Moocards’ Friends

The pick of the pocket creatives

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:50:30 +0100

As we've mentioned before in this blog, seeing the amazing images people put on their MOO products is half the fun of this job. There's such a wealth of creativity out there, it blows us away. Of course there's beautiful photography, but sometimes its the *things* that are photographed that are the key.

Look at these for example, beautiful photos of finely crafted jewellery, by Redcrow.

And these Postcards by Natasha Newton, showing an ink drawing - and one of her paintings.

These cute MiniCards show off kunklebaby's crafting skills:

While LushLampwork uses Text MiniCards as swing-tags, to go with the beautiful glass beads she makes.

These show off a talent I'm not sure I'd even heard of in this sense, smocking, by tinctory. If you're curious, take a look at the set, it's incredible.

While Abigail Percy, an old MOO friend uses MOO Business Cards to show off her gorgeous hand-made jewellery.

In the meantime, the MOO office crafting skills are coming together slowly, but I think it'll take a few of us quite a while to get to these standards... what about you?

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MOO knows where it's at: Silicon Roundabout

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:40:02 +0100

I'm guessing if you drop by the blog now and again, you'll know just how glamorous life is at MOO. Well, I say glamorous, there are times when we're not even allowed a chair, let alone a roof over our heads...

Poor dev team... They're lucky it wasn't raining.

We are allowed pie though, it's true -

To be honest, its more toast 'n' Marmite than champagne and canapés. But what's the one thing that makes us more glamorous than most? Well, it's gotta be the fact we work practically *on* a roundabout.

MOO's friend Matt Jones, of Dopplr took this photo, so you can see just how beautiful it really is.

Of course we're not the only ones that work in such a spectacular location, we count Dopplr themselves as neighbours, along with Last F.M, Schultze and Webb and tinker.it.

In fact, so marvellous is our location, two articles have been written about it in the same day! This one, by the FT and this one, by the Evening Standard. It's no longer merely 'Old Street Roundabout', but 'Silicon Roundabout'! We've hit the big time!

Read all about it, as they say..

(Thanks to Matt Biddulph for the photo)

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Unleashing the MOO potential

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:55:30 +0100

Just when we thought summer was never going to arrive, MOO HQ is slowly melting in the London sunshine. While our brains are frying, here's some inspiration from people with just a bit more energy than we have right now. Some great shots of people using MOO's to their fullest potential...

Mini flyers! And yes, Mini in every sense of the word. Flickr user, dlopez8a has created these with Business Cards to promote a Mini Cooper social, in South Carolina.

oh_gosh has also used Business Cards, but this time for invitations to a private party. She used Wordle to create these - which seems to be more popular by the second! (If you've not tried it, you should give it a go).

These Text MiniCards were spotted in Canada, decorating favours for a baby shower. It's a complicated line of credit, but, praguelondon posted this photo on Flickr - and it was actually taken by her friend Melanie.

Willeke & Bertrand have been busy creating beautiful things, and then wrapping them - each package perfectly sealed with a little MOO Sticker

While another crafter, jek in the box took this beautiful shot of her work, all tagged with MiniCards and ready for sale.

And last but by no means least, look at these cool MiniCards, Postcards and badge sets! designbyclaire made them for an exhibition, and they look fantastic!

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Parties, pies... Quiet please!

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:46:00 +0100

Nobody shout. It's Friday, and really, who doesn't need a little peace and quiet on a Friday? ESPECIALLY AFTER OUR PARTY! Ouch. We had fun! And from the great photos we've seen, so did you. Thanks to everyone for coming along last night, it was fantastic to see so many of you. After a hectic last-minute change of venue, we were all a little worried. But you can't keep a good MOOster down, and everyone made it there – and made it great.

We had Stickers, as modelled by the ever handsome MOO interns, Jake and Angel. They're photographed here by Alicia, but please, all future model bookings should come via me...

We had balloons, as beautifully shot by _sarchi

Postman Pat came along too - Alex took this photo. Pat was delivering MOO orders, placed by party people earlier this week.

There were bowler hats, like this one, modelled by Meg Pickard, and shot by Richard.

Some of which were cunningly customised-on-the-go, like this one, shot by tommyajohansson

Each bowler hat had a sticker inside - if you found a black and white cat, you won a prize! If you found the stray ginger cat, then the boobie prize was yours... Well, we say boobie prize, but really, who wouldn't want a signed photo of Iain, our lovely project manager? On reflection, maybe the lovely lady who won it...

We had food - or so I hear. Look at these people! 'Twas gone in a flash! This photo is by Annie Mole

and this, of the aftermath by M.J.S.

It was pretty hot inside, so lots of people headed for the ouside space - and partied from light:

(photo by symphonic knot)

'Till dark

(photo by AnnieMole)

In a nutshell? A fun time was has by all...

(photo by _sarchi)

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And a tiny PS: look what happened today... the lunch company totally got our order wrong. We were supposed to have 29 pies for lunch, and we got...

Sixty! Sixty pies. Which makes a very happy MOO Crew:

(Thanks to blackbeltjones for the photo of Richard.)

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Thanks again for coming - and have a great weekend!

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New party venue!

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:09:01 +0100

They said it couldn't happen, they tried to cancel it, but the MOO Party Is STILL happening this Thursday night at a NEW VENUE!

Yes, just 2 days before our brilliantly planned party, The Ambassador (our previous venue) decided to cancel it. Luckily, you can't keep the MOO Crew down when it comes to a drink with friends, so the our new venue is The Vibe Bar, Brick Lane.

If you're not sure where that is, you're in for a treat. It's a great venue, easily reached from Aldgate East underground station or Liverpool Street tube and rail station. Follow the signs when you get to the venue, and we'll see you there! And Don't get side-tracked by a curry on the way, save it for afters, ok?

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Sheesh! What a palava. See, non-Londoners, this is the chaos that ensues when the sun finally does come out...

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Business Card Busy-ness

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:50:45 +0100

It's all go at MOO Towers at the moment. We're bug squishing (virtual, not literal), printing, packing and party-planning.

The party's shaping up rather nicely, so we're hoping it should be lots of fun. If you're in London next Thursday, come along for a drink - and if you're quick, a wee bite to eat. If last years was anything to go by, it should be full of lovely people - and if you don't know anyone when you get there, you should definitely make a few friends before you head off home.

In the meantime, it's really exciting for us to see the beautiful Business Cards you've been making. These are a few great photos we've spotted recently - and thought it would be nice to share:

Photographer David Porter used 10 of his own images to create these beautiful cards:

And these super-cute cards were made by Lori Tingey.

Nerea Marta used a company graphic for her cards:

While these cards by Stephen Collins combine both graphics and photography perfectly.

These beautiful photographs were printed on Business Cards by Hidde de Vries:

And finally this lovely collection, is by Arpad

But, in all this Business Card madness, we haven't lost our love for MiniCards...
(this perfect photo is by Erin Mason)

Even if first sight of these cards, by Andrew Scott did make us want to run for our dear lives.

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Parties and Pixels, Fun and Formats, You and MOO

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:30:54 +0100

It's already been over a week since the launch of MOO Business Cards. After taking a quick recovery lie-down, we've been busy fixing odd things and gawping at the amazing cards you've been making.

There are a few things we're still working on, so if you see anything odd, please bear with us. If it's *really* odd then please contact us and let us know the details. Sometimes things happen that we just can't replicate and it's your great feedback that helps to make things better.

There's now an online template for Business Cards, for those who've asked. Like the templates for other products it's the right size in pixels, millimetres and dpi, all you need to do is add your image, hide the guides and save as a maximum quality RGB JPEG. We don't have templates for the images to be used on the reverse as yet - we're just in the process of whipping this up into better shape, squashing the odd bug, and adding a bit of functionality. These fixes should go live next week - so if you've had any problems, please accept our apologies and bare with us just a little bit longer.

Some of you have also asked about a PDF upload for the text side of the cards. This too is coming as fast as we can get it out there. When we have it all in place, we'll let you know. (You know Text Business Cards are live now, right?)

As I mentioned, it's been great watching the cards you've made so far get printed and packed. Also fun watching them pop-up in the Flickr pool.

These are some examples we've spotted:

Illustrated Business Cards by Askey Illustration. (Also a MOO Designer)

Great photo cards, by Doc18

Variety is the spice of life, by Trevira

and it's all about the words, for Edd Dumbill, who used Wordle to make his cards.

But enough! Now it's on to the even more exciting stuff.

MOO's having a party on Thursday, July 24th in London, and you're invited!

Yes! We're doing it again. Last year we had the Hot and Sticky Summer Party and this year, we're less confident about the weather (hello, London rain), but we're partying anyway!

Its at the Ambassador, same lovely place as last time, and there'll be drink, good company, and a lot of MOO Fun. You can find all the details on Upcoming and on Facebook too.

And one more thing:

Special offer for party people - place an order to collect at the party and get FREE shipping!

Use the code HACCJE on the payment page, which will give you the discount and tag your order. We'll hand your stuff over on the night.

***Orders must be placed by Sunday 20th July***

Hope you can make it - we're looking forward to seeing you.

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The secret's out: MOO Business Cards are here!

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:14:10 +0100

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted this already, but for those who had to blink at some point yesterday - MOO's launched Business Cards! As so many of you have asked for the MOO MiniCard magic just that little bit bigger, we felt duty bound to indulge you. MOO Business Cards are a similar size to standard business cards, but with some very cool differences: Unlike lots of business cards, MOO gives you the option of a different image on every one. Using magic technology we've decided to call 'PrintFinity', you can have a different photo, logo or design on every card. So, when people ask you what you do, you can show them - everything! It's a little portfolio in your pocket, a product catalogue, a trading card, anything you like. You can buy your Business Cards in super-short runs We're an experienced bunch at MOO HQ. We've all worked in different companies before, and we still have the business cards to prove it. The traditional way is to buy business cards in batches of 250, 500, even 1000 or more, and no matter how hard you network, its impossible to get through so many before something changes - your phone number, your job title or even the company you work for. We realised if we still have stacks of old cards sitting about, you probably have too. So, we give you the option to buy in smaller batches of 50: - it's more economical (much less waste) - it gives you the chance to update your cards as you update your products or your details - it's greener - even if you're using virgin stock, at least you're not throwing it away! And talking of 'green' - there are now two paper stock options available We're slightly obsessed with paper at MOO, and take a great deal of care looking for the best paper, with the best feel, print quality and outstanding credentials. We've decided on two different stocks for our Business Cards: MOO 'Classic' - which is sustainably sourced and elemental chlorine free. Matt-laminated, it has a smooth and sturdy feel. It's the same stock you've seen and loved on MiniCards. MOO 'Green' - which is 100% recycled, 100% recyclable and biodegradeable. It's totally chlorine free, uncoated, crisp white, and prints nicer than any other recycled paper we've seen. (And we've seen a lot.) The cards come beautifully packaged Every pack of cards comes with a free Business Card holder. Designed by MOO, the box is made of recycled pulp board and fits in a briefcase or bag. We've even included two (recycled) dividers too, so as you empty the box of your own cards, you can fill it up with the ones you're given, without mixing them up. (Another problem we've had ourselves, that we thought it would be good to fix). So, there you have it. MOO Business Cards - as nice as MiniCards, but bigger, and a little bit different. We like them, and we hope you'll like them too. Oh! And if you want to see what other people have been doing, check out our ideas pages. See what other people have made, and how you could use the cards yourself.

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Fond farewells, happy bonjours.

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:38:04 +0100

Our first intern has flown the nest. We knew this day would come - it's kind of what interns do I suppose, but it doesn't make it any better. Rui, who we introduced all those months ago has got a brand new job back in Japan. On the one hand, we're really happy for her - the job sounds great - but we can't help feeling a wee bit sorry for ourselves.

But, we shall let her speak for herself:

"Hi Moosters,
It's very sad to announce that I have to leave MOO and cannot be one of the MOO staffs any more. I found a career opportunity at an international organisation, which deals with environmental problems in Japan. In spite of my position as a temporary staff, I stayed at MOO for a quite while, because MOO is very comfortable and I love all the MOOsters.

The MOO community is so cool, creative, kind, nice, supportive... well, I need 100 pages to describe how great you are. Thank you very much for all your supports, and wish you the best luck! Arigato!"

Rui, we will miss you! We've got someone waiting in the wings to continue your Japanese blog, but you know what? You're a tough act to follow! Please keep in touch.

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And now, after after the rain, some sunshine. Julien, our guitar-hero-playing French intern has been getting out and about on MOO's behalf.

Before we start, this photo might help you get a better feeling of Julien, and how he's getting on at MOO. He's the one with his hands in the air... (The one with the green glasses is Jakob - and you'll be hearing more about him soon).

And here's what Julien has to say:

"I wanted to share with you some of the things I've been doing as the (official!) French MOO ambassador. Well, I went back to France last week-end, and as I wanted to present MOO to a lot of people (I haven't left my MiniCard Holder the whole week-end... just in case), I've attended a very cool bloggers' event – and MOO were 'sponsors' too.

We were around 30 people, discussing geeky stuff and gossips about the blogosphere. We spoke a lot, had (a few) drinks, and it was very very interesting. A lot of French bloggers already know us, but the ones who didn't were really (positively) surprised. Have a look at some pictures! And you can learn more about it on the French MOO blog.

It was a real pleasure,

Julien."

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Photoshop wizards, sharing spells

nobody@vox.com(Moocards) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:09:09 +0100

We announced MOO's API the other week - which allows people with just a little tech knowledge to create cool apps that integrate with MOO's process. If you don't have the tech knowledge but still fancy making something cool, you could try using Photoshop instead.

Two talented MOOsters, Dawn Mikulich and Aral Balkan have posted their creative Photoshop templates online. Each produce very different, but very cool results.

First up, Dawn. A talented photographer based in Chicago, Dawn recently made this set of MiniCards:

With beautiful bright images, the cards are split into sections, perfectly showcasing several photos at once. Dawn has kindly put the template online - and it sounds like it's going down a treat! If you use it, do let us know in the comments, we'd love to see how your cards turnout.

Next up, Aral. You might remember him from last year. He made MiniCards featuring the code needed to get the 100 most recent photos from Flickr into Flash, using SWX. They're very cool - take a look

This time, he's been making mosaics. (MOOsaics? Gah!)
Here's a photo, taken by Relly so you can see what I mean:

Aral's online template is pre-set to the correct dimensions, and is 'sliced for your convenience'. All you need to do is import your photo, make sure it fits in the document correctly and 'Save for Web'.

jenschr has already tried it out - and got a great result:

Again, if you make cards like this, let us know!

And finally, many congratulations to MOO customer, Yves Snoeren. The Snoren's have recently had a new addition to the family, in the shape of a beautiful baby girl. There's been no time to waste since the birth however, as Yves has been racing about creating the birth announcements! With custom M&M's and a cute little teddy, all that was missing was something small and funky, with the details. Luckily, MiniCards did the trick:

and they didn't do it just the once - but many times!

Congratulations, from everyone at MOO :)

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Ps - our Flickr pool recently got it's 6000th member! Congrats to Katie Strang... Now, who'll be the 10,000th?

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