Logo Modernism

This fantastic new book by Jens Müller; 'Logo Modernism', recently caught my eye and is now at the top of my Christmas list! Published by Taschen the book features approximately 6000 trademarks/logo's, focusing on the forty-year period between 1940 to 1980.

Whist reading through the design press, this fantastic new book by Jens Müller; 'Logo Modernism', caught my eye and is now at the top of my Christmas list! 

Published by Taschen the book features approximately 6000 trademarks/logo's, focusing on the forty-year period between 1940 to 1980, a time where Paul Rand, Soul Bass and Massimo Vignelli were changing the industry with their modernist approach to corporate identity. The book is divided into three chapters; geometric, effect, and typographic and then broken down further into sub divisions for style and form. The book is set in three languages English, French and German and is available for pre-order through Amazon.com or the publisher Taschen, with the release date in November of this year.

Vintage & Rare Collection Of Beer Packaging

This wonderful collection of vintage and rare beer packaging from all over the world can be seen at the Wild Clover micro Brewery. A veritable feast for any branding and packaging designer/vintage packaging enthusiast like myself!

The owner Ampie Kruger kindly let me take these images of the full collection of labels whilst telling me the amazing story of how it was donated to him. Apparently the original collectors wife insisted that he give this incredible treasure away!!!

Wild Clover produces four wonderful beers that I can highly recommend: Double Owl English Brown Ale, Black Dog Smokey Irish Porter, Blind Mole Crispy German Pils and Eagle Weiss Fruity Belgian Wit.

You can visit Wild Clovers micro Brewery at: Wild Clover Farm, R304, Stellenbosch, Telephone: +27 (0)21-865-2248, www.cloverfarm.co.za

               

Annie Leibovitz & Jim Carrey - Vanity Fair White Cover Design

This is one of those cover designs that every now and then shoots into my head. I worked as an art editor for a publishing company for many years and I know firsthand the importance of a cover design to really scream out from the shelf. With so many magazines vying for real-estate why would anyone buy yours! In a sea of red and luminous colours this November 1999 cover for Vanity Fair resonated from the shelves by doing the exact opposite and being minimal.

 

The cover shot of actor Jim Carrey has him against a white background. The composition of the actor is from the waist up, he is unclothed but completely covered in white make-up, the only area of colour being the actors eyes and lips. The image was taken by Annie Leibovitz and the design compliments this stunning photography. In fact the design is so restrained in its use of colour that the cover lines are only visible by the use of a light grey shadow. For me a truly memorable cover.

Artist Builds A Car From 25,000 Cell Phones

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Taiwanese artist has spent the past four months working on a life-size car made out of 25,000 cell phones. Lin Shih-Pao has spent four years travelling the world, collecting old and discarded mobile phones for the work of art. The installation took four years to complete. The phones are are glues and nailed around an internal wooden frame. The artist created the piece of modern art as a way of spreading environmental awareness and is a statement on the importance of recycling electronic waste.

Channel 4 Rebrand

Channel 4 Rebrand from DBLG on Vimeo.

I am extremely excited about the new Channel 4 redesign. Above is the story in 01:16. 

The Channel 4 in-house team 4creative worked in collaboration with DBLG and SQUA for on-air package, Brody Associates for custom typefaces, and Jonathan Glazer for dents.

  

 

City Of Cape Town - I have A Drug Problem Campaign

This fantastic poster campaign by King James for the city of Cape Town was launched last year and features a number of well known local personalities, including singer Jimmy Nevis, DJ Ian Bredenkamp, comedian Siv Ngesi and even the Mayor Patricia De Lille (to name just a few) in a fight against substance abuse. I'm a great supporter of this campaign. Its strong photography and use of bold clean typography is brilliant, but like the celebrities, I also have a problem but mines not a drug related one, but instead to do with the posters copy writing...



In the posters the personalities state their name and that they "have a (serious) drug problem" or "I'm putting an end to my drug problem". For me the double entendre would of worked better if they would of stated that "I have a (serious) problem with drugs" or "I'm putting an end to my problem with drugs". I know it's a subtle change, but it just plays on me each time I see it, which I don't want to happen as I really support everything else about the campaign. That said, the posters do make you look twice so they are certainly working.

In addition, I am glad to report that this campaign has been a super success with a marked increase in people requesting assistance with substance abuse in the Western Cape since it's launch in March.

Click here to read more about this great campaign.

Facebook Face Lift Addresses Gender Equality

Facebook has a new corporate identity designed in collaboration with it's in house team and Process Type Foundry’s Eric Olson. Although the new brand mark is a subtle move on there are a number of changes. Generally the characters are a lot more rounded (especially the ‘e’ and ‘o’). The original logos 'f' and 'a' worked together whereas the new logo has a single story ‘a’, The ‘b’ now has a prominent stem and overall its less bold in weight than the original.
This revised brand mark replaces the original logo designed in 2005 by Joe Kral and Cuban Council, which used Process Type Foundry’s font Klava as a starting point. You can read more at Under Consideration's website Brand New by clicking here.

Another of Facebook's iconic logos which is also changing is the small friends icon. The image of a man and a woman that sits in the corner of the sites pages will soon look different thanks to the company’s in house designer Caitlin Winner.

The previous logo of the woman’s silhouette behind that of a man will soon switch around. Furthermore the original logo has the woman smaller, whereas the new icon now has them equal in size. There’s also some new detailing to the characters shape and to their hairstyles. Winner comments that the woman’s hairstyle of the original logo resembled a “ Darth Vader-like helmet.”

Click here to read npr.org article, which features more from Caitlin Winner and the icons recent change.