DesignYak

Scroll Clock

This is bound to do the rounds, but here's a scroll clock, view it here!

Via Swissmiss

Ribery – Pink Panther – Nike Mercurial Vapor Rosa

Editors use Google street view to promote new album

Editors have used Google street view to promote their new album. Accessing street view through the band's website takes you on a treasure hunt through London where you have to navigate your way through streets to find icons, allowing you to play Editors songs. Good to see something a bit different. Click here to have a go. 

When is Grafik Magazine going to have a website?

Grafik Magazine hasn't had a website for as long as I can remember. I thought, new look mag, maybe a new website finally to go with it. Nope.

New website for...me!

You might have noticed, but I've got a new website. It's a bit thin on content at the moment, but I'm going to be adding to it from now on, it could just keep growing. www.leard.co.uk

Cheese or font?

Another way to procrastinate your way through Monday morning. This game is perfect for all you cheese and font fans. Click here to play

A food blog — by a designer

Attention designers who also love foodstuffs. A Kitchen Diary is a new food blog written by a designer, check it out...

New website for Taxi Studio

Taxi Studio, one of my favourite Bristol-based design agencies, have launched a new website. As with their last one, this is something a bit different, so visit the site, have a go and look at some great work.

Is there a need for design agencies to have a blog?

Interesting article on Design Week's website...

Consultancies should invest time in launching blogs, rather than creating a quick-fix effort, says Christian Barnett, planning director of Coley Porter Bell.

Writing in the forthcoming issue of Design Week, Barnett, who recently launched CPB’s Making Brands Beautiful blog, says consultancies should allow a couple of months for the process, in order to fully prepare and get everyone on board.

He says the most important factor is to work out the purpose of the blog, adding, ‘Many blogs fail because they are rudderless, leading to a never-ending series of “What we/I did today” posts.’
Barnett also advises taking time to find compelling content and finding the consultancy’s ‘natural bloggers’ to ‘lead the way’ in postings.

I'd take this article one stage further and ask is there a need for design agencies to have blogs? I think it can work and be useful. It's good for graduates who want to research and get to know agencies. But I think the agency itself has to ask itself what's the purpose of the blog, is it just a selling tool? 

What annoys me about design agency blogs is that some are hardly ever updated. I think if you've got a blog on your site then use it, if you don't use it, what's the point in having it?

As a blogger myself, I'm free to say what I like on here, you can agree or disagree with what I say, but can a design agency blog give an opinion? Is this why a lot of agency blogs just end up being “What we/I did today” posts? – Because this is safer and won't alienate clients/potential clients? 

Do you know of any successful/unsuccessful design agency blogs?

New Cardiff Design Festival website

The Cardiff Design Festival is gearing up towards another year of celebrating the best of Welsh design with this new website, take a look here...