09 Jul 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Blog, Featured, Thoughts, 1 Comments

Randomly-sized pegs, square holes.

11 Jun 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Blog, Featured, Thoughts, 0 Comments

On Print

(This article originally appeared in The Big Issue Australia #366)

As long as I can remember, I’ve worked in a world where the conventional wisdom has been that print is dying. If you listen to a lot of pundits (mostly online pundits, naturally) you’ll hear that print is already dead; it just doesn’t know it yet. (more…)

29 Apr 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Thoughts, above the fold, 0 Comments

Why traditional PR doesn’t work with (most) bloggers.

If you’re involved in marketing, promotions, or public relations you’ll be well aware by now that your traditional campaigns have little or no effect on bloggers –– even when they get a lot of traction with traditional journalists. (more…)

26 Mar 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Thoughts, 0 Comments

Location-based app use during SXSWi

The smart folks at SimpleGeo kept track of which applications were being used when and where during SXSWi, and from that data built this powerful visualisation of the extent to which location-based social media mattered at SXSWi.

It’s impressive, no doubt. But that was during SXSWi, the biggest gathering of geeks in the world. Are people still checking in? Yes they are. Take a look at this real-time visualisation of checkins in Austin Texas, and see for yourself.

23 Mar 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Thoughts, 0 Comments

Location is where it’s at.

By now you’ve probably heard that the next big thing in social media is location. Certainly if my trip to South by Southwest Interactive is anything to go by, location is all anyone is really talking about. SimpleGeo, FourSquare, Gowalla and to a lesser extent Loopt were highly visible. In a small city with over 10,000 geeks attending the festival location services make a lot of sense. If you want to be at the same panels, parties or bars as your friends, it’s a hell of a lot easier to check an app than to text everyone. (more…)

27 Feb 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Blog, Thoughts, below the fold, 1 Comments

LoFi Melbourne, a photo project.

Like most designers, we’re big fans of analogue photography. There’s nothing we like more than taking a Holga or a Lomo out for the day and seeing what happens when you shoot from the hip. But like they say, the best camera is the one you have on you, and the camera we all have on us these days is the iPhone. (more…)

27 Feb 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Thoughts, 0 Comments

A note on language

One of the things I learned back in journalism school was that you get paid as much for a short word as a long one. I wish a lot of companies could pick up the same lesson. (more…)

27 Feb 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Thoughts, 0 Comments

Starting at the middle

If you work in design, you’re constantly asked to do project-based work.

“Can you please create a brochure/website/package/logo for our company?”

The problem with many of these projects is that the outcome has been conceived before the problem has been outlined. (more…)

27 Feb 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Thoughts, 0 Comments

On your brand’s priorities

During a rebranding, or any communications re-assessment, it is very tempting to think only of the things that an organisation does well. That’s what we normally do – sell our good points. It’s what we’re used to, and it makes sense viscerally. (more…)

27 Feb 2010, Posted by Ross Floate in Blog, Thoughts, above the fold, 0 Comments

In praise of ISO 216, or PC LOAD LETTER?

Not only does America not use SI (metric) measurements — and the less said about that the better — but the USA and Canada comprise the only two countries in the world who don’t use ISO 216 paper measurements. (more…)