Saw this rather lovely advert on the Tube the other day – the sort of old school advertising that I’ve got a real soft spot for; simple, clean, witty, typographic.

Background on the speakers by him below, and my notes at the bottom.

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Living By Numbers. The more we know, the better…

This month’s And Then The World explores the potential and problems of living in a data rich world – and all the interesting insights this can unearth.

In the good ol’ days you had the problem of not being able to get enough information, now the problem is the opposite – there is just too damn much info out there.

These days with a smartphone, and a bit of patience you can literally measure everything you do – and some people do. From monitoring sleep, steps taken, calories eaten, calories burnt, heart rate, weather, how you’re feeling, where you’ve been, what you’re wearing and so on…

Having this information at our finger tips presents a huge opportunities to optimise our lives, and improving our health and happiness. Proof of this can be seen by Nike through the launch of their monitoring device the Nike+ FuelBand. 

Oliver MacCarthy – is the founder of recently launched innovative start-up called TicTrac. TicTrac, which has been featured in Wired, Contagious and Wallpaper magazine, provides a central place for users keep and analyse all the information they have recorded on themselves.

Adriana Lukas – is the head of the Quantified Self group london, QS is a global group of people who monitor all elements of their life and meet-up regularly to share their learnings. An expert on personal data and also the founder of the Big Blog company, possibly the first business to help brands reach bloggers.

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Net/Stalgia

A trend, theme and mood that builds on Revivalism, FIY (Finish It Yourself) and a generational hankering for ideas, images, graphics and digital moments that remind us of the early days of the internet. From giff art and bitmap colours, to analogue advertising, 8-bit music and ‘game boy’ graphics, we examine a new generation of brands, marketing and online selling sites that are embracing a 2D, ‘look-mum, no-frills’ aesthetic.

• Be anti-corporate
• Simple and see through
• Primitive rather than fancy for digital projects
• A second Internet (hard to find / private)
• Early web aesthetic
• Appeal to Tumblr / Pinterest
• Usability second, interest first
• Let go of control, give consumers power to change things
• No static design

The New Sublimity

As our Generation Jonesers blur the line between business and leisure, those in their teens and early 20s are keen once more to separate the two. Hence, the rise of hoboism, GoTo GuRus, digital switch-off and secular spiritualism as consumers take to the land, sea, beaches and mountains in search of meaning, mindfulness, inattentive learning and an emotional reboot.

• Be quiet, sublime, silent
• Be Mindful and support
• Give people digital invisibility – allow them to disconnect from the web
• Allow people to manage their digital / service use
• Instead if conversation, reevaluate and contemplate
• Take / give tech-free periods of time
• Take time to day-dream
• Be nice

The Future Family

As the impact of our Just Nots gathers momentum, we look at how EU and UK homes are changing in the wake of a housing, income, environmental and generational time bomb that is reconfiguring everything from the shape of our homes to the make-up of our families. We profile the habitats and home tribes driving tomorrow’s brand, culture and commercial needs. From multiGen housing and LOLs (lone-occupant living) to the rise of neighbourhood networks, worksteads rather than homesteads, multifunctional homes and multigenerational households – or should that be hometels?

• Target singles (growing trend, 20% in UK)
• Multi facet offers for multi targeted / generational families
• Multi generational pester power – no longer just kids
• Be smart, networked
• Close the loop – houses that look after themselves / energy neutral
• Be hackable – allow products to tweaked by users for their own specific needs
• Help single people network
• People using home to work from more
• Homes should allow you to feel better about yourself / more healthy.

Click on any of the images to be whisked through to the corresponding website.

Caveat: as always, without knowing the brief, client, budget and timeframe it’s a little hard to measure their success – so this is just for fun and our opinion.

In at number…

10 – PKF

I’m actually a little unsure of PKF’s logo – there’s certainly something there (some kind of slightly odd faux 3D vibe?) and with some careful roll-out (probably involving a knock-out version) I think could be rather good and interesting. Even more so if they went with a blue which had a little more character than the rather bland current one. The website however, oh deary deary me. The UK site (the US site is a totally different kettle of fish) looks like it was designed and built in around 1985 out of Stickle Bricks. The website seems to have incredibly complicated and deep navigation, with pretty much every page stuffed to the rafters with links to anything and everything else. Incredibly dull and featuring some very small and uber cliche stock photography it certainly doesn’t give the impression that it’s the tenth largest accountancy firm in the UK – it just doesn’t inspire confidence.

9 – Smith & Williamson

Smith & Williamson’s logo couldn’t look much more stereotypical if it tried, but definitely get points for using any colour other than Royal Blue. The tasteful rainbow of principal services is rather nice too (and I think could have been made more of as sadly you never see anything of these colours ever again) – although I wonder if you have 19 services how many others are left? Rather clunky but functional drop down navigation takes you through the very text heavy site, although there is a splash of colour and the odd image to lighten the mood. If you dig deep enough they even occasionally say who they work for in each particular sector, I’d have thought more could be made of it, helps to build instant trust and establish the company’s size. Their ‘Entrepreneurs‘ section really feels like it should be it’s own microsite rather than left to fend for itself deep within the main website.

8 – Baker Tilly

Baker Tilly have a lovely little bird that appears to have a wing on fire as a logo, I’m not really too sure what it’s all about, presumably some great heritage that it’s grown out from (although can’t find anything on its website)? Coupled with the typography the logo has a very American feel about it and I can’t help but think of the US Postal Service.

The website has a nice modern feel, with navigation that is simple, clear and obvious – leading you deeper in to the website. The site is easy to read and keeps you interested, with a nice four column grid providing some flexibility for layout, a variety of images and some proper typography that creates a hierarchy of content and aids the wayfinding.

7 – RSM Tenon

RSM Tenon’s logotype as a very odd exclamation mark combined with the ‘M’, presumably trying to show they’re dynamic or make an impact? And what’s that colour – default business Royal Blue of course.

RSM Tenon’s homepage seems to just be a sea of text links (not quite sure how many, after 40 – not even including the drop down navigation – I got bored and gave up) and really needs to cut the number down and help guide the visitor a bit. As you delve deeper in to the site it continues to be difficult to navigate with various bits of navigation all over the page, the result is you’re never too sure where you should be looking in order to try and find something.

6 – BDO

BDO’s logo isn’t great, it doesn’t seem to mean anything, it looks very dated and ugly and has the colour of value range baked beans – not a great first impression. The website however looks modern and clean and manages to display a large amount of information in a way that’s easy to sift through – helped by large titles and secondary colours. Content for the news feed, press releases and upcoming events is also all bang up to date giving the impression that BDO really take their website seriously. The main image / headline on the page is a little ‘stock’ cheesy but certainly grabs attention, just a shame that it doesn’t cycle through the four versions automatically, which would create a bit more interest on the site. Sadly, once you go deeper in to the site it becomes pretty much a pure text affair, becoming very dry and heavy.

5 – Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton have a very modern and clean logo that manages to stay away from the cliche blue with a very distinguished looking purple, coupled with clean sans serif type the modern take on an infinity / knot symbol gives the company a fresh up-to-date look.

Their website feels a little cluttered on the homepage, I think the tag line (“An instinct for growth”) would have worked better in one of the opening images rather than at the top of the page and if the logo was a little bit smaller to give the navigation a bit more space to breathe. The purple is used nicely in the site but the blue links and headers for the four sections at the bottom feel a little separate to the rest of the site. I rather like the way the main navigation works, clean clear and simple, although some indication as to which sub page you’re currently on would have been nice. The inner pages are nice and clear but could really have benefitted from some imagery to just lift them up a touch and differentiate them from each other.

4 – Ernst & Young

As we have Ernst & Young as a client we shan’t be talking about their branding and website but please feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

3 – KPMG

KPMG’s logo has a very dated feel about it but it thankfully rescued by a nice website design. The diagonal slider at the top seems to echo the angle of the italic letters in the logo and allows a nice large header without compromising the logo itself. The homepage has a lot of content without it appearing over powering, although alternating colours for articles on both the ‘Latest news releases’ and ‘Blog’ sections would make each entry stand out more. The main navigation is simple, clean and clear – breaking the entire site down very nicely to help guide you though it. Sub pages keep the interest up with both imagery and variety in the grid used for the main content which really helps to separate pages from each other. The sub navigation is clean and subtle and works really well without distracting from the main page content.

2 – Deloitte

Deloitte’s logo feels a little dated, the typography itself feels very ‘system typefacey’ and the idea of the full stop as if Deloitte is the last word in accountancy feels just a little odd (especially in the bright green).

The website has some nice touches, like the slider on the homepage (but why isn’t it the full width of the page?) and the clean layout are all rather nice but with so much white space the page feels a little empty. The London 2012 sponsorship is nice but fits very awkwardly at the bottom of the page, feeling very tacked on at the last minute. The main navigation feels a little clunky and doesn’t really seem to want to work properly (at least on my Mac running Safari). Inner pages seem fine, with a nice solid layout and good sub navigation, with the green from the logo making an appearance to highlight things. A little more imagery would have been nice to see but overall the site isn’t bad – just feels like it needs a little more time to properly finish it.

1 – PWC

PWC have a great logo, after a recent rebranding job they’ve been brought bang up to date, shortening their name to the acronym that everyone called them by anyway and introducing a bold colour palette and style. They roll-out this new style across the website really well, with plenty of imagery and colour though out the site to keep the interest up. The navigation is clean and very clear, with sub pages keeping the standard set on the homepage up, with plenty of imagery, colour and video on pretty much every page. Underlining the headlines of articles to show they’re links on the homepage seems a little heavy-handed and the odd little bit of text within the PwC Player that doesn’t seem to quite fit properly (in Safari on a Mac anyway) – but we’re starting to really nit pick now.

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So, that’s the top 10 of UK Accountancy Firms based on UK Fee Income. Obviously our comments are a little brief (and playful), but what do you think?

Caveat: as always, without knowing the brief, client, budget and timeframe it’s a little hard to measure their success – so this is just for fun and our opinion.

So, with no further ado and with the Top of the Pops theme tune playing in our head, here we go. In at number…

10 – Norton Rose

Norton Rose have got a rather nice and modern logo, a strong red that stands out well and an arrowhead over the ‘N’ for North, helping to guide and show clients the way. The typography has some nice sharp elements carried through from the arrowhead. The branding is then carried through well in to the website with clear top level navigation (although some clearer way of dividing up areas under ‘Expertise’ would have been good). They’ve employed a nice take on the ‘carousel’ idea and the overall colour scheme of red, black and grey works well but the other odd image in colour would have helped the site to be broken up a touch more.

9 – Eversheds

Eversheds’ identity has a very American 60′s corporate feel to it and makes you think they’ve been around since God was a lad (and not in a good way) which is surprising when you find out they only came about under the current name in 1995. Both the identity and the website feel tired and in need of a new lick of paint. The main banner on the homepage has way more white space than it needs, making it feel just empty or that the background image hasn’t loaded. The four navigation boxes on the right hand side work well to add some colour and flavour to the site but the clip-art at the bottom of the page to ‘Find a person’ and ‘Find an office’ I’d suggest should be removed quick-sticks.

As you move deeper in to the website, the navigation starts to get more and more complicated and really should be cleaned up. Breaking the main navigation up in to two horizontal pannels also makes it confusing where to go / click, especially the near duplication of ‘Search all sites’ and ‘Search this site’.

8 – Slaughter and May

Slaughter and May have a nice simple word mark set in Bliss, which coupled with a rather nice rich purple helps give them a serious and timeless appeal. The ‘slider’ on the homepage pushes one message at a time allowing them to really focus (although I’m not convinced with the lead slide pushing their mobile site with a QR code, why do you need the link to the mobile site when viewing the desktop site? It also wasn’t working with my iPhone when I checked it out but no doubt that’s temporary). Their navigation however is extremely good, clean, contemporary, easy to use with visual interest from images and ‘pull stories’.

7 – Herbert Smith

Herbert Smith have a modern (ish) slab serif word mark with echoes of the Rotis typeface and feels a little plain. Navy Blue as a colour scheme also has a very standard corporate feel although the odd touch of orange in the website does help to lift it. The website itself is fairly simple and basic, nothing too exciting going on, does the job and not a lot more – it’s very text heavy and the images at the top of the page (the ones on the homepage are especially nice) feel like they could be used more than they are to add flavour and interest to the pages.

6 – Hogan Lovells

Hogan Lovells have a lovely identity combining classical style typography with a modern and fresh lime green (serious brownie points for moving beyond the typically used dark colours) giving them a very professional but contemporary look that really stands out from the pack. But they lose points for using Flash (at the very least it won’t work on any iPhone / iPad) on their homepage – no real reason for it these days, especially with what they’re using it to achieve.

5 – DLA Piper

DLA Piper have perhaps the worst logo of the top 10 firms. It has a suspiciously cheap and clip art feel to it and to be honest isn’t doing them any favours at all. The website; some nice navigation in the top bar, especially in showing the global locations, the main navigation is simple and functional but certainly won’t set anyone’s world on fire. There’s also some half reasonable images and positional statements, although the space allocated them doesn’t really allow them to shine. The links at the bottom in blue (some a paragraph long) seem just a bit heavy handed and make them harder to both stand out and be read.

4 – Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy have our first logotype that has the classical ‘copperplate’ look and feel to it, crying out to be in a brass plaque – although to be fair they have toned it down a bit and partnered it with a nice red, but overall rather unexciting. The homepage is rather dry but shows a little promise of what it could be with the main static graphic, sadly this isn’t exploited. The navigation is a little small and very text heavy but easy to work your way through sadly it does then jump where it is on the page once you move further in to the site which I really don’t think is a great idea. It’s odd range left positioning feels a bit dated and the deeper content pages get even drier but the site does feel huge and very comprehensive, a bit like an encyclopedia.

3 – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (or just Freshfields as they thankfully tend to refer to themselves and use as their URL). The logo itself is incredibly long which is only going to cause them problems in day-to-day usage and I can only assume it’s a matter of time before they drop the ‘Bruckhaus Deringer’ part of their name. The mark itself has religious overtones that I’m not convinced are a great asset, especially in the non Christian parts of the world that they have offices in. Overall they feel like they’ve been around forever and if anything feel more like a private bank than a law firm.

The ‘slider’ on the hompage shows some very dry images but sadly seems to break on the 5th (or it certainly does on a Mac viewing it in Safari) and these could really do with being made a little more interesting. Headings of articles as links along with ‘more’ links all in the same colour and style make it harder to pick the featured stories out. Pushing the fact they’re an official service provider for the 2012 London Olympics is nice but really should be at the top of the page in the slide rather than hiding at the bottom just above the footer. The deeper pages are very dry but functional and the image headers for them feel like a real missed opportunity to add a little more interest.

2 – Linklaters

Linklaters have perhaps the boldest logo of the top 10 law firms, that shocking pink and an industrial sans serif typeface really stands them apart in the industry and appear very fresh and modern. The navigation on their website breaks nicely in to the three main areas they’re looking to push (tied in nicely with the logo by sharing the same colour). The links under ‘latest’ (in effect new items) are rather sweet in the simple way they turn to the bright pink when rolled-over. The main image on the homepage is nice and large and pushes on message really strongly, this could be made even better if there were alternate slides that it rotated through.

The deeper pages are fairly clean and use the pink well for accents and headers, coupled with some alright (but could look less staged) black and white photography help give the site some style. They could squeeze in a few more pictures on more pages I think though, help liven up some more of the pages.

1 – Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance have a very simple and clean logotype – although the huge mono spacing of the letters does make it harder to read. The website takes a very bold approach with strong block colour that really makes an impact. The ‘slider’ on the homepage is really rather sweet even if the images look very ‘photostock’, the use of tags for the lead stories is also a rather nice idea.

The main navigation feels a little clunky with it all set in Caps, and could do with both a little colour and / or the sub pages in sentence case to aid with legibility. The deeper pages suffer the classic problem of being a little dry and again, could do with something to liven them up a touch. The secondary graphic that they use of stylised speech bubbles have real legs on them and I’m sure are really nice to roll out across other marketing materials.

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So, that’s the top 10 of UK Law Firms based on 2009/10 turnover. Obviously our comments are a little brief, but what are your thoughts?

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£50-£150k funding (seed ‘impact’ investment – money return plus something else, like; education, social, employment, etc…), the only company offering this level of funding in the UK still after 12 months of operating.

Over the weekend I saw the Alice in Wonderland exhibition at the Tate in Liverpool (finishing this Sunday 29th) – the highlight of which (for me anyway) were these hanging neon signs which looked incredibly cool, to the extent that I now want one for my lounge.

Getting on the Tube this morning I saw this piece of guerilla advertising which is really rather nice.

It ties in very nicely with the rest of their campaign (by Mother London I believe) which features above-the-line as well as a YouTube takeover which is rather nice and links individual pieces of furniture off to the Ikea website. The strapline itself ‘Happy to bed’ might be a little daft but it’s got itself well and truly ingrained in our household.

Saw this billboard for Captain Morgan’s Rum up in Old Street a couple of days ago – not often in the UK do you see billboards with die cut extras, far more common on the continent. Would have cost a fair bit more than just the standard billboard and doesn’t really add anything to the (rather weak) advert. Not really sure why they bothered…

On my travels down to see a client I saw this building wrap (it used to be a bar – The Foundry? – then a squat) advert for Absolut up by Old Street. Now they’ve been doing the same thing consistently for years and it seems to work nicely, a single idea that’s been rolled out well. Not super exciting but you know instantly who it is and it does work better at this vast size than I suspect it does as a full page advert in a glossy magazine. But for its location I’d have been tempted to be edgier with it.