BeyondM25 welcomes 4 Seconds

Today we’d like to introduce your to 4 Seconds, a small design and marketing agency based in Tring, Herfordshire who like to make a big impression.

We struggled to decide which section of creative links to file them under as they tick a lot of boxes, from print to digital and including experiential/exhibition, but as they listed design and marketing on their own site, design is their home at BeyondM25.

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Introducing elliottyoung

Latest agency addition to our Creative Links section here at BeyondM25 is Bedford based events communication agency, elliottyoung.

‘Dedicated to assisting events companies in their pursuit of effective communication’ they have not only a great selection of work on show, but also a number of white papers providing insight to best practice

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The Castle Quay Weekender

So the second of the two little gems I stumbled across this weekend is/are We Are Bedford.

This consist of two ladies (Kayte & Erica) whose ambition is to build an online space which becomes a community collective for people who want to make a change in Bedford, to open up space for dialogue between the community, commerce and the council.

They also want to map Bedford’s secrets, its art, quirks, nooks and crannies, the best pubs, walks, and independent retailers. They aim to do this using a delicate mix of new and old technologies and stories.

Their first active job is The Castle Quay Weekender. This will take place one weekend in March when they will take over the new Castle Quay development in the heart of Bedford town centre and have a ‘culturefest’ where they show off  both the area’s potential, and the creative talent in the surrounding area.

If you think you could help out/have something to offer or just would like to see more, click here.

Usman Haque: PSFK CONFERENCE LONDON 2010

Found a great talk by Usman Haque on getting people to participate given at PSFK conference in London earlier this year.

He shared some interesting insights including:

• You cannot rely on the end goal being incentive enough to encourage individuals to cooperate on achieving the end goal
• Design so that incremental participation results in incremental gains
• Provide tools that enable intended participants to construct their own evidentary rationales for participating
• Rather than trying to develop solutions to individual problems, construct means for actions in two seemingly unrelated domains to benefit each other
• A public spectacle is engaging, requires no long-term commitment. It encourages people to observe, ask questions and occasionally, even to participate
• Create social projects complex enough that a single individual cannot explain it to others, forcing participants to work together to find solutions.

Unfortunately this version of wordpress doesn’t allow me to embed the code for videos into posts (if you know otherwise please get in touch) so to see it you’ll have to link thru to the PSFK site by clicking here.

Bibliothéque

Just got back from attending the LongLunch talk with Bibliothéque at the Design Museum this evening.

Bibliothèque is a creatively led graphic design consultancy, based in Shoreditch, London. (and self-confessed ‘design geeks’)

In my opinion they are true masters of layout and typography and love the way they reduce colour palettes down.

Here’s a small selection of some of the works they showed…

Got, got, got, need!

At the start of April I posted about Luton based designer Elliott Quince of QuinkyArt due to be showing his work at an up and coming charity exhibition with a view to raise money for the Luton & Dunstable Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Well, Got, got, got, need! is up and running from 8pm, Thursday 10th June at The Offside Gallery, Islington for the duration of the World Cup 2010.

Nice one Elliot, best of luck!

Nike78

At Nike78 Paul Jenkins pulls together a list of creatives to challenge the function of a pair of Nike shoes using sport as the inspiration to create an exhibition showcase at the London Design Festival 2010.

For example the very talented set designer/model maker Andy Macgregor has turned his pair into GalvaNIKEs by galvanizing them with a view to making them indestructible:

http://vimeo.com/10901724

Follow its progress here.

Nike Grid: London’s Your Gameboard

With more and more emphasis on social network games (Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown) relying on the use of a smart phone or at least one with internet connection ability I’ve often thought there are a lot of people out there who don’t get a chance to play, this ones for you… Nike Grid

Race – Chase – Sprint – Dial!
Basically you play by logging in at a phone box (free phone) then score points by getting to another phone box in the same postcode in the quickest possible time. Simple and engaging, brilliant!
Not only is it a form of social gaming but also encourages running, its a win win!

But it appears it’s only a 24hr game starting 8pm on Friday 23rd April so you have got to be quick to claim your postcode!

Must also admit I am loving the Spooks style website to give it that underground/spy feel to the whole thing. Check it out here!

Thanks MyModernMET for sharing

Mike Byrne (Anomaly) D&AD: President’s Lecture

I’ll be venturing to the Big Smoke (into the M25) next Monday evening to attend the D&AD: President’s Lecture by Mike Byrne from Anomaly.

If anyone else is going or thinking of going then get in touch and we can hang about for the obligatory pint afterwards.