Making it

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

Making it

Empty your handbag, wastepaper bin and bottom drawer—Wellington online design company Ponoko can bring your scribbles to life. Or if not to life, to negative space anyway. The website, which allows you to create, choose or customise a design to be made for you, was the good idea of a group of those reliably creative people, Wellingtonians. Read their story and you might get inspired to have your own brilliant idea—at the very least you could get a nice travel orange juicer out of it.

BMW’s Vice

The original ode to all things subversive, Vice magazine, has gone all corporate—in a typically subversive way. No one would ever know there’s an ad for BMW 1 Series on the cover unless they happen to glance at copy of Vice in the dark—the only time the ad is visible. BMW is no doubt stoked to be on the cover, but as reading in the dark never really did take off, you could question whether it was money well spent.

Techno music

They’ve replaced production line workers, call centre attendants and soldiers, and now robots are moving into the creative arts. This beatbot plays a rhythm on whatever object it encounters, which it then records and uses as a loop to play further beats over. Quick, get that novel down before a pile of bolts steals the Booker from under you. (Via JWZ)

Lighting up

You take a glass of wine and a trashy magazine into the bath, but what do you do about creating ambient lighting? Admittedly, an underwater lightshow could be a bit off-putting, but it’s bound to be more entertaining than the latest celebrity pregnancy rumour.

Slow down mate

Friday tends to be the slowest day of the week, so don’t fight it. Bitch-slap it. Check out this slap at 4,000 frames per second—guaranteed to make you feel much better looking.

Last gasp of summer

Win!Remember the days when The Goodnight Kiwi saved us from the slow death by infomercial? No? Stop reading then—you’re not cool enough (old) to deserve a Goodnight Kiwi t-shirt. For the rest of you, send us a line about your favourite classic Kiwi show and we might give you a t-shirt designed by Fly Ltd—and a six-pack of Epic beer to spill on it.

Good idea

If you’re not getting much work done today it could be because it’s Friday, or it could be because the radio’s not playing loud enough. Radio New Zealand claims the violin inspired some of Einstein’s finer moments. Learn about other science and art collisions on the Ideas programme, broadcast at 11:05am on Sunday Morning.

Win! Don’t forget to get your tickets to the Small Business Expo—it could be the best investment you make this year. If you don’t have the capital we have ten tickets to give away—just tell us why you need one.

Quote of the week

“It’s the 70s all over again, minus the acid.”

—David ten Have on the experimenters who use Ponoko

More at Idealog online

Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.

Idealog Weekly is sent to friends, subscribers and registered website users of Idealog magazine. Rather read your Idealog Weekly in  your inbox? Subscribe here