In 2012, I’m looking forward to using ‘Experience Mapping’ as a UX tool to thoroughly define and document the customers’ experience of a service and the needs that arise on their journey towards their goal.
Nikolas Head, Information Architect.

With more and more different types of devices on which you can browse the internet becoming available, I think responsive design will have a greater role to play in 2012 in order to create great interfaces that work across multiple platforms. 2011 saw the beginnings of this but I think 2012 will be the year when more focus is put on displaying content that it relevant to the device, which you are viewing it on.
Nathan Parris, Designer.

2011 saw brands really embracing the idea of storytelling, and I look forward to seeing how this will evolve further. I will also be watching technologies such as mobile computing, gesture control and augmented reality, as I expect their growth in the industry will continue to soar, bringing with them exciting new brand to consumer experiences.
Melissa Bennett, Copywriter.

Mobile Commerce has been growing fast and I believe it will be bigger in 2012… Most people never leave their mobile and with longer working hours and people having less free time to actually ‘go to the shops’, browsing and buying via a mobile device or tablet is starting to fit into people’s lifestyles naturally – Bring on 4G!
Georgie Pares, Project Manager.

With online games starting to popup using Canvas, (such as Cut The Rope www.cuttherope.ie) you can really see how Canvas is easily as good or better than Flash on a performance level, without any need for a single browser plug-in, purely native, along with being GPU powered it really is quite good. JavaScript is becoming almost real-time in processing, due to the latest browsers JS engines’ precompiling code on load to really speed things up, they make a great partnership in what will be the  mainstream medium for graphically rich websites.
Joe Angus, Senior Developer.

2012 is the year of the first digital Olympics. In the UK, the BBC will stream 2500 hours of digital coverage of the games for TV, desktop, mobile and tablet, allowing users to personalise their Olympic experience via the media platforms they use. I predict social media will play a big part in this. Allowing users to act as commentators through real-time posts and tweets. This simple yet personal experience will hook the interest of even the uninitiated and encourage digital media consumption to rocket in the future.
Nia Lonergan, New Business Co-ordinator.

If Microsoft releases Windows 8 with their own app store and with IE 10 (which is planned for this year), to fully support all HTML5, it will be huge step for mankind and it will rapidly increase the standardisation of HTML5. There is still long way for HW acceleration for advanced graphics and 3D. But most of the microsites and apps on the web are not using that much graphical effects so people will turn to HTML5, which would work on most devices and doesn’t need any additional installation (unlike Flash Player).
Stefan Vadocz, Creative Developer.

2012 will be the year of the Smart TV, with us accepting the digital world into more and more aspects of our life, counterbalanced with it being (I think) the year Facebook crumbles!
Simon Beale, Designer.

Agree or disagree? Let us know what you think will be big in 2012!

Our motives of starting an agency were questioned, but we believed in a better creative world – where an agency got back to its routes and produced great work without charging (let’s face it) the inflated and greed orientated fees of others. Work that benefited the intended audience, not purely the agency.

Our sense of timing was questioned, but we welcomed the recession, I know that sounds misguided, but in our industry great agencies are born out of recessions – There is a flick of the reset switch, the fat is removed – we remember it’s about great creative, marketing and communications. Simple.

So what has been the secret to our last 4 years? Well, I won’t give it all away, but…

…in the beginning we had no clients, no website and no folio. All we had is what all creatives dream of… A completely white piece of paper to do with as we wished, along with our hard won reputations. It was time to start afresh – to reinvent what an agency should be and remember why we got involved in this industry in the first place – align our ethos and ethics to an ever (rapidly) changing and demanding world – get out there and spread our message. One of creative love.

We went against the grain when others played it safe and employed top of game talent to deliver on our promises of great creative and management. Within this structure we fostered an environment that invested in staff, encouraged creative thought, and empowered individuals to take ownership and accountability of their work whilst developing the concept of the team and not rely on hero dependency.

We found a niche. We developed an approach to transparent management and communications – allowing staff to have voice and help shape the future of the company. There should be no secrets.

We worked hard. Often above and beyond the contractual agreements we had made… Even today, if it needs that little extra we will give it, meaning that we do it better, faster, cheaper, more honestly, and with a wider range than our competitors.

But most of all, we created an environment that allows people to work with a smile. Promoting people to look at things with new eyes, to not be afraid or think of limitations.

Things great and small

With each dollar having to work harder and the amount of channels now available it pays to stay small and agile. It pays not to be the ’800-pound gorilla’. It allows us to work under the radar of the bigger agencies.

By staying small and focussed we hold on to the things that are dear to us, our passion of ideas, our love of storytelling and the acceptance of making mistakes. Mistakes are OK… If we don’t make them, then we aren’t pushing hard enough.

And what of 2012…

As advocates of design and communication we will be thinking about how we can change the world. To make it that little bit more special and leave a legacy – gifting back to the audience we rely so heavily upon to love and be influenced by our work. Yes, we live and work within a commercially driven world and environment, but it’s evolving… And brands can and will be playing a central role within this communication evolution – To make the world a better place to live in. It’s not all about the financial rewards… It now incorporates the story we are telling and the smile we should be leaving behind.

Our mission

As always; To over achieve – to deliver time and time again on our promise. To change the world ever so slightly for the better. To make the complex simple. To love what we do.

Here is to what we believe is going to be a most excellent 2012. Have fun with it.

Mark Anderson / Creative Director and Founder

What we are looking for…

An individual who can be responsible for innovative, well conceptualised and well developed multi-platform solutions for projects within the tech / creative department. You will be supported by a dynamic team in delivering high-quality end requirements for International clients.

If you think you have what it takes, visit our jobs page to find out more or get in touch.

For our recent Sprout Christmas competition, the development team were tasked with the creation of a 360 degree spinning representation of our prize jar of sprouts.

Having some keen photographers within the team, we jumped at the chance to bring our gear in, and convert the kitchen area in the manor into a quick photo studio.

First we decided upon how many photographs / angles we wanted to have, which came down to every 10 degrees (36 shots). To ensure we got it right, we marked down every 10 degrees around a template that the jar would sit on – unfortunately we didn’t have a turn table available so we relied on our calm and collected coding hands for the movement.

Armed with a roll of brown paper, we covered the kitchen table and wall to remove any items which may cause post production an issue.

Consistency was key for making this work seamlessly, so we setup our DSLR on a tripod, with a nice fast 85mm 1.4 lens and used a remote to fire the shutter. We did a couple of test shots for lighting and reflection testing, then our photo studio was complete!

We focus locked the camera, and carefully rotated the sprout jar whilst taking the 36 photographs needed. The design team then did all of the post processing and beautification necessary, and handed us back the files.

As we were going to use a sprite sheet method involving just one image file, we had to collate them all together in a row – thankfully stitching them together was nice and easy due to Photoshop’s distribution alignment tool.

The HTML was nice and easy, just needed a div container with the correct dimensions, with the background of our sprite sheet set.

Next was to setup the JavaScript, using the jQuery library we were able to quickly track mouse movements when the jar had been clicked, to determine which direction the user would be panning around.

A little logic to decide what frame number should be next displayed, and/or if it should loop back around to the beginning, the background position on the sprite sheet that sprite number relates to and we were there! A HTML only method of creating a controllable spinning sprout jar.

Here’s to 2012 and what will be another amazing year!

As part of a new three-year plan, MSIF aims to implement a new creative next year: ‘1000 faces of MS’, which will put people with MS at the heart of a campaign, targeted to create awareness and understanding of the disease amongst the general public leading up to World MS Day 2012 on May 30^th.

The campaign will creatively push the global MS movement and will include digital, social, video and print content.

Mark Anderson, Creative Director at We Love 72 commented:

“We are delighted to have won the pitch for MSIF and to work towards a greater awareness of Multiple Sclerosis, by connecting up personal stories, experiences, messages and support from around the world and highlighting the great work MSIF do as a charity.”

This months challenge was to mock-up the homepage for a visitor attraction site – whether fictitious or existing.

Inspired by a gallery soon to launch locally, we mocked up a page for Jerwood Gallery.

Take a look for yourself here.Jerwood Gallery .net design off

Microsoft’s recent release of NUad’s for the kinect platform brings the idea of minority report and personalised adverts one step closer. Using body control and voice activation, ads will be tailored to you, but just because we can develop technology like this does not necessarily mean it’s always a great idea. Do we really need an advertising platform that reacts to who we are, our preferences or mood? What will happen to those happy accidents where you discover something new?

A prime example is the spread of sat nav use. Everybody likes to know exactly where they’re going eliminating the prospect of chance findings or discoveries. If our advertising becomes so targeted that we now longer discover new chance products or experiences will it ultimately limit us.

Personally I think this is a direction that may be harmful if not thought through fully before releasing to the wider public. At present our obsession with social platforms and networks enable a voice and display mechanism to tie this personal advertising into, but what happens when social realms fall out of fashion? Will we still consume advertising as we do at present.

We have all been having fun experimenting with Google’s desktop voice search here at We Love Manor, but for me personally it’s appeal is more novelty value (at the moment) amongst the tech crowd. If you are sat in front of a desktop computer, then you have time to type a question into Google – it’s not as if you are in too much of a rush to type.

The real value of Google’s new service has to be for the mobile user. Imagine you are lost in London, looking for Buck Palace, and you want directions. Just whip out your smart phone, access Google and just say ‘Buk-in-ham Palas’ (sic) and hey presto a list of answers. Obviously it may be slightly more involved than that (you’ve got to get the directions from where you are to Her Majesty’s Lodgings), but if the technology is effective, search for mobile users has just become much easier.

BBH’s campaign effectively mirrors the simplicity of Google’s service. No flashy involved advertising, just the simple play on language which both implies the core functionality behind the technology and also serves to highlight the “human-ness’ of this new way of searching – just say it to get it, it’s just like asking someone on the street for directions, or asking a friend for advice. Don’t worry about spelling words correctly, it’ll understand what you say.

It will be interesting to see if the campaign is extended to other cities around the world and other accents – “Noo Yoik” anyone?

In the piece we use our 3rd birthday campaign (Happy Birthday to us!) to show how we approach a new project of this type and how we make sure we are on target to achieve our objectives. After all an email campaign that does not achieve is merely spam in todays cluttered inbox.

A big thanks to Tom May and the rest of the .net team for giving us the opportunity to appear in this issue and we look forward of providing more insight in the future.

But wait….. That’s not our only appearance in this months magazine. We also have some handy expert tips from Melissa, our resident copywriter, and Jonathan, one of our technical guru’s talking about Portfolio Platforms in the ‘What do you think’ section.

Follow us on twitter and be sure to check back for more advice, insight and digital love.