Thursday, but we can reveal that we scored highly in the ‘Value for money’ and ‘Contribution of senior personnel’ categories.

A big thanks to everyone who voted – it’s very rewarding to all of us at Collective to be held in such high regard by our clients and the UK marketing community. And we’ll keep on doing what we do best – only a little bit better if we want to reach that number one spot next year.

See the YouGov survey in full at PitchDigital

Last week three of the Collective designers @designer_dan @mattakempton and @jonnyburch attended Creative Review's first 'Tweetup' event which was held at the London Design Museum.

Everyone attending the event was invited to bring along a piece of personal work which would then get exhibited inside an exhibition space along with their twitter user name. Next up, attendees were given a free bag of assorted Lego bricks and set about building their own architectural mini-installations, which at the end were all added together to create a mini Lego micro-village.

Looking forward to the next one, more pictures of the event can be found here.

We've gone all misty-eyed

It's been all about the nostalgia this week at Collective Towers. Michael kicked it off by requesting the Labyrinth soundtrack on the office Spotify, which led Dan and Holly to engage in a detailed and empassioned discussion of which Collective staff member would make the best Goblin King in an agency-only remake of the film. No satisfactory conclusion was reached, mostly because of the distinct lack of anyone with a blonde mullet in the vicinity.

Then it was time to move on from the elven eighties to the neon nineties. Because as of today, the office has its very own Nintendo 64, complete with the two undisputed Best Games Ever: Goldeneye and Mario Kart.

"Oh no, not Rainbow Road. My eyes!"

The arrival of the console was accompanied by a volley of trash talking, but most of it turned out to be bravado as we struggled to remember how to use the ill-designed three-pronged controller.

All of which left us wondering what the next rose-tinted arrival from the past might be. Snap bracelets? Vanilla Coke? 2Unlimited? We can't wait to find out.

Holly reports on the She Says ‘SCAMP’ conference

On Thursday 1^st July 2010, the boardrooms and creative departments of London’s digital agencies were utterly bereft of females. More so than usual, I mean. Because they were all at ‘SCAMP’, the first conference of She Says – the women-focused creative organisation that aims to provide networking and role models for women in digital.

The theme of the conference was “work in progress”, and the eight speakers were intentionally proportioned 7 women to 1 man, in an attempt to reverse the usual 80/20 male/female speaker ratio at advertising conferences. They talked about work they’re doing now, how it developed from initial ideas, and where they’d like to take things in the future.

The lovely LBI bar - the setting for post-SCAMP networking

A couple of highlights of the day:

Katy Lindemann, Strategist

Katy talked about “happiness hacking” – that is, bringing the joy found in games into the real world – a concept inspired by game designer Jane McGonigal. Katy told us about a game called Chromaroma that makes use of Oyster card data to “make travel magical”. Users can hold the record for the fastest journey between two tube stops, for instance, or accept missions like visiting Cockfosters station within a week to be declared “Cock of the North”. In this way, it has similarities to Foursquare, but it could have another purpose, too.

Katy explained that TfL were willing to share their Oyster data because they believe Chromaroma could help them to change behavior patterns on London transport. For example, could people be persuaded to use transport at off-peak times, or visit lesser-used stations? There’s huge potential. Find out more about Chromaroma here.

Candace Kuss, Hill & Knowlton

Candace talked about the rise of the “pro-am” (professional amateur – bloggers and creators who use the same tools and are as highly-followed as the pros) and the perils of UGC.

The main bit of advice I took from Candace's talk was that:“Humour is the best way to talk in any of these [social online] platforms. If you want to have the communication with people, you’re going to have to liven it up a bit”. Couldn't agree more.

For more about She Says’s regular talks and gatherings (men are allowed, despite what you may have heard), visit their website here.

Honda CR-Z launches with two digital initiatives

We're proud to unveil two exciting pieces of work Collective has created recently for Honda's new sporty hybrid coupé, the CR-Z.

First off is Mode Art, a Facebook app that allows you to turn your profile picture into a unique work of art to match the CR-Z's three driving modes: sporty, econ and normal. We've had great fun here playing with our mugshots - here's how some of them turned out:

The second piece of work is an interactive 3D model of the CR-Z exterior that again highlights its three driving modes. Experience the car in its full 360-degree glory at Honda.co.uk.

BBC Orchestras and Singers portal launches

The BBC has a huge range of talented musicians. And they all have a place on the new BBC Orchestras & Singers portal, designed by Collective.

Our aim was to give all six of the performing groups their own identity, while still ensuring an integrated feel for the site. We also needed to create a bilingual version for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The BBC Orchestras & Singers site offers users a concert diary to help fans find the next performance (searchable by date, group, genre or series), as well as the latest news, videos and recordings. They can even book tickets and review the concert afterwards.

You can see the final result at http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/.

Little Beauty picks up award

We are proud to announce that our site for bespoke New Zealand Wine Little Beauty has contributed to Little Beauty winning the coveted Harpers Design Awards for 'Best New Product' in 2010.

We are really happy that such a brave product and innovate marketing approach has been recognised. Special congratulations go out to Fleur McCree, owner of Vinultra Wines and the Little Beauty brand, whose strategy and vision was behind the award.

Decode – Digital Design Sensations at the V&A

On Friday, a few of the designers and developers headed off to see the Decode exhibition currently running at the V&A. Decode is an exhibition of the latest developments from digital and interactive design, including such artists as Joshua Davis, Daniel Rozin, Chris O’Shea and Simon Heijdens.

Although the exhibition was fairly small, it acts more like a taster, with the accompanying booklet giving loads of detail on the artists. If you’re fairly new to the medium of digital interactive art, this exhibit will hopefully inspire you to find out more about the artists featured and look into their other work.

To see some photos of the exhibit, as well as links to the artists websites, go to my design blog.

Back to Bug

So, as some of you may remember, we blogged about Bug last September. Quick flashback: Bug is an event at the BFI Southbank in Waterloo hosted by Adam Buxton, celebrating the wildest, most inventive music videos and inviting some of the directors up on stage for a chat about their latest projects.

Now jump forward to last week and Bug 17. I popped along to see what all the fuss is about and would definitely recommend going. Below are a few highlights to whet your appetite. To see a full write up, with more video highlights, go here.

The first video: ‘Roman Is As Roman Does’ by Themselves – directed by Yu Sato. In his words "It's about trying to illustrate the problem with the current downloading culture, where music is becoming a kind of daily food and is no longer seen as a valuable art form bringing meaning to life."

The second video: ‘General Motors, Detroit America’ by Acid Washed – directed by Anthony Burrill. Burrill is well known for his bold typographic style, and you can see this reflected in the video. It contains strong geometric forms with minimal animation, yet the effect is pretty powerful.

Help us to help Haiti

Last week, we joined the worldwide effort to support the earthquake victims of Haiti. Working with AMV, we helped UNICEF set up their Facebook Haiti appeal. If you haven’t already, please visit the Facebook fanpage and donate today.

Today, I mostly think this…

Facebook statuses do more these days. At first they were just a chance to share news or tell everyone how fabulous, funny or fed up you are. Now they’re gaining the momentum and power to spread important messages too.

Take the recent Breast Cancer Awareness mini campaign. Suddenly, a large proportion of my Facebook homepage was full of girls saying ‘pink’, ‘bright blue’, ‘lacy’ and so on. The idea was for women everywhere to post the colour of their bra as their status update. The result was something funny and intriguing – men even joined in too! But more importantly, it was a little reminder about the cause and a nudge to action.

The latest Facebook app created by Mccann Erickson Israel, for gaming company ‘Yellow Retail’, takes ‘status power’ further still. The app searches through your friends to find the ones leaving ‘sad’ statuses. Friends saying things like ‘I’m depressed’ or ‘I’m fed-up’ will then be sent a notification with a coupon for a free game to cheer them up. A nice little app to help your pals get happy.

And after all, isn’t that why you post a status update? You know that people will see it and a response is what you’re really asking for. So whether you’re after a *hug*, a thumbs-up or an opinion, you can be sure someone’s listening.

Latest job opportunities at Collective

This coming year looks set to be one of our busiest yet and we're looking for the very best digital talent to join us for the ride. We’ve got a heap of roles open at the moment, so take a peep at our jobs page and pop us your cv if you think you fit the bill. Make it your New Year’s resolution!

Evans almighty

It’s a big day for Radio 2, with Chris Evans and Simon Mayo both launching their new shows. And Collective has had the pleasure of creating the new sites for both DJs.

The wonderful illustration work is by Celyn Brazier (for Evans) and I Love Dust (for Mayo), with Collective working closely alongside the BBC teams to ensure the visual styles and ideas reflected the personality of each DJ and their new shows.

In addition to the sites, the new designs also had to work across all other interactive BBC media – you’ll see them pop up on the iPlayer, in podcasts, and in many other places.

Today I mostly think this...

Whether you’re hungry to learn, or just hungry, there’s an app for that. 'Jamie Oliver’s 20-minute meals' iPhone app is just the thing, supplying you with a choice of recipes and step-by-step instructions on how to make them. It’s like having a mini master chef in your pocket.

And surely that’s everything an iPhone app should be? Forget apps that just pass the time, or novelty fake beer you pretend to drink, I’m far too busy for that. I want step-by-step instructions, helpful facts, or a guide to where I’m going. I want my iPhone to be a handy little companion, helping me find an open garage at 11pm when I need a pint of milk, or showing me how to fix a flat tyre or locate the pub with the best beer.

My iPhone doesn’t have to do anything wacky or funny, it just has to be useful. Perhaps then I’ll wonder how I ever survived without it.

‘Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals’ was developed by Jamie Oliver and Zolmo, a London-based software publishing and development company.

Let's get excited about ... Kristin Hersh

Never heard of Kristin? Then you need to stop reading this very minute and go and listen to ‘Your Ghost’. I’ll still be here when you get back.

(3 minutes and 16 seconds later.) Sublime. Kristin is a sparkling gem of a musician who has been pioneering new ways to distribute her work online for the past few years. Instead of griping about the Interwebby connected world we live in, Kristin has embraced the potential of evolving technology to get her music out to a whole new audience.

Her band 50 Foot Wave launched their first EP as an online freebie about 5 years back – actively encouraging fans of her previous solo and Throwing Muses work to make copies and give them to friends. And most recently Kristin has been at the forefront of the CASH Music initiative – a non-profit organisation that offers expertise and open-source tools to musicians looking to harness digital distribution and promotion. Basically, it works as a great way for fans to directly support Kristin’s music through donations and word of mouth.

Through CASH Music, Kristin has been releasing a new song each month over the past two years – including cover art, lyrics, notes and works in progress. All content is free, though visitors can tip Kristin for each song, or pay an annual subscription to receive guest list passes, studio visits and a name-check on CD sleeves. Such is the feeling of connection this all inspires, that fans even came together to buy Kristin a new guitar when she most needed one. That’s the true potential of the Internet for those musicians who aren’t still stamping their feet and wishing it would all just go away.

Go have a listen to Kristin’s latest download from her new album ‘Crooked’ and tell me what you think.

Note: Photo by Dina Douglass.