The dictionary on my trusty Mac tells me that 'glug' can be either a verb meaning to drink liquid with a hollow gurgling sound (e.g. he glugs down half his beer) or a noun meaning an amount of liquid poured from a bottle (e.g. a couple of good glugs of Dubonnet). I tell you this because I feel the two examples listed about the word probably give you a better impression of what the first ever Glug Brighton was like than any amount of material I could write ever would. But I'll try anyway:

A joint venture between Crush, Agency Rush and original Glug organisers Studio Output and Made Studio, Glug Brighton was billed as an event where designers, creatives, clients and friends could meet up for an afterwork drink for what was billed as 'more notworking than networking.' People from the design industry and related disciplines from all over Brighton convened in The Basement for an evening of live art, animations, music and presentations. It was a packed night, to the extent that after the first round of tickets had sold out, the demand remained so high that more were made available (fear not fire wardens - The Basement was not populated beyond a safe capacity).

Amidst the flow of creative conversations and dialogues about drawing, there was a lot more going on at Glug than simply designers getting together for a chat. As stated, the animations and live art being created kept the onlooking masses enthralled, while elsewhere presentations by illustrious (... sorry) designers, including Mr. Bingo, Studio Tonne and Jason Hocking, Managing Director of CC Labs, captivated the masses. I managed to catch a couple of these presentations, one by Peter James Field and another by our very own Mr. Colin Jenkinson.

Peter's talk was about a new book he's been working on throughout 2009. Called 'Numbers', the project is a series of drawn lists organising famous faces according to various different numerical criteria ranging from height, to number of marriages, to amount of people they killed. It was a thoroughly interesting speech and a great way to open the talks of the evening.

Peter was followed by Colin and his presentation called 'Digital to Physical'. Colin spoke about how all designers are now digital, and some projects of which he is a fan that are pushing the boundaries of interaction and the perception of digital design. These range from projects which are deceptively simple and yet achieve masterful results (such as David Merrill and Jeevan Kalanithi's Siftables - tiny computers that can interact with one another)...

... to those which give the illusion of simplicity but hide incredibly complicated technology (such as Chris O'Shea's Hand from Above). Apart from the passion Colin evoked in his talk, my favourite aspect was his insight into Shigeru Naito's AMOEBA wave machine - which was part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at MoMA.

It's an incredible device originally created by the navy to test the effect of waves on ship designs, which was then given to students to play with. By configuring the 50 mechanical plungers around the edge of a basin of water to act together, they created a machine that can draw on water and have transformed it into - what is in my opinion - an artistic masterpiece. Colin told the crowd how collaboration like this is the key to successful design, and how we at Cogapp achieve unique results through our various departments working closely together with one another, rather than parallel to one another. As he put it, 'beautiful results through collaboration and play'.

For those of us lucky to get a ticket Glug was a great event; for those who missed out, the organisers are looking to arrange the next Glug for the new year. Keep an eye on their blog and Meet Up page for more info.