LOVE

Moths

Whilst walking to work this morning I very nearly stood on possibly the largest insect I have ever seen. The small furry like dragon looked like a moth on way too many steroids. However it looked absolutely incredible (on the only day I forget to bring a camera to work). Being as they always get labelled as the poor mans butterfly I thought I would dig out some more specimens to share.

Ecpantheria scribionia
Leopard Moth-

"The immature stage of this moth is a caterpillar, known as the woolly bear."
"The moth stage of this species is very beautiful. The wings of the moth are solid white, with irregularly shaped black circles all over them giving it the leopard-like appearance. The abdomen is dark blue with orange markings."

Dryocampa rubicunda
Rosy Maple Moth-

Attacus atlas
The Atlas Moth-
Atlas moths are considered to be the largest moths in the world in terms of total wing surface area (upwards of c. 400 square cm or 65 square inches). Their wingspans are also amongst the largest, from 25-30 cm (10-12 inches). Females are appreciably larger and heavier.

Not sure what this one is, but it looks pretty incredible.

and after some digging I found the one from this morning.

The aptly named Hawk Moth
They are some of the fastest flying insects, capable of flying at over 50 km/h (30 miles per hour)

Finally, is the Case moth who makes their cocoons out of pieces of wood.
Andy Goldsworthy eat your heart out.

Bugger Off Webex

This Webex ad that splurges across the Brand Republic landing page is virtually impossible to shift in Safari.  It has remarkable staying power, is impressively intrusive and extremely f*%ing annoying. I'm off to Firefox.

Equitrade

I hadn't heard about Equitrade until recently, but it's a pretty smart idea.  It's all about keeping as much of the production, manufacture, packaging and design of products in the country of origin so that local suppliers in poorer countries keep more of the cash value of the brands they help create.  There's a Preston-based company called Malagasy Foods who make their bars of chocolate in Madagascar - as opposed to just buying the cocoa at a Fair Trade price and paying money to less needy British manufacturers, packagers and designers to turn the cocoa into a chocolate brand.  I wonder whether we could offer our design skills to growers, farmers and manufacturers in poorer countries to help them create and sell brands as opposed to just selling raw materials.  Malagasy reckon that only 5p of the £1.70 cost of a 100g bar of chocolate goes to the cocoa producers under Fair Trade, but a much bigger percentage of that money stays in the poorer countries with Equitrade. We wish Malagasy chocolate well and when you come across it, be sure to buy a few bars.

No Smoking

From July 1st, every public place is legally required to prominently display ugly No Smoking signs like these.  Presumably that means every shop, pub, office, cab, heritage building, restaurant...they'll be everywhere - smoking pollution replaced by visual pollution.  Maybe we should design some alternative No Smoking signs that are more pleasing or entertaining to look at. 

Bugs Bunny RIP

By Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee. You can see more here

I forget where I found them... think it was via boing boing, which is really rather good.

Crew 82

If you missed the work of genius called Britain's Got Talent last night, you missed Crew 82.  Awesome.

New iPhone Ad

There are quite a few ads demonstrating the practical side of the iphone on YouTube. I like this one though.

D'Oh!

This kind of thing must happen all the time.  Anyone got a picture of the Man Utd 2007 FA Cup Winners tour bus?

To flush, or not to flush

Caution: this post contains the words “wee”, “poo” and “big jobs”. If you are offended by such terms, please do not read on.

Around five or so years ago some friends of ours invested in a dual flush system for their new toilet. I’d never seen one before, so after my first visit I asked them about it. They told me that if every toilet in the UK had a dual flush system, it would save the equivalent of six reservoirs of water every year. Now, I’ve only ever seen one reservoir in real life – the Avon Dam in Devon – but I’d imagine six reservoirs to be quite a lot bigger than that.

Ever since that first water-conserving flush at my friend’s house, my aim in life became to one day own a dual flush system. In terms of successful living, it ranked right up there with an integrated ice machine in your fridge as a sign that you’ve really made it. It’s only my humble opinion, but once you’ve got an ice maker in your fridge, a dual flush toilet and a small forest in your back garden to offset your carbon footprint, then you can die a happy chappy.

But then a couple of years ago something odd happened. Suddenly everyone had a dual flush system, but the problem was every toilet had its own slant on which was the wee button, and which was the poo button. Is the big button for “big jobs” or is it the button you push more often, ie for wee? Then there are some that have a little button in the middle of the big button, which someone told me you push together for a wee.

So now I’ve got no clue what to do. I’m confused and I’ve almost given up caring about those six reservoirs. If there is anyone out there who works in the toilet industry, please could you set up some sort of governing body to make dual flush systems universal and avoid confusion. Much like VHS vs Betamax, or BlueRay vs HD DVD, surely one system would eventually win. And I can relax when I go to the lav, without fear of pushing the big flush for a small wee.

Websites As DNA Art

This is the content of the LOVE website, represented in a visual DNA style.
It's courtesy of the web2dna project at baekdal, which our client Steve at STA Travel pointed us to.
This is the UK website of STA Travel.

And this is the site of our lovely clients at Yorkshire Tea (the best tea in Britain).

We're making them into posters because we think they look
really good. 
If anyone wants one, give us a shout.

Posted by LOVE