Sneaker pimps

Came across these trainers on the internet the other day.
They've been designed by Peter Saville, Ben Kelly (designed the Hacienda and Dry Bar) and Peter Hook from New Order.

Now i can't decide if i like them or if it's just a cash in for the nostalgia folks like myself!
At £345, i will go with a cash in.
Thanks to the Creative Review blog. Check out more pics and info here.

Keane as mustard

Now i'm not a fan of the Keane, you can't help but like the illustration work for there current releases. I managed to find that they were produced by Sanna Annukka

She will hopefully be selling some prints in the near future and i will certainly be checking back.
On a side note she's represented by Big Active who have a host of quality illustrators on their books.


I also recently bookmarked please let me design.
They do great work, check out the the experimental tropic blues band work especially.

Acceptable in the 80's

Managed to catch a good history lesson on the television last night.
Andrew Marr's History of Britain on BBC2 provided a rundown of the Thatcher era in the 1980's.
It provided a fascinating account of the state of the nation at the time. Andrew Marr's conclusion at the end of the program was that we are all in some way 'Thatcher's Children'
You can read more about the programme here as i don't have the time to expand on this theory in this blog.
But i think i have to agree with him.
Over the last 10 -20 years there has been a cultural reaction to that period of time.
Since then we've had the birth of House music, Madchester, Mortgages and more home owners, privatisation, lifestyle changes, Mobile phones and plenty more. There was even a change in the advertising at the time, with products projecting a lifestyle rather than a housewife with soap suds!

The music used in the show was evocative of the time as well, with the often minimal bleak sound of Joy Division to the decadence of the new romantic sound. The social commentary of the time was telling in hindsight with Harry Enfield's "Loadsamoney" highlighting the yuppies to "Shopping" by the Pet Shop Boys talking about the boom in available credit and the increase in spending.

Anyway i even think a lot of the fashion and music these days is harking back to the 80's

I'm showing my age now, so here endeth the lesson.

Social Music

We've recently done some work for Forty Second Street a charity set up to support young people under stress. They're planning on putting on a charity night at the Carlton Club in Whalley Range, Manchester. It's one of those old style social clubs which holds a few music nights every now and then.

The night will feature live music, including a band called Autokat who are apparently one of the up and coming bands in Manchester.
So they should be worth seeing.

We did our good deed by helping them produce tickets and posters and if you would like to go, contact us or Forty Second Street and we'll sell you some tickets. It's for a good cause you know!

Viral

Came across this blog recently about the viral marketing for the new Batman flm. Quite an ingenious peice of viral marketing, especially if you're a fan of the Batman story.

You can't please everyone...

Well there seems to be a big debate at the moment about the new London 2012 Olympic logo. So i thought i'd my tuppence worth.

It appears that nobody likes the logo and i have to agree. Designing a logo for such a global event must be very tricky. You have to create a logo mark which will appeal to a global audience and take it's place in history.

I think this is where they got lost in the conception of this mark. Before the launch, Sebastian Coe was talking up the launch and how it will be the launch of a brand. Now marketing has it's place but it's the first time i've heard them use the word to describe the olympics. It's odd as Mr Coe, who is an athlete is trying to talk like a brand consultant.
While it's admirable that they are trying to create something different, i think they lost site of what the event itself was about.
The event promotes sporting elegance, the unifying of the world and celebration.
I think the current logo makes no reference to that and the only way you can tell it's for the olympics is the small inclusion of the rings.
I don't think the colour palette references sport either.

The current defenders of the logo say it's aimed at kids, but surely this isn't the only audience of the games. They also say it's designed for the new media age. But somehow i don't see getting into sport, and sitting at your computer as a natural progression!

It seems the brief for the logo was this is London lets create something different, modern and stands out.
Commendable but i think it could have been achieved in a much simpler way.

I also find it strange that Wolff-Olins the creators of the logo are being quiet, but given the critiscim, who could blame them.
Maybe people will come to like it by 2012 but all in all i think it will be remembered as the logo that tried to be different..

On the point of sporting logos, here a a few of my favorites.

From a design perspective i think the Munich 72 mark is a good example.
Designed by Otl Aicher the logo evokes the time, and the whole branding of the games was insightful and colourful.
Take a look at some of the graphics here.

With it's reference to Greek mythology, I also quite like the recent Champions League 07 logo.

From a nostalgic point of view the Mexico 86 world cup logo sticks out. Through trawling the sport logo archives, you'll notice all the sporting events held in Mexico used the same font.