In what seemed like the next logical step forward from 2009’s Mince Pie Audit, 2011 saw us baking our own mince pies, bringing them in and taste-testing them. We used similar judging criteria too, critiquing the baked goods on;

• Packaging
• Appearance
• Pie Access
• Pastry
• Filling
• Mince-meat to volume ratio
• Xmas Factor

Each of these categories were scored out of 5 giving a possible total of 35 points. We all tasted each others pies and we also employed the services of an impartial judge, Ryan Wood—a regular freelancer at Dusted.

So without further ado, the results.

So in summary, Lucy came out on top, Caroline in second and Matt in third. And I think I speak for every one of us—if I never see another mince pie it will be too soon (well, until next Christmas at least).

Students completing degrees in creative subjects could be forgiven for feeling pessimistic about their chances of getting a job straight away, particularly as most are expected to undertake work placements for very little or no money, just to obtain the experience they need to get an actual job.

So why aren’t universities teaching the skills that students need to get a job straight away? Most people who have worked for several years in the design industry will say that they didn’t really learn anything at university and that the education really began when they were thrown in at the industry deep-end. I don’t think this is strictly true.

At university you will be taught how to approach problems and how to think as a designer. You will then be given three years of creative freedom to create all manner of things, using a variety of mediums. During this time you’ll likely be given opportunities to learn various software, but mostly you will muddle through and get yourself to a workable stage in the relevant programmes.

When you start working, you realise that what you knew might not be particularly relevant or efficient in the ‘real world’ and you quickly learn on the job (and from your new colleagues who hopefully have the time to impart their advice), thus creating the foundations of your skillset. What you have to remember is that this skillset will back up the creativity and thinking that you learned at university, and it simply isn’t possible to have one without the other.

IBM are currently celebrating the success of their latest super-computer. Its name is Watson and it won Jeopardy. Jeopardy, for the non-US based amongst you (and the rest of you that haven’t seen Groundhog Day) is a long-running gameshow where contestants are given the answers. Their challenge is to guess what the question is. Watson’s task is the same but ultimately its goal is to be the first step on the road to a machine that will be able to learn and understand what humans are really asking them for.

Now being a super-computer there are a lot of complex although boring (visually and emotionally speaking) processes going on. So whilst I’m sure the IBM engineers would’ve be on the edge of their seats watching their computer trouncing its opponents via a command line on TV, the rest of us would’ve probably become uninterested within minutes.

For this reason IBM gave Watson a face and a voice – humanising it to a certain extent.

For the visual composition of the screen, you don’t want to have, person, person, and a void

Harry Friedman, Executive Producer, Jeopardy

They auditioned several voice actors, with the successful candidate getting to record 1,000s of phonetic sounds and phrases. For the face of Watson they turned to digital artist Joshua Davis. Davis has plenty of form with turning mathematical processes into beautiful living art pieces. Davis wrote several scripts to convert Watson’s “emotions” into visual representations, so at a glance you can gauge its happiness – how well its doing, and its confidence – the probability it places on its current solution being correct.

IBM and the producers of Jeopardy recognised the importance of user experience – the need to bring some emotional connection between the viewer and the technology. This applies just as much to online communications as it does to a super-computer playing on a gameshow. I’m not suggesting that every website or app should have an avatar (Miss Boo anyone?) for the user to relate to, but you should apply the right “face” and “voice” – face being the visual elements, voice being your copy and messages. Get these right and you may not win any gameshows but you certainly stand more chance of engaging with your customers.

EDIT: As this feed was driven by real-time technology it is now showing blank. However, if you would like to see the photos that had featured in it you can visit my flickr set of the day.

The political hot potato that surrounds the arrest, custody and legal battle of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is set to run and run and I’m sure by Christmas, the story will still be headline news. I’m not about to debate whether ‘his’ site is morally right or wrong (personally I believe some things are probably better off kept in a locked cabinet for good) but rather the technology battle that is furiously underway to bring down the site while those on the inside, fight to keep it going – there are some cruelly ironic parallels to draw here.

Firstly, there is a great movie to be made. I’m not sure who’s going to own the rights to it, but it will be like War Games meets The Social Network meets The Bourne Identity – something I’d certainly pay to see. Secondly, Wikileaks epitomises the strengths of social media marketing and online community building – even if Assange is locked away for good, the site (and leaks) will continue. “It is not a one-man operation, but a network of thousands motivated by shared culture” is how The Nation magazine described it.

Testament to this is Wikileaks on Twitter, which is still highly active. As Assange was led away by police in London, the latest tweet vowed to carry on with more cables promised as normal.

Despite Twitter’s insistence to quash Wikileaks from the list of trending topics, phrases such as ‘press freedom’ are trending quite happily. Moreover, rumours (strategically?) spread on Twitter stated that Assange had been removed from Time magazine Person Of The Year poll, has actually seen him comfortably leading the field, beating Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg to the top spot. Not bad for a man currently behind bars.

The technology deployed to support the Wikileaks network is quite vast now – over 1,000 (and counting) mirror sites that the US Government can’t seem to stop. In essence, they are trying to switch off something they invented to withstand a nuclear war and in practice, haven’t been able to control such things as on-line piracy – shutting down ‘just’ this one site I doubt will be easy.

They successfully unplugged Amazon’s hosting of the site, and persuaded the likes of PayPal and Mastercard to stop processing donations, but haven’t managed to shut down all the domains. Even if they did, Wikileaks openly publicises its IP number so it’s possible to access the site directly.

In last night’s Evening Standard, Mike Butcher of TechCrunch, suggested, “we may just refer to Wikileaks by its number” which is food for thought given the comparisons we can draw with Orwell’s 1984 – a story of rebellion against a Big Brother state (which even features a Ministry of Truth).

In the book, Orwell’s principle character winds up imprisoned and subjected to psychological interrogation in an attempt to ‘cure’ him of his insanity and hatred for the government. The fate of Julian Assange will hopefully be less extreme, but it is surely no coincidence he has suddenly been detained and refused bail based on charges his lawyer describes as “politically motivated”.

Wikileaks is a site built on anti-censorship and the freedom of information. It describes itself as a universal way for revealing suppressed and censored injustices; an anonymous channel for sources to reveal information to their team of journalists. In theory a perfect contender then for the World Press Freedom Prize – announced yesterday by the US Department of State as part of the World Press Freedom Day, 2011.

I’m sure Julian Assange will see the irony in that.

I’m sure its every product owners dream to actually become ‘the norm’ for a certain activity, use or channel. Hold on – I know we’ve been here before, but bear with me… “Do the Hoovering” is perhaps the most commonly used example, which came top in yesterday’s Shortlist magazine, top-10 brands that usurped the product name – here’s their list:

1. Hoover (vacuum cleaner)
2. Sellotape (adhesive tape)
3. Rollerblade (inline skates)
4. Jet Ski (stand-up personal watercraft)
5. Biro (ballpoint pen)
6. iPod (MP3 player)
7. Tipp-Ex (correction fluid)
8. Portakabin (mobile building)
9. Tannoy (public address system)
10. AstroTurf (artificial grass)

These are all brands and the biggest surprises for me are Jet Ski and Tannoy. Although I’m unsure of the publishers criteria here as there are some obvious (digital) omissions, including our favourite “Just Google it“ and things like “Facebook them”. Could be some time however, before “I’m fully Dusted” enters common vocabulary.

Photo credit: Flickr user evilnick

The race for second and third was slightly more interesting with David and Matt battling with friend of Dusted, Nic Achampong. However with Nic using most of his transfers early in the tournament, he had lost his second place by the end of the final whistle. A tactical captain choice by Matt (garnering him double points from goal scorer Iniesta) was enough to push him ahead of David, much to Mr Wall’s disappointment.

As for the remaining Dusted players, they all suffered from breaks away from the office and quite clearly paid for their leisurely approaches — apart from Darren who was just too busy to maintain his team.

The Dusted Fantasy Football league results

Darren said…
We should modernise and include the channels and options people now use every day. A secure, web-enabled system that allows both Internet and mobile voting alongside more traditional methods, like post and local polling stations (with modern technology), would maximise ‘turnout’, accelerate the process and be all-inclusive. By implementing progressive multi-channel accessibility, user experience and data processing we may even keep up with the rest of the world! The result will then be truly representative.

Sarah said…
I would introduce a digital system with the option for postal votes and maybe the odd polling station still dotted around. Almost everyone has access to a computer so it makes sense. That would then give you the opportunity for having a great website that both details and summarises the various policies. So people could take a mini quiz to help them out if they know nothing about politics. There could be a fabulous, simple interface that summarises what each local candidate is promising and then one click takes you to the national issues that party stands for, a clear glossary of terms to explain technical terms and case studies that explore how life would theoretically change for various people under each potential party. There should also be an option to vote for a particular party but reject the current leader and force them to choose another.

Nick said…
I think that compulsory enrollment (registration) to vote should be enforced but not compulsory voting. Although I do not believe people should be forced to vote for a cause they do not agree with, I do think that a majority of people do not vote because they simply forget to register or don’t have time. By making registration compulsory this eliminates idleness and at least calls people to consider/ educate themselves on current affairs before voting or not voting.

David said…
Following the leaders debates on TV, the obvious answer is a Britain’s Got Talent style contest. Allowing people to vote online is perhaps more likely though. Would be more secure than postal votes and perhaps even ensure the turnout was greater than 65%

Matt said…
Let’s bring it bang up to date and let people cast votes via Twitter. Each candidate has their own #hashtag and the one topping the “trending topics” on Election Day becomes Prime Minister. Trouble is there is a real possibility it will be Justin Bieber

James said…

1. Electoral reform – proportional representation. Unfair this year that the Lib Dems got 10% more votes than last time yet lost seats
2. The actual voting experience – instructing people properly with well communicated graphics (it was not even clear at my polling station whether you should put a tick or cross next to persons name – many people were confused).
3. Also, why are we not voting via the Internet yet? Due to the massive queues some people got to vote this year – it would seem a good idea to introduce an internet voting system where each constituency gets its own site which people access and vote on. Then one central computer could gather the data and calculate the numbers more quickly.
4. Also opinion papers like the Sun should be banned from reporting on anything regarding the election.

Jamie said…
The perfect voting system would be a really simple, cool mobile device app (web based for those without) which presented a pic of the party leader, next to their top three principles, percentage of tax you’ll pay, and a scale of their corruption level (user vote). An alternative would be to go with the US model which consists of outspending your opponent’s ad budget!

Vilmar said…
I am going to use the Brazilian electoral system as a comparison, even though we have two different political systems – namely Parliamentary and Presidential. Voting in Brasil is compulsory, which apparently contradicts one of the Democratic principles based on citizens’ freewill but on the other hand it does push people to participate in the political process. I imagine it being extremely difficult for people in the UK to accept any bill in which they ‘ought to do anything out of their will. However, as exemplified in Brasil, the government decrees National Voting Day were people have the day off to vote. They go to the poll station in their vicinity where they are. The Electoral Authority delivers the electronic voting machines to all poll stations the night before and by morning they are all up and running; they form a nation-wide network feeding into high-security servers based in the capital, Brasília. There is virtually no paper involved in the process (apart from ballots that have to be put in place for the most isolated communities in the Amazon region and similar). It is all electronic. The results are ready within approximately 12hrs after the Election Day ends, and that’s for a country whose population is around 193 million people and counting (not all voters obviously but still…).

On my MA seminar debate last week at Goldsmiths we discussed the ‘author function’ in relation to value-creation in the economic context, interrogating the notions of originality and distinctiveness posited by Foucault in his essay “What Is an Author?’. Curiously, that topic led the group to challenge the definition of brands, in the classic sense, and ask themselves: what exactly constitutes a brand? Or even, what are the elements necessary to characterize an individual or name as a brand rather than an author/individual?

To start with, in a marketing intensive environment celebrity endorsement can be an efficient way to connect with consumers. The media exposure such individuals receive facilitate the process of communication as audiences recognise personal traits and identify themselves with another individual more easily. Brands, thus, get on the fast track to reach consumers, saving time and costly marketing efforts at the same time they eliminate much of the noise in the communication process. Sometimes – most notably in the sports and fashion business – this process gets such a traction that individuals move further and trademark their names and then a brand roll-out of different lines of products and commercial enterprises ensues, sometimes very successfully (Beckham, Moss, O’Neal, etc). However, differently from brands that are formed around entrepreneurs who strive in their field of expertise (fashion houses as the most typical examples), sports people, celebrities, designers and even artists (YBA) become brands through different means.

I would like to start the argument by acknowledging the importance of IP in the process of branding. The very raison d’être of any brand lies in their ability to combine a set of signs that create a distinguishable character in relation to the competition. The audiences thus recognise and decode the signs through cognitive processes, conferring the brand with a relatively distinctive set of meanings and perceptions, that is, one brand is a thing/object and not another. More importantly, brands try to delineate the boundaries, the semiotic space around their names; firstly by constructing a coherent system of visual signs (visual identity); secondly by using the mechanisms provided by intellectual property legislation (copyright and trademark) to safeguard their identity assets against unauthorized use. So, in what way a person, or a name can be suddenly designated as a brand?

First of all, brands should be understood in accordance to the industries and markets within which they operate. As an example, FMCG brands don’t work in the same way financial services or media brands do. In fact, brands and commodities become potential media themselves. In the past three decades they have become active actors in the circuits of culture, and that is exactly where their sign-value accrues, increasing the exchange-value of their products and services as a result. Brands, thus, operate within more or less complex networks; they engage in processes of synergy, co-creation and culture that according to Jürgen Habermas (among other critical theorists from the Frankfurt School) deems the distinction between the cultural and economic spheres irrelevant in this particular case. Henceforth, in the postmodern context, individuals who get a high level of exposition and adhere to specific sets of cultural values can be transformed into successful brands with real commercial value. In that respect, anyone has the potential to become a brand. But it’s not to say it is a simple process or that it can be constructed through a formulaic approach. There needs to be a base, a starting point upon which a branding exercise can then be developed: think of popular blogs, reality show stunts, sports, art performances, and so on. There’s also the case of artists who deliberately flirt with the concept of transmuting their image/names into brands – Andy Warhol featuring in a TDK TV ad, or the establishing of Interview magazine under the ‘Warhol’ brand; Keith Haring and its PopShop enterprise that sells diverse merchandising; Damien Hirst and the resulting dialectics of art x commodity found in his assembling line/factory-like approach.

To conclude, I think that individuals have the potential to become brands but it is not a venture suitable for all. There are certain connections and network interactions that must be already in place before one starts to license its name and image to products and/or services. So, in my opinion, it’s not only the road lying ahead but, more importantly perhaps, the walked miles that count when one’s trying to build a genuine, trustworthy person/brand.

We tasted 10 different brands of pie and scored them on nine criteria;

• Packaging
• Appearance
• Pie Access
• Pastry
• Filling
• Mince-meat to volume ratio
• Xmas Factor
• Expectation
• Reality

For consistency we ate all of our pies cold (as we only have a microwave and no one likes sweaty pastry) as well as eating them unaccompanied so not to confuse our tastebuds.

And the results are in

So it’s Duchy Originals that takes the crown of Best Mince Pie overall for 2009. Not surprising as they were also the most expensive, but don’t let that take away from their glory – they are truly delicious, with an authentic pastry case and a perfectly balanced mince-meat filling. The packaging had heritage and was made from good thick card. Coming in almost a clear 10 points behind were Tesco, Konditor & Cook and Sainsbury’s – all accomplished pies.

Note: Ms. Kruger’s homemade mince pies aren’t available to the general public as they were lovingly crafted by Maggie who resides at our office. They wold have scored better if they hadn’t been presented in some Tupperware.

The best versus the worst

No one really expected a lot from the Co-Operative’s pies and they certainly didn’t surprise with one of the panel comparing the filling to paint.

Great expectations

Some might say this is the true gauge of pie. We took the expectation score and subtracted the reality score to give us an idea of whether it was a pleasant surprise, as expected or a hideous disappointment.

So it was Greggs’ and Ms. Kruger’s pies that offered up the most pleasant surprise surpassing all expectations (not to say that the expectations were low to start with of course). Mr. Kipling gave the most dissappointment – after all, he claims to make “exceedingly good cakes”. He must have not been around for the QC on these ones. Asda, Tesco and Co-Op supplied pies that were exactly as expected.

We were going to calculate total calories consumed over the course of the audit, but though it may be better to leave this statistic a mystery – although you may be able to take a guess from the increase in the collective waist size across the business.

Have you eaten a better mince pie? Have we got it completely wrong? Let us know.