ZERO HOUR & Co.

We love Image Brief.

Who chose ZHC.

To visit MONA.

1. Breathing In, Breathing Out (1977) Marina Abramovic
2. Kantharos Panticapaeum, Greek, c. 320-250 BCE
3. Mona Museum, Hobart

Apartment is now officially mobile-ready and especially friendly. Pocket it today, we hope it makes you pay — in exchange for goods, of course.

The highly considered brand and user experience enhancements for your friendly connoisseur unit have made it online in the shape of Apartment’s new online store. Venture there today and witness the slickness.

Good old-fashioned word of mouth sometimes lands us in unexpected places. On this occasion we found ourselves in Rajasthan, India. Here’s the first preview of Talabgaon Castle’s luxury brand identity.

We're looking to expand our core team and, pending what the right person brings to the table, we're open to the possibilities of one joining the fold as a freelancer, part-time or full-time. Intrigued? To know more venture here.

We recently straightened out a few things. After several months of consideration, the result is an abridged solution for the new ZHC identity. In a way, applying the use of the acronym "ZHC" epitomizes our attraction toward efficiency and simplicity.

The name

For us, ZHC is short for ZERO HOUR* & CO. While Zero Hour* is a term based on the notion of time and timeliness, it is not limited to this interpretation.

The acronym “ZHC” stands for a shortwave transmission that queries how are your receiving conditions? Befittingly our disciplines are centered on communication and clarity.

The logotype

After trialing various type and letterforms we realised the typeface we were already tasking with the finer details on company collateral was doing so well it was ready for a promotion. Gotham Rounded creators, Hoefler and Frere-Jones, describe the typeface as a technical letter that goes from "friendly to high-tech to cheeky with ease". If you’ve spent any time in our midst you’ll agree this is an uncannily accurate description of the ZHC HQ attitude — if we do say so ourselves.

* The term Zero Hour means to foresee a time when a vital decision or decisive change must be made, and at fixed time to act upon this decision with conviction. We take our timeliness and processes seriously but structure our approach around good times and great hits.

To us, making the best use of our own website means that aside from using it to show our wares, it also exists to experiment with new web technologies, extending both our toolbox and showcasing new possibilities.

Earlier in 2011 we implemented the latest of CSS3 and HTML5 trickery into the ZHC website, and as advanced as it was, the obvious drawback was accessibility.

Aside from cross-browser and operating system issues the more relevant concern in the age of roaming users is mobile compatibility. There are of course ways to counter these issues but is building three websites to do the job of one always necessary? For our own showcase website we think not, that said, the experiments are truly valuable.

In some cases using advanced trickery is ok, some concept websites sit nicely at the lead edge based on their core market and objectives. Since applying some fairly advanced techniques to the recently launched vtalk website we have returned our own website to simplicity and minimalism. This time round, from the outset, we shifted our focus to mobility.

This continual experimentation inevitably leads to progressive enhancements as each time some new innovations remain, working happily alongside the “tried and tested”.

Accessibility is a concern we often discuss, and of course it depends on a website's purpose, but it is not necessarily the fault of a user as to what technology or connection speed is available. Moreover, the internet should on the whole remain inclusive not exclusive.

We decided to introduce an award for our chosen client of the year. Actually, we didn’t. But if we were going to play our clients off against one another for a yearly trophy we can’t help but wonder how it would pan out. Awards aside we cannot say loud enough, how much we have enjoyed all the clients we work with.

The idea for this post really came from us wanting to make special mention of Kenneth Cutbush, for showing such respect for our profession in every way possible over the last year. Thank you sir.

Our vtalk care package arrived today. Enclosed was a sleek yet friendly little blue box, two blue t-shirts and two handsets. We are now kitted up and about to have the vtalk experience through VoiP town. All in preparation for our upcoming collaboration with the vtalk team in Sydney. See you on the other side.

So happy to see Jessica Hische's Daily Drop Cap has evolved to it's own space on the interwebs, now featuring special guest illustrations. Huge props for such a stella job.

Daily drop cap is a project by designer & illustrator Jessica Hische. since september of 2009, an illustrative initial cap has been posted daily (or at least regularly), to prettify the internet and beautify your blog posts. Individuals are welcome to use the drop caps on personal (non-commercial) sites within blog posts by following the instructions below each letter. The project will end after the twelfth alphabet is complete, but the site will remain up for your use and inspiration. Enjoy!