Queen's knighthood for Sir Jonathan Ive

Jonathan Ive, joins British designers Sir Terence Conran, Sir Paul Smith, Sir James Dyson, Sir Norman Foster and others, knighted for their contribution to the British design industry.

2012 on Designspiration

2012 card design in Creative Review

Destination Branding Bangkok

I am working on a destination branding workshop and conference that I will be running at CommDe, The International Programme in Communication Design, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

The workshop will run for one week in January 2012 for design undergraduate and PhD students.

2012 best wishes

Organic Cosmetics branding & packaging workshop

I have just run a branding & packaging design workshop with the Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique.

The workshop looked at positioning organic cosmetic as a viable alternative to the industrial model, and included strategy, naming as well as brand and packaging design. Some realizations coming soon.

Peace 11 11 11 11 campaign poster

Our poster for Peace 11 11 11 11 - Armistice Day campaign 2011. Posters and die-cut poppy stickers.

Politically correct toothpaste

Anyone who travelled in South East Asia before the 1980's will recall the distinctive packaging of Darkie brand toothpaste. I still have an original pack in my collection. Political correctness oblige, Darkie became Darlie and finally changed from Black to White. The eclectic look was lost but amusingly the Cantonese name still translates as Black Man Toothpaste. You just can't win!

Packaging Design Conference: the role of the packaging designer

Part of my Packaging Design 2012 conference, exploring the role and responsibilities of the designer, the tools, materials and technologies available.

My projects and inspiration on Designspiration

Pure Balanced Water at LuxePack

The full story here.

Iconic Jobs tributes

Google 'Steve Jobs tribute' and the first four images found, in over 1.2 million, include Jon- athan Mak's iconic twist on the apple logo and my iDream poster.

AIGA on free speculative work for the Obama administation

The full letter at AIGA here.

LuxePack Monaco H20 exhibition

The interactive multi touch table demonstrating the H20 luxury water project designed with students from Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique. At LuxePack Monaco.

Evolution of the Working Man icon

Spotted this sign last week. Love the evolution of Working Man from his figurative and very trim physic in the late 50's - early 60's vintage version, to his more solid and iconic contemporary representation. Interestingly he has put on more weight, and safety boots, but his head has been reduced to an anonymous round dot. Is he more or less productive? Not sure judging by the piles of sand or gravel...

iDream - the print and the t shirt

NO! RESPECT

We support No! Respect, the design professions campaign for fair compensation for the creative industry, in opposition to free pitches, spec work and crowd-sourcing. See No!Spec

The AIGA's position on spec work here.

Ben Evans on the London Design Festival

London is an epicenter of creativity, the UK creative industry generating 7% of GDP, 1 in 6 new jobs and tens of billions of £ in revenue. (Design generates only 2% of GDP for most other European countries).

But for how long? There are currently 1.2 million design students in China, more then the rest of the world together...

Full story here

Sir Richard Branson opens Virgin Galactic Spaceport

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has opened his $209 million spaceport in New Mexico today, with a flyover from the WhiteKnightTwo suborbital spacecraft. Test flights start next year with commercial space flights soon after. 150 people have already booked.

www.virgingalactic.com

2 200m2 theatre typography pavement UK

Designed by Why Not Associates and Gordon Young, the world's largest celebration of comedy is a typographic carpet containing over 160 000 granite letters embedded in concrete featuring the work of a 1 000 comedians. A £2.6 million commission by Blackpool UK.

iDream on iPad

1st Mac

My first Mac. I have still got it and it still works but I'm not sure quite what one can do with it today, when compared to the MacBookPro, iPad 2 and iPhone etc. Its now used as a bookend.

Here's to the crazy ones...

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Steve Jobs, Think Different.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

Our tribute poster to Steve Jobs.

His speech to Stanford University students on typography, love, loss, life and death is inspiring.

Autolib' Paris launches

Following the success of Paris's Velib' - city bike sharing service, Autolib' - an electric car sharing scheme launches this week. The Bluecar will have a range of 250 km for a 4 hour recharge. Membership is from 10€ and hire is 4 to 8€ for half an hour.

Vincent Bolloré & Eric Besson, Industry Minister test drive in Paris. Photo Le Figaro.

L'Opera Restaurant Paris

Charles Garnier's Opéra de Paris finally has a restaurant, (planned by Garnier but never realized in 1875). Odile Decq Architects have just opened this spectacular restaurant space: all red, white and gold.

'What design can do' at Beijing Design Week

Beijing Design Week is on now. The posters celebrate the collaboration of British and Chinese designers. Designed by Johnson Banks & Kingston's MA Design course.

Think interactive exhibition New York by IBM

Polar Ice by Atsuhiro Hayashi

Brilliant global warming ice cube molds depicting a Polar Bear and two Penguins on slowly melting icebergs.

Designed by Atsuhiro Hayashi, produced by Momos, 1 575 Yen for two. Source John Snow On Design

Liter of Light - just brilliant!

Liter of Light from the Philippines is just brilliant.

See the video here.

Now that's what I call 'Design Thinking' by Illac Diaz.

www.isanglitrongliwanag.org

Zaha Hadid Architects brand identity

New brand identity for Zaha Hadid Architects, featuring branding and web site by Greenspace and a propriety typeface designed by Miles Newlyn.

H20 - ecology the new luxury work to show at LuxePack

The global design work, branding & packaging, produced during my creative workshop with the Ecole de Design de Nantes will be exhibited at LuxePack Monaco in October.

Graphic Zaha Hadid Museum in Glasgow

Love the very graphic profile of Zaha Hadid's new Riverside Museum of Transport in Glasgow.

Live the language - London

EF - Live The Language - London from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

And for London.

Live the language - Paris

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

Great typography and video combination in these films for EF language schools.

Beach alphabet by Italo Lupi

Summer souvenir by the great Italo Lupi.

Bruichladdich Islay malt whiskey packaging

I spent some of the summer on the island of Islay in Scotland and discovered the incredible Bruichladdich whiskey distillery, home of the worlds only 100% organic island grown barley whiskeys. The design of their bottles and labeling is very distinctive and impressive. The whiskey is sublime.

Coke ok?

What I like about Turner Duckworth's new Diet Coke packaging is how it demonstrates the power of Coke branding, graphics and toolkit components.

A tight crop on just a couple of letters and we still know its Coke, ok!

Casanueva Pharmacy signage Spain

Great facade and signage by Clavel Architects in Murcia Spain.

FontBook app for iPad - 620 000 typefaces at your fingertips

FontBook on iPad from FontShop on Vimeo.

Send from my iPad

MOVE ticks all my boxes

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 000 miles by Rick Mereki, Tim White and Andrew Lees. Bravo.

The Green Dot symbol and recycling confusion

What is the consumer meant to make of this? The Green Dot symbol (here brown) does not necessarily mean the packaging can be recycled, it is a fee paid licensed symbol indicating participation in packaging recovery and recycling by the manufacturer.

Consumers, understandably, think it indicates a package is recyclable. So we end up with this: a Green Dot, a recycling bin with a green cyclic arrow, a paper bag symbol and to add total confusion a red NO! All that on some organic bakery products.

Sir Terence Conran donates £7.5 million to the Design Museum

Designer Sir Terence Conran, who I had the honour to meet as a student, has donated £7.5 million to the Design Museum, to create 'the world's leading museum of contemporary design and architecture in London'.

The museum will relocate from its Thames site to the Commonwealth Institute Building in 2014. The Sir Gilbert Scott Telephone Box has been added to the Design Classics Collection. Conran's contribution to the Design Museum totals £50 Million.
His ambition is to have the greatest design museum in the world. Bravo.

b2 brand bangkok design workshop Thailand

I am currently working on a week long design workshop for the International Communication Design Programme at ComDe - the Design School of Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand.

The workshop will run at the end of the year and explore the theme of destination branding and the creation of a brand for the city of Bangkok.

Beau BO

A nice art deco influenced 60's typeface and 3D tiling detail seen on this Boulangerie sign, France.

More classic Caniveau signs spotted this summer

Postcard from the Cote d'Azur

What does the $15 trillion US debt look like?

Its hard to get your mind around $15 trillion. This useful graphic helps explain what it looks like in stacks of $100 bills. www.wtfnoway.com (Debt of $15 trillion by Christmas 2011)

Fundamentals of Visual Communication

Introduction to 'The Fundamentals of Visual Communication' program that I created at part of a Global Design teaching program for the EIDT France.

White asymmetric courtyard house

Love this white asymmetrical house with interior courtyards by ARX architects in Portugal. The Mediterranean climate allows white roofs and no guttering.