Alex Jenkins Yesterday I got lost up a mountain looking for mushrooms. Hurrah for mobile phones, a fence, cow tracks and a bit of common sense....
August 30th
via Alex_Twitter
Anne-Fay Installing the @net-a-porter iPhone app. Hilariously, it's 'free'.
August 28th
via Anne-Fay
Anne-Fay that pigeon is getting closer.
August 28th
via Anne-Fay
Anne-Fay stunning autumn day and I'm inside copy editing. Tum ti tum.
August 28th
via Anne-Fay
Anne-Fay really hoping that @icalondon can now start afresh and get some relevancy back. Maybe revisiting perfomance and digital art might help?.
August 28th
via Anne-Fay
August 27th
Anne-Fay RT @warhol_diaries: 3/04/83: i think about mrs. vreeland and think what it'll be like, thirty more years of life..
August 27th
via Anne-Fay
Anne-Fay 'Canoe Man' on BBC4 makes good use of the Butthole Surfers' cover of Hurdy Gurdy Man. These are the things that make me happy.
August 27th
via Anne-Fay
Dentsu Twins Day, attempts to fly, faces on the coast, animal bike paths: dark energy xv: http://bit.ly/bPENHV.
August 27th
via Twitter
Dentsu rifling through the Batia Suter Parallel Encyclopedia http://bit.ly/dgxE1c another amazing present from our friend Stefan - thanks Stefan!.
August 17th
via Twitter
Dentsu @r_c hello! sure we could arrange something..
August 11th
via Twitter
Anne-Fay amazed that most of Islington is a free-wifi free zone. Thank god for The Med Kitchen and wtf Elk in the Woods, Tinder box and @Starbucks.
August 11th
via Anne-Fay
Dentsu two bits of nice magic in this gallery www.bitly.com/guardiangallery - dumpster pools in manhattan and the beijing water park.
August 11th
via Twitter
Anne-Fay Spent the day gardening. Yes you read that right.
August 8th
via Anne-Fay
Anne-Fay Town Hall cocktails, amazing Japanese noise band Bo Ningen, Superstore, Stone Cave, house guest escapee from Joiners = good Saturday night.
August 8th
via Anne-Fay
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We think this could be semi-adequately described as a 3D immersive reactive amorphous shape-shifting lighting application. Or something. Firefly is a MIT project by the SENSEable City Laboratory in collaboration with ARES Lab (Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory) which aims to transform any ordinary space into a highly immersive and interactive display environment. It is made up of a swarm of self-organizing micro helicopters. Each helicopter contains small LEDs and acts as a smart pixel. Through precisely controlled movements, the helicopters perform elaborate and synchronized motions and form an elastic display surface for any desired scenario.
With the self-stabilizing and precise controlling technology from the ARES Lab, the motion of the pixels is adaptable in real time. The Flyfire canvas can transform itself from one shape to another or morph a two-dimensional photographic image into an articulated shape. The pixels are physically engaged in transitioning images from one state to another, which allows the Flyfire canvas to demonstrate a spatially animated viewing experience.
Firefly’s creators describe it as ‘pixels in space’. We just say: *WOW*.
Last month ATTIK UK moved into our new studio at 10 Hills Place, an ‘architectural intervention’ by Amanda Levete Architects. AL_A is run by the surviving partner of the legendary Future Systems firm and 10 Hills Place is redolent of their hyper-futuristic, shiny style.
According to ALA, the spaceship-like facade is inspired by the art work of Lucio Fontana (pictured), founder of the Spatialism movement. Featuring self-cleaning glass ‘eyelets’, the facade is finished in a high performance durable paint typically used on super yachts. Back in the mid 20th century, Fontana aimed to create art for “a new age” that would show the “real space of the world”. It’s apt, then, that our building now illuminates a previously dank and disused alleyway off Oxford Street.
We’re starting a new series of trend-driven pieces on the NoiseBlog as of today. The NOISES series will be a combination of interesting spots, think pieces and general need-to-know posts and commentary about the worlds that ATTIK UK intersect: design, hacking, technology, emergent media and so on. As ATTIK is the proud Northern child of a Japanese parent, we’re also going to make a concerted effort to look outside the NYLON and Western media bubbles to the places where innovation is really happening such as Japan, South Korea and …. Dundee.
Our first spot is the University of Dundee’s Prototype Symposium which is due to take place this June. We predict that prototyping will become one of this year’s design/hacking memes. Last year’s trend for DIY rapid prototyping has set the stage and Dundee are well ahead of the curve with their symposium. According to the organisers:
‘Creative entrepreneurs, practitioners and scholars are becoming increasingly used to a post-disciplinary environment, in which generative ideas are more influential than fixed categories. It has become more important than ever to understand concepts that traverse the world of making. One example is the prototype: an object conceived as a means to an end beyond itself.’
Such cross disciplinary working and a ‘just make it‘ attitude is absolutely our aim at ATTIK UK. It’s also part of the ATTIK DNA, as demonstrated in our ongoing Noise series, so we’re looking forward to seeing what this symposium produces with its impressively heterogenous line up of makers.
To add real-world, commercial robustness, debates and presentations will be chaired by folks such as Dee Cooper, Director of Product and Service for Virgin Atlantic; Chris Van der Kuyl, CEO BrightSolid Ltd, Steve Gill, product designer and academic, University of Wales Institute Cardiff and Colin Burns – a former Director of IDEO.
Watching our Visual Identity System (VIS) work go live – in marketing terms, ‘activate’ – is always a huge thrill and ATTIK UK’s VIS for Coke‘s sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is a case in point.
The global reach of this VIS shows that it has the flexibility to enable different markets to adapt it to their respective programmes and work streams on a local level. It’s especially cool when we find consumers recording work based around the VIS online – such as this flickr pic – as it means that our work is truly communicating in the way that it is supposed to – on both a global and local level.
This particular execution is a poster in Houston, Texas, and forms part of the global FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour for Coca-Cola. We worked with South African advertising agency Santos across the FIFA campaign.
Other Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup executions featuring the VIS have so far included press, online games, events, promotional wares and – of course – on pack – all over the world. The VIS has also featured on rapper K’NAAN‘s official world cup anthem (below).
ATTIK UK and our parent company Dentsu have just moved to an award-winning new building designed by Future Systems. To celebrate the move, Dentsu held an exhibition of its own Japanese innovation with D&AD.
The Tokyo Innovation event showcased Dentsu’s work for clients such as ASICS, Uniqlo, SMART and Sony. Much of the work on display confirmed the strength of keitai [mobile] culture in Japan and, in particular, the mass adoption of mobile applications and platforms. What we in the West consider emergent or niche technologies – such as QR codes – have been mass in Japan for some years. QR has become a CRM tool as well as a communications device – in other words, it’s far from a marketing fad. For instance, Muji in Japan uses QR codes for consumer acquisition and retention. A QR code taken in store can give shoppers 10% off their purchases – a brilliant opt-in model of mobile marketing. Imagine if Western retail behemoths such as Tesco or Wal-Mart were able to utilise similar CRM tools …
Dentsu is also keeping firmly ahead of the mobile curve with Mobile Arts Lab – a collaboration between Dentsu planners and Robot Communications. One particularly impressive Mobile Arts Lab application is iButterly, which incorporates augmented reality, GSM and motion sensors to produce butterfly ‘coupons’ which can be ‘caught’ by users. Unlike many AR apps which are fun but not especially useful, iButterfly gives brands a platform to both engage and maintain consumers – potentially even tracking their purchasing behaviour. This is real communications innovation, Japanese-style.
The ATTIK UK team have arrived in Japan and were welcomed at Narita airport by this Coca-Cola sign – a neat reminder of our truly global client! Tomorrow we’ll be in Shiodome to work at the famous Dentsu building. Good thing we’ve acquired a head for heights …
We’re working with both our parent company Dentsu in Japan and sister company ATTIK SF on an exciting new project. Teams from each of the three agencies have been racking up air miles and carbon guilt to meet in SF and Tokyo.
First stop in San Francisco was a great chance to catch up with the ATTIK West Coast crew on 2nd Street – in particular, strategy director Cory and account director Rachel (pictured). ATTIK SF work with loads of very cool clients including Scion and Lexus for whom they have just launched the Darker Side of Green campaign.
We’ re delighted to say that Fast Company magazine has featured ATTIK in its annual Most Innovative Companies issue. We’re listed amongst the top ten design companies with peers such as IDEO and Pentagram.
We’re particularly chuffed that Fast Company has chosen to recognise our VIS work with clients such as Coca-Cola, writing that ‘this London firm gets the systems thinking that’s vital for for executing large-scale projects’. It’s also a brilliant accolade for the launch of our London office.
ATTIK’s co-founder James Sommerville is interviewed in this week’s issue of The Drum. Some highlights from the interview are below:
Will it be a wrench to move ATTIK away from Yorkshire after all these years? The short answer is I’m not leaving the north, I’m invading the south. I know everyone gets hung up on geography. It’s funny. My experience over the last 25 years is that business has traditionally been very cyclical, rhythmic and geographically specific. People are naturally very proud of where they are from and I am no different. Historically, ATTIK has followed a geographical business model and flown the Huddersfield or Yorkshire flag across the world. “Where’s Huddersfield?” is a question I have answered more than any other question. I like answering it. The way I see it, to be a success, the model needs to keep pace. Sure we’ll always need an office and a place to sit, but I also believe the business of the future will be increasingly rootless, borderless and weightless. It has to be. We will all be defined as much by our ability to see opportunities as well as the ability to think up great ideas, provide advice and execute good work.
What are your ambitions for the company this year? Recently I was told you don’t win a silver medal, you lose the gold. I liked that. For almost 25 years, it’s about winning – small steps at a time. We define winning in many different ways from financial success, to great clients, to attracting the best people or healthy collaboration. Definitely, as I have got older I recognise the importance of being respectful to the opposition and the reason why we all need to compete in a healthy way – it pushes you to win the gold(s).
We’re looking for obsessive doodlers – from talented teenagers to professional artists – to work with ATTIK London on a concept for a major brand. Please contact @james_attik on twitter or james (at) attik (dot) com with examples of your work.
The limited edition supercar — which ATTIK helped launch – has been so successful that Toyota Motor Corp. has stopped accepting reservations in Japan. The Lexus LFA has a global sales target of 500, but pre-orders for domestic sales have already reached about that number. The 4.8-liter, V10 560-h.p. LFA is priced at 37.5 million yen, making it the most expensive Japanese car on the market.
Check out ATTIK’s website and configurator for the Lexus LFA here.
A very powerful message about the importance of the work of The Prince’s Trust across the Yorkshire region, and in particular the immense positive impact we are having on the region’s economy during these challenging times.
