Regent Street windows

Have you popped down to Regent Street recently? Well if you can handle the crowds you should, as this year's RIBA Window Project is currently in place.

The project includes six architecture studios working with shops along the famous road, creating unique displays in six of the most iconic stores.

Supported by RIBA and the Regent Street Association, the project is in its fourth year and runs until 6th May 2013.

Topshop has a rotating wheel of mannequins designed by George King and Mark Nixon from Neon, which will allow for different outfits to be displayed throughout the day.

The installation at Karen Millen is made of sports fabric and cable ties, and spans the 30-metre length of the window. It is the creation of Mamou-Mani.

John Tollitt and his team at Gensler drew on the emotional response one may feel driving one of their cars for their display for the flagship store of Ferrari.

The atrium of Espirit's store was transformed by naganJohnson into a beach scene, complete with a wave of chestnut paling fencing.

Carl Turner Architects referenced American artist Gordon Matta Clark's images of cut-out buildings at Jack Spade's Brewer Street store, just off Regent Street, creating fantasy New York streetscapes on the facade, in the windows and on blackboard illustrations.

Finally, interlocking panels to form freestanding screens at Moss Bros, creating a three-dimensional herringbone effect was the idea of AY Architects.

Find out more information and see more images here.

Photographs are by Agnese Sanvito.

LED flowers for film festival opening

A new LED installation has been designed and fabricated by BWArchitects for the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

1,600 LED bulbs were made into pink and blue “flowers”, swaying in the wind at night on the courthouse steps in NYC. 

The reusable flowers were made by hand over several days and mounted to painted wood boards held in place by sandbags. For the opening ceremony a field of the swaying LED 'flowers' was mounted to thin metal rods, once the lights were activated, the wind provided the movement at different rates due to the varied lengths of steel.

Justin Weiner of Studio Kenji created a short video of the installation which can be seen below.

Tribeca Film Festival Lighting Installation from Justin Weiner on Vimeo.

Clever ads target French literacy

Illiteracy is apparently a big problem in France and to highlight this DDB Paris has created a clever campaign that suggests one thing whilst actually highlighting literacy.

These are clever, engaging and very well executed.

You can see more of them over at It's Nice That.

Evian's dancing babies make a comeback

Evian is back, and so are its dancing babies.

The bottled water company's adverts have become synonymous with dancing babies since 1998, working along side their slogan of "live young".

This new ad, created by BETC Paris, see's adults catching their reflection and seeing themselves as a baby, a dancing baby.

Whilst this is in no way as entertaining as the previous outings for the talented tots, it has it's moments.

Watch it and the previous ads below.

Gnomes go on the rampage

Ikea has asked you to retake your home from clutter, now they want you to retake your garden for the summer.

In a new ad from Mother, we see a couple trying to spruce up their outdoor space only to find they face opposition from some diminutive foes.

A clever and entertaining advert, worth the 2 minutes of your time,  watch it below.

Dove ad receives unflattering parody

Recently a new advert for Dove has been taking the Internet by storm, no not that Dove Men+ Care shampoo advert, a new one from Ogilvy Brazil.

The video has women talking to a criminal sketch artist, describing themselves, they are then described by a stranger and the 2 sketches are shown together. 

However in the name of equality New Feelings Time Comedy has produced one featuring men.

See the results of both below:

Elevated bike path for Regents Canal

The paths along the Regents canal in London are incredibly busy with cyclists and pedestrians, especially under bridges.

To offer a solution for this problem, Anthony Nelson, a landscape architect from Design International, has offered up a design for an elevated path for cyclists. The proposal, which is still being worked on, would see a steel pathway constructed that would hug the canal and it above the current path. 

The new path will offer more than a safe route for the 500 cyclists that use the canal each hour as it will provide retail opportunities at off ramps. The only issue yet to dealt with is how to accommodate the larger boats that use the canal. Nelson will be working on the plans further before presenting them to the city in Autumn.

The state of B2B social media

B2B Marketing has produced an infographic on The State of B2B Social Media 2013, built from the data included in their 2013 B2B Marketing Social Media Benchmarking Report.

From the infographic we can see that Twitter is the most popular platform for B2B businesses, however there looks to be an increase in the prevalence of Google+ in the B2B market.

We also see that a lot of companies don't calculate the ROI from social media.

Click on the image to see the full Infographic, or click here.

Account Manager Role with The Think Tank

The Think Tank is looking for a knowledgeable Account Manager to work on a variety of Business to Business clients.  

This Account Manager position will combine all aspects of marketing, both on and off-line, and the successful applicant will ensure the smooth running of accounts, including client liaison and managing timescales, budgeting and creative output.  

A background in a similar B2B marketing agency account management role or digital experience is preferable. Any candidate should be pro-active and self-starting with strong administrative, communication and organisational skills.  

The right candidate will manage a range of client accounts and should have the knowledge and experience to support a variety of marketing activities and will be rewarded with a competitive salary.  

This is an opportunity to make your mark within an established forward thinking business to business marketing agency that is growing and offering great prospects for development and career enhancement.  

To apply for this role please send your CV with a covering letter to Liam Bateman at liamb@thinktank.org.uk.  

Please note: this is not a PR Account Management position.

Design of the Year award winner unveiled

The Design Museum in London has announced the  winner for the 2013 Design of the Year Award, the Gov.uk website!

The website, which won by a unanimous vote, was chosen for it's simplicity and ease of use, being built to allow visitors to quickly find the services they are looking for.

Chosen from a shortlist of seven catergory winners,  which were unveiled on Wednesday 10th April, the overall winner was announced on the evening of 16th April.

The catergory winners include a folding wheel for wheelchairs, the Medici chair and a medicine packaging designed to fit between bottles of coke.

The Catergory winners are as follows:
Architecture: TOUR BOIS-LE-PRÊTRE, PARIS
Designed by Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal

Digital: GOV.UK WEBSITE
Designed by Government DigitalService

Fashion: DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL
Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland

Furniture: MEDICI CHAIR
Designed by Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi

Graphics: VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE IDENTITY
Designed by John Morgan Studio

Products: KIT YAMOYO
Designed by ColaLife and PI Global

Transport: MORPH FOLDING WHEEL
Designed by Vitamins for Maddak Inc.

Previous winners of the award include the Olympic Torch by BarberOsgerby and the Plumen 001 light bulb by Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson.

The exihition will remain open until the 7th July 2013, further information can be found on a previous blog post here.

Cheese brand's ad girls mock diet adverts

Most diet food products try and sell themselves as a route to a better life, not this Irish cheese brand. 

They decided to break the mould and poke fun at traditional advertising with it's ironic 'girls from adland' video. The advert from Kerry Low Low features the standard three types of ad girl, the smug girl, the ditzy girl and the muffin girl. Each has a trait you may recognise from a number of diet food ads. 

Clever and humorous whilst also obvious - it even has a catchy song.

Have a look at the video below. Enjoy!

Milan Design Week 2013 Showcase

Milan Design week took place at the beginning of the month, an event that showcases the latest designs from around the world, with a focus upon furniture.

Many architects have worked in collaboration with manufacturers to design pieces to be shown here, and so ArchDaily has compiled a list of what they feel are the Best Architect Designed Products from the week.

The list includes work by Jean Nouvel for Ruco Line, where he explored fashion, creating Pure - a high quality trainer that idolizes “purity of form”.

Also featured is Tools for Life,  a new furniture range designed by OMA for Knoll and Ron Arad’s 3 Nuns Stool for Moroso’s American Collection.


Take look at the full list here.

Kmart ad borders on profanity

In an unusual stance, American chain Kmart has released an ad on YouTube that plays on a certain phrase. The idea of the advert is to promote the concept of having your purchases delivered to your door direct from the store, including clothing and furniture.

The concept, created by DraftFCB Chicago, uses American colloquialisms of shipping instead of delivery, and of course pants instead of trousers.

Whilst only currently being shown on YouTube, the video has in a short time gained close to 10 million views, which could be enough for the company to decide to give it some air time on main-stream television.

The whole add is very much a clever play on words, all the while bordering on profanity, so be careful about putting the volume too loud!


Take a look at the ad below and let us know what you think.

Interactive sculpture in motion

A new collaboration between Hyundai's Advanced Design Centre and Berlin-based WHITEvoid, an interactive art and design studio, has created Fluidic.

The project sees 12,000 suspended spheres acting as 3D pixels or voxels which are illuminated by an array of high-speed lasers. The magic happens thanks to 3D cameras that detect a person and react creating patterns and shapes based upon their movements.

The piece was part of Hyundai's involvement with Milan Design week, the third time it has participated in the show, and was housed at the Temporary Museum for New Design. The interactive sculpture was inspired by nature and its ability to continuously adapt to a changing context, which Hyundai think of as part of their general design philosophy.

On April 8, the day of the preview, the German choreographer Nikeata Thompson directed a special performance featuring art, music and dance in the presence of the press and opinion leaders. In the days dedicated to the public Jan Jelinek of SCAPE, a seminal figure in contemporary electronic music, gave a special performance describing the rhythmic confluence between design and sound titled "Fluidic Art meet Fluidic Sound ".

Whilst many would have missed the chance to experience this for themselves, as it was only open to the public on the last weekend of Milan Design Week, 13th -14th April, there are plans to take it on the road, updates to be posted on the Fluidic page.

Watch a video of the sculpture in action below and visit the Fluidic page for more information and images.

FLUIDIC - Sculpture in Motion from WHITEvoid on Vimeo.

Heat-sensitive business cards

The thing about business cards is that unless someone really wants one from you they tend to use it for other things.

That's why creative business cards always grab the eye, especially these ones designed for photo producer Natalie Daniels.

Created by Austrian graphic design studio Bureau Rabenstein, these business cards look like undeveloped polaroid pictures, but the black space then takes on the image of anything that touches it.

The cards are produced with a special thermo-sensitive black ink under the surface of the card, which takes a temporary imprint of whatever it comes into contact with (providing sufficient heat of course).

Whilst the cost of these would be a lot greater than normal cards, they definitely wouldn't be easily thrown away and would leave a more lasting impression than your hand would on the card itself.

Take a look at more images here.

Let us know your thoughts on creative business cards.

Art that's good enough to eat

In Australia Kit-Kat decided to commemorate their limited edition white chocolate bar by holding back the last 50 and melting them.

But that isn't the full story, they got illustrator Mike Watt, to use the melted chocolate and crushed biscuits to make some incredible posters using only a scalpel remove any unwanted chocolate.

The posters won't last forever as after a while the hard chocolate will crack and break away from the canvas, but before all that happens they have managed to post them all up on their Facebook page. 

The designs have been called Kit-Kat White Final Fifty and is a great example of creative art and design.

Take a look at them here.