Mind-blowing images from Eyjafjallajokull

Although the situation has improved, ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continues to cause havoc. Gathered here are some of the most staggering images from Iceland I have seen over the past week.

Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul April 17, 2010. (REUTERS)
A car is seen driving near Kirkjubaejarklaustur, Iceland, through the ash from the volcano eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier on Thursday April 15, 2010. (AP Photo)
A small plane (upper left) flies past smoke and ash billowing from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul, Iceland on April 17, 2010. (REUTERS)
Smoke billows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull on April 16, 2010. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS)
The volcano in southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier sends ash into the air Saturday, April 17, 2010. (AP Photo)
Lightning, smoke and lava above Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano on April 17, 2010. (REUTERS)
A man runs along the roadside, taking pictures of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano as it continues to billow smoke and ash during an eruption on April 17, 2010. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS)
A huge ash cloud creeps over the Icelandic south coast April 16, 2010. (REUTERS)
Wearing a mask and goggles to protect against the smoke, dairy farmer Berglind Hilmarsdottir from Nupur, Iceland, looks for cattle lost in ash clouds, Saturday, April 17, 2010. (AP Photo)
This aerial image shows the crater spewing ash and plumes of grit at the summit of the volcano in southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier Saturday April 17, 2010. (AP Photo)
Horses graze in a field near the Eyjafjallajokull volcano as it continues to billow dark smoke and ash during an eruption late on April 17, 2010. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS)
A woman makes a phone call in the empty arrival hall of Prague's Ruzyne Airport after all flights were grounded due to volcanic ash in the skies coming from Iceland April 18, 2010. Air travel across much of Europe was paralyzed for a fourth day on Sunday by a huge cloud of volcanic ash, but Dutch and German test flights carried out without apparent damage seemed to offer hope of respite. (REUTERS)
The first of 2 photos by Olivier Vandeginste, taken 10 km east of Hvolsvollur at a distance 25 km from the Eyjafjallajokull craters on April 18th, 2010. Lightning and motion-blurred ash appear in this 15-second exposure. (Olivier Vandeginste)
The second of photo by Olivier Vandeginste, taken 10 km east of Hvolsvollur Iceland on April 18th, 2010. Lightning flashes and glowing lava illuminate parts of Eyjafjallajokull's massive ash plume in this 30-second exposure..

Iggy the cat investigates the iPad

This is so cute!

Iggy's owner says he has always been exceedingly curious and technologically inclined and not to worry - the the screen is fine. Apparently cat's claws are not as hard as glass.

Witty campaign for The Sunday Times Rich List

The Sunday Times has launched a campaign to promote its annual guide to Britain's top 1000 wealthiest individuals.

It's a stylish, witty solution, by CHI & Partners, and consists of 10 second TV ads, as well as outdoor and print work.

iRetrofone Base

Can be bought here.

Show your design space - and poke your nose into others...

I'm rather nosey when it comes to other people's work spaces, especially if they are designers. As someone who has literally worked in spaces ranging from a small cupboard to sleek and spacious creative studios, I have seen how my surroundings affect my own creativity so I wonder how other designers are affected by their working surroundings?

Well, now we can all poke our noses into studios the world over thanks to Where We Design, a really nice idea for a website which shows studio spaces from creatives across the globe.

New website for Paul Smith

One of my favourite fashion designer's, Paul Smith, has launched a new website.

The new site is both an e-commerce site and a brand showcase for the internationally renowned fashion business. (Smaller-scale online purchasing had already been available on the site since 2004, but it has now been ramped up). It's a simple, clean HTML interface with large, animated images and it results in a strong visual impact.

Paul Smith World is a section of the website which features creative and art projects by the designer. This will be refreshed on a regular basis to encourage users to return to the site.

The new site certainly offers an enhanced user experience and I imagine it will greatly drive online sales.

Peter Blake tie-in with Chelsea FC

Loving Peter Blake's (somewhat unlikely) tie-up with Chelsea Football Club. The famous Pop Artist behind the album cover for the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, has been brought in to back the launch of their new kit.

All those familiar with my work for Jewish Book Week know that I have been greatly influenced by Blake's collages. and follow him closely.

And now created an artwork to celebrate the launch of the new Adidas Chelsea home shirt, supported by a microsite, video and social media campaign created by ad agency Iris.

The launch will include a three-foot high collage created by Blake, which will appear in the Chelsea megastore and in sponsor Adidas's shops from 6 May, that aims to celebrate the club's staff, players and fans.

Images used in the collage tell the story of Chelsea from the terrier that played a role in the creation of the club and the development of Stamford Bridge to the £1 note that Ken Bates used to buy it in 1982.

Adidas's campaign, created by the ad agency Iris, is called "Made from 100% Chelsea". Blake was filmed for a "making of" video that will be available online.

The first 10,000 fans to purchase the new home kit, which has a red collar and trim in tribute to the Chelsea Pensioners, will receive a limited edition print of Blake's piece.

This is seriously enough to turn me into being a Chelsea supporter. No more Leyton Orient for me...

Unexpected fashions for iPad

Puma's clever little shoe bag box

If you love clever packaging you'll have some respect for Puma's innovating thinking on the humble shoe box while keeping sustainability in mind.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

It's 6 months old, but it's gold... just a word of warning: put down your drink while watching, so as to spare your computer a bath.

Oh, and watch out for cameos by Muppets you probably wouldn’t expect to see. Enjoy!

'Slap The Election Candidates' online game

Now you have the chance to take your anger out on the main election candidates with the help of a website where you can slap Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the face, simply by sliding your mouse cursor across the screen.

The site launched on 1st April and as of this morning (13th April), Gordon Brown had received 47.8% of the slaps, David Cameron had received 37.9% of slaps, while Nick Clegg had endured just 14.3% of slaps.

Google has made its first ever UK acquisition buying the startup, Plink

The acquisition follows chief executive Eric Schmidt's statement that Google is aiming to acquire at least one company each month – as well as recruit more staff – as it expands the company post-recession.

Founded by PhD students Mark Cummins and James Philbin, Plink's first product was PlinkArt, a visual recognition app for mobile that analyses pictures of well-known artworks and paintings and identifies them. Users can then share the photo with friends and also click through to buy a poster version.

The developers claim the app was downloaded more than 50,000 times in the six weeks following launch, and Plink have also held discussions with galleries including the Tate over potential partnerships.

The two founders will work on Google Goggles, the search giant's visual search project.

Cummins and Philbin founded Plink nearly two year ago while PhD students at the University of Oxford's mobile robotics and visual geometry groups in the department of engineering.

The app was brought to Google's attention during the Android Develop Challenge in December last year, an initiative to promote innovative new applications for Google's mobile platform, when the pair won $100,000 – Plink's sole funding to date.
James Philbin explained how Plink's technology works: "It picks out repeatable elements from the image you take and comes out with a statistical representation of them." That process works even at different angles and different lighting conditions.

"We found our way into art almost by accident, because we were really interested in visual search. But art is compelling space because it is so empty. There isn't even a definitive site for art," said Philbin.

Cummins said the two had the classic startup dilemma of deciding whether to accept Google's offer – or to acknowledge that endorsement of the product and keep developing independently. But they opted instead to accept Google's offer and become the first UK startup to be bought by the technology giant.

"It feels good, yeah," said Philbin. "I'm not complaining."

Nicorette 'films' - film parody ad

Nicorette have launched a TV and cinema campaign with ads parodying generic film genres by substituing the film stars' cigarettes with inhalators.

Following the first Nicorette inhalator campaign in 2007, there was still a large barrier to purchase, in that many consumers were self-conscious about using the product in public. To counter this, AMV BBDO have developed a campaign that they hope will further conventionalise the product's use.

Personally I belive they're still a great barrier to purchase because these inhalators still look fairly ridiculous!. As nice as these ads are. I believe it's a job for the product design team rather than a new ad campaign.

New iPad.. will it blend? I found this excruciatingly painful to watch!

Living Portraits

These 'people painted to look like portraits' were done by Alexa Meade. She is an installation artist based in Washington DC.

Her innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships.

So rather than a painting trying to capture the likeness of a person, these are people painted to look like the likeness of a painting. It's so wonderfully the wrong way round!






Above, self-portrait of the artist, Alexa Meade

Good old fashioned bidding war

Thanks to Gaulaleh for this one.

Gap rolls out iPad e-commerce app

Gap's free-of-charge app, called The 1969 Stream, is designed to promote the brand's 1969 Premium Jeans range, and has been created by digital agency AKQA.

It features exclusive content from Gap designers, musicians, and fashion experts, including a music video from US country rock group Truth & Salvage Co.

Additionaly, the app will include photographs of celebrities wearing Gap clothing and a Twitter feed from the brand's creative director Patrick Robinson.

A number of media brands, including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Lonely Planet, and Condé Nast titles Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour, have each launched apps for the iPad and I can't wait to see how the new iPad format has inspired the very latest digital apps. Roll on late April and the UK launch of the iPad!

Meanwhile have any of our American friends played with an iPad yet? Let us know about your experiences!

Google Street View... now in 3D!

To see Google Street View in 3D, you will need a pair of old-fashioned red/cyan glasses. Put them on, bring up Street View in Google Maps and click on the Pegman with 3D glasses on the left hand side of the screen. This feature seems to be available anywhere in the world where Google currently offers Street View.

This is what Google had to say about their new 3D Street View feature.

Uniqlo creates Twitter show in online campaign

Uniqlo is attempting to tap into the popularity of Twitter by creating UTweet, a somewhat off-beat online promotional campaign for its latest t-shirts.

The application invites Twitter users to enter their details in order to create a personalised 'Twitter show', based on the history of messages posted.

It then uses audio and imagery to tell your story and encourages you to send it on to friends. During the Twitter show, models wearing UT t-shirts from Uniqlo appear, promoting the range.

I love the vibrant, bold feel of UTweet - and the striking user-generated red and white typographical images. Nice work. And their previous campaigns are interesting too: eg. Uniqlock, an obscure video involving dancing models and another nice one, Uniqlo Calendar

Those with iPhones, and a love of vintage, will want one of these

www.deskphonedock.com

Source: The Cool Hunter

Israel by Design

The Holon Design Museum.

Israel offers many good reasons to visit: breathtakingly diverse landscapes, endless historical and religious sights, and plenty of incredibly friendly and beautiful people. Recently the country added another feather to its cap of landmarks: its first museum devoted entirely to design. The project, in the Tel Aviv suburb Holon, is part of an ambitious plan to put the wealthy but otherwise bland municipality on the global culture map; in fact, an interesting group of international architects has already been invited to submit proposals for a new town hall on an adjacent lot.

Designed by Ron Arad, Israel’s poster boy of design, the Holon Design Museum (pictured above) and its planners make no bones about wanting to create the famous Bilbao effect. While the project might lack its Spanish role model’s interesting location and size, it makes up for any shortcomings with sheer chutzpah, both in its dramatic design (five sinuous bands of weathered steel that Arad elegantly undulated around the exhibition halls) and its programming.

The museum’s first show, “The State of Things: Design and the 21st Century,” opened festively in the presence of Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, along with international guests like Liz Diller of Diller and Scofidio + Renfro and the Spanish design wiz Jaime Hayon. For 35 shekels, the paying public can browse the museum with a state-of-the-art touch-screen audiovisual guide in hand and admire the display, which was pulled together by a group of international guest curators (Aric Chen, Julie Lasky, Garth Walker, led by Barbara Bloemink, formerly of the Cooper-Hewitt).

“The State of Things: Design and the 21st Century.”

It’s an eclectic mix of more than 100 pieces from the last three years, including iconic designs by industry bigwigs like the Campana brothers, Ingo Maurer, Maarten Baas and Jaime Hayon, as well as some pleasant surprises, like Andreas Angelidakis’s gold-foil chair. (Arad’s own designs were conspicuously absent.) Such an ambitious and high-profile opening sets the bar high for what’s to come in the future, and it’ll be interesting to see how the museum’s program will evolve over the next couple of years, during which time its staff plans to build up its permanent collection. After all, according to the artistic director Galit Gaon, the Holon Design Museum’s mission is to “educate the Israeli public about design.”

Not that Tel Aviv needs any further education in design or architecture — there are two important architecture schools in the metropolitan area, a Preston Scott Cohen-designed addition will open soon at the Tel Aviv Museum, and the Bauhaus district, which lines the area around Boulevard Rothschild, has a remarkable architectural heritage. Given the pride the city takes in it, the Bauhaus district sometimes seems surprisingly under-renovated. Less than 50 percent of it has been fully restored, including the beautifully modest former town hall on Kikar Bialik and the expensively refurbished Pagoda House, near Tel Aviv’s niftiest boutique hotel and restaurant, The Montefiore. The Pagoda House, built by the architect Alexander Levy in 1925, is said to be owned by an elusive Swedish billionaire who won’t let anyone photograph its interiors, which only adds to its allure.

Equally alluring — a few minutes south of Tel Aviv — is the predominantly Arab port city of Yaffa, with its lively small streets, flea market, delicious hummus restaurants (Ali Karavan, at 1 Ha’Dolfin Street, is one of the best — but come early, given that hummus is mostly considered breakfast or lunch food) and a newly developed port area, where new art galleries and cafes pop up almost by the minute.

Even for those who only stay in Israel for a short time, a night in Jerusalem is always worth it. By car, the two cities are only one hour (yet worlds) apart. Whereas Tel Aviv oozes hedonism, Jerusalem bears the weight of history and centuries-old religious conflict. Deciding to bypass the most famous sites — the Wailing Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (to name but two) — I follow the advice of Noam Dvir, the architecture correspondent for Haaretz, and went looking for Jerusalem’s less obvious architectural gems.

The first stop: the Rockefeller Museum, on the edge of the Arab quarter of East Jerusalem. Built in neo-colonial, East-meets-West style by the British architect Austen St. Barbe Harrison, the museum houses a strikingly vast archeological collection. But the most fascinating part is the fact that nothing has been changed since the museum opened its doors in 1938, offering its few visitors a spellbinding (and free) step back in time: the bas-reliefs and signage in English, Hebrew and Arabic (designed by none other than Eric Gill, the famous British font creator), the display boxes and stalls, models, wall coverings and even the lavatories are all exactly as they originally were.

Mamilla Hotel.

Another noteworthy, and considerably newer, addition to Jerusalem’s design marvels is the Mamilla Hotel, which opened last summer near Yaffa gate. Part of a larger development in the Mamilla district — courtesy of the Israeli architect Moshe Safdie — the Mamilla hotel is Israel’s first and only Design Hotel, thanks to Piero Lissoni’s Midas touch on all rooms and public areas, including the spa, the pool, the roof deck (with a great view over the Old City - pictured above) and the Mirror Room, the hotel’s very chic restaurant and bar.

Plenty of reasons for anyone interested in design to visit this wonderfully diverse country.

Source: NY Times Stye Magazine

Didn't think you wanted an iPad? Think again

Enter the iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet from ThinkGeek.com. To use the iCade, gently slide the iPad into the docking cradle. The docking cradle uses a standard 30 pin connector to link the iPad to the professional-grade arcade controls. Once the iPad is in place, launch the iCade App (available free in the App Store April 3rd) and it’s game on!

ThinkGeek.com didn’t want to take any chances that the iPad would run out of juice during your favourite game, so they included a 10w USB power adapter so that it's possible to charge the iPad through any electrical outlet.

But wait, what happens when you click the BUY NOW button?

Yes folks, it's another April fool’s prank!

April Fools: Google's best jokes

Google takes April Fools very, very seriously...

Google changes its name: In homage to the US city of Topeka – which recently changed its name to Google in the hope of winning a place on Google's new broadband rollout scheme – Google announced that it is changing its name to Topeka. "We've been wondering how best to honour that moving gesture," wrote Google on its blog. We didn't reach the decision to change our name lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around Topeka's municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains."

YouTube cuts costs: Google said it was going to cut the cost of running its video clip website by adding a text-only mode. "It's great news that there are 24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, we support 1080p and HD uploads are rising quickly, but that's also meant increasing bandwidth costs cutting in to our bottom line," said YouTube on its blog. "TextP is the result of months of intense transcoding efforts by our engineers, who toiled for weeks to ensure that a large chunk of videos on the platform could be reduced to their most basic elements. By replacing the images in the video with a series of letters and numbers, the videos are far less taxing on our system – and have the added benefit of promoting literacy!"

Google Wave notifications: Google has announced a new notification service for its Google Wave account – a man who comes up and physically waves at you whenever you have a new message.


Google Search: Type in a search in the box, and Google will tell you how long it took to find a list of results. A search for "space", for instance, takes 0.20 cantons.

Google Books: Google's digitised books collection can now be "viewed in 3D".

Google Docs: Google has taken its cloud computing service to another level, offering to store everything from keys to train tickets in Google Docs so "you'll never have to worry about finding them again".

Google Translate: Ever wanted to talk to the animals? Google Translate makes the dream a reality, with an Android app that translates "words and phrases that are common to a species".

Google Maps: Australian users of Google Maps have been greeted with a localised version of Google's mapping service, which tells them to "chuck a right" rather than make a right turn.

Google Voice: Google has launched a retro voicemail service – messages will be deleted after 14 days "so you don't have to listen to them", and users will only be able to access their voicemails on their phone, rather than via the web. Just like the good old days.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

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