Fantasia @ Kirkstall Abbey

Okay, so Mickey mouse and his army of broomsticks were nowhere to be seen, but we still had a great night out despite that. One of the event's sponsors, Carte D'Or, were dishing out free tubs of scrummy icecream and we even scooped ourselves up a free 'Proms Classics' CD. The highlight of the evening had to be bumping into Dom (The Hodge) and Heather on our way towards the exit. Thinking the night was all over after being spellbound for over an hour and watching a truckload of fireworks ignite, Dom kindly pointed out that it was only the interval and invited us back to sit down and watch the remaining festivities. A good job we did too as the rest of the show was spectacular. Cheers Dom :D

Kooji T-Shirts

Brian from Dragon Embroidery in Harrogate (who we met a few months ago on the set of Cinema of Horror) asked us if we could help him out by testing a batch of t-shirts using a new and highly top secret printing process. We eagerly agreed to be his test gerbils, lab hamsters and guinea pigs and provided him with some of our artwork to use. The good news is they arrived earlier this week and we've been sporting these snazzy Kooji T-Shirts ever since in an attempt to weed out any faults or minor errors. Obviously this means wearing them all day every day then firing them through the Kooji Washing Machines as often as we're able. The stench is almost unbearable but this is a risk we're willing to take if it means we're helping to develop new and innovative print techniques. Keep an eye out for us in highstreets near you ;)

Design Duo: Kooji Creative - Combining the artistic prowess of Johnathan Gallagher and the unrivalled determination of Katherine Moss. Together they harness the power of the most dastardley and cunning digital design skills the world has ever seen!

New Blog!

Kooji have got themselves a new blog thanks to Google's Blogger. Its got some nifty widgets and plenty of special features so we'll be replacing our old news section with this instead. We've transferred all our old posts and photos so you can still check out what we've been up to over the last few years. Plus, you can look forward to more updates from us on current happenings and goings on. Hurrah! Thanks Blogger :)

BarCamp Leeds 2008

We had such a fantastic time at the last BarCamp Leeds and this one was no exception. We've been eagerly awaiting news about this year's BarCamp so when the news came through from Imran Ali, one of the organisers, we got ourselves signed up straight away. BarCampers were treated to a free Orange goody-bag containing Orange USB pen drives, badges, balloons, pencils and groovy Yorkshire Forward USB mice.

This time round, rather than manning the reception throughout the day, we attended more of the talks, discussions and workshops. There was an unmistakeable design flavour seeping through at this year's event with one of the highlights being Dean Vipond's talk on Design Vs Usability. Dean is a designer from Orange and his talk focussed upon the relationship between and balance of these two fundamental areas. During the discussion he presented a diagram illustrating the project lifecycle of his design projects at work. This was a very interesting subject to discuss as it is a consideration every designer has to keep in mind: the constraints that usability can place upon the design process and at the same time the importance of the end user's requirements.

All the BarCampers were really well catered for with some tasty sushi nibbles at lunchtime followed by a hearty helping of pizza for dinner. The Space Invaders and lollies went down well, with Imran kindly letting us run away with the remainding lollies at the end of the day. The evening was rounded off with a few drinks in the Fenton across the road from Old Broadcasting House.

Leeds Girl Geek Dinner

After an invitation from Linda Broughton, Head of NTI Leeds, and Imran Ali, from CARBON:imagineering, we went along to Leeds' first Girl Geek Dinner, held at the Living Room in the city centre last night. These networking events are designed to promote and support women primarily in the technical industry, but also crossing into the creative and digital industries. The venue was packed with a range of professionals representing these disciplines and it was a great opportunity to make new contacts and to catch up with old ones. We managed a quick chat with Maz Hardey who we'd met earlier this year at OpenCoffee. There were two speakers: Lydia Machell and Lorna Mitchell whose talks covered the subjects of 'code as poetry' and 'professional development for girl geeks' respectively. The organisers did a fantastic job and we had a great night.

http://leedsgirlgeekdinners.com/

Blood, Sweat & Tears

I studied at Leeds College of Art and Design many moons ago and so when one of these final year degree shows turn up I like to pop over and see what the new crop of creatives has to show. This year was nothing less of what you'd expect from LCAD, a really inspiring show from a range of creative disciplines. We had a swift run round after the talk by Jimmy Choo at Creative Networks. Since it was so late on in the evening it meant turning back on some of the lights to see the exhibitions, but we weren't disappointed when we did.

Image © Leeds College of Art and Design

One of the best exhibits we saw was by an illustrator called Claire Pullan. She had some absolutely fantastic illustrative work on display and a ton of MOO cards with her artwork on, so we took one of each design. Check out her artwork here:

http://www.clairepullan.co.uk/

Jimmy Choo Shoes

Wow, what a thrill to see Professor Jimmy Choo OBE live and in person! ...and what a humble person he is too. Every seat in the lecture theatre was taken at Creative Networks (a great new monthly Networking event in Leeds that hosts talks by top-notch industry gurus like Jimmy).

Image © Creative Networks

The son of a Malaysian shoemaker Jimmy climbed to fame and is known the world over for his beautifully crafted shoes. His shoes have been strutted around in by pop-stars, celebs and royalty (even the late princess Diana herself had shoes especially made for her!)

Image © Creative Networks

It was mesmerising to listen to him speak about his journey and I think the most important point he made, when he was imparting his knowledge and experience to the audience, is that determination is the key! When he first set out in his career he explained how important it is to get your name on your work, to be recognised and be credited for your work. Don't let other's take advantage.

He said, "You must INSIST!" Insist that your name is put on your work. Insist that you are given credit for your hard work!

An audience with Prof. Jimmy Choo OBE - what an absolute treat!

Inspiring Yorkshire's Young Minds

We were invited to pay Yorkshire Forward a visit to share some of our experiences and help inspire young future entrepreneurs from local primary schools. Young Enterprise Forum and their campaign, "Enterprising Yorkshire - Inspiring Young Minds", is an exciting initiative which aims to "make Yorkshire and Humber the leading region in the UK for Enterprise Education."

Kooji does Bangkok!

During the exciting IIFA weekend, Kooji was in Thailand to witness the event first hand. Mingling with the stars and dedicated fans of Indian Cinema, we saw behind the scenes of the awards ceremony as well as the glitzy fashion show, film premiere and media conferences.

It virtually runs itself!

Working closely with the Carnegie Research Institute, Kooji has completed work on a prototype interface and program designed to simulate an athlete’s performance based on the user's input. Control over running speed and water intake is complemented by body glycogen and lactate readouts, all of which has an effect on the athlete's performance.

The Virtual Athlete program will allow students and researchers to run tests on varying runner tactics.