LINUS, MAKE SURE YOU APPRECIATE YOUR TIME THERE

You've Got to Love London from Alex Silver on Vimeo.

IESSO

THAT'S LIKE A MAJOR NEWS NETWORK OR SOMETHING!

A WHILE BACK they put some grass down in Trafalgar Square. It was pretty nice actually. I was lying there reading my book when a reporter interviewed me and took my picture. It was pretty cool. Here's the web article. And here's a photo from my point of view.

Hilariously I purposely said the word 'tactile' because it's a good soundbite!

IESSO

LOOK MA! I'M ON TV...

LONDONIST used my image of the tube strike on their report. Cool. And I even got a credit as required by my creative commons license. Anyway; apparently there will be strikes again next week! HOOR-FREAKIN-RAY!

Here's the link if you're interested: http://londonist.com/2007/09/more_tube_strik.php (Sorry no fancy links today!)

IESSO

NOPE!

THERE IS A TUBE STRIKE. 3,000,000 people are annoyed. I'm one of them. It'll be untill friday, but also possibly next week too. So hooray! It's the kids that are hurting most in this. Why won't anyone think of them?

IESSO

THE LONG WEEKEND

WE JUST HAD A LONG WEEKEND! We couldn't go anywhere, no money yet! but we did explore London some more and saw some really cool stuff! Soryi's boss got us some tickets for the London Eye for her birthday back in July. So we did that! Also, we went to Regents Park to go to the zoo, but the line was really really really long, at least 500m, so we didn't bother. We could peak over the walls and see some animals anyway.

Also, we went to Greenwich, where The Royal Observatory is. It's a pretty cool area, it's a pretty big hill and you have a great view at the top. Cooler than that was the actual observatory. There was a great exhibition on space that was very interesting. AND educational!

But even cooler than that was The Prime Meridian! The actual line of 0º0"0' is taken from the apex of the roof of the observatory. And there is a line that represents the meridian. And a LASER beam represents it in a cooler way. It's all very cool. A cool mix of old-fashioned and ultra-modern. Very good.

The London Eye was pretty cool too. We were in a guided tour capsule, which was informative (although I already found it all out when I was making that video) but generally it was good. The capsule is packed full of people though, who weren't interested in listening to the guide, and talked really loudly, so that was a bit annoying. I mean if they weren't going to listen why did they pay more for the guide? I dunno. Anyway it was a great view and we somehow managed to go on a sunny day!

We also went to the Design Museum to see an exhibition on the 50th anniversary of Helvetica! We were expecting a full-on exhibition, but it was actually just a series of posters in the cafe area. Which means we didn't have to pay £7.00 to get in, but also that there wasn't any original sketches that I was hoping to see. We did get to see a great set of posters though. And one was by our friend Conor & David! Their's was a genius idea! Also, Rinzen did a really nice one.

I think we did some other stuff too, but I can't really remember. We did see Orlando Bloom though. He was in the West End launching his new play or something. There was loads of people around.

IESSO

STILL ENJOYING IT

YESTERDAY WAS A SUNNY DAY so we went out walking in the afternoon. It was nice. We ended up in the Tate Modern in South Bank. We caught the bus back, and took some cool photo's on the way. If you're ever in London, and don't want to pay for a tour bus, but do want to catch a bus that shows you everything, try the 139. It goes from Waterloo Bridge in the south to West Hampstead in the north. I've got a nice Flickr set to show you the journey. You can see Houses of Parliment and the Thames riverbanks, Trafalgar Square, St James Park, Piccadilly Circus and even the Abbey Road crossing. Pretty good no?

Check it out yo!

ALSO: We saw Sophie Ellis Bextor in Soho. Soryi was all "Hey!! There's SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR!" and I was all like "WHAT?! WHERE!" and she was standing like a foot away looking at us yelling about her. It was funny.


IESSO

A VERY ENGLIGH THING TO DO

TODAY AT 4.00PM WE STOPPED WORK AND HAD A TEA BREAK. Today's theme was Yorkshire, which doesn't mean anything to me, bit apparently it's in the north. And the tea was strong. Anyway someone made cakes and bought special tea to bring in. They take in turns. Last week was Devonshire tea. Very fancy. Very cool. Very nice.

IESSO

DAY 1

THE FIRST DAY WENT WELL. It was different from what I was expecting... equal parts more hectic and less hectic than I feared. The hours were long (8.30–6.30) and there's a lot to do, and it needs to be done well, but they pretty much left me alone to my own devices. I was expecting a team of PR-bots, as well as my bosses to be constantly monitoring me, but they didn't. When I showed them what I was doing they were pleased, but then just left me alone to continue.

There are a few unexpected things that I've never experienced in an office before:

- An elevator
- A fruit basket every morning
- A cafeteria
- A coffee maker that makes 7 kinds of coffee and 5 teas
- A Starbucks
- A reception area with sign-in sheets
- A mailroom with delivery people
- A phone book to contact people within the office
- 6 floors with well over 500 staff
- Ricky Gervais standing outside having a smoke

Today is now my second day at work, and it's going to be pretty intense I reckon. I need to get my work done today because I'm not going to be here tomorrow.
(I'm working on a freelance basis, so they only need me here for 2 days this week.)

UPDATE: They've asked me to stay on till the end of the week a few minutes ago. So that's more work, experience, and money!
UPDATE 2: I've had to remove some of the names and details. And officially I got it wrong when I said the workplace was a PR company. They're definitely advertising. And they company I'm in is purely design. Hope that clears things up.

Take care everyone.

IESSO

MISERY OF SOUND

I'VE HAD A FEW INTERVIEWS IN THE LAST WEEK. The best and most promising, and of course most exciting was with The Ministry of Sound. I'd be doing CD's, records, posters, t-shirts, loads of great stuff... I went for an interview with the head designer and production manager, and it went really well! REALLY REALLY WELL! My chances were good. I had a second interview with the head of PR and their external consultant, and they basically bullied the head designer into going with someone else. DAMN!

I had a few more interviews as well, but that was really promising, and sounded like a load of fun! I was really looking forward to it. Like I had never looked forward to a job before. And now I'm about the same amount of miserable as I was a week ago. Despite the prospect of another job... but it's not the one I wanted! It is very organised and professional, and voted best place to work in the UK a few times, but it's not the one I wanted!!! (imagine a baby yelling that about icecream, and that's the voice in my head saying it as I type)

Maybe it's for the best. Maybe if that's the kind of tactics they use then I don't want it anyway. Maybe it wouldn't have worked out anyway. Maybe it's not my work, but my lack of experience. Maybe. I'm still really disappointed though. They really did get my hopes up. I was practically promised that job after the first interview. The second one was a mere formality.

DAMN!

IESSO

A SILVER LINING?

I'VE BEEN TRYING TO THINK OF A GOOD TITLE FOR THIS POST, but I couldn't. Anyway in the past few days I've had a few more intreviews. They were with recruitment companies, not studios, but they were generally positive. The previous post was with another recruitment company, but it was very depressing, they weren't responsive, and I was just another candidate. These other three were much more encouraging, not just because they're better companies (they know more studios) and they were very encouraging. I have some work to do regarding my portfolio, mainly just doing a version without the magazine to distract! Although they do like the magazine too, it does make it more interesting/memorable. Anyway...

The most recent agency has a few studios in mind for me to send my CV/folio to, and we'll see what happens. I'm still terrified, but maybe things will get better. I might even get myself a proper job even!

IESSO



PS> This is gold.

THE EVERYTHING IS OK ALARM!

SO THERE WERE TWO BOMBS IN LONDON TODAY. But we didn't really know about it until we went to Piccadilly Circus (only a few feet from where the car-bomb was) and saw that the streets were blocked off by police. Everything was fine, no-one was hurt. But it was a bit alarming, and weird to be in a city that gets bombed.

Read more here.

We're fine. Don't be worried.
IESSO

HE'S HERE...

LINUS HAS ARRIVED IN LONDON with a bang! Not really, his flight was normal... Anyway it's great to see him! He's our first visitor since we've been here, and since we left. (I guess Bindy visited too actually) Anyway Linus also holds the record shared with my family of 'person I've seen on most continents'. Out of the four continents I've been too I've seen him on 3 (North America, Australia, Europe), and my family on 3 (North America, Australia, Asia)

So yesterday we saw all the touristy stuff; Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, etc... And for the next week who knows? He's probably end up getting on our nerves (which is his style) or drive us insane (with the same style) but at any rate it'll be fun. And it'll lift my spirits, which are at a record low since 'those days'.

I'll try to post up some photo's as they're taken of exciting adventures!
IESSO

"SO ELLIOTT, HOW DID YOUR INTERVIEW GO?"

MAYBE this will help answer your questions.
Make sure you click on the image for the full size.
IESSO

LATE NIGHT?

LATE SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING we wandered around the city taking some black and white photos. They're on Flickr if you want to look. Also, my interview is tomorrow. I'm nervous!

IESSO

6 WORDS:

"I have an interview on wednesday." Hooray! Actually I have another interview on the 25th as well, but it's in Winchester (which is not in London) so I'm less excited. The one on wednesday is in a marketing firm, and the one in a few weeks is a small, creative studio. Nervous about both.

IESSO

STUFF THAT HAPPENED, sponsored by Snapple™

SO THIS WEEK HAD BEEN INTERESTING... sort of. We went to a few interesting design related things, which was good, I guess we're part of the 'scene' now! Firstly we went to the Annual D&AD awards, but we aren't really members, and you need to register to enter, so we were only allowed to see the section with the entries, but not attend anything actually fun. But luckily some of the entries were Wii games, so we played them for a while. I think the Wii itself was an entry actually. So that was a fun thing to do on a Monday night, Soryi got herself a few issues of their magazine, and I swiped some CD's and books (that were being given away, but only to members) and it was fun.

Then we attended a super exciting, super nerdy conference from Adobe! Hooray! It was so interesting they spread it over two days. But actually it was interesting. And in the several seconds I could actually hear what the lectures were about, in between the yelling of scenster students and confused old-people, I actually learnt a few tricks. Plus Adobe's Creative Suite 3 is looking very very nice. I'll miss GoLive though. I don't understand Dreamweaver, and I don't want to understand Dreamweaver. And Flash? No thanks.

One highlight of the Adobe thing was the guest speakers. We heard the president of the D&AD talk about why the winners got their awards. They couldn't praise Nike+ enough! I was kind of skeptical of why Nike+ was so good, but it turns out it really is. Some of the features are amazing, it has a voice that encourages you when you start slowing down, there's a 'power song' button to give you an extra kick, it lets you input how much weight you want to lose, and by when, and it'll work out how much you running you need to do, you can challenge friends anywhere in the world, and plus, it's Apple! I'm very impressed. Only problem is that it only works on an iPod nano. Soryi and I will get them, including nano's soon, we're both going to try and get fit. After all the money stuff is worked out of course.

But cooler than that was a talk from Neville Brody!!! He's a design legend! I actually used him in my 2006 portfolio for the designer showdown! He's very good. He talked a bit about himself and all that, and about his work, but mainly just about how we should take some risks and not worry about getting fired. That's individually and as a company. Of course we need to do some work to pay the bills, but we can't just do that, or we'll go crazy. And contribute nothing to society. The thing that struck me and Soryi about Brody was that while his work is dated, and completely not relevant to today's audience, his message is true. I didn't do a very good job explaining what he said, but it struck a chord. Maybe he's just a good talker.

What else? Oh, my PowerBook died. Sort of. Well, it was having problems with fonts, and missing links and general problems arrising from 2 years of use without turning it off or reinstalling things. So I tried to repair it myself. I used Soryi's restore CD that came with her computer (I left mine in Australia) but it didn't work. It did delete all my files, but not restore the computer. So I certainly couldn't use it then.

I took it to the Apple store on Regent St (next to Oxford Circus) and they were all "you're gonna have to call Apple to sort it out, we're just a store". I called Apple in the US and they were very annoyed, "They are our flagship store, they were supposed to take care of everything for you. We apologise for any inconvienience." Which was nice. I took it back to the store and they had an appointment for me to speak to a technician. I saw him, he took a look at the computer, I explained what needed fixing, he plugged in a cable and 15 minutes later it was like brand new! Aside from the one person who had no idea what she was talking about (she said my computer had been out of warranty for 500+ days, even though I had an extended warranty on it, and in fact it had 500+ days left on the warranty), everything worked out nicely. I'm still a big fan of Apple, not just for it's nicely designed and perhaps overly simple products, but for it's ongoing quality support services.

Lastly, London, and the world I suppose, received it's Olympic logo. No-one likes it. No-one. The head of D&AD slagged it off, and when they asked an audience of 250 designers if they liked it, no-one did. Neville Brody criticised it in front of 800 designers and got a huge laugh and cheer. But I do like it. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's a great new direction for the Olympics. Aside from the monstrous task of acheiving something that matches an incredibly complex brief, the logo is new, exciting and different. For the last 4 or 5 games the logo is basically the same style, completely interchangeable with the various countries.



This logo is either London or Tokyo. The shapes are very Japanese, but they're also very Sex Pistols. Punky, dynamic, exciting! It totally breaks from the obvious images of a stuffy and boring London. I like that it doesn't have any London landmarks, going beyond the obvious. Maybe it could've been produced better, maybe it's a little too radical, maybe everyone in London is pissed off that it cost £400,000, but I think it's a great idea. Incidentally, despite D&AD slagging it, they did mention that the designer did receive designer of the year in 2005! So it's not all that bad.

In the newspapers's they suggested that the logo competition be opened up to primary school kids, and that the winning school gets £40,000. First of all that's a great idea. But secondly that's stupid. The logo isn't just a bunch of shapes that can easily produced in minutes (which of course they can), it has to represent a buttload of complex things, convey a bunch of invisible emotions and do a whole lot of stuff that people don't understand. It really pissed me off to hear people say that a child could do better. That's bullcrap. Here's a better quote:

It's simple. When we hear "my kid could have done that!" we think "success." Some of the greatest logos of all time involve two lines (the Christian cross) or three lines and a circle (Mercedes). Your kid COULD have done that, but she didn't. Nor did she design the graphics standards manual that goes with it. So give it a rest. Or send us her resume.


If this logo fiasco has done anything, apart from piss people off, it's damaged the graphic design industry. £400,000 doesn't cover jsut the logo, it covers the million versions before it, the hundreds of companies developing printed material, web stuff, videos, everything! And now people are demanding that the studios give all the money back. That's crap.

Pisses my right off. On the otherhand, one video did cause epilepsy in 40 people. That is bad design. And I don't excuse that. I try to design with these things in mind. Epilepsy isn't much of an issue for print design, but color-blindness is something to watch out for. Not red-green combos!

Anyway. I didn't mean for this post to have corporate sponsorship and product placement, but it totally did! Huzzah!

IESSO

PS. I love Snapple.

GO APE

Instead of shopping or watching TV, we went to the XTREME!!!! by going to Go Ape outdoor adventure park. High-wire stunts, rope bridge, tightropes, swinging on vines, flying foxes, all in the tree tops, 20m from the hard, hard ground. It was loads of fun! And I'm petrified of heights! Petrified.

Plus, we did a lot more this week, and I promise, I'll post it all very soon.

I'm STILL Elliott Scott, and I will be signing on, and off again, very soon.

MIND THE GAP

HERE'S A SHORT VIDEO TOUR OF LONDON. It's very rough, amatuerish and the compression levels are poor. But it should be still watchable... I can send you a CD with the full size file if you really want... I had to edit it in iMovie, which doesn't allow you multiple video channels and only 2 sound channels, so it's all a bit abrupt. The music fades in a bit weird... Despite it being so crappy, I'm really proud of it, especially the ending. It was a lot of fun to do, although it did take 4 days to finish.

IESSO

PS> I'm chewing gum throughout the whole thing because I've been off cigarettes for 2 weeks, and on the nicoteine gum instead. So far so good.

PLEASE BE PATIENT

SO I HAVE THE INTERNET NOW. I'm posting up a video tour of London soon. I've shot some footage, and gonna shoot some more today. And then wednesday editing, so hopefully thursday it'll be up! It started out as a general tour, but is turning into a quest for dinosaurs. Stay tuned!

IESSO

DARK AND FUZZY

HERE'S ME SITTING IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE IN WEST HAMPSTEAD. It's very dark and the quality is very bad because I recorded it on my phone, but you'll get the gist of it.

IESSO