There's an app for that...

The Apple App Store currently holds hundreds of thousands of different apps for every category you can think of. With so many apps available it can be pretty hard to decide which ones are worth downloading and often apps can be somewhat disappointing- so without further ado, Cogapp have given a roundup of some of our favourite apps of the moment:

Read more
Posted in

Glug Glug Glug

 

For those of you that are unaware of the Glug events, they are regular creative networking events hosted by agencies Crush and Agency Rush. It’s an eclectic mix of people from all Design disciplines and a great way to network with creative individuals and also have fun at the same time. I was particularly looking forward to this year’s Glug as it was being hosted at Coalition on Brighton’s beach front, and the great music and beautiful weather looked set to make it one of the best to date.

 

Read more

All in hand: Working with handheld devices conference

Last week, I chaired the “All in hand: Working with handheld devices conference”, which took place at the Royal College of Surgeon in London. It included various presentations from small- to large-scale UK museums discussing their experience with mobile interpretation.

Read more

High tech meets handcrafted

As you may know if you follow Cogapp on twitter, each Thursday we all pile into a local pub and learn craft skills from our very knowledgeable colleagues! So far we’ve had four-week introductions to knitting, drawing and origami courtesy of Joe, Eleanor and Martin.

Read more
Posted in

A day at the BFI National Film Archive

 

On May 25th, we were lucky enough to be invited to take a tour of the BFI National Film Archive in Berkhamstead. The archive is one of the world's largest, most diverse and busiest film archives and preserves the UK's film and TV heritage. Since we’ve been recently been appointed by the British Film Institute to create a new digital experience at BFI.org.uk, we saw this tour as a fantastic opportunity to learn a bit more about some of the less public facing work that the BFI does.

Read more

Royal College of Art Degree Show

RCA

Yesterday I  made me way up to London to see part 2 of the Royal College of Art graduate show. The RCA is in such a great place; next door to the Royal Albert Hall, opposite the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, just behind the Royal College of Organists (a pretty glitzy building), and across the road from the Royal College of Music, so I always feel pretty inspired even before I've arrived there. This year's show definitely didn't disappoint, here's a quick round-up of my favourite bits.

Read more
Posted in

Back to the Kucha

Last week saw another set of Cogapp employees return to the world’s best (and quite possibly only) synergy of baking and oration. The rules are simple: Talk about any topic, using twenty slides, each of which last for exactly twenty seconds. Also eat cake. 

I’m sure that the success of this format in recent years must be indirectly related to other rapidly delivered, bite-sized forms of communication. Economy of information is not a new fad – think of the telegraph, the text message, or the famous Spartan response – but with the amount of information overload we are now exposed to, the appeal of a succinct message only seems to be increasing. 

Read more
Posted in

"Paywalls" could help newspapers finally get it right

There’s a lot of talk about “paywalls”. It’s usually about newspapers, and it’s almost always just about news. It shouldn’t be.

Nor should Rupert Murdoch’s introduction of a pay-to-view model be regarded as an act of desperation. This could be the moment newspapers finally begin to get it right.

Am I willing to pay for a trusted digital offering that helps make my life better, more prosperous, and better informed? Definitely.

Read more

Typography- Love Letters

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to take part in a workshop run by D&AD, called 'Typography - Love Letters'. It was part of a wider group of design orientated professional development courses that they run; they're definitely worth a look. The course was run by Phil Baines, professor of typography at Central St Martins, where the course was held. The basic premise for the workshop was to spend the day as far away from a computer as possible*, get our hands dirty with good old pencils, paper, scissors and glue, and have a good look at some letters.

We started the day by drawing out lots of letters, many times. Phil provided us each with two pencils sellotaped together that looked at bit like this - 

 

Read more

Show'n'tell'n'bake-off

Two weeks ago our interactive installations for the Magnificent Maps Exhibition were unveiled at the British Library. It was a project that Cogapp felt particularly proud of and thoroughly enjoyed working on. To mark the occasion, it seemed only right that our Cake Thursday was dedicated to a show’n’tell of the Magnificent Maps Project. What made this event even more momentous wasn't just that it fell on the day of the general election but also the fact it was the final of the great Cogapp bake-off, a highly anticipated event that would determine Cogapp’s most superior treat maker and a title earning both respect and a little resentfulness in the Cogapp studio. 

Read more