Open Studios is on the horizon - Join us at Havelock Walk soon!
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Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards
Last night we attended a glittering, entertaining, and informative evening in central London for the 'Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards'. The awards 'celebrate awesomeness in data visualisation around the world'.
Beep Studio has long been friends with author David McCandless, and contributed graphics (including images of viruses and dictators moustaches) to his bestselling book 'Information is Beautiful'. Since then the IIB empire has grown, with a website, a sequel, TED talks, posters, and masterclasses in data visualisation. We're thrilled to be collaborating with such a forward thinking group, and had a thrilling evening among talented folk.
Moritz Stefaner all agog at receiving his award for 'outstanding individual'.
The evening showcased a range of truly jaw dropping, mind expanding work, including this small selection:
'The network behind the cosmic web' by Kim Albrecht
Twinkling gorgeousness at shipmap.org by Kiln Digital
'Spies in the Skies' by BuzzFeed News - tracking surveillance drones in US cities
Project UKKO by Moritz Stafaner - seasonal wind predictions for the global energy sector
Hauntingly beautiful maps of income inequality by Herwig Scherabon
Read more about the awards and all the nominees here
Future Fest 2016
Beep Studio were lucky enough to be invited to FutureFest, a weekend of talks, experiences and debates about the future, run by the UK innovation foundation Nesta
The weekend kicked off with a keynote speech from author Will Self, who provided good value as always. Anecdotes about life in and around the city were enlivened by a brisk flow of ideas delivered with the 'keep up!' attitude of a cane-weilding professor. Jokes and provocations spiced things up, and nuggets of obscure vocabulary kept the audience off balance. A great start to the day.
The Future of Computer Gaming panel was encumbered somewhat by its title. Where ‘Electricity’ and 'Internet' would once have been commented on as novel features, these are now taken so much for granted that we only notice them by their absence. We don't ask 'Do you have the internet’ but ‘What’s your password?’. Similarly, the word ‘Computer' is fast becoming redundant. 'The Future of Gaming' might have been a little wider, but might also perhaps have thrown up some juicier tidbits.
Also of note, the panellists were selected from within game culture. As shown by car design, where whizzy designers have their whizzy tastes indulged to tedious effect, it's hard to innovate when you're deeply embedded in a culture. Perhaps for this reason, much of the discussion revolved around technological novelty rather than the wider socio-cultural impact that is just around the corner.
It's far easier to innovate from outside. A position of blissful ignorance giving you the freedom to state the obvious and make silly mistakes.
Games rely partly on technological innovation, but at their core are abstract concepts that are irreducible, appealing, and can be translated into many different media and mechanisms.
So - what are the questions we should be asking? Looking at the games which have had the widest cultural impact Cultural impact vs. great games
Can washing up ge ramified? Can our lives be improved by game thinking?
Pokemon was dismissed as laughably old hat as a demonstration of Augmented Reality gaming - however the critics the key point of pokemon is its social impact.Thelabel and medium are les interesting , less significant than the fact that as a game it gets groups of people interrelating in the real world.
What are the games that will engage a new audience? What is this audience?
The really difficult thing with games is explaining what makes them exciting
Women in work
Childcare
Big business model comes from the starting point of the nuclear family - father working, mother at home. Not set up for modern parents. Beep tudio is unusual in haven been set up to accommodate children.
Construction after de-skilling, de risking has meant that the heavy lifting jobs requiring a phalanx of burly blokes is no longer appliccablil.
There is still a culture of burly beer drinking blokes, but thos is changing faster than one migexpect.
For example, robotically control requires skill, not brawn. Suggests the construction industry will be more accessible to a wider set of people, irrespective of physical strength.
Caroline Lucas and Jay Weatherill, Premier of South Australia.
Weatherill spoke passionately about changes wrought in Australia by mobilising communities. By contrast, Caroline Lucas' passions were directed at the political status quo in the UK, and her as yet unrealised hopes for change.
Havelock Walk Open Studios 2016
This year's Open Studios were the best yet, with a great turnout and sunny weather both weekends. Over the course of the weekend we showed our wares, and had a string of interesting conversations with people from the local area. The day played out to a warming background of live music and barbecued food.
At the end of the day we brought out the 'Tuber' installation - and the kids piled on!
We noticed how the children knew instinctively how to play with the installation - by jumping on it, crawling on it, lying on it, and then manipulating it - tying it in knots, or interweaving strands.
Lionbeat Logo
Beep Studio works with companies to produce simple, strikingly memorable, and highly relevant branding, such as the logo for production company Lionbeat LTD.
The work of production company ‘Lionbeat’ spans music, culture and media, so they asked for a logo that was versatile enough to work in multiple contexts. This meant the design had to be simple, memorable, and meaningful.
Reference images: The Lion of Judah, Star of David, and Djembe
After preparatory research, Beep Studio led an ideation session at Lionbeat HQ, where thoughts were shared, ideas were blended, and concepts were sketched and refined.
Developmental sketches
The finished logo contains symbols associated with Dub Reggae culture; the Lion of Judah and its crown, the Djembe drum, and the Star of David. These have been combined and abstracted into a distinctive image that fits the crisp Lionbeat aesthetic.
The three-word company motto and recurring 'Trinity' concept are referred to in the triangular motifs of the lion's mane, which carry through into the logotype.
The design continues a relationship with Lionbeat which stretches back to the Tangled Roots stage at Boomtown Festival 2014. We look forward to joining the team on the next steps of their journey.
www.lionbeat.com
Research - Development - Gumption
