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

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.

Matthew Pierce was nominated to win, with the correct guess that there were 127 sprouts jammed in the jar. He is now the proud owner of an awful lot of sprouts:

(Look at his happy face at winning.)

Congratulations go out to Matthew – we hope you will look after them well!

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

Arriving at the office at 5am was a small struggle, but excitement prevailed. Arriving in Paris, we spent a short while navigating (getting lost) the Metro, but once we had our bearings, were in for a great day of hot chocolate, art galleries, delicious cocktails, Christmas markets, mulled wine, and crazy Parisian weather (see windswept and interesting photographs).

We were too busy having a marvellous time to do any shopping, resulting in most of us buying last minute cheese as souvenirs, so I apologise to fellow Eurostar travellers for the strong fromage odour, but when in France…!

A brilliant end to the year – good job Niko!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas to you all. Have a good one from all of us at We Love…

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.”

Due to a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, we currently have our eyes peeled and on the lookout for some seriously talented creatives to come and join the team! Including:

Senior UX / IA
Senior Designer
Creative Traffic / Project Manager
Senior Project Manager
Junior Front End Developer

Come and be a part of these exciting times at the manor! Visit our jobs page to find out more and get in touch.