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Dual control

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

Dual control

We’re always told that outsourcing is the Holy Grail for business success. But is it really? Cousins Caro and Celia Allison beg to differ on that. One runs a fashion label and the other, a merchandise business; what they sell is designed and made here, in New Zealand, and not overseas.

Business heresy? No, for the Allisons, keeping it close to home just makes more sense. Read Amanda Cropp’s story about the creative Kiwi cousins who say they can do things here that the Chinese can’t match.

Barrow your bum

Kudos to Matt Moriarty for coming up with the seminal Nu Zild seating device.

Smarten up

In the current issue of Idealog, we said we’d start publishing some of our features and columns online before they appear in print. Our readers are an informed and, dare we say it, enlightened bunch, so we reckon some stories will benefit from comments and context from readers, sources and experts in the field. First up: ‘The rise of the smartocracy’, Jamie Cullinane’s essay on how increasing IQs and more demanding popular media are changing the ways that people think of brands and marketing. Drawing on the research of University of Otago professor James Flynn, among others, Jamie draws a line from Starsky & Hutch to The Sopranos, via The Simple Life and Grand Theft Auto. Check it out on our website.

Lost and maybe found

David Wolf-Rooney’s brother Paul went missing in 1999, and both he and his elderly mother desperately want to find him. This however is harder than it seems, and expensive, so David decided to put technology to good use and created a simple website to get the global Internet community involved in finding people.

There are rewards for finders, and the lost can also decide they want to remain missing. With over two million people registered as missing worldwide, the site seems like it could make a real difference.

Prized science books

The Royal Society of New Zealand is kicking off its New Zealand Science Book Award this year, with five titles shortlisted:

• The Awa Book of New Zealand Science edited by Rebecca Priestley (Awa Press)
• Falling for Science by Bernard Beckett (Longacre Press)
• Hot Topic: Climate Change and the Future of New Zealand by Gareth Renowden (AUT Media)
• In Search of Ancient New Zealand by Hamish Campbell and Gerard Hutching (Penguin)
• Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bitter-sweet Story by Janet Hunt (Random House)

We’ve read The Awa Book of New Zealand Science and Falling for Science, and liked them both. But we’re doubly pleased to see Hot Topic on the list, as it’s a sister title of Idealog. Both are produced here at HB Media and published by AUT Media. If you’re not familiar with the title, check out Gareth’s Hot Topic blog—a must-read for anyone interested in climate change (even the deniers read it religiously).

The winner will be announced by Professor Richard Dawkins in a live video conference between NZ and the UK, at the Auckland Writers and Readers festival on May 15 this year. A $10,000 prize will be awarded to the author, and $2,500 to the publisher of the book.

Art from a 120kV tube

Eerie CT scan art that’s oddly brilliant at the same time. The porcelain doll looks creepy though, not to mention the detailed skeletal structure of the Barbie doll.

How about something a bit more (weirdly) familiar? New Zild under the x-ray, perhaps?

There’s no time

Kill Bill, parts 1 and 2, in one minute and one take.

Type-ical

Designery types have iPhones, and here’s the mobile game they’ve been waiting for. Kern is “the first and only video game in history with the potential to get typographers all hot and bothered”. Finally …

Job of the Week

Account Director / New Business Manager (P0498)

Potential Partnership Opportunity • Company Merger Option • Wellington

Our client has a great reputation within the Wellington region—a small but well formed design agency with a key focus on brand and a huge passion and knowledge of strategy.

Their offices have all the latest technology and a great collective working environment.

They would like to recruit an Account Director who has a stable of clients they can bring onboard, or perhaps you are a small agency looking to merge with another. Our client is open to exploring a variety of combinations for the right person.

If you feel this is the right next step for you, please send your details to Louise Lawton at Portfolio Recruitment on 09 379-9303, or apply on our website.

 

What’s the date again?

Mercedes-Benz shows how sustainable mobility has become an integral part of its vocational training with the F-CELL, which boasts a joystick, a design inspired by a Benz from 1886 and a top speed of 25 kilometres per hour. Jeremy Clarkson will not approve.

Beautifully failed business models

When traditional media, the entertainment industry and video rental shops protest that the Internet is killing them, is it really such a unique event? Probably not; photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have visualised the forgotten theatres of America, that started disappearing from the 60s onwards as TV, cinema multiplexes and urban decay made them obsolete. Some have survived but are used differently, such as adult cinemas, churches, clubs, bingo halls and even supermarkets.

You can see this closer to home as well, by taking a walk around the centre and inner suburbs of Auckland, noting how in some cases video stores have moved into old theatres, which is a rich irony by itself.

The theatre is a lovely institution, yet we don’t hear many calls to protect it from being ravaged by other media. Just a thought there.

And while you’re at the site, don’t miss Marchand and Meffre’s shots of Detroit in decline.

A southerly fringe

Speaking of theatricals, the Dunedin Fringe Festival starts this week, continuing until April 5. There’s comedy, dance, some outdoor events (brrr!), music of course, visual art and, would you believe it, theatre too.

If you’re down Dunedin way, there’s Chindogu and more awaiting at the Fringe. Check it out.

Quote of the week

“Outsourcing was a complete disaster. You can’t keep control of the quality and inevitably, it slips. I don’t want the stress. I realised if this is what it was like to outsource to Christchurch, what on earth was it going to be like in China?”

—Caro Allison of Dual, on why keeping things in-house makes sense for her

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

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2006-07-21 00:00:00: July 21, 2006

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