New Domain Names for Ambient Project Web Design Dublin

Ambient Project has just launched two new domain names that are directed to our website. This offers alternative descriptions of what we do making it easier for prospective clients to find us on the web.
http://www.webdesigndublin.org
http://www.affordablewebdesigndublin.com

The Frank Ryan Student Travel Bursary 2009 is now accepting submissions

The Frank Ryan Student Travel Bursary 2009 is now accepting submissions. The closing date for entries is Friday 1 May 2009.
download applicaiton form

About
The Frank Ryan Bursary is a travel bursary that funds a design student (or students) wishing to pursue an international educational opportunity or a design project overseas. It is not a design competition. The Bursary, established by the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI), recognises Frank Ryan’s contribution to design education and is an IDI commitment to celebrating excellence and exploration among emerging designers in Ireland. The picture above is of the IDI President Barry Sheehan congratulating Colm Keller, last years winner, at the Gala Award Bursary Dinner in Dublin Castle. Read more about last years winner and the Awards dinner: http://www.idi-design.com/news/fr_dinner_08b.htm

Award
A single award of up to €5,000 will be made annually.

Eligibility of Applicants
The bursary will be awarded to a full-time design student of demonstrable ability who wishes to participate in an approved international educational programme, attend an international design event, or develop an agreed course-related project that requires overseas travel.

For more information visit the IDI website: http://www.idi-design.ie/students/frb.html

Interior of the…last few months!

Well we know it’s supposed to be a weekly feature, but we’ve been totally slack in posting our favourite interiors! This place is a cute little frozen yogurt shop (we do seem to like the little places!) SNOG who’ve just opened a second store in London. The graphics and website work really well to, the whole package is really tight!

SNOG exterior

Words from a member of the design team Cinimod Studio;

” Cinimod Studio developed a store design concept aimed at evoking the feeling of a perfect never-ending summer. The interior is deliberately quirky, with a photographic grass floor and a ‘digital sky’ which adjusts the mood of the store perpetually throughout the day and evenings. The bright pink brand colour forms the backdrop to the store.

For the exterior a new fascia signage panel has been designed which features an array of vertical slats of pink acrylic, and has already been hailed as an instant ‘design classic’. Beyond this sign the facade is kept simple, with seamless glazing allowing full views into the store and its sky.

The primary interior surfaces are all of standard architectural finishes that have been ‘tweaked’ to perform new design functions. The seamlessly printed ‘grass’ floor is a commercial first, as is the digital ceiling with its fully integrated services. For the white glass walls ICO Design has created a graphic interpretation of British flowers. At ground level, the ‘Shitake’ stools from Moroso, designed by Marcel Wanders, work with the bespoke marble tables with their turned wood bases to create a contemporary and relaxed take on garden furniture, suitable for our ‘captured’ summer environment.

SNOG is the first store to feature a fully digital ceiling, which has been seamlessly inserted as a key element within the design. Over 3,000 individually controllable LEDs have been deployed behind a Barrisol stretched plastic ceiling in order to create a bright light box video surface.Digitally captured and manipulated clouds move gently across the store, with their colour and speed determined by the time of day.

SNOG interior

Even newer SNOG store

Go to ifancyasnog.com to see further design elements

Maser ‘HEART’ U

The following is a post on the wonderful http://irishstreetart.com/ about Maser, who we recently had the pleasure or watching him talk through his work, life and ambitions at last Autumns Sweettalk in the Sugar Club.

“Irishstreetart.com has been a fan of Maser’s work for the past few years from his pieces at Lecky Picky to his regular installments at the Bernard Shaw.

Maser is a Dublin based graffiti artist and has been painting for over ten years in the Irish/International Graffiti scene, painting in such places as, New York, Copenhagen, London, Holland, Belgium, Spain and Sweden. He began studying fine art and continued on to Graduate with distinction in a BA in Design Communication (graphic design). From that he was Awarded Membership of the International Society of Typographic Designers, MISTD.

Within the last 2 years Maser has focused more on his painting/street art and has high ambitions to promote the positive aspects of the graffiti culture to the Irish society. Maser is a member of the TDA Klann and FOES Crew. The TDA Klann is Ireland’s premier graffiti crew, widely known for their unique and innovative style of writing. They have been running Ireland’s only outdoor graffiti festival since 1993 and fronting a movement of emerging talent.”

So as Dublin’s most prolific graffiti artist he is everywhere. His Maser loves U logo has dominated certain streets in the city for years so keep an eye out in a neighbourhood near you.

…beaverbear’s first adventure!

beaverbear @ Dublin Flea

Even more good news from everyone at eep!design. We are delighted that our badge making side venture beaverbear is due to take part in an upcoming flea market in Dublin. Have a look on beaverbear blog http://beaverbear.wordpress.com to see the full details and if you’re interested in buying some badges

…And hopefully we’ll see you there!!

We are celebrating 5001 visitors to our blog!

The futures looking bright with Ambient Project

Theres a new sherif in town; ambient project launched last year, a forward thinking and friendly web design, graphics and brand identity studio. They bounded onto the scene last Autumn designing and developing the highly acclaimed website for Design Week 2008.

In their own words:

“At ambient project we are committed to building the website you want. We talk to our clients on a one to one basis. We like to keep things simple from start to finish making our customer comfortable and happy. Being an Irish business we have a personal interest in our country and are dedicated to facilitate local businesses and organisations in making a great impression on-line, both nationally and internationally.”

Its clear that ambient project knows that all businesses, including salons, restaurants, bars & take-aways greatly benefit from a bespoke branded online presence: Customers always have 24/7 access to up to date menus,  special offers, events, phone numbers and hours of operation.

To find out more about how they can update or design a site to help you reach more customers visit them on-line at http://www.ambientproject.com

Alternatively fill out their handy questionnaire for a tailor made quote: http://www.ambientproject.com/quote.html

Congratulations to our penguin, eep jr., who had 2 chicks in the new year!

Congratulations to eep Jr. whos flying our flag proud in Sourthern Chile. Above is a picture of eep Jr. and his two new chicks exploring the world outside their burrow. It is astonishing to think that just a few weeks ago they were not much bigger than a hen’s egg. When the chicks first hatched they were completely helpless. Their eyes were open, but they were unable to walk, and relied on Eep Jr. for everything, even body warmth. They were born with very thin feathers, called ‘protoptile plumage’, because at that stage in their growth the feathers must not insulate their bodies, because the chicks need the warmth from eep Jr. to pass through their feathers easily to keep them warm.

So now they are out and about and starting thier adventures in the world. Go eep!

EVERYTHING YOU LOVE TO HATE™

Watch out Matrix….heres a fantasticly quirky new advertisement for Toshiba 'Leading Innovation' campagin.

Louise Carey crashes onto the scene!

Ali’s sister Louise, who has just started her adventure in the National College of Art & Design, has already been attracting some attention to her work with this wonderful maiden video montage. Put together from an assortment of still photographs, combined with a upbeat sample of music, it has great tempo and creatively includes the Monopoly scotty on a jaunt around inner city Dublin. We’re really proud of the standard of work she’s already churning out, and look forward to posting more in the future

Design Week 2008 website is launched!

Launched today: the Design Week 2008 website was designed by myself, Austin Maguire from eep!design and Brian Newman from Lambay Web Studios collaborating as ‘An Ambient Project’ http://www.ambientproject.com. This very unusual site heralds the approach of Design Week 2008, the biggest and best yet, from November 3rd to 8th. the site features a very unique and original moving video as the background to regular html. We had a week to do it so tonight we’re heading off to the IDI Awards to celebrate our hard work with lots of complimentary Bombay Sapphire, the very generous sponsors of the event.

check out the site here: http://www.designweek.ie

Field of Light @ The Eden Project

We imagine this installation would be fairly trippy to see in the right situation! A really beautiful and organic use of light by Bruno Munro, it has been previously shown at the V&A and is now going to be exhibited on the roof of The Eden Project from this November through to spring 2009. As it’s best viewed in hours of darkness, Field of Light will be in place through the Winter Season when Eden transforms into a winter wonderland- with a Christmas market and ice-skating, curling, roasted chestnuts, mulled wine, hot chocolate and choirs. The Eden Project itself really is such an exiting venture, which really hope to visit in the future. A project which concentrates on educating people about the benefits of sustainability and nature on a whole should be given its due as it has been around long before the rest of the world woke up to the impending climate crisis. The use of a more sustainable light within Munro’s installation, allows it not only to have an organic, naturalistic aesthetic, but to emphasize that its use of energy is minimised also. It is made of acrylic tubes, through which fibre optic cables run, each topped by an acrylic ball. There is an external projector, and so the stems themselves hold no electric power at all.

To see more of Munro’s work, or to look into visiting The Eden Project go to:

www.brucemunro.co.uk

www.edenproject.com

Review// ‘Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture’ by Jennifer Hudson

Glossy product design books usually relegate details like ideation sketches, prototypes, parting lines, and injection molds to a supporting role, but Jennifer Hudson’s Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture puts them front and center. Highlighting projects from both up-and-coming designers and design luminaries, Process showcases the hours of effort that disappear behind the scenes and are rarely seen by the consumer. Fifty products are each given about a page of explanatory text and are supported by three or four pages of photographs of early prototyping work. Everything from sculptural vases to functional electronics is shown from its birth as an idea to its eventual manufacture. Process reveals all of the details of industrial design that graphic designers (or book editors) might find a bit dull and it shines because of it.

Irish Design Week 2008

Well it’s that time of year again and Design Week 08 is nearly with us. With the huge success of 07 this year is shaping up to be the biggest yet.

This year Design week is being held throughout Ireland from the 3rd to 8th of November, its a fun celebration of Irish and International Design. Its main purpose is to highlight the important contribution of good design both on a professional and academic level, and to get you all out there talking, debating and having fun.

There will be a week of fantastic events enough to satisfy the hunger of the most ardent design enthusiast from any age or background. Go to http://www.designweek.ie for more details

IT Carlow and the Design Ireland Skillnet: Certificate in Sustainable Design Innovation: call for entries

IT Carlow and the Design Ireland Skillnet has developed a certificate in Sustainable Design. Primarily this course aims to up skill practicing design professionals in the area of Sustainable Design Practice (SDP).

Likely students on this programme would typically be designers, design managers, marketing managers and other business managers with responsibility for new product development (NPD), company strategy and design. Those interested in developing capacity in sustainable design and innovation as a business opportunity would also benefit from this programme.

For a pdf of entry requirements and more information go to: http://www.idi-design.ie/downloads/events/cert_sustainable_design.pdf or contact Design Ireland directly http://www.designireland.ie/home.htm

Do You Matter? How great design will make people love your company

from core77.com

Do You Matter? How great design will make people love your company certainly isn’t afraid to demand attention. All of the details — bright orange cover, too-tall proportions, monster san-serif titles, limited color-palate, grid-adherence so obsessive that even the cover format is the same as the pages within — just scream “I’ve been overdesigned to look simple!” Combined with the existentially accusatory title, it certainly succeeds in demanding audience participation, but it’s a book, not a graphic design experiment, and for it to matter to the audience, it needs to keep the reader’s attention too.

Robert Brunner, an industrial designer for some of Apple’s most iconic products, and Stewart Emery, author of Success Built to Last, pose a deceptively simple question: Do you (as a company) matter (to your customers)? Perhaps a more intuitive phrasing of their titular interrogative might be, “If you were gone tomorrow, would your customers miss you?” That’s nothing new in business circles. It’s just a retelling of product differentiation, a mainstay of marketing and competitive landscape analysis. The added value here is in the subtitle: “How great design will make people love your company,” and Brunner and Emery are here to explain the role design can play in the competitive arena. The book is targeted at corporate America rather than designers, so Core77’s readership ought to be familiar with the design side of the material. That said, design and business overlap, so while designers might benefit from the business side more than they might care to admit, the real benefit would come if a few more middle managers read material like this.

Honest opinions @ ridiculousdesignrules.com

 

Ridiculous Design Rules offers a place to post conceited sound bites about design that you’ve heard from work mates, clients or anyone else who thinks they know more than you! Sounds like an instant hit to vent our gripes eh!

Their premise stated on the site is;

” Like it or love it, we all have rules that help us at work. ”Leave it until the last minute.” “Never use a PC.” They make sense because they work for you, and you alone. When you try and make someone else follow them, they stop working and become a joke. The problem is that every rule related to, or governing, design is ultimately ridiculous. “

Our old friend Phillippe Stark is the ‘lucky’ winner of last week’s poll on the site to find the most ridiculous figure featured. Unsurprisingly Starck beat off stiff competition from Bill Bland, Plato etc. to be crowned ‘The Most Ridiculous’ with a majority of 58%.

This week’s poll questions which is the most ridiculous building The Eiffel Tower, The Gherkin, The Bayterek Tower, or The Endless Column - Go on, vent away, cast your votes here.

Greenaid – Explosive environmentalism!

 

We came across this nicely designed reusable shopping bag and holder on Core77 this week, and felt it was worth post. There have been many different reusable shopping bags floating around for some time now, especially in Ireland where we are charged for plastic bags in an effort to make us more environmentally friendly. What we like about this solution in particular, is that it’s compact and the holder material is not only a quirky design but also in a durable Neoprene material, allowing it to be roughed up a bit. You can also stuff the bag back in after use and it will keep its fun aesthetically appealing shape. And of course the shape allows them to also cleverly brand it as the Greenaid, hoho If anything it will hopefully encourage us to bring the reusable bag to the shops on the next trip!

If you’re interested in seeing more designs by Lovegrove & Repucci go to:

http://www.lovegroverepucci.com/index.htm

10 successful logo redesigns

When a logo is used for a number of years, the brand awareness that is amassed can prove a valuable tool in the marketing arsenal of large corporations. With that in mind, logo re-designs often implement subtle changes to refresh the look whilst considering customer recognition.

This blog post features 10 successful logo redesigns, as shown on the Brand New website, and highlights specific rationale I agree with.

1. Toys R Us

The star has been stuffed into the engorged R in order to make a tight and simple(r) wordmark which is less patriotic, more bulbous and more fun.
Joe Marianek

The US could have been just a tad closer to the R to keep the same spacing throughout.
Armin Vit

2. MSNBC

A New Wave Clothes Rack by Lincoln Kayiwa

Helsinki-based designer Lincoln Kayiwa has reinterpreted the clothes rack with DINO, a skeletal and modular approach to hanging up jackets. Arguably the sculptural wave patterns created by the varying coat hanger heights are better suited to public spaces like museums and night clubs than the home wardrobe, but if you had the space to fit this in your home it would certainly look the part.