If you are in Berlin within the next 3 weeks, check out this graffiti exhibition in Haus Schwarzenberg, near Hackescher Markt. It`s showing 5 Berlin based stencil artsits, amongst them our illustrator of choice, pisa73.

First-Person Tetris

When tasked with creating a new company name, we were looking for something plain and simple, distinct but not artificial.

Looking at names of established advertising agencies like Tragos, Bonnage, Wiesendanger and Ajroldi - better known as TBWA, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO), Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty (BBH), or Doyle, Dane, Bernbach (DDB), we decided to create something similar, but with the most common, everyday names in the English language: Meyer, Miller and Smith, respectively.

Each of them is simple and ordinary on its own, but powerful in combination with the others.

Meyer:

From the Middle High German word "meiger," meaning "higher or superior," often used for stewards of landholders or great farmers or leaseholders - today a Meier is a dairy farmer. Meier and Meyer are used more often in Northern Germany, while Maier and Mayer are found more frequently in Southern Germany.

Miller:

Miller is usually an occupational surname referring to a person who owned or worked in a grain mill.

The popular Miller surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example the German Mueller; the French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; the Dutch Molenaar; the Italian Molinaro; the Spanish Molinero, etc.

Smith:

Derived from the Anglo-Saxon "smitan," to smite or strike, Smith and its derivations are an occupational name for a man who works with metal (smith or blacksmith), one of the earliest jobs for which specialist skills were required. It is a craft that was practiced in all countries, making the surname and its derivations the most common of all surnames. Smith still tops the list of most popular surnames in England and America, and is also a very common last name in Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Canada and Australia.

1st approach / guild crests

  read more.

Just stumbled across this blog/ twitter feed of "Sleep Talkin´ Man" Apparently written down by his wife Karen when Adam talks in his sleep.

"I'm all blue with gravy spots. And I'm proud of it."
"Don't leave the duck there. It's totally irresponsible. Put it on the swing, it'll have much more fun."

Very entertaining and amusing.....

"I love the fact you're a moose. Yes. So soft, so soft."

"I was sitting on a chair in the living room. My pen was lying on the table. I reached out my hand and picked up the pen."

This Tuesday, the 5th of January we'll be gathering with our friends, business partners and members of the Berlin creative community for the 19th Talk about the Weather.

We'll be seeing Werner Kranwetvogel´s latest photographic work on North Korean Mass Games, Celia Czerlinski’s fashion brand CELIACZERLINSKI and Michela Vieser’s richly illustrated roadbook of yet undiscovered places in Germany.

read more on
www.talk-about-the-weather.de

You can now vote for your favourite website of the year at the FWA  People`s Choice award here.

Your vote should obviously go for August, our Red Bull Soapbox Racer.

Update: The results are in. The FWA Website of the Year is "We choose the Moon", and "Labuat" won the People's Choice Award. Congratulations!

Meyer, Miller, Smith consists of highly creative individuals ranging from advertising creatives with decades of experience in analog media to square eyed digital age specialists who all share the same passion: Helping to shape the brave new world of networked communication and turn it into an exciting, meaningful, loving and entertaining place.

Although our services include print design and production, film, video and motion design production, we do not create classic advertising first, to later base a website on. Unlike traditional agencies we have a holistic approach that includes interactive media right from the beginning, usually as the key component. Our core competencies include design and implementation of interactive websites and applications for online, offline and mobile devices; Flash- and HTML-based websites; intranets; online games; multi-user applications.

We also believe that our future lies in collaborative work. That’s why we maintain a growing network of friends and collaborateurs, including strategic alliances with partner companies and creative individuals which helps us to look outside our world, explore new horizons, and add our own visions to say things in new ways, with new craft.

A mindset like this is best cultivated through creating exemplary products, services and experiences, some of which you will find on this website. Because when you assemble a group of smart, funny, fearless people infused with boundless passion, you can create work that rocks.

Which is why we believe this is a very exciting time for all of us.

Interface from id's classic DOOM first-person-shooter appears on billboards in Berlin. By street artists Mr. Talion, Epoxy, Baveux and Kone. [Flickr]

This Tuesday we'll be gathering with our friends, business partners and members of the Berlin creative community for the 18th Talk about the Weather. Speakers have just been announced, we'll be hearing about a handcrafted e-bike called GRACE and about where and how people will work together in the future from a member of agile software development company mindmatters in Hamburg.

Check talk-about-the-weather.de for details!

If you ever looked at the chaos on your screen and thought: I can't write on this!, here comes the solution:

Quick look at Ommwriter from Giles Turnbull on Vimeo.

Martin Andersen created this stop motion animation for the New Zealand Book Council's promotion to "read more":

I hope this comes to a cinema (or DVD drive) near me soon: Visual Acoustics - The Modernism of Jules Shulman.

... (Graphically at least)!

Aaron James Draplin, homebase Portland, OR 97214 U.S.A. If there´s one thing that should keep us going, it shoulda be "Passion". Guess some people just don't understand that we need to keep the "old" stuff sometimes. (even if it's just a couple of arrows and lightbulbs).

America Is F*cked.......(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.

Grace, the latest project of Michael Hecken, is a new type of electric bike, combining the light-weight design of a mountain bike with the performance of a scooter. Top speed is 45km/h in the street-legal version, range between 30 and 50km, and it only takes one hour to fully charge.

Grace bikes are made to order, hand-crafted in Biesenthal, just outside Berlin, where Michael also hosts the annual ART Biesenthal.

Machinarium is a new point-and-click adventure by Amanita Design. Following in the footsteps of predecessors Samorost 1 and 2, your goal is to guide a character through a number of beautifully illustrated and animated scenes. Eurogamer has a more detailed review here.