October 2011
1 post
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round...”
– Here’s To The Crazy One | TechCrunch
August 2011
1 post
“In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved...”
– Anarchy reigns and a nation struggles to understand why
June 2011
0 posts
“Brands need to become cultural artifacts rather than existing in vacuumed silos...”
– Brands Belong in Culture, Not Categories - colindrummond’s posterous
“I enjoy taking a contrarian position when writing here. Mostly because I work in...”
– Ana Andjelic
December 2010
1 post
Opinion: Trust
There’s one thing you can never have too much of in the design process. Sometimes there can be ‘too many cooks‘ — by that I mean there are too many designers, too many people all chipping in. Sometimes there can even be too much creative freedom — if there’s two words I can’t stand at the beginning of the creative process, they’re ‘Open Brief’. Do whatever I want? WHAT! Tell me the constraints,...
November 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Reviewed: SECCA by Pentagram (Luke Hayman)
Following is a review originally posted on Brand New.
SECCA, or the South Eastern Centre Contemporary Art, is a contemporary art centre in North Carolina. Originally founded in 1956, the organization really got going in 1976 thanks to a philanthropic bequest of industrialist James G Hines’s 32-acre estate. In 2010, after an extensive renovation, they turned toPentagram partner Luke Hayman for a...
4 tags
Reviewed: W's new W
Following is a repost of my review of the W Magazine redesign for Brand New
W magazine, first published in 1971, is a monthly American fashion magazine, published by Condé Nast. Its average reader is female, mature and lives in a household with yearly income of $135,840. In response to declining circulation figures, Condé Nast hired Stefano Tonchi creator and editor of the highly regardedT: The...
“‘Ask a toad what is beauty… He will answer that it is a female with two great...”
– Typotheque: Cult of the Ugly by Steven Heller
Observed: Game Mechanics
Now, let me clarify, I’m not completely behind the eight ball here. I first saw this video, with it’s bizarre vision of a futuristic social-game enabled world, about a year or so ago, I can’t be certain. But it has stuck with me, and stuck with me, and, well, stuck with me. Indeed, I’ve even given thought to how game mechanics could be applied to the design studio...
October 2010
9 posts
“When you scratch the surface you see the depth of the intellectual problem...”
– Steve Jobs on Paul Rand via YouTube
Opinion: Where Gap Went Wrong
Following is my opinion piece for Logo Design Love, discussing where and how the Gap rebrand went wrong, and lessons for anyone tackling a future branding endeavour.
What an exciting life the new Gap logo led. It snuck up on us, as if to pleasantly surprise us. Next, it got to experience the heady cut and thrust if the online design world via blogs and Twitter, where it gained multiple...
“Well, a lot of practical problems root in sloppy semantics gone wild”
– @iA (Oliver Reichenstein)
4 tags
Opinion: Copying is not theft
My little experiment with posting up that video worked, and got a bit of back n forth going on the Twitters (thanks to those that engaged in the debate). It was a bit of a red herring - the thing is designers don’t copy - they plagiarise. There’s a difference!
Copying, as the video playfully demonstrated, is simply making more copies of a thing, and whilst a music label or movie...
“Design is a method for solving problems, not just the act of creating stuff. I’m...”
– The democratization of craft - People Design
“Maybe Gap should have consulted consumers from the very beginning. More than...”
– Logo-Change Hoopla Boils Down to Perception Gap - Advertising Age - News
“Strong creative plays a more important role than media plans in boosting sales,...”
– Creative plays central role in campaign success - Warc News - Warc
6 tags
Opinion/Review: Rebranding of the 'why bother'...
I thought I’d fire off a quick opinion/review double header on the newly launched Gap rebrand during my lunch break. So here it is: Epic Fail. I just can’t see the logic here. Granted, this post isn’t up to my usual researched and meticulously crafted level (ha ha) but I just can’t see the point. Why do they want to look like American Apparel, a brand that had been...
September 2010
6 posts
5 tags
Opinion: Here's to the Mentors.
Years ago, in my second job, and still a rough round the edges junior, my Creative Director emailed the above to me. Back then, googling wasn’t particularly good at finding stuff, so I was at a loss to know what it was. He wasn’t around to ask, but this struck a chord in me. I copy–pasted the text into illustrator and set it in a nice typeface, printed and mounted it. The next day i...
2 tags
“Is there anything that you haven’t done that you want to do?
Massimo...”
– Interview with Massimo Vignelli: Observatory: Design Observer
3 tags
Opinion: The Rollercoaster
Earlier this week, I had one of those days. Was in nice and early to put the finishing touches on a presentation. Three options for a rebranding job, all looking pretty as a picture and ready to go. Quick review with my boss, his input and final touches, done and dusted. We had our Monday morning studio WIP, everything seemingly under control.
Had a few last minute tweaks after the WIP, the...
5 tags
Review: iTunes10 icon by Apple
Following is my review of the controversial Apple iTunes 10 icon, posted on Brand New.
On the 13th of July 1998, Jeff Robbin, Bill Kincaid, and Dave Heller released the first version of SoundJam MP. Two years later, the developers of SoundJam sold their software to Apple, and continued development (in secrecy, as is typical of Apple) of the software for the Cupertino based company. In 2001,...
4 tags
Review: QR National by Cornwell
Following is a repost of my review of QR National for Brand New.
QR National is a soon to be listed public company that owns and operates Australia’s largest rail freight network. In a country that is the world’s largest exporter of coal, it’s not surprising that QR National is also the world’s largest transporter of the dirty rocks. In a big brown land, with big brown trains, from the state of...
4 tags
Observed: Speed Creating
I noticed this on the blog Variations on Normal. Liked the concept and wondering if I might give it a go myself. My favourite sort of creativity is this sort of humble, gestural form — especially in the arts where a small action creates something engaging, moving or memorable.
The observationalist nature of the work, seeing potential in the mundane, is particularly enjoyable. It’s a...
August 2010
8 posts
3 tags
“No weight, nor mass, nor beauty of execution can outweigh one grain or fragment...”
– John Ruskin (via juvenilia)
“Prior to the 20th century, society was generally preoccupied with the past,...”
– The New Now: How Real Time Redefines the Now (via Giga Om) (via vasilikaliman)
5 tags
Opinion: Australian advertising in it's salad...
Just pulling together a bunch of videos in one place as research for a piece I am writing for the Talk section of Australian Infront. Recently, a colleague (a Pom) derided ‘typical’ Aussie advertising as being shouty power point ads, I was quite stung by the comment and leapt to it’s defense, putting forth Meadow Lea, World Series Cricket and others, as my evidence. I put forth...
4 tags
Opinion: Passion sells
Recently I was out to dinner with some good friends. We’d happened upon a rather well regarded restaurant in Sydney, Red Lantern, and were lucky enough to get a table, just walking in off the street (places like this, that never happens). Settling down to order, the general consensus is none of us were that hungry, and we’d simply order a few entrees to share, a few mains to share,...
4 tags
Reviewed: Re: & M&C Saatchi create brand Abu Dhabi
Followining is my review of Brand Abu Dhabi posted on Brand New.
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However you may be more familiar with theworld’s-tallest-tower-building, 7-star-hotel-opening, artificial-islands-in-the shape-of-a-world-map-making, or palm-creating lunacy of Dubai, the more famous of the two UAE cities. But Abu Dhabi is the capital of the intricately...
“It was so vicious purely because the stakes were so small.”
– Twitter user Emma, predictably describing academics arguing.
4 tags
Opinion: I am Specialised...
A post on Mumbrella & Campaign brief, about the new branding for the National Gallery of Australia by Naked, got me thinking last night. At first I was, rightfully, repulsed by the awful logo. I knocked them for not ‘sticking to their knitting’.
But then I realised i’d used the exact same phrase Telstra’s CEO used in dismissing Apple’s iPhone - yikes. It got me...
Transmission will resume...
Yikes! I fell off the wagon. Haven’t blogged for, well, a while. But there’s some posts coming this week, I promise*…
* Not an actual promise.
June 2010
7 posts
3 tags
Opinion: No one ever built a statue to a critic.
Critique. It’s a critical aspect of our profession, and something easily misunderstood by a general audience. It’s something I was reminded of, quite viscerally, the other day when reading the comments feed on my review of Brand Sydney on Brand New. Much to my surprise, a representative of Brand Sydney waded into the comment stream, with this rather interesting comment (after the jump).
Hey...
6 tags
Opinion: Who's the boss?
Following is my inaugural ‘Talk’ posted on Australian Infront, for which I have become a regular columnist.
Have you ever wondered what the MOST important decision in any design process is? I can hear the print designers yelling out “it’s the format, saddle stitched or perfect bound!” and I can hear some web guys saying “flash or html”. Well in my...
3 tags
“he asked Rich Silverstein if the work on the table was truly the best work...”
– What Jon Steel said that stuck | The Account Planning Group (APG)
3 tags
“Aol. isn’t just a logo change, it was a wholesale change in philosophy, taking...”
– The Society Of The Spectacle » Blog Archive » BRAND EVOLUTIONS.
4 tags
“She was confused. She couldn’t understand how one of the nicest jobs in the...”
– Chris Doyle blogging for Australian Creative: Chat Back: I am terrified of graphic design
4 tags
Reviewed: Brand Sydney by Moon
Following is my review of Brand Sydney, first published on Brand New.
Sydney is a city of 4.5 million people in Australia, it has a beautiful harbour in the middle, mountains to the west and dozens of beautiful beaches on its eastern coast. Unfortunately a common critique of the city is that these beautiful surroundings mean it spends too much time on leisurely pursuits at the expense of deep...
6 tags
Opinion: Why arguing with clients can be ok.
The legal profession runs on a principle called the adversarial system. Put simply, the idea is to have the lawyers representing each party go hard at it, in the belief that justice is best served by having two parties trying in earnest to win the argument. If the prosecution lawyer is rubbish, the crook gets off. The defense lawyer may know his/her client is guilty, but their job is to defend,...
May 2010
6 posts
3 tags
“As you stroll the halls of an ad agency you often encounter people wearing...”
– The Ad Contrarian: Why Creatives Are Always Confused
5 tags
Opinion: Interruption and intimation, flushing...
It started innocently enough - a few days ago with one of my students from UTS. In our afternoon studio class we were discussing their latest brief, to design a poster promoting a typography conference. One of the students had an idea to produce a poster of very bad typographic crimes, something that would repulse the target audience of graphic designers - thus gaining their attention through...
4 tags
Reviewed: Brand Australia by M&C Saatchi
Following is my review of Brand Australia, first published by Brand New.
Brand Australia was conceived by the Federal Government of Australia as a four-year program to position Australia internationally as not just a pleasant place to holiday, barbeque shrimp and wrestle crocodiles, but also a nice enough place to perhaps invest a few dollars. And that’s the key to understanding the place this...
2 tags
“It seems like there is so much to see on the internet. Hundreds of images on...”
– Design Blogs: The Vacuum of Enthusiasm: Observatory: Design Observer
4 tags
Review: Griffin Theatre Company by Interbrand,...
Following is my review of Griffin Theatre Company, first published by Brand New.
Griffin Theatre Company is a new writing theatre in Sydney, Australia — that is, it focuses on producing newly written, original plays. A risky venture in a world where producers can put the Wizard of Oz on stage Monday and order their yacht on Tuesday. Approaching thirty years in business and looking to refurbish...
5 tags
Hello, and welcome
Well it took a while (a few years in fact) but I have decided to have a serious go at writing a blog. Whether this format (a Tumblr) is the most appropriate is open to debate, but the platform is familiar so it is easy to get going.
If you came here in the hope of finding my ‘image dump’ goodness, please do head on over to “Clinton Duncan, Looking”.
So first up I’ll...