2012May 16

Adobe CS6 release

Richard Leave a comment
adobe-cs6-release

The new Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) has recently been released and offers a number of new tools for creatives. Senior Product manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes claims that Photoshop alone has “about 60% more feature changes than in CS5”. They have also added more features for designers than they ever had before as well as twice as many JDI (Just Do It) features.

Some of the main features in Photoshop include extended Content-aware Technologies, simplified 3D design, and new intuitive video creation. The new and improved content-aware patch tool “is designed for times when you want to remove unwanted content from a photo and then replace it with a precise and seamless patch. The tool automatically creates the patch for you, but only after you’ve shown it exactly which area of your image you’d like it to sample from.” This new tool not only allows you to retouch images, but recompose them as well.
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                Design / Animation | News & Random
2012May 14

Watch our new office!

Tim 1 Comment
watch-our-new-office

There are these ancient tales about Cape Point, frightened by every decent seaman. At least some hundred years ago. Well nowadays, navigating a ship should be more safe due to technological progress. A Taiwanese capitan proved us wrong. Some days ago, he decided to take a rest at the beautiful Clifton Bay – including his boat. Rumors began and soon the true purpose of the Taiwanese businessman was revealed. The ship was an offer an Gumtree. We, as a creative agency would defintly have liked to move in. What an extraordinary space!

But unfortunately, someone was quicker than us (rarely enough). A pity.

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             - | GSDH | News & Random | Viral
2012May 14

Facebook’s grim future on mobile

Mike Leave a comment
facebooks-grim-future-on-mobile

Last week Facebook announced that their ARPU (average revenue per user) has been declining in the current quarter. Facebook said that this trend is being driven by the growth in its usage on mobile platforms and its inability to monetize those platforms accordingly. Also Google has missed its “Cost Per Click” numbers two quarters in a row now – for similar reasons.

Read a brilliantly balanced analysis by Keith Teare on techcrunch.com about how Google, Facebook and other Web 2.0 giants have to (and will) adapt their business models to mobile – because there is no other way to survive.

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                Mobile Trends | News & Random | Online Trends | Social Media
2012May 10

South Africa – a paradise for sport mad people

Svenja Leave a comment

Before I left Europe for South Africa where I would spend the next year to study and do my internship at GSDH, my biggest fear was to get out of form. Or rather out of shape due to good food and wine. In Germany my calendar is packed with handball: Training, training camps, tournaments, long road trips to away matches, hours at the gym, coaching a youth team, handball lessons at primary schools and so on. (We talk Olympic handball here, check Wikipedia, if you don’t know about it. It’s huge in Europe, Northern Africa and Korea.) My aim was to stay as fit as possible in order to join my old team in good shape after my time in Africa.

During the first six months, it all looked like I would suffer when back home. Studying in Stellenbosch is hard, much harder as in Germany, and the workload was huge and didn’t leave much time to do sports.

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    - | GSDH
2012May 2

Steven much work and fast eat.

Steven Leave a comment
steven-much-work-and-fast-eat

Have to keep it short: There’s much to do and no time to go out and get food. So I thought, this could help.

Unfortunately it takes quite a while to make it. It doesn’t look lekker either. I’d better ask someone who knows how to make burgers. Always the same s**t: You think, there’s a quicker and cheaper way to do it and end up in crap. When you need something properly done the next time, ask these guys.

Enjoy!

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          GSDH | News & Random | Online Trends | Viral
2012April 27

Think Insights with Google

Mike Leave a comment
think-insights-with-google

+Think with Google – Google’s take on fresh marketing insights and a look at what’s next – is one of the most interesting pages I follow on Google+. thinkwithgoogle.com – the corresponding website – is an open source collection of case studies about media trends, clients and the effects of new technologies on marketing.

The site is an invitation to exchange knowledge and discuss topics such as online media and advertisement and offers a multi media library full of case studies, info graphics and videos. You will find research documents, insights and ideas that inform about strategies, decisions and products.

Check it, like it, share it!

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GSDH | News & Random | Online Trends
2012April 23

A special website with something special inside

Tim Leave a comment
a-special-website-with-something-special-inside

There’s something special inside Hansa Pilsener: the Saaz hop. It’s the world’s most expensive hop, nothing you place just somewhere. The South African beer giant called us to build a worthy shrine for its precious. And we delivered:

hansapilsener.co.za has all on offer what you need to know about Hansa Pilsener and their many promotions – for example our works Hide the Hop and Hansa Pourfection.

Whether you use a desktop pc, an iPad or an Android smart phone, the site’s design adapts automatically to all devices and circumstances. You’ll always have it nicely distributed and easy to navigate. In South Africa where people surf on a lot of different phones rather than desktop computers that’s pretty important. In web development you call this responsive design.

Furthermore, posts from marketers and fans on Hansa’s youtube-, facebook- and twitter-channels will automatically be shown on the new homepage. The end result is a solid, dynamic, multi-platform digital presence for Hansa that engages the online community through the different social channels. We have aimed to maximise their brand exposure, brand awareness, event publicity and product sales through smart integration of offline and online marketing tools.

You need a high-end website to wrap something very special in? Tell us just now.

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             GSDH | Mobile Trends | News & Random | Social Media
2012April 19

F*** THE HOP!

Tim Leave a comment
f-the-hop

„HIDE THE HOP“, our new game for Hansa Pilsener is a clear statement. We did it all in html5. Not that we did just everything in html5 now, only because everyone believes flash is dead and html5 the Philospoher‘s golden egg. But in this case it just made sen- se: in South Africa mobile is very important and the game needed to run on all devices. It does, so all South Africans can challenge their friends now as much as they want.

As I do now. If you dare. Because you’re just some blind bets and need to get the dioptrine of your Ray Bans fixed.

Clear statement!

You know, “HIDE THE HOP” is very competitive. I hid a hop and I challenge you to find it. (A hop, you might ask? Yes, a hop. The Saaz hop: the most expensive hop in the world. Hansa Pilsener’s special ingredient, now you know.)

I‘ve hidden a hop somewhere in the stunning scenario our illustrator Richard designed for the game. And now I challenge you to find it. Trust me, you’ll never find it. Not-in-your-life. Meaning: not in under five minutes… Ok, make that two.

Having said this, FIND THE HOP!

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             Design / Animation | GSDH | Social Media
2012April 16

So we got two new developers – one is useless, the other one never got to a professional level

Tim Leave a comment
so-we-got-two-new-developers-%e2%80%93-one-is-useless-the-other-one-never-got-to-a-professional-level

With a lot of new jobs running in we needed fresh developers. In the end we had to pick some off the mountains. At least we didn’t have to get there ourselves, but Lasse Manson and Mark Steinbuch came off the hills by themselves.

When they finally arrived in Cape Town, we discovered certain weaknesses.

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             GSDH
2012April 12

Google Drive – my list of wishes

Mike 3 Comments
google-drive-%e2%80%93-my-list-of-wishes

There’s one thing that is missing in the whole buzz about the upcoming launch of Google Drive in my opinion: my opinion. And that is as follows:

Normally I just throw all my files into my dropbox and contribute to my provider’s sales increase, because I excess my mobile data volume all the time. My 2 GB on dropbox are nearly used up. Should Google Drive really come with 5 GB for free, I’ll move without hesitation.

google drive
Since I can’t sleep any more because of excitement, I had good time to compile my list of wishes to Google Drive:

-          Extensive indication and filter features:
I hate folders! I just like to chuck everything into one single folder, and not to search for hours through sub-sub-sub-folders. I’d like to find the requested MP3, photo, word-file and address quickly with filters and Google-search and tag it for searches later on. I don’t ask for too much, here, do I?

-          iPhone/iPad /Android App:
Ok, I don’t have to wish that. The Sync with an app on my mobile is actually a precondition.

-          Connection with Google Docs:
I never liked Google Docs that much. I need to be online all the time to work with it. I hope this service will be integrated in Google Drive; however, I’d like to keep my Google docs files.

-          Share-functions:
So far my Google+ account is rather lifeless. I suppose I can share files with my G+ friends. Circles could work as user-rights administration here. This way Google‘s social network Google+ would finally get an advantage over facebook and all the registered users would finally … use it. G+ already got a new design. Maybe in preparation for Google Drive???

What’s your expectation towards Google Drive? Tell us! But hurry up, reportedly the launch is in the works.

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    Mobile Trends | News & Random | Online Trends | Social Media