Argos Rebrand

Argos revealed their new rebrand on the 22nd Of January.

“This brand refresh will enable us to give our customers and our employees a new brand identity which better reflects our dynamic and exciting business. 70% of British households have an Argos catalogue at home, so unveiling the identity on the new catalogue is a fantastic way to celebrate and cement our position, while giving our brand a contemporary look that brings it up to date. Our customers told us that they want a brand that feels relevant today and is well equipped to stay relevant tomorrow.”

I must say that I’m not a fan of the new rebrand or “brand refresh” and that I believe the previous logo was much more recognisable and unique than the one that they’ve moved onto. I think the typography is generic and the smile accent piece looks cheesy and although it featured in the previous logo it was incorporated into the typography and looked more unique.

Update 05-02-10

It’s been a while since my last post and a lot has happened, had my assessment which pretty much went as expected, that my design sheets are good and that I have good technical skill but have just steamed on with the first idea that I come up with instead of expanding from 4 or 5 initial ideas to create a finished piece that is well developed.

Another downside was my lack of professional research in some of my projects. Overall the tutors looking at my work could tell which briefs I had enjoyed and which I was just going through the motions with.

On the bright side I received some feedback on my pdf portfolio from Underexposed Creative. A chester based studio specialising in branding and corporate identity. They found my work very interesting but the lack of information included regarding projects, concepts and the thought process behind each piece of work which helps back up the work that I have produced.

Had another meeting regarding the 1412 beer brief and this was just a quick one to put the balls in motion to start looking for sponsors and start fundraising ready to travel up to scotland in mid-to-late April and actually get our hands dirty and brew our own beer.

Just putting the finishing touches on my first Neg 2 project. To Expand the 1412 brand and create the required publicity materials that could be used to sell 1412 to Glyndwr University and to local pubs and distributors. Hopefully will have this project finished by the end of next week so I can get started on the next project…More on that to follow next week.

How To be a graphic designer without loosing your soul

I have just finished Reading “How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Loosing Your Soul” and I thought it was brilliant and I regret not Reading it sooner. It answered so many questions I didn’t even know I had and just furthered and fueled my knowledge and commitment to becoming a graphic designer. I really enjoyed reading it and will hopefully find other books of similar substance and insight to read next.
This book is a must for any graphic design student no matter what level.

Apple iPhone Packaging

Recieved my Apple iPhone yesterday and the first thing I noticed was the packaging. I’ve always been a fan of the minimalist packaging design that Apple uses. The packaging just features a full scale embossed image of the iPhone on the front and the text iPhone on the sides. The packaging is also a lot smaller than that of other smart phones on the Market, saving space and weight to reduce carbon emissions in shipping.
The time taken to design this packaging is just another reason Apple products are so desirable.

1412 Latest Update

Just before the Christmas holidays it was announced that we had won the Glyndwr Beer apprentice and were brought together as our team once again for a photo and to find out more about the production of our beer.

The hard work will start after christmas once we’ve returned to University and we must contact businesses and seek sponsors so that we can go up to Scotland and produce the beer that will be sold in the University and as a small batch beer in the local area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8421892.stm

This is the address for the article that was on the main BBC Wales news page, This was a great surprise to find the article on the main page and it’s a great bit of publicity for our project and hopefully we can find enough sponsors to get this project off the ground and get the wheels rolling. I’m really looking forward to going up to Scotland and helping to brew our beer and seeing the label that me and my team designed will be amazing and hopefully get lots of publicity for me and Phil when we want jobs in the creative industries.

Melbourne Rebrand

The Australian city of Melbourne was recently rebranded by Landor, a global design and branding studio with over 700 designers in 23 offices all over the world. The new ‘M’ logo replaces the leaf logo which had been in use for the past fifteen years. the city’s mayor Robert Doyle says ‘the new design will become an icon for melbourne, synonymous with the modern, vibrant, cool city melbourne is today and will continue to be in the future.’

the new design hopes to achieve better identification of services the city of melbourne is delivering, greater brand impact and flexibility, more cost and time-effective in-house design and brand management.
‘it was deemed necessary to rebrand when an extensive audit and review revealed the ‘leaf’ logo to be outdated. after 15 years this was understandable. the creation of one strong masterbrand is an opportunity to build a new identity that resonates with our staff, our community, our customers and for the city of melbourne as an local, national and international destination. looking at other cities such as london or new york you see the strength of their single brand.’

I can understand why Melbourne determined it required a rebrand after 15 years. The “leaf” is very outdated, much like the “W” logo for Wrexham and I can see this logo being used for the considerable future. I like the idea that the colours can be changed to represent different areas of Melbourne, almost creating a “Master” brand of which all subsequent branding in Melbourne follow. The logo is modern, exciting and works well in many different colour schemes. The one thing I dislike about this brand though is the typeface, something about it just doesn’t seem to fit in my opinion. But overall this is a good brand that is easily applied to most if not all required applications.

Nike Supercruise

One of my Negotiated Studies projects was to design a brand of superior quality american football equipment for Nike.
I designed the brand “Supercruise” based on the premise of superior quality equipment allows the wearer/athlete to stay cool and composed while allowing them to push harder and go faster than anyone else of the field.

I believe the brand is a very strong visual brand with the crest and orange strip around the shoe and eyeshield boxes really helps the packaging to stand out on the shelves of the sports shops.

Although I have produced something I believe that could go into my portfolio once printed on a large scale i believe I dwelled far too long on this project and spent large amounts of time not moving forward or doing anything constructive.

I have taken this into account as well as recurring feedback that i need to do more research and as I kick off 2 or 3 ISTD, D&AD or YCN briefs to be completed over christmas and I aim to power through these with large amounts of research and very little where I stand still and dont move through the project.

Jawbone

Jawbone is an innovative bluetooth handsfree headset which puts a lot of design into making the headset look fashionable and aesthetically pleasing.
I love the packaging for this. I think it takes what is an everyday tech product of a bluetooth headset and markets it as a fashionable accessory instead.
I think the packaging is brilliant and totally unlike anything else on the market. The only downside i see with it is that i believe the spot varnish square with negative ELIMINATES NOISE doesn’t fit with the rest of the design and I believe would be better in a similar style to the Jawbone logotype and perhaps just using a pot varnish onto the lettering instead.
I just think that ELIMINATES NOISE shouts out and dominates the packaging and doesn’t quite fit.

Right Gin

I love this branding for Swedish gin brand “Right” it’s hard to forget the traditional coat of arms combined with the simple and contemporary typography. The simple one colour design doesn’t overly complicate the brand while the lack of colour doesn’t detract from the overall look on the bottle.

Barbasol

Found this on thedieline and thought it was a great way to take an established brand and move it into the 21st century. It retains the brands key principle which is the barbers pole but interprets it in a modern and attractive way which would stand out on the shelf.
This is a great solution to bringing an established but “older” brand into the forefront and making it a fashionable brand once again.