A very interesting documentary about how we could be facing the end of a free and unrestricted internet within the next few years, if the USA is anything to go by…
]]>A touch screen kiosk for RasGas (on behalf of Myriad Media) and a plasma loop for Heath Lambert insurance (on behalf of Sears Davies)
]]>Hopefully we will all have a happy, fulfilling and prosperous year and show two fingers to the economic doom mongers on Radio 4’s today program.
]]>Coda, from Panic software, seems to be it.
It has a beautiful interface, intuitive, uncluttered and easy to use. It combines an FTP client (for uploading files to websites), a code editor (for the programming bit), a terminal (for talking to other computers) and reference books.
The killer bit for me is that collegues working on the same project can actually be editing the same document as I am working on, and I can see what they are typing - which, hopefully, will reduce the inevitable over-writing someone else’s work situations that we face on a weekly basis.
]]>Magento, the system we have been exploring for the last couple of weeks seems to do pretty much everything you would expect from any of the top end licenced systems. It can mange promotions, email campaigns, multiple payment gateways and will accommodate some pretty nifty design elements. We have a couple of large-ish e-commerce projects in the pipeline, and will hopeful be using Magento for both - so watch this space.
In the mean time, feel free to check it out - so far we have yet to underwhelmed. http://www.magentocommerce.com
]]>The principle aim of this site is to let our client work do the talking. So please feel free to have a poke around and look at some of the great things we have done over the last 12 months.
Any comments and feedback grudgingly accepted:
Marc Curtis
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News in Monkey Towers:
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Commissioned by Sears Davies at short notice, to produce an exhibition plasma screen loop; Exploding Monkey turned around this 12 slide animated sequence in record time.
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Working with Myriad Media, Exploding Monkey designed and produced this touch screen kiosk in record time.
As well as responding to the users’ touch with fluid animations (like dipping your finger in a pool of water), the kiosk contained animated images and a range of high quality videos (expertly edited by Myriad Media)
The kiosk application was installed for a conference in Qatar.
The example on our site has only one of the videos included - at low quality (as a kiosk application it was always a little bit to big for the web!)
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Working closely with Crossing O’Sullivan on behalf of their client - Castlestone Management, Exploding Monkey has built the ultimate microsite system.
Well, the ultimate microsite system for this job.
As new funds and partners are added to the Castlestone Management investment portfolio, so new microsites can be added and co-branded.
Each site can be managed from one password protected control panel by the client.
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brief Dar Al Handasah already had a huge amount of online data spanning their worldwide network of companies and projects. This site needed to provide a coherent way of easily navigating around this huge resource, and play a key role in both Dar Groups advertising and marketing activity.
solution Exploding Monkey, working as part of a multidisciplinary team, built a highly dynamic flash interface, adaptable and scalable beyond the dreams of most marketeers. As well as looking great and showing off the enormous volume of work Dar has been responsible for over the last 60 years, the site also provides deep linking facilities (which many flash sites don’t), enabling specific pages within the site to be targeted from email campaigns and press releases.
results Dar are extremely happy with the site they now have, and quite rightly so - it scooped a number of awards.
See the Dar site here: www.dargroup.com
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The brief A scalable, dynamic website with all of the elements we have come to expect from web community sites - blogs, wiki, forums, member management, knowledge base, advertising… (the list, quite literally. goes on)
The solution Drupal, an open source content management system, presented itself as being the best tool for the job.
Some snazzy design and a lot of testing later… and we think we have built the definitive HR community website.
It’s early days yet, but the membership is growing and the client has high hopes for the development of DiscussHR in the future. In fact Phase II is already being planned.
The site can be seen here: www.discusshr.com
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These are a smattering of some of the emails we have designed, built and broadcast.
We offer a complete end to end solution - we can take your data (or advise you about purchasing an email list), clean it and use it to broadcast emails.
We can then supply you with up to the minute reporting (who’s opened the emails, which ones bounced, who’s clicked through etc).
We can build you a microsite so that the emails actually click through to something and, of course, we can build the emails (using email marketing best practice)
And we can do all this (and more) for far less than you think.
Working with outdoor advertising specialists, Hive Associates, we devised this brilliant bit of Flash magic. A microphone fed our Flash movie sound waves and the resultant reading is displayed in decibels on a 2 meter LED screen.
Passing public were able to see a real-time representation of the current noise level in their city. These boards were so successful, that many locals started checking the readings as part of their everyday commute.
The Flash driven display boards were installed in prominent locations in Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid and Milan.
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Pedro Ximénez brings together the Spain’s best wines to create award winning Montilla PX wines.
This site showcases these amazing wines with images and downloadable factsheets.
The client (Focus PR) has complete control over the content of the site, placement of images, downloads etc - not to mention access to up to the minute stats on visitors to the site.
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Brief Capgemini are a major exhibitor at a number of industry conferences in both Europe and the US. They needed a neat way of getting their message out to the delegates.
Solution Based on Capgemini’s existing branding and conference stand design, we built a high impact interactive presentation containing video, PDF documents and links. We suggested that the presentation be loaded on to USB keys rather than CD ROMs for two reasons.
1 - The keys are more eye catching and more likely to be used by delegates and
2 - Even after the delegate has long since deleted the contents of the key, they will still be carrying around a Capgemini branded item for some time to come (probably with pictures of their kids and a download of the latest Radiohead album on it)
Results The keys and the presentation went down really well with client and audience alike. Expect to see more work for one of our favourite clients soon!
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Working with Hive Associates, a novel use of Flash on a 3 metre high LED display board in the heart of the London’s West End.
The project combined a number of exciting technologies. Members of public were stopped on the street, their photos taken with a digital camera, uploaded to a server, edited and then uploaded to the flash movie running on the LED display.
brief Vodafone had an information packed Powerpoint presentation filled with interesting facts about customer segmentation, but even they knew it wasn’t going to win any design awards.
solution Given that the presentation was to be hosted on their corporate intranet, we suggested Flash was the best tool for the job. Our designer brought the whole thing squarely back into the Vodafone brand, and we managed to make a large presentation easy to navigate and easy on the eye.
results A stunning piece of important marketing stuff is now avaiable to all those in the Vodafone universe.
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This site is a few years old now, and although we have done minor updates, the technology and structure remain more or less the same as when we first built it.
Now, we wouldn’t normally shout about work we did 3 or 4 years ago, but in this instance we think this is a good example of how a dynamic, content managed website can be kept fresh and new for a good while (and therefore cost the client much much less).
The site also has an integrated newsletter system that helps Hive Associates keep in touch with their customers.
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