Christopher Doyle Brand Guidelines

Written about in this months Creative Review are the Christopher Doyle Brand Guidelines. A Sydney based Graphic Designer Chris Doyle has produced a brand manual for himself, looking at colours, graphic elements, spacing and even sustainability.

The document has a strong sense of humour and a definite "I wish I had done that" factor.

If you want to download the PDF you can do so from this link:

http://bbdk.com/christopher_doyle_guidelines.pdf

Plus Design Festival in Birmingham

I attended the Plus Design Festival on Friday in Birmingham. The 'event' was small, but included some interesting workshops and design work. It was great to see students get involved with a 'hands-on' approach to typography by experimenting with some letterpress letterforms. Unfortunately there was no printing press, but the process of inking the letters and printing with them made a few people realize the expressive nature of craft again. The amount of ink, bleed and the how the ink transfered to the paper all made for a more tactile design.




It was great to see Gabriel from Hummerstone doing some actual stone carving. He hand rendered the letterforms over the course of the event and began carving them in slate for a headstone for John Baskerville as part of the Baskerville Project. A real craftsman at work. (see image below)







The highlight was Jamie Wieck from Airside talking about the trials and tribulations of designing their new brand logo and the new 'greener' promotional items. It was certainly an eye opener, considering how many designs and variation they went through before ending up with the final solution. The thinking was clever and it was great to see all the 'rough' designs to see the routes through and working processes. I have asked Jamie if he will give the same talk at the University and he has agreed, schedule permitting so watch this space for a guest lecture.

I for one am very pleased I attended, even though I got lost trying to navigate the Birmingham motorway systems. Pleased to see so many of NTU's level 3 students were there and also Laura Andrews from Level 2, who was an event volunteer and did a great deal of valuable networking. Good luck with pursuing the Airside Japanese work placement.

Cheeky brand concept

Came across this cheeky new brand concept today and thought it may provide some inspiration for how a simple title can be taken in very interesting ways. The identity has not only been applied to the product and some 'normal' promotion but also ambient media such as store shutters. (See below)

The following description is lifted from the product website

The Snog name, coined by ico, is derived from ‘Snow & Yogurt’ and is the perfect solution for a bold, young, urban and British brand. In effect, the name informed the entire creative concept. A fun and infectious copy-led approach followed. Bright pop colours and an edgy typographic style completed the brand.

ico are also working with Cinimod Studio on the shop interiors which will see the use of striking original illustrations, again created inhouse by ico. The brand will be a applied to variety of applications and merchandise which includes: Shop facia, interior murals, menuboards, graphic lightboxes, product cups, customer information cards, tee shirts and badges.

www.ifancyasnog.com

Featured elsewhere

www.cinimodstudio.com/snog
www.weheartstuff.co.uk

Future Brands Competition

Students in Level 3 were asked to complete the "Future Brands" competition as part off their first task. They were given 1 week. The brief asks students to consider how brands may shape and re-invent themselves for the year 2020.

Here are some of the proposed solutions.

Matt Savage

Eleanour Hammond-Warren

Sophia Copley

Arun Golia

Brianna Wozny

Zoe Lines

Ravi Gopar and Kamran Khanalvi

Also look at the animation at: www.kamran-khanalvi.co.uk/fta.html

Jack Larner

David Rudge

Font Conference

This little movie was sent to me by a friend. I thought it was an interesting if not 'nerdy' piece that may get thinking about typographic personalities in a different way. Type can be fun!

Blurb

Make your own books with Blurb. It's really easy. My former colleague and friend at Ravensbourne, Finola Gaynor, put me onto to the site, it is so easy to use you just drag and drop your photos. Select your layouts and bang in the text. Upload it to the server and then order as many copies as you like.

The software is free to download. Once you have uploaded your book you can order as many copies as you want. Prices begin as little as £6.95 for a 40 page soft cover. You can also design in a variety of sizes, in both hardcover with dust jacket and soft cover.

Check out the website: http://www.blurb.com

I have uploaded a book of my friends Dermot and Anne's kids – Grace, Seamus and Kate.

The other site to have a look at is Lulu.com/uk. They perform a smilar function, but you can also do black and white perfectly bound books with just text from as little as £3.80

Ireland 2008

By by Andy Ellison

Book Preview

Plus+ Design Festival

The Plus+ Design Festival begins on 5th and ends on 8th November. It has a selection of exhibitions and lectures a workshop and even a walking tour.
Tickets for the full event are £40 (£25 with your NUS card) One day tickets are £15 (£10 with your NUS card)

Famous designers speaking include:
Jonathan Barnbrook,
Studio Output,
Airside,
and Designers Republic.

Well worth a look.

For full listings visit the website: http://www.youplusus.net/plus_international_design_expo_home.html

Graphics Social

There is a Graphic Design Social Gathering for all levels.
For details see image below:

The Liverpool Design Symposium

Nike Own The Sky by Universal Everything

Liverpool is hosting its first Design Symposium on Thursday 23rd October at St. Georges Hall. The event begins at 1:00pm, with the last speakers beginning at 7:00pm. D&AD are participating in the event and doing a student awards talk, showcasing some winning work.

Tephra Font by Dalton Maag

For the typographic nuts among you, Bruno Maag of 

Dalton Maag will be speaking in the afternoon.

Matt Pike of Universal Everything will be headling the show.

For more information checkout the website http://www.liverpooldesignsymposium.com/

The first posting

This blog will feature information from, to and about Graphic Desgn at Nottingham Trent University. Hopefully it will be a forum for people to share work, talk about design and designers and generally inspire each other.
To kick off here are details about the latest competition briefs.

D&AD (Designers and Art Directors)
A selection of projects covering mainly advertising based briefs, but also including typography and packaging. Available from 15 Oct.
http://www.dandad.org/

ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers)
The student assessment scheme projects look more into the typographic approach to design. The briefs are varied, but have very specific submission requirements.
Available to download at:
http://www.istd.org.uk/flash_content/index.htm

Mpa Roses
The Roses is a competition for those colleges north of the M25, so no Saint Martins type here!
Usually very open briefs sometimes only a sentence long, the prize is a placement with the agency who wrote the brief. Check them out at:
http://www.thedrum.co.uk/events/55-mpa-roses-student-creativity-awards-2009/categories/
RSA (Royal Society of Arts) Design Directions Projects
For those of you with a more ethical 'bent'. The RSA tackle major issues such as sustainability and recylcling. Projects are very intellectual and challenging.
Take a look at:
http://www.rsadesigndirections.org/
Finally YCN