25th May 11, 12.00AM / (Andy)
Little Wisdoms
I don't bloody believe it!
These little beauties have finally arrived in the studio - the conversation starting, pub-argument ending list of weird and wonderful regional facts that are the Little Wisdoms. The concept of the wonderful folks at Craefta, there are currently two decks to choose from - Great Northern Beasts or Great North Superlatives. All 52 playing cards give facts from Tees and Tweed, along with a couple of red herrings in the mix.
We're looking forward to starting work on some new decks and I've planted a few cabbages on the allotment in the hope of grabbing the £500 prize on offer.
12nd April 11, 12.00AM / (Andy)
tea with the royals
I'm not planning a street party, but I am drinking tea from my classy commemorative mug.
Many thanks to Claire and Anton for the right royal gift.
23rd March 11, 04.49PM / (James)
By 'eck lad, it's the Yorkshire dummy text generator
Our first draft design layouts will never be the same...
As an exiled Yorkshireman, this link from Dan Howarth @ Newcastle Uni made me laugh.
Cheers Dan. Clients: look out for a bit of 'slapped arse' 'chuffin nora' and 'any road up' on your Warm design work from this day forth.
tlipsum.appspot.com/
15th December 10, 09.13AM / (James)
Warm + YDN
Warm have created an identlty and a few different bits and bobs fr the nice folks at the North East Youth Dance Network - the above is part of the ID - good eh!?
11st November 10, 12.00AM / (James)
Great little piece on 'Networking'
I've always had a secret dislike - hatred even) - of 'Networking' (the uber-cheesey staged event style variety anyway), but I've always been too scared to admit it, after all I am 'in business'. Well after stumbling across this great little piece of editorial in the current issue of the magnificent The Crack Magazine I'm officially out of the closet (yep, that's all it takes - one journalist who agrees with me).
I hate networking events, they're bloody awful. there it's out.
...and don't even get me started on flippin' gimmicky ones - speed networking / boozy ones - Christ.
From The Crack:
Robert Meddes would do literally anything to avoid going anywhere near a networking meeting. (Note: literally anything.)
I was once tricked into attending what I now very much believe to be, a networking event. It was an afternoon affair, held in a swanky basement bar, with about 60 other people who were clapping along to Daniel Bedingfield as he attempted to pull off some live human beat-boxing. If that doesn’t already sound like the stuff of nightmares (and there’s a part of me that is convinced that the above scenario only took place inside my head after a stress related illness) then the whole situation plunged into hitherto unexplored depths after Bedingfield left the stage and people started circulating the room and introducing themselves to each other. A woman from a local radio station approached me, inquired where I was from, and finally asked for my business card. Business card? She might as well have asked to see my vagina. When I laughingly informed her that I didn’t own such an item, she backed away from me quicker than if I had actually confronted her uncomprehending head with my actual vagina (which I don’t have).
I then suddenly found myself cast into an arena of despair: false smiles abounding; business small-talk lubricating the twittering throng with an ease I could only describe as nauseating. As I stumbled towards the exit I was pawed at by grabbing hands, gnawed at by flashing teeth and exhortations to “STAY!” spurted forth like the black lava of Hell. Imagine a remake of “Repulsion” with the contents of Catherine Deneuve’s fragmented mind played by a cast of am-dram Scientolgoists and you’ll get the picture (of Dorian Gray). Is this what all networking events actually look like? A not-drunk-enough assemblage of people looking for ways to get their claws into you to gain some kind of perceived advantage for themselves or their company? A never-ending parade of perma-grinning business card collectors imploring you to “hook up” sometime and discuss something that would take an industrial amount of Sellotape to stop your tits from falling off with boredom? People in appalling ties looking to work the angles, bartering in a crude you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours kind of way? I’m uneasy about strangers at the best of times, never mind the ones who might possibly want something off me.
Networkers are just like those people who come up to you in the street asking for 47p so they can get the bus home, except with a slightly less interesting back-story and a significantly worse suit.
www.thecrackmagazine.com
Illustration: Alex Hedworth - ahedworth123@yahoo.co.uk
28th October 10, 12.00AM / (Andy)
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a bungee jumping fresher?
Nope. Its warm producing a promotional film for Durham Uni.
This is the Warm crew atop a frightfully high height filming a promotional film for Durham University's Earth Science Department. The film will soon be uploaded to the faculty website but in the meantime can be seen here...
http://vimeo.com/16026699
25th October 10, 12.00AM / (Andy)
Fortunately these chaps don't make swimming trunks.
Savvy Packaging
We always like to point our clients in the direction of clever new design and print solutions, so this environmentally-affectionate packaging solution caught my eye over the weekend.
Marks and Spencer's have launched some nifty new packaging for their posh Choc's. As of today, once you scoff one of their swiss chocolates, you can hide the evidence by dissolving the packaging under running water. The material 'plantic' is a starch product that is 100% compostable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/25/chocolate-box-compostable-packaging
19th October 10, 12.00AM / (Andy)
LiveWell and prosper
Heres a sneak peek of an identity we've had the pleasure of creating for a new research programme at Newcastle Unversity. LiveWell is due to be launched in November and is a multidisciplinary study into living longer and living better. It will be evaluating the effect diet, physical and social activity has on our well-being in our senior years.
From here on in - if its not not hummus, goji berries or pilates, we warmies aren't interested.
28th September 10, 10.41AM / (James)
We're off to see the wizard...
Warm have recently named and created a brand proposition
for start-up film production company 'Tin Man Films'
After much digging around in a very crowded and rapidly growing expanding marketplace we found that in addition to all the usual digital media skills TMF really stood out in their ability to build a strong rapport with subjects, putting them very much at ease in front of the lens. This enabled them to 'open up' and allow the film makers to get to the core of the stories they were sharing with the camera... a valuable human touch in a sector that is all too often over-reliant on technology and a 'film by numbers' approach. Tin Man Films offers a more meaningful perspective and a solid understanding of 'the craft of film-making' in addition to the usual stuff. Films are truly 'made', and not churned out.
Our approach was to tap in to the nostalgia of a truly magical cinematic classic - The Wizard of Oz - using the Tin Man for the name of the business and as a metaphor for the company's key point of difference and mission statement: 'Find the Heart / Tell the Story'. It's early days for Tin Man Films but we look forward to continuing our relationship with Jan Cawood to develop the brand as we travel along the yellow brick road...
www.tinmanfilms.co.uk
24th September 10, 05.00AM / (Andy)
Spot the films
As part of their Film Season, The Guardian have launched a lovely little animation paying homage to some classic films. Its an 85 second short, and there are references to 26 films in there to find - so far I've managed to spot 24 of the little blighters.
In itself, its quite a canny little film.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/sep/23/film-season-video-challenge