In collaboration with Sirkka Hammer, Duncan Wilson takes the post-it note to the wall.

You’ll have to forgive me for another team Poke trumpet blowing post, but the good stuff keeps on coming!

This time I want to tell you about Zopa, a project I was working on this summer. The company was featured on the BBC news a few days back. Watch the BBC spot for an understanding of how it all works…

Our brief was to bring the community aspect of the site to the fore and demonstrate how people lending to other people is quite simply the best way to do money, aswell as refreshing the look and feel of their existing website inline with the branding the company had developed with North design.

We hope to have made Zopa a far more social experience by introducing an engaging flash environment populated with real Zopa lenders and borrowers, who have real data attached to them for users to interrogate and learn more about Zopa and its markets.

The characters you meet at Zopa were illustrated by Cookie. We are all really enjoying seeing the team at Zopa introducing the characters across the site, from paddling pool parties to characters lucky enough to be equipped with rocket packs!

More Zopa links:

Techcrunch, Style boost, Zopa vs. Prosper

…are on their way, watch this space for some super scando skills coming your way soon.

I’m really pleased to tell you that the all new Topshop.com went live a few weeks back. It has been by far the largest project I have worked on to date, managing to keep alot of folk here at Poke and at Topshop HQ very busy over the last 12 months!

So what about the site then - Well whilst the shopping experience side of things is nothing ground breaking (a skinned e-commerce system provided by IBM ) - We hope to have layered on the ‘good stuff’ to inspire online shoppers.

Here is a quick over view…

To start with, the ever changing ‘Daily fix’ goes some way in presenting to the user a selection of the 200 new items delievered each week to the stores, and the ‘Style Blog’ announces all current and future happenings with brand. Both features having an RSS feed attached to allow users to keep up to date easily.

Constantly rotating, image rich editorial ‘Features’ have also been added, showcasing the latest ranges, designer collections and fashion trends. As you might expect in the ipod-tatsic planet we live in, a richer, slicker editorial experience is also avaliable for download in the weekly Topshop video podcast.

Would be good to hear what you guys think?

I don’t know too much about this project so I’ll let Iain introduce the Yahoo! Mail Championships to you, but what I do know is we want to direct traffic to it!

Perhaps you can lay down the gauntlet to your students Iman!?

Following Mr Richardson’s comment on pleasing Penguin book covers, I thought I would bring to your attention the portfolio of David Pearson who has played a big part in the design of Penguin’s recent output.

I’ve just read this (took less than an hour!) and comes up with some very interesting points. I think everybody should read this, I think I might even take on some of the principles stated with this. One of the quirky ones I’m going to try is, when ever I have a meeting in the office I’m not going to sit down - I sit in front of a computer way to much and it might give a new perspective on comon ideas.

You can buy it here (I’m not saying you should, but I think you may have to!)

Christopher Priest is an English Writer, whose works I have never read, tonight though I watched The Prestige based on a novel he wrote, it has been adapted by Christopher Nolan who directed films such as Memento, Insomnia and brought an air of respectability to the Batman franchise with Batman Begins this year.
In my opinion, The Prestige has got to be in the running for best film of 2006 and in my top ten for clever storytelling and making you go wow, during and when you watch the film.

I realise I’d have to leave out so many things that made this film great in order not to spoil anyones enjoyment of its clever plot, fantastic characters, original twist and genuinely gripping storyline. Visually its quite a dramatic feast too, with plenty of attention to detail, great lighting, makeup, costumes and fantastic props, which enhance its overall richness.

If I could recommend one film to film lovers this year, this would be it. I know I’ll be watching it again.
Don’t bother watching the trailer, having seen the film first, i think the trailer or its associated webjunk would have put me off.

“3 worlds to discover distinct aspects of the creative mind curosity, gut feeling and intuition… filled with video interviews, product try outs and tutorials”

You may have seen Adobe’s Creative Mind posted on various design feeds this week. If not, its a new promo site for Adobe’s Creative suite.

I really admire the love that has been put into the production, a standard that is unit 9 through and through. The beautifully illustrated animation details are amazing, an adventure game-esque interface presents an experience of discovery similar to that of Jakub Dvorsky’s classic Samorost.

Saying all of this though, my participation stopping at playing with the characters that inhabit the planets is perhaps not the complete user journey Adobe desires.

…at we make money not art.