You’re Hired

Posted on 9 Mar by Origin Creative

After months of searching high and low, Origin are pleased to announced that the wobbly spare desk in the corner of the creative department now has a permanent resident. We’d like to welcome our newest designer who (for reasons only known to himself) likes to go by the alias Littlemark.

Mark joins us from Access, where he was a designer, animator, photographer and current champion in the How-Long-Can-You-Wear-A-Pair-Of-Converse-All-Stars-Before-They-Get-So-Trashed-That-They-Actually-Fall-Off-Your-Feet competition.

First job on his list… fix that wobbly desk.

Thanks to all other applicants for the position. Please keep in touch because Origin is a growing business and there are sure to be other vacancies opening soon.

 

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Robo-Cop meets Robo-Cheetah

Posted on 8 Mar by Dan Jardine

 

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about new, scary robotics…

I’ve just come across a new world record that has been achieved by… a robot! Dubbed the Robo-Cheetah, this thing doesn’t run but gallops, and is eerily as competent as its natural counterpart.

Robo-Cheetah, developed by Boston Dynamics (DARP), can perform at speeds of up to 18mph, making it the fastest robot on four legs.

“The robot increases its stride and running speed by flexing and un-flexing its back on each step, much as an actual cheetah does…”

Robo-Cheetah has, so far, only been clocked running on a treadmill, in the comfort and safety of a lab. It’s powered by a hydraulic pump, and uses a boom-like device to keep it running in the centre of the treadmill.

An actual free-running prototype will be tested later this year.

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A great pair of shorts

Posted on 7 Mar by Mark Holland

A few weeks ago I went to the Cornerhouse to cast my vote in the British Animation Awards’ public choice category. The nominations were (mostly) very impressive. I wanted to post a few of the nominations here, but most seem to be under lock and key and not available online. You’ll have to take my word that a small man who lives inside a domestic cat and uses the ‘back door’ to get in and out is a very good plot for a short film.

Here’s one of the stand-outs that I did manage to find that’s well worth a watch:
 

 
And, whilst we’re on the subject, here’s a bonus track for you. It’s a bit old now and you may have seen it already (Ryan Woodward had his work featured on the Google homepage last year), but it’s still one of the best pieces of animation I’ve ever seen:
 

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A new way of looking at the problem

Posted on 6 Mar by John Furnival

There are many people who, when asked about the dangers of cannabis, would reflect on the damage the drug does to the physical and mental health of users. Less frequently considered are the other ‘nasty side effects’, such as the damage that cannabis has on communities and society as a whole.

That’s why Origin is launching a new six-month campaign for Merseyside Police to tackle these issues head-on, using online guerrilla and viral channels to make this message of re-evaluation come to life. It all kicks off with a ‘pop-up shop’, which we’re putting together to take the message to the high street. The use of such innovative media will hopefully prompt people to reconsider cannabis, this so-called ‘harmless’ drug.

One particular focus of the campaign is on cannabis farms that are set up by gangs to help fund activities including people trafficking, prostitution, gun crime, violence and intimidation. If you’re in Merseyside, keep your eyes posted for the campaign – and take the time to consider the real harm that cannabis and other drugs may be having on your neighbourhood.

Posted in Campaign, Creative, Design, Digital, New work, Wayfinding | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

Winning Goal

Posted on 6 Mar by Adrian Pallant


AS we eagerly anticipate the excitement of London 2012 (opening ceremony 27 July), and having seen the Olympic medals designed by David Watkins, I was interested to discover the alternative design approach taken for the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship medals.

Created by Tapio Kettunen, this prize-winning design dynamically represents (and is called) the ‘Winning Goal’, three-dimensionally depicting a hockey puck hitting and almost bursting through the back of the net. It’s a great, minimal design, strikingly different to more traditional approaches, and symbolises team spirit, fighting spirit and comradeship.

More here.

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Solar powered print

Posted on 28 Feb by Matt Finnis

Whilst browsing on this dull grey morning, I found a great annual report for a company called Austria Solar. Clever use of UV reactive inks give this report an extra dimension and tie it in perfectly with the company’s business.

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“What’s the value of checking in?… I want to be mayor!”

Posted on 27 Feb by Dan Jardine

If you’re a regular user of social media, such as Twitter or Foursquare, you’ve undoubtedly been met with sceptical comments along the lines of “Why would I want to tell anyone what I’m having for lunch?” or “Why would I want people to know where I am in the world?”

I have been using Foursquare for around two years, but have recently ‘fallen out of love’ with the game, mainly because of the lack of big interest from other players and also the rather biased view from ‘across the pond’. There didn’t seem to be a big uptake from the UK… I may be wrong.

But I think this has been an important step in social media, and maybe something that can be built on over the coming years as technology continues to develop. Foursquare definitely believes this and has recently realised this new, rather nicely animated video which helps put its services into perspective for people who wonder “Why people bother checking in.”

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DoMore or {Less}

Posted on 24 Feb by The digital team

Style sheet language, which most web designers and developers are familiar with, describes how an HTML document is structured and styled.

The more universally-adopted form of the style sheet is CSS, which is mostly used, above anything else, to style and make your beautifully crafted websites written in HTML look great.

But CSS is not only there to make things look pretty – it plays an important role in the success of the modern browser and applications era of today. However, there are some limitations – CSS stylesheets are becoming longer, more complex, and harder to manage.

This is where the wonderful world of LESS comes in because, with CSS language, we designers and developers can do dynamic things such as coding a property based on a variable, re-using a property value across all the classes, and so on. The standard LESS is written in JavaScript, so you can just include it in your web pages along with your LESS style sheet.

LESS is simply an an extension to CSS with dynamic behaviour such as the following – variables, mixins, operations and functions. This means we can write more complex CSS styles for our dynamic websites with LESS – thus doing ‘more with LESS’, as it were!

Have a look at the LESS site for information on how to implement this, and you can see how it is being used to simplify the tasks of CSS styling. This is definitely a thing to look out for and to start applying.

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Bowling, anyone?… maybe not!

Posted on 21 Feb by The digital team

I know Halloween is several months away, but this great advertising campaign certainly ‘turned my head’ (!). These are specially designed bowling balls, co-created by famous spraygun artist Oliver Paass, which resemble disembodied heads… ewwww!

For more than three weeks, Oliver Paass made detailed 360° layouts which were sprayed onto standard bowling alley balls, and then distributed around several German bowling alleys. Some also referred to the German TV channel, 13th STREET.

Personally I reckon that, although pretty horrific, they certainly succeed in terms of grabbing people’s attention – and the quality of the craftsmanship is just amazing!

Check out the case video below…

More scary images can be found here.

 

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Last of the winter snow

Posted on 20 Feb by James

I came across this nice short piece by photographer and filmmaker Jacob Sutton. It was shot in the Rhône-Alpes region of Tignes, France, starring Artec pro snowboarder William Hughes. The electrifying film sees Hughes light up the snow-covered French hills in a bespoke L.E.D.-enveloped suit.

From what I can gather Sutton spent three nights on a skidoo with his trusty Red Epic camera at temperatures of -25C to snap Hughes carving effortlessly through the deep snow, even enlisting his own father to help maintain the temperamental suit throughout the demanding shoot.

Anyway it made me want to be back in the mountains riding through powder and it’s just nice to see something a little different from the norm.

Posted in Content, Creative, Digital, Moving Image, Social Media, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Web | Tagged , , | Leave a comment