Musical Alchemy

Alchemy: the ancient art of turning base metals into gold. The idea that something simple can be magically turned into something that is worth significantly more. Well no one seems to have done it yet, or at least if they have they are keeping it quiet. Making something simple normally takes a lot of hard work and ThruYou is no acceptation. It must have taken hours, but it is true musical and video alchemy. A guy called Kutiman has scoured the internet for musicians and sampled them and cut them together to make some amazing music songs and videos. These totally unconnected clips come together to make something worth significantly better and more valuable than the sum of the parts and that is a big idea. He uses singers and people playing instruments and credits all the people who have unwittingly made it happen. It is magical and my favourite one is I’m New.

Values may raise and fall, past performance is no guarantee of future results

Having looked at apportioning equity before, it is a minefield. Seth Godin has a Big Idea on how to sort out this tricky problem. Dont go 50 / 50 or 70 / 30 straight off. Start with 5% each and then draw up a list of what you are going to do over the next couple of years and what % value of the company that is worth. If you dont do it, you dont get it, allowing for more flexibility and a fairer sharing of the pie. Full article here. I love the idea of this as you get what you earn. Any entrepreneur worth their salt will back themselves to out perform, so it is a great way to get things moving.

Armchair traveller

Google have launched another of their mega apps in the UK today. This is not just a Big Idea, it is a huge one. There new Google maps allows you to look at locations from street level. This has been available for a while in the US, but they have just uploaded the UK version. Whilst there will those who worry that this allows terrorists to scope out locations, they would be able to turn up with a video camera anyway in most cases. It is however amazing and heralds in a new era of armchair tourism. Want to see the sights of London, not a problem, wherever you are in the world. They have also managed to do this on a sunny day, which has to be great for tourism. Come to London, this is what it really looks like and it is always sunny, honest! So go and have a look at the revised site and pull the little orange man onto the maps. Then rotate the picture for an amazing 3D 360* view.
The annoying this is that I have seen the cars doing the mapping, but cant remember where I was exactly when it happened, so I have a fair amount of searching to do to find myself…

Confidence is feeling bulletproof

Most people have a suit, a shirt, a something that they put on for the big meeting. Whether it be a talisman or a piece of sharp tailoring, you feel bigger, walk taller and have the extra air of confidence that can make all the difference. How about this for a big idea? A bulletproof hankie, for ultimate confidence in the boardroom. A new product called ‘The Damned’ from Sruli Recht is a bulletproof handkerchief. Made from ballistic material in a tasteful lemon yellow shade, it slips into your top pocket and protects your heart. It might not protect more than a small area of your body, but how about the confidence it installs. Realistically most of us are not going to be shot rather accurately in the top pocket, but feel the confidence and of course the bragging rights.

Don’t just ski, satski

I have just got back from the slopes so this explains a bit of my thinking. Satski have a very cool new gadget. It is a sat-nav that works in ski resorts. Find out where you are, plan your routes and check your speeds. The big idea behind this is more than just a gadget. You can download the software to your phone, but the unit or have a tracker that downloads data to your computer. This is a fabulous invention as it shows how far you have gone and how fast, something that is often debated and added to with fisherman style stories of speed and enormous distances covered. You can also link up with buddies and see where they are, are they really on their way or skiing an extreme couloir, or are they already in the bar? It allows you to see how fast you went and I would not be surprised if the future versions link in with heart rate monitors etc to say how many calories you have burnt, though the heavy lunch might negate any weight loss. As a competitive person I love this and wish I could have had one to compete with my brother when we were younger, but on balance it is probably a good thing we did not.

Idea time

Timing, it really is key. No matter how big or brilliant your idea is, you still have to work on the timing. From Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder getting the pause just spot on, to launching the latest high tech gizmo before the competition have even thought of it, get it right and the results are amazing. Yeeeeee.com (I think I got all the eee's in there) have a great gallery of photos taken at just the right time click here for more.

Does a Moon pig go Moo?

Digital printing, it’s a big idea, but has taken a while to show its full potential. Moonpig cards have been doing this well for quite a while. They print one off personalised cards that you can send out with a message. This is great for people living abroad, as they can choose, customise, write and send a letter that will arrive tomorrow from the other side of the world. What makes it for me though is the quality. The stock is good and the printing spot on. I think that this is what has delayed people getting digital print out to the masses. Getting the kit to print really well is very expensive and can run into the millions. Another place doing sensational print work is Moo. They have some really cool products and I particularly like their business cards. You can have a pack of 50, with 50 different images on the back. To me digital is all about personalisation and this is letting you use it. There are still restrictions, you only get one design on the other side, but that can be got around by printing new packs with different images. You can print your own cards from scratch and I love the look of their sticker books. I am also a huge fan of Bobs Books. This was one of the first places to do one off hardback books with full colour covers. They keep developing which is great, so you can still order one or one hundred books, or try some of their new products. They do a cool flick book, which takes your video clip and prints it onto a flip book, giving an analogue viewing experience. There are lots more examples out there begging for creative solutions. We create a phenomenal amount of digital content with pictures and videos and if you cant make it yourself you can use it from open source location like Flickr. So go on, give personalisation a go, the future is here and the future is digital…

To err is human, to Arrrgghhh is Pirate

There are a lot of things on the sea bed and many a diver wishes they can discover sunken treasure or fascinating wrecks. Jason Taylor, a British artist has gone one step further and created an underwater gallery click here for more details. His big idea is that by creating a fabulous underwater gallery, people can experience a Vesuvius like exhibition. The installations of people emerge ghost like from the Panamanian water, which must be a bit of a shock if you dont know they are there. They are in shallow water, so can be viewed by snorkelers, divers and people in glass bottomed boats. They will develop over time and eventually become reefs in their own right. His site takes you through the full artistic justification of this, but for me, the more buried treasure out there for people to come across the better.