Well it's been one of the busiest weeks in the studio ever. We have been racing to get the National Theatre Wales destination website launched in conjunction with linking it to the live streaming of the event programme to the world. There were moments of doubt but it all seems to be running smoothly now and the launch of the programme seems to have been well received by the press. The online social community that has been nurtured by National Theatre Wales and Native, has also been responding to the launch and the destination website, which has been great. With one commenting:

"Well done John, Lucy, Lesa and all the NTW team. An amazing programme, a beautiful looking website, and all the technology worked!"

It has been a great project to work on. The team assembled by National Theatre Wales have all managed to collaborate together in a very proactive fun way.



Thanks to NTW, Lesa from stop the pigeon, Elfen for working on the brand, Native for developing the online community. We hope that this can be used as a great case study to show how creative teams can work together in a collaborative way. I also got a great coffee which helped the tired eyes.

Along with Cardiff Design Festival taking place during October there is also another festival called May you live in interesting times which has been set up by Bloc and supported by Chapter. I visited last friday and attended the unConference and a few other events during the day.

May you live in interesting times - Maker Faire texting and semaphore, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

May you live in interesting times - unConference, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

It's been a busy few weeks for us during the Festival and it has taken me a bit of time to catch up. We all went to the ignite event a few weeks ago. A great event which was held in the WMC. My favourite was the guy in the picture below who spoke about how to keep chickens in the urban jungle. I loved the format and would definitely be interested in giving it a go in the future. Now I just have to think about a subject. Any ideas?

ignite - wales millennium Centre, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

I have returned from New York and have finally got around to uploading some of the Photographs I took on my travels. So through a combination of 5 Airport Security checks, sore legs and feet, 10 very long queues and a few hot dogs to keep me going, below is a selection of my photographs.

Pier on Liberty Island, originally uploaded by Carwyn Lloyd Jones - Dylunio Creadigol.

Central Park View from Rocafella Center, originally uploaded by Carwyn Lloyd Jones - Dylunio Creadigol.

View from Rocafella Center, originally uploaded by Carwyn Lloyd Jones - Dylunio Creadigol.

Subway Car, originally uploaded by Carwyn Lloyd Jones - Dylunio Creadigol.

Inside Guggenheim Museum, originally uploaded by Carwyn Lloyd Jones - Dylunio Creadigol.

Guggenheim Museum, originally uploaded by Carwyn Lloyd Jones - Dylunio Creadigol.

After a lot of preparation the NakedWales Pub Quiz took place this week at Gwdihw, Cardiff. We had a great turn out and the winning team donated their winnings to the Heart foundation. There are loads more images of the night of my flickr account. We had some really good feedback about the evening and are considering making it a regular event, if any one out there has any ideas of what we should do in terms of games etc let us know at hello@nakedwales.com. We had a great mix of people from photographers, designers, lecturers to students and set designers.

NakedWales Pub Quiz, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

When Hoffi was first setup I was really getting into networks and looking into how the many are stronger than the one. Nearly four years later we are about to see if the theory is correct. Over the years our work with NakedWales, Cardiff Design Festival, and AberdareOnline have been centred around community and giving people the opportunity to improve their knowledge and contacts. More recently Hoffi has been working more in a consultancy role using strategy and facilitating projects.

As a brand, Hoffi has many people who have experienced us on differing projects and in different ways. So we thought, if there are all these people who we have worked with us. They are unlikely to have met, so why don't we arrange a way of joining them together? We are now in the process of setting up an after hours network for our clients. We hope by setting up the network we can encourage clients to aire their issues and frustrations and maybe find people who can help them out with new projects. For us it is a great way of including them within the Hoffi culture and we hope that we will create deeper relationships with them.

We will be setting the network up over the next few months so we will keep you informed. Now all we need is a name.

The beginning of this week saw a group of students from UWIC visit us. They came to discuss a 'live' project that they have been working on for the last few weeks. This is the third time we have been involved in these 'live' projects and it is always great to see the different people that turn up. This year has been slightly different in that we have not set the brief, but have been asked to mentor them in the development of their projects. After speaking to Olwen, the idea of people working as groups rather than having everyone produce designs seemed to reflect the way studio's work in the real world, for experiencing it first hand I also believe the project has been beneficial for the students who have become less precious with their work.

Presentations are going to be this friday so fingers crossed for my group.

Our friends at WonderCulture are holding another one of their Designer Markets this weekend. So if you are in the Canton area check them out. There is also going to be a chance to see the newly refurbished restaurant area of Chapter see more details here.

I came across this recently via the springwise website. As a branding company that works with various types of clients we believe that no matter what the size of the business their brands should be about people rather than profit. The goal is for brands to do the right thing on a social level. This is born out of the growing power of the customer and how they are now becoming the controllers of peoples brands. The internet gives people a platform to instantly aire views and news about a brand which can be positive but also negative. If companies are not going to concentrate on being centred around people rather than traditional business models, we feel they may well go by the wayside.

The Kinded project setup in NY is a lovely idea about making or rather reminding people to do random acts of kindness. It reminds me a lot of Danny Wallace and his Join Me project where he created in his own words 'a cult by accident' that centred around various do good endeavours including a be good to elderly gentlemen on a friday.

There are some great events happening during the Cardiff Design Festival, among them is the NakedWales Pub Quiz – which we will be organising on the 19th of October. We hope everyone comes and has a great time.