Currently studying HND Visual Communication (Graphic Design), Carolann contacted us regarding the possibility of building her experience by working on new projects. Impressed by Carolann’s enthusiasm and portfolio, designers Will Price and James Ferguson welcomed her into the team.

We asked Carolann for her thoughts on joining CIVIC for a short period of time:

“Being on a work placement at CIVIC benefitted me in many different ways and it was an experience that will help me in the future. I was shown how a high class company succeed on a day-to-day basis, by good planning and communication.

“On my very first day I was introduced to everybody and each person’s role was explained to me, so straight away I had an immediate understanding of the company’s structure. This level of openness was fantastic, as when things are explained to you in an open and friendly way, they don’t seem as daunting.

“I was given the redesign of a Staff Handbook as a project to work on and I had to think of a creative solution to the problem. I found having this hands-on experience of a live project very helpful and encouraged me to ask questions and find out how the design team worked. Will and James were extremely professional and I felt privileged to see how they developed their designs for clients.

“I really enjoyed my time at CIVIC and am very grateful to everyone at the company for making me feel welcome and positive about the future.”

We wish Carolann all the best in her future career.

Photos by Julie Broadfoot

Wednesday night we attended the Advocates for Animals, OneKind Live party. The event was held at Edinburgh’s stunning Ghillie Dhu venue and had performances by Any Color Black, Pose Victorious and Itsy Live.

We’re hoping this was just one of many OneKind Live events and that it was very successful for the charity – we certainly enjoyed it! If you have a furry friend or a soft spot for wild animals, this is not only a great cause, but also a great group of people to get involved in.

Visit Advocates for Animals to find out more information and click on the image above to see pictures from the evening.

Scott
What was your previous job? IT Contractor at RBS
What is your favourite website & why? BBC- for the sheer quantity and quality of content
Who is your favourite band/singer? Mos Def
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Alaska
What is one of your quirks your colleagues have to look forward to? Eating a Kit Kat every morning the only way to start the day.
Do you have any hidden talents? I play the drums and have my own Music blog.
Who would you rather be stuck in a lift with: Simon Cowell or Jeremy Clarkson? Jeremy Clarkson

Victoria
What was your previous job? Manager at Meltwater News – online media monitoring provider.
What is your favourite website & why? informationisbeautiful.net Because Information IS beautiful – especially on this website.
Who is your favourite band/singer? The Machine Room
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? South East Asia.
What is one of your quirks your colleagues have to look forward to? This is hard! …a penchant for sparkly clothes…?
Do you have any hidden talents? Ballroom Dancing
Who would you rather be stuck in a lift with: Simon Cowell or Jeremy Clarkson? Jeremy….him and his blue jeans and tales of Top Gear…

Thanks guys and welcome to the team!

mattiwaarna — April 08, 2010 — Imagine the apocalypse. Now imagine characters and elements from 80s games carrying it out. This is exactly what this crazy video portrays, and being a classic games geek myself, if this sort of thing were to happen in real life, Im not sure whether Id run or marvel at the sight.

Its all there — Pacman, Tetris, Arkanoid. Once-friendly, familiar characters wreak havoc on the buildings, streets and cars of New York. The video was created by Patrick Jean from the Paris-based special effect studio One More Production, and the production level is nothing short of amazing. See for yourself.

Re-post from mashable because page is not loading for everyone.

This panel was very interesting and went into the different ways information that is dispersed has altered over the past few years, what constitutes a good and bad application and how brands should be interacting with their users. Maritt Colaizzi writes more about the panels favourite apps in her blog post App experts name favorites and you can read a transcript of the panel from Rachel Clark here.

In the past, a reduction in size meant a reduction in functionality. In today’s market, people expect a reduction in form size, but not performance. Mobility doesn’t mean lack in functionality.

Brands are now being defined more about how consumers talk about them versus what can the brand do for the consumers. If you aren’t actively engaging with your customers in a dialog, you’ll never have a lasting relationship with them. Brands need to focus on user centric design – you need to understand your customers, their pain, how you can fill in the gaps and improve their experiences. Look for opportunities to build something that your users  will actually find useful. Provide a utility for your customers.

Building applications should become easier and faster over time. Apps that play the role of micro-sites are pointless and don’t change behaviour, when apps should reward behavioural change. Applications are not relevant for all companies; as a memory point, yes, but do you want to converse with your toothpaste company?

Brands can learn from foursquare that it’s not just about connecting with friends, it’s also about incentives, social status and advice from people you trust.

What makes a good app? They don’t need to look like the website – they should provide a different function, different experience for the user or you are wasting their time. A micro-site is not an app. Where applicable builders should include geo-location (newspaper apps for example) and social features (New York Times app was specifically mentioned). Marketing departments need to start thinking like online developers.

When should a brand build their app or just sponsor? If there is passion around your brand, it offers great content, a utilitarian use or changes on a regular basis, then build your own app.

The future? The iPad will offer a compelling touch interface to interact with from a creative perspective and a new form of metrics will need to be put in place. Applications spike at the beginning, then tail down in length. Length is a new metric (i.e. 3 sessions/month for 10 mins each) and ROI on apps is often questionable unless extremely successful.

Previous:
SXSW interactive summary – Day 1 & 2

Thanks to our MD, Greig Tosh, for his cameo.

In its largest year to date, SXSW Interactive has been going on for for 13 years now and has a strong reputation.

Below is a brief synopsis of what we got from the sessions.

Social Media for Your Business
Event description: Learn to look further than Twitter and Facebook when it comes to using social media to help your business succeed on the web. Learn solid strategies, how to measure success, and all the tools you need to succeed in the fastest growing marketing medium on the web.

Less indepth than we hoped for, however they reiterated some of the basics:

• Social media can be used to create or improve your reputation
• Focus on link attraction
• Check your analytics
• Set up Google Alerts fro your competitors as well as yourself
• Set up competitions or call to action to attract fans
• Leverage your embed codes for more links
• Decide what you want to achieve then move backwards
• Be human
• Understand your ROI
• Forums – are overlooked and powerful – see big-boards.com
• Yahoo answers rank high in Google search
• Stumble Upon groups

Chris Winfield, one of the panel members has a blog post of The Best Niche Social Media News Sites Right Now to check out for more inspiration.

Jacks of All Trades or Master of One?
(view slideshare presentation here)
Event description: The web originated with generalists – webmasters designing, building, and developing. Today, a web team can have a dozen different specialist roles, each highly-focused. With that in mind, what are the strengths of specialists and generalists, and when are each put to their best use on a project or in an organization?

Presented by Brian Talbot and M Jackson Wilkinson, this panel was an interesting insight into the age old generalist versus specialist debate. It’s becoming apparent that with advancing and the overlapping of so many technologies, that generalists are becoming more common, even if they aren’t as well trained or educated in the various fields.

Smaller companies should focus on generalists to cover all the different bases – people should be able to pitch in all around. Where as larger companies, who have more resource, should employ specialists, where they can, in all areas.

For more about this topic, check out their presentation:

I don’t own a car. Strike that. I own a 1962 VW Beetle which needs thousands spent on it.

What I mean is; I don’t own a roadworthy day-to-day car. I did until December last year, when my (t)rusty 20 year old BMW’s MOT/service bill would have cost more than the car itself.

Now, this obviously presented options.

The Government’s scrappage scheme would give me £2,000 for it; which was about £1,800 more than a passing punter on autotrader.co.uk would have.

(Didn’t try Webuyanycar.com, mainly through fear of that jingle greeting me if I visited the site, “any any any any…”)

But as a condition of the scrappage scheme being that I’d need to buy a brand new car. This I’ve always rejected on the immediate depreciation argument, hastily backed with the business mantra that you should never own a depreciating asset. Translation = consciously aware of budgetary factors affecting consumer durables. Plain English translation = tight.

Coupled with this is the fact that living in the city and walking/busing to work means that Monday to Friday, the need for a car is almost zero.

Still have the need at weekend for shopping and “stuff” but no more than 2 or 3 hours each day.

So, continuing with the options.

Buy a second hand car. How much to spend? £5K? £10K? More? Less?

On the few occasions I needed a car since December, I’d rented for a day/weekend and whilst that works to a point, it can be a hassle from another view, in terms of pickup and return, insurance, remembering to fill it before return.

So, for some reason one day I actually took an interest in the frequently passed by City Car Club vehicles and visited their site.

£50 a year membership, then £4.95 an hour or 24 hours for £49.50. Option 3 it appeared. A third way if you will.

There are 2 card parked within 5 minutes walk from my house; one is actually 2 minutes away and has been available on all but one occasion.

If I’ve got a meeting in town or out (ie not viable by foot or train), there are 2 cars parked on George Street, again a 5 minute walk. Or again be radical and jump a cab in this case.

So far in just over a month, I’ve used the car(s) 13 times and covered 81 miles, averaging just over 6 miles per trip.

Haven’t had the first bill in yet but if I’m honest, do I miss a car? The truthful answer is no. It’s worked so far and I can’t see any reason for it not to continue doing so.

Watch this (parking) space…

Last week we had an even more exciting night out than our usual Friday antics.

We were saying goodbye to three lovely ladies who have been with us for a while, and there was no other way than to do it in style.

Sam, Emily & Perii thanks for your many years of hard work. We will miss you all.