The Neighbourhood - Manchester design, illustration and animation studio

You can never have too much inspiration and we believe one of the most infectious forms of inspiration is to hear about people's passions first hand.

In addition to our monthly team inspiration lunches we are also inviting external speakers to come and tell us about what they do, how they do it and what makes them tick.

As longtime fans of local legend Brendan Dawes we thought it timely to hear what the man had to say for himself. Quite a lot, thankfully.

We were entertained, informed and enchanted by his refreshing approach to the art of making stuff, on being a generalist, serendipity and a whole host of lovely tangents.

You too can enjoy a bit of Brendan via his website, with this talk about 6 things he thinks are important in interactive design, or go buy his new invention POPA.

 

Following the success of our talk at the fantastic show and tell / ’not-working’ event Glug in London in 2010, organisers Studio Output invited us down to speak again, this time at their biggest event yet - the 2011 Christmas Special.

Jon, our Creative Director hit the 1,000 strong audience with a bit of Northern inspiration with a curiously titled talk, 'Fish, Smink and the Cubic Tree of Light' - a cross section through some of our recently completed projects.

With a stellar line of the UK's top design studios, the evening was jam packed with inspiration including Jason Bruges' behind the scenes stories about public art commissions, the always entertaining Mr Bingo, Studio Output's baptism by fire into the world of projection mapping, and Airside's  final swan song from the UK design scene.

You can watch Jon's talk here. 

We recently finished this cinema advert in collaboration with our friends at Hemisphere, to promote the exhibition ‘Once Upon A Wartime’ at the Imperial War Museum North.

The exhibition explores themes of loyalty, separation, excitement, survival and identity, through the true life inspiration behind five powerful books for children. War Horse, Carrie's War, The Machine Gunners, The Silver Sword and Little Soldier all look at the experiences of war and conflict through a child’s eyes.

The final piece is currently airing in cinemas in the North of England, and can be viewed here.

As part of our developing laboratory of creative technology, last week we received our first shipment of Arduino parts.

Like two excited young children Stu and Rob took some time out to explore the box.

Our first experiment was to setup a temperature sensor and the 16x2 line LCD display. Just about a 100% success.

The figures being sent to the LCD are slightly out, something to do with the mathematics that convert the sensor voltage to a celsius temperature. To be investigated!

Cracking TV land can be hard at the best of times (just ask Timmy Mallett). One minute you're a prime time show-stopper, the next you're tomorrow’s fish ‘n’ chip paper! Ouch...

So, to have not just one but two projects created by the team here in flagship spots on BBC, ITV, digital and satellite channels is, well, something to shout about.

And before you ask Strictly Come Dancing sadly haven't been in touch with our Stu regarding his efforts at the Christmas party. No, our work for the Saucy Fish Company and The Magicians is on TV!

The new series of the Magicians has just started to air on Saturday evenings on BBC1, with a new presenter and new acts along with our refreshed titles and graphics package. Catch up with the series here.

Over on ‘the other side’, following initial rave reviews from early trials in both the Yorkshire and South-West regions (resulting in some supermarkets selling out!) - the Saucy Fish TV campaign has gone national. See the advert we created here or watch out for it on your screens during the ad breaks of some of the nations favourite evening programmes. Lets make 'Fish Without the Fuss' a tea time classic!