Mando Group Ltd - creative

Wall Street Journal Features googleDrive

A little project a couple of us have been working on. googleDrive allows you drive a car around on google maps, anywhere you want! It's our first google maps mashup, and was done as a bit of fun and to see if we could do it.

We have plans for future versions that will allow you to race against the clock on pre-defined circuits round London, Paris, New York, etc. We would like to do a multiuser version so you can see others driving around too, we just have to find some time!

It's even managed to find its way across the pond, and has a little article in the Wall Street Journal. Read Here.

go ahead have a drive! - googleDrive

New Year, New Job?

We believe that you should enjoy coming to work – do you enjoy going to work? Perhaps 2008 is the year to look for a new challenge – a new job.

We are growing and expanding our team which means there are new opportunities for you to join us.

We are on the look out for talented individuals to add to our team, we are looking for people with a range of skills including programmers, designers to search engine optimisation specialists.

So, if you want a job where you get to work with great people, shape the future of the company and be part of a creative adventure in 2008 please check out our jobs page and get working on your CV.

Sometimes you're just so happy with your work...

....you simply have to show off about it - check out the case study for our award winning efforts with Mercia Partnership on Mercia World :-)

18 months, 1000's of man hours, a ground breaking concept and a truly exceptional end result...

Guide to Jan 08

We have put together a short video guide to the highlights of January 08 in Liverpool (great presenting Simone!). We hope this helps you start the Liverpool Capital of Culture Year well.

In January we can look forward to a host of fantastic events starting with 'Skate into 08', where St Georges Hall is being transformed into an ice rink, with hot chocolate and mulled wine available to keep you warm!

Other highlights include an open air extravaganza, the opening of the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool, Visible Viruses and the Fresh Festival.

Take a look at the video guide on our homepage for the low down.

The Mad Hatters

We often look to children and marvel at how creative they are. Ideas flow and there seems no limit to a child's imagination. There is no mystery here; children simply have not yet learned how things should be.

Instant judgement is the enemy of creativity...

Edward De Bono

We as adults judge ourselves and our ideas far too harshly. So before an idea has even begun to grow the majority of us have already slammed the metaphorical door shut on that thought or idea.

On Tues of last week we held a creativity workshop. The key aim was to get everyone to begin to make creative thinking part of everyday thinking. We would stimulate the right of brain, get everyone to access his or her inner child and see what we could create in a safe non-judgemental arena. Oooo and have lots of fun in the process.

We've also embraced the "6 thinking hats system" for creative thinking at Mando as devised by Edward DeBono. The thinker can put one on or take one these metaphorical hats off to indicate the type of thinking that is being used. Read more about the process here... http://www.debonogroup.com/ I can thoroughly recommend it for quick, productive meetings!

Anyway back to the workshop. We would use the 6 thinking hats system as our inspiration. The brief was simple. Brainstorm, design and create a hat that embodies all the characteristics, feelings, nature that the hat represents.

Three teams of two got together and were each randomly given one of the following statements to generate ideas from.

Red Hat:

This covers intuition, feelings and emotions. The red hat allows the thinker to put forward an intuition without any need to justify it.

Yellow Hat:

This hat finds reasons why something will work and why it will offer benefits. It can be used in looking forward to the results of some proposed action. It can also be used to find something of value in what has already happened.

Green Hat:

This is the hat of creativity, alternatives, proposals, what is interesting, provocations, and changes.

They were instructed to break the rules! There is no such thing as a bad idea. Just perhaps more appropriate ones.

I wasn't disappointed in the results... In the short hour that they had this is what they did!

Say hello to Enu

My Enu is launched today. The Enu is the first of our funky little growers range. He's a self-watering biosphere ideal for growing herbs, find out more about the Enu at www.myenu.com

Mando Group are investment partners in this great new little product. It has taken 12 long months to develop the Enu from scratch, ensuring that he looks great, does his job well and is eco friendly.

We think Enu makes an ideal original Christmas present! You can buy the little grower online from the website now.

Pandora's Music Box

No, this is not a box to contain all the musical evils of the world; Daniel O'Donnell and the like. Pandora is actually a personalised internet radio service that helps you find new music based on your favourites. It is based on the research from the Music Genome Project, where musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever. They produced hundreds of musical attributes that they call 'genes' into a very large Music Genome which helps to categorise preferences in music and therefore from understanding your preferences Pandora aims to predict what you would like to listen to.

With Pandora you start your new personalised radio station by defining an artist or song. From that first choice, when the track has ended Pandora provides the next track which it provides based on similar characteristics to the first track that you chose. If you really like a track or really dislike a track you can indicate the fact to help Pandora understand your preferences and become more accurate at predicting what you would like to hear. As its bank of music is much larger than any collection that you or I could have access to, it is a fantastic way of being opened up to new music similar to music that you already like.

For legal reasons Pandora does say it is currently for US listening only; and they ask for a US ZIP code on registration, but this is still an excellent idea and one that I hope will be able to be used legally for the rest of the world soon.

Also see Video killed the radio star.

This is a call

This morning, some colleagues and I (plus another 1000 or so delegates at the Business North West Conference) listened to Dan Germain, Head Creative and co-founder of Innocent Drinks talk on the mind-blowing success of his company. They have seen a meteoric rise in sales to now well over £80m in the 8 years since they started out selling crushed fruit drinks to passers by in the park.

Dan talked in a very engaging manner about quirky PR, brand development and so on but, as with most speeches, it’s sometimes the almost throw-away comments that get you thinking further. One that stood out for me today is this: - he stated quite simply, that however good his marketing and comms are, however engaging the packaging of the product is and whatever nice things they’re doing for their staff or the world they have to keep making the best, tastiest and healthiest smoothies on the market, otherwise it doesn’t mean anything. You could tell he meant it too; he wants to make great, healthy beverages that continually delight his customers.

It made me think about Mando Group. Our ‘product’ is our people, experience, ideas, talent, creativity, technology, process and so on, but we never make the same thing twice. Every time we do a piece of work it’s different to the last. Yes, we have an ever-improving, refined approach to our work but our output and our relationships are forever changing.

And we like it like that, doing diverse work keeps you fresh. But that said; how do you then subsequently get to the point where you can confidentially say you are the best when what you do is so diverse?

So I make this call! – you! the people, readers of our web site, prospective customers, existing friends, partners and potential employees, tell me what it is, in your view, however small an idea or big a niggle, that we can do to be the best provider of web design, application and brand development services we can possibly be. Tell me how we can serve you better, how we can delight you and become your trusted partner. There may be some things we can do straight away and others we can’t or won’t for various reasons but please know that we will read and respond to everything. We are committed to continuous improvement and being less than the best is not in our plan.

You can either comment on this blog (which would be great as it might inspire other people!) or email us at open@mandogroup.com

Winter Lights: Liverpool Jackpot by Franck Scurti

Following the success of Animal, a previous Winter Lights project in 2006, internationally renowned French artist Franck Scurti was commissioned again by Liverpool Biennial to propose a second series of amazing new Winter Lights and has created a 'Liverpool Jackpot' working with local communities in Kirkdale, Kensington and Garston.

An eager crowd of people turned up at Metal, Liverpool and despite the the cold, gusting winds, waited on the side of a busy road to see a giant flashing jackpot turned on, illuminating nearly houses and passing cars with it's 'Power to the People' message, interspersed with giant noses and bright red apples.

The lights are each a unique jackpot to be seen in each neighbourhood and each sequence contains an image of food, a body part and a phrase, taken from British press in consultation with local residents. The effect of them was quite electrifying, and seemed to imbue the cold windy evening with the feeling of a sense of achievement and possibility of art really reaching out to people.

It's fabulous to see such a dynamic and visible arts project in these inner city areas. It certainly demonstrates that Liverpool Biennial strive to provide art that is inclusive and accessible to people throughout Liverpool .

You can see a simulation of all three Liverpool Jackpots for yourself here

Mando Group is the web development partner of Liverpool Biennial.

World Usability Day

Today is World Usability Day. This year’s theme is Healthcare. We’ve been having a think about what we could come up with. Ideas range from redesigning the stretcher-ambulance experience, through to inflatable instant slings (and even fake suns (sun-on-a-stick)) for the dark winter streets of the UK (to combat SAD).

However, one idea has stood out from the rest, and that’s something that’ll nicely slots into our Web Apps initiative: Hospital Breadcrumbs, or Healthcrumbs… we’re not entirely sure of the title yet, but the concept’s a good’n! Based squarely on the patient experience in a hospital, it will be a means to communicate a patient’s past and current situation clearly, by means of mobile technology, and even what to expect in the immediate future whilst at hospital. We’ll blog further once the idea starts to take more shape.

Our ideas aside, for anyone who’s spent enough time in hospitals or dealt with wider healthcare issues, the experience leaves a lot of room for improvement. It’ll be interesting to see what usability experts come up with as a result of today, and if in fact, something wide reaching comes as a result.

Announcing Mando Group Web Apps

So this week we launched Mando Group Web Apps dept. The venture is an entirely voluntary thing that will be done out-of-hours by people who just want to make some cool stuff.

While a few of us were away at the Future of Web Apps conference we realised that actually, we all had great ideas all the time but our individual skill set or free time meant it was an up-hill struggle to get something off the ground. We figured the other guys would probably all feel the same way or and so we wrote a bit of a plan on how we could make stuff happen in the company. When we got back we presented the plan to the rest of the staff to see if anyone else wanted to join in...

...our first meeting was this week and two thirds of the company turned up!!

We ended up brainstorming about 12 different ideas for web applications that we could develop and the ideas went from extra features for our intranet through to full blown Web 2.0 dotcoms.

As a group we settled on 4 projects to move forward and each one has a team leader and at least 3-4 other people working on it. This first month is all about designing and scoping and we’re all getting together again in a weeks to see how we’re getting on.

We’re all stoked by the ideas that we’ve had and can’t want to see what apps comes out of this new department

Watch this space to see how we get on!

Check out our videos

We thought it was about time we had some fun creating video's for our own website (not just for our clients). The availability and prevalence of video on the internet has been fuelled by the popularity of community sites such as YouTube. Video clips have proved an effective internet tool for making content quickly and creatively available to your audience.

The first three videos that we have created for our website give you an insight into our trip to Barcelona, our dreams for the next 10 years and our employee of year the awards.

Enjoy!

The Winners in Barcelona

We have returned from a fun 24 hours in Barcelona celebrating our 10th Birthday. We experienced some of the sights, sampled the delicious food, queued for hours to get on the cable car (not highly recommended!) and held our annual staff awards. Big congratulations to the award winners. The categories reflect our core values and are as follows:

Creative - problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking
Martin Chapman Fromm

Open - transparent, honest and clear
Carl Dickinson

Responsive - pro-active, quick-thinking and customer-focused
Rushell Hall

Engaging - knowledgeable, good communicator and friendly
Ed Jones

Employee of the year
Carl Dickinson

Innovation of the year
W5. This is Mando Group's unique approach to usability, to ensure that the design and layout of the website meets the needs of all the user groups.
Martin Chapman Fromm

We would like to thank the team at Casa Camper Hotel who through their fabulous service and inspiring hotel made our short stay very memorable.

Mixed Media

Having just invested in a Genius Pad, I've been desperate to use it in a client meeting. The opportunity came yesterday when reviewing a wireframe on our rather large projector. Everything was going fine until we needed to add a note to the top of the screen, which is probably about 10ft high! Fearing ladders, a useful ally came to our rescue... Apple Mac OS X stickies!

Whether OS X stickies will replace the Genius Pad, time will tell, but at present it's a lovely marriage of light, wall, paper, and physical & digital interaction!

Paper, scissors, computer?

A couple of us from Mando Group recently attended the intensive NN/g Usability Seminar in London. On stage, Jakob Nielsen lead a band of his merry experts in disseminating their knowledge of (amongst other things) user testing, prototyping, and usability field studies.

By far, the highlight of the three-day event was day two’s paper-prototyping afternoon. A room of 100+ international delegates all forced into caring sharing groups and ordered to redesign and user test a Britney Spears diary application!/

Fast-forward to Mando HQ (several deadlines and weeks later), and those that attended the seminar had decided to become Jakob et al to the rest of Mando.

So, half the company eagerly attended a lunchtime session and were tasked with creating a prototype of a (shhhh!) top-secret web site, in 45 minutes!

So, sit yourselves down in groups of four, listen to me and Jo talk about how to do this stuff, watch a video of how to do it (dodgy YouTube affair) and, taking your essential usability supplies box, off you go!

45 minutes, discussions start. 30 minutes, discussions rage, 20 minutes, discussions die down, 15 minutes (and the announcement of 15 minutes left) and panic! Paper and sticky notes flying. Scissors snap furiously, gluesticks get stuck. 5 minutes left... Aargh! Who can draw boxes? Finished! And there, four new paper-prototyped home pages adorned with illuminus pink, orange and yellow stickies.

Now for the testing...

At this point, let me backtrack a little. Whilst in the London seminar, a lovely guy called Pierre from Belgium was the computer. Anyone who's played the paper prototype game before knows 'the computer' role. To expand: when a user tests a paper prototype, one of the group becomes a human computer. The computer presents new menus, dialogues, form elements, and new screens to the user. The computer cannot speak (not even to say ‘no’ or 'non' in Pierre's case), but he/she can use an hourglass printout to indicate their confusion!

I jest. Whilst it is 'the computer' role that caused the most amusement, it's superb how engrossed the user got into testing a paper prototype and dismissed 'the computer' as an er... computer, within 30 seconds.

Back at HQ, the user testing threw up a few obvious and not-so-obvious flaws in the 45-minute designs. But, the magic of rapid prototyping is on the designers’ side. After less than an hour of scrappy paper work nobody is going to mind a major flaw or two in the design. In fact, mistakes are positively encouraged! What better way to counter the 'can we just move that over there?' proposition than with, 'well, we tried that and the user just didn't get it!'

Grand Re-opening of St George's Hall

One of Liverpool's most celebrated buildings re-opened yesterday after a multi-million pound refurbishment in good time for the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations. You can read about the immediate festivities surrounding the new launch at the Liverpool 08 site.

I am happy to say I was there, although not as one of HRH Prince Charles' guests but as part of the Sense of Sound choir who performed the Song 'Gabriel' to an audience of dignitaries. It was great to be part of the historic occasion even if i didn't since HRH himself - he was sat directly behind our conductor and I didn't dare take my eyes off her on this, my first gig!

Designing Responsibly for a Greener Planet.

Recently everyone seems to be talking about how big your carbon footprint is? Of this I’m not entirely sure. It seems impossible to measure? However I do believe in treading lightly on this planet. My mantra to be “greener” has always the three R’s: reduce my personal impact on the environment and re-use or recycle whenever I can. I was pretty much convinced I was doing a good job until I read a recent article in a design magazine (Creative Review).

Strangely it hadn’t really occurred to me what environmental impact my creative endeavours could have. I was content that Mando Group sent e-cards instead of Christmas cards and used recycled paper but is there much more? Well it seems there is an awful lot more I as a graphic designer can do. It is as simple as selecting a lighter weighted paper to using non-toxic ink.

Other points I picked up from the article were:

Think small? A reduced format can save on paper, ink, water, emissions and could also mean your client could save on postage costs.
Can it be recycled? Binding glues and laminations can mean the item won’t be able to be recycled at all.
Are the materials used sustainable? For example use vegetable oil based inks rather than more conventional mineral-oil inks.

Visit www.lovelyasatree.com to learn more. If you’re a graphic designer, I strongly urge you to do so!

Even Creative Directors suffer from block...

I was asked today to contribute to our blog by Matt, our chairman and instantly got creative block! When put on the spot it's often difficult to come up with an idea out-of-the-blue. Yet that's my job, it's what I have to do day-in-day-out so how do I over come it?

One way is probably what i consider the best creative tool, no its not Photoshop its Google.

Try putting in a random term or phrase, i have used the number 37:

1. We kick off with a Paradox of Choice; there are 37 search engines in one interface at 37.com
2. 37 Signals, yep know all about them
3. 37.com is offering you free email
4. Wikipedia has an entry on 37 for instance did you know that: is the natural number following 36 and preceding 38? There is a bunch of other cool maths and cultural stuff here about 37 though...
5. Ariadne: Issue 37 has a fascinating, engaging quote that is now embedded in my subconscious: Monocultures Threaten More Than Species I’ll come back to that one day.
6. The Class 37 Locomotive Group is looking for people to donate to their cause...
7. Did you know that there are 37 million Americans living below the poverty line?
8. The number 37 bus runs Mondays to Fridays only to the Queens Medical Centre on Derby Road...
9. There is a gallery in Birmingham called number 37
10. BBC news talks in the present tense about the 7/7 London attacks 37 dead
11. BBC again, fascinating story about one of their journalists, the very brave Ivan Nobel who died aged 37. He wrote a diary to educate the world about what he was going through and feeling after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Read his final column here: 'I have not been defeated' how can you not be moved or inspired by that?
12. Page 37 of: dcs.gla.ac.uk is a continuation of: AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION as a subject.
13. 37 Heaven contains 37-centric factoids from Tom Magliery...
14. More trains by the Scottish 37 Group
15. Novacon37 is the UK's longest-established regional science fiction convention, held every autumn since 1971. This year it’s being held (as usual) The Quality Hotel in Bentley (near Walsall, just off Junction 10 of the M6) Reasonable room rates. I bet there are a few of our tech team off to this event ;)
16. cb37.co.uk for all your communication needs! If you are interested in CB Radios, Scanners and antennas
17. croquet.org.uk the official Australian LAWS OF ASSOCIATION CROQUET gives you the definition of BISQUES!
18. The British Films Catalogue offers up 37 Uses For A Dead Sheep
19. Another fascinating fact from the guardian: The figures, compiled using Home Office statistics and census data, show that 37% of black men have their DNA profile on the database compared with 13% of ... sorry that’s all you get, not a subscriber!
20. 2-Carb-37.1. Oligosaccharides without a free hemiacetal group. Trisaccharides (for example) are named as glycosylglycosyl glycosides or glycosyl glycosylglycosides as appropriate. A choice between the two residues linked through their anomeric positions for citation as the 'glycoside' portion can be made on the basis of 2-Carb-2.1. Alternatively, a sequential (end-to-end) naming approach may be used, regardless of 2-Carb-2.1. The names are formed by the preferred method of naming disaccharides (see 2-Carb-36.3): the locant of the anomeric carbon atom, an arrow, and the locant of the connecting oxygen of the next monosaccharide unit are set in parentheses between the names of the residues concerned. Aparently!
21. 37 signals again: A design and usability blog: Signal vs. Noise
22. What is it with trains and the number 37? rail37.co.uk
23. Page 37 of the London the pock pitted trail reaches the Tate
24. Dr David Pillsbury offers up lots of downloads in lots of different formats to do with The HEFCE’s fundamental review of research policy and funding
25. If you're ever in Turo, Cornwall and are struck down by toothache then 37dental is the place to visit. They provide high quality dental treatment utilising the latest dental technology and dental techniques.
26. Obscure page reference ta037 refers to Lymphoma (follicular non-Hodgkin's) - rituximaB
27. Insights given to HyperGUIDE to the Mental Health Act: SECTION 37
28. I was wondering when this would pop up: phentermine 37 yep you will have all seen this in your inbox Viagra
29. Communities, very topical but I bet you haven’t read ONTOCOPI: Methods and Tools for Identifying Communities of Practice Deposited By:Alani, Harith
30. SmallBizPod #37 - Wednesday 10 January 2007 (with correct mp3 file).
31. Super bowl 37, the one with Janet Jackson controversy
32. Does TENS work? [Mar 1997; 37-3] join the debate…
33. RISKS DIGEST: Volume 20: Issue 37 Tuesday 4 May 1999 Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems Mike Martin debates Revisiting the USS Yorktown dead in the water amongst other things
34. Toshiba 37WLT66 37 inch LCD TV Review
35. Comment on JSR 37: Mobile Information Device Profile for the J2METM Platform
36. Page 03-037.htm of the metropolitan police has a press release on Independent Custody Visitors - their dedicated word acknowledged by the MPA
37. Class 37/4 Project: Home of the Class 37/4 Project. Launched to preserve a member of the class 37/4 sub-class for future generations.

And that’s your lot. How could you not find anything inspirational to break the block in that lot?
PS: The reason I picked ‘37’ is because today’s my birthday and that’s my age…

Feeding creativity

This week we took our designers out of the studio to the World Museum Liverpool for a morning of drawing, observation and general quality time away from flickering computer screens

Spending time in the extensive World Cultures section of the museum I am constantly overwhelmed and inspired by the masses of objects, practical and beautiful, laden with significance and steeped with history; each one an example of design that has been practised and honed with time, and executed with love. (If necessity is the mother of invention, love must be the mother of true craftsmanship.)

Today it seems these skills and legacies are disappearing – how many people make toys for their children, or even knit booties for their grandchildren - why should they bother when it’s far easier to pop down to Baby Gap?

I have some toys that my dad made for me as a child, and I’ve kept them for my own kids too - good old fashioned recycling. If we make things, put time and effort into them, I think we’re more inclined to keep hold of them and realise their value as being something far more than a current fad or a hefty price tag.

I was delighted today to find www.etsy.com a nice ecommerce site with a community feel, based around people buying and selling homemade goods. Not just luxurious exclusive handcrafted gems, but also simple things that people are making for themselves.

So we may yet manage to recover the legacy of hand-tooled heirlooms, or at least be able to hand down a few screen-printed graphical T-shirts.

Authenticity

My blog on differentiation earlier this week has caused a fair amount of interesting discussion in the office so I thought I'd share the outcomes:

1. It was generally considered that differentiation is not enough and is actually misleading as a focus. The truth of the matter is that we must seek to be 'authentic' in all we do.

Being true to ourselves and transparent in our hopes, goals and interests will create differentiation in a far more dynamic and honest way than purely focusing on being 'different'.

Difference for the sake of it could end up just being folly and therefore unsatisfactory - for example, one of the greatest differentiators for us can often, ironically, be an adherence to best practise and standards.

2. A desire for innovation is also key to differentiation - being true to oneself, thinking 'what if we just....' Seeing an idea through is an extension to being authentic and can often yield small niche innovations that, over time, gain enough mass to become something extraordinary. The whole being greater than the sum of it's parts.

To be truly authentic is our desire and also our commitment as a company.

Watch this space.

We must differentiate

I found myself singing an advertising jingle this weekend and I asked my wife whether it was from the 3 mobile phone ad. She said it wasn't, but rather the T-mobile one. It occurred to me that, at least in my perception at that moment, the quirkiness of the song chosen for T-mobile made me think of their competitor. This can't be a good thing

My thoughts moved on to the web sites we build for our clients - over 600 of them so far! In a world where there are billions of websites how do we keep helping our clients stand out from the crowd? How do we, as a web design business stand out from our fellow development companies? If I can mistake campaigns as different as 3 and t-mobile because of a song choice how much more effort do I need to make to position Mando Group differently? And, more importantly, make sure every piece of work we deliver is unique and individual to that project?

Solving these questions is crucial to both our clients' success and to ours.

For me, it has to come down to people - we're the only ones who are all different, every single time. Therefore, it must follow that to differentiate, it is about embracing personality. Every single company can be unique if it invests in its culture and people and then allows that to come through in its brand, its service offering and the way it communicates.

It's not easy though - there is a pressure to be 'professional' which can often mean nothing other than being bland and faceless. Don't get me wrong, I'm committed to giving good value and service and I'm right there with making good on a promise and delivering on time...

...but...

- turning up in a suit for the sake of it
- adjusting how I act with people to massage an ego rather than speaking the truth
- doing anything simply because someone else has got one and a box needs to be ticked

Why would I? It would just mean we (Mando Group) are the same as everyone else - with no differentiation. We are looking to work with people determined to bravely do something different, to think clearly, to allow ideas to flow and commit to ongoing evolutionary development.

Lets do something extraordinary and help differentiate one another!

A new favourite punctuation mark!?

Indulge me for a moment: I realise that many people have probably never seen the need for a favourite punctuation mark in the first place, and here am I with a new favourite. If you’re interested, my old favourite was the much-maligned ellipsis.

The interrobang was devised in 1962. Typographically, it’s nothing more than an infant in a world of the venerable and ancient (not to mention much more universally accepted) punctuation marks like the full stop and semicolon. It allows you to use a single mark to express that combination of surprise and questioning which usually means writing and exclamation point and a question mark straight afterwards (!?).

Why am I writing this? Because, well, I think we should reinstate the interrobang. According to Wikipedia, it was a fad which never really gained any traction. I’m a fairly conservative punctuator, and I still see fit to use the combination of an exclamation and question mark at least once a month.

That’s definitely often enough to deserve its own mark.

(As a footnote, the interrobang is an accepted Unicode character, and there’s an HTML entity for it too: ‽ - so there’s really no excuse for tardiness in this respect)

Is this whole social networking thing going just a bit mad?

Social networking sites seems to be going the way of voyeuristic reality TV and the endless celebrity game shows. I think they started out quite interesting but now some are just getting more and more desperate.

In the last few months of my web activity I have:

- 'digged' quite a few articles
- read countless blogs
- myspaced with the best of them
- shared my tunes with other like minded music fans
- linked in with my fellow business professionals

(all quite useful!)

- and found out who my celebrity look-a-likes are
(ok, maybe not so useful , but quite amusing)..

....but never have i found anything as pointless, ridiculous but as strangely fascinating as this www.clipboardsecrets.com a site which has people sharing what's in their computer's clipboard with the rest of humanity.

madness.

If anyone can find something more useless / odd than this or indeed has an opinion on this new generation of web sites then feel free to email me or comment below

Background Colour

I count myself lucky to have been studying design at a time when the Internet was still potty-training. Even the computer as a legitimate design device wasn't completely available to me until the last few years of my higher education (mainly due to my family having a Windows PC (not a design machine back then, oh no!)), and, my local college running fast out of cash.

At my local college - Withen's Lane - I spent a lot of time screen printing, running things several times through the black and white photocopier (ever seen clear acetate melt on a new photocopier drum?), and investing in lovely new Rotring pens and Pantone markers (I was a pre-pixel geek if you like).

Anyway, off to big ol' London and its' College of Printing to study Typographic Design. Wow! Mac's with colour screens, Dye-sublimation printers, coooo! None of that for me so says Mr Dabner, 'get your pencil and paper out', 'get yourself down to the typesetting room'... do anything other than jump on those confounded miscomputers!

And so, here I am, swirling in the maelstrom of modern day Internet design, thankful for those years of diverse experiences and pushing the primitive technology for the sake of creative discovery.

I am curious about other people's backgrounds within the industry. Of the eight designers at Mando Group, five can claim to have come from non-digital design backgrounds (illustration, textiles, typography). It's a healthy mix. Of those five, four are of a similar age. All graduates in the mid-to-end 1990's at a time when graphic designers would be the only professionally trained designers available to do web work.

So, are we thirty-something web designers with our traditional training a unique product of the gargantuan transitionary period in design? A one-off breed? Or, are today's web design fledglings getting as much design variation as we did?