Popping-in?

Our studio is filled with light and music.
There are multiple meeting rooms, a well stocked kitchen, and an indoor garden (with fishpond). Talk to us about access needs, environmental factors and any accommodations we might make to enhance your visit. Pop-in for tea and stay to use a spare desk for as long as you need.

11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

Public transport

We’re next to Greenwich train and DLR station. We have a door right on the concourse but it’s different to our postal address.
what3words.com/hungry.means.author

From Greenwich rail platform

This video shows the route to take from the train that will arrive at Greenwich rail station from London Bridge. There's a gentle slope next to the staircase.

From Greenwich DLR station

This video shows the route to take from the DLR that will arrive at Greenwich DLR station from Bank. There's a lift at the platform level if that's useful.

By car

If you have to come by car, we have a couple of parking spaces. We have a charging point that you are welcome to use if you have an electric car. Call ahead and we'll make sure the spaces are free. Use our postcode (SE10 9QF) to guide you in.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. Use whichever medium works best for you.

11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

New project enquiry

It's exciting to chat about potential new projects. We don't have a ‘sales’ team or a form to fill in. Call us or give us a little detail via email and we'll get straight back to you.

enquiry@cogdesign.com

Website support

If you're a client then you'll be best served by calling us or contacting us via ClickUp, otherwise you can use this dedicated email that reaches all of the digital team.

digital@cogdesign.com

Finance questions

This email hits the inboxes of the people who deal with our bookkeeping and finances.

accounts@cogdesign.com

Just want a chat?

Sometimes enquiries don't fall neatly under a heading, do they?

hello@cogdesign.com

Cultural Calendar

A round-up of recommendations and reviews, sent on the first Friday of each month, topped-off with a commissioned image from a talented new illustrator. Sign-up and tell your friends.

Sign me up Cultural Calendar

Cog News

An irregular update of activity from our studio. Showing off about great new projects, announcements, job opportunities, that sort of thing. Sign-up and tell your friends.

Sign me up Cog News

Ten tech titbits – January 20

Ten tech titbits – January 20

Our regular round-up from the world of digital technology (or at least the bits that seem relevant to our clients).

1. Top Google searches of 2019

As usual, our most Googled queries of the year give us snapshot of humanity.

In the UK, amongst the sports are plenty of arts and cultural searches. Of course TV and film dominate the list.

The ‘how to…’ category is perhaps more surprising as it includes: ‘how to tame a fox in Minecraft’ and ‘how to pronounce psalm’ (it’s the name of Kim and Kanye’s fourth child).

But it’s the ‘what is…’ section that is most revealing about the obsessions of the year:

  1. What is Area 51?
  2. What is the backstop?
  3. What is D Day?
  4. What is Finn’s Law?
  5. What is a super over in cricket?
  6. What is Article 50?
  7. What is a dead ting?
  8. What is Article 13?
  9. What is a VSCO girl?
  10. What is quark?

2. On the fly translation

With the roll-out to mobile, it looks like Google’s real time translation tools are properly coming into their own.

Just say “Hey Google, be my Mandarin/Spanish/Ukrainian translator” and you’ll be able to converse with people across the globe. There are currently 44 languages available across any device with Google assist.

Airlines are starting to use the tech, coupled with Google nest hubs (shown above), in its lounges. Maybe every museum, theatre and arts centre should have one set up at their front desk.


3. Instagram Stories layout

Instagram continues to innovate to compete with Snapchat. Previously you had to use a third-party app to be able to include multiple images in the layout of Stories. But Instagram have now rolled out that feature as standard.

Perhaps that’s why #10yearchallenge was so popular over the new year. Or maybe it was being heavily promoted and used as a way to train facial recognition algorithms.


4. .org domains now controlled by private equity

Despite the mega corporations that operate within it, the Internet is still largely regulated by the well-meaning collectives that set the rules in the mid eighties.

How many of us knew that there was a body called the Internet Society? Apparently, this Virginia-based organisation used to manage the Public Interest Registry and they in turn managed various top-level domains, including .org.

Why’s that news? Well, they’ve just sold that set-up to a private equity firm for an undisclosed amount.

With .org being a popular choice for many arts organisations it might be worth locking-in your renewal price by signing up for several years in advance.


5. Bluetooth gets an upgrade

The companies behind Bluetooth have announced a major overhaul.

Bluetooth LE (it stands for Low Energy) will replace the current ‘Classic’ standard. LE offers new features including higher-quality audio, streaming audio to multiple devices, and improvements for hearing aids. And it’ll decrease energy use and prolong battery life.

But, of course, it won’t work on existing hardware so you’ll have to replace your headphones and speakers if you want the improved standard.


6. Create your own stories with Google maps

There have been a lot of changes going on behind the scenes with Google maps and Google Earth.

The most recent upgrade has seen them adding simple tools so you can build and share your own pages and stories, mapping our journeys or telling stories using their tools and our planet.

It’s a powerful package – let’s all play and see what we can make from it.


7. Twitter is withdrawing insights and behaviour targeting

Our first Twitter story is a mysterious one. Whilst setting up some targeted Tweets, we noticed this message:

Please note that after January 30th, 2020, you won’t be able to target behaviors. Active campaigns will stop serving to behavior audiences, but will continue running. Please reach out to your Twitter Sales representative if you have any questions“.

We also noticed this story about how Twitter is withdrawing its audience insights service.

As with lots of Twitter’s language, the terms are obtuse but audience insights and behaviour targeting is about using the data collected by Twitter’s ‘partners’ to predict your behaviour. It’s only been ‘available’ in the US and the UK and it’s quietly being discontinued as a service – curious.


8.  Twitter is deleting inactive accounts (eventually)

If like me you have Twitter accounts that you’ve not used for a while then you’ve probably had an email from them. They’ve been getting in touch with anyone who hasn’t logged in for six months, telling them to do so or they’ll delete the account.

It was all a bit sudden. Apparently they’ve paused the plan while they figure out how to memorialise accounts of people who have died.

But expect to lose a whole raft of followers, very soon.


9. Post ‘live photos’ on Twitter

Twitter will now let you post iOS Live Photos as GIFs. There’s not much more to this story than that.

From the Twitter iOS app, draft a tweet, select a photo from your camera roll, then tap the “GIF” in the lower left corner of the photo in your tweet compose window. Then, when you post the tweet, that photo will be a GIF.


10. Deepfakes are coming to social media

Social media companies are quietly buying up companies who have been developing facial recognition and deepfake tech. Both Snapchat and Tik-tok have already announced acquisitions with more expected soon.

It looks like we’ll soon be seeing this kind of facial replacement everywhere we look, whether we know it or not.


Interested in receiving these updates by email?

Pulling together these tech-titbits is a new idea for us. We’re piloting it on our site but wonder if it’s something people would be interested in receiving by email. Let us know whether that would be useful.