Last week my late night erm motions were interrupted by the sound of all Hell breaking loose outside in the garden. Thinking we were being burgled, I immediately grabbed the trusty spade I keep next to the bed for situations such as these and went to dispense some justice (cower, waving spade furiously in random directions). Turns out that we have a family of foxes living under the decking and the 4 fox cubs were going mEnTaL over a pack of ready-cooked chicken from the nearby Sainsburys. They are dead cute - please see below:
I'm still trying to figure out if Pinterest is going to take over from Facebook and Twitter as my primary waste of time or if it's going to end up being a damp squib like Google+ in the end. Time will tell, but it's got a good hit rate so far, this week introducing me to the inspirational site: goodfuckingdesignadvice.com
I love it's minimalistic styling and the clarity of the messages is just brilliant and clever. I might even order the mug and poster, but I will definitely be taking the GFDA Pledge.
Most evenings there's a constant struggle in my house between the socially, artistically and culturally worthy broadcasts that TV was made for and the entertainment vacuum that my beloved wife choses her evening viewing from (Hollyoaks, I'm looking in your direction here). The only reprieve is by means of a secret rite, that can be performed once a century when the Moon is in the eighth house of Aquarius OR when my wife has found a new book series featuring the exploits of a bunch of teenage, single parent, vegetarian vampires. I'd scoff some more, but seeing as the latest book allowed me to engage with 'The Art of Seeing' featuring David Hockney (clearly there was no football on that night) I was grateful to the maudlin, cretinous nonsense that was corrupting the brain of the lady to my left.
We have discussed before about how many designers start off as artists who are then forced into searching for a practical application of their talents. I have no problem with the choices that I made here, but the sad fact is that somewhere along the line, the pursuit of art history and artists in general takes a back seat whilst you fight to understand the latest layout software, retouching tools and code structures. I used to love visiting galleries, reading art books, learning about the social context of art movements and getting my head around the implications of what art has influenced. Well, when I say 'love' I really mean 'forced to love through necessity by my college at the time' but that doesn't really have the same ring to it. In my college days the internet solely consisted of Joe Cartoon and AOL chat and so I really did need to visit these galleries and read these books - you couldn't log in and wing it. Today it's a different story however and only a few short moments into The Art of Seeing I was lazing my way through the Wikipedia post on Hockney to extend my knowledge beyond 'wasn't he that bloke what painted them swimming pools in the 60s'. The Wikipedia entry for Hockney stated that Hockney is one of the most influential British artists of the 20th Century which I suppose is irrefutable, but the thing that really interested me about him was the following (which I assume is true): "Hockney was born with synesthesia; he sees synesthetic colours to musical stimuli."
The John Cusack prophecy/future-documentary ‘2012’ promises us some kind of natural disaster related death this year. I haven’t managed to find three hours of my life I am happy to consign to the joy vacuum that ‘2012’ no doubt represents so unfortunately I am unable to furnish you with anyspecifics on the impending fate of the UK and what form that will take although you can glean some clues from the following sentence which I havehelpfully snatched from Wikipedia as part of your apocalypse early warning...
”President Wilson is later killed by a megatsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy crashing into the White House.”
Now there’s three things that should not be in a sentence together. White House. Aircraft Carrier. Megatsunami. You could also argue that they shouldnot be in a film together either. I’m suspecting you’d be right. Just watch out for large scale military warships crushing your bungalow. Anyways, onthe run up to any potential global catastrophe, people will still need logos and websites so we will continue to plug away here at the 49th.
For some God knows why reason this web site is getting tons of traffic for the search term 'Comic Sans Batman'. It links through to the article Andy wrote last year and whilst we are always grateful for a little exposure, I did wonder why this term in particular seems to yield results at the moment. I Googled it myself and whilst the answer to this puzzle is still a mystery to me, I did spy a link to an article highlighting DC comics have launched a new logo. I have never really been interested in comic books, but I do like Batman since he's teamed up with Michael Caine and so I thought I'd take a look in customary 49th Floor, low-fi style.
DC's existing Star, swooshy, shieldy thing was designed by Brainchild Studio's Josh Beatman in 2005, which wasn't that long ago and frankly hasn't aged that well in my opinion. In brief, I think it's impeccably put together and has obviously taken cues from the company heritage - but I think the conceptual post-modern approach suggests a company coming to terms with the end of the nineties rather than one marching proudly into modernity. I presume that this is why DC felt they wanted to revisit their logo, with a fundamental rethink and shift in creative objective. It could just be they didn't like blue or something, but you'd have to ask them.
I haven't read Creative Review or any logo blogs yet and therefore I don't really know whether I'm sUpPoSeD to like it or not yet, but I can tell you that I really do like the new logo. I don't think anyone could argue that it's not well drawn, but upon first glance the new DC logo is kinda grey and it does look VERY corporate when viewed out of situ. When DC title-specific colourways and characters are applied to the logo in situ, for me it really comes to life. The concept of peeling back the cover to find what's underneath isn't really new - but I think it's perfected here and the way in which it unifies DCs vast array of characters and stories whilst not compromising their own identities is really clever and refreshing.
Identities that integrate with brands and campaigns as a whole rather than concentrating on wowsers logos, gradient-meshed to the rafters sitting in arrogant defiance like it's the most important thing on the page are the way forward for me. I wonder what everyone else is saying about it?
This weekend I decided to turn off the TV, power down the Mac and just sit and listen to some music. This doesn't sound too ground-breaking does it, but listening to music for pure pleasure rather than to break creepy office silence, drown out your pounding heart as you run around the block or to act as the soundtrack to alcohol fuelled nonsense is a novel concept whilst other more modern pursuits vie for your attention.
If you take the time to really listen to an album, from start to finish - even if it's one that you are familiar with I am sure that you'll find it a rewarding experience as I did. I found that when I was done, my creative spirit had been enriched and I set about doing some sketching - which is something I always mean to do more of.
These examples won't win us any clients I suspect, but I thought I'd share them with you anyway just because. Click on each one to get a larger version.
