Framed by the thousands

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

You know, it could be worse. There’s all that financial meltdown going on, but we’re just glad that it’s nice and warm and the beer is cold. So it’s time for the Weekly to start its summer vacation; see you next year and we hope you’ll have a good Christmas and an awfully merry New Year.

Framed by the thousands

What use would Kiwi sports equipment manufacturer OBO have for high-speed cameras, capable of capturing 2,000 frames per second? The answer to that question isn’t that obvious, but damn cool. Read more about OBO and Nightside Test Design’s clever use of high-tech gear for designing their products in the current issue of Idealog, out now, and on our website.

Short break

Like everyone else, we’ll take a breather over Christmas and New Year. However, if you’re worrying about your weekly Idealog fix, fret not, pet. We’ll be updating the site throughout the holidays regularly with fresh content so make sure you visit regularly or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Fair play, Fay Richwhite

For almost a decade Auckland’s Eon design store has sold and supported the best of New Zealand design, but its story has now turned sour as its Britomart store has been placed in the hands of the receivers.

Much of the stock has been sold to the public at a discount. So the punters may be happy but it’s a sad day for Kiwi designers whose work has been sold but not paid for. First in the queue to be paid is Blackbird Finance, partly owned by Fay Richwhite. Blackbird looks likely to be paid in full, but the designers whose stock is being sold off cheaply might not get anything.

Celebrated designer David Trubridge is far from happy about that, and he’s laying down a challenge to Blackbird to help the designers caught out by Eon’s failure. Why? Because our creative community punches well above its weight, he says, and Blackbird and Fay Richwhite should show “a Kiwi sense of community”.

Not everyone is convinced, as the robust conversation on our weblog shows. What do you think?

Reinventing the wheel

Michelin’s creative rubber has really hit the road with the new Active Wheel. This takes the suspension and propulsion units that would normally be fixed to the car body, and integrates them into the wheel itself with a dollop of advanced electronics to control the lot. Very neat idea, that’s going into the Venturi Volage car, displayed at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

What does drinking have in common with driving?

Big production values, of course. Ads for drink and cars—and not drinking in your car—seem to be the spos that clients spend the most money on. Check out the BCTA winners for instance … the Audi and Saab ads must have cost a fortune. Our favourite, though, is pitching a far more road-friendly tipple.

70s rocks homes

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the way-cool Life magazine archives that Google had opened up for the world via the Internet. Little did we know that treasures such as Frank Zappa at home in California with parents Francis and Rosemary would emanate from the photo archives—and look! There’s Elton John with mum and stepdad. Jeez, what’s he wearing though … must be a pre-hair job pic.

Capital Mukuna Music

Speaking of music, the people behind Auckland’s gig guide, Mukuna, have expanded into the capital. Yes, there’s now Mukuna with Wellington gigs. Good work everyone.

More music: congrats too to the dubsters at BaseFM for getting onboard the Freeview digital broadcasting platform. Don’t have Freeview? We just might be able to help—get an Idealog sub now for you or a gift, and you could win a MyFreeview|HD™ digital television recorder. Details on our website.

Flying high, environmentally

We’re pleased to see the launch of the Air New Zealand Environment Trust that aims to make Aotearoa New Zealand a little more the way it was, by restoring our eco system where possible.

Job of the Week

Interactive Web Developer with Design Experience (P0488)

My client is a North Shore located international company. They are looking for a strong junior to intermediate web developer who also has a great creative eye and skills in web design.

This role sits within the Marketing Department, working with a young fun team. In this role you will also work with the Graphic Designer, however you will be responsible for all web related work.

You will have had 2 years’ commercial experience and have experience working with CMS, CS2, have Flash, HTML, and ActionScript and JavaScript experience. This role will allow you to up skill and learn any new programmes that are necessary for certain projects that arise.

This is an outstanding opportunity for a great junior to advance or an intermediate web developer looking to make a move.



Contact Louise Lawton on 09 379-9303, or apply on our website.

We’re not tired of life

Or London for that matter, which at night from high above looks fantastic. We can see what Dr Johnson was talking about, with all clarity.

Internet symphony no 1

Is Google evil? If it wasn’t for things like Google crowd-sourcing a symphonic orchestra via YouTube to play at the Carnegie Hall, we might just think that. Experimental, geeky, somewhat silly … those words seem to suit Google better than ‘evil’, at least for now.

Lampsta lean

The leaning Anemona lamp by Igor Pinigin from Ukraine is a wondrous piece of lighting art. Err, how would you light the lamp though? I mean, where’s the electrical cord?

Quote of the week

Before now, we really had to test the equipment using an ‘Ouch!’ factor.

—OBO test engineer Reuben Parr on life before high-speed cameras

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