Nov 3 2008

David Louis Shortlisted for Releaseonedotzero competition

Wahoo – I did say I wouldn’t mention it again if I didn’t get anywhere so you can probably imagine my delight at being able to say the Magnetic Beer Cube Bottle Opener by David-Louis has been short-listed for the releaseonedotzero competition. You can see a video of it in action here.

On Tuesday 4th November 2008 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, (ICA), London the short listed items will be projected on the gallery walls along with the ultimate winners to a broad range of national and international museums – culture organisations plus journalists from prominent titles and journals. So fingers crossed and I await to hear the jury’s final decision.

On another note work has begun on our new extension to the retail outlet here in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, The David-Louis Project at Artfull Expression, a crew of 6 volunteers from Design Space (Thanks to Fiona Mawlam, Sarah Kelly of Saloukee, See Sun Yung and Claire Pardoe for all there help) came to help me on Saturday last and we managed to empty the new space of years of accumulated nonsense – we filled many a skip – the goal is to open an exhibition space so we can attract touring exhibitions and local designer makers etc.

The proposed opening our first exhibition is approx. 12th December 08 – entitled FROST. I hope this project works out and it does seem we have the support of the local designer maker community along with support from within our building here so we are on course….


Oct 28 2008

David-Louis referred to by Trend Spotter website

I was delighted to see a website that I much admire, Springwise – Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds from San Francisco to Singapore. , refer to a competition entry I made a week or two ago on the Releasedonedotzero web site.

The competition itself is quite exciting and is using what is now being referred to as crowd sourcing and can be summarised as using your clients to supply designs and product for brands they aspire too. Although I don’t think that is exactly what is happening as I and the other entrants do seem to be career or budding career product designers it is some way to the truth as it is open to concepts as well as products.

Although it does reinforce what I would consider to be the an ultimate truth, creative people buy cretive products from creative people, I find that creative individuals  can be the first port of call for launching a niche product and then brought toward the mainstream as the product begins its life cycle, of niche, wider audience, less expensive and ultimately entering the mainstream culture where it can become ubiquitous.

The winning products in the releasedonedotzero competition will be sold at design museums around the world alongside the affiliated web site and be paid a royalty over the years which is quite a nice prize – so keep an eye here and if I never mention it again – I didn’t win…. hee hee.

Some other nice thing going on too, went to the bloggers meet yesterday and met some new faces, debated some finer points of Blogging and nicely submerged myself in a cross culture which sits between, pub, blog, innovative business practice and of course some banter so it’s well worth going.

A discussion I did have with Nick Booth was based around establishing a creative Blogging community within the Jewellery Quarter and also the use of word press to build web sites which would be really useful to emerging artists and creatives so I will be championing this approach over the coming months to all and sundry - lets see what happens. I was hoping to meet Chris Unitt of Created in Birmingham there but didn’t get a chance, I will look harder next time.

I would hope eventually makers, retailers, School of Jewellery students, design space members, Centerpiece exhibitors, Brilliantly Birmingham and other businesses would blog about their approach to business, their products and create a scene online that will filter to the real world and back again. 

Finally, to begin that type of activity I am pleased to say I have been handed the keys (at least the spare set) of the blog for the new upcoming, much lauded Jewellery Quarter website which will be launched late November – just in time for Christmas, I suspect I will be promoting makers, events, heritage and little known niches of the Jewellery Quarter on the blog with a view to raising curiosity levels and dragging all and sundry to the Jewellery Quarter, from near, far and wide just to see… just to see….


Oct 8 2008

David-Louis 2.0′ing and growing…

As Roots Manuva said ‘we are up to everything and into everything’ at the moment, The shop in the jewellery quarter in expanding now and we have take on a budding designer maker ‘ Clare Victoria Pardoe’ is now managing the retail out let which is called.. You guessed it ‘ The David Louis project AT Artful Expression’.

I am hoping the new appointment will create a new profile for the shop and attract both customers and new designer makers as suppliers. The shop is in the Jewellery Quarter at 23 Warstone Lane, B18 6JQ – drop in any time and I’ll give you the scoop on each maker we stock and the history of the local area – just ask for David-Louis

The corporate side of the business, Gifts of Distinction is growing and we have introduce new Computer Aided Design skill base with the taking on of an intern, Shah ALi, a local student on his gap year – this is really exciting and attracting high profile clients which due to discretion and professional practice I am unable to mention specifically….

I see on my way to work today they are filming the advert for the new Jewellery Quarter (Web site not launched yet!!! – but is definitely on the way) TV campaign for the run up to Christmas, so keep an eye on your TV and don’t forget to mention the advert WHEN you visit the Jewellery Quarter on the run up to Christmas….. You will visit the Jewellery Quarter won’t you… yes you will :-)

I will finish off now just saying that I am commissioning the production of another video at the moment featuring our new Spaghetti Measuring Device have a look the product- its too cool for cats.

Ooops – the reason I called this post 2.0ing and more is we are attempting to link Delicious, our facebook account, our blog and twitter (Twitter ID ‘DavidLouisDsign’) together – so you can Link, FB, blog and tweet us any time (in theory).

David-Louis.


Aug 31 2008

David-Louis stop..motion movie launch!!Pass it on.

Well there is loads going on here at the  David-Louis side of the business but the most exciting thing of the week is…

We have proudly teamed up with home movie maker ‘ The Rizino’, a close friend and an exciting and interesting creative individual based in secret here in Birmingham (SShhhhh!!), together ( together being a bit too liberal toward my contribution ) we have produced out first ever Animated Short Movie using stop motion.

The movie features, Bottle Openers, Fridges and of course bottles being opened and a David-Louis product, the magnetic beer cube flip top bottle opener.

(I am enjoying naming the products and am finding the longer the name the better – lets just call them what they do….)

I wanted to take this opportiunity to showcase the movie short, to thank ‘ The Rizino ‘ and to suggest if you like the movie – pass the link on to your friends.

If you have any script or music suggestions to enhance the movie – let me know. The ultimate goal is to produce more quirky vids featuring David-Louis products – Let me know what you think – Thanks.

D.