Type Cast

Today sees the launch of a new site aimed sqaurely at the home renovation / decorating market.

MyDeco.com, from the founders of lastminute.com Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane-Fox, is an intermediary service which aggregates home furniture and decorating products into one site. But calling it a simple intermediary is selling it desperately short. There are some really cool features in there which should make it a complete one-stop-shop for everyone from those looking to get some ideas on which sofa to purchase to those looking for a complete ‘changing rooms‘ style makeover.

Just some of the features on the site include…

• Decorate your room virtually by uploading a photo and applying colour and virtual wallpapers
• 3D modelling, allowing you to create a look from real products in your own room photo
• Buy the Look, where users can buy a specific look for a fraction of the ‘real’ price with similar, but less expensive products.
• Get expert tips and advice from leading designers

Underpinning this, and more, is the fact that the entire site is ’socialised’. Everything is ratable, rankable, commentable as well as a cute little feature called ‘not my style’ which helps to build your taste profile thus allowing you to find people with similar likes and dislikes to you. Mix in some blogging and groups and it’s the virtual hub of neighbourhood gossip on home decorating. Dodgy furniture makers beware - your product’s failings will be shouted form the roof tops.

In fact, I have more than a passing observer’s interest in this. Back in the mists of time at Interesource (February 2007) we did some work with MyDeco to help define and architect the social aspects of the site. We did a whole bunch of Photoshop worked up wireframes which they took and branded up. No doubt loads of it has changed since last summer. I only glimpsed at the private beta on a couple of occasions last autumn, but it was great to be part of that start up scene in the early days - it was like 1999 all over again, rented office space an’ all. As for the team, they were great to work with. By the very fact that many of them were ex-lastminute.com, a lot of them had worked together historically and so this thing was always going to work.

I’ll follow MyDeco closely, hell I will probably even register. I wish them all the very best.

An ex-colleague (sort of) just posted a link on facebook to an intriguing project, Have you got the nerve?

Basically they are looking for 3000 individuals who will become the ‘crucial foundation’ in the launch of a new breed of TV production company and share in it’s future profit - Have You Got The Nerve? You stump up 60 of your hard-earned pounds and become an executive producer.

In their words…

“Have You Got The Nerve?’ TV is a new breed of production company which is set to turn traditional media on it’s head. ‘Have You Got The Nerve?’ TV will work alongside you to create powerful projects and TV programmes, just like tribewanted. We will produce TV programmes about these projects which will broadcast around the World and will be followed online.”

Apparently the first ‘multi-media project’ needs to move into production with the band McFly and they are in talks with the social networking site Bebo.

It’s the brain child of Mark Bowness. And, in true, lazy blogging style, this is what he is all about…

“In 2005 Mark Bowness created the concept Tribewanted and in doing so launched Worldwide business. A 200 acre island in Fiji was leased and over 1300 people signed up from over 27 Countries. Tribewanted was filmed during it’s initial 18 months and received a prime time commission from BBC2 as a 5 x 1 hour programme called ‘Paradise or Bust’. Alongside the TV programme entitled ‘tribewanted’ has been published through International publishing company, Random House.”

A quick root around that wonderful production by Messrs Brin and Page brings up all sorts of claims that Mark Bowness is a scammer. In fact, he is also known as Mark James.

Whatever, the whole things sounds pretty interesting. And, it’s either a great opportunity to get involved in some socially collaborative media productions or an elaborate, westernised 419 scam!

Just to confirm, as of writing, I have not invested and don’t know if I have the nerve to…

Meant to blog about this a couple of weeks ago but never got round to doing it.

Anyway, the clue to the post is in the title. This was a site I designed whist working with the incredibly talented colleagues I once worked with at Interesource. It’s great that the site has been recognised, partly because it’s acknowledgment of our own work but also of the trust DogsTrust (no pun intended) put in us to build it and make it work.

We had loads of ideas for monetising the site from on-demand printing to paid for treats. I truly hope the site continues its development and goes from strength to strength both in growing its user base and being a pro-active marketing tool for the superb work of the charity.

At the beginning of November this year I found myself in a position that I hadn’t encountered for five years - since the end of the .com bubble. Redundant. The old company for which I worked went into administration with about one days notice for all 30 or so staff.

Interesource was a great place to work. A lot of very intelligent and often opinionated people gathered together under one roof producing some of the best work of our careers and helping shape the new web landscape.

We built sites such as DoggySnaps.com and MyTelegraph, campaign sites for the Conservative party (which got top billing on the Sunday evening iTV news), ProblemSolved.co.uk as well as a plethora of sites for leading UK charities and blue chip multinationals.

Anyway, what’s done is done, time to move on. Though not getting paid for October will take a little longer to get over.

The good thing is that, as far as I know, most of my ex-colleagues have found gainful employment either at other agencies or starting up on their own. That’s testament to the talent at Interesource that just one month after the demise of the firm no one is struggling for work.

As for myself, I’m back in the Creative Director’s chair spinning plates at a digital marketing agency, Pancentric. We have a great number of clients and I’m developing some of the accounts to embrace social media, as well as evangelising internally about all things digitally social. We have a very strong SEO offering and it’s interesting approaching the social media beast from a more marketing and brand awareness perspective.

Anyway, here’s to the future. I hope I’ll get chance as some point to work in such an environment with such a crowd of people as Interesource.