Design Good Design

At the end of 2016, as I draw closer to my final week with CTTC Design, I had been handing over as much information as I could to my then design team, to which I extend you all on this list now. I know that many have often laughed at me being such a design groupie… I promise that it comes from my love of what I do! To this end, before I left, I had decided to note down a few of the things that have helped to bring great joy, learning and passion to my design life over the years, and now wondered if you would also be interested to see what I had written.  Its really a “for what it’s worth” list of designers, books, websites and blogs. I do hope that it is of some interest to you, and also that it maybe even helps to bring some creative passion and inspiration to your lives… I also don’t mind if it’s banished to the 'read later' part of your blog readers - you know the one I mean... AKA the bin ;-). Below is what I had sent to the team at  CTTC Design, a  couple of day...

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...

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...

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...

I am an avid collector of design books and on a recent trip back to the UK, I stumbled across a fantastic book containing a veritable gold mine of vintage Sainsbury’s packaging, chronicling the years 1962 to 1977. The books forward tells the story of the author, Jonny Trunk and his search for a particular 1970 Sainsbury’s pack design for cornflakes that he had memories of from his childhood. On calling the retailers head office, he discovers that there’s a huge archive of pristine Sainsbury’s own label packaging dating back from the 1960’s and onwards. An ideal subject for a book! There is also an essay from Emily King, which gives an insight into the relationship between the company director, forward thinking JD Sainsbury and the visionary designer Peter Dixon who founded the Sainsbury’s in house creative studio and spearheaded it’s unique pack designs.       Also of note is the important role that the company played in society. Britain was going through a period of soci...

"The most important word you use is why!"  That’s was what Sir John Hegarty told the crowd at an inspiring presentation that I was lucky enough to attend back in 2013. In my role as creative director, I get to brief in the design team. It's important to ensure that everything that goes through the studio is the best it can be. I have to mentor and up skill young designers and I always love to watch how they respond to briefs. Many designers sketch out ideas, others go straight to their computers. Without a doubt, Google is one of the most incredible inventions of our time, yet still, one of my pet hates are designers going straight to Google without an idea. I've been known to not let designers on a computer until I first see an idea. I want designers to have that moment of discovery and to have the ability to ask why. Recently one of my team was struggling with a project. I could see it in her face... The fear... And on her computer... Google!!! After a brief discu...

In a recent interview for a design magazine I was asked, " who and what inspires me ". It's a question that I am often asked and my initial reply is usually "everything", from my family (my wife and son are without a doubt my biggest inspiration) to the great icons of our industry such as Paul Rand and Soul Bass to the the work of Henryk Thomaszewski, Jan Lenica and Henri Matisse (the list could go on and on and on…) I wake up inspired almost every morning and by the time I am in my studio, or out with my family on the weekend, I have often seen something to trigger creativity. It really does come from everywhere, from a texture, a colour, a conversation, a story to something quirky! In Iconoclasts Season 6, Episode 5, Paul Smith tells how he was once walking down a street with an advertising exec. The marketing person says that he sees about three things whilst Smith sees around Fifty! I am a huge fan of designer Michael Wollf and his thoughts on what he descri...