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In a world where everything and everyone is buzzing with the latest mobile innovation or app store advent, Blackberry this week launched its new TV spot, ‘There are people that don’t, and people that do. Do you?’

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Swimming in secret ponds. Running through endless fields. Laughing all the balmy day and loving all the starry night: That's summer. And it's a magical time. Thankfully, that time has come. To celebrate the endless adventures that await you this summer, DLKW Lowe has launched the new Halfords Summer Campaign written by DLKW Lowe’s Executive Creative Directors Richard Denney and Dave Henderson and directed by Academy’s Frederic Planchon.

The ad follows 4 children on a summer family trip; a boy and girl from the 1970s playing alongside a present day brother and sister. The ad is set to the 70’s anthem ‘Into the Valley’ by The Skids and brings to life nostalgic moments from trips and holidays that people look back on with fond memories. ‘The best trips last a lifetime’ sums this feeling of nostalgia and promotes Halfords as the launch pad for family holidays this summer.


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Sometime around the late 00’s, in certain forward-thinking pockets of the world, a spattering of progressive fitness gyms sprang up that implemented a renewable energy programs. These would eventually make the make your workout make electricity. It was the quintessential “how-the-hell-didn’t-we-think-of-that-before” moment, if there ever was one. And it worked. It was all fine and dandy, and genuinely exciting. But there was a problem: it was exclusive. Those gyms, naturally, were “members-only” programs, which in turn took the chance of getting in a good sweat while enriching the power grid away from non-members. The smart people at The Great Outdoor Gym Company didn’t think that a fair distribution of power (no pun intended), and launched the worlds first people-power generating, outdoor gym.

The TGO Green Energy Gym Technology recently launched it’s first “Green Heart” at Shaw Park in Hull UK. The gym uses energy people put into their workout and converts it to usable electricity. Not only is the energy used to keep the lights on the surrounding area during twilight workout sessions, but also the renewable electricity can feed into local buildings and even onto the National Grid.


Links to consider:

http://www.tgogc.com/home/news-and-updates/the-green-heart-l...

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Lego. A brand we love and a brand we've known to have gone from strength to strength has just celebrated their 80th birthday this week, in a, well...heightened manner.

4,000 lucky children assembled close to 50,000 LEGO bricks over the course of 4 days, to build a tower that reached a record breaking 104.65 feet. That’s one inch over the previous French record, for those that are counting.

Let's go to the tape!


The very first Lego tower was built in 1988 and stood just less than 50 feet, and with the new record doubling that measurement , it‘s no wonder this sculpture has attracted more than 30,000 curious visitors.

Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who started making wooden toys within his workshop from 1920, invented the popular toy.

The bricks are hugely popular worldwide, and especially in South Korea where they became the first branded toy sold there. And this isn’t the first time a Korean tower has held the world record – back in 1996 a structure in Seoul claimed the title, albeit measuring a more modest 21 metres (68ft) tall.

Look out for more posts about one of our favourite brands!

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At some point or another, everyone has dreamt of living the Rockstar lifestyle. We’re not talking about shredding licks in front of an audience of thousands or belting out soaring ballads to swooning fans. We’re talking about the “life style”. We’re talking about trashing hotel rooms. We’re talking running from droves of groupies. We’re talking about evading the law for whatever unruly things you did after last night’s concert. We’re talking, history-making, moral-challenging, hangover-inducing rockstar antics. Y’know, the good stuff.

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Recently there have been a spat of reports trumpeting the health, emotional and mental benefits of a more gentle, more biologically in-sync alarm clock system. The jarring nature of the old traditional alarm has been linked to everything from heightened stress to (gulp!) weight gain. The genius minds at Uniqlo, Japanese clothiers extraordinaire, have developed a mobile app to help aid in making your break from slumber a more pleasant and shall we say musical one:

The Uniqlo Wake Up app is hard not to like. What separates this from other alarm apps is that the musical accompaniment (composed by Japanese music hero Cornelius aka Keigo Oyamada) is determined solely based on the weather. The tones, piano, voice changes depending on whether or not it’s a cloudy day or you’re waking up to clear sunshine. The added interesting part is that you have the option of linking your “wake-up results” to a global social media network, thusly creating a database of information on the waking behaviors of cities and nations the world over. These results are a part of the app called WORLD WAKE UP.

Oh, and it’s free.

And free is always a pleasure to wake up to.

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What is a web without context? We’ve all held the belief that the Internet is a place where words give the trillions of images we seek out, context and weight. But by this measure, are the images themselves devalued as entities on their own accord? Former Google Creative Lab Creative Director Ji Lee wanted to test that idea out and created Wordless Web: a browser plug-in that eliminates text from any website you’d visit.

The fascinating thing you’re left with, in many cases, is a minimalist aesthetic and the strength of a particular site is dependent on powerful imagery, free of context. And an image without context is an image open to interpretation. The mind is free to travel down myriad avenues of categorization.

While some websites benefit from the application, others reveal their over-reliance on large, garish adverts, turning the site into an electronic billboard, which is none to pleasant, nor interesting to look at.

Wordless Web is an experiment in what truly holds lasting value in the fast-paced age of over-information.


Links to consider:

http://wordlessweb.com/

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The name Elsa Schiaparelli registers only for the most deeply invested of the fashion elite. Schiaparelli, or “Schiap” as she was commonly referred to, was an avant-garde fashion visionary during her active years thru the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. She was not only the responsible for creating some of the most iconic items in fashion (wedge heels, culottes and the modern runway show, to name but a few), but before her death in 1973, she originated the concept of the “artist collaboration” by hanging tough with notable Surrealists and designing dresses with Salvador Dali. Schiap’s story is an impressive if not criminally under-sung narrative in making fashion that exceeded function. She just never got her day in the sun.

Today that changes.

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Summer nears. The mercury rises and extracurricular activates begin dusting themselves off, readying for play. But before your senses are overwhelmed with the unctuous mixture of possibility and suntan lotion, consider exercise. No, not just because you’ll be harshly judged by beach goers and passersby’s when disrobing, but because your exercise may end up powering a film screening series….

…. um, let us explain:

UK-based non-for-profit bike education and advocacy group, Magnificent Revolution have launched their, frankly taxing film series Cycle-In Cinema at Hackney City Farm. We say “taxing” because participants are asked to power the outdoor screening by peddling their bikes, which are connected to generators, subsequently producing electricity. The concept seems like some medieval torture practice, but it’s anything but. The group gives riders and non-riders the chance to enjoy the film and enjoy watching biking teams peddle their way to glory, all while watching some fine film choices.

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Yes. You read that headline correctly: There IS power in your pooches poo, and Mexican Internet company Terra is going to prove it.

In an attempt to dually keep neighborhoods clean from pet waste while simultaneously providing free Wi-Fi (an admittedly odd concept), Terra has launched the initiative Terra Poo Wi-Fi: the worlds first poop-powered free Wi-Fi service.

Let’s go to the tape!

With Terra Poo Wi-Fi, dog owners are encouraged to scoop the poop and dispose of it to get a few minutes of free Wi-Fi. It’s a weight-based system: The more thrown away, the more weight there is, the more weight there is, the more free internet everyone gets…and the bottom of our shoes remain clean.

Granted there will be those that try to corrupt this system (putting a brick in the receptacle would garner a good many free minutes for example), but Terra is operating from the positive positioning of an honor-based system. (This is highlighted in our Lowe Counsel Future Sign: Honest World)

The “waste management” portion of your dog walk just got a little more rewarding.

Links to consider:

http://www.slideshare.net/Counsel/counsel-honest-world



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