There we go, now i finished my education as a multimedia designer. For the past 3 months I have been working on my final project - thus the limited number of posts during this period - and went to the exam late June. It went very well, I passed with flying colours, the top mark of 12 and really good comments from the supervisor and censor.

I had been working out a branding strategy for an adventurer - Rasmus Krath - and implemented this in a website as well as making a branding strategy for him to follow in his further development of the company.

Rasmus Krath is a modern adventurer who travels to hotspots in the world and returns to tell about his experiences. He is not very well known in Denmark at this point, but is on the verge of breaking through to become more generally known. Thus it has been a necessity for him to have a strong and well-defined profile, with which I have helped him.

The webpage will be published at Rasmus Krath’s site in late August, but for now you can see the present version at www.thorulf.dk/krath

But now it has been announced at the official Google Webmaster Central Blog that Google has come up with an algorithm that as they say; “explores Flash files in the same way that a person would, by clicking buttons, entering input, and so on. Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed.”

And the best thing is that this is not future plans, but actually something that is up and running now.

This is a major step for us who really enjoy the design flexibility that flash gives, but still are hesitant to use it because of the lack of proper indexing. It really opens up new opportunities.
However, there are still some major flaws, as the indexing is only possible in the content embedded directly in the .swf file. External content loaded from for example other swf files, HTML or XML files.

These limitations must be kept in mind, but still it is a major step in the right direction.

However, the default WordPress structure is not very well optimised for search engines, but with a few simple changes, you can improve this quite dramatically.

Post titles in the Permalinks 

The first thing is to include post titles (and keywords) in the in the permalinks. The default permalink structure displays as www.yoursite.com/?p=1234 thereby replacing the title of your post with a database number.  A much more descriptive and SEO friendly display is www.yoursite.com/name-of-your-post.

This can easily be changed in your WordPress settings:

1) Log into your WordPress administration

2) Click Options -> Permalinks

3)Find “Common Options” section and select “Custom - specify below”.
    In the box you type: “/%category%%postname%/” (without the “)

4) Click “Update Permalink Structure”

And you are done. Now you should see that the webpage address in the top of the browser includes an extension with your category and post name.

Post titles in the TITLE tag

The second thing is to include the post titles in the TITLE tags i.e. the title at the very top of the browser window.

This can be done by modifying the default template in the following way:

1) Log in to your WordPress administration

2) Click Presentation -> Theme Editor

3) Select the “Header” link to the right

4) Now, within this file, locate the sentence:

<title><?php bloginfo(’name’); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>

This should be changed to the following:

<title><?php wp_title(); ?></title>

This only includes the title of the post, but if you wish you can include the name of the blog at the end by writing this:

<title><?php wp_title(); ?> - <?php bloginfo(’name’); ?></title>

 More resources

If you’d like more information on how bloggers can improve the SEO, the following links can be recommended:

• How to Make Your WordPress Blog Search-Engine-Friendly
• Make Wordpress Search Engine Friendly
• Wordpress Codex Article on Search Engine Optimization

Well I must admit, I came short of breath - and not in the positive way when i firstly saw it! Did somebody just punch me, or was that the official logo of the Olympic games?

Well rumors has it that the price of the logo was £400,000 which kind of indicates that there must have been some thought behind it, and not just the result of the winning contribution to a kindergarten competition.

It was even committed by the brand consultants Wolff Olins which is a very respected branding company, being a major influence in developing the craft of corporate branding with classical books by the founder Olins like “The Corporate Personality” (1978) and “Corporate Identity” (1989). Hmm… one should think they know what they are doing… Perhaps there is more to the logo than what your first impression gives…

Apparently the ambition is to create a Olympic Games for everyone, where everyone is invited to take part, and is supposed to touch people like never before and stimulate them to do more, try new things and discover what they are capable of. This is illustrated through the brand video that shows how ordinary people achieve - to them - extraordinary things.
Well I kind of like this idea of involving people and inspiring them to reach for their goals.

But how is that reflected in the logo?
The thought is that 2012 is the brand of this event, and that this should combine the Olympic rings and the City of London together

In order to achieve this, they claim to have created an emblem which is “simple, distinct, bold and buzzing with energy. Its form is inclusive yet consistent and has incredible flexibility to encourage access and participation. It can communicate with anyone from commercial organisations to kids playing sport. It feels young in spirit. Full of confidence, certainty and opportunity. Not afraid to shake things up, to challenge the accepted. To change things”.

I give them that it is full of energy and confidence and doesn’t seem to be afraid to shake things up - which it apparently has. And it is probably quite suitable for the “Internet generation” who represent a brand-savvy generation where young people no longer relate to static logos. They say that the logo will evolve in the years to come, and that there is a plan. Perhaps there is some brilliant thought behind it, and i kind of like the idea of creating a logo that is organic and changes over time, but to my opinion, they’d better get cracking on that evolving if it is to reach a standard that lives up to their promises.

The design guru Stephen Bayley condemned the logo as “a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal”. And quite frankly, who can blame him for that statement:-)

What do you think - is the logo garsly or genius?

See more at the official webpage.

(more…)

This installation for the WWF is the winner of the Gold medal on the London International Awards for ‘ambient indoor’. I find the simplicity of the design what makes it really great. Watching the cut out South America - the rain forest - become black as you empty the dispenser for paper, thus giving associations to the cutting down of trees because of all the paper we use. It is a really simple way of communicating an idea through good design.

And apart from that, the toilet is the perfect place to get two minutes of full attention from the viewer - guess there is not much other to do than ponder about life.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen
Via: blog.coolzOr.com

This is an interesting way of making use of different senses in design. In this ad, T-mobile and Autoklub CR join forces in a campaign for safety on the roads with the message: Don’t call and drive.

The campaign was done in print and was created as a traditional fragrance ad for two new fragrances - Accident and Crash. Traditional sampling was used leaving a fragrance sample to smell - with the somewhat unusual smell of burnt rubber and break fluid - to indicate the smell of an accident.

Well who knows if it works on the target group, but it is an interesting way of drawing attention to the message by activating senses that are not usually used in this type of campaign.

This video was released to explain the don’t call and drive campaign.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Praha
Medium: Print

It was a group exam and a very talented team of group members, which deserve a mention and all of which I highly recommend. They count: Kristleifur Brandsson, a highly skilled programmer and really nice guy, Thean Williams who is the communications and concept development expert and always good for a laugh, and Dagny Reykjalin who is the design guru and an inspiration with all that she does.Go check them out.

Now I intend to relax for a couple of days before starting preparing for the 4th and last semester, which officially starts on January 28th and which i look very much forward to.