Hamburg Design Review

If you cast your mind back to our last visit, you'll recall we also said "it's been a while" and now, well, now it really has been a while hasn't it? But we're back, although we never actually went away. We just kind of huddled in a tree, guarding our sketches like the last few nuts of a harsh podcast winter, valuable fats when the shelves are empty. Anyway, now we&ap...

Once again, it's been a while. But gone are the days when one guy would stay home looking after the podcast while the other could go to work and support all three on a factory wage. Whatever. In this edition we ask: is there anything the IT team can't do? Can a cat have an accent? How does facial recognition actually work? And finally, what happens when an intrepid reporter gets bored on...

Welcome to Shadplex, London's newest community-based 'community' living project. Come and bask in the reflected glow of fresh windows and chrome-detailed room-for-one balconies in this break clause-free and frozen interest rate-rich paradise. This is a place where agents of the estate can be themselves, clad in slimfit, viewing properties with abandon, ordering non-romano-style pizz...

Cast your tired mind back to those precious days, those most hallowed of days on which you convinced mum you were too ill for school. Sick, headache, dizzy - all masterfully faked, and why? So you could sit in an unnecessary blanket and watch daytime TV and soak in the waves of the radio. Culture, all of it. Look, let's keep this short, it's been a while since you heard from us at the HD...

Wow! For me? It's heavy....what could it be? Years of betrayal? The instant erosion of familial trust? Goofy sushi socks? Oh my god! It's the Hamburg Design Review Christmas Special!  That's right. After months of silence we're back with hot Xmas fire. Join our family in that tender space we all know so well, that little moment between the scoffing of a Christmas lunch and the...

As far as Otto Meirtendel was concerned, his trip to Zurich, Switzerland, was about tagging along with chess's primary law enforcement body - routine stuff. HDR's special reporter would then half-arsedly pen a simple piece, file it, and collect his really quite generous rate of €0.57 per word (pre-tax). Little did he know the extent to which the road ahead of him would twist, turn and fr...

A busy train rattles its way through London's subterranean dirt. On board, one man asks for any spare change and another tells a bold lie. 'Sorry, mate...I don't have any cash on me' (SMIDHACOM) is a story of lives intertwined and the uncomfortable  foibles of very minor personal finance. Episode 1: The Bag introduces us to Angus, a young man full of Snickers Duo with a bag ful...

Are park benches comfortable? No . Does it depend on who they're in memory of? No . What's the difference between suture calipers and an electronically assisted tailgate? Don't care . Where do adverts come from? Don't know. Great, well, if you're at all curious (I'm not) then you can find more detailed answers in this, the second episode of the HDR's acclaimed Sk...

What do I look like to you? Like a guy who knows how to write an engaging episode description? Like someone who thinks people really read this far into it? Well, if you have read this far in, then you can expect lasers, thermal vision, and an early lunch. I don't know, whatever. Join us in the near future, in New York City, as an honest man's honest day goes awry in the most unexpected w...

Is AI an instinctively political animal?  Why would a man grill doggies in the pouring rain? Are you turned on by sci-fi gear? Like, sexually....  Hopefully you can find the answers to some of these in this, the Hamburg Design Review's first ever Sketch Pod. That's sketches, short stories, our first sponsor (!), and other bits, all knitted together rather artfully by the musical wool of...

Tired of House Party, Zoom and - so there's three - Microsoft Teams? Yes? Then you need Eggroulette in your life. What's Eggroulette?  Why, it's the multi-platform, macro-micro, inter-space video-chatting service made for eggs by eggs. Need to know more? Then listen in on The Hamburg Design Review's review. Review. Re-view. Rev-you.  It's shorter, sharper, and a bit rough...

Ship chases. Smuggled goods. Three dimensional characters in a two dimensional setting.  This is the world of Dog Galf, where import tariffs and a charmingly nuanced bureaucracy dictate events, and you've been invited in to share an educationally rollicking adventure.  That's a lucky you!  DG X  Hamburg Design Review Inaugural Special no.2. 

Cresting the scientifically inaccurate lunar horizon, we find Rakkie, at her wit's end and more than a little in love. Employment domes, semi-bubbular cocktails and Earth men - Moon Love is the Hamburg Design Review's steamy audio premiere.