Shillington College

New Australian Council of the Arts work

 

Loving Sydney-based studio, Ascender's, new work for the Australian Council of the Arts. Super simple, super effective. I believe this was worked on by Adrian and one of our grads, Victoria. Great work guys, and looking forward to seeing the new website!

me&dave guest lecture at London

Mark and Rob, founding partners of London design agency me&dave, came in to the London college today to give a brilliant and insightful talk about how our students need to 'brand' themselves as they enter the industry. Judging by the volume of eager questions asked by the class during the talk, Mark and Rob did a fantastic job and even very kindly spent time chatting with the class afterwards. Thanks guys!

Nazi Graphic Design!

For all the genuine evil brutality that the Nazis perpetrated during WW2 I always thought that the Nazi uniforms were much smarter than the allies combined. That plus the imagery generated by the Nazis was pretty impressive for its day. It's also been rumored for years that the Nazis had produced a graphic design style manual for strategic brand control – before the term brand even came into the common lexicon. Well fear no more kiddies as one such manual has surfaced and by all reports it's pretty impressive not just as you would expect (use of Nazi symbols, typefaces etc) but for the breadth of application that was very future-informed. You can pre-order the book from Amazon: Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State. I'll be ordering my copy to be placed discreetly next to my model tanks in the war section of my library!

 

Mads Jakob Poulsen @ NYC Apple Store

Danish Designer Mads Jakob Poulsen will be at the Apple Store SoHo, NYC on March 28, 2011 presenting their work and thoughts on graphic design. Previously a senior designer at Wolff Olins, one talent to admire and keep an eye on. Check out the amazing work.

Letterhead Love

For all you FT students in the UK & US currently working on the branding brief.

www.letterheadlove.com

Story Telling in packaging.

I recently discovered a small film about the Mast brothers in Brooklyn NY. These artisan chocolate makers ( as I hear it from the residents its awesome chocolate). What I found particularly interesting was how there philosophy manifests itself into the packaging, the solution is simple, elegant and says a great deal about the Mast Brothers. Very aspect of the product is considered. Check out the beautiful packs below and get a load of the crazy beard work on the brothers (all kinds of awesome).

The Magazine 'The Scout' wrote: The life of a mariner is one given over to wanderlust—the quest for adventure, crossing unseen horizons to secure precious goods—only to bring them back to their home port. This same love of adventure and curiosity defines the brotherhood of Rick and Michael Mast. They share a fiercely independent spirit, leaping into the unknown and trusting that they’ll find the answer through endurance and dedication to their craft.

They began their voyage in their apartment, using a homemade machine to process cacao beans. Over time they cultivated their creation, sourcing beans from family farms in Madagascar, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. Each bar is handmade with incredible reverence for the process and history of chocolate. They are bound in ornamental papers and golden foil like a collection of rare books. Each bar offers its own story of flavors, and no two are exactly alike.

 

In a recent guest lecture by Tony Ibbotson of the Creative Method, Sydney he highlighted the emphasis or need for story telling in packaging, be it fictional, or factual, based on the product or its producers. This was just one of the valuable insights into the workings of a packaging project. Check out their packaging projects at thecreativemethod.com in particular Real McCoy and Saint Clair Pioneer Block.

 

Design is dead…

Design is alive with "Dynamic Identities", a concept developed by Lava – European Design Agency of the Year. Based around the theory that visual identities should be ever evolving with Brand Magazines and not Styleguides to keep brands fresh.

IDTV identity above has been created around a "pixel" which forms the basis of the characters, the pixels constantly update on collateral. The top left pixel shapes were developed because they created different shades of grey. To find out more check out Lava

Letterheady

Ever wondered what the letterheads of iconic figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Houdini & Charlie Chaplin looked like?  Check out LETTERHEADY — its an online archive of bygone stationery design. www.letterheady.com

Thanks Shannon in Melbourne FT for the Heads up :)

LOGO DESIGN LOVE

Check out this great blog - www.logodesignlove.com.

This is fantastic logo design resource, covering typography, trends, logo design history, world renowned design agencies, showcases...  Logo design resources | Logo Design Love

The 6 plights of the modern day branding designer talk

At a recent AGDA talk by the infamous Chris Doyle (known for creating his own identity guidelines that went viral to design studios across the world, which is linked to his name below) now working for the branding studio Interbrand.

Unfortunately I was unable to make it. A couple of the students from Syd FT went along. Lucas, the kind chap he is, picked me up a copy of the newspaper style document they put together which I have photographed and put below. He also very kindly agreed to agreed to write about the talk. So thanks Lucas for the following words and choice links.

Faced with the epic, ever-growing body of work that has gone before, how can today's designers cut through the clutter, let alone create a genuinely original idea?
Presented by Chris Maclean, Mike Rigby and Chris Doyle, The Plight of the Modern Brand Designer covered six dilemmas facing designers today. These included the pitfalls of design by committee, the nature of client/agency relationships (read: master/slave), and standing out in an ever-changing media landscape.
The talk centered around the need to employ design thinking and processes to create solutions to problems in business, and society. They also discussed the need for us, as designers, to embrace a whole host of innovative ways to express ideas – going beyond graphic design, to produce a truly powerful and engaging brand experience. Examples of this included  'Let it ring' campaign and VW fun theory.
All in all a very entertaining and insightful talk, on top of that they gave out copies of 'This Year I Will Try Not To', a collation of common design trends that should be avoided, it is extremely funny and definitely worth a look.

Lucas Black-Dendle

 

Thanks Lucas really appreciate your words and the lovely paper gift. Lee :>)