Hello friends of the dining outdoors experience,

I just posted this great feedback under the breifing and we wouldn’t want anyone to miss it!

So, we just had a very long and detailed half-time talk with the cologne trade fair. Everyone is very happy about the number submission (7 new submissions only in the last 24hrs) and the details of your works.

We count 12 general categories:

1. dining outdoors on the floor
2. chairs
3. tables
4. combinations of chairs and tables
5. complete dining outdoors sets or pavillions
6. lighting
7. shading
8. windshields
9. grilling (yes, the spoga+gafa is also the word’s biggest fair for grilling equipment!)
10. kitchens
11. plants
12. specials like dining on the water

Some comments on your work:

-Be specific!
This project is specifically on dining outdoors. So please *critically ask yourself: Is the object I propose really suitable for a dining experience?0 Of course one can sit on whatever object with a plate on their knees – like we know it from any kind of in- or outdoor party – but is this really an exclusive dining experience?

-Be complete!
A chair of course is a nice object and an important element for dining outdoors. But make sure you show how this specific chair will make a unique dining experience in combination with an existing – or newly invented – table. Same thing the other way around: How will your table work together with existing – or newly invented – set of chairs? Will you be able to eat comfortably with the combination of the two?

-Be practical!
1st: Think of all the influences that dining outdoors has to deal with: wind, sun, mosquitoes etc. What solutions does your ideas offer to these outside factors?
2nd: The task defines that the objects “ should be possible to transport and store the items” and there’s been quite some questions about this so far. Most of your objects do a great job in this: Some of them can be carried by humans themselves, others will have to be brought by car or truck and to be assembled or respectively disassembled on the spot. Keep up this attitude.

-Be exclusive!
garden unique is a fair for exclusive garden furniture. Does your design reflect this fact? If you could get a similar object in the Baumarkt nextdoor, it is probably not exclusive enough for the target group.

-Think culinary!
To be well seated is one part of the dining outdoors experience. But with no cooking ,there’s no dining. How would your dining equipment work together with the cooking equipment? How will the dishes be prepared, served and cleared away?

Now Let’s discuss!
Not only are your entries very welcome but also your comments: Dining outdoors means different things to people of different age, countries and cultures – so let’s keep up a vivid discussion on your personal experiences that will again inspire all of us for even more great and unexpected ideas. Keep the ideas coming!

I think we would all agree if I say what an exciting, fun an inspiring project has ended on the platform.

Six weeks of green and white, six weeks of howling wolves, scoring babies, fan dogs (fanimals?), self made bird houses and and and and… an endless list of super fun and original ideas that make a true fans heart beat faster! I would say you deserve a big applause but that would look probably really silly if everyone now starts clapping in front of their computers. So instead I just say a big thank you for making this work so well and a thumbs up for everyone!

I quote the client:  ”Es hat großen Spaß gemacht, den Wettbewerb zu verfolgen und sich immer wieder von den Designern überraschen zu lassen.” – “ It was great fun to follow the contest and being surprised by the designers again and again.”

You can read more (in german) here and also here - thanks bonibom for posting it under the briefing.

And now, on to the ones who scored the most community stars:

• The Golden medal goes to: Ruven and Kathi87 . They prooved that a good game depends on how a team works together. And so they created the VfL FANPASTA:

• Silver goes to yet another great team:  Paolaoliva and Marcomarotto cared about keeping your drinks cool with style – or your hurt knees! VfL FreezeFan came second:

• And the Bronze we all decided to give to the animated hoodie from Architempo. Congratulations on your first win – double win! Great work with Awaken the wolf in you:

• Another first win we saw with Svenja aka sp29. Joins jovoto – submits 3 ideas in a contest – wins. That’s an impressive introduction, the “Fütterunszeit” bib made it to the fourth place! Congratulations!

• 5th place goes to Janne and Oxelot who managed to stay on the top for long with Mmmh – wolsfburgelicious!

• On the 6th we have Architempo again, with yet another fabolous fashion item, the VFL Collar Hoodie 
• 7th came the witty idea of Xavier, Pillow cover – helping you to nice dreams about your favorite team
•  Nr.8: Wanda_Tag with the most adorable collection for baby fans, VFL Welpen
  
• For a nice wake up call we have additios alarm clock The wolf call - on 9th position
• And last but not least the danjohals creation the Wolf Whistle came 10th.

Well, what can I say. You provided the client with a great big pool of items to chose from.
And we are just as excited about the outcome as you are!

Thanks all!

Let’s have a look at the top 10 community winners and see how they completed the task.

1.) Deutschlands bester Brötchengeber ⚐ by kaptnkaptn’s idea is to target potential, well educated candidates there where they learn: At the universities. Building on the wordplay (Brötchengeber=the hand that feeds you)  the target groups receives in the morning bakery bags which advertises mobile.de. The bags can advertise the open positions and can be distributed at certain universities. Nice idea, congratulations kaptn!

2.) saubere autos . saubere jobs by extratain

saubere autos, saubere job is a guerilla campaign idea. Extratain is suggesting to put a stencil on dirty or dusty places and on a car, also a stamp can be used. By the stencil or the stamp the mobile.de logo, claim and the landing page link will appear where people wouldn’t expect it.

3.) mobile.interview by xavier

Thank you guys! Again, it was a huge fun to work with you!

We will share the client’s feedback as soon as possible! For those who can’t wait to get a first impression, check out the interview with jury member Corinna Rumph on the W&V blog.

Tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from, what are you doing?

At the moment I’m working full-time in a completely different field. I am studying Business and Economics at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. Since four months I am the proud father of a little son! Graphic design, design and photography is what I am doing in my spare-time. These things are always in my mind and it is often the reason why I can’t sleep. Since I was a kid I was interested in creative work, at school I was rather interested in painting and drawing then following the regular lessons. I could finish school successfully though. But ever since my personal goal is to study arts university.

How did you hear from jovoto?

Actually I was looking for opportunities to realize my ideas in a real enviroment. It’s really a new and wonderful challenge, you can always have ideas on your own but it’s even better to combine your own ideas with the ideas from others. Besides that I think that a lot of the clients I can work for here are exciting.

Above all, It’s a wonderful feeling when others are interested in your idea and help you realize it. Thanks for this experience jovoto!

What was your first impression about jovoto?

I was positively surprised about the broad range of projects (from graphic to architecure) running here, with very fair conditions! The platform is a great enviroment to release your creativity and to get in touch with other creatives. It is good to see how everyone is working on their ideas and it is great to be part of this community.

Who or what inspires you?

I always try to look at my surroundings as intense as possbile and I try to be aware of all the very small details. I don’t have a role model or anything like that. I just walk with my eyes open through the streets, there is so much to discover even at places where you wouldn’t expect it.

What about your city – Linz?

Here in Linz we have Ars Electronica, Lentos and the university Hagenberg as well as further art institutions. But still we are an industrial city which is also reflected in the local art scene.

Is there anything you want to share with the jovoto community?

I’m proud to be part of this community and I am very thankful that you all welcomed me so positively. That was a very welcome suprise! My personal wish is to have a stronger team feeling or in other words I’m looking for more corporations – teams are always stronger!

Keep up the good work – you are doing a great job!

We felt what better day than today to ask some questions to get the proverbial creative juices churning and your brains’ storming about our latest project from garden unique, Dining Outdoors.

So as the title suggest the major question we have is, what in fact does dining outdoors mean to you?

This may seem like a simple answer- you quickly imagine a picnic or a brick oven enclave straight away. Or do picture a chic rooftop looking over a twilight skyline?

But that’s exactly the point! Depending on where you come from and your culture, you could have very different opinions of your ideal outdoor dining experience. In some cultures it’s standard practice to eat outside and in some perhaps it seems like a bother or on the other hand, it’s very exclusive. But that’s up to you to decided who your target group is.

While your brainstorming:

• Figure out who you are making this product for. (eg- culture, age, accessibility)
• How can you optimize and get the most the experience for your target group (what are they interested in, what would they want to see?)
• How you get your furniture or product outdoors in the first place?
• Think practicality and usability!
• And last but certainly not least, Think design!

I’m happy to say, boy was everyone impressed with the Make The Global Skin Visible project.

Our client was so happy with your submissions that they even gave us a statement to post for you guys!

“Here is a summary of our teaser contest for all who participated and those who came across the global skin right now. The teaser contest was just the beginning!

A very successful beginning, as we think. With enthusiasm, we have followed daily the ideas submitted and their developments and where happy not only about the high number of participations, but of course, particularly about the high level of creativity! There were strong ideas and coherent realizations to admire.

We were also impressed by the straightforward and constructive cooperation with jovoto. The community idea appeared absolutely convincingly.

Also at the film festival Sehsüchte in Berlin, where some of the clips have been shown in the framework program of the “Sustainability Day”, the feedback was consistently positive.

And that`s how we will proceed: We will upload the Winning-Clips on the highly frequented Swiss news portal 20 Minuten Online and then ask the user community to participate by voting with the question “What is your favorite teaser for the global skin?”.

Furthermore, we integrate the clips in our online and offline communications.

And for sure, we proceed with our video contest! Now, for who took a fancy to it, shall participate! We are offering prizes for a total of $ 25,000! We look forward to hearing your ideas!”

Thanks to the global skin for the positive feedback and the fun and exciting project!

And we can’t forget to congratulate the 3 community prize winners:

voto & sandglas with inwoolve yourself!

MSTR with Shirtheads – Skin and Shirts

kuesti with Und was trägst du? What do you wear?

As well as the other additional 8 licensed ideas!

Great job guys, this was a tough task and you pulled it off!

We‘ve collected some inspiration on how to come up with a good slogan, because we know sometimes it is pretty hard to find easy words.

Before you start writing it is really helpful to know your target group. Make sure you have an idea of your target group‘s environment, where they live, how they live, what they like and what they dislike. If you have problems figuring this out, read up on the topic on the internet. Do some research!

Then the fun part comes: Brainstorming. What do you associate with the brand, product or service? What is the new thing you are trying to come up with? What does your target group think? Try to find connections if you can. And what are things you want your target group to think of? Try to find the right benefits you want to communicate to them.

Write down a list of some words that express the things you came up while brainstorming. Try to combine them, look each word up in a thesaurus to find other words with the same or a slightly different, maybe even better meaning. Play around with all the words you that you can find and make something like a top ten.

Now you have a mighty good tool already. Try to play with your favorites. Use rhetorical figures or metaphors or humor or emotion or arouse demands. If you need inspiration look up existing slogans on the internet.

The code of best practice is to keep it simple. People will remember short and easy slogans better than complicated ones. Use the power of few words to raise attention and create awareness. Also try to say your slogans out loud. You could possibly hear if a slogan works or not.

By now you probably have created some good slogans. Put that list in a drawer and let it rest. Do something else. Let your brain think of other stuff. You can also sleep on it! That little pause is quite necessary sometimes to let things evolve in your mind. When you come back later you will probably make some changes. Do so. You will know when a slogan works perfect for you.

Sometimes these techniques work really well- especially when you have writer‘s block. But that doesn‘t mean they work for everybody. By writing slogans more often you will come across your own techniques to write the best. I hope you enjoyed this post and take that as good inspiration for running and upcoming contests!

Yesterday jovoto had the very exciting chance to present the Theater Inter-Action! project at the re:publica 2012, only one of the biggest and most well known conferences in today’s german digital society!

Our presentation was kicked off by German actor, Bernd Moss with a really nice and funny introduction.

His proposal (although less in depth as yours!)  was to combine web 2.0 and the theater by being a hologram on stage. He went on to say that in reality he was actually at home drinking Club Mate and eating potato chips controlling his hologram with a joy stick from his couch. Although this picture doesn’t look far off from a hologram- he was really there!

From there, our Creative Stratigist, Conradin Mach-Sonnenberg and Birgit Lengers of the German Stage Assosciation (Deutscher Bühnenverein) gave an overview of the Theater Inter-Action! project for the audience.

Here is one of the slides that was presented that breaks down and categorizes all of the submissions into 10 groups.

After that, representatives from the five theaters of Theater Baden Baden, German Theater Berlin, Theater Freiburg, Saarländisches State Theater Saarbrücken, Schauspiel Stuttgart and  Theater an der Parkaue Berlin made 5 theories and used jovoto submissions to support or discuss their points! Pretty cool, huh!?

The 5 theories included:

1. Theater is not a medium discussed on the example of cloudtells’ idea Social Media Theatre, gusmonk’s Naked City Invisible You and joanaf’s flashmob the play
2. It’s all about the intermediation and not about the content discussed by the idea News Theater by boscutti
3. The more bulky art is allowed to be, the more the advertising has to catch on has been discussed based on the ideas from Popular TV series live in Theater by jelenasaurus,  Theater in die Kaufhäuser! by isar and New Theater on the Way by allysquare.
4. How mobil does theater have to be: Telescopic by julijaline and Nocturnal Theater Truck gusmonk.
5. Which picture of the theaters do the ideas reflect?

We were also delighted to have a last minute visit from our community member, MikaR who presented his submission, Got it? So use it! . MikaR was invited as the jury’s pick.

Last but not least, Conradin presented the community winner idea Stage 2.0 from FilipGavril. Then a brief discussion followed with a questions from the audience.

So there you have it! A very exciting follow up at a VERY cool and well respected conference yesterday in Berlin.

Well done to all of our community members that participated and helped us to make a great a project to present!

Although this is a misleading title, I did interview our team member and fellow community manager, Dora- on a Wednesday.

Let’s take it from the top!

How did you end up working at jovoto?

Well basically in my first year at the UDK (University of Arts) I was looking for a part time job next to my studies. We have an email chain where one day jovoto sent an email looking for a student worker. It’s funny, normally I never really read these emails and when I did, they all sounded very strict somehow so I never replied to any. But this one sounded different from the rest, I think I even applied saying something like “Yes Yes Yes I would be REALLY interested.” I was very enthusiastic, haha.

Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m from Hungary, where I also grew up – with a break of 3 years which we spent in Teheran when I was really young. I went to a german school, so I speak the language pretty well. Still I only ended up in Germany after another 3 year stay in London after I finished High school.

You mentioned you study at the UDK?

That’s right, I am at the Visual Communications department, my main interests are Photo and Video and I was in the Advertising Course for most of my studies so far too.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Taking pictures – so you usually find me doing something outside – accompanied by a camera. That’s why I also like travelling so much, I can’t stop taking photos.

Can you share something with us that you are inspired by?

I could share 173801 things with you I am inspired by So I just take something more recent. If you’re in Berlin, don’t miss out on Boris Mikhailov at the Berlinische Galerie! Such an inspiring man with an experimental approach to photography – and that already in the former USSR in the 1960s!

What’s the best part of working at jovoto for you?

The whole package. Does that sound cheesy? I pretty much like everything about my job, starting with my colleges and how I can be pretty flexible dividing up my time between work and studies, to the exciting projects on the platform.

Great to hear it Dora! Thanks for your time on a “Monday!”

Parador is a manufacture for flooring and wall design. Founded in 1977 in Coesfeld, Germany their exclusive Parador product range included around 2500 items in 2010 and another 800 new products were added in 2011. Almost three quarters of the turnover is generated with products that are less than three years old.

In the past Parador has already worked with top personalities from the international design scene, such as Zaha Hadid, Karim Rashid, Matteo Thun and Jean Nouvel. Check out their work here! The success from the cooperations with these designers is being proven by the fact the company has won international design prizes like the AIT Award (Interior Innovation Award) and the reddot Design Award.

Now Parador is asking the jovoto community to find creative ideas for excellent and fascinating flooring concepts!

All further information on the project will be included in the briefing which is coming up soon. To start your brainstorming already, here are some starting questions:

• How will flooring look in the future, what are possible colors, shapes, patterns, surface structures and materials?
• What is the next step in flooring, and in particular, wooden and laminate flooring?
• What are the ideal properties for the flooring of the future?
• What additional benefits/functions, such as lighting, sensor technology & etc. could the flooring offer?
• What should the flooring look like in regard to sustainability aspects?
• What new challenges arise from the changing landscape of home and living?

The project will start on May, 2nd 2012. The community prize money total is 15,000 EUR.