Nzime

Usually when we finish a new digital project it goes online for all the world to see in all its glory. With one of our more recent projects however you will have to be one of the lucky people that own an Xbox 360 Kinect and Xbox Live. There is no need to worry though, we have taken the time to put together a collection of images walking you through each section of the application giving a glimpse of the magic it has to offer.

I’d like to introduce you to to the Official Kinect Sports Facebook Application.

Whether your specialty is Bowling, Table Tennis or a spot of Beach Volleyball (bikini not required) you can put your skills up against anyone and everyone with international leagues. You have the option to simply join the current weeks league or subscribe, which will automatically enter you into your selected leagues every week.

If you prefer competition on a more personal level, invite your Facebook friends to your own personal weekly league. You choose the Sport, Number of Games, League name and Start Date.

So you’ve joined a few international leagues and invited your friends to the bowling league to end all leagues you can then keep track of everyones progress in My Leagues. After joining a league you have been invited to you can also keep a track on the progress and how long you have to get your games in. Once leagues are finished they are fully archived for you to reminisce on your achievements.

If you have played Kinect Sports you will be fully aware of the hysteria generated by seeing your game highlights. If you were daring enough to upload your videos to Kinect Share you can view them all in My(your) Videos.

My Records: See how you compare against your friends, find out who’s been practicing a little too much and if it’s your thing brag to your Facebook friends about how great you are.

Karl McKeever (Brand Director of Visual Thinking) is an influential and well respected visual merchandising specialist who works alongside brands such as Marks & Spencer, Harley-Davidson, John Lewis, Waterstones and many, many more. Check the new site and follow Karl on Twitter for VM industry comment and general chit chat.

We have just finished the K-tech product videos which are being rolled out across all their digital channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog and the web site. Even non-motorcyclists will want one after watching these.

Using Google maps we calculated the exact distance from the Billboard locations to our clients location. The creative we can do; the golf we can’t….

Laura has pulled it out of the bag this morning with a surprise birthday cake for Andrew which tastes as good as it looks. What a star; on brand too!

There’s only a small slice left so if you’re passing this way today then pop in…

This doesn’t really need explaining as the emails say it all…

Hi

Never usually bother with things like this but I thought it was worth dropping you an email.

I’ve picked up a pack of your ‘Toast For Cheese’ packs today after purchasing from a local deli in Long Clawson after they were running a free tasting at the counter. Lovely product, lovely packaging but when I opened them I felt let down as it appeared half empty; as I say I wouldn’t usually bother mentioning but because everything else was so perfect….

Working in a creative agency I always over analyse these things but by reducing the pack size slightly this would immediately fix this.

Anyway, just had one with some stilton and lime chutney, perfect.

Hope this is helpful and not deemed as negative/annoying.

Cheers
Andrew

Hello Andrew
It was a kind and generous email- thank you for that.

This is a very new product with technical challenges, particularly cutting it, packing it and transporting it.
Initially we had to design the box and tray with hand made products so size-wise we had to play safe.
The first products we produced on the cutting machine were much thinner and so they filled the tray better but we had a lot of breakages in transit,
so we had to set the cutter to produce thicker slices – which take up less space.
This means that the tray is, as you point out, rather roomy’ but I am thrilled to see an absence of broken’ Toasts’ in the tray.
We are planning to have a tray with a divider soon, and ideally down size the box a touch.
Because the product is by nature fragile I fear we will always look a bit over-packaged but at least that way we will keep damages to a minimum.
(Have you ever watched TNT in action? – suitably named after an explosive)

Anyway I ‘m glad you like the product.  It is expensive to produce ( 60% fruits/nuts and seeds) – so please understand we are not trying to mislead our customers.

Thank you writing – I will send you another variety for you to to try out and spread the  good word….
best wishes
Ann-Marie

Over the weekend some of us took a little time out away from the screens to get some much needed, high speed, motorbike action at the Silverstone MotoGP. The weather on Saturday was beautiful for qualifying, with some of us looking a similar colour to Rossi’s Ducati by the end of the day.

Unfortunately it wasn’t so friendly on Race Day with heavy rain and harsh winds, it didn’t stop the fans from turning out in their masses though. The Riders braved the treacherous conditions to put on a great show with some fairing better than others.

Congratulations to Colin Edwards who came an amazing 3rd despite breaking his collar bone the week before.

After the successful installation of the Fooseball table into the Nzime studio. We thought we needed to up our game a bit and bring back some Retro Arcade gaming into our lives.

Let the Nzime Sega Rally championship commence!

Having not turned down a free lunch yet, Glen and I attended Nottingham law firm Rothera Dowson’s ‘Small Talk’ seminar at regular Nzime hangout the Curry Lounge. The seminar focused on how businesses can tweet, connect and poke their way to increased sales and better customer relationships, without landing in legal hot water.

Social media enables businesses to show their personality, crucial in a world where ‘people buy people’, but must be used in a considered and strategic fashion if it is to achieve results. Simply pushing out company propaganda does not work. Instead, brands should look to become actively involved in their online community, by joining discussions and making thoughtful comments and retweets. This has the added bonus of also helping your SEO.

Here at Nzime, we’re old hands at developing strategic social media strategies for our clients – but were interested to find out more about where it can go all go wrong…

Most companies have an internet policy, which provides them with legal recourse if their staff spend too much time on Facebook. But most probably don’t realise that employees’ online behaviour outside of the workplace also has legal implications. Now that personal lives are made more public online, employers are open to claims of discrimination if personal information discovered on the internet is used in recruitment or disciplinary processes. There is also a risk that staff might post confidential or defamatory information online, or use their LinkedIn contact lists to steal clients when they move on to another employer.

By establishing a social media policy, employers can proactively manage these risks. Your policy should clearly set out your expectations of employees in both their business and personal use of social media, and if you intend to ‘check up’ on them online. It should also establish a framework for action, for example, staff training on appropriate use, complaints procedures, or the use of restrictive covenants when people leave.

If your business is looking to develop its social media strategy, feel free to email me at taryn@nzime.com.

The Design Museum is currently showing the UK’s first retrospective of Dutch designer Wim Crouwel. An exhibition showcasing the prolific 60 year design career of a living design legend.

The exhibition will explore Crouwel’s innovative use of grid-based layouts and typographic systems which produced consistently striking visuals for clients such as: the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Dutch Postal Service and Rabobank. Along with his experimental typeface designs including the New Alphabet font which was used on Joy Division’s Substance album sleeve.

You can check out the exhibition at the Design Museum in London up until the 03 July.

A recent edition to the Nzime studio, publishers Unit Editions have also released their next book, TD 63-73, a study of influential Dutch Studio, Total Design. Founded by Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing, Friso Kramer, and the Schwarz Brothers in Amsterdam in 1963. The book will cover the studio’s work from 1963 to 1973, and promises an “up close and personal” history of the studio.

As if that wasn’t enough Crouwel-based goodness and if you ever wanted to be woken by designery good wishes, there is of course an app: crouwelclock. A beautifully animated graphic alarm clock, featuring three personal Wim Crouwel messages as alarms.