The Social Tattoo Project seemed to be quite a popular link we shared recently. It’s a pretty nutty idea – but has good intentions behind it. Basically, they have a bunch of volunteers who will get the most popular cause tattooed somewhere on their body. Check out the video below for a full explanation. Needless to say it raises a lot of questions…

Next up, a slightly less….extreme story. Diet Coke (or Coke Light as it’s also known – not sure why) packaging was on the receiving end of a make-over by Turner Duckworth. It’s rather beautiful, we think, but is (for now) a limited edition.

IKEA once again make it to our best-of with their Man Land, essentially a play area for bored husbands and boyfriends. With TV, Space Invaders, an Xbox, sofas and other games, I don’t think it should be restricted to the male species…

This video game in a box from Teague Labs was genius. A perfect mix of old and new school, it’d please anyone. Maybe not as portable as an iPhone or even a Gameboy, but still just as fun (OK maybe not but the novelty value makes it just as cool).

If you’re anything like us, you love LEGO (if you call the bricks ‘LEGOs’, close your browser and never come back), and you love Kickstarter. Imagine the two combined. That’s pretty much what Cuusoo is – a platform for LEGO ideas that, with enough votes, will get made. I’m rooting for the DeLorean! Check out the blog for updates.

The Nissan Leaf gives us a brilliantly interactive way to discover the car. Walk around it, sit in it, hear more about what you want to hear about – give it a go. Even non-car people should be impressed!

So that’s it for the next 14 days. We’re off early tomorrow morning, so stay tuned to either Twitter or Facebook to stay up to date with our antics work in Madrid!

Adios!

Now it’s time for some more of our favourite links from around the massive interwebs. Get your tea or coffee, put your feet up, and enjoy a 15 minute break. You deserve it.

First up, the brilliant campaign from Movia for their night bus service. Move your mouse and get to see what you think you look like, and what you really look like, after that one drink too many. Probably should have just gone home….

Although the internet of things is no new area, it’s still great to read about and, well, imagine. This is a nice article about just that; the internet of things. From TVs that mute when the phone rings to sewage overflow warning systems, by inserting a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag we will become more connected to objects and ‘things’ than ever before.

You should definitely sign up for Gimme Bar. Gimme Bar allows you to save anything from the web, and we’re talking photos, videos, text, whole pages, screen dumps – you name it, you can save it. Make it public or private, and filter them in to different categories. You can even share directly on to Twitter through it. It’s awesomeness rolled in gold with a cherry on top. Sign up (I believe that it’s actually open for today, but tonight it’ll close back down so you’ll have to wait a few weeks before you get it, so do it – now!).

New Gimme Bar Demo from Gimme Bar on Vimeo.

Here’s another little video for you to watch and enjoy. The Museum of Obsolete Things is brought to us by Jung von Matt/next, and is, well, a museum for all things obsolete, like analogue radios, cassettes, etc. It’s fun. It’s interesting. It’s cool.

One of our most popular posts on Facebook was a photo from the office. This photo. It’s very cool. It’s also very handy to be able to speak on the phone and type – which yes, you can do using headphones but then you always run the risk of looking a bit mad. Another plus is that it fits well over your ears, you can’t accidentally turn off your phone, and (if you’re like me) it’s nicer to use when you wear glasses. You can buy the Moshi Moshi retro handset here.

There you go. Some videos, some advice, and even something to buy. What more could you want? Except a 3 day working week.

Have a great weekend everyone!

So what has caught our eye this past fortnight? From IKEA to the Copenhagen Philharmonic, we’ve got it all!

First up are Penguin Book’s redesigned classics. Six titles with their covers redesigned by tattoo artists. Beautiful.

IKEA Australia go all Braveheart on us – successfully if you ask us. We wish we could have been there taking part.

The INDEX (what’s with all the capitals!) Awards are coming along soon, so don’t forget to get your vote in for the People’s Choice Award. “The 60 finalists for INDEX: Award 2011 have been carefully selected by the international INDEX: Jury as the best of the best Design to Improve Life. As a whole, the finalist group offers unique proof of the wide reach and huge potential of Design to Improve Life in terms of challenges addressed, solutions created and people affected.”

Ben Stiller, whose foundation, The Stiller Foundation, raises money to help build schools in poverty stricken areas, takes a new approach to getting people to the site. If you liked Zoolander and Envy as much as we did, you’ll like this.

From Danish bank, Jyske Bank, comes The Woodward Report. Dedicated to hunting down knowledge and cool stuff, this great 16 minute report focuses about the mobile industry, smartphones, the battle of Android and Apple, and where it’s all heading.

Another tip we shared this fortnight (OK, the only tip we shared) was for Prey. A free, open-source programme to install on your phone or laptop that tracks it wherever it is. We’ve heard a number of occassions where owners have been able to find their stolen goods through this programme, from phones stolen in bars, to computers stolen in burglaries. It’s free. Just, as they say, do it!

This brilliant article from 2010 discusses skeuomorphic design – things like the shutter sound on our mobile phones, or brass rivets on jeans covering the steel ones beneath – basically anything that retains design from the original that were once necessary or an unavoidable result of mechanisms etc.

One the best 404 pages we’ve seen in a long time came to our attention over the past few days. Danish agency Wasabi made theirs into a bit of an Easter Egg. Space Invaders FTW! Coded by Sune Lundby.

To round things off on a more mature note, here’s a flashmob from Copenhagen Central Station that really gets us going.

If you like what you see, let us know, and maybe we’ll do another one in another fortnight!

The speakers were Yun Mi Antorini, Assistant Professor at Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, Founder of boblr.com, and Troels Nørlem, Senior Communication Strategist at Designit. Each gave motivating, detailed cases on how social media can play a pivotal role in user-driven innovation. Through examples such as LEGO Mindstorms, Quirky,  #18DaysInEgypt, Boblr, and more, Yun Mi, Malene and Troels argued the case for involving the users in innovation.

Malene highlighted four points she learnt on her journey founding Boblr. Don’t try to map it out – creativity and innovation are chaotic. There’s no point in trying to make a definite plan as the chances are things won’t go as you expected – take a leap of faith. No one is permanent – there is no definite structure or hierarchy. Neither is it strictly local – if you have a global user base – use it! Finally; just do it – you have to leap in, head first, and see where the flow takes you. Each presentation reflected these points. Companies, brands and organisations must tear down their walls and open up to users. As Malene so rightly said; if your service or product doesn’t fulfill users’ needs, they’ll find a way around this. You might as well learn from them.

It was a super afternoon that ended with some networking, wine, and sandwiches in the sun. Thanks to all that made it.

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Today we headed off to Open App 2011, an two-day event held by The IT University of Copenhagen. The first day focused on developing apps, the second on the market value of having an app. Unfortunately we could only attend for a short while on the second day, but we made it! Martin Delfer, partner and Director of Brand and Communication, gave a 30 minute talk on Designit’s role in the app world.

Covering the transition from print to web and from web to app, Martin demonstrated the benefits and value of creating an app through cases Designit has worked on. Martin can’t talk for more than 10 minutes without making a joke, so needless to say, on more than one occasion he had the audience in laughter, and his fellow Designits shaking their heads.

It was a great morning, and if you didn’t catch us this time, hopefully you will in the near future! Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with events, and check out Designit.com too.

We had a couple of projects on display there, one showcasing our digital communication work as a part of new midwife practices, and a conceptual case for Odense Hospital, reimagining it as a patient hotel concept. While it was great to have Designit represented at the event, it was also the perfect opportunity to hear where others believed design was heading. And boy were we inspired, and happy.

Strategic design has been making headlines all over the place recently, from the ‘creativity crisis’ in American schools to the Danish national design strategy, and as yesterday proved, it’s a bit of a worldwide movement.

We were lucky enough to hear from Chris Luebkeman (Director for Global Foresight and Innovation, Arup), Christian Bason (Director of Innovation, Mindlab), Chris Hacker (Chief Design Officer, Johnson & Johnson), Mikkel B. Rasmussen (European Director at ReD), and Josephine Green (speaker and consultant). Each and every one of them gave inspiring and insightful presentations on how society is changing irrevocably, and how as a result, design and creative processes must be incorporated into just about everything, from packaging to organisational mindsets.

Design thinking has been around for sometime but in the last few years we’ve seen it become a bit of a trend. No wonder really. We are moving out of the economic, mechanistic worldview we’ve had since the industrial revolution and beginning to recognise this flat, social, communal, socio-ecological world we now find ourselves in. Design, a creative, chaotic process, clearly stands as an innovative way through which organisations and businesses can grab a little creativity. The problem here is that through the implementation of design thinking, or any creative processes, through all the management and administration that must be crossed, much of the failures, chaos and mess that creativity thrives on is lost. It’s removed, or minimised to ensure efficiency so that the creative process or design thinking you are left with isn’t anything similar to that you started with.

Today, design thinking – as a term – is on the way out. While we still need this overall mindset (of that there is no doubt!) what we do need to do is to leave behind our hierarchies, our traditional organisational structures, our linear processes that stifle creativity and innovation. We need to focus on the bottom of the pyramid – there shouldn’t even be a pyramid. As Josephine Green put it, we should all be pancakes.

In the socio-ecological world we find ourselves in, the focus is now on the social and the community, and solutions to problems in this world can be found in the social and the community. The focus today is on community needs and social solutions. Solutions which can be found through open collaboration, multiple stakeholders, multidisciplinary innovation, and co-creation.

Co-creation is what Designit does. It has always, from day one, formed the basis of what we do. We believe in user-led innovation – meeting and interacting with those people who have the problem or need on their turf, and including them in the whole process. We don’t have the answer. Our clients don’t have the answer. The consumers don’t have the answer. It’s only by coming together and collaborating that we can find solutions.

Designit believes in collective creativity and we will always believe in collective creativity.

The tablet, as some of you may already know, represents an entirely new mobile platform, and therefore presents entirely new possibilities for consumers and businesses alike.

2011 will be the year of the tablet in Denmark. As demand goes up, and production price goes down, by the end of the year it’s estimated that every fifth household in Denmark will own a tablet. The question; is your business ready?

Come and hear Mads Vad Kristensen, Director of Digital Development at Berlingske Media, discuss Berlingske’s digital strategies and why tablets and other mobile platforms are Berlingske Media’s future.

Our very own Troels Nørlem (Communications Strategist), David Fellah (CEO) and Hans-Henrik Sørensen (Director of Interaction Design) will then take the stage to discuss three different perspectives on tablets; future trends in mobile platforms, how tablets will revolutionise B2B and B2C sales, and finally, NUI (Natural User Interface).

Lasting just 90 minutes, it’ll be an intensive, in-depth look at tablets, and how they will revolutionise business strategy as we know it. Take a look at the programme below;

16:00 Welcome
David Fellah, CEO, Cofounding Partner, Designit.

16:05 Berlingske Media
Mads Vad Kristensen, Digital Direktør for Berlingske Media.
Why are tablets Berlingske Media’s future?

16:35 New needs, new platforms, new potential…
Troels Nørlem, Senior Communications Strategist, Designit.
Why should we take tablets seriously? How will they fit into the ecosystem with smartphones and laptops? How do they affect users behaviours and expectations?

16:55 Tablets will change sales forever…
David Fellah, CEO, Cofounding Partner, Designit.
Why are tablets the sales tool of the future, and how will tablets revolutionise B2B and B2C sales?

17:15 New methods of interaction
Hans Henrik Sørensen, Director of Digital Design, Cofounding Partner, Designit.
What possibilities does NUI – intuitive access to services and functions – bring? A glance into the future of interaction (gesture, voice, 3D), and NUI as a conversation agent.

17:30 Tapas & wine

So there you have it. It will  be in Danish, but I’ll be tweeting from the event in English, and doing a re-cap in English too, so be sure to follow us on Twitter, or follow the feed on LinkedIn.

If you’d like to know more and/or sign up, please check out the event at our Thursday Briefing page.

We know that the consumer is not king, that’s a 90’s mantra, but neither is the brand king. The playing field is levelled, and with that, brand and user meet each other on common ground. We work together as one unit.

We all know the story about Henry Ford, cars, and faster horses, which is in effect what this article claims Apple and IKEA adhere to, and of course, there is some truth in that. Just look at crowdsourcing; not exactly the death of advertising it was once touted by some to be. However, I don’t think any brand believes exclusively in the ‘user as leader’. User-centeredness doesn’t mean ‘what the user says goes’ as this article implies. It means involving the user from the outset, taking the views and opinions of the end-user and then incorporating the skills and talents of designers and creatives to help evolve, enhance, and refine the ideas.

The whole process is easily explained through our approach; we, (Designit) and you (the client) both create the solutions you need. We constantly throw ideas back and forth, never losing sight of the market or your customers, meaning that the end result fits perfectly with your expectations, your customers, and your ideals.

No brand relies solely on their users, and no brand completely ignores their users (even Apple!). Winning innovation and winning design are born from collaboration. It’s worked extremely well for us over the past 11 years, and it’s only getting better.

We’ve developed a few iPhone apps since the AppStore opened July 2008. Just out of curiosity and for the fun of it. Our latest app is Fit to drive? –  designed to increase awareness of drinking and driving.

We’ve had a lot of debates too – also with sceptical clients that still consider iPhone and apps a passing trend – let’s wait and see if that lasts. No reason for iPhone optimised websites either. Hey, approximately 2/3 of total mobile surfing happens on an iPhone. Go to the café next door, ask two people – one with iPhone and one without – whether they have been online with their phone. The iPhone user will say yes, the other is likely to say no.

Our feeling is that it will not only last, but skyrocket. Apple currently dominates this new market because it created it. App-thinking defines the future for a lot of services delivered on mobile platforms. More than 2 billion apps  downloaded, turnover beyond EUR 2 billion and –  60 million iPhones sold according to TechCrunch. This tells us that those who still don’t believe in apps, better start believing.

What is more, if you add the numbers of iPod Touch sold, it becomes the fastest growing  hardware platform in consumer tech history. The iPhone, the apps and the unbeaten user experience of the iPhone have created a new opportunity space. Of course, leading today is not the same as leading tomorrow but it does make the other tech kings shudder.

Creating a successful app-store isn’t as easy. Google and NOKIA are trying hard. Apparently even the Danish AppStore grosses more in a single day than  Android Market in a year. What about Ovi?. Long way to go but together with Apple they’ll create a whole new category of on-line experiences.

Our point of view? iPhone or not, don’t miss the train – deliver your existing or new service via a mobile app. It’s key to your future.