14c Studio

There are various projects in the pipeline, including a new short film by 14c member Douglas King called ‘Data Entry’, where the whole team will play a part, both in front of, and behind the camera.

Unfortunately, combing your skills inevitably brings serious procrastination sessions, but hey these usually lead to moments of creative genius. That’s just what we do.

More moments of creative genius to follow…

The INSP connects and supports over 100 street paper projects in some 40 countries worldwide, and supports new projects in the developing world, to create employment for homeless people.

Ramsay filmed the INSP Civic Reception 2010, held at the Glasgow City Chambers. The video was edited and encoded for the web, then uploaded to YouTube for the public to view online. See the video below:

Ramsay has volunteered his design services to this great cause from as far back as 2007, designing items such as business cards, email newsletter templates and even logo design for Street News Service, the news agency of the INSP.

The original business cards for the INSP were designed in 2008, but Ramsay recently updated the design and information to include new members of staff, job titles and contact details as you can see below.

INSP Updated Business Card

The team have a number of ‘Chairpeople’ from across the world and were holding a board meeting in their Glasgow office, providing Ramsay with the perfect opportunity to take updated staff photographs, a few of which you can see below.

After working with Ramsay on the various design tasks he carried out with the INSP, Maree Aldam (Network Services Manager) wrote:

I have worked with Ramsay several times, whilst working for 2 different NGOs. He has volunteered his design and photography skills on a number of occasions, in support of our charitable work. He produces work of an incredibly high standard and has managed to fit in voluntary work around a very busy schedule, for which we are very grateful.

Ramsay continues to lend his services to the INSP, in the hope of helping homeless people across the world gain employment and shelter.

Robert Burns Gifts' new logo

The new Robert Burns Gifts website is an e-commerce outlet for Robert Burns related products and memorabilia. The project involved:

• Brand and Logo Design
• E-commerce Website Design and Build
• Product Photography
• Social Media Set-up and Integration
• Printed Material Design

Visit the site at: www.robertburnsgifts.com

The Bagging Scotland Website

The new Bagging Scotland site is live in ‘beta’ stage, encouraging people to ‘bag’ Scottish Castles, Whisky Distilleries, Islands and Munros (mountains over 3,000ft) by visiting them and getting your photograph taken there to prove it.

The site is a fully-functional social network, providing all the familiar communication tools of social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where ‘baggers’ can communicate and share their Bagging experiences. This then provides Baggers with a resource that can help them ascertain what, or where, they want to Bag next.

After they have Bagged something (or somewhere), Baggers can then provide their own Bagging feedback in the form of what Bagging Scotland like to call a ‘traveblog’ – their own customisable blog, based on the world-renowned blogging platform Wordpress.

What are you waiting for?! Sign up at www.bagging-scotland.com and go Bagging Scotland’s Castles, Whisky Distilleries, Island and Munros now!

Google Chrome Logo

Chrome has made online life for the average user much simpler, safer, faster and generally more efficient. Chrome is also at the forefront of online technology and standards, leading the current browser-race to be compatible with the various aspects and features of the impending mass-introduction of HTML 5, the latest version of the ‘language of the web’.

Chrome (amongst many other features that could be listed here) provides Extensions that can aid your browsing experience further, by allowing quick access via the browser-window to popular online services and user-interface manipulation. This is nothing new, as Mozilla’s Firefox browser has done this for years; Chrome just does it better.

If you try Chrome for a week, you won’t look back. Here are some useful Chrome Extensions to help make everyone’s web-life that little, but oh-so-satisfying, bit easier:

• Chrome SEO – Check to see how a website is ranked in search engines and many other useful Search Engine Optimisation tools.
• Mini Google Maps – One-click access to Google Maps, ideal if you’re dashing out to an unknown destination and need some quick directions.
• Google Tasks – A more than worthy substitute for the tried and tested ‘post-it notes’ and ‘to-do-lists’ – but even more simple and organised.
• Google Mail Checker – Displays unread messages of the popular email system from Google, creating more browsing space by eliminating that pesky extra tab/window you need to keep open so you can check your mail all the time.
• Smooth Scroll – If there was one complaint about Chrome, it would have to be the ‘jumpy’ scrolling on a page. But don’t worry, this extension will smooth the scroll of pages in Chrome to your browsing pleasure.
• Favicon -  A little bonus for Google search results: get the favicon (the small icon that precedes the URL of a website in the address bar) to show for each search result item. Nice touch!
• Google Dictionary – Allows you dictionary definition with just a double-click on any word, on any web-page, in pretty-much any language.

These are just some examples of a vast selection of Extensions for Chrome; there is an extension for just about anything (and more!) that exist to make online life easier for you.

If you currently use another browser (particularly Microsoft’s default browser Internet Explorer) and want to try using Chrome, you can download it direct from the Google Chrome website.

Google also are in development of creating a full Operating System to rival that of the well-established industry leaders such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS. The new OS will come under the ‘Chrome’ title which is derived from the origins of the Chromium Project; the open-source code project that made possible Google’s venture into the internet browser and OS market.

The newly-released design will be the face of Glasgow for the next 4 years on the run-up to the city hosting the 20th Commonwealth Games, so expect to see it ALL the time!

Good! It’s crisp, recognisable and legible from far away and at small sizes, in fact, it’s everything a logo should be. AND it was designed in Scotland by Marque Creative. We should be proud!

Plus, now that the Transport Museum is finally closing in April to move to the fabulous new Riverside Museum (see photo below), as a potential host for some of the games in 2014, hopefully KelvinHall will get some much-needed attention and the expansion (into the old transport museum) it deserves. It has, after all, held some world-wide competitions recently, and this is how we welcome them? (see photo below)

Here’s to a positive outlook on the next 4 years for a change!

Coat o' Airms

It seems Bagging Scotland is really gathering momentum now, and with their uber-fancy Coat o’ Airms, it looks ever-more-likely that the projected launch at the end of March will go ahead.

We recently managed to add a staggering 6 items to our ‘Bag’ in one very eventful day, including 3 Malt Whisky Distilleries and 3 Castles.

The day started out (fairly) early at Glengoyne Distillery near Killearn, then followed a relatively short journey to Fintry where Culcreuch Castle was duly added to the ‘Bag’.

Sandwiches and snacks were had, then it was straight back into the temporary Baggin’ Waggon (the ‘real’ Baggin Waggon is on its way!) to travel north towards Callander, where a trip along a sneaky back-road to Doune saved some precious Bagging time in the busy daytime traffic (who would have thought eh, traffic in the highlands in FEBRUARY!) where the team also added Doune Castle and Deanston Distillery to their Bag.

Then it was further north again towards Crieff, where the Famous Grouse Experience was added to the Bag, before also adding Stirling Castle on the return journey to Glasgow.

The day was documented by 6 fabulous photos, providing real Bagging evidence:

Bagging Scotland is now on Flickr – you should join in the fun and post photos of you ‘bagging’ (photo of your face in front of the building, sign or distinctive landscape) your favourite Castles, Islands, Munros or Whisky Distilleries.

The 'Mad Scientist'

The video was created for The Prodigy Video Competition and stands the chance to become the official video for the single when it is released in Spring 2010.

It was directed and created by Furegious and features a ‘Mad Scientist’ that is turning humans into pet dogs – Prodigy style!

All submissions have been posted on DailyMotion.com as stated by Liam, Keith and Max of The Prodigy in the competition rules. You can see Furegious’ video submission below:

Turn the volume up!

Results of the competition will be announced mid-February 2010. Keep your fingers crossed and be sure to rate the video on DailyMotion.com

UPDATE: Unfortunately the above video didn’t win the competition, the winner can be found here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc7d8g_the-prodigy-run-with-the-wolves_music

the colour of the internet is a question you can help to answer!

Imagine you have just been appointed the creative director of the fictional World Wide Web Society, and your first task is to re-brand ‘the internet’.

Where do you start?

Well, you could begin with the origins of the web and Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s stroke of genius when inventing the World Wide Web as we know it – the popular Operating System and Internet Browser of the time (X Window System and ViolaWWW respectively) were primarily monochrome in appearance.

But let’s get this straight; black, grey(s) and white aren’t colours! They are tones.

You could also say that the Internet was limited in its early days to web-safe colours, but that doesn’t exactly narrow it down – there are still 16,777,216 of them!

Today a large proportion of our internet connections are channelled through fibre-optic cable which uses light to transmit data… so that opens out the possibilities even more!

What do you think? What would you do? Give us your answers and comment below! Be as witty or as controversial as you like, we are on the internet after all!

Ramsay’s favourite answer will win a printed copy of a bespoke, one-off piece of artwork featuring their name and answer. A selection of the best answers will also be featured here on this page.

All answers must be submitted in the comment form below (or tweeted with #colouroftheinternet) before Midday GMT on Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February 2010.

———Competition Now Closed ———-

Thanks to everyone who took a minute to speak their mind – a winner has now been chosen. The winner’s prize is currently in production and will be delivered soon.

Ramsay had to agree with Samwello on his winning comment:

Yellow is the colour of enlightenment. The internet is used for so many reasons, but most of all it is used for comunication and the passing of information from one to another…

PLEASE NOTE that the poll is still open – Keep on Voting!! – but be aware you do not stand to win a prize by voting in the poll.

The Ship Website

The Ship (aka ‘The Ship On The Shore’) is a seafood restaurant and bar located on the Shore in Leith, Edinburgh.

The Ship’s identity was developed based on some existing features (such as the typeface ‘Kimberley’) and the newly-created art by Davy Macdonald that will feature on the restaurant’s own-brand champagne label.

Whether it’s just a drink and a light lunch you’re after, or our luxury seafood ‘orgy’, accompanied by our own Champagne, The Ship offers informal, understated excellence. We aim to supply Scotland’s best seafood dining experience.

The website is fully content-managed allowing the client to update the menus and other content on the site. A Twitter and LinkedIn account were created and integrated into the website to allow The Ship to use Social Marketing to target potential customers online.

Below you can see The Ship on the Shore at night:

Photo of The Ship at night, taken by Ramsay

The project was carried out in association with CullenSkink.