Meetings in Feb [Infographic]

12.04.12 Greg Danford

I thought I'd gather some data during February this year, in a way that would require minimum effort on my part.

With a lot of meetings coming up, I decided that maybe they'd be a good place to start...

I then defined a few things that I'd look to record; the way people were dressed, the environment we met in, time and distance.

The outcome is, unsurprisingly, void of any real significance BUT I've previously never had the opportunity to create my own infographic from scratch before, including the first-hand data capture - so there was SOME value in it!

So, here it is, in all its glory. I'm open to suggestion of what to record and depict next - significance is not a consideration.

View large here

Meetings in Feb [Infographic] Meetings in Feb [Infographic]




FoldBooth iPhone App

19.03.12 Greg Danford

Disturb Media and Luis Carranza have just launched an innovative new iPhone App which aims to bring a smile to some people's faces by removing the smile from other's!

It's called Fold Booth, and the simple premise is, just like you would with a piece of paper, you virtually 'fold' images on screen. What do users create? Well, a whole variety of innovative, creative and often surprising content. How did it come about?...

When asked where the concept came from, Luis Carranza, a consultant Creative Technologist and Social Marketing Strategist said "There’s an App for just about anything. I remember having a proper “LOL” playing with another face-morphing app. I was amazed at how something so silly could bring so much momentary joy. If you make people laugh out loud, there’s a really good chance they’ll share the moment with someone else.

"Fold Booth was designed for a quick laugh. There’s nothing wrong with laughing at ourselves or at others, especially when no harm is intended. Part of the inspiration for Foldbooth came from my days at university. Each year they'd print photos of the incoming class on a wall. Each year, without fail, someone would start folding the photos. Then I saw Kempfolds (http://kempfolds.blogspot.com), a blog where people submit folded images of Ross Kemp’s very foldable face. I thought that if you apply that same type of humour to images of people, animals and objects, we could possibly make a nice little app.

"Unfortunately I’m not a developer, but luckily for me, the guys at disturb media live for creative technology. I approached them with the concept and, fortunately, they're the kind of guys who like to take on fun, experimental work as often as they're able to. So, Fold Booth was swiftly crafted, and the results were beyond my expectations. The designs were amazing and the user experience was perfected version by version.

"I’m really pleased with the App. We’ve create a little tool that people will use in unexpected ways. I can definitely see folded politicians in America, folded cats on the web and maybe even folded porn. Whatever people do with it, we just hope that they get a “LMAO” or two."

The Foldbooth.com site is an online extension of the personality and content of the App, allow the curious among us to take a peek at the variety of uses that Fold Booth's growing community are exploring. The site, along with the obligatory Facebook page and Twitter account was also created by the team at Disturb and plans are afoot to extend the offering further still in the coming weeks.

Who knows where this will lead? The creators certainly don't - but that's the exciting aspect of such ventures and exactly the reason that off-the-wall creations will never cease to exist.

The App's available here. What will you fold?

FoldBooth FoldBooth FoldBooth Gallery




disturb launch kinnari.com

19.03.12 Greg Danford

Over the course of the last 6 months, we've been working with Kinnari to help them launch their new jewellery brand.

Kinnari and their community of users collaborate together to evolve jewellery designs that are tailored to each individual user's taste; the credit for being the designer of the resulting creation can be equally shared between the brand and the user.

Therefore, it's quite a different relationship to most B2C brands - obviously a transaction takes place for the production of the goods, but the bespoke nature of the journey to arrive at the purchase leaves users feeling a lot less of a consumer and more a creator.

From a digital agency's point of view, this was a fantastic project for disturb to be involved with. Firstly, we were thrilled to be awarded the job of designing the brand's identity - a process with which the brands founders were extremely closely involved. We feel that the end result is an identity that really captures the simplicity and elegance of the brand without stealing the show from the jewellery, which does a very good job of selling itself visually.

The design of the site then really fell into place. We wanted to create a sleek, uncluttered vehicle for the presentation of the visually rich content. Jason Turner, digital designer at disturb said "The first challenge in designing the Kinnari site was about finding the right balance between the branding and the jewellery. I felt that the company identity shouldn't try to compete for attention with the jewellery, because the product certainly looks good enough to sell itself and the less clutter around it the better.

"The next challenge was around the navigation of the design tool. The experience itself is fun, but we didn't want to push this too much further with the look of the various controls and options, due to the risk of devaluing the premium feel. We netted out at a place towards the 'charming' side of fun, which I think is a perfect position for Kinnari."

On the development side, the highlight of the site build for us was the creation of the Design Tool. It allows users to immerse themselves into the creation process, changing the collection, base model, finish, gemstone colour and size, while seeing an updated 3D representation of their jewellery all the way through the process, as a 360° view that they control.

The fact that the site has been built to perform equally well across many devices and platforms is, most importantly, beneficial to Kinnari's community of users because they can design across tablet devices and smart phones as well as desktop PCs. It's something that's also beneficial to disturb because it's a great demonstration of our capabilities in this area and serves us well in our quest to dispel the myth that we're only about Flash!. Without getting too into the technical side, and just for those who are interested, the front end of the site is an HTML / Javascript build, making very good use of jQuery. The back end comprises of a Symphony CMS build and integration of the REALEX payment system.

This all makes for a really slick, enjoyable experience. See what you think and have a go at designing your own jewellery at kinnari.com

Kinnari Jewellery Kinnari Design Tool Kinnari Identity Kinnari Home Screen




Signs, Gentlemen, please.

12.12.11 Greg Danford

Earlier this year I started to formalise a photographic collection that I've been interested in for a while.

It's basically a collection of signage depicting humans, although there are a few that have forced their way through the net for inclusion due to their beautiful form...

Beautiful in my eyes, anyway. The main thing that interests me with these kinds of signs is the fact that, in the main, we regard them purely for their function rather than their form.

Although something outstandingly different will doubtless get our attention for its artistic adventure, we pretty much accept bog-standard executions for these often important pieces of design. And I'm guessing it's no coincidence that this is what you'd expect to find on a standard-bog door.

Sometimes the detail can be extremely curious, bewildering or unintentionally amusing. If I were designing or commissioning signage that, in some instances, may remain in place for decades and be viewed by millions, I'd put it through a little more rigorous development.

I've so far photographed in excess of 60 signs that have got my attention across Europe and the collection is building, slowly but surely. A few of my favourites are pictured here. There's also a slideshow. The full set is on Flickr.

When I get to 100 pieces, I plan to produce a printed piece for the office. Check back next year.

Austrian 'Uncle' Clumsy! Er - don't put things in bins if you have a long arm? Slightly adapted, I think




from the disturb archives: Cushe Online Store

18.06.11 Disturb Media

From the archives: Cushe Footwear asked disturb to create a unique and interesting shopping experience. From initial scamps to design and production this was a project we were responsible for in its entirety.

It looked great, worked great, and sold footwear at such a pace that the shop had to go offline while it got it's breath back.

This was a project from the first year of disturb's existence, spanning 2007/2008 and it still remains very close to our hearts. as we were establishing our own brand of digital design, we were helping to further the flourishing footwear brand that we'd been working very closely with during its formative years.

At the time, a Flash-based online store was quite an adventurous way to go - but our brief was certainly not to stay safe. We didn't have today's heightened worries of cross-device compatibility so created an immersive online shopping experience that was certainly functional but more focused in expressing the brand's personality and ethos.

Things change so quickly that, 4 years later, we likely wouldn't answer the same brief in the same manner - but it has it's place in our and Cushe's history as one of the many milestones that helped to make us both what we are today. Happy days.

cushe online store