I think that Vince here may be going for a job as a theatre reviewer, as his reviews are way more lucid than mine… This week he went to Othello at the Lyric, and… he liked it:
“A free interpretation of this English literature classic, very lively and tense. First time I saw a Frantic Assembly show, I really enjoyed the choreography, every movement is neat, fluid and poetic, it proves there is sometimes no need of VFX to produce a stunning performance!”
I am just loving this new launch - really exciting, really beautiful (well done team), and we haven’t launched a gallery site for a few months so you know - I get all gushy!…
Here is the blurb from Sam:
Elms Lesters is a gallery situated in Londons west end, renowned all over the world for displaying and encouraging the work of counter culture and comtemporary artists who began their careers working on the street. The whole feel of the gallery is beautiful, yet raw and brimming with vibrancy.
The site we have created is aimed at being a strong representation of the physical space, using background images of areas of the gallery it’s self, sinks, chairs and spray paint adorned walls we have brought the backdrop that the gallery provides to the artworks in it, to the website. You would expect a site like this with image swappers and scrollers to use elements of flash, however this site has been built without any flash at all and so is completely accessible to all users.
Very soon this site will also feature an online payment system, that keeps the user/purchaser within the site itself rather than navigating off to Paypal or somewhere else, and of course the benefit for the gallery is that the money goes directly to them and not via a 3rd party.
Have a look for yourself: www.elmslesters.co.uk
Amazonia is a project that the Young Vic have embarked on with the Servício Social de Comérico and the League of Quadrilhas in Acre, Brazil to explore and celebrate the popular culture of the Amazon region.
We created a site with an aim for it to be based largely on user generated content, blogs and videos - as well as pictures are currently included and soon we will be adding a music player to the site that will play submissions from users attending the events as well as some of the music created for the project.
Now… I wouldn’t normally be quite so brash but I am loving (nay - really loving) this new launch for Spitalfields Music - a beautiful site that will serve them really to create interest and bookings in the bi-annual festivals and… and… well there is always the technological innovation from the animated background images… Loving it! Well done everyone.
Go see for yourself: www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
(I’m sure we’ll post some actual results here when we have them rather than just my gushing..!)
…one of the best things I have seen in ages and ages…
Tenderhook and DOG by Scottish Dance Theatre at Dundee Rep. Tenderhook just kind of rips your heart out, and DOG is eerie, disorientating and really quite distressed. Beautiful evening - see them if you can - tour details are here.
A quick note about what someone else is up to - DK from mediasnackers, who I mentioned before is doing what looks like a really interesting project with Everyman Liverpool - have a read:
www.mediasnackers.com/report/2008/10/proper-clever-part-two.php
This chap is doing really interesting stuff…
We launched this new site in August 2008 for Deafinitely Theatre - a Deaf led theatre company based in London - and we’re really proud of this one! Their productions are made from a Deaf perspective, so we created a website that not only incorporated British Sign Language (BSL) but made it a key design feature. Short snippets of signing video were also used to welcome visitors to the site, and to introduce key sections. Take a look and let us know what you think!
This is an exciting one… The first collaboration between Mind Unit .Events and Mind Unit .Creative. Mind Unit .Events have created a fund raising appeal for a charity with the aim of raising £180,000. We have created a strategy for the fundraising, have consulted to the board on direction and helped to galvanised them, and then are creating a set up fundraising events, PR work and direct calls to businesses to create support. All backed up by a brand new website and set of printed materials from Mind Unit .Creative.
Have a look:
www.theprimaryproject.org.uk
This week I am loving Google Docs - this is just so so easy to create an online survey or feedback form. This took me 2 minutes to create, and is really quickly added into a blog or CMS… This is just such a great way to interact with your audience and find out what they are thinking, and can be embedded into your site or sent out by email:
Look what those lovely people at Impact Print Display have just said about us:
“Those friendly people at Mind Unit have worked wonders with our website! Ever since the launch, we have had around five times as many enquiries through the website as the old site and rocketed up the search engine rankings. They are always at hand to iron out any problems and offer valuable guidance and advice”
Peter Hamlin, Account Manager
What a lovely man! Their website is at www.impactprintdisplay.co.uk
I just want to say how much I love Nigel Peake www.nigel-peake.blogspot.com
Can’t think what else to say - wicked work.
We are v.excited by 3d. Seen the Mind Unit homepage - really really subtle 3d, but very effective. Have a look a this too -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/meta4orce/launch.shtml
We are thinking virtual spaces - new and untried ways of exploring venues, virtual tours, virtual performances - moving to see a work on a wall in front of you, or watching a video, then sliding out to view another wall, and maybe write on it, and maybe that appears in the real space courtesy of a projection…
Real exciting stuff.
If you were at the AMA conference and in between alcohol fuelled networking and questionable dancing you managed to turn up to the Sage centre you may know that Mind Unit have been holding an e-marketing competition. The idea is one of those business cards in a goldfish bowel affairs and we randomly chose someone to receive a marketing package to promote an upcoming event.
Quality not quantity was the way the list turned out. If you are not the lucky one - don’t worry we’ll still come up with a load of good ideas for you with supporting visuals to help you market your activities - we don’t want you to feel left out after all.
But for Millie Patrick of the BFI - it is your lucky day - Mind Unit will be creating a completely bespoke campaign linking email, sms and social media to create a memorable, effective, and of course utterly free campaign; so we’ll be in touch!
Thank you all for putting your names down, and it was a pleasure to meet you.
This is a really great site - lots of people have been asking us for ‘page-turny’ download brochures, and the cost has been prohibitive - here is a ‘mash-up’ way of doing it: www.issuu.com/
You just upload your pdf brochure, and it makes it automatically. You can then embed it into any site. This’ll work really well for quite a few of our venues - tell everyone!
ooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww is all I have to say…
found these on my camera this morning…
Last week Mind Unit was at the AMA conference for the first time.
We met lots of existing clients, lots of potential clients, and drank many many many cups of tea. Showreel looked ace, as did the banners, and the CDs all got handed out. The seminars were very good too - particular respect goes to:
DK - MediaSnackers - really rousing presentation on social media from DK, some of whose links I am shamelessly linking to below.
Helen Marriage – Artichoke - Part of the team responsible for the 40ft elephant - really inspiring and one of the unofficial themes of the conference - breaking the art out of the conventional spaces and taking it to the people.
John Holden – Demos - www.demos.co.uk
Left with a rallying call to collaborate and work out how to engage with the vast amount of people who are classed as consumers of the arts but for whom actually sitting in a theatre would be hopelessly intimidating.
So what did I (we) take from it overall? A central pillar of Mind Unit work has always been breaking down barriers between the visitor and the venue - trying to negate the ‘ivory tower’ effect. That is the reason behind the e-marketing and website designs we produce, and all of the rehearsal diary things - making the experience of the venue very tangible and unthreatening - to encourage participation and make the venue feel liked it is ‘owned’ or perhaps ‘of’ the people…
Moving forward we need to redouble our efforts as we engage with non-traditional spaces to help people to engage - with upcoming SMS based work, facebook applications and the like - we must take our venues out to the people in new and unusual ways - not expecting visitors to come to us - we go to them…
Anyway - here is our showreel from the AMA…
(’nuff respect to www.animoto.com)
Check out this E-trailer for the Young Vic. An amazing story from a Rwandan company just 14 years after their own genocide, about the holocaust, in french… Quite a challenge to market. The script was fantastic, and this is what we created out of it to tell the story:
The video got nearly 2900 hits. It’s not huge by other people’s standards perhaps - but the show was only seen by about 4000 people. The trailer made people take notice. it made people realise the impact this show could have. it delivered the essential message of the show in a really punchy way while remaining utterly true to the form of the play.
Hey,
Great news - we’re pleased to say we are about to start working for Spitalfields Festival - a really exciting and eclectic mix of concerts and events, designed to reflect the spitalfield community. They cover a broad range of western classical music, from early music through to the “newest of new” music. Spread all over East London venues will have classical music, cutting-edge contemporary sounds, jazz and Chinese music, as well as guerilla singing events around the area.
We’re going to be helping them to publicise their programme as it widens to year round events and work with what looks like a very exciting new brand as ‘Spitalfields Music’. The website and booking go live in September and we can’t wait to come along to some events and see full seats as a result of our work (and theirs too of course)! Should be a really exciting project…
Well, it’s been a long time coming, and has seemed at times much harder than making sites for other people, but it is here - the new Mind Unit website: www.mindunit.co.uk. I feel a bit knackered from it, but have to say it looks good from here. Trying not to look at the bugs which are still to sort out (it is in ‘user testing’ mode… which is a way of saying we didn’t quite finish it…)… Hope you like it anyway - do say if you find any problems…
It seems to pass all of the tests, and uses some cool tech tricks to be standards compliant and accessible whilst still being visually striking and using 3d…
We are off to the AMA conference tomorrow - so the website came in the nick of time - to see you all there!
Ian
Welcome to the brand new Mind Unit .Blog!