Noisy Decent Graphics

50 good pieces of design advice

 

You may have already seen this as it got retweeted a lot last week. But in case you haven't, Jamie has complied a splendid list of 50 Things Every Graphic Design Student Should Know. Jamie says,

"From speaking to friends, colleagues and recalling my own experiences I’ve complied The 50, a list of 50 things I believe every graphic design student should know on leaving college. Some of these points are obvious, others less so – but all are brief, digestible nuggets of wisdom that will hopefully go some way to making the transition from graduate to designer a little bit smoother."

It's good. Pop over here and have a read.

An opportunity missed?

Above is a selection of newspaper front pages the day after the Royal Wedding. Interestingly there is nothing much to report - they're all pretty much the same.

Apart from the Times they've all gone for the same picture. No-one has tried anything unusual, nothing graphic.

I suppose the job of a newspaper on a day like this is almost to give you the picture you expect. The shot most people would like on the front page is The Kiss. I wonder what the sales have been like these last few days. I bought these in a supermarket where they were running out fast. It was about 11am and the shop assistant said they'd sold out of papers the day before and they were pretty close to selling out on that day.

The Times deserves some credit for trying a more interesting shot. I love the approach but I'm not sure it works to be honest. I've been a bit unfair to the others by showing the front and back of the paper. The actual front page looks like this.

Doesn't quite work as well. Seems to miss the red, somehow.

The Indy, of course, tried this Tracey Emin exclusive which I think is an abysmal failure.

I really like the idea, but I don't think it works. Sure, there are newspapers and readers who aren't interested in the Royal Wedding but in that case why not leave it off the front page. Or just treat it like a normal, fairly large, news story which is what the Guardian have done.

A fairly conservative, slighlty dull, set of front pages. An opportunity missed I feel.

Oxford Street

The other day I was walking down Oxford Street when shuffle threw up Oxford Street by Everything But The Girl.

That was a nice break, wasn't it?

Back to normal tomorrow.

Newspaper Club now available in American flavour

Oh yeah. Read more.

D&AD Judging this week #dandad2011

Picture from Sandoz.

It's D&AD judging this week.

Many  of the judges tweet you can follw them using the hashtag #dandad2011. Obviously you won't find out what's won (the judges won't know that this week, voting is in secret). But it should be interesting.

Olympic Clock remix

I popped down to Tralagar Square today to take a look at the Olympic Clock.

It's been vandalised, presumably during the march on Saturday. Unless it's all the people from the comments thread on the Creative Review blog who really hate the logo.

 

I'm pretty strongly against vandalism. It's what stops me from liking graffiti as much as other graphic designers (NB I'm not saying graffiti is necessarily vandalism , that's a whole other blog post for another time). But in a weird way these paint splashes make the clock look better. They almost look part of the branding.

Good colour choices. Makes it feeling exciting. Adds movement.

 

The clock itself is actually pretty dull. The steel seems old and tired. The shape ought to be exciting but it doesn;t come across that way. It doesn't really fit in Trafalgar Square. It feels small, both physically and conceptually.

But that's the problem with this damn logo isn't it - all the executions are weak. I love that logo I really do, but it' so hard when all the supporting stuff seems to lack the energy and boldness of the original concept.

And the typography. Jesus Christ the typography.

 

 

 

 

Windows in the Design Museum

Went to the Design Museum the other day. Designs of the Year, very good. Small, you know, all the usual Design Museum criticism. But look! THEY HAVE FOUND SOME WINDOWS!

Who knew they had windows?

So much better.

 

Massive Happy Things - like a rubber duck?

Yes. Exactly like that. As pointed out by Alex in the comments.

Trench Signs

We went to the Imperial War Museum at the weekend. It was brilliant, as usual.

Lots of good Flickr fodder for graphic designers. Like these intriguing 'Trench Signs'.

I couldn't help thinking if they did signs like that today they would all be A4 print outs.

Massive happy things on the landscape

I always wish there were more massive happy things (MHT) on the landscape.

I saw these on the Dentsu Dark Matter email this week. Aren't they fantastic? Don't they make you smile?

From Pink Tentacle

I love the Angel of the North.

By I like

I don't love it because of the regeneration or regional pride it may represent. I don't love it because of it's artistic qualities. I just love it because Massive Happy Things look really cool from the train.

By rojabro

These crosswords in the Ukraine are amazing.

From The Telegraph

Recently there's been the Anthony McCall's Column of Cloud. A mile high! A mile!

Isn't it great?

The point I'm trying to make is that this stuff is great just beacause it looks cool. Just because it brings a smile to your face. Just because it brightens up a dull landscape. Massive Happy Things.

 

By blech

I wonder if this I why people always like ghost signs, the unexpected massiveness. The surprise of something artistic on the landscape. Something frivolous.

This is a terrible advert in every way. But in the closing scene - wouldn't it be great if there were more massive happy characters painted on buildings? That would be nice.

There's a bigger point in here about the responsibilty of those who create billboards, but that's for another time.

Wouldn't the world be a better place with these Massive Happy Things by the side of the motorway?

Forgive the Sunday night Photoshop.

Radio Roundabout Returns

Next Friday. Drive Time in Shoreditch. Breakfast Show in Cupertino. You will be able to listen by here.

Léa's drawing of me

This is what I looked like two years ago. So there you go.

This tshirt proves why councils and indeed many Government organisations shouldn't have "logos"

Fairtrade Fonts

I'm a big fan of Fairtrade. Paying and treating people fairly seems to be a much better standard to strive for than Organic, which always seems absolute bollocks to me.

Anyhow. It's Fairtrade Fortnight this week, which reminds me to write a post I've been meaning to write for the last 12 months in praise of the Fairtrade font.

Dan and Ray from w+k are the Creative Directors on the Fairtrade account. About a year ago, the people from the Guardian used to sit next to the Fairtrade people. When I was in I kept seeing gorgeous letter forms pinned up on the wall. This evolved into this typeface.

I'm sure you'll have seen that around.

Dan and Ray went to St Vincent to meet and talk to Fairtrade farmers and whilst there were struck by all the hand drawn type and the vibrant colours.

Gorgeous aren't they?

So they set to work with KJ, a designer at w+k, to try and create a font that captured that spirit. What they came up with is a series of letterforms cut by Paul Sharps and made into a proper font by Atomic. The stuff you see up there is actually based on three different fonts and works as a normal font, so anyone can use it for marketing materials or power point presentations or anything. Just type away. It's not a series of vectors. It's a font.

It's acted as glue that holds Fairtrade's comms together and it makes dry stats look interesting and engaging.

Really good isn't it? I love it. It's smart, fun, appropriate and well crafted. Lovely.

By the way, there is loads of stuff you can do to support Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight find out more here.

Ministry of Stories

I popped in to the Ministry of Stories yesterday. Lovely place, lovely people, good idea.

The things they sell are delightful. Alistair who designed this wonderful stuff, has a much better more detailed explanation over here.

Looking for women?

Or maybe you just want to keep your neck warm. Introducing Curious Scarves.

Good advice

In 2011, the things speak back to you

As Matt points out, Beer does it.

Cars do it.

And let's not forget the monkey with 30 behaviours.

Paper Watch

We've had great fun this morning artworking our own watches.

Paper Watch by Suck UK (natch) is a great little idea. Made from that tough paper you get on nightclub wristbands, it's surprisingly practical.

I made an Asterix and Obelix watch, 'Asterix Tells The Time'.

At just £7.50 they make great gifts. IMHO.