August 30th, 2012 by Mat Dolphin
To the uninitiated, BUG: The Evolution Of Music Video is an ongoing series of bi-monthly events at the BFI Southbank in London, celebrating global creativity in music video. The shows are hosted by Adam Buxton — the funny, petite, bearded half of Adam and Joe — and have become an essential forum for fans of music videos and aspiring film-makers alike. If we can get tickets we try and make it along each and every time, it’s that good. It’s not just about getting away from our desks though, Adam literally has everyone in stitches, and the music videos aren’t half bad either. It’s sound and vision at it’s best.
It’s normally a packed out event, so for those that couldn’t make it along, or for those that didn’t even know it existed, we’ve compiled all the videos shown at last nights event. Watch / listen — have them on in the background. There’s dubstep, there’s throat slitting, there’s weird horse dancing and something a little perverse. So, something for everyone. Just think of it as your Mat Dolphin Friday visual playlist.
Keep reading…
Posted in Art, Events, Film, General, Music, Sound & Vision, Things We Like | No Comments »
June 20th, 2012 by Mat Dolphin
We can hardly believe it but today is our 3rd Birthday! A huge amount has happened in the world of Mat Dolphin since our humble beginnings in 2009. It feels like we’ve come a long way and the journey has certainly been an exciting one. We’ve made more mistakes than we care to remember, learnt a huge amount more than we ever thought possible, done some work that we’re incredibly proud of and, most importantly of all, met some amazing people along the way.
We want to say a huge, heartfelt thank you to each and every person who’s been involved with Mat Dolphin over the last 1,095 days. Without you we wouldn’t be able to do what we love everyday and pretend it’s a job.
This is still only the beginning though and we can’t wait to see what happens next!
Thanks for everything,
Phil and Tom
X
Posted in Events, General, Things We Like | 3 Comments »
June 15th, 2012 by Mat Dolphin
To the uninitiated, BUG: The Evolution Of Music Video is an ongoing series of bi-monthly events at the BFI Southbank in London, celebrating global creativity in music video. The shows are hosted by Adam Buxton — the funny, petite, bearded half of Adam and Joe — and have become an essential forum for fans of music videos and aspiring film-makers alike. If we can get tickets we try and make it along each and every time, it’s that good. It’s not just about getting away from our desks though, Adam literally has everyone in stitches, and the music videos aren’t half bad either. It’s sound and vision at it’s best.
It’s normally a packed out event, so for those that couldn’t make it along, or for those that didn’t even know it existed, we’ve compiled all the videos shown at last nights event. Watch / listen — have them on in the background. There’s dubstep, there’s manga, there’s people jumping out of windows. Something for everyone. Just think of it as your Mat Dolphin Friday playlist.
Keep reading…
Posted in Art, Events, Film, General, Music, Sound & Vision, Things We Like | No Comments »
May 30th, 2012 by Mat Dolphin
With the London 2012 Olympics drawing ever closer, the much publicised visual identity is now rolling out and we’re seeing an increasing number of applications using the branding in different ways. The recent unveiling of the Olympic tickets designed by Futurebrand revealed an interesting turnaround. The prevailing consensus – most notably on the Creative Review comments board – is that the previously hated branding was now actually working quite well and a number of people, having lived with it for the last five years, have changed their minds. Anyone with a passing interest in design will surely be aware of the venom directed towards the Wolff Olins designed logo when it first emerged in 2007. This negativity came not only from designers but from the general public and, unsurprisingly, tabloids newspapers. Now, with designers leading the way, is it possible that the tide is turning and the logo, it turns out, isn’t actually that bad?
Keep reading…
Posted in Branding & Identity, Design, Design Agencies, Events, General, Views | 13 Comments »
December 22nd, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
2011. It’s been busy, it’s been stupidly quick and most importantly, it’s been good. Along with the constant stresses and pressures that go along with doing what we do, this year has been a decidedly positive one here at Dolphin Heights. We thought a good way to round off the year was to take a quick look back at what we’ve been up to in the last 12 months. What’s been keeping us busy in and out of work, where we’ve been, what we’ve been doing and who we’ve been doing it with.
Keep reading…
Posted in Blogs, Books, Design, Design Agencies, Events, Exhibition, General, Things We Like | 6 Comments »
October 26th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
Glug London is an event for people from the creative industries to come together, have a few drinks and hear talks from some of the most creative designers and studios around. Each event has seen a steady growth with bigger names talking, bigger venues selling out and more people scrambling to get tickets. Needless to say, they’ve been busy. With this in mind, we thought it was time to catch up with founders Ian Hambleton and Nick Clement to have a chat about the event and see what they’ve got in the pipeline.
Keep reading…
Posted in Advertising, Design, Design Agencies, Events, General, Things We Like | No Comments »
October 20th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
A while ago we received an email out of the blue asking if we’d like to be involved with an upcoming typography exhibition. Imaginary Menagerie is being held at Text/Gallery in Holborn and features work from a number of designers exploring ‘language’s difficult, tongue-tripping, unpronounceable labyrinths typographically and in their own language’. Using typography to visually communicate a difficult to say phrase or sentence sounded like an interesting brief, so we promptly agreed. Well up for it.
Keep reading…
Posted in Design, Events, Exhibition, General, Stanley Kubrick, Typography | No Comments »
July 5th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
Tate Britain‘s current exhibition is The Vorticists: Manifesto For A Modern World. We haven’t had a chance to see it yet but we’re definitely going to check it out before it closes on 4th September. The exhibition ‘celebrates the full electrifying force and vitality of this short-lived but pivotal modernist movement that was based in London but international in make-up and ambition’. Adopting the spirit of Blast – the art movement’s short-lived journal launched by Wyndham Lewis – Tate and Creative Review have teamed up to invite submissions on the themes of ‘Blast’ and ‘Bless’. The entries are currently available to view on the Blast/Bless Tumblr site and will be projected at Tate Britain during the upcoming Creative Review ‘Tweetup’ (apologies for the use of such a cringe-inducing word) on the 21st July.
Keep reading…
Posted in Design, Events, Exhibition, Things We Like | No Comments »
May 24th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
Last week we were granted the opportunity to take control of the Creative Review Twitter page. We’re big fans of CR and their output both printed and digital so we’re very chuffed that they’ve agreed to hand over the steering wheel and allow us to connect, excite, interest, amuse and engage with their 372,565 (and counting) lovely followers and the design world at large. The big event will be happening this Thursday 26th May so tune in for our unique blend of inspirational creative goodness, Wildean witticisms and bullshit chit chat.
Big thanks to Neil and the crew at CR for getting us involved.
Mat.
Posted in Design, Events, Things We Like, Views | No Comments »
April 27th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
Last night we traveled to The Parfitt Gallery to attend the opening of ‘The Designers Republic Come Home To Croydon‘ – a solo exhibition of work by Ian Anderson shown in his childhood home town. The founder of the legendary Sheffield based studio was showing various pieces of work curated from the last 25 years.
Keep reading…
Posted in Design Agencies, Events, Exhibition, General | 6 Comments »
January 28th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
Last night saw the momentous occassion of the first Mat Dolphin studio outing of the year. The destination was the headquarters of London advertising agency JWT to hear a talk entitled ‘To Go on a Journey, You Need Strong Legs…’ by Simon Sankarayya, the art director better known in design circles as Sanky.
Keep reading…
Posted in Advertising, Branding & Identity, Campaigns, Design Agencies, Events, General | No Comments »
January 20th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
What do a series of murals on the walls of Philadelphia, an iPhone App, a coffin, Gareth Pughs Spring Summer 2011 collection, Boris bikes and a barn in Suffolk have in common?
They’re just a few of the nominees featured in the prestigious Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards. The nominations, which were announced this week, are taken from seven areas which cover broad range of design disciplines. The categories are architecture, fashion, furniture, interactive, product, transport and, the one we’re most interested in, graphics. The selection is an eclectic affair and will be displayed at an exhibition at the Design Museum from February 16th. The aim of the exhibition is to promote the finest design the world has produced over the last year and eventually crown one of the shortlisted nominees ‘Designer of the Year’. Previous winners include Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, industrial designer Yves Béhar and London student Min-Kyu Choi, the creator of the folding plug.
Keep reading…
Posted in Advertising, Design, Design Agencies, Events, Exhibition, Things We Like, Typography | No Comments »
January 7th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin
Well, it seems like only a few days ago I was hanging up my stocking and untangling the Christmas tree lights. Before you know it, another year is upon us and the team at Mat Dolphin are charged up and ready for a good one. We’ve hit the ground running with some great new projects on the horizon and we can’t wait to get stuck in.
Catching up after the Christmas break and comparing socks, we got into a chat about what non-Christmas related activities we got up to. Being the geeky types who spend a bit too long slaving away in front of our layout pads and computers, the chance to go and check out the latest exhibitions and events is always a pleasure. We thought we’d share a couple of the best with you.
Keep reading…
Posted in Events, Exhibition, Photography, Things We Like, Views | 2 Comments »
November 23rd, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
Hello again. Amidst another busy week here at Dolphin Towers, we are proud to present the tenth installment of our regular Five Things series. A quick trawl through some of the interesting creativity we’ve spotted over the last seven days.
Click below to check out what’s caught our eye recently.
Keep reading…
Posted in Design, Events, Exhibition, Five Things, General, Things We Like | No Comments »
November 15th, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
Neville Brody is one of the most influential graphic designers of the last 30 years. His groundbreaking work for The Face magazine in the eighties played a key role in the development of British Graphic design and, for many, showed the possibilities of what a creative mind could achieve with words and images. After his role as art director of the magazine from 1981 – 86 he founded his own agency, Research Studios, and has gone on to grow rather impressive client list. Redesigning The Times newspaper and the BBC website – not bad work if you can get it. If that wasn’t enough, in March this year The Royal College of Art announced that Brody was to head up their Communication Art and Design course.
Keep reading…
Posted in Design, Design Agencies, Events, General, Typography, Views | 1 Comment »
October 21st, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
It’s been a busy week here at Mat Dolphin. In between meeting lots of nice new people and talking about lots of nice new projects we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for interesting stuff. Here are some of the highlights we’ve spotted over the last week.
Keep reading…
Posted in Events, Film, Five Things, General, Music, Photography, Things We Like | 1 Comment »
October 7th, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
Today Gap have announced on their Facebook Page that they’re considering the idea of ‘crowd sourcing’ logo ideas as a result of the backlash their new logo design has received this week.
In a response to their move which could be pure genius or naive, we decided to write an open letter to Gap which we posted on the page as a response.
Keep reading…
Posted in Advertising, Branding & Identity, Campaigns, Design, Events, Logo Design, Views | 15 Comments »
October 1st, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
It’s that time again… Five creative and inspiring things that we’ve seen this week. Ready…steady….GO!
Keep reading…
Posted in Advertising, Books, Campaigns, Design, Events, Five Things, Music, Things We Like | No Comments »
September 29th, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
We’re a relatively new design agency, and as such we’re still discovering how we work and ultimately what direction we want the business to go. Naturally one of the hot topics in the studio is ‘How do we grow our business?’. Last week we attended the ‘Grow Your Own event at the Design Council. With an opening introduction of ‘Looking for ways to grow your design business?’ we made sure we got our names on the list to get advice on everything from intellectual property to international markets.
The Design Council has a simple philosophy – They place design at the heart of growth and renewal in Britain. As one of the world’s leading design institutions, they are a centre of new thinking and insight into new ways to do business. We learnt a huge amount at the event, but two main points stuck with us after the visit:
1. The Design Council are there and supportive of us, and all creative studios.
2. That managing client relationships is one of the most important aspects of running a design agency.
One of the guides we picked up was written by Creative Choices and was on the subject of Managing Client Relationships. It was such a great insight that we wanted to share the information with everyone.
Keep reading…
Posted in Design Agencies, Events, General, Views | No Comments »
August 31st, 2010 by Mat Dolphin
To many Londoners the August Bank Holiday means only one thing, Notting Hill Carnival. I’ve been going for a number of years now and really like how the yearly event is a cultural mix of people, music and food.
Keep reading…
Posted in Branding & Identity, Events, Logo Design | 7 Comments »