Branding irony: How to brand Birmingham as a creative city? Tell real stories about real people & real places, via highly targetted direct-mail that leads to a great open-access web-site chock full of real-life stories? Or throw public money at trendy eye-candy on fleeting billboards? Ten4 plumps for the billboards. Four design agencies show us […]
Archive for February, 2006
New photo
New photo: No Photoshop filters, pure camera . (large version, 120kb)
Mod your degree
Mod your degree: Want to get a job as a creative computer-game developer? Then don’t study Computer Game Design, suggests Aleks Krotoski.
Drawing a line
Drawing a line: Christopher Hitchens, in Slate on the recent outbreak of toonophobia.
28mm final issue
28mm: Well that’s very interesting. 28mm.org have published their printed final issue of their online photography magazine through www.lulu.com. That has to be some kind of endorsement of Lulu’s colour print quality. The editor of the respected AG magazine also publishes his books with Lulu, another endorsement. Now if only Lulu would open a UK […]
MyPublisher in UK
MyPublisher UK: MyPublisher has just opened a printing plant in the UK, which should (but doesn’t) mean lower overall costs for an on-demand photography book. Admittedly they’re quality; MyPublisher USA goes head-to-head with competitors in a Nov 2005 basic group-test here, and the quality gets picked over by a real-world user. But… let’s compare those […]
Policy Police
Policy police: Munira Mirza, on the challenge her new 6-paper Policy Exchange report makes to the evidence-base on arts & regeneration in the UK… “If you read the policy literature, it seems uncontroversial that the arts can stimulate economic growth, reduce social exclusion and improve our health – in short, transform our society. Yet, as […]
Off fence-ive
Off fence-ive: Nick Cohen, on Gilbert & George’s new Sonofagod works.
Arts Council criticised by Minister
Arts Cancel: The UK Culture Minister has some harsh words for the new Arts Council.
PC Whirrled
PC whirrled: A small bonus at work has enabled me to splash out on a new PC base-unit. I looked at suppliers such as Evesham, Mesh, Dell, Watford, and others. I even ventured into PC World (Stoke)… /shudder/. There were some Japanese tourists in PC World, and the group openly laughed out loud when one […]
Strip Search
Strip Search: Strip Search is looking for the best new comic creators in the West Midlands, for their new support programme.
Microsoft’s new XP colour management utility
“Well, strike me pink!”: Microsoft has released a new Colour Management utility for XP.
The art of Dixons
The art of Dixons: Interesting reading from two papers published in Cultural Trends 54 (June 2005). As we know, the figures on creative-industries production activity in the UK are pitiful, and where they do exist they’re often inflated, vaguely estimated, and based on dubious methodologies. We know that micro-enterprises account for 82 percent of all […]
Dual core, 64-bit, 2Gb, 7800GT
Dual core, 64-bit, 2Gb, 7800GT: Repeat after me… /deep hypnotic voice/ “It will be mine… it will be mine…” By Tuesday.
Type ‘o graphics
Type ‘o graphics: Some interesting new (free) standalone typographic filters.
blinding flash
/blinding flash/ The BBC’s new message-board system is a radical usability makeover of the bog-standard message-board format. And it works. Gnash… where’s the perl script! I want it on Creative Stoke.
Toonboom
Toonboom: Excellent, the ‘religious offences’ law has at least been neutered; thanks to a combination of the House of Lords, revolting Labour MPs, and a clueless Blair. Celebrate by relaxing with a few cartoons 🙂