Commercial: How a social network dies

My first post, over at Medium.

Commercial: Some thoughts on the future of tone of voice

Which I wrote hastily in the wake of GOV.UK's D&AD Black Pencil win last night, over at Check This.

Glass animals

I've blogged quickly over at The Complete Works II site, about something that caught my eye in WG Sebald's 'A Place In The Country'. There was one other choice quote I wanted to draw your attention to, when he discusses Rousseau discussing Becher:

"Using procedures that he keeps shrouded in much mystery, he has carried out experiments that have convinced him that man, like all animals, is glass and can return to glass."

There's a thought for your Christmas decorations.

Fiction: Berlin, Texas

They were what I assumed to be the female equivalent of cowboy boots: tan suede, ankle high, and fringed to within an inch of their life, as if she’d said “Tassle ‘em!” to the cobbler, whilst holding him at gunpoint.

She was, inevitably enough, from Texas, not the oil and gas and hick and steer and desert and cactus part, but Austin, the hip, liberal part, where the swagger was feminine and the shotguns sheathed. It was less sunny here too, apparently: Monica, or Danielle, I didn’t pay enough attention, had the complexion of an English rose, planted as a bet, but yet had taken root; hair a Golden Gate red, hazel eyes as perfect as quails eggs; cadmium red lips framing a perfect advert for American dentistry, or the crafting of miniature tombstones.

Yesterday had been Uppsala, and the day before Stockholm, and tomorrow would be Prague, before returning to Rome, where she was working at the American Institute, “just a summer job, you know?”, before school would intervene, and though she didn’t specify, I imagined it to be a sub-par Ivy League college, the elite in front of her, and almost within a grasp, but not hers, not that she seemed to mind.

The smooth, echoing rumble under our feet said the tram was coming. She slid off the bench in the shelter, planted her feet firmly down with a six inch gap between them, before shutting her eyes. “You only get this with a Berlin tram. Like you feel history rattling through you.” The smile suggested she knew what she was doing, a pretence at being playful and profound.

The doors hissed open. She fluttered the fingers on her left hand in a low wave before she turned away from me and moved down the carriage, leaving Hackescher Markt behind.

Commercial: Care to join us?

Care to join us? from onefinestay on Vimeo.

The onefinestay marketing conveyor belt splutters into life again, to bring you our first animated film, all about how you might want to be one of our hosts. Written by me, art direction by Thom Bradley, creative direction by the pair of us, illustration by Maggie Li, sound design by Vincent Oliver  and animation by the super super Daniel Britt.