Our Favourite Things in May

1. The Grounds
Sydney's newest cafe slash coffee grinder with a whopping garden, stocked with chickens, strawberries, herbs and the works. Making an impression with foodies from get-go this is one place to watch. We hear an outdoor woodfired pizza oven, outdoor bar and sunday spit roast are on the cards - how good is that?!?!

 
2. MCA
Free - yep. Water views - double yes. Rooftop cafe with the ultimate view of Sydneytown - triple-YES!!! Definitely check out the multi-million dollar reno and chow down on some food while you're there too.

3. Friday cheese platters and pixtos n' paella at Bocata
Our local downstairs Spanish joint serves up a mean paella on fridays for only ten buckerunnies! Ka-ching! And you get a pixtos to start too - score. Then after lunch we encourage a large cheese platter with a fresh crisp white to get you in the mood for the weekend. Well, that's how we spend our Friday arvos - what about you?

Shopping meets Social Media

Hmmmm, not sure we'd like this. But it'll be interesting to see if this phenomena takes off. May help those indecisive peeps or on the other hand, help us choose the hot ticket items. Our ticket is that Sportsgirl may trial this technology!


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Identity love: Icon Face

Hello, graphic identity.
Oh how this makes us swoon.
Black and white with pops of colour, overlay, geometric, bold, eyecatching.
Total 'oh yeah!'.

Social Media Moves On From Words

Social media is moving into more visual forms. The rise of pinterest and the heavily used Instagram are two of the most used 'visual social media'.

Why? It's simple. Taking pictures is easy, everyone gets to be the 'photographer' with the help of iphones & smartphones and we can take a snap at any time and at any place. Better still language is no barrier. We are able to capture, share and then create conversations via these visual social media platforms.

If you need a daily challenge (and there's no prize involved) just the feeling of accomplishment get involved in the photo a day challenge put together by blogger Fat Mum Slim. Just use the list as inspiration and definitely have a heap of fun - if you miss a day - don't fret just move on!

No rules, the skies the limit just remember to hashtag #photoadayapril. The list is below and see some of the photos already added to this month's challenge. So are you gonna join get on this bandwagon?

The collection

We love seeing a brand in it's entirity. Makes you realise that there's so much more than just a logo. This beauty for "The Collection" was created by Mind Design over in the UK. It made us seriously swoon.

The Collection is a restaurant, cultural event and retail space created in collaboration with Tom Dixon. How awesome is it and the identity design?!

Do you Pinterest?

It's the latest craze, we've hopped on board. Stuff all the paper sticking, stapling, scissor cutting - pinterest makes it easy to virtually create moodboards for things like home ideas to the ever popular wedding inspiration boards. But for us, we're using it as a tool to find design inspiration. Follow us on pinterest here.

In the meantime, this pinning craze has also been used for marketing promotions and brand enhancement. Two recent campaigns that have utilised Pinterest are Kotex and Kikki K.

Kikki K teamed up with Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) and asked pinners to create a digital fashion inspiration board using pinterest, inspired by Kikki K's new seasion collections for a chance to win; tickets to LMFF, a funkis prize pack & Kikki K's new collection. In order to be in the running to win and also to judge all the pinterest boards, the pinners had to submit their board onto Kikki K's facebook page.

Such an innovative campaign, that got users interacting n' getting inspired by current brand collection but also linking a primarily stationary based brand to a wider fashion audience. Clever stuff!

Next on the Pinterest boat, but more of an international campaign - is this well researched and genius campaign by Kotex. It gathered big numbers in terms of interactions between consumers and saw its online profile skyrocket simply by pinning. See the whole thing come to life in the video below.

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March Madness at 31STHQ

March already?! Geez, this year has run away from us. We've been heads down, go, go, go with a heap of new work completed, a H.U.G.E. move to a new office space (if you haven't heard already) and after months of artworking, organising and uniform-finding our B.I.G campaign for Impulse Love Story went live. Wow-wee it's been great to see all the hard work, sweat finally come into fruition.

Check out the whole March Newsletter here & in the meantime take a peak at our campaign for Impulse Love Story too below.

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Sound & Visions Design Talk

We love a good collaboration - don't you? On top of that a freebie - even better!

Australian Infront is presenting a series of talks (ALL FREE) called Sounds & Visions, which will see a panel of experts talk about the wonderful world of design and music. The lineup for the first one looks pretty neat too; Sonny Day of WeBuyYourKids with Rhett Wade-Ferrell from Moopjaw, David Homer from Debaser with Andy Kelly, director of Winterman & Goldstein.

I'm sure there will be an opportunity to get amongst the chit-chat and ask some questions. As its a freebie, make sure you get in early for the very best seat. Meanwhile for more updates check out the Sounds & Visions facebook page.

The Tate

Can you feel the buzz in the air? It's a really exciting time in Sydney; really interesting new cafes popping up from warehouse spaces to hole in the walls to laneway pop ups and a whole heap of new bars, to give us Sydney-siders an alternative to those big bar guns and our usual hidey-holes.

Last week, The Tate launched - just above the Toxeth Hotel in Glebe (which looks like a good food hole too!). Comprising of a rent-free n' commission-free gallery space and rent-free artists studios by Sydney’s Lo-Fi Collective: co-founded by Peer Group and Riversdale Group and co-curated by Marty Routledge and Christopher Loutfy. It's about housing a curated family of artists from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, with the objective of re-invigorating Sydney’s arts and cultural scene.

What a great initiative, hand-down we need more of these spaces to bring back the arts culture and a move into a more community based city.Artists can apply for shows and spaces by emailing their CV and examples of work to chris.loutfy@peergroupmedia.com.

Interactive Videos

Although this kind of video has been around for a while, it's only just popping up and being used with purpose. An Interactive Video utilises clickable interfaces to link  a series of streaming videos online - some might say a little bit of a mind-mish-mash cause you are clicking on buttons and interactive areas of the videos, then going down a virtual youtube path. Weird but somewhat addictive.

This is one of the best Interactive Videos we've seen. One, cause we're huge Mad Men fans and as it is a teaser to the upcoming season of Mad Men 5 - it really takes the fan down three possible paths that relive previous story-lines and take the mickey out of the characters as well. So click and watch away!

Bookmarked Lately

Pop Up House

What happens when a blog wants to move into the real world and really engage their readers? Well, for The Design Files it was by finding a house in Fitzroy, Melbourne, then decking it out (all rooms) with totally divine objects, furniture, bedding, seating even rubbish bins - so that readers could come and experience the "real-world-Design-Files".  Crazy idea huh?!

From this vid, it looked incredible and really touched base with the readership whilst engaging Australian design talent, gathered new devoted readers and showcased the faces behind the blog. Quadruple-whammy! Check it out.

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The Design Files Open House ! from The Design Files on Vimeo.

Cut and Slot

Don't you just love a diecut that can then transform into a 3D object? Ahhh, the simple joys. But this little a promotional piece for The Rabbit Hole Ideation Cafe, definitely makes an impression, and a super cute desk mate too. Add a touch of fluoro n' letterpress we are *swooning*.

It's a green-volution

We just adore this simple idea that makes the ugly and problematic things in life so much better n' beautiful. Clever little cookies!

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