Deep Blue Sky sponsors Spot the lion

Digital agency, Deep Blue Sky, is sponsoring a lion called ‘Spot’ in the Lions of Bath public art project which launches this month. Spot will have some intriguing characteristics….

The Lions of Bath art project involves 100 life-sized models of lions positioned throughout the city for six months over the summer. The lion sculptures, sponsored by businesses, local communities and individuals, will be individually decorated by a variety of artists, designers and craftspeople, and then auctioned in the Autumn to raise money for local charities.

Deep Blue Sky christened their lion Spot because he will look like a Dalmatian, with two-dimensional barcodes (QR codes) embedded into some of his spots. Lion-hunters with smart mobile phones will be able to scan Spot’s QR codes to give them an instant Google map of the city, with the exact location of all the other lions pinpointed on it. (People with iphones will need to download an App for reading QRs). Their mobile’s GPS signal can then lead them from lion to lion.  Instructions for reading the QRs will be provided.

Deep Blue Sky hope that given these inherent qualities, Spot will quickly be recognised as Head of the Pride, and that his location in the wild (the top of Union Street) will be the first port of call for tourists and locals on the hunt.

You can follow Spot on Twitter now @spotthelion or from his very own website www.spotthelion.com (going live next month).  Not surprisingly he has a personal interest in Web Innovation (he’s on the judging panel for www.awardingideas.com) which has already made him friends across the globe.  Last month Spot was sent a T-Shirt from xero.com, an accounts platform based in New Zealand, to cover his modesty while his spots were being prepared. (Twitter:  @teamXero)

Deep Blue Sky’s MD, Jim Morrison comments: “Every Friday here at Deep Blue Sky we are free to develop whatever innovative ideas we wouldn’t otherwise have time for during the week.  Spot is just one example of that freedom.  With Google, Apple and Nokia getting firmly behind QR code technology we thought it was about time someone took it out into the public space to let people discover how empowering their mobile phones can be. I’m sure that in an few years time everyone will be using these codes throughout their daily lives and just hope that Spot will be remembered as a pioneer”.