If only the white room in The Dome could have carried this tranquil wonder. Instead, in (questionable celebration of the Millennium) The Dome’s zen room faded through a spectrum of colours like a dodgy 90s lamp with walls made of white plastic that I spent my visit sliding down, they should have built it with cardboard boxes and flapping bits of metal. The giant fort made out of cardboard boxes doesn’t instantly come across as a museum piece (even if it is the Contemporary Art Museum). Beyond being stacked boxes it also does a very good impression of rain when turned on. I’ve tried this at home with a metal stick and a cardboard box but it’s not had the same effect.

Listen to it, and pretend you’re lying by a big window; a huge library window, the top floor of the Tate Modern, the full glass door in my living room at home, outside under the biggest, safest umbrella in the the world with an invisible window. The weather’s changed and it’s throwing it down – that one mad day of summer where the weather throws a furious fit. The day waterproof tree houses were made for. There’s just a flood pouring down the glass, a few leaves smacking against it every so often, slowly dragging their way down sandwiched between the flood and the glass. Just watching there listening, feeling warm and strangely refreshed from your pocket of cover inside.

A bit old, but still lovely. Via weheart.

This weekend was Shoreditch Festival. Mysteriously, whilst taking place at Hoxton – a name I associate with the bar & grill – it wasn’t the skinny-trousered meme-fest I was expecting. This may be because I’m a South London snob. It actually reminded me of a very British fete from my childhood, despite the lack of school field.

The weekend threw rain and bright sun at us, and so it was spent jumping under a huge umbrella every ten minutes. Still, stretching along the canal was beautiful. I think the best part was alongside Punch and Judy that ran about, with small children smacking his rear with a baton, was the man dressed as a policeman with ‘Politeman’ on his back. “Go away” he barked at me.

Here’s some photos, though few the actual Festival itself. The canal was too exciting I’m afraid.

A new sort of river boat.

Oh look! Creative agency Hugo & Marie have just relaunched their work and there’s some wonderful work on it by creative Mike Perry catching my eye.

The inquisitive-looking Fox at the bottom of the mouth is best.

Over on his site, it turns out he was behind the BBDO Starbucks work too. There’s more wonderful jelly people, an obsession with space and geometric penned chairs to catch a sight of. I recommend you have a peer about.

D&AD held one of the last of their Sharp’ner events on Wednesday and had a chat about the future of Blackberry. Joel Veitch suggested hope lies in the youth marker. “[School age kids] all want Blackberries. They don’t want iPhones or Android phones, they all want Blackberry.” Have a look at the video here.

A few weeks ago I was on a train stuffed with school kids, with a group of boys talking about mobiles. Not known for their ability to talk in hushed and muted voices, I started making some notes. When all but two had left the train, I asked how old they were and we had a chat about mobiles. Apparently, after girls, mobiles are pretty high on the list of things twelve year old boys want to talk about.

Some good things came up:
- These kids don’t have apps. Their next phones might.
- They’re more interested in cost of contract over handset.
- They mentioned wanting Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry models. They rarely mentioned models – just manufacturers.
- The phones they do have can’t hold the number of texts they want: “This phone’s rubbish. After 134 texts it says it’s full.”
- Some kids at school have iPads. Or rather, their parents do. “They have them at home – I’ve seen photos!”
- Kids will mock you for buying an iPad 1 now that the iPad 2′s on the market.
- “He could get a Blackberry tablet but he doesn’t want one. They’re £500 – might as well get an iPad for £600.”
- “My Mum works [for Nokia] so I get Nokias from her. But I hate Nokias. I’m getting a Blackberry Curve.

Obviously this is just a group of five 12 year old boys in South East England. It’s not scientific, but it is interesting. And it’s good to talk to people, rather than just do desk research. Blackberry came up a lot and really backs up the point made in the D&AD video.

The best moment was:
- “What’s 3G?”
- “It’s data transfer like bluetooth.”
- “I could swear the iPhone doesn’t have bluetooth.”
- “That’s because they want you to get all your shit from the iTunes store.”

Well, they’re halfway there.

This post appears over on (untitled) London’s blog.

The Victoria & Albert museum held a three day Web Weekend this weekend, a unique way to promote their new website. The V&A building is beautiful and I love the way that everything is spaced out just-so for strolling around and casually peering at everything. We dropped into a badge making session where we were taught a speedy introduction to processing, and muddled about making shapes. Here’s a few shots.

As usual I got caught up moving little circles backwards and forth, and changing colours before remembering an idea for a design would have been helpful. By this point Mike had made a Domo and I set about turning my collection of circles into a little outraged face. Mike managed to hit backspace and reload his page, clearing all the code. So, I curated my badge’s eyebrows and dithered about on colours whilst he started again and we finished at the same time.

Despite missing Katy Beale’s Culture Hack and Chromaroma it was a lovely little event. I should probably check out their website now..

I love the V&A buildings. The sun popped out and standing by the big paddling pool centre in the courtyard was beautiful. I looked at the building and Mike went to play with the fountain. “Don’t get wet!” cried a Mother to a small child. “They splash about, get wet, and then complain,” she told me, knowingly. In the background Mike made noises indicating the fountain had attacked him.