Posts by Rachel Keeble
-
Gingerline: Part 2
Back in January our very own Rob Jung wrote a blog piece about a new pop-up restaurant and art space called Gingerline, an event that takes place in a secret location along the East London Line.
Having been completely intrigued by Rob’s account I booked myself and a friend a place for this months event, held at Canvas and Cream in Forest Hill.
So there we were, my friend and I, at 6pm last Saturday evening eagerly awaiting an instruction text from the Gingerline crew. Forest Hill was to be our destination for the evening…we were to follow the Ginger arrows into a quiet residential mews and enter a small white door flanked with fairy lights. What greeted us behind a maze of free standing doors was an enchanting puppeteer’s workshop.
With the smell of wood shavings lingering in the air we feasted on beetroot soup (served in a mini paint pot!), duck leg with seasonal pumpkin and sweet potato mash, and finally Autumn fruit meringue roulade, the menu couldn’t be faulted.
While dining and getting to know our fellow Gingerliners, puppeteers from The Puppet Barge company treated us to a charming story of Brer Rabbit and Little Red Riding Hood.
We left, well fed, watered and full of smiles (maybe that was the wine…). For anyone wanting to have the Gingerline experience I suggest showing your interest early because judging by the comments, this event is understandably gaining momentum.
-
Behind the scenes at Chelsea
It’s that time of year again, when SW3 comes alive with world class gladioli and prize winning perennials. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens its doors to the public tomorrow with the eagerly anticipated judging taking place today.
On Saturday I got to experience behind the scenes preparation when I lent a hand to my sister and her colleagues from Todds Botanics as they painstakingly erected their exhibit of prudently groomed drought tolerant plants. A 10 ft squared handmade wooded container houses each considered species of the design, including the oh so cute Ivory Queen Allium and my favourite, the Langport Wren Bearded Iris, with a striking ancient Spanish Olive tree taking centre stage. I may be biased but this is a design that deserves gold!
The reverse, I have to say, has to be said for Diarmuid Gavin’s sky garden, inspired by the film Avatar, and sponsored by Cork City Council. There’s no denying that the landscape of grasses, topiary and bamboo is impressively executed and appealing but, just like the film this garden is more about big budget effects than style and substance. The centerpiece of the £250,000 design is a bright pink flying pod (below) that is elevated into the air every hour and suspended at 82ft by a gigantic crane. With the crane itself costing £5k a day this seems an unnecessary feature and a colossal waste of money, especially as it’s being financed by a government who I would have thought could ill afford such extravagance, and the only one given the opportunity to enjoy the view from above is Gavin himself and a string of celebrity friends. Some may describe this as cutting edge garden design but personally speaking I feel it’s just another opportunity for Gavin to exhibit an already inflated ego.
Thankfully elsewhere the gardens are more modest in their approach. It was good to see The Times and Kew Gardens coming together to showcase The Eureka garden designed by Marcus Barnett which celebrates the importance of plants to human survival. Each element has been chosen either for its medicinal, commercial or industrial use, such as; Foxgloves and Geranium which are used to treat heart and kidney conditions respectively; and, a Rosa Glauca which is used by both the cosmetic and drinks industry. The central pavilion structure represents the cellular nature of plants and is constructed from sustainably sourced timber and bio-plastics.
With the culmination of a year’s planning, planting, and pruning, mixed with late nights, early mornings and the physical exertion that goes into every exhibit, it’s easy to see why a Chelsea accolade means so much in the wonderful world of horticulture.
-
Design Week Award Winners!
We are delighted to have won a Design Week Award for our ongoing work with The Times. The infographic work we produced in 2010 was shortlisted in the Digital Design – Information category and we came away from last nights event as proud winners!
A picture of us all suited and booted, with Jon Hill, Alex Breuer and Matt Brown from The Times.
A great night was had by all, completely worth the bleary eyes and thumping heads this morning.
-
Intro sequence for Eureka iPad app
The Times have released an iPad special edition of their monthly science supplement Eureka Magazine, featuring an animated intro sequence by Applied Works.
The sequence builds on the app’s graphic interface of interconnected hexagonal buttons, which act as the main navigation. Animated lines ‘spawn’ branches of hexagons, one for each of the app’s five sports science topics – engineering, medicine, psychology, human physiology and biology.
As well as providing an elegant bridge between the opening masthead and navigation screen, the animation also provides the user a glimpse of the content and an explanation of the interface. Original music and sound design by Adelphoi Music.
-
We’re busy: send us your CV!
Calling all talented designers and genius developers out there: we’re luckily finding ourselves very busy over the coming months and would love to hear from any available people who’d like to work with us. We’re in need of both freelance designers and coders (HTML5/CSS3/Javascript etc), so if you’re interested, please send us your glowing CV by emailing me (Rachel) via our contact page. No agencies please. Spread the word!!!
-
Last Tango in Croydon premier
We’ve all really enjoyed being involved in the production of ‘Last Tango In Croydon’, a short film about two frustrated people, old Joe and young Joe, who share their dreams during a chance encounter at old Joe’s nursing home. What makes this production special is that the entire cast and crew donated their time and effort for free with all proceeds from the film going to the children’s charity The Place2Be.
Danny Somekh, the man behind the idea of making a short film to raise awareness for the charity, did an excellent job of rounding up some of London’s finest for the films grand premier at the Sanctum Hotel in Soho. It was great to see so much support, people seemed to be digging deep and making generous donations in exchange for a DVD of the film. Applied Works were proud to take responsibility for the title sequence (shown above – short but sweet) and design of the DVD and 8 inserted postcards.
Last night was a good excuse to get the Applied Works clan out for a drink and combine it with a baby head wetting celebration to mark the arrival of Paul’s second daughter Tabitha back in April. By the look of this picture he’s feeling the effects of those sleepless nights, Pete on the other hand seems to be enjoying his G&T a little too much…
-
Walk the High Line
Back in May I was lucky enough to take a trip to New York, something I’d been meaning to do for years but the opportunity never arose. The Big Apple is now officially at the top of my favourite city list, and it’s easy to see why. One of the things I enjoyed while I was there, was strolling through the High Line, a new 1.5 mile public park built on a disused train line that stretches above the Meatpacking District and houses 210 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees. So I was really pleased to hear that Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the architectural firm behind the parks creation, have won a D&AD award in the Environmental Design category. Bravo!
-
Dealerward van hits the streets
Julia at Dealerward has sent over pictures of the freshly branded Dealerward van. Great to see it finished, we think it looks great.
-
iPad graphics for The Times
There’s been a real buzz in the Applied Works studio of late, aside from the excitement surrounding Rob’s pending nuptials to Lidia, we’ve been working closely with The Times to develop a number of interactive info graphics for both their iPad app which launched today, and their new website launched earlier this week.
To coincide with the UK release of Sex and the City 2, The Times iPad edition features an article about famous shoe designer Manolo Blahnik (fans of the show will be aware of Carrie’s obsession with ‘Manolo’s’). To accompany the piece we built an interactive timeline (above) which maps the history of the designer’s career – users can use the touch screen to scroll through key dates, facts, and slideshows.
For a political feature appearing on the new website (www.thetimes.co.uk), we have created a graphic illustrating the location of key parliamentary buildings where the country’s government departments are situated. Presented in birds eye view, each Westminister location is indicated by a labeled hotspot that users can click to instigate digestible facts on all cabinet ministers in office.
Click here to view the interactive guide (you’ll need to register).
Watch this space for more interesting iPad graphics, and of course pictures from Rob’s big day!
-
Tutu Tyutyunnik
Thanks to our wonderful intern Tutu Tyutyunnik who has been with us throughout December. Tutu has done a fantastic job with our 2009 Christmas card and has even found time to keep us stocked up with homemade biscuits and cakes. Oh and we’re loving our Applied Works people paper chain, can you tell who’s who? Thanks Tutu!
Page 1 of 2Older »