Central

Ninety Eight

2009-12-18T22:40:12+00:00

It really isn't good to miss the weekly update. Not because it shows, but because there really is something useful about journaling the week in business that just went by. Especially as a small, start-up firm. So this week we've skipped a few since the last update. Sorry about that.

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Ninety-Five

2009-12-18T20:01:57+00:00

I have to say, I'm a little tickled by the fact we're going to end this year on week 100 for our company. The kind of symmetry that makes those of us here geek out. Technically the year swaps out on the 100th week for us - which makes it all that much sweeter. Here in the States things slowed down for the annual feasting and thanks celebrated on the last Thursday of November. The office closed for a few days but we've apparently been sneaking back in individually to get work done with no one else around.

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Ninety-Four

2009-11-17T00:35:47+00:00

Yes, I skipped a few weeks from the last 'weeknote' entry. The excuse of being busy doesn't really hold weight as we're always busy, but in this case we were perhaps a little crazier than usual. On Friday we held the exhibit for Sara's work. The paper cutting exhibit for what she'd been working on for the last eighty weeks or so. It was a great success, lots of people made the trip over one of the two bridges, and we rounded the evening off with a late and large dinner at Le Garage with the remainder of family and friends.

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Ninety

2009-10-18T16:56:20+00:00

This week ended with a fresh coat of paint on the walls and everything the office owned pushed into the center of it. Amazing that it takes only thirty minutes to pile everything up into a tall and bundled mess, but a day or two to untangle it. I still can't find one of the monitor's power cables and keep walking into that old G4 tower, of which I won't take the hint and move out of the way, in spite of the damage it is inflicting on me. But the walls look nice. And white.

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Eighty-nine

2009-10-11T21:35:05+00:00

Super rationalization is our focus in the last three weeks of the Future of Fish project. The team is focused on pulling together facts, figures and data to support our solution concepts. In which they will tell the story of why these ideas realistically can make the impact we believe they will. Over a year's work comes down to these last three weeks in how we craft this final storytelling piece. Well, it is more like a package of storytelling pieces. We're hoping to explain our solutions on the Future of Fish web site in the coming weeks.

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New New

2009-08-03T21:44:29+00:00

It has been a while since we've had a chance to stop and reflect on all that is going on. Since we started Friday Edition we grew larger than expected, working on many excellent projects with outstanding clients, organizations and people. We've got a growing stash of products designed and made by Central, and our Future of Fish project has its own storytelling site. Here on centralstory.com, over the next 12 weeks or so, we're collaborating with one of the finest design firms to help express and craft our story to replace this site. We're really proud of the work we're doing and the people we're getting to collaborate with, so it is fitting to get a greatly improved way to say so. If you've signed up, we'll let you know of when things evolve here, as well as when we set up the online store.

Cycle to Work

2009-02-14T21:54:49+00:00

Gino Zahnd from Kosmix pinged us to do a small project for him, to help explain the virtues of browsing the web with Kosmix. Run out of the 'handmade studio' here at Central, Sara worked with Gino's team to craft a simple, lo-fi animation to explain why using Kosmix to learn about a topic is not just the better option, but the right thing to do for the environment. We'll share more of the handmaking activities shortly, in the mean time drop on over to Kosmix to see what they're all about, and watch the animation below.

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Begin with Ideas: Imprint from Daniel Eatock

2008-08-28T22:06:14+00:00

The first monograph from Daniel Eatock, is a brilliant escape into the reductive problem solving mind of a young British Artist. The book has a wonderful handmade touch to it, where Daniel traveled to the Indiana warehouse of the printer and inked his thumbprint on the spine of every copy. He also inserted a hand-drawn circle page randomly into the pages so that each book would be different. It is likely that these two things alone made me instantly spring for the book. However, I wasn't disappointed that there wasn't more than that when I got it. Very much like the way he presents himself online, there are straightforward answers to questions about himself and his work. And what might look like, from a distance, self-indulgent spreads of silly illustrations or bad photoshop artwork, like other monographs are prone to doing: Eatock is giving you close-ups of his artwork and work. I never realised he'd done the Big Brother logo, so I was surprised to see it as a spread. But it was accompanied with a story on how he came to collaborate with Channel 4 over a period of time. Daniel is both an artist and graphic designer, having set up the firm Foundation 33, that merged with Boymeetsgirl and now works under his own guide of Eatock Ltd in London. Eatock talks of collaborations, and is very liberal with referencing others he's worked with, how they've helped him as well as littering his book somewhat in a disorderly fashion with his Picture of the Week project, each photo with the particular photographer's name and often "thanks" from Daniel. I'm skipping over a lot of background details you can get elsewhere—but the young fellow is interesting, his work instantly accessible, but also provoking. Appeals to my reductive approach to problem-solving, yet is a pleasurably jab at reminding me to go further with my ideas, be more risk-adverse and spend more time making stuff that has nothing to do with business. Buy the book—if you don't, I might just have to send you one. Enjoy the photos from the book—and these links.

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Something in the post.

2008-08-18T03:46:14+00:00

Sara's little illustrated mailer went out in the post recently, which should have all by now reached the desks of those on the list. The illustrated mailer, the first of a series of things we like to send out in the post, kept a select few, up to date of some of the interesting things that have been going on here at Central. Now we'd like to invite a few more people to the short list of those we send something out to three or four times a year. If you'd like to be on the somewhat exclusive list, sign up by emailing us at "inthepost" at this domain. Right now we're limiting the list to the first 20 who sign up. None left now, thanks to those who've signed up so far.

Twenty-six on the 26th

2008-07-22T02:43:20+00:00

Twenty-six hand-carved, intricate, ornate and delicate letters, each depicting a bug, flower or illustration that starts with the corresponding letter. An exercise in extreme precision and a display of delightful imagination, the wall of twenty-six letters is a considerable joy to view. On the twenty-sixth of January, Sara held a private viewing of her project for friends & family. Here are some of the photos from the day.