Digital Starchart

Neil Middlemass approached me with an "impossible task" - to put all of the digital agencies in London on one chart.
He thought it would be really interesting to have a look at the big players in the digital agency world.

Out of Space

Making this really pushed the limits of Illustrator. There are so many planets on here, and many elements to keep track of. Illustrator can only work with 3 decimal places of accuracy. Normally this isn’t a huge problem, but it means that smaller elements have to be treated carefully when resizing. Because there are so many planets I had to generate them in two batches, so that they wouldn’t fall off the edge of the working space.

Once I had all of the planets on there, I had to style all of the planets one by one. With this, and arranging them, it did take a while to do. It was working on projects like this that motivated me to learn coding! There were a lot of things that could be automated about this project, but equally there are a lot of things that could not be. Arranging the planets into something pretty is not something I know how to do in code, and is probably best done by a human anyway. A computer is good at many repetitive tasks but there is no substitute for human taste and judgement.

I learned a lot on this project, about how to tackle a large repetitive task, and about how to break things down into manageable chunks. Although looking back it seemed like a lot of work, it was never really something that I disliked doing, because I knew that I was making something really cool for a good guy.

Neil was delighted with the result and used as a promotional item, including printing it onto black plastic. It generated loads of traffic for him and I and still is a piece of work that I’m really proud of.

Featuring:1000 Heads, 20:20 Media&Analytics, 24/7 Media, 4Ps Marketing, 7thingsmedia, a•mo•bee, Acceleration, Accuen, Added Value, Addison, Adgistics, Adjug, Adobe , Adobe AdLens, Agenda21, AKQA, All Global, All Response Media, Alliance, Amnet, AMS Media Group, Annalect, ARC Worldwide, Archibald Ingall Stretton, Arena Media, Arena Quantum, Atelier LB, Axicom, Ayima Search Marketing, B to D Group, Banner Corporation, Barracuda Digital, Barrows, BBDO, BBH, Big Ideas Group, Bisqit, Blanc Otus, Blast Radius, Blowfish Digital, Blue Barracuda, Blue Hive, Blue State Digital, BPRI Group, Brandamp, Brierley & Partners, Buchanan Communications, Burson - Marsteller, Cadreon, Cake, Caliber Interactive, Callcredit Group, Carat, CHI & Partners, Chime Communications, Clarion Communications, Cohn & Wolfe, Coley Porter Bell, Communicator, Compete, Conran Design Group, Creative Lynx, Croud, DBD Media, DDB, Deliver, Dialogue London, Digilant, Digit, Digitab, Digitalis, Digitas, Digitas Health, Digivate, Direct Traffic Media, Distilled, DotAgency, DotDigital, DraftFCB, Dynamic Logic, Epiphany Solutions, Equi Media, eSearchVision, Essence Digital, Fabric, Fallon, Fetch Media, Fingo, Firefly, Fitch, Fleishman-Hillard, Forward Group, Forward Internet Group, Forward3D, Found, Foviance, Fresh Egg, Frukt Communications, Further Search Marketing, FutureBrand, G Whiz, G2 Group, GCI Group, ghg, Global3Digital, Glue Isobar, GolinHarris, Golley Slater Group, Google, Gravytrain, Greenlight, Grey Group, Grey London, Grey Worldwide, GroupM, Harvest Digital, Havas, Havas Creative, Havas EHS, Havas Life, Havas Media, Havas People, Havas Sports & Entertainment, Havas Worldwide, Hearst Digital, Hi Rezz, Hi-ReS!, Hill & Knowlton , Hill & Knowlton Strategies, Hogarth Worldwide, Huge, ICC Lowe, iCrossing, Ignite, Ignition One, Infectious Media, Initiative Media, Invite Media, IPG, iProspect, Isobar, Isobar Mobile, Jack Media, Jack Morton, Jam, Jellyfish, Joule, JWT, JWT Group, Kantar Group, Kantar Intelligence, Kantar Media, Kantar Operations, Kantar Retail, Kantar Worldpanel UK, Kenshoo, Ketchum, Kinetic, Kinetic Group, Kitcatt Nohr Digitas, Lakestar McCann, Lambie Nairn, Landor, Latitude, LBI, LBi Bigmouth Media, Leo Burnett, Leo Burnett Group, LIDA, Lightspeed Research, Locker Room Media, Lowe and Partners, m/SIX, M&C Saatchi, M&C Saatchi Group, M&C Saatchi Mobile, M2M, M4C, Maitland, Manning Gottlieb OMD, Marin Software, Masius, Maxus, McCann, McCann Worldgroup, Media Contacts, Media InnovationsGroup , Media Mind, Media Planning Group (MPG), Mediacom, Mediaedge : CIA (MEC), MediaMath, Mediarun Search, MediaVest, Medicus International, Meta, MHP Communications, Millward Brown Group, Millward Brown UK, Mindshare, Mobile Interactive Group, Momentum Worldwide, MRM Worldwide, MSL London, Mundocom UK, Neo@Ogilvy, Net Media Planet , NetBooster Group, NetBooster UK, Ninah Consulting, Octagon, Ogilvy & Mather, Ogilvy Action, Ogilvy Group, Ogilvy Healthworld, Ogilvy One, Ogilvy Public Relations, Ohal, OMD International, OMD UK, Omnicom, Omnicom Media Group, Optimedia, Orchestra, Penn Schoen Berland, Performics, Periscopix, PhD Media, PhD Rocket, Porter Novelli, Positive Digital, Possible, Posterscope, Posterscope, Prism, Profero, Propellernet, Publicis Life Brands Resolute, Quisma, R/GA, Rainey Kelly Campbell Rolfe / Y&R, RAPP, Razorfish, Real Media Group, Reprise Media, RightMedia, RLM Finsbury, Rocketer, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sapient Nitro, Singtel, SiteVisibility, Smart Traffic, Soho Square, Somo, Spafax, Sponge, SSF Group, Starcom, Starcom Media Group, Steak, Stickyeyes, Strange, Stream20, StrikeAd, Summit Media, Synergy , Syzygy, Talk PR, Tamar, TBG Digital, TBWA, Team Spirit, tenthavenue, The Brand Union, The Engine Group, The Futures Company, The Partners, The Social Partners, TNS, Total Media, True Worldwide, Tug, Tug Search, Turn, Unique Digital, Universal McCann, VCCP, VCCP Media, Visible, Vivaki Nerve Centre AOD, Vivid Lime, Vizeum, VML, Walker Media, WCRS, We Love Mobile, Web Liquid, Web Optimiser, Weber Shandwick, Wunderman, Xaxis, Young & Rubicam, Zenith, & Zone.

Phew!