Some of the DNA Advertising team pushed aside their mice and picked up their joypads as they headed down to Extended Play, Plymouth’s first Games event discussing the future of the games industry and the positive impact it can have on the region’s emerging and talented producers, artists and developers. From console to phone, web to multiplatform, the games industry has become a dominant force in the media and design world. With the southwest traditionally being a fertile breeding ground for game developer talent, Extended Play looks to highlight the slowly emerging games industry in the region and uncover what opportunities exist for studios.

The British Council’s young interactive entrepreneur of the year, 26 year old 
Paul Croft of MediaTonic, took to the stage for his keynote, centering his talk around the ‘origin point of success’, about his experiences in becoming such a recognised player in the industry and the future of brand game design and scope for ‘advergames’.

Traditionally smaller developers take most of the risks without pressure from clients and company overheads, riding the curve and making their mark at just the right time. This window for exploitation however, is extremely narrow. As the technology and route to market become more conventional and a trend begins to form, it’s only a matter of time before well-known development houses grab the monopoly, running with the idea and doing it bigger and better. This is even more apparent today, with a 6 monthly transition in fads, making iPhone apps ‘so last season’ and with Farmville being the biggest game in the world, it’s now all about social gaming and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Although it may still seem fresh, within the industry the App bubble has pretty much burst. There is still money to be made, but with over-saturation of Apps it’s already no longer the method of choice… On the flipside, with over 61.6million active users of Farmville on Facebook, it affirms the potential of social online gaming as the next big advertising and brand building medium… In another 6 months it’ll no doubt be another story.

With two of our biggest design for print projects heading to the printers last week, the studio was on high alert as we colour-proofed and triple-checked our way through the 7 languages of the the first 3 annual Princess Yachts International brochures, and the retail and contract brochures for British Ceramic Tile – each weighing in at 100 pages. Luckily we had a helping hand (or paw) in the shape of Sarah’s canine partner in crime, Pixie. No stranger to the DNA Advertising studio, Pixie cut our colour-proofing time considerably with her keen eye and attention to detail. It was only after we discovered that dogs are actually colour blind…
Whoops!

Earlier in the year, Paul, Simon, Matt, Rob and Jon headed down to a Design In Devon meet to see D&AD president Simon ‘Sanky’ Sankarayya discuss ‘The changing landscape of digital design’. Whilst departing his knowledge of interactive design, social media trends and their benefits to clients and audiences, he used this inspiring video as an example of ‘hacking’ technology and breaking the boundaries of interactivity within non-commercial, self initiated projects. It has to be shared – the amazing EyeWriter, ‘a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes’.

You may have read in an earlier blog post that we said goodbye to our web programmer, Chris Keeley a few months ago. He’s gone to further his career in software development. So now it’s time to introduce his replacement, Rob Barfield.

Rob joined us recently from local firm Integralvision where he and Simon Farrow, our Web Development Manager, were colleagues for four years. Rob’s background is in computer technology and he’s been interested in what goes on ‘under the hood’ since his schooldays. This led him to study Internet Technology & Networks at university before launching into a career in web programming.

So what skills does he bring to DNA? As well as being a nice guy (so he fits in really well here…), Rob’s proven ability to create bespoke websites will help us to offer even more complex web solutions than before. Content Management Systems, e-Commerce and payment gateways, integration with Google applications… all these skills and more come neatly packaged in our new colleague!

Rob says: “I’ll build whatever the customer needs, whether it’s a back end system or any other kind of interaction with the web”. Having built more than 80 websites, Rob has the ideal skill set to help us up our game in the fast-moving world of web solutions.

Rob also has the distinction of being the only member of DNA’s staff to live within walking distance of the office. Welcome aboard, Rob!

After returning from my Stag-do in Berlin it’s not the delights of curry würst that I’d like to share with you, nor is it the historic sights of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Halocaust Memorial, Berlin Cathedral or the remains of the Berlin Wall. It’s the seven-seater spiderlike CoBi7 conference bike. One person is the designated driver (with steering wheel) while everyone holds on to a central circular bar facing each other and harness the raw pedal-power of seven! Now generally, the idea is to take a short spin around a tourist-filled square, but we decided that we’d rather ride than walk back to our hotel… I’d never seen this septcycle before and from the reactions from the general public as we cycled down the main road (Unter den Liden) and through back streets on our way home, neither had they!

You can see our ridiculous cycle route here.

(Jon Price – Designer)

A little while back DNA designers Jon and Deb were asked to take part in Plymouth University’s first official Industrial Liaison – a review of the work and structure of the graphic design course run at the University. Throughout the day they worked in pairs with fellow design practitioners invited from across the UK, interviewing 3rd year students and assessing the work on the Design; Graphic Communication with Typography Degree. After giving portfolio and presentation advice to the eager students, the panel members passed their feedback to the tutors to help shape the future of the Degree course and keep its content relevant. Feedback is that the students found it undoubtedly rewarding and DNA have found it very refreshing to see some more up-and-coming talent. Provide those chocolate eclairs and mini cheese pasties again and we’ll see you next year! (Images courtesy of UoP).

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Thank you to everyone who donated to our ‘Go Yellow’ fund raising campaign in aid of Rowcroft Hospice – it’s been a fantastic success!

With your help, DNA raised £876, that’s 125% of our £700 target! As promised, when we reached each donation target, we underwent a forfeit – the last of which was a Banana Skinny-Dip in the sea! You can see that video as well as Jim’s deadly Banana Yellow Smoothie task and Paul’s ‘Banana & Custard’ Gunging below as well as on our DNA Advertising YouTube Channel! Our donation page is still open if you would like to contribute, again a big thank you to all who already have. Until next year…

As you all know, we’ve been ‘Going Yellow’ to raise money for Rowcroft Hospice. Reaching our 2nd donation target of £400 meant that our Creative Director Paul (Jim was back in London – blast!), had to undertake TASK 2: ‘Banana & Custard’ -The Yellow Gunge forfeit! Turn up your speakers and enjoy! Thank you for donating, we’re still taking donations… http://www.justgiving.co.uk/dnagoyellow.

You can find out more on our dedicated GO YELLOW page.

Check our dedicated ‘Go Yellow‘ blog page to find out what we’ll be getting up to in order to raise money for Rowcroft Hospice…
Make sure you vote and DONATE to make it happen!!!! Please Donate here for a good cause: http://www.justgiving.co.uk/dnagoyellow

It’s nearly that time again… Stay tuned for more info about what us lot at DNA Advertising are getting up to as we raise money for Rowcroft Hospice on their ‘Go Yellow’ day!

Check out the Rowcroft Hospice Go Yellow page

Well the somewhat unexciting answer is he is celebrating yet another year of Mr Matt and as such we’ve had to grant him the day off.

Now… same question, different answer… Matt, it seems has been dancing his way around the globe, posting his videos online and becoming an Online Phenomenon since 1995!

His first video racked up 20 Million views and multiple parodies making him officially more interesting than our Matt! If you still haven’t seen ‘Where the hell is Matt?’ then, watch this:

For more on ‘The Online Phenomenon’ that is Matt, check out his website ‘Where the hell is Matt’ here.

or, Listen to Matt explain his journey in his own words.

P.S. Happy birthday Matt!

Bit of Friday fun.
It’s Jim’s birthday tomorrow, so here’s a little ‘pre-construction’ of what we think he’ll be up to… (sorry Katie, but we couldn’t see him dance alone!)…

It is a sad time at DNA, as one of our dear friends and colleagues is heading for pastures new. A very wise software development company in Plymouth has snapped up our senior programmer, Chris Keeley, giving him the chance to apply his know-how to some rather juicy middleware. They’ve also kindly increased his salary and reduced his daily commute from two hours to ten mins. Nice.

As you can see though, it wasn’t an easy decision for our very own Chris Keeley…

The many faces of Mr Chris Keeley

Of course we’ll miss him, but it’s a fantastic opportunity so we all wish him the very best of luck.

Thanks for all you’ve done for our digital marketing and web development Christoff… and for helping us select your replacement (a man we’ll be introducing here very soon)!!

Good luck and see you soon!

Congratulations to Katie for passing her driving test first time!! As you can see from the ‘artist’s impression’ above – she’s very happy. As for the rest of us… vigilance!

It’s the culmination of nearly a year’s work – the new Princess Yachts International suite of brochures have been unveiled at the Southampton International Boat Show. It has involved hard work from the team (and many late nights), to get this prestigious project delivered for the show and thankfully, the feedback we’ve had from Princess Yachts and their distributors has been exceptional. This year, we’ve extended the suite by including an electronic brochure, presented on DVD, which has also been equally well received.  The icing on the cake for Paul, Simon, Vicki and Matt, was to be taken out into the Solent on a Princess V48 at the Boat Show. Of course, it’s absolutely essential to the design process to experience how the the boat handles and manoeuvres first hand…(That’s what we tell Princess anyway). Now it’s back to the office to start the whole process all over again!

Richard H's rendition of the Locomotion has the 2 X Factor judges in rapture

If anyone out there is in a creative job but hasn’t read Paul Arden’s: ‘It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be’, I’d recommend getting hold of a copy. Among other things, Mr Arden talks about awards in the creative industry being a bit of a paradox. Being creative means being innovative and doing something new, but award winners are generally picked by consensus within a group of people who invariably pick something they feel comfortable with – often something familiar and, therefore, not that creative! It’s an interesting point.

A cynic would say that creative awards achieve two things – they satisfy egos and they win work. We don’t do them. We don’t have egos and we’re awesome at winning work.

Joke.

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Thanks to everyone who came to the DNA Summer BBQ a while ago. Thankfully the good weather we booked arrived on schedule, so we could enjoy the festivities against the gorgeous backdrop of the Torbay coastline. Thanks also to the Boat House for putting on such a great spread. For anyone who didn’t get their special DNA BBQ apron, don’t be afraid to ask for one – we still have some in reserve! Next stop – fishing competition. Watch this space!

Yes that’s right, as part of our ‘Go Yellow Day’ for Rowcroft Hospice and in a bid to get some last minute donations, resident Iron Man (Jon) was sponsored to travel home by public transport sporting his full outfit. With last minute donations coming in and hitting our online target of £200, there was no getting out of it. Thank you to everyone for their support and enjoy the pictures! Remember, you can still donate at www.justgiving.com/dnaadvertising.

The Yellow themed fun continues here at DNA! Go Yellow for Rowcroft Hospice – Make the madness count, and make a donation – www.justgiving.com/dnaadvertising

Charity and hard work are going hand-in hand here at DNA today as ‘Go Yellow for Rowcroft Hospice day’ gets into full swing. Keep an eye on the blog for more photos throughout the day! And don’t forget to donate – http://www.justgiving.com/dnaadvertising