Jane Drew prize winner 2013

The Architect's Journal's jury has selected their winner of the 2013 Jane Drew Prize as Eva Jiřičná. By an unanimous vote she won the award "for her outstanding contribution to the status of women in architecture".

The Czech-born architect is based in London, after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, starting her career with the Greater London Council followed by  the Louis de Soisssons Partneship. She then set up her own practice with David Hodges in 1982 and from there she began to be recognised for her work.

She rebranded her firm in 1985 to Eva Jiricna Architects, then in 1988 completed her flagship store for the Joseph fashion label, where it is said she "reinvented the idea of retail"

Jiřičná, who is also famous for her steel and glass staircases, was part of the inaguaral judging panel for the prize in 1998, which was created to honour Dame Jane Drew, who died in July 1996 and was an English modernist architect and town planner.  

She recieved her prize at a special luncheon held in London on the 22nd March. Read an arctile about the awards here.

The Bear is most awarded ad of 2012

The Gunn Report has compiled their lists of the most-awarded ads worldwide of 2012, and The Bear, the hilarious commercial for French TV channel Canal+, was the most awarded TV commercial.

The top five are listed below, and you may recognise some from previous posts of ours:
1. Canal+ The Bear (BETC, Paris) which is the most awarded commercial in the 14 year history of The Gunn Report.
2. BGH Silent Air, Dads In Briefs campaign (Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires)
3. Doritos Dips, Dip Desperado (AMV BBDO, London)
4. Chipotle, Back To The Start (Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles)
5. John Lewis, The Long Wait (Adam&EveDDB, London)  

The report has also listed the most awarded print ads and campaigns, the most awarded countries in the world, the most awarded advertisers, the most awarded production companies, the most awarded agency, the most awarded agency in digital and the most awarded agency network  

The Gunn Report also has a category for integrated or innovative work, which it calls "All Gunns Blazing".  

It uses a weighted points system to analyse the winners of the major advertising awards schemes around the world.  

Read more at Creative Review, which features the top five for all the afore-mentioned categories here.

Top Ten Architecture and Design Videos by Dezeen

Dezeen's architecture and design movies had a staggering 2.2 million plays in 2012 and they've rounded up the ten most popular ones for you. It's a great collection of videos from their Vimeo channel.

At number one is this film (top) demonstrating the Stair Rover by Po-Chih Lai, an eight-wheeled skateboard that can roll down stairs. The movie formed part of their coverage of Royal College of Art graduate projects in the summer and was selected by the team at Vimeo as one of their Staff Picks.

Their second most-watched movie from the last year is all about the future of lighting design, where glowing walls, windows and furniture will replace light bulbs and LEDs in homes according to Dietmar Thomas of Philips Lumiblade, who commissioned Dezeen to make the film.

See the full list here.

Most Popular Design Projects of 2012

ArchDaily has released their top ten most popular design projects of 2012. These breath-taking and inspiring designs, predominately based in architecture come from all over the globe and include Moses Bridge by RO&AD Architecten in Halsteren, Netherlands, Ningbo Historic Museum by Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio in Ningbo, China and Tverrfjellhytta by Snøhetta in Hjerkinn, Norway   

Have a look at the full list here

Top 10 Architecture and Interiors Design 2012

Design Milk  has suggested their Top 10 Architecture and Interiors projects of 2012. We have featured a couple of these over the year but also missed a few.

Their number 10 is Nettleton 199 by SAOTA and OKHA Interiors which is located in Cape Town, South Africa, a home that you can see straight through from the back to the pool and the Atlantic Ocean - Stunning and this is only Number 10.

Number 4 is The Candy Room by Red Design Group, a sweet shop with a one-off design and Number 1 is Micro Cabin in Finland.

See all the Top Ten here on Design Milk.

Top 20 marketing flops of 2012

Adweek, in the US, takes a look at the Top 20 Marketing Flops of 2012. 

A great round up including ads from Harvey Nichols, that see models wetting themselves, to IKEA removing all the women from its catalogue in Saudi Arabia.

One not to be missed. Click here to see the Top 20.

The Think Tank wins Best Brand Campaign Award at CMA's

We had a great night at the Construction Marketing Awards yesterday - shortlisted for three awards we picked up the trophy for Best Brand and Positioning Campaign for our work with electrical distributor Rexel.

We were approached by Rexel to develop the brand identity for a new online merchant, NaturalSparx, supplying the renewables sector.

The Think Tank was tasked with developing the messaging, brand design and identity for use in marketing collateral both off and on-line.

We created a vibrant look and feel for the brand that delivered standout within the renewables sector, alongside a series of icons to represent core products and services and a positioning statement for this new brand.The brand identity was developed, along with the messaging, to work across a range of media from the website to direct marketing, advertising and point-of-sale.

In stiff competition from five other shortlisted entries in this category we managed to scoop the prize with the judges commenting, 'A very well executed campaign, with striking creative ideas that set the business apart in a very crowded market place.'

Well done to all The Think Tank team and to Rexel for giving us the opportunity to help launch one of their brands.

We were also shortlisted in the awards for:
SAS International - Best Product Launch
Rexel - Best Campaign over £25k

Winner Airways Comes to B2B Marketing Awards

Last week saw another great B2B Marketing Awards which appeared to be enjoyed by all.

The Think Tank managed the event again this year as well as developing the creative theme, High Flyers, which featured a retro airline feel that was carried across all the marketing materials as well as the event itself.

There were a lot of surprises on the night with guests greeted by air hostesses, their own safety instructions and oxygen, just in case, on the tables.

We also created an short animated safety video to kick off proceedings which, if you were not able to be there, you can now view below.

Enjoy!

The Think Tank shortlisted for three Construction Marketing Awards

The Think Tank has been shortlisted for three awards in this year's Construction Marketing Awards for our work with SAS International and Rexel.

The shortlisted entries are:

SAS International - Best Product Launch
Rexel - Best Campaign over £25k
Rexel - Best Branding and Positioning

We are very pleased to have been shortlisted again this year and look forward to hearing the results on 6th December.

See the full CMA shortlist here.

The 21 Best Doppelgangers Of The 2012 London Olympics

Take a look at 'The 21 Best Doppelgangers Of The 2012 London Olympics' on Buzzfeed.

Some great images found and suggestions made - some a bit odd. But quite funny.

They say 'you will never be able to watch the Olympics in the same way again.

See them all here.

Jubilympics musings

So has the Olympics whetted your appetite for how TV and internet can work together?   

Well that’s not just an excuse to mention London 2012 but we were thinking about what would be possible in the future with the new wave of internet TV services being announced.  Lots more content to come its seems.  

We’ve been told for quite some time it’s an era in which television and internet are converging; Google has launched Google TV and Apple TV is being relaunched apparently. BSkyB launched its NowTV service last month offering films and soon sport and entertainment, described as a brand new internet TV service from Sky.  

Are we going to want to actually watch all of this content sitting together on the living room sofa though?  Or does this new world of time-shifting, TV-on-demand and High Definition herald either an age of more arguments over the remote control. Or is this the end of watching TV together with family and friends, altogether perhaps as we chose to interact with these new services separately?

Olympics stamps designs are a winner

Hat-trick Design has created a series of stamps to celebrate the London 2012 Olympics which feature iconic London landmarks alongside various sports. 

Great design.

They are on sale now.

Olympics Opening Ceremony Fun

At no time does The Think Tank condone excessive drinking however this Olympics Opening Ceremony Drinking Game is great fun.

Something to keep you occupied tonight!

Issued by truelad.com

A Dash for Gold with Actuate

BIRT (Business Information Reporting Tools) developer and founder Actuate has launched a fantastic microsite, Dash for Gold,  that allows you to investigate and explore the results of sports competitions of the past and compare them to this year’s games.  

Using their intuitive reporting dashboard they interrogate a wide range of economic, demographic and geographical data to hunt out the trends and enable users to analyse and predict their own medal winners in simple and easy to understand graphical interfaces.  

The Think Tank was asked to create a brand identity for the online application including a detailed infographic which explains what users can expect when they delve into its data.  

The branding was extended to a series of multi-lingual online banners and a video that guides users through the experience. Working closely with Actuate during the app’s development, The Think Tank has provided advice on messaging, design and graphical execution of the microsite and application as well as the marketing collateral that promotes it.  

This simple to use app puts you in control of the data past and present, allowing you to predict this year’s winners alongside a competition for the best dashboard created by users.  

Actuate Dash for Gold includes:  

Did you know: Sports and competition data at your fingertips

All historic and current information at one glance in a dashboard application with sports data that is updated daily. Compare and analyse historic results by country or by discipline. Get timely information on your country's medal count.    

Interactive Analytics: Explore & Play  

The interactive analytics section of the Dash for Gold app allows you to correlate sports and medal information with external data and gain completely original insights. The app brings together different public databases with geopolitical and economic data by country as well as some fun facts. Review performance against world economic and demographic factors such as wine consumption, CO2 emissions or fertility rates. Or maybe you already knew that countries with a low birth rate under perform in swimming?    

BIRT Dash for Gold Contest: Join the athletes and compete  

From 27th July you will have the opportunity to create your own interactive dashboards to uncover trends and fun facts about the world’s top sporting competitions by applying economic, climatic, historical and other indicators to sports data. You'll be amazed at what you find as you drag and drop Google-style gadgets to discover hidden correlations and expose exciting information about your favourite countries and sporting events.  

When you're ready, submit your dashboards to the competition and they'll be published to the community for all to see. Judges will evaluate and choose the top four dashboards and each will win a 32GB 3rd generation Apple iPad with WiFi.  

To get in the game you can find out more and register here to keep current on the latest updates and contest announcements.    

On the go – Mobile Dash for Gold  

Keep your sporting facts handy wherever you are with mobile access to Dash for Gold. After registering, you will receive a link to access daily updates to the latest competition results and figures. Dash for Gold Mobile has been optimized for iPad and viewable on most tablet browsers.

Get predicting here and delve into the facts.

Giant penguin towers over London

London Zoo has announced plans to to transform London's iconic Gherkin building into ‘The Penguin’  over the summer.

ZSL London Zoo has commissioned a production team to draw up a dramatic redesign of the famed skyscraper to remind visitors to the capital not to miss their penguins in 2012.

They plan to approach city bigwigs with the bold concept of turning the prominent Swiss Re Building – more commonly known as The Gherkin – into a giant penguin.

Not sure whether this idea will fly, especially being a penguin.

See more over on London Zoo's website.

Olympic poster designs by leading artists

In an exhibition called 'Fit', at Central St Martin's College of Art and Design, Vaughan Oliver and Jonathan Barnbrook invited leading British designers to submit their own Olympic posters.

See more of these great posters here on Design Boom or pop along to the exhibition.

Window Galleries, Kings Cross, 29 June – 30 August 2012

BE OPEN Sound Portal launched in Trafalgar Square

As part of this September's Design Week the BE OPEN Sound Portal will appear in Trafalgar Square, London.

This is an entirely new kind of installation that focuses on the design that you can’t see – that of acoustics and sound – rather than visual spectacle.

The black, rubberised structure will be home to finely-tuned audio technologies aimed at delivering pure acoustic experiences to visitors and every day the BE OPEN Sound Portal will host one of five leading musicians and sound artists, each of whom has been specially commissioned to create a unique soundscape.

The BE OPEN Foundation, a global initiative to foster creativity and innovation, and the London Design Festival are co-producing the project and the structure has been designed by Arup, world leaders in the area of acoustic engineering.

To find out more about this unique installation visit 'Design you Trust' or visit www.beopenfuture.com.