Noisy Decent Graphics

Through these doors walk...

After slagging off Barclays ads the other week, I saw this charming sign in the window of one of their branches. It also reminds me of the Burger King / Innocent post, except that Barclays have pulled it off. This time.

I like this poster. It would make you feel good if you were a customer, wouldn't it?

It reminds me of an ad I saw many, many years ago for a Roddy Doyle book. It said, 'For anyone who has ever been 15 years old'. That nicely does that thing of make you believe they are talking about you. Yes, you. Innocent do it, Roddy Doyle did it then, Barclays are doing it here but not here and Burger King can't do it.

"Great brands are like novels that you can't put down"

I saw this quote in a book today. Are great brands really like "novels that you can't put down". I don't think they are.

I'm writing this on a great brand, Apple. Which is also a brand I love. A "lovemark" as some people like to say. I also happen to be reading a trashy holiday novel that I can't put down. A real page turner. So how are they different and how are they similar?

I can put the Apple down, obviously. I really can't put the book down, I have to be dragged away from it at bedtime and I get angry when In reach my stop on the Tube and I forgo the telly at night to carry on reading.

I can't wait to pick up the book and continue reading and it's true I look out for further installments from Apple. does that class as not being able to put it down?

But Apple don't release things that often and they do it in a psuedo secretive way, so they kind of create an expectation. What if it was another brand I admire, like Innocent drinks or Canon or Nokia if you want bigger ones. Can I put them down? Yes. Do I wait for the next installment? No.

You can put brands down. Brands can be great without you even liking them, let alone loving them. A novel ends. A novel only interacts with you on a few levels. You only buy a novel once.

I don't think "brands are like novels that you can't put down" at all. What do you think?

“There are three times a customer makes eye contact"

“There are three times a customer makes eye contact with a crew member on a flight.

This lasts about 15 seconds and is the time the customer/passenger decides yes/no. I will fly them again.”

Jan Carlzon. Ex CEO of Scandinavian airlines.

This is an air vent

Nice isn't it?

Just an ordinary, run of the mill air vent. Wouldn't it be nice if more ordinary, mundane objects could be designed with a little more beauty.

On a clear night

What's this?

In Greenwich they make the Prime Meridian come to life by illuminating it's path with a green laser. From the Observatory all the way across to the other side of the Thames. Apparently it's visible for ten miles on a clear night.

Brilliant.

A Tale of Two Studios

I’ve just read a fascinating article on the AGDA website. (AGDA stands for the Australian Graphic Design Association.) You will especially find this interesting if you run a design consultancy.

The article is a comparison of the organisational structures of Pentagram and Wolff Olins. It was written by Lucy Elliot in 1999. Lucy won some sort of prize (I think) to visit these consultancies and write this article.

Obviously Pentagram is organised around the Partners and Wolff Olins is run like most companies with Managers, Managing Director and Chairman etc. She says that Pentagram’s organisational structure is like a spiders web with the partner acting as the big spider in the middle. Wolff Olins’ structure is like a net with all the employees joined together like the links of the net.

About Pentagram Lucy asks, “whether the partnership is equipped to take on the future.” She writes, “one former designer suggests that ‘it should die peacefully. It has made its mark’”.

“The problem at the moment is that while the Pentagram is struggling to find new partners to fit this culture, the existing partners are clinging to old views.”

About Wolff Olins she writes, “The culture is based around the task which respects the contributions and talent of individuals.”

“Wolff Olins has weathered its maturity and is currently in a rejuvenation phase.”

“The latest source of culture comes from the new. New leaders, new clients and new employees. This shows an invigorated team progressing confidently without the founders.”

Interesting isn’t it? Especially as that article was written in 1999. Surely Wolff Olins’ fortunes have declined since then whilst Pentagram’s haven’t risen but have stayed largely the same. This is the secret of Pentagram’s success. Year after year fashionable design companies come and go, hot shots get cold and stars fade. Pentagram keeps going. Still number 1 in that creativity chart Design Week do. Still winning D&AD awards. Still winning the big projects we’d all love to work on.

I’m biased because I love Pentagram (I think of them like The Beatles) but I do know people who have worked there and hated it. I know people find them old fashioned and I know some of the partners can be bloody minded.

So read the article and decide what you think.

You can read it here online or you can download it as an rtf here. The rtf is better because the web text is quite hard to read.

No Foreign Objects

You know, like baguettes or espradrilles.

E Ink

E Ink. Does anyone have any experience of this?

Apparently it's a form of screen technology that make reading a screen as good as reading paper. You don't have issues with direct light etc etc. Sony use it for their new E-book reader. I'd love to see one.

Has anyone ever seen one? Is it any good?

Standard 'graphic designer in car with digital camera' photos

Does this turn you on?

If you're a graphic designer, or if you want to be a graphic designer, or if you want to be a better graphic designer, then this picture should give you a warm feeling inside.

As you know, I passionately believe designers should care most about ideas. But in your armoury you need to have a knowledge and a love of type.

This is from the Design Museum's current exhibition, Designer of the Year. The Guardian is nominated for the prize and on display are whole sheets of different fonts, whole sheets where they've altered the kerning by 0.1 each time, whole sheets where the leading has changed just a fraction.

Sheets of colours with every tint from 100% to 1%. Contrasting colours, complimentary colours, text out of the colours. All the stuff they needed to work through to get the new design to work.

It's fascinating and all that type looks gorgeous. Go and visit.

Mind thegap

Great poster on the Underground.

Good, simple, witty graphics. It communicates. If I was an in house designer at the Underground I'd be banging these little babies out day after day after day.

(Photo nicked from AnnabelB. As usual I'll take it down if you're not happy.)

Nike and Da Vinci are searching for something

Three things I hear a lot about Google.

1. They're over valued.
2. You can't run a business based on an advertising sales model.
3. How are they going to increase revenue?

I think these two fascinating tie ups might have some of the answers.

One is with Nike, the other is with the new Da Vinci Code film. I'll leave you to read what Google says below, and I'll let you investigate the sites and have a play. But two things strike me immediately.

1. These sites contain a lot of Google furniture/branding/look and feel. Which is slightly odd, especially for a big visual brand like Nike. Maybe it tells you something about the power of Google? 

2. These partnerships are a lot more sophisticated than anything MSN or AOL or Yahoo would do. Miles better. That tells you about the cleverness of Google.

I'm pretty excited by these. This stuff is going to be really important, really soon.

The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google

Together with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Google is promoting the
upcoming film "The Da Vinci Code" through a time-limited interactive
contest on the Google personalized homepage. This began on April 17,
and each day until May 11, Google will release one Da Vinci Code-style
puzzle or riddle. Finalists then compete on May 19, the date of the
film release. To enter the contest, sign in to your Google account and
add the Da Vinci Code Quest module to your Google homepage. You will
see a new puzzle to complete each day at 1 p.m. EDT. The first 10,000
participants who correctly solve all 24 daily puzzles and submit a
completion form will win a replica of the cryptex described in Dan
Brown's book, and use the tool to compete in the final phase of the
contest (five more time-sensitive puzzles). The grand prize winners in
the U.S., the U.K., and Australia will win trips to the film premiere.

Go here to register and play: http://www.google.com/davincicode

Joga.com

In partnership with Nike, Google has introduced Joga.com, an online
community for people crazy about football, or soccer as it's known in
the U.S. Joga combines Google technology with Nike's unique sports
content and access to players and brings people all over the world
together to celebrate their shared passion for the game. Joga members
can build their own groups and clubs, share all kinds of
football-related information, upload photos and video, and organize and
give updates on local matches and events. Members keep current with
Friend Requests, Alerts, and Messages. And in the coming months, Google
and Nike will be bringing out more tools and features to help Joga
members embrace their love of football in this global online setting.
By the way, the name comes from the Portuguese phrase "Joga Bonito" or
"play beautiful." http://www.joga.com

Marketing strategy makes front page news

You've probably heard on the news today that BA is reducing it's prices. You couldn't really miss it, it featured in pretty much all of the BBC's radio and TV bulletins, on the website and loads of other media.

Why is this news? BA have had price cuts before, and Ryanair and Easyjet do cheaper flights. The flights aren't free or anything radical, just a bit cheaper. Not even that cheap, does anyone find a £29 flight to Europe that amazing? With Ryanair you can fly to Verona for 79p! Amsterdam for £20 with Easyjet.

So what's all the fuss about? Why did a company's marketing strategy make the top of a state broadcaster's news agenda?

Jane Lloyd - a life through type

The video to David Gray's latest single, Alibi, is gorgeous. It tells the story of a girl (Jane Lloyd) through the typography of her name.

Watch it here. (The song is bollocks, but the video is great.)

"These days I get up at 8 and then write until lunch. Then it's time to get drunk."

Sir John Mortimer

So it was Interbrand...

Remember this?

It was them.

A graphic designer must be able to do 4 things

1. Have ideas.

2. Make those ideas happen.

3. A whole bunch of designery stuff.

4. Draw.

Number 1 is harder than you might think. Everyone has ideas, but your job is to have ideas on demand and to share those ideas with everyone else. People will try and restrict you to "good ideas" only. Don't fooled. There are no good or bad ideas. There are ideas that never went anywhere and there are ideas that you made happen, which brings me on to point Number 2.

Back in the days when Macs began to invade design studios people used to say that now everyone can use a DTP programme all that separates designers from computer operators are ideas. Wrong. As I've said, everyone has ideas. (Remember that birthday cake your mum made? Remember those wedding invites your sister-in-law made? How many clients come to you with an idea they just need artworking? A lot I'll guess.) What separates you from the others is that you can make an idea happen. You can stick with it through the bad times, you can defend it against internal and external forces. You know when to stop. You can make it happen.

I'll admit Number 3 sounds odd. But having been able to do the above you still need to be able to do all the other stuff. You need to know what kerning is, and why it is. You need to understand colours, contrast, impact and space. You need to be able to make marks on things, whether it's a screen, a piece of paper or a tablet of stone. And you need to be able to present. You need to be able to read a train timetable and a map. You need to be able to tell the time and to count. You need to remember people's names. You need to know how to turn a Mac on. And a PC. Without any help.

And yes, you need to be able to draw. Drawing teaches you so much about space, contrast, light and dark, mark making. It teaches you useful things like chiaroscuro and the golden section. It teaches you about yourself. You can do it anywhere, on anything, about anything. And if you don't do it, or you can't do it, I won't give you a job.

And now you're going to ask me which is the most important?

That's easy. Number 4.

BRAND

"People who look like they may have an accordion at home"

I'v ejust been reading this survey about the Tube. Did you know that 5% of Londoners find the most  irritating about other people on the Tube is people "People who look like they may have an accordion at home".



What on earth is that about? What does someone who looks like "they may have an accordion at home" look like? Any ideas?

To the Science Museum and beyond!

There is an exhibition celebrating 20 years of Pixar at the Science Museum. I think I need to sit down.

I love Pixar. The films are amazing. Story, wit, laugh out loud humour, breath taking animation - that goes without saying. But it's the attention to detail I love. They take the time to do all the extra stuff that really matters. Like George Lucas did once, like Disney did many, many moons ago. And they ooze ideas and I love that too.

Take a look at the navigation for the corporate bit of their website.

See the boring old guy for Investor Relations? Magic.

Take a look at the page that shows trailers.

Notice the little EXIT symbol bottom right? What a lovely attention to detail. Someone cares about that page.

When I was writing this post I went online and watched the trailer for their latest film Cars. I was taking a screen shot when I noticed this sign.

I didn't notice that on the trailer, and you probably won't notice it when you're watching the film (it flashes by too quickly). But someone still put it there. Brilliant.

Go and see the exhibition, I'm going. (For my American friends the exhibition is on at the MOMA.)