Old blogs home

It's been a hectic year so far. I've now realised why there are so many abandoned blogs. Here are a few of the things that have been keeping me busy...

Wayfinding, signage and posters for Borough Market. More here


Ongoing work on the SPOV identity

I've designed a suitably nostalgic identity for Croyde Post Office and Bookshop in Devon...

...started working with an old English soap manufacturer...

...a famous London brewer...

and a London museum.

And I've moved studio - top floor, lots of light with a view of the country's largest erection.

More posts soon(ish).

Beer

Great flickr set of old US beer cans here.

Flour power

This made me smile as I was firing up the bread maker last night - new identity and packaging (by jkr) that captures the heritage and character of Hovis while still feeling fresh and fun.

Gone are the generic sheaves of wheat, the tired looking logotype and the lumpish product shot, replaced instead by a striking loaf-shaped brand icon and thoughtfully considered typography and colour. Illustrations of the baker's boy (evocative of those cheesy but memorable Ridley Scott directed TV ads) and bread with the Hovis loaf tin mark, help evoke the warmth and authenticity of a brand with a rich visual history.

But the nicest touch is the thought given to the back of pack information, the design of which is often an afterthought at best. This is a great example of good design and copywriting reinforcing the personality of a brand long after it's helped shift the product from the shelf.

Anyone Can Swiss?

Is Helvetica an unimaginative design cop-out or a timeless classic? Either way, if you've ten minutes to kill, have a play with this fun automatic Helvetica poster generator from Anyone Can Swiss. 'This project suggests that perhaps Helvetica posters are so extremely formulaic that even a monkey (or a computer) could do it'. Probably, but computer generated letter-spacing sucks. Here's a couple of efforts by a Gibbon.

Happy New Year from Margate

Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy

We recently made a return visit to the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam, a creatively designed hotel and 'Cultural Embassy' that also showcases contemporary art and cultural projects. A surreal combination of art school and boutique hotel, it's full of surprises. I loved the hand painted signage and wayfinding graphics (by Victor P. Wiertz) and the hidden tea cupboards in the corridors (more pics here). A great place to stay for an interesting break in Amsterdam - there's a pretty accurate review here.

Market day

I bobbed into Roast this morning for the launch of this 68 page book that I've designed for Borough Market. The content includes the fascinating history of London's oldest food market, interviews with traders and retailers and a look at what the future holds for Borough. The lovely landscape illustration of the market by Karen Neale, great portrait photography by Dominik Gigler and the reassuring print expertise of Tom at Square all helped make for a very happy client.

Signs of depression #2

Suit yourself.

Seesaw jaw-jaw

I love this idea by Swedish designer Martin Nicolausson. A seesaw bench to encourage interaction and conversation in public spaces.

Via It's Nice That

Wrington Greens, an organic market garden in Somerset briefed me a while back to create the identity and packaging for their new 'Wrington Press' hand pressed drinks range. I've just received these test prints in time for the launch this weekend at Bristol Organic Festival.

The aim was to express their handcrafted, traditional approach by screen printing a two-colour design onto kraft paper. Printing opaque inks onto kraft labels proved tricky but in the end Anglia Labels solved it using their digital(!) Indigo press and achieved a great result.

Just received these discs and sleeves that I designed for Borough Market a few months back. Inspired by the flexo printed boxes knocking around at the end of market day, the branded sleeve is printed single colour onto unsealed board with six different disc designs to help hint at the variety of produce on offer at Borough Market. I originally winced when asked to add a white-out block to the discs to allow for the contents to be written, but thankfully managed to turn it into a positive addition...

Derek Stroup

US artist Derek Stroup produces really interesting work. His Candy project helps reinforce how substrates, colour and shape can all contribute to a brand's visual identity as much as the logo does. He has used American snacks but some are international - see how many you can recognise...

Type hero

I've recently had the pleasure of working with letterpress printmaker extraordinaire and thoroughly nice chap, Alan Kitching. I was lucky enough to visit Alan's workshop, where racks of lovely wood and metal letterpress type surround working presses, and see his studio full of original prints. We've been working on some 48 sheet posters for Borough Market - results above.

Thought provoking poster by Timm Kekeritz

Virtual Water - a double-sided poster visualizing the water footprint of products and nations found on excellent design blog The Serif