fruity

innocent make badass smoothies, but also, their company branding is really what i like. it fits their image and is very, laid back, natural, friendly and feels more 'home-made' than corporate. i think that the use of rounded fonts, simple illustrations and a colour palette inspired by the colours of the smoothies and their ingredients, coupled with the off-white backgrounds (as oppose to the standard pure white) helps them achieve this.

what most caught my attention though is the campaign they run at winter called 'the big knit'. it is done in co-operation with the charity age concern, to help older people with hot meals, blankets and keep warm in the winter. a noble cause but from an advertising point of view, innocent have spinned this very well. as you can see in the photos, during winter time innocent put little bobby hats on the tops of their bottles and run interactive bits and bobs alongside this to get people involved, like 'hat of the week' and a group on flickr devoted to people's photos of the hats.

though their smoothies are a little spenno, it seems other companies could benefit from taking a few leaves out of innocent's book. check them out here.

caffination

deadlines? late nights? yeh, yeh, we all know. caffeine. and lots of it.

i personally prefer coffee. and black at that. however relentless isn't such a bad drink and their cans aren't to shabby looking either. they make brake a few design rules in under some eyes, but they definitely stand out in the fridge. all 3 of the different flavours carry a definitive brand association and the different quotes on the back of each can, from grand people's such as wordsworth and lord byron are a nice little addition. the front of the can is big and bold, with a gothic script font that is more than clear enough. my favourite part perhaps is the subtle digs at other energy drinks that sell there products in apparently 'measly' sized proportions.


"no half measures"

nothing wrong with a little bit of pretentiousness is there?

refreshing indeed

it's nice to see some no bs (of sorts) companies producing great products packaged greatly. original, cheeky and great typography work. a great choice of typeface for the product and simple but effective grid layout to produce a very cleanly presented product. i can't really fault original source, apart from i would of liked the shampoo and conditioner to fit together more like other brands do, as if they were 2 halves of the same bottle. but that's purely subjective of course.

great brand identity and a different but eye-catching shelf presence. i highly recommend you try their stuff too - it's the nucking futs.

give'em some love. originalsource

Design For Print: Evaluation

Before the start of this module, I was only aware of CMYK, RGB and grayscale. During this module I have learnt how to manage workflows in different colour modes, as well as properly setting up documents to be sent for commercial print. Learning about how to work with spot colours and duotones has helped me expand what I can physically do with software, and it seems to me to be an essential part of what you should be able to do as a graphic designer in the industry.

The workshops we had in InDesign have opened up new ways in which I use the program. Though we covered InDesign in Level 1, I was still unsure of what I was doing and what could be done. I now know how to properly set up documents, use master pages, manage links and print booklets successfully from the program. This enabled me to produce a 16 page booklet for this last project quite competently and without too many technical issues.

For this project I did some quite extensive research. I directly contacted companies for specific information, bypassing the internet as a gateway. This is an issue that I have fell down on previously, causing me to run into problems related to lack of research along a project. This extra research helped me to better define variables such as my audience, and also requirements such as expected level of design, etc.

One of my major weaknesses on this project was time management. Being such a long project, I easily lost track of time, where and when I should have had things completed in time. Though I like my final design, I think it is the backup work and the ongoing evaluation that has suffered as a cause of this. This is something that I do need to work on, while I am quite comfortable and focused on week or so projects, this sight is lost on lengthier briefs. Week plans and more committed timetabling on my behalf is what I need to address in the next module.

rrrollling!

so tomorrow is the start of the 22nd leeds international film festival and as per last year, still haven't got any tickets like i said i would and the festival is on for just less than 2weeks (4th-16th november). does anyone have any recommendations of films to watch? (leave me some suggestions in the comments below!) night of the dead sounds good but tickets have sold out...

leedsfilm

fear and loathing in steadmanvision.

at the moment i'm looking at gonzo journalism for critical studies, and i've been meaning to upload some of this fellow's stuff for a while so it only seems fitting to do it now.

ralph steadman is a british illustrator who is most known for the work he did with the good dr. hunter s. thompson. his artwork is (for me) the illustrative equivalent of hunter's writings, and himself as eccentric as thompson too - there was an apparent noted change in steadman's personality and work after befriending the dr. and engaging in his more influencing pastimes.

check his website out or head over to the britishcartoonarchive where they have over 100 of his scanned images up.

welcome back...

whoa, long break over the summer from blogging, need to get back on the wagon. check back for regular (hopefully) updates, with hopefully a whole wealth of interesting postings. also dudes, (is anyone actually reading this), where's the discourse? leave me some comments and i might even return the favor!

what is graphic design?

firstly, i'd like to start with...

what isn't graphic design?

well, this isn't:

though geek designery humour it is. so...

what is graphic design?

to me, graphic design is the process, is the art of communicating visually. be it image or type, posters or videos, hand or computer made. the list is near endless. so...

what separates design from art?

the age old question, and may many flame wars ensue. for me, it is not the content or the media used to create the work, it is the function and context. design, by definition has to have a real-world purpose to some extent. art is usually created for the artist's own wishes, whatever they may be. though the lines blur, for example designers creating personal work that has no function, and artists whose work may have a political or social impact, it is this fundamental difference that separates the two. what the initial intent of the work was.

you sick at photoshop

its that time again folks...

regular drill. check out some of their other shows over at mydamnchannel.

apple design chief talks!

shut up and listen. here's the man responsible for the creation of all those lovely white and aluminium boxes we know and love. jonathan ive - arguably one of the most influential people in design at the moment.

inspiring i guess. go and check out some of his work over at apple. (like you didn't already know where to go.)