Recycling was never this rewarding

Imagined Earth is a revolutionary company, which has introduced reverse vending machines into South Africa. A reverse vending machine allows people to recycle cans and bottles; upon recycling these items they receive points linked to their profile. They are able to login to the Imagined Earth website and make use of these points.Due to the amount of people using mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, the website needed to work across these devices, providing users with a consistent experience.

How we made the technology work

Imagined Earth approached Elemental to turn this innovative concept into a full blown business.Elemental’s involvement started at concept phase, where specification documents were created. The next step was the design and development of the website and software used to interface with the reverse vending machine’s technology.Rewarding users for their recycling efforts.Through a user-friendly and visual web based interface, users are able to view their points balance and items they’ve recycled. Users can redeem their points to enter competitions and be eligible to win prizes for campaigns that are running at any given time.

BOOM! Another successful project

The reverse vending machines have been launched with great reception by the general public and users who’ve used them.Custom written software allows the vending machines to transmit recycling data to the website, ensuring that recycling activities are recorded in realtime.

Pretoria, South Africa – 09/09/2016 – Pixel8 is a comprehensive online digital solutions marketplace offering bespoke products or services for quick and affordable company branding, as it should be. Through hard work and dedication, Pixel8 has officially opened its platform to those who have an interest in developing and strengthening their brand, as well as those individuals who have branding services to offer. 

By offering in-demand online products such as graphics and design elements, promotional videos, digital marketing services, as well as SEO-friendly website content, just to name a few, Pixel8 extends its marketplace to offer quality products to a wide variety of individuals who not only want to improve their return investment, but individuals who have quality products to offer by selling them directly on the website. 

The full range of products offered include: 

• Office interior digital mock-up
• Sales/landing pages for your website
• Flyer/brochure designs
• SEO-friendly website copy
• Professional product labeling designs
• Professional business documentation templates
• WordPress blogs for a business website
• SEO-friendly articles
• Social media marketing services
• Website banner ads
• Unique email marketing services
• Infographics for your business website
• Website banner designs
• Creative branding mascots
• Unique email signatures
• Professional logo designs
• Unique business card designs
• Web design and development
• Learning management systems (LMS)
• Maintenance and updates on WordPress websites
• Website conversions into an Android App
• Promotional videos
• Animated logo reveals
• Professional animated videos
• Accurate data entry
• Custom QR codes for your business
• Fun online gifts such as e-card designs and custom t-shirt designs 

Celebrating the success of the website launch, Pixel8 is excited to see what the future holds for online branding and company collaborations – offering affordable, fast, and secure online products. “Any business that does not have a website or practicing good branding skills is missing out on one of the most powerful marketing tools available to them. Don't get left behind,” according to Pixel8’s website. Never underestimate the power of well-utilised branding to boost your company’s reputation. 

Pixel8 – Build your brand online. Offering a variety of digital content and products to choose from. Quick, easy, and affordable. www.pixel8.co.za 

Indie games are fast becoming a trend in South Africa, catching on from the overseas markets. These days, children and adults alike are playing mobile games as never before. People are always hungry for something different, which is where indie games – or ‘independent’ games – come in, providing players with something other than the mass-produced mainstream products.

Now, Somerset West can boast with its very own game studio that started turning its cogs in February this year. For its first month of existence, the studio was run out of the founder’s mother’s basement – typical indie game studio protocol, if history is anything to go by. Now, running from a house close to De Hoop Primary School, the studio focuses on creating mobile games (such as their recently released Afrikaans game, Fanie de Beer) and has oodles of style, creativity, skill and initiative.

While the Apmil Game Studio has only been up and running for a few months, the people who daily put their shoulders to its wheels have been building up relationships for the last three-and-a-half years. Even though the studio officially started up in February, the idea of an indie game studio had been brewing in the mind of Studio Head, Pierre Bezuidenhout, since 2011. Pierre started lecturing in the Animation Department of Cape Town’s City Varsity in 2011 – and this is where he met the three students who would later join him in this grand venture.

Pierre, as leader of the team, is Apmil’s Programmer and Technical Director. He has previously worked in advertising and animation for Wicked Pixels in Woodstock and held the position of lecturer at Concept Interactive as well as at City Varsity. His impressive skill set includes a sharp eye for detail as well as design flair and programming aptitude in different digital languages and platforms – he is also quite the people-person. Altus Barry is the Technical Lead, taking charge of rigs, renders and other related tasks. Mabet van Zijl did her major in 3D Narrative and, as Generalist, leads Apmil’s marketing and writing in between her usual workload. Louren Hattingh takes the roles of Lead Animator and Concept Artist. While each person has their area to lead, the workflow runs with a ‘rock-paper-scissors’-style in which one falls under the delegation of another while dealing with respective area-specific tasks. Sitting around a whiteboard, each armed with a marker, they discuss character design, story line, player motivation, level arrangement, time constraints and load division before jumping in with the actual development.

The first released game, Fanie de Beer, is a 100% physics-driven, full 3D, indie puzzle game with a distinct South African flavour. Playing as Fanie de Beer, a 12-year-old farm-boy, the player utilizes simple little rocks by tapping once on the screen to clear best friend Jaco Kriel’s fields of strategically placed, ancient landmines. Built in Unity, the game takes place in a single day – with the story starting early in the morning and ending in the evening – transporting the player through a dynamic day/night cycle and colourful, saturated farm fields as they progress through the 84 levels, meeting new mine types and increasingly difficult challenges as they go along. Written and designed in Afrikaans, then carefully translated into true farm-style English, this game is unique, fun and proudly South African. The demo is available for download from the Google Play Store, while the full game can be purchased on Samsung Apps and Amazon.

The next game in the pipeline is different from Fanie de Beer in virtually every way. Where Fanie is a very colourful 3D puzzle game with just enough back-story to set the player up for the context and flavour of the game, the current project is a heavily story-driven platform-game that takes place in a fictional world made up of parallaxing silhouettes and strange characters.

Apmil Game Studio has not only been created as a platform to build games, but also as a springboard for fellow animators, developers, designers and illustrators. It’s a breeding ground for collaboration, ideas, innovation and learning. Each person hones their skills while doing fun and challenging work through creating games and stories as well as fulfilling the creative needs of small to medium-sized businesses in the Western Cape and Gauteng.

Apmil Game Studio services include animation, app creation, game creation, rendering/stills, asset creation, video editing and UX. The creative division of Apmil, led by artist Janet Botes and writer Michelle Albinson, offers logo design, graphic design, online/web design, interactive design, writing, editing, proofreading and illustration.

Apmil prides itself on being different: Fresh ideas, innovative applications, strange and wonderful games – they are all things that receive the studio’s love and attention to detail. To find out more or to get involved, contact Pierre Bezuidenhout at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him on 082 499 3133

Studio ingredients:[A]ltus makes the bus and [P]ierre drives the bus; [M]abet takes the bus t[i]ckets and [L]ouren makes the bus move. Thus, [apmil].

Free demo: Google Play – bit.ly/fanie_demo 
Full version: Samsung Apps – bit.ly/fanie
Official Trailer: Youtube – bit.ly/fanie_trailer 
Apmil page: Apmil/Fanie – apmil.co.za/fanie-de-beer 

{pp}There is a definite link between website usability and customer satisfaction, especially for e-commerce websites.

When customer satisfaction converts to customer loyalty, one can assume there is going to be a long-term relationship between the business and customer, providing the level of service stays the same. So if this is true, have you ever considered to what extent usability influences customer loyalty?

{pp}When one thinks of communication platforms, telephone, e-mail and perhaps Internet messaging programmes such as Skype come to mind. With the influx and proactive take-over of social media together with a variety of social networks, one of these platforms has come to stand out as a new communication platform. Twitter.

{pp}Sales are at the top of everyone's priority list for 2009. Marketing is the key ingredient to generate increased sales. This is why it's imperative to ensure that your marketing channels are utilised successfully and that they do not leave you out of pocket.

Website layout and design isn’t rocket science…if you know how. It is intricate work though and requires the creativity and skills of a professional design studio. More importantly perhaps but often an oversight, is the assistance of a specialist online presence consultant to maintain the balance of both form and function - fundamental elements in effectively communicating the client’s message in an interactive and engaging manner.