Royal Parks

I love this logo. It does what a logo should. Says all it needs to in the motif. If the words 'Royal Parks' were not there, it would still say Royal Parks. Apparently Moon Branding and Communication were behind this gem in 1994. Another one of those that you look at and think, I wish I had come up with that!

AJ Fosik's Masks

I love these masks by AJ Fosik. The colours and the sharp shapes remind me of some of the murals I saw around the temples in Thailand.

"AJ Fosik's eclectic handmade and intricately designed wood animal sculptures and paintings, combined with cryptic symbols, intrigue and provoke. Fosik creates an experience that at first glance evokes a questioning of familiar concepts and then pushes the viewer to look and think deeper. Inspired by subversive cultural influences which shift complacency, he creates pieces that suspend comfort while at the same time offer recognizable symbols and images. In this dynamic tension the art and the viewer hopefully come together in an expanded definition of culture and assumption." - quoted from Fosik's biography on jonathanlevinegallery.com

Flickr Photostream

Brown

“Brown is a small confectioner’s shop in Bogotá that’s always used kraft board boxes to pack their products. They wanted a new corporate image and a simple and low budget solution to identify what’s inside them. Bogotá, Colombia design firm Lip Ltda came up with a series of cards and stamps that carry the information simply and succinctly.”

I love how they have kept costs down here by producing rubber stamps to spice up regular brown boxes. The effect is crafty and handmade, but keeps all their packaging on brand at next to nothing. Some good ideas here for a low budget up and coming project I have.

Jell-o

Richard Perez, a graphic designer from San Fransisco has re-branded Jell-o made some beautiful new packaging, style guide and window vinyls. I love this project. It has really captured the fun of Jell-o with its childlike primary colours and fun bold characters.

Perez says, "by introducing a cast of fun stylized characters and a visual vocabulary that feels fresh and fun, the new Jell-o identity burst with vibrancy and joy. The simple graphic fruit characters, bright color-palette and naive typography makes the brand feel playful and pop without veering into overtly saccharine or Saturday morning cartoon territory."

His website, Skinny Ships showcases lots more of his lovely work as well of some of his inspirational typography.

Herb Lubalin at Cooper Union

Just came across a nice set of images on flickr from Justin Thomas Kay of the Herb Lubalin Archive at Cooper Union in New York. Lubalin was a prominent graphic designer and typographer. He famously created typeface ITC Avant Garde, which is shown above in various stages of design.

Below is what fan Justin Thomas Kay had to say about the collection.

"i was lucky enough to visit the herb lubalin archives at cooper union. needless to say flipping through herbs flat files was a dream come true. seeing so much work i have been exposed to for so long start in the baby stages of a ink sketch on tracing paper (along with a boatload of unseen/unused concepts - like a preliminary MTV logo!) was humbling. he is the true embodiment of a commercial artist and creative director that knew how to map out his ideas for his cohorts (mainly petholick and canarsie). the best part is - the archives are totally open to the public. you can go and not only flip through his work, but the work of otl aicher, herbert bayer, and many others. they have an absurd collection of slides and full collections of avant garde, U&LC, fact, etc... way too much to list. needless to say a couple hours was not enough time."

Lubalin Images on Flickr

Adobe Future Creative Bursary

I am hoping to be nominated for the Adobe Future Creative Bursary. If I am successful, I will get:

£2000 of Adobe software
D&AD Membership
D&AD Annual
A place on Workout – D&AD's professional development programme

The latter is what I am most excited about. Workout is hosted by D&AD and provides workshops and networking opportunities which I would love to be involved in. So fingers crossed for me! And if you are a creative professional reading this and fancy nominating me, please feel free to do so!

D&AD Workout
Adobe Future Creative Bursary

Big River Man

"On February 1st, 2007, the worlds greatest endurance swimmer attempted the worlds most dangerous swim. 3393 Miles down the Amazon River."

This guy is crazy! And the film looks like it will be great (see the trailer below). Pigeonholed as a drunk, a madman and the worlds last superhero, the film documents the Big River Man, Martin Strel's attempt to swim the Amazon River. Fascinating.

Big River Man - Trailer from KNR Productions on Vimeo.

Big River Man

Ink Calendar

Spanish designer Oscar Diaz has designed a calendar that uses the capillary action of ink spreading across paper to display the date.

In his own words, although not brilliant English: "The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are "printed" daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.

The ink colors are based on a spectrum, which relate to a “color temperature scale”, each month having a color related to our perception of the whether on that month. The colors range from dark blue in December to, three shades of green in spring or oranges, red in the summer.

The scale for measuring the “color temperature” that I have used is a standard called ‘D65’ and corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe.

The "Ink Calendar" was developed for “Gradual “, an exhibition featuring works, which were evolving during the exhibition time at the London Design Festival 2007."

Oscar Diaz's Site

Work Experience at Ascend

I spent three days at Ascend doing some work experience last week and hope to go back to do some more soon. Ascend are a small but smart team of creatives who are passionate about design and very driven. I was able to work on a rebrand project for a PR agency, which I hope to get to work on some more.

My time there was short and sweet, but I got a lot out of it already. A great experience all round.

Ascend Creative

Don't Lose Your Soul

I read this book whilst doing some work experience in central London with a communications company. I had wanted to read it for a while, but I became more and more intrigued by the book due to it's beautiful turquoise cover. Now I know what you're thinking...never judge a book my its cover. But lets face it, we all do. The book is a good tool for any designers starting out and I recommend a read for hints and tips about approaching employers and starting your own design shop.

However, this book has inspired me visually too. I have wanted to use that colour in a project ever since seeing it. I have naughtily attempted to shoe horn it in to my personal projects, but it just hasn't been right. Finally, a brief came along which it is just perfect for. The project will be available online to view shortly on my personal website. I will post it when it is launched.


Until then, I leave you with some posters for an Adrian Shaughnessy Lecture at SIAD (Sheffield Institute of Art and Design). The posters are designed by Thomas Jackson.

"The Solution was to include an opinion of the designer himself within the poster. Using influence from his previous book entitled ‘How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul’. This poster represents the letterforms as the designer and the counters (the holes in the middle of letters) as the soul within. The letterforms without counters are then questioning whether they are designers if they have no soul."

Buy the book here.