Designers Journal | A chronicle of jottings, doodles & boutique design treats

Container branding goes global {Nicknack}

11/03/2013

by LWC

News

Our friends over at Adelaide based Nicknack have been rather quiet of late, and we recently found out why, they’ve been busy scooping up international gongs that’s why! To be more specific, Nicknack‘s work for transport and logistics company SFC did the scooping over at the 2013 Rebrand 100 awards. In their own words, Nicknack describe the challenge…

“Although SCF Group had grown into a leading organisation within the Australian Transport & Logistics sector, customers perceived its business units as being completely separate entities. The challenge was to create a more cohesive corporate identity that would unite all units, allowing the group greater visibility, while also increasing opportunities for cross sell within the units. Insights from stakeholder research enabled the client to rethink their organisational structure, so that the business units functioned as sibling divisions of the same parent organisation. This shift laid the foundation for the brand and communication strategy”.

And all this with an approachable tone of voice that communicates the core of the business in an engaging way, who knew containers could be this interesting eh!

www.nicknack.com.au @Nicknack_

Simplicity is luxury – Moving Brands flies high

06/03/2013

by STY

News

It seems to be a bit of a thing of late to rebrand an airlines. Over the past few months we’ve seen Someone help launch South African airline FastJet and American Airlines go through a mass overall courtesy of Futurebrand. Nestled amongst all that is a brand launch for an affordable new face in the private jet travel planning on changing the game when it comes to the epitome of luxury travel… introducing Blackjet.

Built on the idea that ‘First class isn’t just a cabin. It’s a lifestyle.’ Greenjet, the organisation behind the new company, brought on board the team at Moving Brand to position this potential disruptive new brand as it aims to take market share and attract more people into the luxury travel sphere. Moreover, with investment from media savvy celebrities Ashton Kutcher, Jay-Z and Will Smith you could expect the end product to be of exceptional quality.

Moving Brands execution can be summed up by the words simplicity-as-luxury. The crafted curves of the Blackjet identity carefully plays with the notions of both negative and positive face. Abstracting out the ‘B’ deliveries the expression of movement with the carefully considered angles and fluidity of the shape itself. The clever aspect of it is that it appears too simple that it must have been used before.

The sharp lines of the icon against the monochromatic colour palette are reflected in the choice of typeface. The subtle monoline appearance of the Knul family perfectly compliments the brand and strikes an elegant figure when used in the three letter configurations of the airport codes.

Moving Brands’ expertise shines through when it comes to taking brands through all the touch points in particular their understanding of the end user. Referring back to their original concept ‘simplicity is luxury’ MB approached the digital side of the brand in an intuitive fashion. Their findings revealed that what high-value consumers truly want was a hurdle-free instant gratification. Simply put: they want what they want when they want it. Through seamless design and a pared-down, no-frills interface, simplicity is luxury. Step up one hotly anticipated App who’s user interaction puts the easy of purchasing tickets elegantly in the hand of the consumer.

Read more about the project over on the Moving Brand website.

Bolu Tea {Curious Design}

04/03/2013

by LWC

News

Bolu are purveyors of fine quality tea, directly sourced from Fair Trade plantations in Darjeeling, North India. With a beauty like this on their hands, Curious knew it was time to call in the experts. Curious worked closely with Think Packaging on this project. After exploring many options, the packaging ninja came up with a revolutionary solution, which culminated in a perfect balance of aesthetics and function. Visually the pack is harmonious—due to the integration of flowing, curved lines that echo traditional Indian architecture. However form is nothing without function, so the true genius was ensuring that this unique pack was also cost effective to produce and easy to assemble. Curious then designed sumptuous iconography fused with a vibrant colour palette, to create a contemporary range of packs.

Check out the scrumptious Bolu below, followed up by a few fine examples of Think Packaging’s cardboard crafting genius—an under rated art in our books.

@curiousdesignNZ www.curious.co.nz www.thinkpack.co.nz

And some gems from Think Packaging’s portfolio of cardboard genius…

Strange Love {Marx Design}

28/02/2013

by LWC

Awesome agencies

Love is sometimes strange, I’m sure we all know that by now but what is StrangeLove? Well my friends, let me first set the scene. Marx Designwere tasked with packaging StrangeLove into a gift piece that cafe owners would want to display on their counter. The problem being, StrangeLove is in fact an energy drink. And we all know what that conjures up in a designers mind, 2 for $5 star bursts, bright shouty colours and vomit inducing graphics.Enter StrangeLove, the elixr of energy drinks. In their own words, “Most energy drinks make you look like you’ve been kissing your cousin under the bleachers at the Parramatta Speedway. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that). They scream premium but relentlessly hum Bon Jovi songs under their breath. Our packaging philosophy is simple—make something that people want to show their friends”.

The StrangeLove gift pack consists of one bottle of StrangeLove ginger beer energy elixir, one bottle opener with a love heart & a rat, metal straws, a cocktail straw, promotional cards about the product and a deck of illustrated playing cards illustrated by Colombian collage artist Randy Mora. The result, I think we can all agree, is strange but lovely.

www.marxdesign.co.nz @ryanthemarx

The Company You Keep {Melbourne}

19/02/2013

by DJ

Awesome agencies

Lovely trinkets from Melbourne gem The Company You Keep. Handsomely said from the horses’ mouth “from development and application to execution, we work with our clients to ensure their brand’s resonance and continued success, because you are the company you keep”. Nice, see what they did there?

Beautifully balanced layouts, finely poised typography and a wonderful arrangement of space give their work a lovely pace. Inhale. Exhale. Enjoy. Aaaah. There we go. Check them out n’ give them a wave…

Fb. tcykdesign / Tumblr

Dalton Maag and The LED Project reveal the new face of energy

18/02/2013

by DJ

News

Dalton Maag and São Paulo’s The LED Project have worked together to unveil a new custom face for the new approach to the identity of one of the largest energy companies in the world, Petrobras.

A household name in Brazil in Creative Director Fabio Haag‘s native Brazil, Petrobras has a presence in 28 different countries, and excitingly this is the first time during the 60 year history of the company that Petrobras has had its own, unique font. The new font family ties the brand elements together to form a consistent whole, unifying their identity across the company.

Now, I’m sure most of us worth our salt leave no stone unturned to ensure we present nothing but the most incredible work to a client, but incredibly Dalton Maag produced a total of 40 concepts which were then discussed with the LED Project and narrowed down to just six for presentation to Petrobras.

The new font, Petrobras Sans, is a confident sans serif typeface with a firm construction that suggests the solidity of a multinational business, whilst including a “softer human side”. Dalton Maag say “The terminals taper smoothly to create a more organic feel to the letter forms, which also adds individuality to the design. This difficult and interesting balance was created to reflect the human talent which Petrobras feels is one of the keys to the success of the company.”

Fabio Haag said: “All of us Brazilians at Dalton Maag are especially proud of being part of this project, and helping to create the new voice of Petrobras. The biggest challenge was to create a typographic concept with the unique personality of the brand, while keeping it extremely legible so that it would perform well at display and text sizes. It had to work for the complex range of applications used by Petrobras, from TV commercials to the gas stations and everything in between.”

Typically world class work from the London and Brazil-based type smiths, Petrobras Sans has wonderful kicks and foibles with some delightful ingredients that makes a fabulous balanced family. Read more here.

Tw. @DaltonMaag

Have No Fear {Pearlfisher}

17/02/2013

by LWC

Bookshelf

Pearlfisher is set to further celebrate it’s double decade of design with the launch of a book entitled ‘Have No Fear’.

The ‘Have No Fear’ book is a collaborative work that has been designed, written and produced by Pearlfisher’s studios in London and New York. It is a celebration of graphic design and is made of 20 powerful beliefs that have defined Pearlfisher as an agency over the last 20 years.

Each of the 20 beliefs are brought to life through graphic ideas using just two bold simple typefaces and two colours — black and white. ‘Have No Fear’ gives us a sneak peek into Pearlfisher’s culture as well as being a beautiful example of how a simple idea can be brought to life through design. Ultimately, the book gives a giant high five being brave, seeking out and creating the new while taking risks along the way.

Jonathan Ford, founding partner and chief creative officer at Pearlfisher who directed the project comments: “People have many theories as to why Pearlfisher is special but the one thing that unites us all is Design. Now, more than ever, the importance of great design in bettering lives everywhere cannot be underestimated”.

‘Have No Fear’ is a celebration of Pearlfisher, but importantly it is also a manifesto that champions risk takers. Those that challenge, discover and dream – and in doing so create change that makes the world a better place”.

The first limited edition run of ‘Have No Fear’ comes in a choice of four cover colours. To get your hands on a copy contact Nellie@pearlfisher.com

www.pearlfisher.com | @pearlfisherlive | @JForddesigns

More pictograms than you can shake a javelin at

17/02/2013

by DJ

News

It’s been suspiciously quiet on the SomeOne front so far this year after a flurry of big launches at the back end of last year. But concern yourself no more brand fans, they’re back with a bang and an explosive new identity for British Athletics.

Seizing on possibly the highest profile UK Athletics has enjoyed in many a year, what with those few weeks that happened in the summer and that, they identified a need to create a more consumer-focused identity that was able to attract and engage with new participants of the sport as well as those already familiar with athletics and the UK Athletics body. SomeOne seemed like a good fit, having won much acclaim for their Olympic pictograms.

As athletic organisations logos are often worn, on event clothing as well as training kit, the existing UK Athletics logo approach was felt better represented by a badge. A badge of athletic pride. As SomeOne co-founder Gary Holt states “A badge was created to bring together all of the diverse athletic disciplines. Something that could come to represent quality, confidence, expertise and pride – in all things athletic”.

The branding device of the badge is designed to work at both small sizes where the illustration makes a crest-like shape — and at large sizes where each of the sporting figures can be more clearly read. The leading symbol is detailed, but is designed to retain primary elements even at small sizes and in challenging applications such as stitched shirts and digital branded environments.

Individually these pictograms can be picked out in colour for each specific discipline, or even used as patterns themselves – increasing pride and relevance to all of the types of athletics, as well as building a broader brand world for all communications and events.

The new British Athletics logo is made up of 14 different “pictograms” each representing a different discipline within the sport and as Sophia Warner, British Athletics Commercial Director explains, the unique design has been created to reflect the diverse nature of athletics.

‘The development of the British Athletics brand gives the sport something really exciting and unique to work with, and opens up a world of opportunities for us to develop and increase the profile of the sport.’

As usual, read more words, see more pictures on this project here.