Wow it’s been some time since anyone contributed to our blog, the guilt showers over me as I write this post. So much has changed and happened in the Umwelt the  Mitwelt and the Eigenwelt, or more commonly the world around us, the society we live in and each one of us independently within it. (Michael Tsarion lecture on Saturday)

So what have we been up to here at Lucid? Well we’ve been up to all kinds really; climbing Snowdon, working with the British Fashion Council, meeting great new people like our new design partners over at IYA Studio. Building web apps for creative and fun brands like Lego, visiting Copenhagen for the TV Festival with our friends over at Apposing. Working with our fashion team and talented designer Domingo Rodriguez on a new fashion collection. Preparing for London Fashion Weekend with Cassius. Helping our loyal clients like Xen-Tan grow their businesses bigger and better, through email campaigns, print design, digital strategy and much more.

So with that said, there is plenty of new content to come to both our website and the blog over the coming months. We’ve got projects for Lego, London Fashion Weekend, Cassius, Xen Tan, La Dolce Vita, The Other Art Fair, Sky Baby and others to be added. Along with the launch of some larger, long anticipated web projects that have been lurking in the background for some time.

Re-drawing and blurring the lines between psychedelia and sci-fi, between art and entertainment, between sound design and melody, Brazilian electronic musician Amon Tobin released his latest creation ISAM on 23rd May via the independent London-based record label Ninja Tune. The tour that ensues plays host to some incredible set/stage design. The work that has gone into the live shows is testament to Tobin’s passion and vision. Click here to get a feel for “a beautiful combination of physical geometric stage models and interactive video projections”. Tobin and his team get a big thumbs up from Lucid.

Folk a London based clothing label is the perfect brand for the modern discerning man and we love it here at Lucid. The brands ace and so are the guys who work there, our friend Anton Rodriguez is a really good photographer/designer and a top notch bloke.

The question is though, where’s our shoes Anton? Keep up the good work team Folk.

To see more of Anton’s work check his site out at antonrodriguez.co.uk, we love the work he did for Pushka Restaurant.

Always a fan of those represented by Carole Lambert here at Lucid. Fournier has spent the past decade and a half gaining access to some of the most controlled environments on earth – including government stations and training grounds – in an effort to expose the visual gems which can be found in these unforgiving landscapes.

Playing on the stylised notion of a sci-fi utopia, Fournier’s otherworldly photographs of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah and the Atacama Desert Observatories in Chile – alongside a series of surprisingly stringy trainee astronauts – offer an alternative view of the world, unseen by many and known by few.

We just can’t get enough of Vimeo here at Lucid you can loose hours on it, it never gets boring and to top it off they have just launched their iPhone app, which means even more viewing pleasure. This piece of film is astonishingly beautiful, the intro is a work of art in itself and what follows after is even more amazing.

This truly is beautiful in every way….. Breathtaking in fact. It makes mankind’s relationship with nature seem truly seamless.

Alex Roman we salute you.

As it says in the Vimeo description ‘Full screen it please’ you will not be disappointed.

Advertising on social networking sites soared in 2010

The internet now accounts for a quarter of all advertising spending in the UK, according to figures. They show that the value of online advertising grew by 12.8% in 2010, breaking through the £4bn barrier. A study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the accountants PwC found that online advertising spending grew three times as rapidly as in 2009. It also outpaced the rest of the advertising market, which has recovered after dipping during the recession.

Guy Phillipson, the chief executive of the IAB, said: “Major brands restored their advertising budgets in 2010 and online was a big winner.” The biggest growth area was display advertising on social networks, which grew by nearly 200%.

Print media’s pain

Facebook has made big advances in the last year in persuading advertisers to see social networks as a place to promote their wares. With figures showing that UK internet users spend 25% of their online time on social networks, advertisers are keen to tap into this audience. Online video advertising also nearly doubled in 2010, with £54m spent on adverts that appeared before, during or after video clips. Mobile advertising raced ahead too, with finance, telecoms and consumer brands trying to reach audiences on the move. Search advertising, still dominated by Google, remains the biggest earner, although growth in this more mature business was just 8%.

Ian Barber of the Advertising Association says there is one clear attraction which is boosting online spending: “It’s targeted, it makes it easier for brands to work out who they’re advertising to.” Other areas of advertising recovered last year, with television spending bouncing back after a steep decline. But much of the Press is still suffering, with magazines and regional newspapers seeing revenues continue to fall. Classified advertising, once a key element in regional newspaper revenues, has now nearly all migrated online.

But Lynne Anderson of the Newspaper Society says local newspapers are capturing some of that online advertising spending on their own websites: “They are getting pretty savvy at capturing audiences in new ways.” She added: “Regional newspapers – print and online – are resilient, innovative and well-placed to benefit when wider market conditions improve.”

The IAB expects online spending to continue to grow, as faster broadband makes new formats increasingly attractive.

Here at Lucid we are fans of the new Renault advert by advertising agency Publicis. It’s rare to find TV adverts that aren’t corny or just plain boring, but this one stands out from the crowd. It features cameo appearances by Thierry Henry, Dita Von Tesse, Rhianna and snap shots of the legendary Marlon Brando and Audrey Hepburn.

With music is by Clare Maguire – Breakage’s Suck It Up Remix featuring samples from David Bowie and Rhianna.

Here’s a behind the scene’s video from Vimeo too….

Over the coming weeks when visiting our site you will notice a bar at the top of our site www.lucid-design.net to ‘Help The Victims of the Japan Earthquake by Spreading Awareness and Aid’ click it to find out more on how you can help the victims in Japan’s hour of need.

Viewers begin the experience by providing their childhood address. The video experience then unfolds in multiple windows, taking viewers on a tour of their hometown to the music.

The site states that the user must download Google Chrome to view the video, but it should work on any browser that supports HTML5. It seems that Google’s main involvement was in providing access to their google maps system. Stipulating that the user should only use Google’s Chrome browser may have just been a marketing ploy, but the Lucid team agree it’s a rather clever one.

It is advisable to close down any other large applications if you want to try it, however, as it does need your computer’s full attention to run smoothly.

Click here to try it.