DigitalAgency

Tag Clouds:

Because I'm married to a typographer, I suppose I'm a bit more interested in typography than most writers.

Tag Clouds seem to be cropping up everywhere nowadays. The link I just gave you is wikipedia's take on them, and of course will be much more accurate and insightful than anything I'm about to write here.

But essentially, tag clouds show the frequency/reach with which words, or tags, are used in search or links.

(I wonder how long it will be before an Art Director hijacks the look and feel of tag clouds for print or TV ad graphics.)

Most tag clouds seem to be based on system fonts right now, but hopefully soon, some enterprising designer/typographer/geek will figure out a way to combine any font with the usage data/point size of the tag. Maybe even based on vector graphics to keep the integrity of the line.

I now realise I'm not only rambling, but straying way off line, and into areas I know absolutely nothing about it.

So I'll end this post.

Here.

;-)

ps. Sorry, I can't shut up about them.

Here's a particulalry fine example of a tag cloud, from a particularly fine and inspirational blogger; Planner, Russell Davies.

Daily Telegraph Podcasts:

I’m hooked.

It’s another example, (like The Guardian), of a newspaper morphing into a broadcaster.

The Telegraph, like everybody else with a web site is now a media owner, and as such can, thanks to the pervasiveness of broadband nowadays, push new kinds of media as it broadcasts over broadband etc. So the press can now compete to some degree with traditional broadcasters.

However, there’s something reassuringly lo-fi about the Telegraph’s daily podcast. (And I mean that as a compliment, not a criticism.)

The journalism is first rate, it reminds me a bit of Radio 4’s PM. In fact it’s just like a 30 minute radio news programme. (Er, that’s because it is.)

But one or two of the presenters are a bit less than polished, which I like. (Keepin’ it real on da net. Or something like that.)

The slightly rough edges here and there are however, sanded down by some very smooth radio operators such as Joshua Rozenberg and Jeff Randall, (National Treasure that he is.)

But a couple of things that rock for me are; i) Today’s edition is downloading now, at 05.57 in the AM, which is a good start to the day as I can listen to it on my 30 minute walk into work, and ii) on the iPod screen, there are some cool lo-tech features I really like. First is that there are text subheads of info on the story on the pod's screen, second, I can scroll through the broadcast ‘looking’ for stories, the timeline is kind of sliced up by story. When I get to a news-item in the timeline, I can click through to get a shot of the presenter or a newspaper headline or indeed Matt’s cartoon of the day.

Okay no biggie, but nice, simple, lo-tech and in some way comforting. (To me anyway.)

A closing thought:

Remember when saying you enjoyed the Daily Telegraph marked you out as a life-long Tory? How times change.

 

Never not draw:

Tom Gauld had a show at Analogue Books last month. (Tip o' the hat to Russell.)

I couldn't make it on the night, but did manage to snag a limited edition book of prints for my nephew Callum, (or iCal as he's known.)

Seeing as I couldn't be there on the evening, I asked if Tom might sign the book for my neph.

Indeed he did:

D&AD Student Workshops.

I've been asked to set this year's online brief for students in Scotland taking the D&AD Workshops.

Marvellous. It should help me improve and get better at what I do.

I have a theory that when you've been doing stuff for donkey's years, you kind of 'forget' how and why you come up with creative solutions.

Having to explain and crit creativity, to put into words, what I've got into the habit of doing automatically, is a great discipline.

Hopefully the students will learn something from it.

I know I definitely will.

I'm collaborating on the the brief and crits with Phillip Lockwood-Holmes from Whitespace. Scotland's Web Design Agency of the Year.

And, I'm enoromously proud to report, and in the interests of full disclosure, a business my Missus helped start almost 10 years ago.

'Hey, I've had a great idea! Let's start a 'Digital Agency!':

It seems that every time I look at Brand Republic these days, every advertising agency on the planet is ‘repositioning’ itself as a ‘Digital Agency.’

Good idea.

But I have to smile ruefully when I see the ‘Digital Agency’ news feeds.

In 1997 I saw how the web and advertising were going.

It occurred to me that a Digital Agency was indeed a good idea.

I’d bend anybody’s ear who’d listen, and tell them I thought Digital Agencies where a big deal.

Trouble was nobody was listening 10 years ago, nobody I spoke to really ‘got it.’

In frustration, I registered the domain DigitalAgency.com, and waited patiently for the world to catch up.

Looks like they did.

Day One.

For DigitalAgency.com, this is Showtime.

It's hardly auspicious though: No clients. No income. No staff. No offices. Just me.

(Apart from that things are going gangbusters.)

I'm starting up with little more than, what I hope is, the right attitude. A ton of enthusiasm, and a great desire to see what it's possible to achieve on, with and because of Web 2.0.

What I bring to the party is 25 years of experience of doing it the old way, as a copywriter and small agency owner. But for the last few years I've been evangelising the impact of the web on our business, and advising anybody who'd listen, to take it seriously and gear up for it.

I suppose now, I'm taking my own advice. (And thankfully, the world is catching up, and the pain of web 1.0's false start, seems no more than just a bad dream.)

We can all start anew, and see what's possible.

When I was 17 I used to wallpaper my entire bedroom with ads from the Sunday magazine supplements. Great ads, full colour dps's of inspiration and craftsmanship.

They filled me with wonder, envy and a burning desire to be part of it.

With Web 2.0, history repeats itself.

The way I feel about working and growing in this new marketing environment is every bit as intense as when I was a teenager starting out in advertising. Only this time, hopefully, I'm a bit smarter and have more to offer.

Launching DigitalAgency here and now, is part online experiment, part exercise in collaboration and an energetic exploration into personal and business growth.

WoooHoooo!

Bring it on.