Over the Summer we’ve been beavering away developing a new market research service that has matured and blossomed into a business in its own right.

The new business is iPad Survey and it’s a joint venture with event royalty, Sarah Byrne from Mosaic Events.

In a nutshell the service will offer a team of really great ‘people’ people armed to the teeth with iPads installed with market-leading questionnaire software. These wonderful people will be deployed on behalf of iPad Survey clients to gather survey information, metrics and opinions at any given event or gathering.

We’ve also got lots of plans to use iPad Surveying to gather information and feedback from employees and stakeholders during larger ‘LazenbyBrown Contact Points’ brand development projects.

The software compiles the survey responses and captures all the audience contact info and creates a database of unfeasibly vital data that is then handed over to the client.

We’re over the moon we can launch this service as part of York Business Week as we’ve been booked by City of York Council and Science City York to survey attendees at the Create Your Future event held at Hospitium in the Museum Gardens, 15th November.

Come down, see us and say coochie-coo to our new baby – iPad Survey!

Check out the website by clicking here

Have returned to the studio today after a long weekend, one of the highlights of which was definitely the Galtres Festival.

For those that don’t know, the Galtres Festival has been running annually since 2005, initially with the intention of supporting local beer, food and music to those in the local area. This initial event has now swelled to a festival enjoyed by 4,5oo people and has attracted some household names in British music, including The Lightning Seeds, The Beat and The Bluetones.

What makes the event so impressive is that it is delivered almost entirely by a small team of volunteers and yet it still seems to run like a Swiss watch. All profits are given to support local charities and this spirit of generosity seems to extend to all areas of the event. The atmosphere is genuinely friendly from gate security to the staff at any of the consistently fantastic food or drink stalls.

As well as sponsoring the ‘Firkin Stage’ we were responsible for the design of the new 2010 logo and ‘look’ of the new website. We’re dead proud to be associated with such a great event.

Have just returned from 2 weeks much deserved, rest, seclusion, fun and frivolity. The second part of our holiday was spent in a little cottage next to Calgary Beach on the beautiful Scottish island of Mull.

On a bit of a walk we discovered a sculpture trail that runs through some woods on the opposite side of the bay and we took this picture from the top of the trail. It’s all part of the Calgary ‘Art in Nature’ project and worth checking out if that’s the sort of thing that floats your particular boat.

Mat

For more info, here’s the websites

www.calgary.co.uk

www.calgaryartinnature.co.uk

We’re very proud to have 4 of our New Flesh sleeve designs selected to feature in the Ninja Tune 20th anniversary book, the book and box set is out on September 20th 2010 and features music from the likes of Amon Tobin, Roots Manuva, The Cinematic Orchestra, Kid Koala, Mr Scruff, The Bug, King Geedorah, Zomby, Jaga Jazzist, Bonobo, Toddla T, Daedelus to name but a few!

Find out more and click here

Well,  I just had a a day and a half out of the studio to attend Shift Happens in York. So many creatives under one roof with loads of thought provoking ideas that could fundamentally change the way we work and live. I’m going to Mindmap the ideas that will influence and change LazenbyBrown before those inspirational nuggets disappear into the fog of a working day!

Highlights have to be an hour long live stream from Sir Ken Robinson and Jonathan Harris – both thought provoking and more than a bit special.

Check them out:

http://www.ted.com/

http://www.number27.org/

We’ve just started working with Interaction Recruitment on an Employment Report – and the signs are good that we’ll be doing a bit more for them. The guys we’ve spoken to at Interaction clearly know their beans and understand the value of creativity in branding. It could be the start of something very tasty indeed…hope so!

So, we got a pair of iPads 24 hours ago and we’ve been using them a great deal in that time. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

How it ‘feels’; from the minute you start messing about with it, it just feels exactly right, right size, weight, balance, screen, its intuitiveness. For me, it’s the (current) pinnacle of this particular design ‘path’ that Apple have been developing lately.

What it does; primarily for us it has allowed us to get more out of the internet, and by more I mean time to read, explore links, save for later reading to great Apps like Instapaper. As designers we’re immersed in a world of more information than any one individual could digest – this device is the (current) best hope you’ll have of making sense of it all. It does this through 2 key features, firstly the screen is absolutely stunning and with a bit of fiddling with the brightness, quite easy on the eyes. Secondly, but most importantly it’s how you hold it, you’re more laid back, reclining as if you’re reading a book. You commit to spend more time with the device and all of a sudden the whole experience is not all ‘worky’ like it is with a laptop.

In the studio we’re also finding new uses for it, with the help of the ‘Air Display’ app your iPad can act as a second (wireless) screen to your mac.

We can also see a new format for presentations, meaning we can (finally) do away with the noxious evil of Spray Mount and print outs and present digitally, yeah you say; like on a laptop?!. The difference is the touch screen, it can be passed around a room, projected large scale, you can draw live over visuals and generally be more reactive.

For a sneaky peek at the ‘future of print’ Wired Magazine can now be downloaded from the app store, should give designers a lot to think about.

So, to summarise; this is a ‘game-changing’ device which is still in its infancy, but its uses more than justify the price tag, if you can – buy one, get involved and see what you make of it. Oh, and make sure you buy a copy of Angry Birds HD!

During our work researching different intelligences and personality types we came across this little gem, the mighty mind of Alan Watts commenting on what he sees as the 2 different types of people in the world; Prickles and Goo. So, which one are you?

Not something you see every day, the Shambles empty. Gary worked late…very late..well all night actually, last week and this was Shambles at around 8.45pm on the way in to work. Snapped on iPhone.

To mark the election on the 6th May we’ve cobbled together our top politically inspired songs, which we feel best sum up the mood of the country right now.

Click here for our ‘Election Special’ Spotify Playlist