Digit

Introducing School of Digit: A School Within a Studio

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Collective knowledge is part of what defines Digit. We work in collaborative, multidisciplinary teams across projects and at all stages, approaching our work with equal parts vision, strategy, design intelligence and technological expertise.

There’s no doubt in our minds that the only thing better than a team that works well together is a team that truly understands and values what each member brings to the group. So we’ve decided to expand on our passion for collaboration with in-house skills sharing by launching a school-within-a-studio, School of Digit.

Based on a curriculum created by us and for us, School of Digit is one way the studio is actively creating a culture of informed collaboration. The school is comprised of a series of talks and workshops led by members from each of our studio teams — Strategy, Technology, Design, User Experience, Production and Finance, and will soon include outside experts who can teach us new skills.

We held our very first class this morning on Brand Strategy. Stay tuned for our school calendar, and if you’d like to attend a class, drop us a line and register.

Posted by NMsomi in @Digit, Thinking, Work | Comments (0)

Digital Life 2011

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Remember Digit’s award-winning data visualisation work for TNS’ Digital Life study last year? Well we had the pleasure of outdoing our own work by creating the website for Digital Life 2011, the biggest study ever on how the world thinks and behaves online.

Our design team approached the project differently this year, using an insight-driven and user-centric approach to showcase the study’s provocative findings. Furthermore, a unique link is created for every data permutation to increase the site’s shareability. Digital Life has also been designed for tablet and mobile users, and the site was developed using elements of HTML 5. Above all, our work shows the power of storytelling through data visualisation and delivers an interface that is both simple and intuitive.

Here’s what our Creative Director, Henry Brook, had to say about the design process:

We wanted the site to have substance; to not only deliver data but to tell a story. So we trawled through the data to look for stories while TNS married these up with insights to produce the whole package. The challenge was to combine all of this into a site that was not only relevant but interesting. We decided to go for an editorial feel; to present the content behind contentious headlines and hooks that would tap into concerns and interests.

See Digital Life for yourself here.

Posted by NMsomi in @Digit, Archive, Work | Comments (0)

MEL, PyMEL and the power of scripting in Maya

Monday, October 31st, 2011

One of our Creative Technologists, David Rosser recently wrote about geometry creation with MEL in Maya. Follow David on twitter, and check out his awesome blog when you get a chance.

Maya Embedded Language, also known as MEL, is a scripting language for Maya. In a nutshell, it allows developers to write scripts that can automate tasks in Maya, from custom modeling to rigging and lighting tools. Until the release of Maya 2011, MEL was the only scripting language in Maya, but with the new release came PyMEL, a Python translation of MEL. PyMEL offers a more structured way to script in Maya, as it’s organised by a class hierarchy, which feels more natural for a developer coming from an OOP background.

Below are a couple of useful scripts I’ve stumbled across for Maya, although they only show a fraction of what’s possible with its API.

QTown 2.0.0
A city block fractal generator based on polygons. City block generators are powerful scripts with endless possibilites. This city was generated using QTown and the SOuP shatter node.

Image © enzym

SmarX 1.0.0
This is one of the most interesting uses of MEL I’ve seen so far — using an Xbox Controller to sculpt in Maya. Imagine the possibilities with a gesture based sculpting script using Kinect!

Column Generator 0.3.0
This example shows a column generator that creates either fluted or non-fluted greek style columns. If you’ve seen Michael Hansmeyer’s project on column subdivision, you get an idea of what this script could eventually evolve into.

Posted by drosser in Archive | Comments (0)

Paul shows Creative Technologists how to dress

Friday, October 21st, 2011

Ex-Digiteer Paul Skinner was recently spotted at Westfield. We love his new look!

“I’m just doing my bit to help turn the image of the scruffy developer around. Mens clothes, womens clothes – who cares? I look good.”

A full article about the amazing work Paul is doing can be found here.

Posted by Des in Archive | Comments (8)

The Power of Making

Monday, October 17th, 2011

I had the privilege of visiting the V&A’s Power of Making exhibition last week, and I must say I was truly impressed. Being a closet maker myself I was taken aback by the ingenuity, creativity and shear patience of the exhibitors. In an age where seemingly everything can be accomplished on a computer, it was wonderful to see what can be made with the human hand. Some of the outstanding pieces were the Prosthetic Suit for Stephen Hawkins made entirely out of wood by Michael Rea, and the Splinter Bike, another wood creation built to break the wooden bike land speed record. I was also pleased to see first hand Dalton Ghetti’s tiny alphabet carved into pencil tips.

Not everything was hand made, however. Riccardo Bovo gave a demonstration of 3D printing. With a wooden box and a couple of dials he was a able to twist and sculpt a lampshade on screen, and print the desired design on a 3D printer. I’ve been following 3D printing technology for a couple of years now, but this was my first chance to see first hand both the printing and its output. After taking part in the Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds workshop last year and hearing from industry experts on how 3D printing will revolutionise the way we manufacture and access products, it was great to meet and chat with Riccardo about both his work and overall techniques in the field.

The exhibition runs until January 2nd, 2012 and there are loads of events covering every aspect of making from reed coffins to crocheting.

– Mike Naman.

Posted by mnaman in Archive, Events | Comments (0)

One of my Five a Day

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

by Anna Brooks

My morning alarm wakes me up. It plays my iTunes playlist through laptop speakers.
An hour later, the soundtrack of my walk to work is on full blast through my iPod.
I walk into the office and a colleague is deep in conversation on her iPhone.
I sit down with a cuppa at my desk and turn on my Mac.
I check my twitter feed. I see friends’ photos uploaded from their iPhones.

Apple products and technology have become a part of our instinct in the creative industries. And beyond. Like most designers, I consume at least one of my five a day through the Apple brand.

Yesterday Steve Jobs passed away at the age of 56, leaving behind a foundation that will continue to influence the way we live, work and play. Looking at Apple touch points in my own every day life, I choose to see this as nothing short of revolutionary.

RIP Steve Jobs.

Posted by aBrooks in Archive | Comments (3)

On Glug and Notworking

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Digit Designer, Christina Winkless, joined a small group of Digit colleagues, and the larger London creative community, at Glug last Thursday. She’s particularly good at multitasking, Christina. Or she simply has a knack for finding after-work events that expand creative and professional perspectives. Here’s a summary of her night of notworking at Glug, a monthly get-together for designers and creatives, founded by Ian Hambleton and Nick Clemen.

Last Thursday a few of us Digitees headed down to East London’s Cargo bar for Glug, an after-work notworking event. After a burger and a beer, we listened to talks by the likes of The Viral Factory, Tom Ska, and Joel Veitch.

An ongoing theme throughout the evening was the Internet’s extraordinary ability to facilitate actions that would never have been possible 10 years ago. For instance each speaker took us through a personal journey of how the Internet, and the infectious nature of virals, has opened doors for them, and allowed them to find success in doing what they love to do. I particularly liked The Viral Factory’s take on what factors brought them to where they are now — an engaging and energetic approach, underscored by humour.

The evening ended on a high note with Rob Wakefield from The Viral Factory giving a hilarious run down of how he would solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Solutions included the use of tiny chainsaw steak knives, cows, dynamite and an app to find out “who’s porridge you’re stirring.”

An event like this isn’t just about notworking. It’s about meeting people and hearing their personal take on the work they do in a way an online skim could never provide. A great way to unwind and engage at the same time.

Glug is a monthly event. Tickets can be purchased here.

Posted by cwinkless in Archive, Events | Comments (0)

Digit wins ‘creme de la creme’ at 2011 WPPED Cream Awards

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Digit’s partnership with TNS on ‘Digital Life’ has been awarded Crème de la Crème at the this year’s WPPED Cream Awards. Up against fierce competition from agencies within the Kantar group, Digit came out on top of a record number of submissions in the consumer insight category.

Slick interaction design and beautiful data visualisations brought to life the largest and most comprehensive study of the global digital consumer ever produced. You can view ‘Digital Life’ at www.discoverdigitallife.com

Visit the WPPED Cream 2011 website to find out more.

Posted by cCorbishley in @Digit, Work | Comments (0)

FOTB 2011, Day 3

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

In David Rosser’s final take on Flash on the Beach, he reminds us to build our careers on ideas, not tools. Sound advice coming from an Ideas Man. We can’t wait to see where FOTB takes Digit (and David!) next year.

Jer Thorp – New York, New York

Jer Thorp is mostly known for his beautiful and complex data visualisations. As a Data Artist in Residence at the New York Times, Jer shared some of the most recent projects he’s worked on, one of them being the 9-11 Memorial in New York City. He was asked to produce an algorithm that would allow victims’ names to be placed close to their friends and family rather than in the linear fashion most common in memorial sites. Jer thus produced a tool made with processing that generated a name structure from a set of pre-defined rules. To read more about this fascinating project, click here.

Joshua Davis – The Unknown Voyage

Joshua Davis wrapped up theoverall conference with a session titled, “The Unknown Voyage”. He led the crowd through a collection of his print and interactive work, giving us advice each step of the way on how to further ourselves and our careers. An important point he made was to “build our careers on ideas, not tools.” Why limit our work to the constraints of the programs we work in when we could be thinking outside of the box, without limitations? An appropriate and thought-provoking end to one of the highlight events of the year.

Posted by drosser in Events | Comments (1)

FOTB 2011, Day 2

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

David Rosser shares more of his experience at this year’s Flash on the Beach conference in Brighton. Stay tuned for his final post tomorrow, where he encourages us (via Joshua Davis) to build our careers on ideas, not tools.

Seb Lee-Delisle – Pixels for People

It’s not every day you get to be part of an art installation.

Seb’s Day 2 session ‘Pixels for People’ turned the audience’s iPhones and Android devices into pixels. Using a combination of JavaScript websockets, openFrameworks and over 150 mobile devices, Seb created a synchronous light installation along with a game that challenged audience members to capture the Nyan Cat — the fastest click being the winner. Seb tried this again during the JAM session in the dome and successfully synchronised over 200 mobile devices.

David Lenaerts – Keeping it real

David, being an Away3D core developer, was definitely on my Favorites list. As a fellow 3D enthusiast with a background in Maya and Flash, I was excited and intrigued to learn about advanced shading and rendering techniques. One of the key points he highlighted was using realtime physics calculations to counter software limitations. He argued that calculating realtime physics based simulations is expensive on the CPU, while the same effect(s) can be achieved by “faking it.” His presentation covered diffuse lighting, sub surface scattering and normal mapping techniques, which were followed by some jaw-dropping Away3D 4 demos. To read more about the topics David covered click here.

James Victore – Who died and made me boss?

All I knew about james before seeing him speak was that he had the most impressive mustouche ever! James headed the Inspiration session on the second night. Apart from running his own business, James Victore Inc., he’s also a professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Throughout James’s talk, he discussed various pieces of work from his new book – “Who Died and Made You Boss?”. His captivating and motivating session eventually had us all rocking out to Back in Black by AC/DC. A great end to a fantastic Day 2.