Foundry34 recently attended the Innovate to Success conference organised by GlobalBlackSwan and hosted by Alistair Campbell. As well as the launch of the TDNA application which has been a major project for us over the last 8 months there were some really interesting speakers from very successful companies including Proctor and Gamble, Rio Tinto and Duke Corporate Education. The conference really got us thinking about the role of innovation at Foundry34. Without going into a major intellectual diatribe about the role of innovation in the digital sector, it is obviously an issue we deal with daily. If you aren’t growing, developing and adjusting every day you will soon be left behind. Around 80% of the work we do now wouldn’t have been possible 5 years ago. We are not in a sector that can develop a product then sell it largely unchanged for the next 20 years. The challenge for us as a business is how we can maintain depth of knowledge with such a fast changing landscape and obviously keep our clients informed and at the forefront without being in cycles of perpetual change and adjustment. Our major role becomes about making sense and bringing clarity to technologies and modes of operating that can see alien and confusing even for the most astute of companies. Foundry34 becomes about being able to innovate and problem solve in rapid fashion behind the scenes but to be able to work with clients and provide solutions for their businesses that are relevant and often using cutting edge technology but ones which can be ,managed and integrated into their business models and processes.

December sees the launch of one of the major projects we’ve been working on over the last few months – Jap-Central. Again, ‘content is king’ is the mantra for the project and the company are currently going through a soft launch of the site with trusted businesses and users.

The intention of the soft launch is twofold; one to build up real content on the site in a live environment and get some very useful usability data. We think with the right take up Jap-Central is going to be a huge success.

The guys behind the company are passionate about the product and completely understand their target market and know what makes them tick. The coming months are going to see this online brand really build into a major player in this market.

The new blackswan website designed by Foundry34 has been live for over two months now and is really beginning to take shape.

Content driven sites always seem to (naturally) seem empty until real content is added and users begin to engage with the site. Over the coming months the design and development built into the site should really pay off allowing non-technical users to easily add content to the site, helping users intuitively navigate some great business advice and discussions while linking up neatly to blackswan’s product range.

Last and by no means least August sees a great client win in the shape of global consultancy blackswan. Foundry34 have been selected to design and develop their new online presence and work is already well underway. We see this client as a great coup for Foundry34 and shows that Foundry34 continue to go from strength to strength. More on this brief soon

Remember work experience? Two weeks spent making cups of tea and doing some oh so interesting filing or lifting boxes? The time of year has come around again when we start to get calls from eager school kids or even more eager parents and teachers looking to arrange work experience.

Here at Foundry34 we try to make life a little more interesting, giving placement students daily briefs that teach them different aspects of working in the design industry. These can include typography exercises, non-literal shapes, photography and Photoshop. After a week of this, if they’re on any longer, we give them the chance to work on an imaginary brand identity brief which can include putting moodboards together, designing logos, and whatever else inspires them. In the space of ten days, these kids can learn as much as they would in a year at school.

For us though, work experience can be a real headache. For starters, there can be a full day of simply doing health and safety. Then of course there is having to take time out of busy schedules to set the kids up with what work they’re doing that day and helping them out when they get stuck. But if we didn’t think it was worth doing, we wouldn’t do it.

It’s an invaluable opportunity for school kids, whether they come to our studio or anywhere else! Work experience is a chance for placement students to be treated like a grownup and a professional, and nine times out of ten they respond very well –it’s great to see someone who is struggling at school fit in and show their hard work and dedication. For us it is about offering an opportunity and showing some trust rather than the work they produce though it is great to see the ideas they come up with. Or at the very least, we can still get a few cups of tea from them!

March sees the launch of the Assure brand and website. Assure approached Foundry34 to handle their communications as they wanted to get away from the staid and inflexible image often associated with building control. With ‘respect for design’ as their mantra, Assure wanted to project a professional  and high quality image which could stand alongside the brands of their clients such as architects firms. The brief covered logo and brand development, design and build of the company website and graphic design for their company stationery and conference brochures and associated materials.

Check out their site here:
www.assurebuildingcontrol.co.uk

The start of a New Year and the gyms will be packed with the New Year resolution inspired masses looking to lose the xmas pounds. A far cry from the faddy diets and obscure gym programmes is start up company 2ACHIEVE who have just launched their brand and website

www.2ACHIEVE.co.uk

This company takes a much broader view of health, fitness and nutrition and how they link to overall wellbeing, life enjoyment and work performance.  They approached Foundry34 to develop their brand and website incorporating a client area where they could allow attendees of their course and members to download and access course specific information.  The site and brand speaks volumes about where this ambitious company want to be and the knowledge and skill they bring to wellbeing. Whether working for the commercial sector in improving worker performance and sickness rates or helping parents manage the eating habits of their children they balance an approachable and friendly attitude with complete professionalism.

Check out their site at www.2ACHIEVE.co.uk

Although those involved in advertising or marketing in any way be it digital, print or TV are usually tarred with the same brush of being greedy, sordid and manipulative it is by and large unfair. Although being sordid does sound interesting, Foundry34 along with many other creative agencies see themselves as communicators, finding out what drives people and makes them tick. This does cover what drives people to buy but extends much further into the behaviour and expectations of how they understand and relate. At any one time there are a multitude of factors affecting and defining individuals and societies, how they act and interact with the world, typically being environment, the economy, technology and politics:-

Environment
The environment will be a greater and greater issue over the next decade, once the impacts really start to hit home it is likely to become less of a political or fashionable issue and more one of pragmatics- how do we cope with the situation, how do we move things forward. The West (and increasingly the East) isn’t suddenly going to stop driving cars and go back to more simple existence, and even the fabled Jeremy Clarkson ‘so fuck’ ethic isn’t really an option.

image from: green.autoblog.com

Prediction: We predict and hope that businesses (including ourselves), consumers, politicians and society as a whole will actually start to make realistic changes and get themselves into gear. Just give us a pair of trainers that doesn’t involve suffering and sweatshops and a way to travel that doesn’t mean melting the icecaps without looking like a knitted sweater wearing hippie and we’ll all be happy. Really is it so hard?

Economy
The whole world is still reeling from the financial crisis; greed and fear are not new concepts just the scale and of the deception that, apart from the very real devastation felt by many, makes the average person feel like they have been taken for a mug. Scenario:- you give us your money after all you cannot be paid, get benefits or buy anything significant without a bank account. Then we will promptly pay ourselves huge bonuses and gamble your money like we are on a boy’s night out at the casino. Most politicians and supposed advisors will just ignore it then, when the shit hits the fan, you can bail us out. After your bail out we will go back to normal, pay ourselves huge bonuses again, pay huge court expenses so we can charge you unfair fees then leave you with the cleanup bill in public service cuts, closures of libraries and public facilities. (Is it just us but does the solution of borrowing shed loads, then printing money (as long as you call it something technical like quantative easing) sound not like the thoughts of a supposed economic genius but like a five year old playing Monopoly? Sorry they are much more sophisticated than that.)

image from: telegraph.co.uk

Prediction: Bah humbug.

Technology
Technology can change the way we think and store and process information. Whereas in the past people would take great pride in remembering facts and dates and base an education system on these skills, we now have Google and the internet at our fingertips and we place more emphasis in relating pieces of information, scanning and cross-referencing. In a radio report Radio 4 showed how the actual physiology can change in line with the dominant learning method. Just like a muscle being trained the brain develops in a certain pattern.

image from: howies.co.uk

Prediction: Past technologies have been historically geared to travelling and exploration whereas in its current form it seems to be more about information and self-exploration. We predict that apart from environmentally focussed technologies people may move beyond the screen and keyboard- and look for new ways to be involved in real experiences- just how many times can you tweet before you get bored of the ramblings of a self-obsessed couch potato? We love the Howies T-shirt range log off (send free samples to Foundry34 Ltd.) turn off the TV and do something more interesting instead.

Politics
In the UK we have voter apathy and in the rest of the world we have politically motivated murders. How do we find ourselves in the situation where many more people are interested in X-factor than in elections? The problem was already rife but the expenses scandal can hardly have helped (see previous paragraph- being taken for a mug). What survive on our wage? What we really need to use taxpayer’s money for is lining our pockets, for duck ponds and porn videos (at least the porn was funny; the rest was just a poke in the eye for anyone that is an honest hardworking person). I think many politicians, bankers and footballers have been having secret meetings – yes unless we pay six-figure bonuses we are never going to get the top guys, the ones really at the top of their game- what and where is this planet they are living on?

image from: telegraph.co.uk

Prediction: Any politician that shows themselves to be honest, not to be cheating on their wife/husband and treat people as people not just a bunch of muppet voters is definitely the next prime minister.

www.ne8castings.co.uk