Blog
Things we think can help people who make shows, stages and products. Notes from the studio floor.
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A Keynote Everyone Can Follow
Accessibility in a keynote mostly means good design under another name. A short checklist from W3C guidance, with the numbers.
A Pop-Up Is a Journey
People remember the peak and the end. What that means for designing a brand activation, with our concept for TeamNL and Volkswagen.
How to Choose an LED Pixel Pitch
Manufacturers publish different rules for pixel pitch and viewing distance. What they say, why they disagree, and how to use them.
Designing an App That Tells You to Stop
Take It Easy is our self-initiated concept for an AI assistant that plans breaks around your work. What the research says, and how it shaped the design.
Designing Around the Stream
A virtual events platform lives or dies on video it doesn't fully control. What designing Mimic's web and mobile apps comes down to.
Fast Pages with Very Large Pictures
A studio site has to show work at full quality and still load quickly. The numbers to aim for, and how this site handles its images and films.
Grey by Default: Colour as State
In the interface we designed for Warburg AI, green appears only when something is live. Why colour works better when it means one thing.
How Big Should Signage Text Be?
The published rules for digital signage text disagree by more than double. What each one says, and which to use when.
One Launch, Every Format
For the BYD Seal 5 launch, we delivered 31 stills, 12 clips and 3 formats. How to plan a launch that has to work everywhere at once.
Real-Time or Pre-Rendered?
Real-time is exciting and pre-rendered is safe. A simple test for choosing, and what each one costs you on the day.
Rendering Films in a Browser
We make our social films with a small renderer that draws each frame in a browser and encodes it with WebCodecs. How it works, and why.
Touchscreens for Many Hands
A big touchscreen isn't a big phone. Reach, height, group behaviour and targets, with what the research says and where it runs out.
What to Ask Before You Render for a Media Server
Five questions for the operator that save a night of re-rendering: canvas, codec, alpha, frame rate and a test file.
Why Your LED Wall Looks Different from Your Monitor
Brightness, colour and the room all change what you designed. What a nit is, what to ask for, and what to test on the real wall.
Designing for the 40-Metre Screen
Content built for a phone dies on a stadium wall. What changes when the canvas is forty metres wide and read from ninety metres back.
What Makes a Keynote Land
A keynote is a performance with a deadline. The design job is pacing, not decoration.
Object Recognition Tables: Lessons from the Floor
An object recognition table looks effortless when it works. Most of the design is for what people do that you didn't plan.
Real-Time Visuals Without the Panic
Real-time content is wonderful until the moment it isn't, and that moment arrives in front of an audience. How to make it safe to run.
Designing UI for a Car Launch
A car launch compresses a full product site into a room and a stage. One interface has to serve the presenter and the visitor.
Content That Survives a Rehearsal
The rehearsal is where content meets the real room, the real speaker and the real running order. Build it so twenty changes in an hour are possible.
From Figma to the Show Floor
In live events the handoff isn't code. It's a cue list, read under pressure in a dark room. What belongs on it, borrowed from stage management.
Why Exhibition Visuals Need a Script
Nobody arrives at a stand at the beginning. They wander in during the middle of a loop, so every part of it has to stand alone.