For only £20.99 you can now have fully functioning layered PSD’s of any of your favourite sites across the web, but is this a good thing?

Sure the intention for this tool may have been to save time when producing mock ups or to help make improvements to a site. But you could just as easily take that PSD, remove any branding, change the colour scheme and hand it over to a developer to create your very own copied website. Here at We love we believe in creating original, unique ideas and not reusing other people’s work. It’s there for inspiration, not for rehashing. What do you think, tool for the good or a corner cutting website hacker?

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

This month, .net magazine asked our development team the big question. Maybe the biggest question everyone is asking at the beginning of a new year. What will be the most significant trend of 2012? Some believe it will be the end of the world but not our two senior developers…

So what will it be? Both Joe and Stefan believe there will be continued boom in the mobile and tablet device market, more standardisation and inventions around HTML5 and mobile apps…  And we will be really excited to bring these great technologies to our clients this year.

See what we have to say in Issue 224, which is out now!

Typo Talks has been running for about 16 years in Berlin and this year was the first of hopefully many set in London. There were a broad range of topics covered over the three days from animation, art, signage, digital, print and of course typography. They were all loosely based on the theme of ‘Places’ but some more loosely than others. I can honestly say, there wasn’t a talk I didn’t enjoy and I even got to try a bit of calligraphy although I think I need a bit practice. I do plan to do a few detailed posts around some of areas covered, but for now here is just a few of my favourites from Typo.

Nat Hunter from Airside, ran through of a few of their latest projects but with particular focus on storytelling. I really liked the work they did for the Virgin Airlines inflight entertainment system, showing that a better design solution aids in a better experience, which then makes people happier, and then leads to other outcomes (such as drinking less from the free bar on Virgin flights, which then saves money).

“Pain is temporary. Suck is forever”. This is what Michael B Johnson from Pixar told us on Friday morning. I have always loved the way Pixar approaches a project and the attention to detail they put in. He gave an overview of a few stages of the Pixar process such as storyboarding and animation lighting, and finished on talking about the software they produce within Pixar just to ease the process and removing tension. After all, Pixar produce a playful product.

The talk that really stood out for me was from Karin von Ompteda. She did a very interesting experiment on typography, first conducting a survey to find the top 100 most popular typefaces and then analysed the individual letters with each other to find the areas of similar density. I won’t go into detail but I thought the images of each typeface placed onto of each other were really cool. I’d have then as a print on my wall.

An entertaining talk from Chip Kidd was a great way to end the conference. Briefly going over some book covers he had worked on over the years, he then told us about his obsession with Batman and the opportunity he had been given to write a Batman comic. All good stuff.

Like I said, I plan to do a few more posts on what I learnt at Typo so stay tuned. For now I’ll leave you with a few statements from Joachim Sauter on how to stay creative that I liked:
Reinvent yourself (every 7 years or so). Have the courage to fail. Share your experiences. Inspire rather than motivate. Teach.

Podge is an opportunity – and one James and myself most heartily enjoyed – of our industry getting together to eat and be merry – both big and small companies, and not just agencies… anyone who plays an active part in the industry, was there. It may sound like just another ‘network’ event… but it’s not. It’s been a while since I enjoyed such a shindig so much. Meeting some great new people, some of them my heros in the design world when I was still a young nipper, as well as bumping into old friends.

Everyone left the ego’s at the door and set about having a good chinwag about what we are up to, how to safeguard against tough times, new opportunities or opinions on old. Remembering that we should always be collaborative, that we love this space of ours and should be looking to the future not protecting the past.

Anyway, enough of my chitta-chat. Many thanks to Phil for organising. Many thanks to FutureBrand for such an engaging concept. Hope to be back at Podge next year to say hi to everyone again.

Is this a genuinely a new indispensable tool for creatives to replace our prized Wacom tablets or just another gimmick which just slows down the creative process?, it has a few draw back it only has ball point pen refills at the moment and according to a few reviews doesn’t deal with detail very well. We will have to wait and see with its official release date penned for early October perfect Christmas timing, I know it will be on many creatives Christmas lists this year.

Visually it reminds me of Flipboard, TED talks and other apps that organise feeds. Organising content into a flexible 8 column grid, giving content a sense hierarchy, it is easy to scan the articles to find what you want, but also I find it much more about the discovery of new content.

What do you think of the new BBC homepage?

Available on a limited release (only in the US this week) to users of the Sprint Nexus S 4G phone. Users can download an app that links through to a Near Field Communication (NFS) chip inside the phone. It currently only works with Visa, Citi MasterCards and Google Prepaid Cards.

Take a look at the Introducing Google Wallet demo video to see it in action.

Critics might ask why is Google jumping on this new method of payment if it is still some time away in the future to becoming mainstream. Well, tracking what consumers are purchasing will be hugely important to Google and advertisers – giving them a deeper understanding into consumer behaviour and opening up opportunity for sustained engagement through loyalty schemes.

“For retailers, the attraction is not just to ease the payment process for customers, but also to increase engagement with them – tapping on the readers can also add loyalty points or allow digital coupons to be spent”, noted Chris Nuttall of The Financial Times.

Google is also in talks with  major retail partners to install next-generation tills that work with NFC chips. One question everyone will be wondering though, is whether Apple will now release NFC for the iPhone 5?

This new software has huge potential but what we are witnessing are the very early stages of development. It is yet to have full retailer buy-in. Although, Google Wallet is available at various retailers, it is only available at select locations. As consumers we are used to our ‘shopping habits’ and changing these won’t be simple. It will take time for people to trust in NFC as a secure and efficient payment method. Consumers will need to own a smartphone with NFC capabilities and it may challenge and alienate the not-so-tech-savvy-consumers of the world.

Ulitmately, I think that this is a great step forward in NFC technology and an insight into the way we will shop in the future. While it seems as though the smartphone will soon hold all the details to our day-to-day functioning, I think we’ve only just had a glimpse at the future and how NFS technology will change our shopping behaviour. So, it’s not quite time to chuck your wallet away just yet…