We're in and back up and running (yay!) — just waiting on a few more things like desks, cupboards, lunch table & a  7ft pool table.

Our new details are…

• TAK!
  Studio 204, The Custard Factory
  Birmingham
  B94AA

We have a new telephone number also, +44 (0) 121 288 25 28

Service might be a little slow over the next few days as we are currently moving studios. Normal service will resume next week.

I can sing a rainbow.. so can these guys too! Sound of Color (colour!! please!) features some amazing videos/music themed on colour. The Raveonettes track and video is just lush.

Ohhhhh nice! We’ve been picked as one of Netdiver’s Best Of The Year for 2007. Great!

Netdiver have always been big supporters of all things TAK! and we’re honored to be in their list along with all the other fantastic sites.

Thanks! 

…alas Tallis Shorts didn't make it into the final selection. We’re a bit gutted especially when all the finalists seem to be profit making organisations with either paid membership access or Google Adwords littered around every corner.

I’ve seen site much better than Mindbites and I can get free tutorial videos off YouTube, and OnlyHuman seems to have very little (useful) educational content. I always wanted to know 'How to not cut your finger off’!!

Tallis Shorts is funded, maintained and supported by the school and in my eyes is a true Educational Resource with students and staff creating and sharing media amongst themselves for the purpose of creative learning.

To be fair there are a couple of great finalists and I’m certain one of these two will be the winner. It’ll either be; Ecolect (with it’s SN-esque typography) or TED.

My money’s on TED.

It’s funny — after missing SXSW for the past two years (as a winner and as a finalist) this year I’ve managed to blag my way to SXSW! Of course, I’m not that biitter about not getting to the final — it is after all just a bit of fun. But I will be flying the flag for Tallis Shorts and will be championing the need for good, unique graphic design. Which leads me onto the actual point for this news post.

With an estimated 6 billion websites currently out in the web-o-sphere, how can one site distinguish itself from another?

Unique graphic design is one way. Unique graphic design can define and shape a product. It can help differentiate one product from another. It doesn’t mean simply following a trend or style to emulate your heroes. A quick scoot through the SXSW finalists from all the categories confirms a mass homogenisation of the web. I can barely distinguish the sites I’ve just looked at.

This advice is relevant for all aspects of creativity. Be original and stick with your approach. Being different makes a difference. 

And a whole lot more, like; CSS based animations, client side SQL storage and more. This fills me with excitement and should hopefully increase the number of users of this great web browser*.

I look forward to this new version with anticipation.

Read more 

* Yes — that's right Neil (before you leave a comment) I said great! I really like Safari and hope that by bringing it up to scratch with tomorrows standards the browser has a great future. For me it outperforms Firefox when it comes to speed and system resources. Not sure about how it performs on a PC. But then again, why would I want to? Ha ha ha ha!

Hikkoshi is a really sweet physics based Flash game. Very simple and very fu to play. I challenge you to even land 1 object in it's intended spot.  Created using the equally awesome Box2DFlashAS3 physics engine for Flash. (Tip: press right on the keyboard to see other examples of it in action. Check example 2!)

The work of Birmingham based artist and designer Ben Javens is well worth a look. 

I'm a sucka for anything Nintendo especially Mario Kart so these fresh new screenshots have got me hyped hence the news post. Click on the picture to take a closer look at how the game is shaping up. Got me all excited for this Friday... only bad thing is it's not out until the end of the year - boooooo!

Anyways - to put bring some relevance to this post (not that I need to!) check the interface for the online friend matching (middle area). Amazing stuff.
A refreshing angle for a typical online game interface and a solid two fingers up to web based interface design. Go Nintendo!

(PS: link fixed) 

From the Midlands with Love: not a Bond movie remade into a bleak drama by Shane Meadows, but a showcase of the finest graphic art and illustration coming out of the West Midlands.

• Media Content Lab (part of Birmingham City University) felt that too much of the design world’s attention is focused on a handful of London companies, so decided to do something about it. We put together a postcard book featuring the artwork of graphic designers, illustrators, web designers and character designers based in the West Midlands.
  
  The best computer artists from across the region were invited to submit their work before a final selection of the top designs were chosen to go into the book.
  
  "We felt that too many of the big publishing companies and advertising agencies were ignoring the Midlands", said Media Content Lab’s Suzanne Neal. "So we decided to put something together that would show them there is real talent here!"
  
  The postcard book is due to be sent to over 100 of the country’s top PR, marketing and advertising agencies as well as publishing companies and reputable agents at the end of January '08.

We have a postcard in the pack (hence this news post) image below. The project is a nice idea and hope it raises awareness of the talent within the region.

If you want a free pack of postcards please send an A5 stamped addressed envelope to:

• TAK!
  From Midlands With Love
  118 Custard Factory
  Birmingham
  B9 4AA

A few people have created a Flickr account where they pose with their favourite record sleeves. Have a looksie.

Why not Monkify yourself (as well as see how you look older, younger, as a different race, as a woman etc etc)

HA HA HA!

(From top left to bottom right: Me, Nessa, Max, Neil)

We’ve just received this 3D render of the Poky Beaver and it looks great! The 3D work has been created by our new friend Ming from the original clay model created by Shuji Suzuki. I highly recommend Ming for any 3D character work, as you can see, the 3D remodelling is very accurate to the original clay figure.

We also highly recommend Shuji who originally designed and modelled the Beaver character. Shuji describes himself as a 'Clayer' working on one off characters and models.  I originally met Shuji via Myspace about 3 years ago and always wanted to work with him on a 3D logotype.The Poky project was the first chance we could bring his skills into the game and the Beaver he created is fantastic.

We originally featured Shuji in the Walkie Talkie magazine we did for Clarks Originals. That’s his studio below. Wildstye!

Paula Scher diagrams the verbal jousting in the life cycle of a blog thread in the Op-Ed page of today’s New York Times.

So we're in the process of making the Poky beaver into a figure for Opened Hand to give away as a promotional item. Here's the re-modelled 3D renderings ready for production. Looking real nice.