I wish I could grow this

Came across this from Dan Germain's blog. Love it on many aspects mainly due to the commitment of it.

Time Lapse: My Hairy Commute from :: Fred Abercrombie on Vimeo.

ARK launch

After 12 weeks of meeting up regularly on a Wednesday we (me, Simon and Lynsey) finally launched ARK. We were hoping for around 15 people for the event. We were planning to give people an idea of how ARK works and the issues it hope's to address. In the end we had around 25 which is great. There are some more photos on my flickr account and also a few on SImon's as well. Finally I would like to thank ATRiuM - University of Glamorgan for letting us use there foyer for the event. Also for attic 2, Hoffi and EcoDesign Centre for allowing us to put a bit of time into the project.

launch, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

NakedWales Pub Quiz

NakedWales Pub Quiz, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

The NakedWales quiz took place this week. We had a great turnout. Thanks to everyone who came. You can see some more pics on my flickr account.

Death of the Advertising agency?

I recently came across an article about the traditional advertising and how it may change in the future. You can find the article at creative review. I find the thoughts and ideas that took place during the recent click NY event. I am very intrigued by this concept and agree on a lot of the thinking. I believe as many have commented, that it maybe hard to keep things consistent in terms of quality and also there may be a duplication of briefings if the same freelancers cannot be used from project to project.

The possibility of a company being the main strategy and then farming the rest of the work out seems to work on many levels and is very in keeping with some of the recent work I have been involved in with ARK.

Dont forget the NakedWales pub quiz

On the 19th October we will be arranging the annual pub quiz for the Cardiff Design Festival via our community website NakedWales. Hope you can all make it.

John Lewis Handbag

Unless you have been on Mars this last week or so in Cardiff, then you could not have missed John Lewis' opening of it's first store in Wales. The launch of the store was preempted by a number of over sized objects being placed around Cardiff to advertise the store. For us at Hoffi we loved this idea, mainly due to the fact that we had proposed a very similar project for the launch of a free entry campaign for Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, about a month or two before. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our pitch, but for us to see how successful the campaign has been for John Lewis then we will be sure to think outside the box for future proposals at Hoffi. We have also recently being short listed for this project in the recent Cardiff Design Festival, and we should learn our fate this monday so wish us luck.

IMG_0598, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

ARK exhibition

At last I have managed to finish my MA. The final presentation of ARK took place at the end of last month. For me it has been a great year, and I have learnt allot of new things. I have managed to meet a number of great people and been able to invest in an on going learning programme which has been really good to have a constant on going project. To this end the final piece of the MA is going a bit further and we are trying to get it up and running. We have already managed to get a number of interested parties involved and cant wait to get some investment. We are holding a launch party on the 28th of this month. The launch will hopefully produce the manifesto for ARK and will be formed by the collaboration of all those who attend.

ARK exhibition, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

spillers records - contribute

spillers records - contribute, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

I have been working alot on projects surrounding collaboration and community. Through my MA, Hoffi and ARK work the projects have been about how the changing face of brand is allowing the public to engage with their brands. Instead of the traditional being spoken to, the best brands are now being formed by their customers.

I came across this invitation in the shop frontage of Spillers Records. The oldest record store in the world. It just goes to prove that you can be old but still on the bubble.

MUJI t-shirt

It's been around for years but I still love them. The MUJI t-shirt comes shrink wrapped in a tiny cube shape that is probably about two inches cubed. It took me about two weeks to actually bring myself to unwrap it, still not sure if I should have.

MUJI t-shirt, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

MUJI t-shirt, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.