inspire:blog

Mood board heaven

Nick — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:32:29 +0000

No sooner than we talked about the need to create an online mood board app than along cam Pinterest. A doddle to use and very addictive and of course super useful.

Sign in with twitter, create pin boards, pin images from web pages (unfortunately not from Google Reader) upload images and follow other users.

Still got 4 invites left so add your name to the comments if you want one.

John Wilkes Riflemaker

Nick — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:29:23 +0000

A lifetime ago we used to stand outside the Sun and 13 Cantons on Beak Street and lust after this shop. Always loved the colour and the signwriting.

Now a gallery it’s got it’s own website www.riflemaker.org and is available for hire.

Setting up shop – online

Nick — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:49:14 +0000

If you’re thinking about setting up an ecommerce or mail order shop, or even adding ecommerce functionality to your website you need to be aware of UK distance selling and e-commerce regulations.

Here’s a link from Out-law.com to help in writing those all important terms & conditions. Also much more useful ecommerce set up information on the site.

Rapha Cycle Club

Nick — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:41:36 +0000

A good piece about the Rapha Cycle Club café from Noisy Decent Graphics.

Also worth looking at his flickr group of the café. The Rapha website’s not too shabby either and a nice video on Monocle.

These days there’s no reason not to have a shop, a pop up shop, a twitter, a facebook page, a van, go to festivals, write a book, a photo essay, a magazine, have a loyalty card, a website, a microsite, a tumblr, a flavors.me, print a t-shirt the list goes on. Brands that market themselves as authentic and have an idea win. Those that buy off the shelf and stick their logo on, fail.

Update: just came across another piece about Rapha here on everydaylife.style loads more to explore on there too.

Brands on Twitter

Nick — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:04:00 +0000

Doesn’t seem much real life interaction between customers and brands via Twitter over here (UK). Over there (US) of course it’s done better.

The Mid-Century Modernist

Nick — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:00:17 +0000

We really like this redesign of The Mid-Century Modernist, especially how the gallery is done, pulling in and displaying ebay auctions. All done in WordPress.

Originally spotted (I think) from Erik Spiekermann’s twitter.

The Future of Retail by PSFK

Nick — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:00:06 +0000

You can flick through the Future of Retail or get a download here.

Well worth a look.

New New York Subway Map

Nick — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:57:07 +0000

From the New York Times a look at a new version of the NY Subway map. Interesting to look at the older versions although I have to agree with Erik Spiekermann, “Maps that use diagonal type are designed by amateurs”.

The full thing on the NY Times.

As always there’s an alternative, the Kick Map

Made up

Nick — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:35:54 +0000

Just spotted made.com, a new furniture website and to make it even better for a new visitor there’s a pop up money off voucher. Nice idea.

Originally spotted (and more info) on the very fine Design Milk.

New Greggs Prototype Store

Nick — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:16:47 +0000

Just put up a post about the new Greggs Prototype store. It’s a move on for Greggs, fundamentally still the value proposition but in a more contemporary store.

One of the key features is the lighting scheme which uses 100% LED lighting and is the first store in Europe to do so. This halves the energy consumption for the lighting.

More info and pictures on our main website.