Spinning the Web

The Finished Article

A new year means a new calendar, and what else would be adorning the Manifest Studio wall than the LDNnudetech 2010 calendar. It arrived, as promised, just before Christmas, and looks fantastic. Now, we’d only seen a couple of pages on press (see below), so had an idea about how good it was going to look, but, wow – we’re all very happy with the end result.

We’ve already done a couple of exhaustive posts on this project before, so we’ll keep this one brief (word-wise). Below are a few shots that sort of fill in the gaps between the Leap Anywhere ‘Making of Video’ and the calendar you’ve bought because you’re a nice person who saw this whole exercise the way it should have been seen. As an opportunity to raise a shed load of money for a great cause.

There are still a few left in stock at Firebox, so what are you waiting for? Buy one!

Calendar on press at Waddington & Ledger

Calendar on press at Waddington & Ledger

First proof arrives at Manifest...

...and goes on our Christmas Night out for a good 'Proof Read'.

Kudos from Milo

Miss March - Poppy Dinsey

Miss June - Hermione Way

Rogue's Gallery

I should start by saying how proud we are at Manifest to be part of the team creating the first ever #LDNnudetech calendar. For those not in the know, it’s a nude calendar featuring some of London’s leading tech pioneers and (in)famous Twitter icons. Organised by Milo Yiannopoulos, sales of the calendar will raise money in support of Take Heart India: a tremendous charity providing and supporting practical, sustainable education projects to communities that need them in India. At Manifest, we’re doing what we do best to support the project – which means we are NOT taking our clothes off, but we are designing the calendar.

Once I heard about the project I immediately checked out Take Heart India and saw this video which inspired me to get Manifest involved. A quick email exchange with Milo later, and we were designing the calendar free of charge.

Martin Farrar-Smith is the designer in chief and although we can’t show you the calendar yet, the above image is a teaser of the design style we hope will do justice to the fantastic photography. Rumours of Martin walking around the studio in his birthday suit in order to ‘live the brief’ remain unfounded, but the design looks pretty good if we do say so ourselves. We’re making a few final ‘nips and tucks’ to the content and layout, but it should be ready in time for the calendar’s launch party on Monday November 16th. If you’d like to attend and see it for yourself then make sure you register via the #LDNnudetech network and Milo will keep you up-to-date.

Now, a nude calendar was always going to raise a few eyebrows I guess – but the controversy surrounding #LDNnudetech has come as a surprise to me. Maybe I’m being naive, but I thought a project designed to raise money for a worthwhile charity – whatever it may be – was something to support, not criticise. But apparently some people disagree. The controversy has only served to raise the profile of the project, however, and will no doubt contribute to its success. I’m not going to get involved in the debate here, but for any critics out there: it’s a nude calendar. Get over it.

It’s testament to the character of everyone involved (Milo, the guys at Huddle, Hermione Way, Mike Butcher, Lucian Tarnowski, Alicia Navarro, Sam Mathews, Poppy Dinsey the list goes on…) that the calendar will be produced in time for Christmas as planned – which was always an ambitious target for a project of this scale. Now all we need to do is sell them… so please do your bit and buy one