The Orcon Office banner that we worked on with Special Group and Exposure has been included in MediaMind’s creative zone of the best MediaMind creative around the world.

And positive comments have continued in the story on Stop Press.

‘Banner ads are often criticised for being boring, cheesy, annoying, intrusive or a combination of all four. But Orcon, Special Group, Exposure and Salt Interactive have joined forces to show that very good things can happen when the utility of the digital space is combined with the ideas of agency land.’ Read more>

After 8 years at 91 Cook Street, the team at Salt are packing boxes and moving to new premises. But don’t worry, because:

A: it’s only temporary, while 91 Cook Street is being renovated

and:

B: the temporary space is only a couple of hundred meters up the road.

Stephen and Mike are doing most of the packing, shedding a tear or two as a sentimental item pops up from some long forgotten corner, or as they give away office desks, a Multiple RCA inbox and yes, the Becks fridge. The table tennis is going into storage, Mike and Stephen will be getting their own offices, and the rest of us are getting smart new desks with proper pencil holders and cabling coming up from beneath the floorboards.

All of this is going on while we have jobs coming out of our ears and a new server to install. There’s some big projects nearly done and some being scoped, projects born in this space, but to be completed before we return. Au revoir 91 Cook Street – for now.

We’ll be reachable under the same phone number and email addresses. Our temporary base will be:

Salt Interactive

Level 1

60 Cook Street

CBD

We’ve given World Vision’s homepage a facelift in time for the Football World Cup. The concept intends to show the reality of poverty in Africa right now. We felt a simple design, a dusty colour palette and crisp language said it all.

World Vision are after sponsors so why not check out the design and sign yourself up to a good cause.

Salt worked with DraftFCB to design and build the front-end of an online depression self-management programme called The Journal. Phase two of the Ministry of Health’s highly successful National Depression Initiative (NDI) has just kicked off and John Kirwan has returned as the frontman. Read more >

The Football (note: I say ‘football’ and not ’soccer’) World Cup is upon us. I love it. Best game in the world. Jumpers for goalposts and all that. But I love the national flavours the most. You can spot the countries by how they play the game. South American’s have flair and panache, German’s have efficiency, African’s have physical prowess and Asian’s have pace and energy. It’s as if all the years in-between World Cups, of breaking down national stereotypes, go out of the window. The World Cup comes along and we fall into character, even my own England; all pluck, no matter the talent (or lack of it). Character over result.

But what about design? Can we spot a designer’s home country by their work? They say the English prefer minimal design with space and subtlety. Ozzies apparently are brasher and louder (no way). The Americans are often accused of over designing. But are these truths or stereotypes? What do you think? Do designers carry a national, cultural style and if so, what is NZ’s? We think Salt Interactive is pretty eclectic in its views and design, but is this representative of our country?

Salt Design has a digital heart, but that doesn’t mean we write 50 tweets a day. And by digital we mean interactive, not cameras.

When we first started out, 10 years ago, with a vision of creating exceptional user experiences through creative design, technology, interactivity, and messaging, we wanted to call ourselves Salt Interactive, but whenever we said ‘interactive’ to people at parties, they just nodded politely and went off to talk to someone else more straightforward and fun sounding.

But now most people know what interactive means, the time is right to change our name to Salt Interactive, experts in digital know-how and what-not.

Since 2001 we’ve been creating effective interactive marketing campaigns online advertising and engaging websites for a long list of top notch clients, winning awards and kudos along the way, and as a proven leader in the digital creative industry we think we have a pretty clear picture of what the future of the web holds. But just in case you think we’re a bunch of geeks, we’re also into methodic graphic design, with excellent knowledge in typography and layout. We’re more Wii than Warcraft.

We believe the formula for great work is easy: it takes hard work, more hard work and even more hard work, but we’re up for it if you are. As a group we have diverse interests, mannerisms, musical tastes, and style. So we don’t have a ‘house style’, unless you count excellence as a style.

We speak our mind when it needs to be heard, but we do in a very polite and respectful way. We’re very nice. We don’t employ super slick salesmen to sell sell sell our work on our behalf; the people you meet are the people who’re doing the work, and are able to answer any question, regardless of technical degree of difficulty, you can think of.

Of course, sometimes we will appear to be super slick, but that’s just the way we were brought up. Blame our mums.

Love or hate advertising, check out Art & Copy screening as part of the Documentary Edge Festival. The film seeks to identify the elements that transform slogans into pop culture catch phrases and the ability of ideas to change how people feel.

Salt is looking for an Interactive Producer with excellent client service skills and at least 3 years agency experience. A good understanding of the online / interactive production process and cycle is a must! You’ll implement online projects, manage budgets, timeframes and work closely with staff and clients to ensure deliverables are met to the highest possible standard. Contact Stephen for more information.