We worked with artist Rachel Maclean to create a website for her first feature film, the darkly-comic Make Me Up. The website design uses Rachel’s distinctive artwork to create a knowingly retro early web aesthetic.

The film forms part of 14-18 Now, a cultural programme taking place across the UK to mark the centenary of the WW1. Rachel is one of three female artists invited to make works which explore democracy, equality and inclusion in contemporary Britain. The film received its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on the Friday 12 October.

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BBC’s iPlayer has officially been around for a decade. Back in 2007, we were commissioned to develop its interface design and user experience — creating a graphic language for a TV experience on the web. The design treatments developed were integrated into the original launch of the service where a simple, visually-driven interface makes discovery of new programming at its core. Our distinctive visual identity has continued to inform subsequent versions.

This week ISO will be host to a must-see workshop from Cultural Enterprise’s Fashion Foundry programme. Fashion Foundry supports Scottish fashion designers and related creative businesses through a programme of workshops and bespoke mentoring.

The project unites Scottish fashion designers with associated creative businesses through their series of events and workshops.

This Wednesday the 3rd of August top digital creative agency MadeBrave will give a workshop on Social Media for International Audiences, focusing on online identity and networking.

Upcoming Fashion Foundry events include:
Content Planning and Scheduling | 17 August
Creating Sales campaigns | 7 September
Discover Online Storytelling | 4 October
Working with Trends | 16 November

For details on how to attend any of the events for free go here.

Today sees the launch of the University of the West of Scotland’s (UWS) leading edge digital third space UWS.io.

Over the past year we’ve been working with UWS Media Academy staff and students to create a new interactive platform for their work.

Led by Professor Nick Higgins, the project has brought in leading industry experts to develop experimental cross-media work across a series of practical workshops focussed on how a new generation of digital creatives conceive of new work, produce it and distribute it.

The first two editions of UWS.io have premiered at the 360D conference. Entitled River and 2.4km, they offer visitors a sonic exploration of the River Ayr and a multi-media investigation into life around a nuclear reactor. More editions are planned for later this year.

See the project online here www.uws.io. For more on 360D visit www.360d.org.uk.

The studio suddenly started receiving a torrent of likes and comments last week. Appears an infographic we’d posted a couple of years ago on VIMEO was picked up by a couple of online sites and it went, well, viral! 910,000 plays to date with over a quarter of million in just a couple of days.

Needless to say we never realised the formations of Roman troops could be so popular. The clip comes from one of the installations we did at Vinlandia, The Roman Army Museum by Hadrian’s Wall a few years back with our friends at Studio MB. You can see the clip – and add to the viewing figures here!

Trakke are an amazing Scottish company creating made-to-order outdoor bags and accessories using just British sourced materials. Formed by ex-ISO member Alec Farmer we’ve created a new brand identity and website to showcase their adventure equipment. The Glasgow based sustainable business has grown rapidly since its beginnings in 2010.

The brand work had to capture the rugged real world uses of Alex’s kit whilst also relaying their story and that of the suppliers and manufacturers they work with. Check out their gear – and treat yourself, everything comes with a lifetime guarantee!

See the new Trakke site online here: trakke.co.uk.

ISO Creative Director, Damien Smith will be at The Lighthouse, Glasgow on Friday 3 October to discuss the graphics and visual effects created for Glasgow’s XX Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

Damien will be one of five speakers at the event, which also includes Graphical House (designers of the Commonwealth Games souvenir range Scotland Can Make It!) and 4C Design (designers of the Queen’s baton).

To book your place, visit here.

Channel 4 Random Acts celebrates its 500th short film commission today! Having originally designed and created the Random Acts platform three years ago, ISO continues to work alongside Channel 4 Arts keeping the site fresh and managing all the project’s social media activity.

Random Acts are experimental films, performance, visual art and animations. A new generation of filmmakers and producers are given the opportunity to present work rarely seen on television every weeknight. Producers include Vice TV, Dazed and Confused, Frieze and Tate with work from artists as diverse as David Shrigley, Michael Landy, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mark Leckey, James Franco, Clean Bandit and Pepstar.

Channel 4’s second screen app, 4Now offers viewers real-time interaction for voting, games and quizzes.

The “always on” app, the first to be launched by a free-to-air broadcaster in the UK, is intended to exploit the “second screen” phenomenon – a viewers’ inclination to be on their devices (iPads, mobiles, etc) whilst also watching their favourite shows.

ISO worked on the graphics for the 4Now app. Download it here now.

Directed by Nick Higgins, We Are Northern Lights was Scotland’s first ever crowd-sourced documentary and received over 1500 submissions with over 300 hours of video footage.

ISO created the visual identity, film titles, website and digital strategy for the project. We built a platform incorporating YouTube’s latest citizen journalism features. Videos were tagged, encoded and organised, ready for the editing process. The site was also utilised as a social community to showcase the project.

The full We Are Northern Lights feature documentary is now available on DVD (PAL) for UK audiences. You can also watch the film online here.