End of Unit
26/1/12
I've just finished reading Creative Review - The Music Issue [21], I stopped buying CR a while ago because I felt I wasn't getting much from it and found Computer Arts to be more interesting and useful for students because it contains a lot of advice and industry profiles. Music is something that's close to my heart so I decided to buy January's CR because the whenever the CR blog features CD artwork I always enjoy looking at it.
My first comment about CR is that it's absolutely jam packed with ads which I find really irritating, there is an ad for stock photos almost every other page. Now that the negative is out of the way, I really enjoyed reading this months CR. Music is on of the areas of design which seems really pure, original and where anything is acceptable and explored. Music is expressive and it seems that those that distribute it recognise that the people who buy the physical releases will value inventive artwork. My personal favourites from CR are the covers done for French label Sound Pellegrino and the covers done for Canadian label Infinite Machine. The covers for Sound Pellegrino follow the theme of an abstract image supported by a modern take on neo-gothic frames which contain the album artist and title etc. The covers for Infinite Machine are quite different and use vector illustrations to portray the albums feelings. The illustrations are really abstract and seem quite collectible as they are all done by one person - Teodoro Zamudio.
One of the added features to this months CR is a music playlist on Soundcloud [22] which features music from the labels which are featured. I think that this is a great idea as it gives an audible reference for each the artwork that is featured. I also found a couple of new music producers and bands that I like, before listening to the soundtrack I would have never listened to 123MRK but since I've found his mixes on sound be a really good listen.
25/1/12
In early September I started a seperate sketchbook to use for the things I do outside of my studio projects. I use it mostly for sketching out ideas that I have in the moment rather than brainstorming and coming to a conclusion. This sketchbook is often were a lot of my self initiated projects start so I've scanned in a couple of pages.
23/1/12
26/1/12
I've just finished reading Creative Review - The Music Issue [21], I stopped buying CR a while ago because I felt I wasn't getting much from it and found Computer Arts to be more interesting and useful for students because it contains a lot of advice and industry profiles. Music is something that's close to my heart so I decided to buy January's CR because the whenever the CR blog features CD artwork I always enjoy looking at it.
My first comment about CR is that it's absolutely jam packed with ads which I find really irritating, there is an ad for stock photos almost every other page. Now that the negative is out of the way, I really enjoyed reading this months CR. Music is on of the areas of design which seems really pure, original and where anything is acceptable and explored. Music is expressive and it seems that those that distribute it recognise that the people who buy the physical releases will value inventive artwork. My personal favourites from CR are the covers done for French label Sound Pellegrino and the covers done for Canadian label Infinite Machine. The covers for Sound Pellegrino follow the theme of an abstract image supported by a modern take on neo-gothic frames which contain the album artist and title etc. The covers for Infinite Machine are quite different and use vector illustrations to portray the albums feelings. The illustrations are really abstract and seem quite collectible as they are all done by one person - Teodoro Zamudio.
One of the added features to this months CR is a music playlist on Soundcloud [22] which features music from the labels which are featured. I think that this is a great idea as it gives an audible reference for each the artwork that is featured. I also found a couple of new music producers and bands that I like, before listening to the soundtrack I would have never listened to 123MRK but since I've found his mixes on sound be a really good listen.
25/1/12
In early September I started a seperate sketchbook to use for the things I do outside of my studio projects. I use it mostly for sketching out ideas that I have in the moment rather than brainstorming and coming to a conclusion. This sketchbook is often were a lot of my self initiated projects start so I've scanned in a couple of pages.
23/1/12
The idea was that we mocked up these ads in Photoshop and that if SMART decided to take them on we would recommend that they have the photographs retaken by a professional photographer. Ever since the project I've always used the compositional versions that we did in Illustrator in my portfolio. So over the weekend I decided to add a bit of colour to one of them to see if I could bring them to a more presentable level.
I will continue to add colour to the rest of the campaign and then when I'm done all compare between all three. In my opinion this is an improvement on the other executions so I would be more comfortable showing them in my portfolio.
20/1/12
Last night I sat and read "Whatever you think, think the opposite" [18]. It's one of a series of books written by Paul Arden - former Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi - intended to open your mind to different ways of thinking. My girlfriend read a different book in the same series called "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be" and really enjoyed it so I was expecting good things.
It's a reasonably short book, it only took me about 40 minutes to read and I'm not a particularly fast reader. Overall I wasn't that impressed by it, the main message of the book is to put yourself out there and take risks. But as I was reading it I just found myself thinking "Hindsight is a wonderful thing", it's a book full of examples rather than advice.
At some point I'll get around to reading "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be" as it seems to be more popular than this book. For now I'll reserve judgement on "Whatever you think, think the opposite" and read it again in a couple of months to see if it makes a bit more sense to me. Afterall, some of my favourite music I was unsure about on the first listen so I will do the same with this.
12/1/12
In my spare time, I've begun working on business cards that can be handed out at the end of year show. As I already have a logo, I just have to implement it suitably across my stationary.
The logo running onto both sides of the card looks edgy and the dash is taken from the bottom of the 'A' to continue this theme. At the moment I'm happy with the way they look and will be looking at getting them printed soon.
4/1/12
As Christmas presents I got given Hat Trick's new book 'In Brief' [16] and another book called 'Memories' [17] which is being sold in aid of the charity Maggies.
I've really enjoyed looking through Hat Trick's new book and have found it really interesting and relevant to my current projects. Hat Trick deal with a lot of identity work and for that reason are one of the companies I would love to one day work for them. The book contains barely any text, just enough for each project to make sense. The work is all excellently photographed as you would expect, and explained in about 2 words. I think that's what makes some of the work so good, that the idea can be explained so briefly. I'm really happy I've got this book and will continue to use it as a reference for different projects.
'Memories' in aid of Maggies is a book based around 12 stories to do with cancer. For each story is 12 images, anything ranging from illustration to photography is in there, which are responses to the stories. In total there are 144 images from little known illustrators to the likes of Si Scott, Deanne Cheuk and Studio Output. There's something in there for everybody's taste. One of the interesting things for me is the way each person will interpret the same story and then, as a group, use almost completely different ways of expressing similar emotions. Below are a couple of my favourites from the book. I think being taught as a graphic design student has lead me to find the simplest and strongest to most interesting so that's reflected in my favourites.
23/12/11
I got an email today saying that unfortunately I didn't get the placement. It's a shame that I didn't get it because the experience would have been valuable and some cash in my pocket would have been nice aswell. However the silver lining is that I dont have to drive to Knutsford twice a week and that I'm available to start looking for placements again once my current projects are over and they're in my portfolio.
20/12/11
Today was my interview day at Bella. I've felt ill all day so I was petty glad to get it over and done with. I was interviewed by Richard and Peter, Richard is the senior designer and Peter seemed to be the creative director (He didn't say but he seemed senior to Richard's position). They both seemed like friendly and approachable people which is always encouraging. I felt the interview went quite well, both of them seemed impressed at the amount of times I've dealt with clients and gave positive responses to my work, in particular the logo alphabet which sparked a bit of a guessing game with the logos.
19/12/11
In preparation for doing advertising campaigns for both projects, I've been having a look at The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry. One of the most interesting things I've read in it is this:
"Students will often create an ad that is unquestionably simple - but that's all it is. Simple is not enough. Writing a headline like 'Starts every time' (next to a visual of a car in freezing weather) communicates the benefit in a straightforward way, but it's boring! I call this 'bad-simple'. As David Ogilvy once said, 'You cannot bore people into buying your product'. Ads must having something else that makes them clever, unexpected, and relevant to the product and it's target audience. Writing a line like 'Have you ever wondered how the man who drives to the snow plough drives to the snow plough?' is simple yet profound (unlike the first line). So always aim for 'good-simple' rather than 'bad-simple'." [15]
This thought has really inspired me to think more creatively when it comes to advertising. I will definitely be keeping this in mind as it will set my advertising apart and makes it more obvious that the copy of the ad has been carefully considered rather than just put there without proper thought.
17/12/11
A couple of emails later and I've finally recieved my books from Unit Editions. The one I'm most interested in is the catalogue from Wim Crouwel's 'A Graphic Odyssey' exhibition [13] which I attended in May '11. What most interests me is his poster design. He did do a couple of bits of identity work but in my opinion there are some really good logos and some quite boring ones. His posters on the other hand I find extremely interesting. Each one conveying Crouwel's signature style in a different way makes them very addictive to look at. I wish that this book was longer because at the exhibition, the sheer volume of work there was quite overwhelming and I could have spent my whole day in that exhibition hall, however this book is only 144 pages long. A lot of the posters were for the Stedelijk Museum which must have been an absolute dream. A client such as that must have been very open to ideas and suggestions making them easy to work with. It shows because some of my favourite work of Crouwel's is for the Stedelijk Museum. I'm also a fan of Crouwel's 'New Alphabet', it follows quite sound logic and the rules it follows are clear.
My other order off Unit Editions was U:D/R 03 [14], A research paper about geometric typefaces. It's quite an interesting read that looks at the design of the Three Six typeface by Hamish Muir and Paul McNeil. The typeface is built around a grid system with the aim to be used as an effective display typeface and also an easily readable body text typeface. It succeeds in both areas because of the way it is constructed. It establishes set points that do not change and moulds the typeface around them. It's a very logical way to construct a typeface which overcomes the boundaries of geometric typeface design.
16/12/11
Today has been a pretty exciting day. Firstly, I've been given an interview at Bella Design for a placement opportunity which would coincide with my studies and secondly, a poster I did for a film called Archie's Final Project has been selected to go on the Creative Allies store.
Last week I applied for a placement at Bella Design, a design and marketing company based in Knutsford. I sent them a PDF of my portfoilo with my CV attached and today the emailed me back asking me to go fro an interview on the 20th. It's a really good opportunity to gain industry experience before going on to a BA course.
I also got an email today from Creative Allies telling me that a piece of my work has been selected to go on the store [12]. The piece was a poster for a film called Archie's Final Project, a film about a kid who decides that for his final media project that he's going to kill himself on camera. I made the poster a couple of months ago so I'm not too sure why it's taken so long for this to be done, however it's a good interview talking point when going through my portfolio. I also get a 10% royalty for each one sold, so all I need is a couple of people to buy them.
14/12/11
Whilst studying at TMC, branding has become something I'm quite interested in. At the moment I'm currently working on two branding briefs so I'm also finding it quite relevant. Today I've been looking at Moving Brands' website [11] and finding it very interesting. I came across them because they recently rebranded HP (completely screwing up my Logo Alphabet) and I've been spending a little bit of time on their website which goes quite indepth with the amount of work that they do within a project.
The HP rebrand in particular is extremely stylish and sleek. It takes an element from the original logo and then uses it to create an edgy and innovative feeling logo. This is then continued through all matter of materials from motion graphics to printer ink levels. the rebrand definitely shows HP's intent to push its way back to the fore front of technological development and the way Moving Brands document it makes it extremely helpful for people like me.
13/12/11
Both me and Lisa knew that at some point we might need some photography for the Tree Hugger brief so today we went to Platt fields Park and took some pictures. I've already drawn out some scamps for a launch campaign so knew roughly the sort of photos I needed. I was taking pictures of the branches, bark and also the sky and sun. It was an unusually sunny day today so I wanted to take the opportunity to get some photos for a possible warm scene.
One of the biggest challenges was trying to photograph sunny scenes which was quite tricky. However, it did lead me to learn more about the ISO and contrast settings and how hey can affect the lighting of an image without using a flash.
8/12/11
The open evening for Stockport College was tonight and me
and Lisa braved the weather to go and have a look. We spent the first half an
hour stuck in a lecture which was actually for the extended diploma rather than
the BA, but after about 20 minutes trying to find someone to talk to we
eventually found the course leader Lucy Brown. We were then able to find out
about the way the final year of the course is run and and also about Lucy
herself and her experience.
The course mixes live briefs and competition briefs and
to be honest sounds very much like a BA version of the course I’m currently on
at TMC. It keeps the advertising element as well which is something that
interests me. One of the courses main selling points is that it has screen
printing facilities but to be honest it doesn’t grab me that much, it’s good
that it’s there but I’d only use it for posters etc. The tutors seems quite
friendly and also committed to her students, if they need help then she’s more
than happy to help. She’s taught at a couple of different universities
including MMU and LJMU, she’s also previously had her own studio but decided to
take a job Stockport College.
I’m interested in going to Stockport College but it’s
very much a back up choice. I feel I could probably learn more and also have
better opportunities at a bigger and more established university.
7/12/11
Today was the open day at MMU and was my chance to get an
insight into how the course is run and also get an answer as to whether they
will be taking students on advanced entry into the second or third year.
I’m interested in going to MMU from the perspective that
it is a well established and successful art school. It has many industry
contacts and has world class designers as guest speakers and lecturers.
However, from what I’ve learned today I’m somewhat put off by them. The course is just graphic design
and at the moment I’m developing a taste for advertising so It’s something I’d
like to carry on.
During the presentation I learn of how the course is run
and also how entry is assessed. From that I would be slightly hesitant about
entering a third year there as I feel that re-doing my second year could help
broaden my perspective as a designer and help me improve. It would then stand
me in good stead for the third year which is basically just a run up to the end
of year show and preparation for industry.
At the end of the presentation I asked whether advanced
entry was possible and the lecturer said yes. It’s been a battle getting
answers from MMU with admissions saying one thing and the lecturer’s saying
another so to actually hear that you’ll be considered is definitely welcomed.
5/12/11
The last piece that really stood out for me was this poster for band, The Decemberists. It's a really beautiful gig poster which clearly took a lot of time and effort. The typography was hand drawn onto glass and then photographed whist the flowers were photographed and composed over two days. The between the typography and flowers makes it a really beautifully composed piece.
This month's edition of Computer Arts [10] focuses on designing mobile apps, it's the first one I've not found particularly interesting. However, there was still a couple of pieces in it that I found quite interesting.
This stationary set for street artist Eine. The stationary set was needed so that he could start making inroads as a serious artist. The set uses a combination of paint dripping and an embossed logo to balance his aspirations as an artist and also his beginnings as a graffiti artist. It seems a very obvious idea, however it has been executed in a way that makes it quite unique and different. The piece at the bottom for Railfest at the National Railway Museum is another that I really like. The illustrations and simple colour theme adopts itself well to match the National Railway Museum's logo. The playful illustrations bring more life to the subject matter which could be seen as quite dry and boring.
The last piece that really stood out for me was this poster for band, The Decemberists. It's a really beautiful gig poster which clearly took a lot of time and effort. The typography was hand drawn onto glass and then photographed whist the flowers were photographed and composed over two days. The between the typography and flowers makes it a really beautifully composed piece.
3/12/11
I stumbled upon this earlier and found it quite an interesting way of pitching an idea to a client using a simple bit of psychology - we always want what we can't have. By pitching an idea to a client as if its already been done they just want it, so when they find out it is actually for them they don't quibble over unimportant things, they're just relieved that they can have it. It's definitely a risky strategy but if it works then there's no problem.
"My wife is an art director.
Recently she went to The Marketing Forum.
Being a creative, she expected to be bored by lots of case histories, graphs, charts, numbers.
But one client told an amazingly creative story about the birth of a brand.
It started when he was working in Belgium.
Every day he had to try to sell margarine (butter-flavoured spread) to people who didn’t want it.
It was dispiriting work.
To cheer himself up, every day he went to the same pastry shop and ate a delicious chocolate pastry.
Eventually it became clear to him.
“I don’t like margarine.
I do like chocolate.
I’m in the wrong game.”
Doing what you love is always the best idea.
So he quit his job and began working on perfecting a delicious, rich, chocolate pudding.
He worked on it until he had it exactly right.
Now he needed marketing.
He needed a positioning, a name, packaging, a brand in fact.
So he went to see an agency and asked if they could do that for him.
They said leave it with us.
So he waited.
And he waited.
Three weeks later they hadn’t contacted him, so he called them.
They said “We-ell…. You’d better come in, we’ve got something to show you.”
He went to see them.
They said, “We’ve got some bad news we’re afraid. It looks like someone else has already done it.”
His jaw dropped.
They said “Yes, unfortunately, virtually the same product, same positioning, everything. We’ve managed to get hold of some pictures.
If you promise not to let it leave this room, we’ll show you.”
He nodded.
They said “You wanted a stylish, classy chocolate pudding, deliciously gooey, yet premium? Look, theirs is called Gu.
It’s got the German umlaut (two little dots) over the letter U, so it looks like a smiley face. And it rhymes with ‘goo’ so it’s fun but classy.
A bit like Haagen Dazs.”
The client’s face fell, he said, “I can’t believe it. That’s a great name.”
They said “Yes, and look at the packaging: it’s dark, rich, elegant. Indulgent and chocolaty, but also stylish.”
The client said “This is terrible. How advanced are they.”
They said “Their sales force is ready to start selling it in. We’re worried because we think they’ll be very successful.”
The client said “What do you mean: you think they’ll be successful. Of course they’ll be successful. It’s a brilliant product, a brilliant name, a brilliant pack design. It’s exactly what I wanted dammit.”
And he sat back, depressed, thinking about all the success he could have had if only he’d got that idea first.
Then the account man smiled and said “Well if you really mean that I may have some good news for you.”
The client said, “What?”
The account man said “I made that story up. No one has actually done anything. This is our presentation to you: the name, the packaging, everything.
If you want it you can have it.”
The client said he felt as if the sun came out.
Instead of the usual shuffling, and humming and hawing he just took everything as it stood and went with it.
Isn’t that great.
We never want anything so much as when we can’t have it.
So instead of selling the client an idea in a way that lets him think he’s got all the time in the world to fiddle with every tiny unimportant detail, they let him see what’s really important.
How will he feel if he sees a competitor has done it?
If he’s been beaten to market.
He won’t quibble about the serif on the typeface.
He won’t worry that the background colour isn’t exactly 100% perfect.
He’ll just wish to God he’d done it.
What a great lesson.
Show the client the idea in a situation where he would give anything to have done it.
But it’s too late, someone else got there first.
It’s like a nightmare.
Then wake him up and tell him it was just a dream, and he’s still got a chance to do it himself.
Instead of suspicion and hesitation, he’ll feel gratitude and eagerness.
He’ll be concentrating on the 95% that’s right.
Not holding everything up for the tiny 5% that isn’t.
We’ll have a client that wants to move things forward, not hold things back.
Recently she went to The Marketing Forum.
Being a creative, she expected to be bored by lots of case histories, graphs, charts, numbers.
But one client told an amazingly creative story about the birth of a brand.
It started when he was working in Belgium.
Every day he had to try to sell margarine (butter-flavoured spread) to people who didn’t want it.
It was dispiriting work.
To cheer himself up, every day he went to the same pastry shop and ate a delicious chocolate pastry.
Eventually it became clear to him.
“I don’t like margarine.
I do like chocolate.
I’m in the wrong game.”
Doing what you love is always the best idea.
So he quit his job and began working on perfecting a delicious, rich, chocolate pudding.
He worked on it until he had it exactly right.
Now he needed marketing.
He needed a positioning, a name, packaging, a brand in fact.
So he went to see an agency and asked if they could do that for him.
They said leave it with us.
So he waited.
And he waited.
Three weeks later they hadn’t contacted him, so he called them.
They said “We-ell…. You’d better come in, we’ve got something to show you.”
He went to see them.
They said, “We’ve got some bad news we’re afraid. It looks like someone else has already done it.”
His jaw dropped.
They said “Yes, unfortunately, virtually the same product, same positioning, everything. We’ve managed to get hold of some pictures.
If you promise not to let it leave this room, we’ll show you.”
He nodded.
They said “You wanted a stylish, classy chocolate pudding, deliciously gooey, yet premium? Look, theirs is called Gu.
It’s got the German umlaut (two little dots) over the letter U, so it looks like a smiley face. And it rhymes with ‘goo’ so it’s fun but classy.
A bit like Haagen Dazs.”
The client’s face fell, he said, “I can’t believe it. That’s a great name.”
They said “Yes, and look at the packaging: it’s dark, rich, elegant. Indulgent and chocolaty, but also stylish.”
The client said “This is terrible. How advanced are they.”
They said “Their sales force is ready to start selling it in. We’re worried because we think they’ll be very successful.”
The client said “What do you mean: you think they’ll be successful. Of course they’ll be successful. It’s a brilliant product, a brilliant name, a brilliant pack design. It’s exactly what I wanted dammit.”
And he sat back, depressed, thinking about all the success he could have had if only he’d got that idea first.
Then the account man smiled and said “Well if you really mean that I may have some good news for you.”
The client said, “What?”
The account man said “I made that story up. No one has actually done anything. This is our presentation to you: the name, the packaging, everything.
If you want it you can have it.”
The client said he felt as if the sun came out.
Instead of the usual shuffling, and humming and hawing he just took everything as it stood and went with it.
Isn’t that great.
We never want anything so much as when we can’t have it.
So instead of selling the client an idea in a way that lets him think he’s got all the time in the world to fiddle with every tiny unimportant detail, they let him see what’s really important.
How will he feel if he sees a competitor has done it?
If he’s been beaten to market.
He won’t quibble about the serif on the typeface.
He won’t worry that the background colour isn’t exactly 100% perfect.
He’ll just wish to God he’d done it.
What a great lesson.
Show the client the idea in a situation where he would give anything to have done it.
But it’s too late, someone else got there first.
It’s like a nightmare.
Then wake him up and tell him it was just a dream, and he’s still got a chance to do it himself.
Instead of suspicion and hesitation, he’ll feel gratitude and eagerness.
He’ll be concentrating on the 95% that’s right.
Not holding everything up for the tiny 5% that isn’t.
We’ll have a client that wants to move things forward, not hold things back.
By the way, the name of the client who told that story was James Averdieck.
And he’s just sold that brand for £35 million."
And he’s just sold that brand for £35 million."
29/11/11
Today was Design Your Future at Manchester Central. It's a fair held by UCAS featuring creative courses from up and down the country and gives students a chance to interact with a large number of institutions without having to travel to all of them. I've been to this event before and it helped me to decide which course to apply for once I'd finished my A-Levels and today it had basically the same purpose. I wanted to speak to colleges and universities that I was interested in personally and ask about advanced entry. Unfortunately the people I spoke to weren't particularly helpful, either not knowing the answer or contradicting what I'd previously been told by course leaders. It's led to me losing faith somewhat in this type of event because the people your speaking to don't necessarily know or have a definitive answer, so it makes it a little bit of a waste of time.
I think the best thing for me to do now is to just apply wherever I apply and seeing what comes of it. There doesn't seem to be a right or wrong way of doing this but I have the BA course at Stockport fall back on.
26/11/11
Today I've been to the open day at UCLAN looking at the Graphic Design course. UCLAN were the only university that gave me a proper opinion on my portfolio when I first applied two years ago and have always seemed like a college rather than a university. At my interview I was given a reading list and I've followed their blog for a couple of years. I'm quite favourable towards the course there and think I would enjoy it and make the most of the facilities there but I couldn't live in Preston. It's quite an undeveloped and uninspiring town so it doesn't really tempt me to leave Manchester. The course leader Andy Bainbridge is a nice bloke who seems as though he would be open to giving advice whenever it was required however struggled to answer some of the questions people had. One of the other selling points of UCLAN is that one of the professor's there is Ban Casey, the co-founder of the The Chase. I think all in all the UCLAN course is very interesting and something I would consider doing however I don't think Preston is the place for me.
21/11/11
I've been reading Computer Arts magazine since august and recently subscribed. A couple of weeks ago I got the November issue [8] and have only just got around to reading it. One of the first things I found interesting was that in "New Work" and "Behind The Brief" sections there were two really interesting identities. One for T Platforms and the other for Mareiner Holz.
T Platforms are an IT company and made the Lomonosov supercomputer which is the 13th most powerful in the world. To reflect the companies line of business the T has been split up into 12 squares which can be filled with one of 4 shapes: a square, a circle, a triangle and a solid U. This allows for around 10trillion different ways of placing the shapes to create the logo. This is a really interesting way of creating a logo and shows how innovative people are becoming with logo design. However, I do feel that it leaves the company without a stable mark to put onto it's products etc. This means that there is no immediate recognition to the brand, you have to sort of work it out.
Mareiner Holz are market leaders of the wood treatment industry. Their rebranding updated the original logo to something that reflects the company's more modern and environmentally friendly way of treating wood. The original name was Mareiner Holzindustrie which was changed to cast them in a more eco-friendly light. The company's values state, "each wooden board is beautiful and unique", "Natural and grounded", "Brave and proactive". The new identity represents all of these things from the typeface, colour choice and paper stock. The company is now represented as a powerful market leader but also that care for what they do.
Computer Arts also comes with a DVD which has a documentary from a design studio on it. This month it was Manchester based Magnetic North and sister company Beep Industries (Magnetic North's company which branched out into product design). Both companies are very keen on breaking new ground and creating something that moves us forward. Everything that Brendan Dawes and Lou Cordwell say are based on innvation. This is evident just in Magnetic North's own website, it's very different from any other websites out there.
I've been reading Computer Arts magazine since august and recently subscribed. A couple of weeks ago I got the November issue [8] and have only just got around to reading it. One of the first things I found interesting was that in "New Work" and "Behind The Brief" sections there were two really interesting identities. One for T Platforms and the other for Mareiner Holz.
T Platforms are an IT company and made the Lomonosov supercomputer which is the 13th most powerful in the world. To reflect the companies line of business the T has been split up into 12 squares which can be filled with one of 4 shapes: a square, a circle, a triangle and a solid U. This allows for around 10trillion different ways of placing the shapes to create the logo. This is a really interesting way of creating a logo and shows how innovative people are becoming with logo design. However, I do feel that it leaves the company without a stable mark to put onto it's products etc. This means that there is no immediate recognition to the brand, you have to sort of work it out.
Mareiner Holz are market leaders of the wood treatment industry. Their rebranding updated the original logo to something that reflects the company's more modern and environmentally friendly way of treating wood. The original name was Mareiner Holzindustrie which was changed to cast them in a more eco-friendly light. The company's values state, "each wooden board is beautiful and unique", "Natural and grounded", "Brave and proactive". The new identity represents all of these things from the typeface, colour choice and paper stock. The company is now represented as a powerful market leader but also that care for what they do.
Computer Arts also comes with a DVD which has a documentary from a design studio on it. This month it was Manchester based Magnetic North and sister company Beep Industries (Magnetic North's company which branched out into product design). Both companies are very keen on breaking new ground and creating something that moves us forward. Everything that Brendan Dawes and Lou Cordwell say are based on innvation. This is evident just in Magnetic North's own website, it's very different from any other websites out there.
20/11/11
According to this [7] the earth needs rebranding! Even though his designs aren't very good you can sort of see where he's coming from. He tries to make it look more imposing and threatening to other planets and in my opinion he's sort of along the right lines. The upside down dagger shape has both sharp and curved edges which suggests death and brutality. The bold red line and overall colour theme reinforces these messages. Overall, the message he's trying to put across is there but it's still pretty awful and a stupid idea - I mean who's going to send out the flyers?
16/11/11
This week I bought a copy of Little White Lies, the film magazine. Even though it's not a graphic design magazine it tends to hold a special place in designers hearts because of it's layout and typography. I've bought issue 38: Another Earth, the cover was designed by artists Kai and Sunny and is available in two different black and white colourways, one the opposite of the other as this video shows [6]: http://bit.ly/vMqx2O
The great thing about Little White Lies, and this issue in particular, is that it uses the typography to inform the illustrations. It makes the whole thing a joy to read and a real pleasure on they eye. The limited colour palette allows the typography and illustration to be very expressive. It also makes it look a little bit peculiar aswell though, the typeface is similar to the sort of symbols you might see on tarrot cards so to see it used as a display typeface in basic black and white gives it a bit of a psychic feel.
14/11/11
Last week I bought a bar of Marmite chocolate. In case you were wondering it's disgusting. The packaging however is pretty slick and upmarket. Ever since A-Level I've developed an eye for Barnbrook's font and the title font for the packaging is part of the Priori family. The colours match really well throughout and give it quite a posh look and feel. This is definitely helped by the typeface as it has it's roots in older style typography, hence the 'v' style 'u' in 'peculiar'. I suppose the design more than makes up for the taste.
12/11/11
For my soft drinks brief I'm trying to learn a little bit of Cinema 4D so that I can create a bottle to put my packaging on - so I'm not showing my designs on an illustrator image. I've taken the first few steps in doing this by making a glass/goblet in Cinema 4D using similar shaders etc that I would on my bottle. I've still not quite got the hang of it but given one or two more attempts I should have enough experience to make my bottle.
8/11/11
Today myself and Lisa visited Whitworth Art Gallery. For a while I've been wanting to go because the signage as you go past looked really good and I was hoping the exhibition itself would live up to what I hoped it would be.
I was a bit disappointed with the exhibition as a whole, the only real points of interest for me were the signage, programme and an installation in the first hall which used an odd sort of camera to project an image of what was in front of it in black and white pixels on a large screen.
In one of the upper galleries there was another, smaller exhibition going on which again wasn't really my kind of thing but on the way up the stairs there was quite a good looking sign which had been painted on. I spent a little bit of time trying to work out the typeface but gave up because I was bit unsure - Century Gothic maybe?
The exhibition programme looked really good. The extended margin on the inside of the page pushed all other typography to the right putting it on the same margin as the contents on the first page. It only uses two colours throughout - white type on purple pages and reversed. The front cover image is very similar to the ones on the signage and are really interesting and what initially made me want to look in the gallery.
In reflection, the exhibitions themselves were pretty uninspiring and didn't really interest me at all. However. the signage and programme's look great. I'll be keeping hold of the programme as an example to myself of good typography and carrying a theme through a whole 12 page booklet.
6/11/11
Unit Editions currently have a 50% off and free postage offer going on all month so I thought I'd have a look on there. I'd never heard of the website before so I was assuming the normal design books would be on there and I might be able to grab a bargain. I was a bit surprised to find a shedload of Wim Crouwel stuff on there so I've just bought he exhibition catalogue for Wim Crouwel's A Graphic Odyssey which I attended and U:D/R 03 which is a paper about the ThreeSix typeface. I was very tempted to buy a book called Studio Life aswell but I've resisted. I will upload photo's and a reflection when the stuff I've bought arrives.
5/11/11
I've just laid eyes on the first batch of D&AD briefs to be released and I'm gutted that we're not doing them in college. The typography brief [4] is the one that's really caught my eye - it's a brief set by studio output and requires you to create a set of three posters for ministry of sound. It's like they wrote the brief just for me. Although I am a bit disappointed that this won't be a college project it will be something I can do in my own time as its not a particularly large project - the deadline is sometime in March so plenty of time.
28/10/11
A couple of weeks ago Paulo showed me, and the rest of the class that was in at the time, Kern Type. It was a game where you had to kern 10 words and then at the end it gave you a score out of 100. it was quite a good little test of kerning which I think I'm reasonably good at. Today I saw someone post Shape Type [3] on twitter. It's from the same company and works off the same principle as Kern Type, however the aim of this game is to adjust a couple of the handles on 10 letters. It's far more time consuming than Kern Type and probably won't catch on like that did, but it was still a good test of whether I was able to feel the weight of letters etc.
26/10/11
Creative spark have recently launched a set of limited edition horror film themed prints, they're for sale in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The Little Print Shop of Horrors [2] series of prints look great, not too minimal but not saying more than is necessary. Creative Spark are one of the companies that I'm looking at approaching for a placement so it's good to see that they're producing work that I find interesting.
21/10/11
Yesterday, I saw this on twitter[1]. Its a collection of Felix Sockwell's work for Apple on the iTunes logo. I found it interesting to see how his ideas are developed because both the good and the bad ideas are continued with to see if something useful can be had out of it.
I do agree with what he says about his work though "Most of it is crap but some of it was pretty good" I particularly like the work on the two pages I've copied across. The integration of a note into the apple command symbol is very clever if not hard to pull off and doubling the note as a set of headphones is also a good idea to would have looked great.
More here: http://drawger.com/felixsockwell/
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