Seewhatyoumean

Inspiration wall

2012-01-25T14:20:00.001Z

A while back I blogged about ifttt, which allows you connect bits of the web together in a simple way. I have been thinking how we can use this in some cool way at the 'See what you mean' studio.

Recently we all started collecting the things we see that we like and find inspirational on Pinterest (previously we all had folders on our computers.) I thought it could be cool if we could share all these things we find online, in the studio, and so the inspiration wall was born.

This is how it works - our Pinterest rss feeds are passed through ifttt which uploads an image from any new posts to flickr, we have an apple TV hooked up to a projector which shows a screensaver fed from flickr. 5 minutes and no coding knowledge later we have an ever changing wall of inspiration.

Aurasma gets boost at CES 2012

2012-01-13T11:04:00.010Z

With a growing online social presence and partnering with top brands including FT, Tesco, Diageo & BBC (to name a few), Aurasma is positioning itself strongly in the 3D Augmented reality mobile technology marketplace.

Their latest well deserved boost comes at CES 2012 being nominated for 'People's Voice', Best of CES2012. Check out the interview with engadget and feature on cnet (ad before).

We've been doing some cool playing with the mobile app cross platform and we're really excited about the potential with Rich Pictures. Post coming very soon... Follow @Aurasma, visit them online. Image copyright Engadget.

Cut the rope in the browser

2012-01-11T12:28:00.000Z

Cut the Rope is a game for iPhone and Android made by Zeptolab, it's been available for a while but has just been ported over to the browser. An impressive task that utilizes the HTML 5 canvas, CSS3, WOFF fonts and a whole load of Javascript. Cut the Rope in the browser really shows the power of modern browsers and what can be achieved.

Play the game in Internet Explorer 9 or 10 for best results. Read a full break down of the development process on the behind the scenes page.

Touchnote app

2011-12-15T16:07:00.000Z

Touchnote is a free app for iOS devices that will allow you to create and send a real postcard to anyone in the world. The app is nicely designed and the easy to use, especially compared to the alternatives we tested. Making postcard out of your own photos makes them highly personal and they only cost $1.49, £1.49 or €1.49 for each card.

At ‘See what you mean’ we are thinking of using it for client contact, sending clients a postcard to touch base after meetings using a picture taken at the time.

Get Touchnote for Android, iPhone or iPad.

Animade - blog of inspirational animations

2011-12-07T16:40:00.001Z

Animade love animation and make television commercials, video games and digital content. Their work is fantastic and even award winning, but they also have a blog of inspirational animations. 633 in total so far, a veritable treasure trove of quirky, strange, funny and beautiful works for your perusal.

Five deaths a day on British roads...

2011-12-05T14:33:00.008Z

From 1999-2010 36,371 people died on the roads in Great Britain.
This compelling website from the BBC gives detailed information about every crash. The intro movie is nice and simple, interactive maps and 'did you know' sections has some amazing facts. Looks like an internal project from the Interactive team, good work BBC. Found via - Bradstockboys blog

Playstation Immersive Imaging

2011-12-05T11:10:00.001Z

These 3 videos to promote the Playstation Video Store (created by Studio Output) use 3D projection mapping to create a constantly changing room.

All shot in one take they combining real-time tracking, projection mapping and augmented reality to create 'Immersive Imaging.' The Playstation Move controller is attached to the camera which enhances the effect of spatial deformation and perspective.

Watch all 3 videos on YouTube

The Art of Dancing

2011-12-02T12:37:00.001Z

A great bit of Christmas fun from Lewis Bullock & Luke Bonner. Now in it's second year the art of dancing showcases the 'dancing delights of two deluded delinquents'. Be sure to check out last years too, 13 is a personal favourite.

Beauty Of A Second short film contest

2011-11-29T15:13:00.001Z

To celebrate the birth of the chronograph 190 years ago Mont Blanc have organised the 'The Beauty of a second' competition. Above is a video compilation of the 1st round.

The challenge is for people to create a beautiful one second video, which will be voted on and then a winner picked by Wim Wenders. The completion is open to all ages and skill levels.

You can also make a playlist from the submitted videos on the Mont Blanc one second micro site.

TapSense: Enhancing Finger Interaction on Touch Surfaces

2011-11-22T11:57:00.001Z

Tapsense by Chris Harrison allows touch devices to distinguish between four types of touch input. This can allow for greater levels of functionality. Watch the video to see Tapsense in action, or read more detail on Chris' website.

Mince pie infographic

2011-11-18T10:44:00.001Z

'See what you mean' are getting into the festive spirit, and of course that means tracking how many mince pies we are eating in the studio and creating a web based infographic.

The infographic uses HTML5 and Javascript to make the charts. Using jQuery visualize by filament group the code scrapes the data from HTML tables and generates a bar, pie or line chart. The generated charts are created using the HTML5 canvas element, this is advantageous over other charting options that rely on flash to draw the charts.

We also took advantage of using web fonts to add to the infographic aesthetic. We are using League Gothic from The League of Movable Type, and generated via font squirrel.

Add a splash of CSS and a few images and we're done, now we just need to eat some more pies.

Rip Curl - Mirage

2011-11-02T10:44:00.000Z

Using an array of 30 GoPro HD cameras this video from Rip Curl and TimeSlice films captures surfers in 'frozen moments of time.' The effect is the same as used in the Matrix films, the surfers can be stopped in mid air and be seen from different angles.

See all the videos on YouTube including a behind the scenes video.

Big brains meet big brand - Road Frustration Index

2011-10-31T17:05:00.011Z

A high speed collision between the boffins at MiTs SENSEable City Lab and Audi has given birth to 'The Road Frustration Index'. Scouring the web for traffic, weather, incidents and most importantly sentiment from Social Media - feeds live stats on a simple dashboard. Constructed in html 5, capable of comparing timeframes and cities, this is a neat little Beta.

Solar Sinter - Solar operated 3D Printer

2011-10-28T11:39:00.000+01:00

We all know how important sustainable energy sources are and that renewable energy technology is advancing very quickly, but here's something brilliant.As part of his MA Product Design studies at the Royal College of Art, Markus Kayser thought a little outside the box and developed a solar operated 3D Printer using renewable, free materials to print 3D objects.

Amen. The new Twitter?

2011-10-27T09:23:00.000+01:00

Amen is the place for battling it out over the best and the worst in life. The new 'twitter-like status update' social media tool lets you share your opinion about a person, a place or a thing. It is a pretty clever and slick looking piece. Amen.

Get the iPhone app from the iTunes app store.

Gmail Stop Motion Animation Video

2011-10-26T15:13:00.000+01:00

JESS3 always produce visually captivating work, and their video for Google about Gmail is no exception. The video highlights the fact you can get Gmail on your smart phone, all wrapped up in a great stop frame animation. Find out more about the project and watch a 'making of' video on the JESS3 website.

Lego iPhone App

2011-10-26T09:58:00.001+01:00

"This cleverly designed iPhone app will tickle Lego fans from eight to 80."

A brilliant mix of contemporary physical toys & futuristic digital interaction.Introducing LEGO® Life of George: the world's first interactive game combining real LEGO bricks with apps for your iPhone/iPod Touch.The app challenges you to recreate pre-set LEGO® shapes, by taking a photo of your outcome it makes a comparison between the tasks' image and your copy.

Historic Pictograms

2011-10-21T09:06:00.000+01:00

How simple can a story be without losing the plot? Design studio H-57, based in Milan, Italy is currently experimenting with the simplicity of pictograms. Here are some life-story examples of famous characters such as Jesus, Michael Jackson or even Darth Vader, told with a lot of wit and maximum simplicity.

See more pictograms on ignant.de

A Video History of the iPhone

2011-10-20T09:44:00.003+01:00

CNET UK Presents: History of the iPhone, dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs from Drew Stearne on Vimeo.

'It's like going from an arrowhead to a Swiss Army Knife' the development of mobile phones since the first ever cell phone was introduced in 1983 has been such a fast track move that allows us to call, text, see and chat to who, when and where ever we want.This brilliant animated video shows the history of the iPhone and technology from 1983 until today.

Made by CNET Published by Suzanne Labarre | fastcodesign.com

The History of the English Language, in Ten Minutes.

2011-10-10T11:52:00.005+01:00

'Where did the phrase 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' come from? And when did scientists finally get round to naming sexual body parts?'
About 1600 years of historical facts about the worlds' language squeezed into small 10 one-minute bites, revealing the origins of English and phrases from Shakespeare, with a bit of wit and explained in simple words.

Published by The Open University, voice over by Clive Anderson. See the rest of the videos on the Open University YouTube channel

NEW VENUE! - Mr Bingo & Amelia Johnstone

2011-09-29T09:28:00.000+01:00

'See what you mean' presents an evening of splendid talks from 2 fantastic illustrators, Amelia Johnstone & Mr Bingo

4 October, 2011 - 19:00 at Tommy's Bar, Howard Gardens.

A free entry event, just turn up on 4th of October, in conjunction with the Cardiff Design Festival.

About the speakers

www.ameliajohnstone.com
With themes of obedience and disobedience, light and dark, now and then and lastly when; Amelia Johnstone’s work continues to explore fairy tales, and growing as her Alice self, she is uncomfortable and constantly shifting perspective. Amelia aims to champion the discipline of illustration; its importance, significance, its impact and purpose. Amelia’s current practice hopes to enable the periscoped perspective, through teaching and storytelling; understanding the significance of interior monologue and illustration’s ventriloquistic (her word) abilities.

www.mr-bingo.org.uk
Mr Bingo didn’t learn a lot at school but he did discover one valuable thing. He was good at making people laugh. Mr Bingo spent most of his time at school drawing things for the amusement of his classmates. He still does this, but he his audience has grown a bit bigger. Working from his studio in East London, he now ‘draws stuff’ for a wide and diverse range of clients including The New York Times, The Mighty Boosh, QI, Microsoft, VW, Tate, Esquire, WIRED, The Guardian, MTV and Jimmy Carr. As well as illustrating, Mr Bingo regularly speaks at events on topics such as religion, the internet, dating, animals, art and terrorism.

The Sexperience 1000

2011-09-27T09:37:00.003+01:00

The Sexperience 1000 enables you to explore the sexual experiences and preferences of 1,000 British individuals, and it's fantastically designed too.

With 25 questions and various filters you can find out the preferred posistion of ASDA shoppers, or if iPhone users like to have the lights on or off.

All is not lost

2011-08-23T12:44:00.005+01:00

‘See what you mean’ have been enjoying ‘All is not lost’. Made as a show of support to the tragedy in Japan this humble messenger allows you to share your thoughts with the world. A clever partnership between music video mavericks Ok Go, Pilobolus, Trish Sie and Google Chrome Experiments Japan. Try the messenger here or watch the making of 'A message to Japan' here.

Touchy feeley in Frankfurt

2011-08-18T11:44:00.005+01:00

‘See what you mean’ are just back from Frankfurt where we visited New Media Yuppies. Pioneering large format touchscreen and interactive concepts, an exciting company in an interesting space fusing a passion for gaming to the corporate world. We shared some insight and discussed how they see ‘Gamification’ playing an intrigual role in how we experience products and engage with our audience. Check out their website for more details. Btw. If you're in Frankfurt I wholly recommend a visit here and here.

Adobe Edge

2011-08-02T12:27:00.007+01:00

New from Adobe Labs, Adobe Edge is an application for producing web based animations using HTML5, CSS3 & Javascript. It's very early days, Edge is currently only a preview but shows potential. The application UI will be familiar with users of After Effects and Premiere and shares some functionality. Creating an animation is really easy and quick, I re-produced our ‘See what you mean’ spinning card animation that was originally made After Effects. View the animation.

There are some criticisms with the application using divs for animation rather than canvas and svg, (you can import svg graphics) but future releases should sort this out.

Photomarathon 2011 exhibition

2011-08-02T10:17:00.011+01:00

Here's a short promo we produced for our friends at Photomarathon. The 2011 Exhibition is on until the 21st of August, details here.

US debt visualised

2011-07-27T16:07:00.003+01:00

The huge sums of US debt can be hard to imagine, so www.wtfnoway.com helps by visualising the amounts in ever increasing piles of $100 bills. Ever wondered what $1,000,000,000,000 dollars looks like or even $15,000,000,000,000? Wonder no more, go check out www.wtfnoway.com

Angry birds live

2011-07-22T16:39:00.010+01:00

After 2 months of viral activity Angry Birds Live has almost tipped 7m YT hits. A clever marriage of physical and technology, being used as a part of T Mobiles ‘Life is for sharing’ campaign.

Produced by Saatchi & Saatchi U.K. with Rovio, filmed in Barcelona. Nice behind the scenes here, plus an interview with Director Greg Brunkalla of Legs here.

visual.ly

2011-07-18T16:39:00.002+01:00

The world's largest community for exploring, sharing, creating, and promoting data visualisations. Check out the video explaining the service, and visit the website for some great visualisations/infographics

The Joy of Stats

2011-07-14T15:02:00.007+01:00

‘See what you mean’ throughly enjoyed Professor Hans Rosling present his documentary about statistics on BBC Four last night. It certainly is a joy to watch him speak and enthuse about data and information. His humour and energy is inspiring. Interesting piece on the guys behind San Francisco Crimespotting (worth a visit).

He used a great quote from a call recieved by a radio station during the last recession - 'In times like this when unemployement rates are up to 13%, and income has fallen by 5%, sucide rates are climbing. I get so angry that the government is wasting money on things like the collection of statistics.'

Available on iPlayer (in UK) or worth hunting via other means. See his Ted talks here. Genious!

3d Video with Kinect and iPad

2011-07-06T10:31:00.002+01:00

There are some great Kinect hacks, but this is one of the best we've seen for a while. Laan labs uses the String Augmented Reality SDK to display real-time 3d video and audio recorded from the Kinect.

We especially like the star wars projection aesthetic. See the video on
vimeo and further details are on the Laan Labs blog

Google+ project

2011-07-05T12:06:00.004+01:00

Google's foray into social networking has been unveiled and will be open to all soon. Google+ has a set of features Circles, Hangout, Instant upload, Sparks & Huddle that allow you to interact with your network of friends.

To explain these features Google has set up a great interactive tour website. With elements lifted from maps you can jump from feature to feature or zoom out to see the whole picture.

2011-07-01T13:23:00.005+01:00

‘See what you mean’ are getting excited about the new HP TouchPad. Due out 20 of this month, featuring the all new WebOS, set to forge its own special groove in the market alongside Android Giants and of course the iPad 2. Above I've selected my favourite feature ‘Touch to share’, take a look at the video. There's a really nice summing up on FastCompany.com, a great site well worth a visit.

Beautiful Slides

2011-07-01T12:47:00.007+01:00

Check out these beautiful slides from Cannes Lions on Slide share, some great stuff in there. If you pay with a tweet you can download a PDF version. View more presentations from @JESSEDEE

Thought leadership

2011-06-27T12:04:00.007+01:00

Successful visual explanations often make the press. Some have become globally recocognised and received monster downloads. In celebration here's a short animation from ‘See what you mean’ with a few examples from our favourite thought leaders.

Credits & copyrights.
'Did you know 2.0'. Xplane, Dachis Group
'Changing Education Paradigms'. The RSA
The Crisis of credit visualised. Jonathan Jarvis.

Dark Matters

2011-06-15T10:38:00.006+01:00

PHD presents 'Dark Matters - A Tales from the Road Comic.' It's a recording of a couple of guys (physicists Daniel Whiteson and Jonathan Feng) talking about dark matter and what physicists know and don't know, accompanied by a great animation. Dark Matters - Worth watching and checking out the pages drawn by Jorge Cham.

Making better presentations

2011-06-14T11:27:00.008+01:00

Here’s a 1 minute pitch from ‘See what you mean’ about making better presentations.

Transformers 3 UI design

2011-06-01T15:12:00.004+01:00

Dann Petty has published some of his user interface designs for the Transformers 3 movie site. The design has a dashboard aesthetic and pulls in feeds, movie etc, the globe is pretty sweet too. The film is released on the 29th June so not long until the design is brought to life.

3D projection madness

2011-05-24T16:17:00.004+01:00

One wall, 120 crew, six cranes, 10 cameras, 6 HD projectors a stuntman & a live audience!

No pressure... to pull off one minute of awesome projected madness. The lengths they'll go to to sell you a family hatchback... Direction, design, animation, music & composition by studio bread with flipevil

Green Screen Studio

2011-05-24T12:17:00.003+01:00

At 'See what you mean', we've invested in everything you need to create high quality green screen video. To shoot with minimum perspective distortion, we use a Canon 550d with a 70mm lens; and our long, spacious studio really helps us to achieve this.

Thanks to Jo from our neighbours Acute Training Solutions for standing in on this test.

i3D app

2011-05-24T09:41:00.003+01:00

i3D is a head tracking app that uses your iPhone/iPad 2 camera to create a simulated 3D experience. The app created by Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay is a free universal app in the app store. See the app on iTunes or watch a video of it in action on YouTube

Actionscript 3

2011-05-06T12:23:00.004+01:00

The Soulwire blog houses some great AS3 interactive projects, from generative art to glitch machines.

Tron Legacy (info)graphics

2011-04-27T15:30:00.004+01:00

Josh Nimoy has posted a short overview of the infographic imagery created for Tron Legacy. You can also see a 'making of' on Digital Domains website, or check out a pretty comprehensive photo set of the effects created on flickr.

WVIL Camera concept

2011-04-26T15:47:00.004+01:00

The WVIL camera is a concept camera envisioned by Artefact's award-winning design team. It answers the question: “what’s next for camera design?”

With a nod to Leica and Dieter Rams, the WVIL camera wows with it's body aesthetics and UI design.

The concept of having a wireless lens is really appealing and the use of a detachable display unit would open up the possibility of using an iPhone or similar.

See the camera in action on vimeo.

How do ideas achieve takeoff?

2011-04-20T08:35:00.003+01:00

Interesting article by James Gleick on www.Smithsonian.com about Memes, and how ideas evolve. “Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms. Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed." Ideas have “spreading power, infectivity, as it were". Not just ideas, but songs, catchphrases and images.
“Survival of the fittest” is a meme that, like other memes, mutates wildly (“survival of the fattest”; “survival of the sickest”; “survival of the fakest”; “survival of the twittest”.
Ideas, like life in most species, are created in great profusion. But only a few go on to achieve take off.

Adobe Photoshop Touch Apps

2011-04-12T15:52:00.003+01:00

Adobe has recently announced the Touch SDK preview for Adobe Photoshop CS5. The SDK enables applications on Android™, Blackberry, and iOS mobile and tablet devices to interact with Photoshop CS5.

Adobe has showcased 3 apps for the iPad (easel, nav & colour lava) on the Photoshop website. Also as the SDK is open to developers there should be many more applications in the near future. Download the SDKs from the developer website.

The Evolution Of Mobile

2011-04-08T14:35:00.004+01:00

Cool video from Vodafone showing the evolution of mobile phones. Great use of 3D Projection Mapping too. Worth watching in HD.

“Cure for the Common Font”

2011-03-25T12:48:00.004Z

"Now that web designers suddenly face the challenge (and delight) of choosing fonts from an ever-growing selection, we thought it’s a good time to recommend some basic principles for making wise type choices."

This talk from SXSW features Frank Chimero, Tiffany Wardle, Stephen Coles and Jason Santa Maria. The slides and audio are up on Typographica.org, it's quite long but worth a watch.

(via swissmiss )

Online Marketing for beginners - zero to hero in 6 months

2011-03-23T10:43:00.006Z

New to online marketing? Want to learn how to engage influencers on Twitter and captivate your Facebook audience? The Noob guide to Online Marketing might be just what you've been looking for.

The infographic is in two parts. Part 1 - ‘The wheel’ shows 50 tasks broken down into discipline, ready to check off once completed. Part 2 - ‘The timeline’, delivering a 6 month strategy plan to help even the newest of Noobs get going in the right direction.

Wheels and timelines a bit scary? For the cost of a tweet download a comprehensive 62 page guide. There's also a handy online guide from creator Oli Gardner, Co-Founder of unbounce.com

The FWA - What we award

2011-03-22T10:00:00.009Z

After some confusion over the last few years The FWA have laid down a definitive list of ‘What we award’.

Founder, Rob Ford said ‘As the interactive world is evolving, so is FWA and we have put together a page that details exactly what we want people to submit. It includes new directions including the likes of installations.’

So check out the list and get submitting, you never know you too might join the ranks of previous winners to name but a few - North Kingdom, AKQA, Big Spaceship, ‘See what you mean’...

Having fun with 3D

2011-03-21T12:04:00.005Z

We found Chris Labrooy, a UK based 3D artist through Looks like good design. He has some fantastic renders on the site, the Planes are great. Particluary love the type here and here and mini graphics are sweet. Contact Chris at chris@chrislabrooy.com

VW Innovations

2011-03-16T08:57:00.005Z

Another example of augmented reality being put to good use, this time from Volkswagen. Their latest print ad allows you to test drive a car on your iPhone. See the ad and app in action or try it out for yourself.

Happy clients

2011-03-15T10:21:00.005Z

It's great when a client thinks you've done such a good job they give you a case of wine to share with the team!

We've just delivered a rich picture for Wragge & Co - a top UK based Law Firm. It works as a backdrop to help them share their culture and vision across a rapidly growing organisation. The two senior partners used it at firm-wide forums, and we've been training the comms team to use it as an innovative intro to the company. So much better than boring old PowerPoint! It's really interesting to see how quickly a rich picture frees people up to tell more engaging and human stories about an organisation.

ifttt

2011-02-01T13:54:00.003Z

ifttt (shorthand for "if this then that") is a new service that simplifies and consolidates the way online tools can be connected.

"By providing a simple logical structure, if this then that, along with two fundamental properties that fit into that structure, called triggers and actions, ifttt enables anyone to be creative in their digital environments"

I have been playing around with the beta today (currently invite only) and really enjoy the simple way it works. So far I have set up 1 task, when I upload an image to tumblr a tweet is automatically sent to my twitter. This is merely scratching the surface of what is possible, you can see further examples on the ifthisthenthat ideas tumblr. With services such as facebook, twitter, flickr, rss etc there are many possible connections to be made.

It's early days, but ifttt has great potential.

Agent 008 Ball

2011-01-31T15:35:00.003Z

Agent 008 ball is a great example of what is possible in today's web browsers. The game is built not using flash or silverlight but some javascript and html5. Gorgeous graphics are backed up by a James Bond-esque premise that adds to the overall experience.

It is also worth reading how the game was created on the nerdplusart.com blog

Bankers’ Bonuses. Good or evil?

2011-01-24T10:57:00.008Z

Show us what you think.

Remember those sticker books you had as a kid?
Well, download this Bankers' Bonus rich picture (3Mb)
Take any of these cut-out images in PowerPoint; resize them, duplicate them.. abuse them in any way you want.. to create your own ‘rich picture’. You can add your own images, text ...anything goes!

We’re offering a bottle of champagne for the best one. Send it back to bankers@seewhatyoumean.co.uk and we’ll publish the best ones at the end of Feb 2011.

Visual thinking

2011-01-19T08:55:00.003Z

Great new video from the guys at Xplane – Gamestorming.
All about ways to make organisations think and work more creatively.
A mix of visual thinking, group psychology and action.
Ways to build ideas as a team, based around a common understanding.

Mini vs Monster in 3D!

2011-01-10T12:53:00.008Z

Car manufacturers love to innovate with adventours marketing campaigns, well BMW are ahead of the game with the first Slow-Motion 3D commercial. Using 3D technology pioneered by MIT scientists, the 2 minute spot will pit a monster truck against four Minis. Will the monster truck be able to jump over all four Minis?

Set the air this week the teasers on Mini's YouTube channel are fun to watch. Will it make it? Stay tuned...

For you production geeks. The film was directed by Robert Jitzmark, who employed a crew of 120, including six 3D technologists and scientists who were on hand to calculate the truck's chances, and film with a 21st century 3D rig. The set required 30,000 cubic yards of sand to be imported and the entire shoot from preparation to jump took six days to complete. A mix of stadium lights and special helium-filled balloon lights helped enrich the 3D quality.

Spin London 360!

2011-01-07T14:05:00.006Z

‘See what you mean’ have been enjoying London on the 360 Cities website. An interactive, zoomable 80 GigaPixel image fest, which streams images on demand. Check out the construction detail on the British Museum roof even see people on the London eye! Visit more cool places and spot stuff on the Treasure Hunts. You can find the 360cities Founder Jeffrey Martin answering questions on Quora. Just out of interest he mentions that he shot the London image on a Canon 550D, amazing quality. Image © jeff@360cities.net.

Christmas wallpaper

2010-12-03T12:41:00.005Z

We're starting to feel festive here in the ‘See what you mean’ studio as we had a bit of snow and the mince pies are well stocked, so we figured we better make our devices festive too. Here is a wallpaper for your iPod, iPhone, iPad.

iPhone (320 x 480)

iPhone 4 (640 x 960)

iPad (1024 x 1024)

Branson’s pet ‘Project’ hits the iPad

2010-12-01T12:15:00.011Z

‘See what you mean’ have been busy swiping through Project - Virgin's iPad magazine. This much awaited release had its publishers claiming that it 'will become the future of what we as readers expect from the magazines of tomorrow.'

In general the experience is quite engaging. A mixed bag of video, typography and interaction, some enriching the app others confusing and a bit annoying. It's also easy to get lost in directional swipes *sighs relief at multiple ‘Contents’ buttons*.

Photo quality is stunning and video playback good, although I found myself just looking at pictures and not doing much actual reading. Text is not scalable so sometimes small and lost.

Looking forward to seeing what issue 2 delivers, a promising start that might alienate some audiences with its navigation but excite the rest with deep content.

Mashup Breakdown

2010-11-29T16:15:00.004Z

Mashup breakdown has created an infographic representation of samples used in the new Girl Talk album. The simple interface allows you to see what sample is used in time with the track playing. Also of note is the fact that you can add any missed samples to the wikipedia page and the mashup page will be updated. See the mashup breakdown blog for more information.

Zoomable powerpoint with Pptplex

2010-11-25T10:00:00.000Z

An interesting tool from Microsoft Labs, Pptplex allows you to create zoomable presentations (à la Prezzi). Pptplex enables you to move around your presentation and zoom into slides, this means you can create non-linear presentations and increase flexibility. You can also convert your existing presentations to become zoomable.

Download pptplex from Microsoft Labs, or see it in action on YouTube.

Kinect hacks

2010-11-24T11:22:00.004Z

From gravity simulations to a real time lightsaber, the Kinect hacks are showing great promise.

Kinect is Microsoft's controller-free gaming and entertainment experience for the Xbox, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images.

Hacking the Kinect to work with a pc offers a great amount of possibilities, you can see the sort of applications people are developing on kinecthacks.net

Rich Pictures in Powerpoint with editable images

2010-11-19T10:31:00.008Z

At 'See what you mean' we sometimes get asked to work with PowerPoint. I know… your heart sinks… you’ve probably stopped reading already… But actually you can make visually rich and flexible PowerPoint content - which has the added benefit of being fully editable by the user.

We build up these pictures using multiple, separate PNG images, areas of which can be transparent. This means you can insert pictures over the slide background and move them about, scale them and delete them to get your slide just right.

It’s like having a huge sticker book of visual assets for your stories.

If you’d like to know how to do this just watch this.

The 50 Best Inventions of 2010

2010-11-12T09:28:00.003Z

Time Magazine has put together a list of the 50 best inventions of 2010. The list includes the iPad, sarcasm detection, The Mosquito Laser and many more. See all 50 on the Times website

Devlab research projects

2010-11-01T10:22:00.004Z

From automatic projector calibration, haptic pens and using your body as an input surface. These are just some of the projects from DevLab, a research laboratory within the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Check out the full list of projects on the DevLab website.

Getting iPad Apps to clients - a step closer

2010-10-22T15:45:00.009+01:00

Restrictions on deployment from Apple have made us reluctant to sell our tools on the platform. It’s simple we can't deliver, there's no shop or platform for non-enterprise users outside of the AppStore. But undeterred and with a little help from Jeffrey Sambells, we've taken a step closer. ‘2 click’ download and install via www.

Specifically built for iOS v4 (publically coming this November), you can email a link, click and install our apps direct to your iPad.

We're still bound by developer programme rules (100 devices only, renewal date expiration, must know iPad IDs etc.), but once we automate the process, take it server side, we've only the small issue of App expiry to tackle... We'll keep you posted. O:)

I have PSD

2010-10-22T10:36:00.006+01:00

As a daily Photoshop user it is sometimes hard to let go, if you have ever thought 'ctrl + z' in your head in an attempt to undo something in real life then this video will speak to you. I clearly have PSD.

It's a fun video with a nice stop frame animation feel made by Hyperakt, watch on vimeo.

How to Have an Idea

2010-10-19T10:29:00.004+01:00

Great semi-sort of web comic by Frank Chimero about ideas, creativity, sense and nonsense. Excellent sketch style and some funny points.

iPad Presentations

2010-10-14T16:10:00.004+01:00

We wanted to make the most of touch tablet technology like the iPad so we've built the software to create editable Rich Pictures. Powerful non-linear presentations.

The presentation is based around the 'Rich Picture' an engaging visual solution which summarises all the main issues in one image. You can build presentations using your own content. Import organise and manage images or video using albums your familiar with.

Its such a great presenting and developing platform. Deploying and installing these Apps for our clients is still tricky without having to use the public App store. So come on Apple, help us make this process much easier or customers are crying out for them...

Design Wars

2010-10-14T11:37:00.004+01:00

Last night saw the 1st Design Wars event at Milgi. Design Wars follows on the heels of such events as Cut&Paste but adds a collaborative twist.
'Tag-Teams of multi-disciplined designers will take on a design challenge to illustrate, cut, paste and layout a design in a showcase to flex their design skills to the max'

The event was organised by BurningRed Studio as part of the Cardiff Design Festival 2010 and Ruffstylz from Associated Minds was on hand to keep our ears happy.

I went along to check it out, there was a great turn out and I ended up taking part. Each team was tasked to design some mock album cover art, the artist name, track name and design style were picked at random. Working in shifts of 5 minutes for a total of half an hour proved challenging, but good fun. Our team (dubbed 'falcon force five') somehow made it to the final and went on to win.

A great night and hopefully the start of more similar events. Check out some picutres from the night on Burning Red's flickr

Impactist – Last Heist EP

2010-09-30T11:57:00.004+01:00

Impactist – Last Heist EP is a new album from the Portland duo. They also created 4 short animations for each of the tracks.

Spheremetrical (Here With You)
The Magical Number Seven
Micrhomage (Community)
Looking For You

It's Nice That Issue #4

2010-09-28T12:43:00.002+01:00

It's nice that is a bi-annually printed publication, 1 October 2010 sees the launch of launch of It's Nice That Issue #4. We have and cherish the previous issues of the magazine here in the studio, so we cant wait to get our hands on issue #4. Also if you order before midnight on the 30th September you bag yourself a James Jarvis print.

Order your copy on their shop

'Where good ideas come from' by Steven Johnson

2010-09-27T14:21:00.002+01:00

The RSA Animate series of videos are always worth watching and 'Where good ideas come from' is no exception. Also worth checking out some of the previous videos on the RSA blog

2010-09-24T15:56:00.003+01:00

Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch IDEO’s vision for the future of the book. What new experiences might be created by linking diverse discussions, what additional value could be created by connected readers to one another, and what innovative ways we might use to tell our favorite stories and build community around books?

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting

2010-09-20T17:45:00.012+01:00

A really interesting use of the iPad, Light painting from Dentsu London, explores playful uses of the platform. Lovely music from Matt Brown (nice post about the designing the audio here).

Great to see how the platform is beginning to evolve as people pick up different challenges and explore new uses. Cool stuff.

Minimal Folio app

2010-09-16T10:11:00.004+01:00

We just download Minimal Folio, a simple way to present images and video on your iPad. It really is simple and works really well, reminiscent of the wired app in terms of navigation. You add images and video to create a portfolio of your work, and with its unbranded interface your work can do the talking.

Our only gripe is the lack of ability to create multiple portfolios, although there are plans to add more features such as external display support, remote control via iPhone PDF support and dropbox support, so hopefully multiple folios will get added in the future.

Canon 550D - An exercise in grading

2010-09-10T16:54:00.007+01:00

‘See what you mean’ are loving filming with the Canon 550D. We've been playing with grading (using Magic Bullet looks, particles in After Effects and 50fps slow mo). Let us know what you think.

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization

2010-09-07T15:36:00.002+01:00

David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.

2010-09-06T11:27:00.002+01:00

What better way to start the week than with a new wallpaper for your iPad/iPhone, download below.

iPhone (320 x 480)

iPhone 4 (640 x 960)

iPad (1024 x 1024)

Arcade Fire - The Wilderness Downtown

2010-09-01T16:00:00.004+01:00

Arcade Fire's latest track 'The Wilderness Downtown' employs an interesting interactive technique. Personalisation of location through a clever blend of api's. Really brings the visual experience a little closer to the viewers heart. Also like the clever window popups, quite unqiue. Check it out. A part of the Chrome Experiments.

Learning a speech

2010-08-26T14:11:00.009+01:00

Actors are great at this. But what about the rest of us?

Our day job at SWYM is using Rich Pictures to tell stories in a more memorable and compelling way. So I wondered if we could adapt our visual approach to help learn a speech. Many great memorisers talk of using ‘visual systems’. Mnemonics uses a memorable phrase to prompt first letters. For example ‘Richard of York gave battle in vain’ – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – the colours of the spectrum. Seems Newton shared our own penchant for the cerise end of the spectrum. Would a mental image help fix the structure and content of a speech in the mind?

Try it. I’ve taken Martin Luther King’s famous final speech, ‘the Promised Land’, recorded the day before he was murdered. There’s a 60 second video here. It reveals this infographic in time to the original recording. And the full typescript is below.

Watch it a couple of times. You’ll see the structure and repetition of themes – ‘I, me’ and ‘the mountain’. Note the nuances in the script. Then try reciting it with just the infographic infront of you.

I’d love to know what you think. Does it help? Do you think you can learn it more easily?

‘The promised land’
We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it doesn't matter with me now.
Because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.
Martin Luther King, April 3rd 1968.

iPad Presentations are good to go

2010-08-24T10:00:00.015+01:00

Discovering more and more B2B potential for the iPad ‘See what you mean’ are developing bespoke presentations on the platform.

Great for impromptu meetings, in receptions, at conferences, travelling... ‘on’ in an instant – and looks so cool. Like to know more, drop us an email info@seewhatyoumean.co.uk

Coalition of the Willing (update)

2010-08-11T12:56:00.006+01:00

We posted about the Coalition of the Willing project back in May. The video is now finished and well worth a watch. The mix of style creates a visual feast and flows well from style to style. Watch Coalition of the Willing.

Free wallpaper for iPad & iPhone

2010-08-06T10:15:00.002+01:00

Who doesn't love free stuff, right? With that in mind I have created a wallpaper for your iPad or iPhone, download links below. More next week,enjoy.

iPhone (320 x 480)

iPhone 4 (640 x 960)

iPad (1024 x 1024)

Repeating Patterns

2010-08-04T10:14:00.004+01:00

Repeat-x repeat-y is a great new site that showcases repeating patterns from designers & illustrators. The site has over 200 patterns and now features one from 'See what you mean'. Ideal for twitter or website backgrounds, the site is also open to submissions, so get pattern making.

Street Slide - a new level

2010-08-03T10:05:00.007+01:00

Fresh from Microsoft Research comes Street Slide. In Addition to the panoramic 'bubbles' we're familiar with, Street Slide offers a 'step back', almost curb side view.

Skim along a flat panorama of an entire street like looking out the window of a car. Scanning buidling facias and locating destinations is made easy. Blows the annoying zoom along hot spots in Google street view out the water, the U turn flip is also a cool touch. Seems to be a logo fest for advertising, but definitely check out the video.

The Panic status board

2010-07-28T10:12:00.004+01:00

Panic make software for the mac, good software, and their blog is interesting too. One of the posts that caught my eye is their custom status board. Like many studios keeping track on projects and who's working on what is of high importance. Many off the shelf solutions don't quite fit, so if your Panic you create your own solution. Full info on the spec can be found in the blog post, but it's the simplicity that wins me over, to instantly be able to see who's working on what is a massive boon.

2010 US military budget visualization

2010-07-20T10:57:00.005+01:00

Paris based design, direction & motion graphics studio, Moustache delivers a CG data visualization piece to illustrate the 2010 US military budget. Simple concept that helps to visualise the large numbers of the US military budget. Worth checking out the rest of the Moustache site too.

iPad app distribution for SMEs

2010-07-09T16:00:00.002+01:00

‘See what you mean’ has a problem, great B2B iPad content -
no way to deliver it internally!

The problem
1. Only 2 levels for commercial development - Standard & Enterprise
2. Standard - distribute through public App store or install 1 device at a time (up to 99)
3. Enterprise - ability to create apps to be distributed on an internal App stores but you need to be 500+ employees to join to program.

So as you can see there's a real barrier here for smaller teams of developers. We can't use the public app store, our clients content is way to sensitive and for a controlled audience. and there's no way we can install adhoc 1 device at a time... We can't expect our clients to sign up for enterprise and administer it on our behalf, some just aren’t large enough. We need to think about an alternative solution and fast. There are third party App stores out there (mostly for Enterprise Apps), but could we guarantee safety and security? Probably not...

The possibilities
1. A downloader App - Pros: Works like an App store, displays authorised content per user login. Cons: Getting any downloading app through the App store will face tough scrutiny by Apple
2. Web Apps - Pros: HTML/Java based, no App store requirement, shortcuts saved to home screen. Cons: requires 3G/wifi www connection to download content, no caching on i-devices.
3. Partner with Education - Sign up for a University Program... possibly percieved as not v. professional?

I’m sure we’ll get there, any thoughts welcome, we'll keep you posted
of our progress.

DanseDance

2010-07-08T10:11:00.005+01:00

DanseDance is an interactive film where each object is assigned to a letter on the keyboard, and can be activated or deactivated at any time. The film was directed by Julien Valléem & Nicolas Burrows he has posted a 'making of' video on www.jvallee.com. Great to see simple techniques being used to create something so complex.

The Clock Clock

2010-07-07T13:37:00.015+01:00

The 'Clock Clock' from 'Humans Since 1982' a highlight of the 'Connectors' exhibit in the Phillips de Pury Gallery in the Saatchi Gallery, really stood out for us on our recent trip to London (see post). Check out their website and if you have a chance I highly recommend you visit it in real life, the Saatchi gallery is free entry and they're happy for you to take pics/videos. Copyright © Humans since 1982, Saatchi Gallery.

Immersive iPad Presentations

2010-07-02T15:04:00.008+01:00

'See what you mean' are now producing interactive presentations for the iPad and iPhone 4. Porting our skills and knowledge at creating engaging Rich Pictures to this exciting new platform, we're discovering that the iPad is perfect for creating quick, immersive business to business tools on the go. Combined with the Apple VGA Connector, easily hook your iPad or iPhone to a tv or projector for a powerful 'Presentation in your pocket'. All built in Objective C, no Flash conversions so takes full advantage of the OpenGL video capability and APIs. To find out more email info@seewhatyoumean.co.uk

Finding inspiration

2010-06-28T15:53:00.018+01:00

Thursday 24th saw the start of the annual D&AD New blood, so ‘See what you mean’ hopped on a train and went to London for a few days. The D&AD showcases the best final year graduates, this year it was housed in the Old Truman Brewery. Always inspiring to see the latest work from students, and this year was no different.

We also went to see the Magnificent Maps exhibition in the British Library. There is plenty to keep cartography fans interested and many of the maps have excellent illustrative elements. Read more about the exhibition on the British library site.
On then to the Saatchi gallery, the gallery houses an impressive collection of contemporary art work from largely unseen young artists or international artists whose work has not been exhibited in the UK. A fantastic space and worth a visit if you have never been.
After the art we went to the sobering Imperial War Museum which is home to an impressive collection of war memorabilia.
We finished the day off by joining the monthly Critical Mass cycle as they stopped to party in the street. Fixies everywhere!

A very inspiring trip, lots to take in and digest. Of course we all had a cameras/iphones, see what pics we took and find some inspiration too.

My Phone is off for you

2010-06-23T12:28:00.005+01:00

"We may be sitting at the same table, but we are not together: a common condition of our over-wired world. It is time to question what truly nurtures the human spirit. MY PHONE IS OFF FOR YOU is a revolution; a series of tools designed to help engage in the present moment and spread this idea!"

The project includes some tools to help you such as stickers, stamps and a cloth that blocks your phone signal. With the launch of the new iPhone4 tomorrow maybe it's time to turn off (from time to time). Visit the
website for more info.

Public Sector Pensions

2010-06-21T09:40:00.004+01:00

Lots of discussion in the press at the moment about public sector pensions. Here's a zoomable infographic we produced to illustrate the lack of balance between the public and private sphere. The financial value of the promises made to the public sector are quite remarkable.

Pilot Handwriting

2010-06-17T10:58:00.005+01:00

Pilot have made a cool online app that captures your handwriting and turns it into a font. You have to print out a sheet, draw some letters, then capture it via webcam/scanner/camera. It works really well (tip: draw your letters nice and big). Once captured you can send a hand written email or post hand written notes to facebook.
Go make you own font on pilothandwriting.com

Augmented Reality Gift Cards

2010-06-16T15:38:00.004+01:00

The latest gift card from Home Depot allows you to attach a personal video for the receiver to watch. The card purchaser attaches the video and then the receiver can watch the video online through augmented reality. Check out a video of it in action on youtube and more info here

The iPad & Business - 1. Keynote

2010-06-08T11:00:00.014+01:00

‘See what you mean’ have heard a few clients say 'I didn't think you could do worky stuff on the iPad?'. Although we're well under way developing for the platform we thought we'd share some 'how to's' using off the shelf products. First up Keynote. Available from the AppStore for £5.99. Take a look at the tutorial and you'll be up and running with a presentation in no time.