Up-Skilling on Idealog TV

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

Rain-sodden grounds swallowing suburbia; babies in miniature Segways on Ponsonby Road; redundancies in organisations already operating with barebones staffing; and it’s election year. We’re doing the Apocalypso, folks. You just don’t know it.

Up-Skilling on Idealog TV

David Skilling likes to provoke with what he says, and we like to listen to him. However, even we were stunned to hear that Skilling’s decided to join the Exodus of GodzoneRS (some 70,000 a year), leaving his post at the New Zealand Institute in December for a job in Singapore.

Why is he doing that? Skilling talks to Vincent Heeringa on Idealog TV about his decision to leave our shores and what kind of country he’s leaving.

There’s an ecoinnovator here

We’re continuing to promote and exchange ideas on how to give Kiwi business the sustainability advantage in our EcoInnovator section. Check out the story on our website about Jim Watson’s quest for alternatives to fossil fuels, and the somewhat chilling art of Chris Jordan that illustrates with painful clarity what consumption is about.

In the same section, Helen Robinson, chief executive of TZ1, the carbon market for the Asia–Pacific, expounds on the need for businesses to implement an environmental strategy that suits them. That’s a must-read for any organisation facing the problem of how to meet legal carbon emission obligations.

And of course EcoInnovator is also part of the latest Idealog, which arrived on newsstands this week. If you haven’t picked it up yet, get thee to a bookstore.

Miss at your own Peri

Make some space in your diary on Wednesday September 17, between 5.30 and 8pm. That’s when Peri Drysdale of Snowy Peak and Untouched World descends on the Bellini Bar at the Hilton in Auckland to speak about her journey to become a global leader in sustainable fashion. It’s only $49, so book your seat now. More info on our website.

In our Good Books

Despite technology shrinking the world in various ways, buying books in New Zealand can be difficult. Many retailers only stock the latest blockbusters, so if you’re after something different, online is the place to look for them. There’s Amazon, of course, reinforced with Abe’s Books where you can find just about anything that’s been printed in recent times.

Buying locally does appeal, however, so we were pleased to discover Goodbooks, the brainchild of Jane Cherrington, which bills itself as “the online bookstore with a conscience”. What this means is that all Goodbooks’ profits go to Oxfam.

Better yet, this doesn’t cost you anything on top: delivery is free, unlike, say, Amazon, where sometimes the postage costs more than the books, and there’s no mark-up to cover the Oxfam contribution. Goodbooks has over two million titles in the range, so there’s plenty to choose from, including The Complete Enderby by Anthony Burgess (nice!).

Check out the animation by Cirkus/Ogilvy with Murray Ball, Tim Finn, Fane Flaws and Chris Knox chipping in.

Gives you the furries

You’re FFL/Paris and the Orangina client commissions a TVC. Is that really any excuse for using computer-generated “naughtily dancing furries” though?

Wait on, didn’t we write about that nine months ago? Sure did. But now the Orangina spot is being shown in the UK, where the locals think sexy animals is a concept that should have stayed in France. But at least we now know where the idea came from: “The makers of the advert said that it was conceived around the idea of pulpeuse, which in French means both ‘containing pulp’ and also ‘voluptuous’ or ‘sexy’.” So that’s all right then.

Kim Kardashian wants a lesbian tango with Britney Spears

Win!The Idealog offices have recently been inundated with a new breed of spam, matching random celebrity names with even more random activities. Witness:

• Britney Spears Shaken but Unhurt after Failed Suicide Bomber Attack
• Paris Hilton’s Headless Body Continues To Party for Second Week
• Britney Spears Is the Antichrist, Says Noted Exorcist
• Paris Hilton Interview Denied by Jesus

Yes, they do often feature Brit and Paris—and probably with good reason—but who’s sending them? And why? Your theories please.

Best one wins a superfine organic cotton Idealog t-shirt designed by Lachlan Palmer-Hubbard, our Rookie Designer of the Year. Lanchlan, a 22-year-old designer, says he wants his design to show the many sides of Idealog and he wanted to convey the creative aspect of business.

You can also buy one at Trade Me for a mere $20.

An exploration of human emotion

In six movements? Comes with an API too. Let’s try it again, this time with feeling.

It’s Purple Art Time

Our SOE ISP, Orcon, is bringing in nine digital artists from Colombia, Australia, the UK and New Zealand to the Purple Spheres Event at the Huia Lookout on the Manukau Harbour.

The idea is to let the artists work outside of their commercial briefs and projects, to see what they can come up with. Homemade robots, fly-through animations in two-and-a-half dimensions, human/computer collaborative artworks and more are on the menu.

Curated by Maya McNicoll, the results of the Purple Spheres Event will be online (the site is oddly enough hosted by Rackspace in the US, and not Orcon).

Quote of the week

“When I was a young scientist the big problems were in human health, especially cancer,” he says. “Now the focus has changed. Science is now about the health of the planet. It’s an even more severe problem because we don’t get a second chance. That’s where I want to be playing.”

—Bio-entrepreneur Jim Watson is enjoying his latest venture

More at Idealog online

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

  Juha Saarinen
  Ideologue, Weekly