Idealog
- Business Magazine of the Year MPA Awards 2007, 2008 & 2009 Business Website of the Year MPA Awards 2009
Walking man
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.
Walking man
Did the Walkman destroy Britain? If you were foolish enough to read the Daily Mail, you might think so. If you’re clever enough to read /Idealog/, though, you’ll know that the Walkman introduced a whole new way of gathering ideas and inspiration. As the Walkman celebates its 30th year, Matt Suddain tracks the evolution of portable music and suggests what it really means for the creative economy. Read the story in the latest Idealog and on our website.
Time for some truthiness
Idealog is now four years old. Since launching we’ve won many awards and people have said some very nice things but, like everyone, we produce some rubbish too. Sometimes we can’t even tell the difference. So help us out: we’ve put together an easy five-minute survey to let us know what you like about Idealog, the things you can’t abide, and what your reckon we could do better. We know your time is precious so we’ll make it worth your while: every completed response we receive will be entered into a prize draw with the opportunity to win a THERMAGENIUS heat pump water-heating system worth $4,500, plus $500 towards installation from Leap. So tell us what you think, and don’t spare the poison!
You can complete the survey online in just five minutes; there’s also a print version of the survey included with newsstand and subscriber copies of the current Idealog.
Tricks of the trade
Visual effects: 100 years of inspiration. Now that the wow factor of the latest FX fades so quickly, it’s fascinating to see the creativity of the vintage effects. Love that traffic shot.
Short sell
Great ideas are usually simple. That’s good, because if you’re going to enter your great idea in the Icehouse 2009 Fast Pitch—as you should—then you’ll need to explain it in just 60 seconds. The Icehouse calls it a real-life Dragon’s Den, run in Auckland over three weeks in October.
You won’t be thrown cold to the dragons, however. The first step is to join Icehouse CEO Andrew Hamilton and Ken Erskine, director of the ICE Accelerator and ICE Angels investors, for a content-crammed seminar session on October 8: ‘The three keys to successful pitches’. Learn what information investors and big customers are really looking for; find out how to tailor your language to the critical questions they will ask; and hear how pitching well has helped other businesses take leaps into high growth.
The grand prize is valued at over $15,000 and includes three months in The ICEHOUSE’s ICE Accelerator incubator and the opportunity to pitch directly to any of the participating investors. The total prize pool is valued at over $45,000 and is supported by ICEHOUSE founder The University of Auckland Business School and corporate partners BNZ, BCG, Ernst & Young, HP, Gen-i, Microsoft, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and Telecom.
All that for just an $85 entry free. Read more and register at www.theicehouse.co.nz.
Homeward bound
We had a great time this week reading the responses to our Navman competition. We asked for your most embarrassing stories of misnavigation. Competition was tough, but the eventual winner was Adland creative director Will Roffé, who writes:
“This continues to haunt me to this day (many years later).
“I started life in the film industry as a production assistant and runner. God knows why I was made runner on a really important film shoot with a really important film director, as I had absolutely no clue about driving around Sydney. I knew where Kings Cross was (what Kiwi doesn’t?) and George Street, but that was the extent of my geographical knowledge of Sydney.
“Prior to shooting one early morning, a very stressed-out production manager threw me the keys to her car and sent me off on an urgent errand. I didn’t have a map with me and had no idea where I was going, but figured I’d stop and ask directions. The first four places I stopped to ask directions had staff where English was their second language. FRIG! The fifth person sent me on a wild goose chase. I think they figured I was a Kiwi. The sixth person was laughing so hard at my misadventures and how I was so obviously stressed out at the whole ordeal, that I only just managed to understand where I needed to go, which was literally 2.5kms from the shoot location!
“I couldn’t call my production manager as my cellphone was left on set and the longer my journey took the closer I felt I would be to finding my destination. Muppet. I finally got back to the shoot location (85 minutes later) only to see the entire 33-person crew waiting for me. The production manager was the colour of beetroot, and she was storming towards me screaming every profanity under the sun for all and sundry to hear (I have never had strips torn off me like that before or since). She walked to the boot of the car I was driving, popped it open and proceeded to hurl film cans at me while still screaming.
“Yes, I was driving around Sydney with all the film for the shoot in the boot of the car. It was the production manager’s car and she didn’t remove the film first, but I still accepted my scapegoat status for costing the production so much time and for being a typical male thinking I’d find where I needed to go. Double-Muppet.
“Finding my way around is still a bit of a drama, so I could REALLY USE THIS Navman GPS.”
Your shiny new Navman MY55 is on its way, Will. It has a 4.7-inch screen, Bluetooth, live weather updates, a food or petrol finding function and a petrol-saving mode. It won’t check what’s in the boot though—you’ll have to do that yourself.
Now they are one
Design Assembly is about to turn one. On the evening of September 30, the not-yet-venerable but definitely inspirational event will reconvene at AUT University’s Art & Design building for a typically eclectic event, including Meena Kadri on hand-lettered typography from the streets of India, David Gardener and Andrea Wilkinson on alternative urban landscapes in New Zealand, and Alt Group’s Toby Curnow on grids and tessellations in art and design. RSVP on the Design Assembly website.
Quote of the week
“This is what Walkpeople are missing: the genteel interplay between the soulful music of a city, a street-corner bagpiper merging with a builder’s boom-box mixed with strains of chain-store muzak peppered with stray profanities from the brown-toothed maw of a passing meth addict.”
– Matt Suddain finds refuge inside his earphones.
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.
Matt Cooney
Editor
{A calmer kind of business} Previous
Next {A slice of the pie}
Previously in Idealog Weekly …
October 30, 2009: Man of the moment
October 23, 2009: By the numbers
October 16, 2009: Pavlova principles
October 9, 2009: The secret of the songbook
October 2, 2009: Free and easy
September 25, 2009: What the world wants
September 18, 2009: A slice of the pie
September 11, 2009: Walking man
September 6, 2009: A calmer kind of business
August 28, 2009: We have issues
August 21, 2009: Mincing about in waistcoats
August 14, 2009: Wired on pop culture
August 7, 2009: Trust is not a commodity
July 31, 2009: Fuzzy logic
July 24, 2009: Game of life
July 17, 2009: Grape expectations
July 10, 2009: Blade runners
July 3, 2009: Free: another word for nothing left to lose
June 26, 2009: Poorly pleased
June 19, 2009: The giver
June 12, 2009: Buggy on down
June 5, 2009: Brand Cambo
May 29, 2009: When the going gets tough, go proactive
May 22, 2009: Bayerische Wasserstoffmotorenwerke
May 15, 2009: Rugger blogger
May 8, 2009: Get on our cloud
May 1, 2009: Easy Tiger
April 24, 2009: Tiki tacky
April 17, 2009: The not-so-great indoors
April 3, 2009: A site for sore eyes
March 27, 2009: Dual control
March 20, 2009: Worth their Alt
March 13, 2009: Biofuels or bio-fools?
March 6, 2009: It's electrifying
February 27, 2009: Experience-rich and theory-poor
February 20, 2009: It's a hundred-and-fourteen-pager
February 13, 2009: Own your mistakes
February 5, 2009: Rules—made to be broken
January 30, 2009: Money: that's what I want
December 5, 2008: Framed by the thousands
November 28, 2008: Spank-branding novelty next week
November 21, 2008: In the Loop
November 14, 2008: Your good health
November 7, 2008: Misfits of science
October 31, 2008: No absence of colour
October 24, 2008: Plain-speaking Peri
October 17, 2008: Rebels with a cause
October 10, 2008: Seoulipsism
October 3, 2008: Fall seven times and stand up eight
September 26, 2008: Don't label us
September 19, 2008: Bloody Graham
September 19, 2008: Dream proposition
September 5, 2008: Taxi!!!
August 29, 2008: Up-Skilling on Idealog TV
August 22, 2008: 144 pages of pure pleasure, plus politics
August 15, 2008: Wash down that Lovemark with a Steinie
August 8, 2008: Strange journey
August 1, 2008: SMElly and happy
July 25, 2008: What a dive
July 18, 2008: Softly and woolly does it
July 11, 2008: The saviour from Timaru
July 4, 2008: Last laugh
June 27, 2008: King Kev
June 20, 2008: Slow ART
June 13, 2008: Killing two birds with methane
June 6, 2008: A combine harvester
May 30, 2008: Gold paint
May 23, 2008: Rock, out
May 16, 2008: Goodwill hunting
May 9, 2008: No wine jokes please
May 2, 2008: Who's bad?
April 24, 2008: Succession success
April 18, 2008: Out now or thereabouts
April 11, 2008: Paint by numbers
April 4, 2008: Reincarnated good
March 28, 2008: Making it
March 20, 2008: Knock three times
March 14, 2008: The customer is always tight
March 7, 2008: Beautiful words
February 28, 2008: Goodnight, I'm off to work
February 22, 2008: The art issue
February 15, 2008: Straight to the top
February 8, 2008: H for hot
December 13, 2007: Nothing in common? Perfect
December 6, 2007: Who needs a beer?
November 30, 2007: Dirty secret goes public
November 23, 2007: Don't speak
November 16, 2007: Worthy work (and free beer)
November 2, 2007: East meets best
October 25, 2007: Raid the fridge
October 19, 2007: Looking good
October 13, 2007: Can't miss it
October 5, 2007: Fresh meat delivery
September 28, 2007: If the walls had eyes
September 21, 2007: Phoenix rising
September 15, 2007: Can we fix it? Yes we can
September 6, 2007: Feats of social engineering
August 31, 2007: Doesn't bite
August 24, 2007: Telling us where to go
August 16, 2007: Tomorrow time
August 10, 2007: Going West
August 3, 2007: How to ... be your business
July 27, 2007: Freaky food
July 20, 2007: Meet the neighbours
July 12, 2007: Free Hollie
July 6, 2007: Green queen
June 29, 2007: The truth about youth
June 21, 2007: Walk this way
June 14, 2007: Times ten
June 7, 2007: The ape woman needs a label
June 1, 2007: Impossible is something
May 25, 2007: Yeah, we're still here
May 11, 2007: Trophy time
May 3, 2007: Friends with the band
April 23, 2007: Why worry?
April 19, 2007: Done by the big jobs
April 12, 2007: A rockin' good read
April 5, 2007: No fear
March 29, 2007: Out to pasture
March 22, 2007: Hip-hop and The Human Touch
March 15, 2007: Crazy Frog and Billy T
March 10, 2007: The Benadryl edition
March 1, 2007: We can be Xero
February 22, 2007: Back on board
December 15, 2006: Free beer
December 8, 2006: December 8, 2006
December 1, 2006: December 1, 2006
November 24, 2006: November 24, 2006
November 16, 2006: November 16, 2006
November 9, 2006: November 9, 2006
November 3, 2006: November 3, 2006
October 26, 2006: October 26, 2006
October 19, 2006: October 19, 2006
October 12, 2006: October 12, 2006
October 6, 2006: October 6, 2006
September 28, 2006: September 28, 2006
September 21, 2006: September 21, 2006
September 14, 2006: September 14, 2006
September 7, 2006: September 7, 2006
August 31, 2006: August 31, 2006
August 24, 2006: August 24, 2006
August 17, 2006: August 17, 2006
August 11, 2006: August 11, 2006
August 3, 2006: August 3, 2006
July 27, 2006: July 27, 2006
July 21, 2006: July 21, 2006
July 13, 2006: July 13, 2006
July 6, 2006: July 6, 2006
June 29, 2006: June 29, 2006
June 22, 2006: June 22, 2006
June 15, 2006: June 15, 2006
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Audi designer Wolfgang Egger brings the A5 Sportback to life right in front of our eyes. It’s all about three lines, apparently, but those three lines have been obsessed over. Enjoy the autospeak: the rear comes complete with both accent and elbow.
Latest issue: Under the sea
Tweeted
- Fetching tweets …
Overheard
- Mark on Bigger, faster, more productive:
Fantastic! Finally some vision in establishing a key infrastructure to support New Zealand's future prosperity and commercial competitiveness. Good work Rod, Sam and Steve - your country thanks you for your patriotism! … - Margaret Holmes on NZ Institute thumbs down Key's agenda:
Unfortunately it is not just red tape - it is also the laid back kiwi attitude, compounded by educators who think achieving national standards is a bad thing. - Tim Marshall on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
The target of higher GDP per capita is all wrong. Aiming for it encourages more production and consumption, often at the expense of quality of life. We need to construct a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to guide policy. Fr … - Peter McL on New note:
"You got caught up in events at EMI.." and yet shes STILL with EMI - their local branch is distributing her new album. Wonder why?
I blogged some more of Hollies comments on the details behind the fallout … - Phil Wollerman on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
Brilliant, insightful article, VH.
This situation has principally arisen because - simplistically - the world no longer wants what we are intrinsically advantaged in supplying.
And yeah, it doesn't look like our co … - Anon on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
The answer lies in a) increasing the returns to capital and b) decreasing the cost of capital. To do a) we need to reduce corporate and income taxes and replace them with land, resource, pollution and infrastructure char …
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Web Design & Web Development, Interactive Media! Ardent is more than a web design company. We can be your creative design partner, your digital expert and strategic advisor, and provide you with a high level of digital production services! We confidently say that we are reliable, experienced, on budget, and on time! What more could you ask for? -
Barry Ross Smith - oil painter
Oil paintings of our people, our lives, our land - More in the Idealog Directory
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