Design Good Design

I am sure that many of you already know that today is my last day with CTTC Design, before beginning an exciting new role in 2017, (more on this soon). When I left the UK for South Africa back in 2009, my brief was to help grow a fully operational design studio. It has taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears and I have loved every single second of it! I am so proud that today, not only have we achieved our objective, but I strongly believe that we have a world class design team with some of Cape Towns best packaging experts and many incredible business partners! After eight years of playing a role in the company’s incredible growth and six unforgettable years prior to that, at our UK partner 'Somerset Creative’, I am so honoured to have been part of this incredible journey and wanted to thank each and everyone of you, who has touched my life throughout this time! Thank you! Love and design... Do what you love and love what you do… Stay hungry and stay foolish... ------------------- B...

Many years ago, I travelled across the USA. It was an incredible experience that I will always cherish. Business has kept me traveling back and I have since designed branding and packaging for some of the countries largest retailers. One of my memories of my time traveling the US was the bright branding used by the many of fast food companies. Competition in the US was so much greater than that of the UK, where at the time I had travelled from. Now living in Cape Town many of the chains are starting to appear here. We recently saw the arrival of Dunk'in Donuts. I am not necessarily, someone that frequents fast food establishments, but the branding is of interest to me. I love how some are stooped in the history of 1950's America. I also love how they have subtly changed over the years. To read through some of my older posts, there are stories on the evolution of Burger King and Ihop. Taco Bell is another of the brands that I did not got to see, growing up in the UK. Back in 200...

World renown branding agency Interbrand, have redesigned their famous word-mark, in-house. Moving the design into a clean but simple use of Helvetica, this supports their new look website. You can read more about interbrand below and can visit the site by clicking here . More here: Matthijs van Leeuwen project page Johnny Trinh (website) project page About Interbrand (from their website) At Interbrand, we believe that growth is achieved when an organization has a clear strategy and delivers exceptional customer experiences. We do both, through a combination of strategy, creativity, and technology that helps drive growth for our clients’ brands and businesses. With a network of 24 offices in 19 countries, Interbrand is a global brand agency, and publisher of the highly influential annual Best Global Brands and Breakthrough Brands reports, and Webby Award-winning brandchannel . Interbrand is part of the Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC) network of agencies.

On world AIDS day, I thought that it would be a good oportunity to give a huge shout-out to the amazing work that Vince Frost and studio Frost Collective are doing with ACON, to end HIV by 2020 in Australia. I love big ideas and they don't come much bigger than this. Please support the fantastic work that they are doing. Click here to read more at the Frost Collective Website . More here! Image: Frost Collective Image: Frost Collective

For the past five years I have had the great pleasure of being selected as a mentor for the ico-D and Adobe design Achievement Awards . This year however, I had the added bonus of also being chosen as a pre selection judge! I really enjoy what the awards stand for and it always feels so good to be able to support young design talent! Below are some of the fantastic young/student designers that I discovered, whilst judging the awards. There's some amazing talent here! If your hiring new creatives I would certainly urge you to view some of these talented young design stars of tomorrow and please support the ADAA! https://www.behance.net/ gallery/35944337/COP-25- United-Nations-Climate-Change- conference https://www.behance.net/ gallery/27135599/environment https://www.behance.net/ gallery/36153385/Sanfonzon- Street-pop-up-book https://www.behance.net/ gallery/33968594/Letter-for- Truth-Logo https://www.behance.net/ gallery/30570553/ Beruehrungsangst-fear-of- touching https://www.beh...

A recent project that I had the great pleasure to work on with the brilliant Woolworths beauty team is getting some positive attention at the Woolworths Instagram page. This is the new oval tin that we have just introduced with a flat lid base, for the Longmarket Soap Shops Say “thank you for putting up with my kid all year” with these small but thoughtful gifts for Teachers. #linkinbio #findthemagic A photo posted by WOOLWORTHS SA (@woolworths_sa) on Nov 9, 2016 at 5:41am PST

Lukie’s Farmhouse / The Story I can clearly remember the first time that I ever tried authentic west country cider with strong cheddar cheese. I was with my father and it was from a place that he called Lukie’s, in the mendip region. On a recent trip back to the UK (I currently live in Cape Town), I could clearly see that Lukie’s no longer existed… that’s even if it was called Lukie’s in the first place as my dad seems remembers it as Luke’s, without the ‘i’. A Link Back To My Past To conceive an idea for a range of food packaging and to breathe life back into the Lukie’s name as a brand, seemed like a great concept for a project and a lovely link back to my own personal past, being brought up close to the area in Bristol. My addition of the word Farmhouse helps to reinforce the ranges tone. A working title was also Homemade, but ultimately, I felt that Farmhouse just felt right for the range and worked so well visually in Bodoni, contained between two lines, with the Lukie’s word mar...

David Carson is arguably one of the worlds most recognised graphic designers. his experimental, deconstructed typographic style is a fusion of the commercial and the expressive, graphic design and art. From 1982 to 1987, Carson worked as a teacher and also at that time was also a professional surfer, reaching 9th in the world ranking. Carson himself often attributes his recognisable style to discovering graphic design and never being taught it. Without knowing any of the rules has allowed him the freedom to not be confined by convention. To read more on Carson click link to visit his website: David Carson Design . I also love his humour filed, motivating TED presentation. Click here to view. Quotes by David Carson: “Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.” “I’ve never had a problem with a dumb client. There is no such thing as a bad client. Part of our job is to do good work and get the client to accept it.” —————————————————————————— All For a Few Good Wave...

Australia’s largest airline has introduced a new logo and livery, designed in partnership with Quantas consultant Marc Newson and Australian branding agency Houston group. In a press release, Quantas write: The change is only the fifth time the red-and-white image on the tail of Qantas aircraft has been updated since it was first introduced in 1944. The last update was in 2007 to coincide with the introduction of the Airbus A380 to the national carrier’s fleet. Marc Newson, who has helped design Qantas’ lounges, the A380 cabin and the iconic Skybed, said: “Aircraft tails are fantastic canvas to work on and the Qantas logo is one of the most recognisable in the world. This re-design aims to retain the fundamental essence of the flying kangaroo but also move the brand forward. “This new brand is more streamlined and the shading behind the kangaroo gives a better sense of movement and depth.   On the Houston Group Project Page: The key opportunity for us was in contemporisin...

This is the history of one of the worlds most recognised brands.  For more than 100 years the Shell pecten emblem and distinctive red and yellow colours have visualised the Shell brand and promoted the company's products and services all over the world. The Shell logo has changed considerably since it's inception in 1900, yet you can still apreciate it's iconic form, whether viewing the original logo or in its current form. I always remember Michael Wolff recounting his work on a redesign of the Shell logo, whilst running his agency, Wolff Olins. Wolff chose to simply warm up the colours. As he says, sometimes its what you don't change, that can be as important as what you do. That couldn't be more true than with the the iconic symbol of the red and yellow shell icon. I stumbled across this brief history of the brand on the company website  and thought it was well worth a read. The word Shell first appeared in 1891, as the trademark for kerosene shipped to the Far E...

I will always remember my first trip to Thailand! It was one of those life affirming moments, a sensory overload of experience and learning!!! Travelling has been a great way for me to experience other brands and how consumers interact with them on a daily basis. Brands that I have never seen before visiting that country. Brands that are like the ones I grew up with but different! I love it.  One of the most confusing for me was seeing what look liked the Red Bull brand, but when I tasted the product, it wasn't fizzy and was a lot thicker and more like a syrup. It seemed stronger in it's effects and they were sellking T shirts everywhere with the two bull branding on. It looked like the brand, but the product was different. Over the years, I read more and started to understand why this was. The followi ng excerpt exp lains why this was! I found this excerpt from global design agency, JKR's book ' Champions of Design 4 ', and it's a really interesting read, espec...

This incredible invention from Windhorse Aerospace could see a revolution in the way the world delivers aid to those effected by natural disasters. The Windhorse website writes: "For the first time ever, aid will be delivered accurately to those in desperate need with this use of a revolutionary and unique Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV). There were over 125 natural disasters last year, add this to areas of conflict and the number of people starving as a result gets to breath taking levels. Access to the people affected can be restricted due to the loss of infrastructure and many other dangers. Also, traditional methods of deploying aid can be ineffective, inaccurate or just impossible to use. Windhorse has developed a specialist UAV called POUNCER™ that will be loaded with appropriate food, transported to the disaster area and fly independently to its pre-planned destination and land accurately into the selected landing zone, avoiding all infrastructure problems, corruption or hostile...

Ever wondered how to improve your creativity and stay inspired? Why some designers have been a lot more successful than others? Well read on... I recently wrote a post for the design life , which also featured here, titled, " The Most Important Word You Use Is Why !" The post was inspired by an incredibly motivating Design Indaba presentation by Sir John Hegarty, that I was lucky enough to attend back in 2013. Just the other day, I was reading through the design press and I stumbled upon a fantastic article at The Drum by Ishbel Macleod . The feature was based on Sir John Hegarty's 2014 book, 'Hegarty on Creativity' and lists his top 10 ways to be more creative. Check out number 8... 'Ask Why? A lot!' I have re blogged the list below as it makes for super reading: 1 Be fearless - be single minded in the face of opposition 2 Keep it simple - don't try to say or do too many things at once 3 Stop thinking, start feeling -creativity is driven by the heart...

A concept project that I've been working on, recently received some interest from within the design industry, featuring on both Packaging of the World and the Dieline's 'Concepts We wish Were Real' . You can see the full project at Bechance . THE PROJECT At least once a year I return back to the UK to visit my family and friends. I get to travel the length and breadth of England, from London and the West Country, up to Lancashire, with a good many stops in between. Whilst there, I always try and fit in some design research. I visit as many retail stores, supermarkets, farm shops and craft brewery’s as possible, taking in new and interesting branding and packaging design. It becomes an invaluable source for my commercial design work as the creative director of a successful Cape Town based design studio. Occasionally it can even inspire a personal project and this was the case with the Wadmans Organic Food concept. Keen to take my rough ideas through to final visuals, I ...