Internal Project Sneak Peak

Posted by:: Chris Bews
Posted:: Oct 2011

Yep we’ve gone a bit OCD when it comes to the state of the atmosphere and its data. Hopefully finish this soon so it can be used!

New Employee, Taco.

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Jun 2011

Meet Taco. Taco is an 11 week old silver-dappled Minature Dachshund and the latest member of Nation. He’s already learnt the lay of the land in the studio, the weak links when it comes to food, the right people to go to for attention and spot under a developer’s desk he’s self-designated as his private bathroom (sorry Chris!)

Taco will be in the studio most days, distracting us and generally not doing what he’s told.

Child of Eden at BAFTA

Posted by:: Chris Bews
Posted:: Mar 2011

On Friday a handful of Nationites headed down to BAFTA in Piccadilly to see a legend speak about his latest venture. Tetsuya Mizuguchi is well known to nerdy types such as ourselves as the creative mind behind computer games such as Sega Rally, Space Channel 5, Lumines and the now infamous cult-classic Rez. Mizuguchi was in town to give a talk about his forthcoming game ‘Child of Eden’, a music-based game controlled through the Xbox Kinect. The game looks utterly mind-blowing, and listening to the creator talk about his new project was a fascinating experience.

Life Goal Achieved

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Feb 2011

Because of the success of our Like/Dislike Stamps were interviewed for ‘Marking Industry’ magazine or MIM as it’s sometimes known, a trade mag for the stamp and mark-making industry.

Don’t pretend you’re not all jealous.

Like/Dislike Hits Stores

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Jan 2011

We got an exciting bit of news today, the new ‘mass-production’ versions of our Like/Dislike stamps have hit shelves all over the place. While it was fun running a small cottage industry, packing the stamps up in our studio and sending them out all over the world, ultimately it was unsustainable as a business and starting to get in the way of our day-to-day work. To avoid having the stress and ultimately time-consuming task of mass producing the stamps ourselves we partnered with a company in New York called The Jailbreak Collective.

Thanks to Jailbreak the products that started as an in-studio joke are now in the hands of nerds everywhere, on the shelves of Urban Outfitters and available online from the esteemed Thinkgeek.com.

Christmas at Nation

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Dec 2010

In between trudging through the snow, trying desperately to heat the studio with 3 cruddy electric radiators from Argos and creating our Christmas card we managed to get some time out of the office. We sampled the delights of north-african/European fusion at Moro and were generally rubbish all round at table football at ‘Cafe Kick’.

See more in our flickr stream here

The Zuck.

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Jul 2010

A really nice side-effect of our Like stamp getting pushed around the web so quickly was that we got thousands of emails in the space of a couple of days asking us when we were starting production, and telling us how much people liked the idea. In the midst of it all (a mere 10 hours after the photos hit Gizmodo) we got an email that stood out from the rest:

“Hey there. I’ve been asked to reach out to you to obtain one of your “like” stamps. Can you please tell me how long production will take, the cost, and shipping fees?

Thanks much!

XXXXX XXXXX| assistant to Mark Zuckerberg | Facebook”

We were shocked not just because Mark Zuckerberg knew about a product we’d created (that had been nothing more than an off-hand comment just days earlier) but that he’d found out about it so quickly. That’s the power of social media right there.

Needless to say we sent one out to California ahead of the full production run. We like to think it sits on Marks desk and he stamps the faces of everyone that enters his office.

Hahah! BUSINESS!

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Nov 2009

Our new business cards arrived in the studio courtesy of the wonderful Generation Press

Pumpkin Carving in the studio.

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Oct 2009

A little bit more fun than just a cup of tea and a biscuit in the middle of the day.

Check out more photos on our flickr stream if you’re so inclined.

Trip to Alton Towers

Posted by:: Tom Hartshorn
Posted:: Oct 2009

When we can manage to schedule some time in between projects we take the studio for a day out. What with it being close to Halloween we felt it was probably a good as time as any to check out Alton Towers and especially the ‘Field of 1000 Screams’ (a zombie ‘experience’ in a corn maze).

Check out more photos from the day on our flickr stream