It’s Sunday evening. I’m a bit all over the place after getting off a plane late last night – flying to New York to start a new job, tomorrow, at Google Creative Lab.

Yep. It feels strange to write that. I’ve talked about it before a little bit; but have only just found the breathing space to get something a bit more long-form down. As well as finishing a job I loved, I’ve also just got married, been on honeymoon, and am selling up and moving out of London. It’s been a crazy few weeks.

So, some history.

It’s only been 15-months since I joined Stinkdigital; I honestly loved being there and it stills holds a very special place in my heart. I was surrounded by a bunch of talented and fun people. I learnt loads. I made some mistakes. We did great work. We did it with a smile on our faces. I was slightly in awe at the quality of the place when I joined – I still am now.

So, why did I leave?

I’m a lover of creativity and technology; I’ve always thought Google is one of the most exciting and forward-thinking companies on the planet — and that Google Creative Lab is doing some of the most amazing, ambitious, and interesting work out there.

I could get all wordy about it, but you don’t pass up an opportunity like this.

I spent a bit of time with a few members of the team last week, taking about the work. They’re so switched on it’s unbelievable. It’s also exciting for me personally to be part of a team at Google that already includes people like Andy Berndt, Robert Wong, Tom Uglow, Ben Malbon, Kevin Proudfoot, Iain Tait, Steve Vranakis, Indy Saha… and Matt Jones is joining next month from BERG.

Iain wrote something when he joined that really struck a chord: “Everyone I’ve met who works at Google and Google Creative Lab feels like they’re part of a company that is both a great business AND can change the world for the better. I’m overjoyed to share their beliefs and look forward to joining them.”

That’s the feeling I got when I spent time there.

When I talked with Kevin about things he casually dropped in: “This place is a bit like the Butterfly Effect – everybody who joins has the opportunity to make a difference.”

I hope I can make a positive one.

So it’s been an absolute joy to be part of the unfolding Stinkdigital story; I loved every minute of it. And here’s to the a next adventure with Google. I’m excited by the future that lays ahead – and that’s all you can ask for, right?

I start tomorrow. Wish me luck

Related posts:

1. Will large amounts of information and data change how we learn? Will extremely large databases of information, starting in the petabyte...

Related posts:

1. Impressive Stuff From The Purchase Brothers The Purchase Brothers are 23 and 25-year-old commercial directors David...
2. Everything is a Remix Everything is a Remix is a four part series that...
3. The Animals House of the Rising Sun (Old School Computer Remix) You may have heard classic tunes recreated on barely functional...

Journeys by DJ – Volume 3 – Danny Rampling

Journeys by DJ – Volume 4 – John Digweed

Journeys by DJ – Volume 5 – Paul Oakenfold

Journeys by DJ – Special Release – Coldcut

Danny Rampling smashing it.
John with his genius haircut and silky mixing.
Paul Oakenfold just before he lost it.
Coldcut being utterly sublime.

Happy memories.

Related posts:

1. Wonderbra Launch New Swimwear Collection A great twist on the classic Wonderbra effect. Animals that...
2. Halston New York Fall 09 Collection I’m not known for being the most fashion conscious man...
3. Indent for The Stanley Kurick Season on More 4 Channel 4 has painstakingly recreated the set of Stanley Kubricks...

Tweetfuel from Stinkdigital on Vimeo.

TweetFuel is an Arduino-controlled experiment that uses the Nike+ FuelBand to measure the health of our Twitter account.

This is something I meant to write about a long time ago. I also wanted to write a detailed and smart post about how and why the project came about, what it’s meant to say about Stinkdigital, how we had to get Nike onboard because we do a lot of work for them, maybe share some details about how and why we simplified the site design to make it feel less like a ‘product’ launch, how we used HTML5/JS, Arduino, Python, and the coverage we got in FWA, FastCo Create, FastCo Design, and lots of other magazines and blogs.

But time has passed, it’s was launched almost 3 months ago now…. so all you really need to know is that we got it from concept to working prototype in 5 days.

Whenever someone follows, RTs or mentions @stinkdigital, our custom made motorized kit spins a mounted Nike+ FuelBand.

So far the video has had 24,100 plays — and I’m still super happy with it as a piece of work.

http://tweetfuel.stinkdigital.com/

Retweets count. (So do mentions.)

Related posts:

1. CNN Ecosphere WEBGL Twitter visualisation + real life holographic installation data eye...
2. Here’s some things I’ve liked recently. Sorry about the lack of updates. Work is taking up...
3. Augmented Reality. Texture Extraction Experiment Augmented Reality Texture Extraction Experiment from Lee Felarca on Vimeo....

(Some not very good photos of Stinkdigital London)

I’m 1 month into my new role as Exec Producer: here’s 10 things I’ve noticed.

1. We work direct with brands and in partnership with agencies.
2. We get lots of enquiries.
3. We are lucky enough to be selective about the work we take on.
4. We have a core of fulltime staff backed-up by a pool of trusted freelancers.
5. We run the business on Google Apps. (Gmail, Google Calendars, Google Docs)
6. We use Google Talk in the office and Skype for international calls.
7. We use shared docs and collaborative editing… a lot.
8. I haven’t opened MS Office since I started.
9. I have 2 regular meetings a week (one at Stinkdigital, one at Stink) and a call with NYC.
10. The meeting room is usually free.

The thing I’ve really noticed though is how fast things move. No I mean it…. really fast. It’s built into the DNA of the place. Part through necessity, part through planning. Obviously that brings it’s own subtle challenges; but on the whole it’s been really refreshing.

Apart from how we work; the actual work is pretty great too.

We started the year off by winning FWA Site of the Month for CNN Ecosphere, we then launched Wrangler Europe SS12 Directed by Arno Salters. and we’ve just been rated in the Top 5 Production Companies Worldwide in The Gunn Report. There’s much more great stuff in the pipeline too.

I can’t believe it’s February already.

Related posts:

1. Google Mac Developer Playground – Google Code It’s great to see Google developing some great apps for...

Picture the scene:

- A kids birthday party in the park.

- The adults are dressed up as Ironman, Spiderman, Batman, and Venom; to the childrens delights.

- A quick rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for the birthday boy.

What could possibly go wrong?

Just remember folks…

“With great power comes great dance moves”.

via

Related posts:

1. Men Without Hats ‘Safety Dance’ Because it’s Sunday and this is ace. A Canadian band,...
2. How To Start The Day Amazing raving grandad. Neat moves. via…...
3. Something for the weekend. Happy Days. Something from the 1970s. The TV theme and the full...

Super awesome Samsung Galaxy Tab parody. Fuck Yeah!!

Superb.

Related posts:

1. Orangina Anytime Brilliant and bizarre ad parody for Orangina. Vive la France!...
2. How to win friends and influence people… on YouTube Check out some of the comments on this vid. i...
3. Stephen Fry on ‘Swearing’ FUCK YEAH!! Makes me feel a bit better....

Awesome.

Related posts:

1. Interactive Window Display This installation includes tracking devices and low-resolution LED displays which...
2. Receipt Racer at OFFF Festival 2011 The receipt racer combines different in and output devices into...
3. 4 Terrabytes in your pocket by 2011? A single hard drive with four terabytes of storage (4TB)...

I love Twitter. It covers such an incredible spectrum of information; but recently it’s begun to feel out of control. The signal-to-noise was wrong and stuff from people I cared about was being drowned out.

I started by unfollowing a few heavy/active users. But I enjoy a lot of the stuff they share so it didn’t feel massively practical. Then @sermad suggested I made more of lists. I created a few and moved a bunch of people over.

Great! But my timeline was still too noisy.

I tried unfollowing a few more people but couldn’t create a clear mental criteria in my head.

Take my friends and ex-colleagues at glue as an example. I don’t want 180+ people on my timeline, but once you start to add a few, you’re into a strange mental world of… If I add X, I should add Y, because we did X together. In the end I was trying to do something ridiculous like:

People I worked with for more than 4 years + that I regulary went out for beers with + that use Twitter regularly + but not so much that they drown everyone else out = Following.

It wasn’t working. I got frustrated.

So I went BIG and unfollowed everybody.

WOOHOO!!

It might’ve been a bit impulsive but it’s democratic and I can slowly add people back over time.

I have a nagging doubt though. It’s counter intuitive. Lists guarantee I see peoples stuff; but they think I’ve unfollowed them. Not great really. But I needed to wrestle control back of the timeline so I’ve taken the plunge.

I’m sure some people will unfollow me.

Or add me to Lists…

Related posts:

1. A Couple Of Thoughts From Twitter Now and again you read something that perfectly sums up...
2. Twitter adds World Cup hashtag icons This little thing popped up on Twitter recently. A small...
3. Qapture. Links Inspired By Twitter Chat Qapture captures and ranks the links being shared right now...

I think this might be my favourite video on YouTube.

Every so often I find myself watching it again. It’s nuts, but there’s so many moments in it I love. Anyone else feeling it? Just me then?? I don’t care….

“Warp me to Halifax”

Related posts:

1. Jones’ Good Ass BBQ & Foot Massage Stand by your beds. YouTube link. Reminds me a bit...
2. Have a good weekend. These made my week.. We’ve had a few videos whizzed around glue this week....
3. Four Lions Trailer. Chris Morris returns. More; including a phone interview with Chris Morris – http://warp.net/films/four-lions...