In praise of: The 1972 Munich Olympics
Posted on 26. Jan, 2011 by benmckenna in cool, Games, Praise, Print
A look at what, for my money at least, is the preeminent identity design for a major sporting event. The Munich Olympics were perhaps remembered more for tragic events that took place in the Olympic Village that year but in Otl Aicher’s design we saw what is truly possible with event branding.
We’ve got a new place
Posted on 28. Oct, 2010 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, News
Regular followers on Totaal on Twitter will have a pretty good idea of the trouble I’ve had trying to find suitable premises over the last few months. I’ve struggled for some time to find the right sort of place, I didn’t have a massive list of conditions but the few I had were that the [...]
Tithing, an update and some perspectives on ‘doing good stuff’
Posted on 30. Sep, 2010 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Technology
Back in March I wrote a short blog post about the direction I was looking to take Totaal in as a company. In it I spoke about crowd-sourcing an ethical policy and the concept I called “tithing” where I give 10% of my time, roughly equating to half a day a week, to doing things [...]
Information as art? It can't get more beautiful than this
Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Technology, Twitter
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend Pilot Theatre’s Shift Happens conference in York which I also covered for the excellent CultureVulture blog. Now, I’m a pretty jaded conference goer and nowadays I like to think I’ve seen it all before. By the end of the conference’s second day I was [...]
Bradford’s first Social Media Surgery
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Technology, Twitter
Next week sees Bradford become the latest town in the UK hold a Social Media Surgery. The informal gathering of people interested in either teaching or learning how to use the web will be held at The Gumption Centre on July 20th.pecifically aimed at community or voluntary groups, Social Media Surgeries provide free advice to organisations or people on how to set up their own websites, blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages or podcasts. As well as anything else digital that they may be interested in investigating.
The Semantic Web, beautifully explained
Posted on 14. May, 2010 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Film, Technology
Long time no blog. Sorry about that but I’m sure you’ll manage. I’ve recently been doing a hell of a lot of production stuff for clients which has taken up a gigantic amount of time, on top of that I’ve been doing some very exciting work around education. More on those soon. Much, much more [...]
Social Media Training, some reflections
Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Policy, PR, Technology, Twitter
Last week I had the pleasure of delivering Totaal’s first large-scale Social Media Training session at Immage Studios in North East Lincolnshire. I have done many a one-on-one and small group session before but this one was a very different animal indeed. All in all there were twelve different attendees and representatives from two different [...]
Some inspirational skate videos
Posted on 10. Oct, 2009 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Film
I’m not quite sure how I’d get on skating nowadays, it’s been the best part of 15 years since I’ve actually been on a one but I know one thing, no self-respecting man in his thirties should be seen riding a skateboard. Unless of course that man is Tony Hawk, then it’s OK. There’s still [...]
British weather in quite good shocker, hello and sorry
Posted on 13. Sep, 2009 by benmckenna in animation, Blog, cool, Film
Firstly just let me say Zdravo, Merhaba, Halo Hej and Ola to my recent visitors from overseas and a plain old ‘awight to you grubby lot from closer to home. Earlier today I checked my statcounter figures and since I last posted I’ve had some delightfully random visits from far places as far flung as [...]
Cliffhanger video – Sheffield gets the Parkour and MTB treatment
Posted on 07. Jul, 2009 by benmckenna in Blog, cool, Film
As if Volleyball wasnt enough, the good people at this week’s Cliffhanger festival have produced this fantastic viral. Cliffhnager is one of the UK’s largest outdoor outdoor-pursuits festivals, based in one of Sheffield’s biggest green spaces. Anyway, enough of me prattling on about how blinding it is, it takes place this Saturday and Sunday. Visit the site [...]
