ARK LAB games day coming up

A quick plug for something else I am involved in. On October the 2nd ARK LAB is running a mini games festival if you fancy coming along. check out the blog here.

IGLAB - workshop

playmakers

Playmakers from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

playmakers video 02 : capture the flag and public space from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

playmakers video 01 : alex fleetwood and the sandpit from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

Games and culture - pervasive gaming

Ok so they are linked massively, but I wonder with the new breed of technology based games whether there is new possible directions to move in. The below video was produced way back in 2004, making a virtual game and placing it in a physical place, in this case PAC MAN in New York. I wonder if this kind of breaking down barriers and involvement could bring further developments for breaking social and cultural barriers where the sole goal is to reduce mis-understanding and the most empathetic is the real winner?

The week so far

I remember having a conversation with Andrew a while ago about never being too busy to do something, there is always time to fit something in. So far this has been some of my work starting on Saturday.

Saturday
ARKADE - shop interior and do some voxpop's for research project

Sunday
Day off - (although I did manage to edit the voxpop video's and plan some workshop's for later in the week) also I went to visit the folks.

Monday
Work then me and Car drive to North Wales.

Tuesday
Meeting for Hoffi (hope they liked us), nipped to LLanberis Pass for a quick climb (rude not to) drive home, once home go and do a few things for the ARKADE at Laura's studio. SLEEP

Awesome

London day trip

Having been deep into two brands for Hoffi and trying to help out all I can for ARK and it's empty shop project, it was nice to get away for a few hours by traveling to London. It wasn't entirely pleasure as i was there to go to an event around design and sustainability. We managed to get around a few areas including Brick Lane area. It was nice to go there after so many years to see the graduates setting up their work. It was quite chaotic but it brought back fond memories of it. I particularly liked the pop-up shop outside exploiting those desperate graduates.

Empty Shop update

Managed to visit the shop for the ARK project this week. And to put it simply it is huge. We have got loads of work to do to it as well. If we are going to get it ready for the start of July. IF anyone wants to lend a hand please get in touch.

NESTA Mass Localism - on reflection

Over the last month I have been lucky enough to experience the thoughts and ideas of John Thackara and also attending the findings of NESTA's Mass Localism discussion paper. I have also through ARK been running a mini project on the creative networks within Cardiff and Wales. In short it has led me to a number of proposals which I hope make sense:

- The volunteer work with ARK seems to tie in neatly with the findings of NESTA and the fact that through small groups doing different things independently we can make real change on major issues.

- This brings a question of what if mini groups are doing similar things? do you leave them to do the same thing or do you try and link them up to create a stronger group. If you take John Thackara's idea then you let them flourish individually which also seems to be in line with NESTA's findings.

- There is then a question of this middle ground of when local has to be scaled up or not. In particular things such as food and agriculture and also house building. For me other recent findings have led me to question the very notion of 'localness' and small farms being the answer to food production in the future. If you havn't seen it then I suggest you have a look at the below video of Dan Barber. And the line in particular about measuring the success of the farm by the number of it's predators and also not feeding its livestock at all. This seems to me a question of scale and something that would be interesting if it can still be local. In the same way house building particularly in Britain seems to be dominated by large companies buying land and developing and building in traditional ways. While legislation is making these companies improve there quality in environmental terms it seems to me at least that legislation isn't the way of making a company or country innovative.

The most obvious and historically proven is to be at war 100's of inventions and developments have happened through war and have formed many of the things we now see as being essential to live day to day. The second and slightly less deadly would be to look at how other companies have managed to change there traditional views and turned themselves into innovative companies and it seems that it is through a huge internal cultural change. So people are not only working up to the legislative line they have innovation in built and use this to gain more work due to them being ahead of the curve.



- The future is also an issue for me in terms of things like hydro power etc. At the moment my understanding is that people/companies are part subsidised by the government for installing hydro, wind and solar energy systems into local landscapes. But if we take it to the extreme and in the future everyone sets up their own power station. Does that mean they will still pay money to buy the electricity? if this stops will these systems then become rundown as they will not be able to be maintained? I do not really know enough about this industry to know for sure, but I think it is interesting to think about these issues now. It also brings up other very interesting questions of one town which is energy rich 'giving' energy to others in exchange for something the other town does well. How can this work? what will energy companies of today turn into???

- This nicely brings me onto another issue which was raised during the NESTA seminar. The issue of power and how far does power move from government to the local areas where they know exactly what is going on. First view point is that 'mass localism' has proven that in general local communities can react and deal with huge issues in a quicker and cheaper way rather than being dictated to by using a universal model. So government has to start giving support to these communities in different ways than it does know. Secondly will government really give this power away to local communities? is it a step too far? will councils etc be disbanded as towns and communities will start doing everything for themselves?

- Finally I am starting to think about the wider world and how we are making certain materials harder and harder to find. A few months ago I attended an E:DN event where a chemist introduced us to the periodic table with loads of colours on it. At first I thought looks really nice then he went on to explain that due to some of these elements being used in things like phones etc and then spread around the worked these elements are becoming in essence extinct. So as well as designing we much now start asking is there enough of this material to make millions of them. So who decides this in the future? who says yes to one manufacturer and no to the other?

Just a few thoughts I wonder what other people think?

NESTA @ the Pierhead building

I managed to get to the Pierhead Building this morning to hear a seminar about NESTA's Big Green Challenge and also their publication 'Mass Localism'. Chaired by Peter Davies, Commissioner for Wales, Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). with other attendees being Viv Sugar, Chair of Consumer Focus Wales, Dr Michael Harris, Director of Research, NESTA, Chris Blake, member of the Green Valleys community project in the Brecon Breacons, one of the winning communities in NESTA's Big Green Challenge and Cris Tomos, Chairman of Cymdeithas Cwm Arian Association.

I found the talks very encouraging for a number of reasons. Firstly a number of thoughts and beliefs that we have been investigating in ARK seem to be vindicated by the findings of NESTA's paper. Also within Hoffi it also seems like we are moving towards the findings and ways of thinking that are going to be necessary in the coming years. In particular looking at our role as a company within the marketplace of our community. Looking at how we improve our community and seeing if there are ways we can help generally as citizens. I look forward to the challenge.

E:DN - network

I have had a busy few days this week. I was asked to take part in the two day E:DN event setup by ecodesign Wales, the two days where fantastically inspiring for me as John Thackara attended the two days. For last years MA I used alot of John's work to base what has become ARK on. His book In the Bubble is a must read for anyone interested in design in general let alone specifically social design. I was also really happy to be asked to do a bit of facilitation during one of the workshops. Helping to try and create potential Design Camps for later on in the year. It was strange to be doing this kind of thing in front of people that I have based my some of my thinking on.

Homebase adverts

I saw this on the tv the other day. It's very bizarre how we have been talking about train stations in ARK for the last few months. Hope you enjoy it.

My experiences of design

From an early age I was introduced to art and an appreciation for design. I was taken to museums all round the world and was regularly taken to the most stylish country of the time (Italy) on holiday for a number of years. During these times and ever since I have slowly formed ideas and beliefs about what design is for me and what it should fundamentally answer. The things I have realised have come to a head in the last decade through my experiences designing and making furniture for exhibitions in London through to co-creating Hoffi which produces brands for a wide variety of clients.

I am going to try and break down my understanding of design and how it has evolved in a very simple bulletpoint list.

• design was to make something look good
• design should answer a need (but a general commercial (western) one)
• design should be eco (yet feel separated from design)
• introduced to service design and universal design principles (didn't quite get it)
• design should incorporate eco and design together (following simple reduce, reuse recycle principle)
• design should aim to create products that are responsible (have a life cycle journey, cradle to cradle)
• eco design and so as a whole design seem to be irrelevant if we can't change people's ways of using/living etc
• social design is a broad name but seems to be the true design of the future

While a world wind tour of my thoughts I feel it sums most things up for me currently, and there are many reasons for this. The eco design sector and the growth of accreditation in this area firstly disrupts my thought process as there are so many different ways to be eco, so many perspectives so many avenues to cover. I always remember my first experience of being asked about my furniture at an exhibition about how environmentally friendly it was, where the screws had come from etc. Back then I was a bit naive and was struggling to come up with any answers. It was only until a few days later that I had the answers in my head that I felt would correct. The truth was I personally hand crafted my furniture with my father. I bought the wood from a local timber merchants. Granted the screws were not sourced in an eco way but then I look again at the product and it's quality. I believe it is made to last and will age well.

On the other hand do I as a small designer maker ever have the true ability to create products that are eco? What I mean by this, is can I control every aspect of this being such a small company? Equally within Hoffi as a small design agency how can we be sure that we can cause change and be sure the change we are making is the right type?

In short the answer is 'social' sometimes being a mixture of design thinking, service design, eco design. Social design allows an overarching look at how things work and function. It is not a new discipline but I believe it is something that you come to as you develop as a designer. It seems to be the logical progression due in part to frustration through the lack of control of projects and indeed how things work. Films like 'An Inconvenient Truth' have helped to raise awareness on environmental issues and the principle of AL Gore traveling city by city person by person to spread the word is a fantastic goal. Social design works in a similar way but from a different angle allowing for discussion and conversation to create changes that will be sustainable within the community in question.

The Year that was

Well it's that time of year again when people reflect on the year that is slowly losing it's grip. This year has been difficult for everyone. Financially the recession has hit and it's been all doom and gloom, if the media is anything to go by. For us experiencing a recession for the first time it was initially quite daunting. While we are not fully out of it, we seem to have weathered the storm.

I think what has been different from previous recessions has been access to information. People have been able to look historically to see what happened before and what brands came out stronger from these recessions. From our experiences. People seem to be looking at their businesses and brands ever so slightly differently. It's now seems to be a case of looking broadly as to how a business can contribute to society rather than only making money. It has been really exciting to explore this new way of working with people through the strategy and branding process. For us personally it has been something that has been integrated into Hoffi from the beginning.



Having setup NakedWales - a community space that allows for artists and designers to share information. We set it up with the idea of raising the overall profile of design in Wales. With this added awareness we hoped to raise the overall perceived importance of Design. With the idea of raising standards and exposure of design. In a similar way the recent work I have been involved in through ARK which has been set up to try and answer some of the current social issues.

Finally one thing I really need to remember is when attending launch events I need to take home the goodie bags.

Future of branding

I came across this article via marketing week's website and think that the examples of the way branding and communication are potentially changing is very interesting and exciting new direction for this type of design. As the article suggests the future logo's do seem like they will have to be so much more than just a stationary 'mark'. It seems like it is almost mirrored in history by painting, to photography, to animation, to film and now virtual reality and even 3D which seems to be having a bit of a revival recently.

As technology allows this the brand and the ability to move and alter and perhaps personalise is fantastically interesting for us at Hoffi and something we would be really interested in investigating further. There is also a strong sense that with this type of branding then there is a much greater need for a strong strategy and story behind it and it is something I have been looking at in terms of ARK's recent development and how through story telling it is possible to include people from various sectors in complex issues through simple language.

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.

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.

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.

Experiences of setting up a group...

In the true spirit of setting up an open space technology I thought I would fill people in on my initial experiences of the project. Firstly I must say it is not my brainchild. Lynsey of attic 2 and Simon from ecodesign centre Wales have been discussing the idea of staging an 'event' for the forthcoming Cardiff Design Festival. With the work I have recently been doing through my MA and also hopefully beyond that I kind of gatecrashed it (but in a good way I hope). Lynsey introduced us to the concept of Tuttle and the idea of an almost agendaless meeting.

Firstly the idea is that you get together once a week same place same time and each time you meet you try and bring someone to the meeting that wants to chat in the broadest sense of the word about 'eco', then that person can come again and hopefully invites another person and so on and so on, if anyone is reading this though and lives in the Cardiff area then the more the merrier, just drop me an email: julian.sykes@hoffi.com and I can send you the details.

Well that was the plan, but now coming up to the fourth week it is already apparent while the event and the idea of eco is hugely integral to the meetings it is the off shoots that really have taken the evening into different places and thinking. At first I was not really sure how a non-agenda event meeting would work. I also wanted to use the experience in developing my understanding of these type of events and to see how this type of open space technology networks can be setup. What has really surprised me from the first meeting is that in simple terms it really works. I have been trying to think about why it has and I think I have a reason for it. Firstly I would like to say I love going out for the odd drink but I hate the hangover. So how about you go out and instead of thinking I am going out to have a few drinks and see some people. I am instead going to go out have a few drinks and chat about somethings I really want to get better acquainted with. It kind of follows on from a quote in Martin Raymond's book The Tomorrow People where they identified a group of people who felt they were so busy that they had stopped drinking alcohol as they were too busy to have a hangover for the morning afterwards.

So far we have had few ideas about the Festival event, still not sure if it will be possible, but secondly the system has the potential to be the start of a much larger project that I am working on.

get out of the office

branding places

http://ace.caad.ed.ac.uk/branded/

life before tuttle

http://perfectpath.co.uk/2007/08/08/social-media-cafe/

http://londonsocialmediacafe.pbworks.com/Communal+Vision