Design Good Design

Its spring in Cape Town and this time of year is filled with colour as the wonderful varieties of flower open up to display an impressive palette. People travel from far and wide to visit the Westcoast national park where for a limited time (1 month) the impressive bloom is in its full beauty. I get a lot of my colour ideas from nature and this is such a fantastic time of year to discover brilliant combinations. I will always remember a presentation by renown brand designer Michael Wolff where he explains how we often overlook the rich source of colour that nature offers and how we shouldn't just rely on our Pantone swatch books. He told the story of his business partner, the late Wally Olins, returning from a meeting to find the entire Wolff Olins design team away from their desks. When eventually the designers return, a furious Olins demands an explanation as to their whereabouts. To his surprise his partner Wolff explains that he took the whole team to Hyde Park for the afternoo...

Its spring in Cape Town and this time of year is filled with colour as the wonderful varieties of flower open up to display an impressive palette. People travel from far and wide to visit the Westcoast national park where for a limited time (1 month) the impressive bloom is in its full beauty. I get a lot of my colour ideas from nature and this is such a fantastic time of year to discover brilliant combinations. I will always remember a presentation by renown brand designer Michael Wolff where he explains how we often overlook the rich source of colour that nature offers and how we shouldn't just rely on our Pantone swatch books. He told the story of his business partner, the late Wally Olins, returning from a meeting to find the entire Wolff Olins design team away from their desks. When eventually the designers return, a furious Olins demands an explanation as to their whereabouts. To his surprise his partner Wolff explains that he took the whole team to Hyde Park for the afternoo...

I recently moved house. Living in Cape Town I have managed to built up a pretty good collection of local wine. One by one I pulled out each bottle from my old wooden wine rack (which I once saved from someone chucking out!!!) and covered them in bubble wrap, in preparation for the big move! Within the collection was one very special bottle that I knew I would eventually re discover. I'm not sure that I will ever drink it. Not because of the wine inside (I don't even know what wine is inside!), but isntead for the memory of how I received it. The bottle has been over labelled with one that is beautifully designed and reads, "Massimo Vignelli 80th Birthday Celebration". When I eventually found the bottle I wiped away the light covering of dust and just stared at it for a moment, recalling my memories from the day that I met my design hero, Massimo Vignelli. In 2009 I was offered the fantastic opportunity to live and work in Cape Town, South Africa. When my wife and I s...

You always know where you were when something really moves you… After last nights tragic news of the sudden death of pop music icon Prince at just 57, I felt compelled to share how his contribution to music, art and design had touched my life. Last night I tuned into one of my favorite internet radio shows and to my surprise, the station was playing back to back Prince tunes. It was out of character for this station, but I wasn’t complaining as Ive been a big fan of Prince over the years and continued to listen, wondering if the DJ had scored an interview with the Prince himself! For those of you who are not aware, Prince not only sang but also wrote many of music’s most recognised songs, from 'Nothing Compares to You', made famous by Sinéad O'Connor to The Bangles ‘Manic Monday‘ and Chaka Khan's ‘I feel for you’ (which originally appeared on his 1979 self titled album). The list of great songs written by Prince goes on and on! As I tuned in, the aforementioned 'Not...

As the creative director of a branding and packaging design studio, I have to travel quite regularly. From meetings with clients, to colour passing and QC with print partners and manufacturers. I also live and work overseas in Cape Town, so I'm often flying back to the UK with my wife and my little boy to visit our family's. Were only into April and I can count at least fifteen flights this year already. Yesterday morning I was on the red eye from Cape Town to Durban to work with one of our print partners, colour passing and QC on a new range of labels my studio have just designed. Ive taken the flight many times before, but yesterday something different happenned. For 40 minutes we sat, boarded on the plane as maintenance was carried out. This meant, when the plane finally took off, the sun was just begining to rise. As we rose higher, the view over Cape Town and Table Mountian was just breathtaking. I marvelled in awe at its absolute beauty. Street lights were still illuminat...

For the past three years Ive had the great honour of being selected as a mentor for the Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The mentorship program is oganised in collaboration with Adobe and ico-D (the world body for professional design, an international council that promotes the designer’s vital role in society and commerce that unify the voices of designers worldwide. www.ico-d.org ). Throughout my involvement, I have had the pleasure of mentoring some fantastic students that have gone onto successful design positions. More on the Awards and the Mentorship program below. _ The Adobe ico-D Mentorship program is offered to any student who participates in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards competition (ADAA). The program is composed of the 5 I 5 I 5 Mentorship and the Portfolio Review. In this dual program, each mentor will select ten students from the ADAA participants who applied for the opportunity. • One student is selected for the 5 I 5 I 5 Mentorship, which consists of 5 one-on-one ...

This limited addition design to celebrate the 255th anniversary of Porto’s Sandeman is just stunning. The attention to detail used in the design by agency  Volta  is incredible. I love the use of type; breaking the serif on the brand name Seixo giving it some real identity. The finish is also beautiful, employing the use of embossed lettering and illustrative elements, texture paper stock and touches of gold foil. On my recent trip to Bologna I came across these wonderful old Vintage Sandeman bottles that I couldn't wait to share with my branding and packaging design friends! I also thought very apt addition to this post. Of note is the 1977 Queens Silver Jubilee Edition, which brought back many fantastic memories of my family and where I was born in the UK!