Brand consultancy Greenspace worked with Friends of the Earth to design the Live Stock logotype and a number of staging concepts to bring the event to life. The campaign itself is serious, of course, but that didn’t stop them from creating a atmosphere of fun. And that’s what I like most about this concept – an event with comedians and musicians that can be both informative and energetic. The logo reflects this, having silhouettes of farm animals creatively cut out of the straightforward Word Stock lockup, set simply in Helvetica. See more work by Greenspace at thegreenspace.com.
Get London Reading
What is that, Avant Garde Gothic? Nice. I don’t think I’ve used that font since college, but I’m really loving its application for the Get London Reading campaign designed by KentLyons. Created for Booktrust to get Londoners reading books set in London, KentLyons created a simple type lockup set next to a line of books. Brilliant. They then created a series of stencils of excerpts from books and spray-painted the words across town. What better way to get people to read books set in London, than to read words, set in London? In addition, there is a website and iPhone app that plots plots books across London on a map, and lets users search for books in their area. How cool is that?
KentLyons was formed in 2003 by James Kent and Noel Lyons. Their work spans branding, digital, print, advertising, strategy and environmental design. Discovered via site inspire.
May 15 / 2012
Ali Bosworth
Ali Bosworth is a Canadian photographer from Victoria, BC. A prolific shooter, Bosworth’s photograph’s tend to focus on the suburban landscape. Throughout almost all of his series of pictures, there also appears a red-headed muse – a girlfriend I assume – that accompanies him on his photo-finding adventures. I went through his most recent group of photos from Fall 2011 and picked out a handful of the images that included her. It seems as if Bosworth, the wolf, is hunting Little Red Riding Hood. No?
May 14 / 2012
Ineo Designlab
I can’t tell you much about this project other than it’s an identity for a wine label and it was designed by company out of Denmark. How’s that for investigative journalism? Something tells me that the logo was inspired by either the mountains or a loaf of bread. Either way, the circular icon made out of broken glass-like particles fits perfectly on the top of a wine bottle. The sharp edges contrast the fluidity of the poured wax and the elegance of the curved wine bottle, creating the sharp branding system that caught my eye. See more at www.ineo.dk.
May 11 / 2012
Studio Sammut
Sure, mustaches are rather hip at the moment. Or Hip-ster. Face it, they are everywhere. But, with a name like The Misters Cycles Co., it only seems appropriate that Sydney-based Studio Sammut would run with the current trend for their most recent branding project. They did a great job of creating customized centered type lockups, and balancing condensed sans serif type with sign painter scripts. But don’t think of Studio Sammut as a one trick pony – they have plenty of other projects in their portfolio that are sans mustache. View more at studiosammut.com.au.
May 10 / 2012
Jan Filek
Digging this series of 20 animal icons by German designer Jan Filek. Stock sites are flooded with vector artwork, but it’s easy to separate custom design like this from hackneyed iconography. Easy to notice and write about, I should say, not create. These illustrations have great visual balance, thick line work, and nice form. Neat-o!
May 08 / 2012
Novae Rebrand by Aba
Aba is an English design agency that specializes in branding and business. Appropriately, they have a client list chalk full of big corporations. The project in their portfolio that caught my eye was the branding and communications designed for insurance company Novae, driven in large part by the cut paper illustrations created by Japanese American paper sculptor Jeff Nishinaka. Created entirely out of intricately-sliced layers of white paper, form and depth was given by the camera’s point of view and, of course, light. Laid out adjacent to black boxes containing large knockout serif typography and hints of bright color, the entire system is very professional and handsome. Make sure you check out the video of the artist creating his masterpieces at: aba-design.co.uk/novae.
Found via Sites we like.
May 07 / 2012
The Life of Julia
President Obama and Vice President Biden are taking a direct strike at presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in the form of an illustrated journey on their website. As the subtitle describes, “Take a look at how President Obama’s policies help one woman over her lifetime—and how Mitt Romney would change her story.” The interactive short story is well-crafted, making use of flat two dimensional graphics with friendly colors and short comparative blurbs of text. One small touch I enjoyed – President Obama’s policies are set in a blue serif font on white, while Romney’s are knockout in a sterile sans serif. Also of interest, at age 27, Julia works full-time as a web designer (and her health insurance covers birth control and preventative care). Score! See the whole thing at: barackobama.com/life-of-julia.
May 04 / 2012
Tim Boelaars
I grew up camping, fishing, and hunting, and so I guess you could say I was naturally drawn to these pieces by Tim Boelaars, an illustrator from The Netherlands. While I don’t do much hunting these days, I still do fish and camp, and there’s a simplicity his artwork that really captures the spirit of being outdoors. I also like the fact that they are set during the nighttime, you know, when the stars are out. But I supposed you don’t have to be an outdoorsman to enjoy the work. See more of Boelaars icons and illustrations at timboelaars.nl.
May 03 / 2012
Javas Lehn
I think I may have posted about Javas Lehn before. Let me check, yep. Sometimes I bookmark a site and then forget to delete it, and that’s what’s happening today. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to revisit his site in the future, because his work is so freaking good. Two days ago I showcased an identity system for a film company, and I really like the contrasting approach that Lehn took in developing the look for this MoMA exhibit, New Directors New Films. Playing up the fact that this show is the 40th Anniversary, Lehn utilizes two colors, black and yellow, along with a pattern consisting of black diagonal lines, visually relating to a film clap, but in an abstract modern way. I think Vignelli would be proud, but who really knows with him.
May 02 / 2012
