Remember when they trusted us?

Brands represent companies. Brands represent us. We trust brands to represent our values and portray our collective psyche.

However, what about when future has encountered itself in a moment of existential self awareness and has got more than a little bit freaked out? Look around warily and retreat to safer times perhaps.

When were we last safe? Ah, the good old times. You remember, back when we knew what was what and who was who. Back when artificial intelligence wasn't about to drive away with our cars or put us out of our jobs.

For a brand to be perceived as relevant, they must appear in line with how their customer base want them to appear. To speak to you like an old friend turning up with that hug just when you need it most.

There have been a few high profile brands taking the reverse branding step recently.

Channel 4

Having tested different waters with sub-brands and channel offerings, Channel 4 wanted a clearer, more cohesive brand so opted to bring everything together under the All 4 umbrella.

Co-Op

With a few small tweaks included, Co-op have taken things back to 1968.

I remember waiting for my dad in a special queue that was for collecting 'stamps' in the Co-op after paying for the shopping. I was too young to know what these stamps were for but old enough to understand that they weren't stamps like the ones that were for posting letters. They were little stickers on a strip torn off from a roll. Each was dusky Co-op blue and had a clear white Co-op logo. I was fascinated by their uniformity and knew that they were important. I even helped to stick some of them into a book.

In all honesty, I didn't even realise that I had any kind of connection to the brand until I walked past an A-board outside a Co-Op shop a week or so ago. Stopping my train of thought in it's tracks,  I contemplated this white logo shining strongly out from it's dusky blue background. The Co-op. Proud, stoic and, incredibly, back.

NatWest

1968 seems to be just about far enough back for NatWest too. They have unveiled their 2016 logo which is essentially the 1968 logo with more carefully considered lighting.

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**I wrote this article back in 2016 and have just found it in my drafts**

The Case of the Branded Pencils

Over the Christmas break at a relative's house, I spent a bit of time looking through some pencils stored in a small worn suitcase. Some of them were quite intriguing and lead me to do a little research.

No 480 ROYAL SOVEREIGN "CHINAGRAPH" Made in Great Britain

Royal Sovereign are the original and leading marker pencil for marking on glass, china, acetate, film and polished surfaces. These pencils are a grease/wax writing tool made from hardened coloured wax used for making marks on non-porous surfaces. They are able to write on  photographic contact sheets and are ideal for marking audio and film tape.

Other surfaces include theatrical lighting gels, construction materials and wet surfaces.

The writing substance is a non-toxic, opaque wax like a wax crayon.

A.W. FABER "Castell" Polychromos Made in Bavaria

The well known pencil brand Faber-Castell first produced these Polychromos pencils in 1908. They are waterproof and smudge resistant.

Originally, the company Faber were known to make pencils in the Nuremberg region back in 1660. The founder Kasper Faber, a cabinet maker from the nearby Stein, was so successful in his work for other employers that he created a reputation robust enough to support setting up his own business.

Kasper's son Anton Wilhelm Faber inherited the business and subsequently passed to his son Georg Leonhard. The company floundered under Georg, particularly with their products struggling to compete against the fine Cumberland graphite being used in some high quality English pencils.

To steady the business, Georg's sons Lothar and Johann set up business in London and Paris. After Georg passed away in 1939, Lothar took over the main business at the young age of 22. Very business minded, Lothar set his goal "to rise  to the highest position by making the best that can be made anywhere in the world".

Lothar was the first family member to understand branding in the modern sense and snsured his high quality products were both well presented and always stamped with "A.W. FABER".

Faber, the brand was first registered in the USA in 1870 and remains to date, the oldest surviving brand name.

Family heiress to the company Baroness Ottilie von Faber married Count Alexander zu Castell-Rudhausen in 1898. Lothar von Faber's will showed how forward thinking he was when it came to his carefully built brand. He stipulated that should an heiress to the company marry, then she was required to keep her own name, Faber, rather than automatically take on that of her husband as was traditional. This historical quirk required royal approval as it was so unusual. Lothar's wish was granted and the couple became Count and Countess von Faber-Castell thus creating the brand name we are familiar with today.

"Castell" pencils were produced followed by the Polychromos range of coloured pencils available in 60 hues. 

ROWNEY VICTORIA

These are a standard make of coloured  pencils likely to have been manufactured in 1950s to 1970s.

 

 

 

Milward Dressmarker

I believe this is a pencil for marking up fabric for pattern cutting or alterations in much the same way as tradition tailors chalk would have been used.

787 EAGLE COLOURCRAFT Made in England

 The Eagle Pencil Company is a long established American brand who opened an office in the City of London in October 1894 followed by a factory in Tottenham in 1906.

Eagle joined other pencil companies in the manufacture of WAR DRAWING pencils during the period surrounding World War II. Severe rationing was in place impacting not only on civilian lives but also restricting the use of material for maufacture. The war drawing pencils were of the most basic design and remained unpainted. I notice that the lead circumference is much smaller compared to other pencils in the collection.

L & C HARDTMUTH Ltd "Mephisto", "Studio" & "Pedigree" COPYING PENCILS

L & C Hardtmuth is one of the world's oldest manufacturers and suppliers of pencils and remains the second largest pencil company in Europe. The company is now known as Koh-I-Nor Hardtmuth.

Originally founded in Vienna by the Austrian Joseph Hardtmuth, the factory was moved by Joseph's sons Karl and Ludwig in 1948 to the Czech Republic. The company became state owned.

As many of the pencils in this collection have COPY or COPYING on them in some form or another, I looked into this type of pencil and found this very informative paper by Liz Dube.

WOW 2013 - Camellia and the Rabbit

I love tea. I love theatre. I love seeing the world as a merrygoround of sensory and metaphorical delights. I think Rachel Snider secretly created this performance just for me!

I'd happily see Camellia and the Rabbit performed again and again. It is the story of a young woman's path through life by turns naïve and enlightened. Decisions and choices made perfectly based on whims and fancy and just what felt right at the time.

A beautiful piece of theatre.

WOW2013 - Caught in the Net

After seeing Maggie Aderin-Pocock present 'The Thinking Woman's Guide to the Universe' I changed what I was planning to see and instead headed over to Caught in the Net. I'm glad that I did.

Maggie was joined by Cate Bellingham, Dr Emily Grossman and Marieme Jamme.

I think the fact that so few people turned up to this session, already scheduled for a small side room, was indicative of the subject of the discussion. Why are there so few women in science and technology.

Initially, I would have assumed that there was simply a lack of interest but after listening to what was discussed I can see that a lack of female interest in these subjects might be learned behaviour.

Emily revealed that for every man asked to be on visual media as a science/technology expert the BBC is compelled to ask six women before they greceive an acceptance. I was actually quite shocked at this statistic. Why would a woman turn down the chance to share knowledge she is fully qualified to speak about?

Making science, maths and technology relavent to the lives of women is key to gaining their interest. Marieme doesn't understand this culture of scientific disinterest in many women. She revealed that in Africa, science is considered a sexy subject regardless of gender. They can see the link between technological development and the development of their nations. who wouldn't want to be involved in making life better for their community?

Despite this, women in Europe seems to have a pre-loaded perception that science and technology is boring. While in the US males appear wary of women who show expertise in these e subjects.

If the endless enthusiasm of Maggie Aderin-Pocock is anything to go by, these subjects are anything but boring. She says that girls should have an unprejudiced right to choose to study these subjects at school. I remember going to a school open day with my parents and them asking the techology teacher about my options for taking his subject. He wasn't exactly encouraging and I wonder how much this had to do with my being a small, shy girl. I don't want to tar all men with the same brush though. This man was in the minority and there were other male teachers who were more than happy to share their knowledge with me and were extremely passionate about their subjects.

Emily, who has worked in both science and as a performer, believes that scientific discovery is one of the most creative things you can do. There are so many scientific and mathematical methods relavent to the creative arts. I am totally with her in this opinion. I think that science and art are very closely linked in the way that you have to perceive and interact with the subjects.

Referring to the argument that female disinterest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects is a learned behaviour, the ladies point out that gender specific toys could have a lot to answer for. Non gender specific toys is something that is close to the hearts of @Lettoysbetoys and @pinkstinks who are at a loss over why girls must be presented with a pink version of everything.

As a pink disliked myself, I have long been baffled by this trend. It'sIt's like the toy companies believe that girls can only see in pink and will fail to interact with things in other colours. Sadly, there must be significant past sales data to lead them to believe this. Strange seeing as pink used to be the colour for boy babies.

There has been recent data to suggest that there are 693,000 scientists in the UK. A mere 13% of these are women. Huge thanks goes to this 13% for sticking to their interests and hopefully inspiring new generations of females to do the same. something Science Grrl (@science_grrl) is keen to promote. If you have a daughter or young female relative/friend why not point them towards Science Grrl? They might just find their next best thing ever!

The twitter hashtag created for this session was #WOWSTEM2013

WOW2013 - Funny Women

Concious that some of the WOW subjects had the potential to be fairly intense, I'd decided to head over to the funny women workshop run by pro female comedy set up Funny Women.

Set up by Lynne Parker, Funny Women strives to give a platform to comediennes and ladies who might not otherwise feel they have the confidence to try stand up comedy for themselves.

The special guest was Lynn Ruth Miller, who in later life has embraced comedy, cabaret and storytelling. I had the honour of speaking to her after the workshop.

Lynn did a short stand up routine, or at least sat down on a very tall stool. The mixture of scathing wit and her New York accent made for a fine combination. I sincerely hope I'm as bright and active as Lynn should I be lucky enough to reach her age.

The workshop involved us talking to each other in pairs and using the materials for short presentations. Then individuals were invited to do a short and unprepared routine by describing themselves but though the eyes of their own mothers. A mixture of gaining confidence in public speaking and showing that even just describing everyday events can be made into amusing stories.

WOW 2013 - Shyness in networking

Sat waiting for Julia Hobsbawm to begin her session, I saw immediately the difference between those attending the session and Julia herself. Those drawn to a talk entitled 'Shyness in networking: How to love something you distrust' were just that; shy and distrustful. Ladies shuffled to their seats choosing those around the edges first and often leaving a spare seat between them and their nearest neighbour.

I was attending any of these conference talks alone. I felt conspicuous anyway so I figured I had nothing to lose by choosing a seat right in the middle but even I didn't stride to the front row, instead going for a fairly safe 3rd row back.

Julia Hobsbawm, Media Woman of the Year 2012, had arrived looking cool, calm and impeccably dressed. Taking a chair centre stage, she began to do a little work with the air of someone who was completely unwatched. Looking up, straight into my wide eyed gaze, Julia gave me a proper rabbit in the headlights moment.

A lady sat next to me and I looked over, giving her the signal that it was OK to chat. She was working for a London based NGO and like me was attending the talk to unlock the ultimate secrets of networking. I think we'd set ourselves up for a bit of a reality check though. The big secret? There isn't really a secret. it's all there in the real world. We just have to open our eyes and see it for ourselves.

Apparently 90% of people are shy of networking. Wonder if that statistic would vary between communities with different cultural levels of social integration? We were advised to learn to overcome this shyness by not being so intimidated by the implied level of intimacy. Living up to 'labels' can inhibit us whether these are labels presented by our peer group or self imposed.

To network successfully you need to have a genuine interest in thebnpeople you're looking to meet and have some ability to read a room. I assume that reading a room means a level of social awareness that stops you from interrupting and disrupting an existing positive interaction between others and allows you so spot opportunities for your own interactions.

Relationships follow the same trajectory as networking. They are a business relationship often born from the same tyuoe of random interaction that crystallises into a lasting friendship. This could be why one of the worst laces to network is a conference as it is a forced interaction on an often shallow level.

Recommended reading: Weak Tie Theory by Michael Granovetter

To be a good networker, you have to know who you are. By knowing who you are you can connect with people working outwards from your position. Much in the way that paths lead to trees which can lead you to birds.

Julia, to my surprise, almost completely slated social media as a waste of time. In our current social media obsessed culture we are driven by our own stats; how many twitter followers, how many Facebook friends, but these are often very weak ties. I'm not sure if I agree that social media creates barriers but I understand that being face to face for networking proves that you're making time for networking . Social media, Julia concedes is useful for information gathering and renewing existing connection.

Networking must be include within your allocated business or working time. Time management is crucial to cresting a strong work/life balance. Roughly speaking a rule of thirds should be used to divide your time. Only one third to be allocated to work, one third for sleeping and eating, with the remaining third given over to your realistic existence and wellbeing. Believing that you can run your life without speciffucalky giving yourself time to do the laundry, make those dentist appointments of just take 5 for yourself is a sure fire path to burn out.

Bearing this in mind, a savvy business person wants to maximise the efficiency of their networking time.

Make sure you are walking into a room worth walking into.

Enter the room and find someone like you or someone you would want to talk to. If no one present matches these criteria, you are in the wrong room. Don't spend more time there than you have to, you are only wasting your time and that of the other people there.

A good tip is to aim for curated gatherings. Have something to say. However small, have something that you know well and can talk about with ease. Doesn't mean you have to talk about this one thing and this one thing only but it will give you a comfortable start to any conversation. An interaction which can then lean on to other mutually interesting subjects.

If you genuinely want change, you can make it happen. Specific interest groups can limit your network. An artist who only goes to art groups will only ever meet other artists. An artist who goes to an event for small businesses has the potential to meet people from many walks of life but who are on a similar business trajectory.

On a final note, don't be that salesman at the party. Knowledge networking is not about transactional results. And remember to be interested. The biggest conversation killer is disinterest. That's where you'll come unstuck.

Julia Hobsbawn can be found on twitter or pop over to her website.

WOW 2013 - Individuals can change the world

Every issue needs a spokesperson. Yes, it does help if they are already a well known public figure or they hold a position of established power but sometimes when circumstance dictates, a single everyday person can be thrust into a position of leadership.

To change the world you need a good reason, the belief that you can make a difference and the resolve to stick with that belief even when the going gets tough.

Speaking within the session entitled International Activism, Sarah Brown began by stating that "politics is personal". She believes that "if women are not safe" from harassment of all kinds then they will be restricted in their efforts to "fulfil their potential".  We should be equipping girls with the skills and confidence to take the opportunities that come their way. I fully believe that this statement works over and above gender but we were at a conference about women and certainly in other cultures girls do not have the same access to, and freedom within, education as we have in the UK.

Sarah Brown

Sarah continued by pointing out that education allows people to understand their own health and well-being.  This was very much reflected by the ladies of SEWA in the earlier session on economy. Access to education can be the gateway to learning about water, sanitation, common preventable disease and resource management. Once these issues are being addressed, a community's standard of living is likely to improve vastly; they will gain greater independence and become sustainable in the long term.

Next up, Baroness Valerie Amos who believes that social media has allowed women to connect with each other to share and discuss issues that their location, circumstance or culture may have otherwise prevented. Valerie has experienced the stories of countless women through her work with the UN and says she often feels helpless when their circumstance are presented to her.

Particularly hard to listen to was the story of a woman who was trying to come to terms with the fact she had physically sold her daughter. The woman had felt this was the only option available to her to shield her daughter from the abuse she was likely to receive without the security of male protection.

Gordon Brown followed, speaking passionately about the need to address equality in educational rights. I'd only ever seen Gordon speak on television about political issues when he was Prime Minister. I have to say that after seeing him speak at WOW, I have a much greater respect for him.

Gordon Brown

He spoke about the need for true gender equality, acknowledged his wife, Sarah as his friend and mentor before admitting that for real change to happen, "men must change". He conveyed his belief that men and boys must both be taught and ultimately realise that women are of equal importance to them. Not a threat to their position but an equal and balancing one.

Ziauddin Yousafzai

Finally Ziauddin Yousafzai took to the lectern to speak of a girl's right to an education. If you are not sure who he is, then apart from a peace campaigner, he's the father of Malala, whose story you can read about via the link at the end of this post.

"Some cultures have fathers in search of a son... they do not celebrate birthdays of daughters."

Ziauddin quoted the old saying that behind every great man is a woman but said that he believes women need to take a step forward and stand side by side with men. Ziauddin lives by his own words too. "I honour my daughter as a personal and as an individual. My wife is not my property and I honour and trust her." Ziauddin added that a men's world is troublesome and full of wars suggesting that giving more 'space' to women would bring about a more prosperous and peaceful world. Men command and control. Women are more about collaboration and inclusion.

Ziaddin finished with his words for the future. Honour. Trust. Educate.

If you'd like to see the full session, you can! The Southbank Centre kindly filmed it.

Sarah Brown is patron of the White Ribbon Alliance, founder of PiggyBankKids, Chair of Global Business Coalition for Education and tweets from @SarahBrownUK.

Valerie Amos is UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and tweets from @ValerieAmos.

Gordon Brown is former Prime Minster of the UK and for more on his latest projects visit his website.

Ziauddin Yousafzai is an education activist and peace campaigner from Pakistan whose daughter was shot for wanting the right to an education. You can learn her story here or follow the campaign using twitter hash tag #iamMalala

WOW 2013 - Economy and Value

When I first found out about the Women of the World Festival [WOW2013] I admit my first thought was lots of women saying men are rubbish and women should be more assertive in being overtly womanly or more 'ballsy'.

My friend had been to a pre-event though and told me that it wasn't all bra-burning and proclaiming from the roof tops. I purchased a ticket and now I'm glad I did.

As a side note, I've already realised that the bra-burning myth is largely a media driven construct to make women thinking for themselves seem like a crazy, dangerous notion. Also it was the Daily Mail who coined the term 'suffragettes' to describe the members of the Women's Suffrage Party. Initially seen as a slightly belittling nickname, the women involved embraced it as it helped gain valuable public attention.

The BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders opened by admitting that she 'doesn't always think of economics in gender terms'. More important to her is the fact we have a 'financial crisis on our doorstep' and many people don't even understand the difference between reducing our deficit and reducing debt. Our government is striving to reduce the deficit and are keen to tell the public they are doing so, while in the background our debt has grown and will keep growing. The economies of former emerging markets like China and India are growing with great speed and their impact in the world market will influence the balance of the future.

Stephanie Flanders

Stephanie pointed out it is micro things that effect our standard of living rather than the bigger issues addressed in the news. 'Ten years ago there was no facebook, no smart phones, no kindles, no Sky Plus. I is very interesting that these things are not seen as luxuries during our current recession. It isn't just the rich who are buying smart phones either, they are mainstream commodities.

Governments are beginning to realise that having a greater number of women in the workplace could be very good for GDP. In Japan, encouraging more women into work could solve the country's economic crisis.

Cathy Turner, an executive from the world of banking, joined the debate saying that women present in the workforce changes it's dynamic. Women generally tend to borrow less to invest in business and, while unlikely to experience the growth and results boom generated by males, their businesses tend to become sustainable in the long term. I personally think this calls into question your reason for the business in the first place. If your intention is to make money as soon as possible then I can see why males do business in the way they do. However if you are genuinely trying to offer a service or product which can improve lives then maybe we should take the female path.

Cathy Turner

Cathy also quoted some telling statistics. 70% of part time jobs are currently held by women and at senior management level, we are still mainly represented by our male counterparts.

Then followed the passion of Jamuben Ayar and her colleague Savita Patel from SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association). Jamuben has been involved with SEWA after being approached in the 1970s. She is now overseer of 20,000 women and her daughter was the first in her village to graduate from school paid for by Jamuben's earnings.

Jamuben Khangabhai Ayar [on the left] and Savitaben Patel

To explain, SEWA has helped Indian women to realise the value of their intricate embroidery work, previously created only for home use or as gifts for their daughters when they were married and leaving the parental home.

An average salary at the time for a male Indian worker was 50 rupees per day and for a female, dispute the fact many were farm labourers, just 10 rupees per day. The villagers were migratory in times of drought and faced periods with little work. They were also used to 'middle men' contractors taking their skills for a very low return. The women didn't even know the true value of their home confined skills. SEWA offered Jamuben and her fellow workers 250 rupees for an embroidery order on the promise that they would do a good job.

They did and it's turned out well for vast amounts of women. In a society where the men would traditionally 'own' the money, women could now decide how they wanted to spend their earnings.

The first choice of many women was to use the money to send their children to school. With the reassurance of regular work, the community stopped migrating and started training and education programmes. Education gave them the opportunity to solve issues like sanitation, proper education for their children and then chance to have two meals a day.

Money brings power, the power of choice. In the case of the Indian ladies, they were being treated as viable people who could be respected as they were now controlling the purse strings. The tradional way would be to refer to things in the context of the alpha male relative to the person/item. This is (man)'s son/daughter/goat/house. The power shift caused a shift in context. Now identifications are made with references to Jamuben herself. Jamuben's son/daughter/goat/house.

To say their story is insipiring sounds flippant. It highlighted to me the importance of valuing yourself and doing so by valuing the skills you command. Everyone has skills and the key is recognising them and realising their true worth.

If you wish you'd seen the full session for yourself, you can, as the Southbank kindly filmed it!



For more from Stephanie Flanders, she tweets from @BBCStephanie and writes for the BBC here.

Beautiful Book Covers

Back in the times where books were all bound in similar styles and materials I agree that you couldn't judge a book by it's cover. A tatty book may be that way through neglect or through extensive use by eager readers!

Now things are different. Very often you can judge a book by it's cover. The publishers will have looked for illustrators/designers working in a style sympathetic to the book's content or desired target audience. Your eye will naturally be drawn to the symbolism of things you like. This symbolism then becomes a language between your brain and the book publishers.

As social preferences evolve, so does the language. You'll notice if your library has many old* books that you may find it harder to judge whether you'll like the book because the visual language used is not one you're familiar with.

*old as in copies printed before you were able to read

If you fancy challenging yourself to read something different then pick up a book with a cover you'd normally skip straight past. You might find a hidden gem or unlock a whole new genre you didn't know you cared about.

Below is my collection of book covers I consider to be beautiful which I will add to over time, as and when they catch my eye. If we have similar tastes then I think you'll enjoy them!

 

 illustrator Sarah Gibb

designer Kirk Benshoff

designer James Alexander at Jade Design

 designer Peter Saville

designer Alan Fletcher

 

That'll be milk, bread and a recommendation please

If like me your irritation at miscellaneous minutiae would give Jon Richardson a run for his money then I think you'll enjoy these recent ads for Google Analytics.


Fans of Fresh Meat will appreciate the guest appearance in this quest for milk!


Better than sliced bread - as long as you don't want it today.


And may I recommend...

Small and fluffy but with big ambitions

When you are a child you are taught to look up and imagine shapes and stories presented to you by their various forms. They'll catch your eye as the sun shines through at sunset or sunrise. You can tell the direction of the wind by watching them hurry along like commuters journeying to work.

Clouds come in all shapes and sizes but it's often the small cute ones that claim their fair share of the commercial limelight.

A few years ago I was delighted by the Pixar short Partly Cloudy.



Earlier this year Danny Boyle's dramatic opening ceremony for the Olympic Games 2012 in London gently gathered the audience's attention and interest with fluffy clouds on strings guided around the running track.

Then today, we have the Guinness cloud, who is clearly 'made of more'!



Our desire to personify inanimate objects works particularly well with clouds as they don't share our physical human constraints. Apart from the Pixar short which goes some way to create our own forms in the material of another. I think in a more natural sense their movement conveys ideas more akin to our freedom of thought.

Exciting new things!

It's always great to work on new projects especially ones where you get to test out new skills and make exciting discoveries along the way.

This is the video I have worked on for gleambook.com and it was great fun to make. Never before has my afternoon's brief been to source the perfect 'ding'.

Working with succinct, well targeted copy helped to give the film a firm foundation. The style and tone of the gleambook brand really lends itself to this type of animation.

You can find the official link with more details on the gleambook blog 



I recommend viewing in HD if your connection can stand it!

How books are born

Picked this up from my twitter feed today and it is beautiful. So thanks to @gleambook for sharing and here is Birth of a Book, a short video celebrating the craftsmanship and care taken in creating the humble book.



Birth of a Book from Glen Milner on Vimeo.


The video was filmed at Smith-Settle Printers, Leeds, England for the Daily Telegraph.

Britain, Brussels, Bruges and back. Part 1: Tonally correct

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently; yeah, yeah been so busy dahling, not a second to spare and all that. But I plan to make up for that and update you on some of the highlights so far.

I was lucky enough to start my year with a trip to mainly Brussels and a bit of Bruges. So I'm a designer, going to Brussels for multiple nights; where else would I stay but the Pantone Hotel itself!

Got all fired up on the palette front and in my head started conjuring up all manner of overwhelmingly colourful corridors and room based optical feasts enough make Willy Wonka's factory feel positively dowdy.

However, in reality, would anyone really expect anything other than achingly understated areas nestling alongside pools of striking colour? This was the reality and it's great. Really great.

 

Brussels itself is packed fairly densely with great slabs of buildings, put together with the Duplo of the architectural world. Alongside these monstrous buildings the Pantone Hotel merely hints at it's intentions with a few panes of colour tinted glass and tantalising glimpses of the vibrant ball chairs.
 
The foyer area doubles or rather triples as a reception, dining area and shop sporting an array of pantone merchandise. Thought going round my head: this isn't just an 'ordinary' notebook/mug, this is a pantone notebook/mug. This is the only way to explain the markup.

Check in was as easy as turning on your mac and with that we were off to our room via what can only be described as the lift in which you remember what it was like to be two years old again.

A spectrum of colour before my eyes and we were up on the sixth floor. This was the red floor, each floor is a different part of the spectrum and must certainly contribute to the revisit factor.

 

After a standard designer nod of appreciation at the selected pantone shades for our room, we spent a moment translating the accompanying poem (in french) inspired by 1795c while our feet noted the luxuriously deep piled carpet in, I believe, 546c.


Then we took in the rest of the room, en suite and balcony area. Didn't go out on the balcony as it was very much January and freezing, with rain and howling winds for added wilderness effect, but I bet in summer the outside area is lovely.

All the rooms have a huge canvas print photograph by Belgian photographer Victor Levy which are urban architectural close ups. Bold and strong, they really came alive when we found the switch that activated the backlight. Cue various photo-interaction moments and many pictures of our own!

You can order drinks at the reception desk a bit like not-in-room-service, which we did on the first night there as we didn't know where or which other places were open late in the area. Sat reading books from the communal book area and was beginning to get lost in a copy of Stephen Fry's The Liar when the low volume background music switched from Tainted Love to a soft, sultry female vocalist of an unknown nature singing YMCA. I was not ready for that level of boundary challenging so we retired to our room.

Our stay was great and far too short. The hotel is perfectly positioned for walking into the centre of Brussels, the staff were calm and reliable (particularly the guys who helped us when we had an issue with the balcony door) and I'd definitely recommend that you book yourself in for a visit.

The Assembly House, Christmas Fair. Be there!

For those of you looking to find something beautifully unique to gift this Christmas, pop along to The Assembly House Christmas Fair this weekend (10th & 11th December).

Come and furnish your purchase pile with my lovely cards and art. Delight your eyes with the wares of designer makers. Calm your ears with live music and carols! See you there :)

Branding Guidelines

One of the key things that Steve Jobs brought to Apple was a strong brand position with clear character.

For companies to maintain consistent branding it is good practice to create and establish branding guidelines early on. Branding guidelines will make clear how and when to apply aspects of the branding and multiple designers will be able to work on projects under the same brand umbrella and the integral brand style will remain consistent.

Essentially branding guidelines set out the key visual elements of a brand which must be controlled. They illustrate how logos, signatures, layouts, fonts and typography work together to present the visual identity or 'the face' of a brand.

Branding allows the formation of a style and a vehicle on which to convey personality and identity values; a common link over a variety of communication methods. Branding offers cohesion and consistency in order to maintain a strong individuality specific to a company or product.

Visual elements can be chosen carefully and employed logically to portray specific emotions or to elicit emotions from the target audience. Particular imagery will appeal to a particular demographic; seeking to promote companies and products directly with the people and situations for which they have been created.

Some aspects of a brand will be almost set in stone and others may have some or complete flexibility. Usually the logo/signature will be a fixed element but flexible elements will vary from brand to brand.

Branding guidelines can always be reviewed at any time. Reviewing the brand guidelines every year or two will give you the chance to check no elements have become dated or have naturally fallen from use. New elements can be added to refresh the brand or reflect changes that have naturally evolved within the brand's visual language.

What to consider for inclusion in branding guidelines:

BRAND OVERVIEW
Many companies choose to start their brand guidelines with a statement of their design vision. This is a bit like a mission statement but for the design elements. Try to keep this short, maybe just a paragraph but be sure to include any keywords a designer should have in mind when creating work to fit the later stipulated criteria. For example; saying a brand has a fresh, organic outlook will instantly create a feeling in the designer's mind and they are more likely to be brand sympathetic in their design choices.

LOGO
Show the main logo in full colour followed by a breakdown of signatures (sub logos), alternative logos and elements which can be used alone. These can be addressed individually later in the guidelines if strict criteria applies to elements when used alone.

SIZE
Stipulate at which sizes the logo maybe used and in which situations. For example you may want a large logo with extra detail to be used in large format communications and a smaller simplified logo to be used on all stationery and print collateral. If you want control over the exact size state measurements and always include a minimum size for your logo(s) what ever their use. Any illegible logo is unforgivable and does nothing but devalue the brand.

Do mention that logos should be scaled proportionally. There will be sad times if you see that someone has stretched or squashed your carefully designed logo!

EXCLUSION ZONE
A designer or two, or maybe you, will have spent hours creating a great logo. The last thing you want is for it to be half hidden by other elements in an advert or cut off by the edge of a document.

Establishing an exclusion zone is setting out some personal space for your logo. You could specify a fixed minimum distance around your logo however this may offer little in the way of adapting across various communications. Instead decide on the amount of space you would like around the logo and then look to the logo itself to ground this measurement. Find a letter or brand element that is of this width and this will be a scalable component, giving a proportional distance in all situations.

FILE FORMATS
Include information on which file formats the logos, signatures and other visuals elements are available in. This may seem like a small details but it will prevent designers requesting logos in formats that you don't have available.

COLOURS
List all permissible colour palettes for the brand and contexts in which they should be used. For example; full colour logo to be used on all stationery and monochrome logo in one of four colours when used on other forms of communication or all advertisements should be based on a set group of colours.

Clearly state pantone values, CMYK, RGB and hex values where possible. Just one of these is fine but if you can include them all you will have tighter control of your brand colour scheme.

LOCK UP
Any information that must appear in a fixed position in relation to the logo or other brand elements is classed as locked or fixed information. Show examples how it lock up should behave over different formats and orientations. Often this information will be an address or contact details where you want to control how the type flows over a set number of lines. Giving this kind of information prevents type being separated in inappropriate places. Locking information keeps control of legibility and setting out how space is shared retains order of precedence.

LAYOUT / COLUMN GRID
Show your working. Reveal the underlying grid divided into columns and/or rows that every element is placed within. Most grids consist of a fixed number of columns spaced evenly over the available space. This makes scaling simple while proportions are maintained; whether the item is the front of a gatefold leaflet or an A1 poster its 'look' will be consistent.

Flexibility for text and image placement should be addressed. With good guidelines, marketing collateral will show a strong brand identity.

FONTS
List all fonts permitted and and criteria for their use. Include character maps for all faces and weights used as a handy quick reference guide. Often a brand will have a headline font and a main body text font. If you wish to have more fonts available than this consider whether a different weight/face of the same font family would suit the purpose as this will maintain a more cohesive visual impact.

Stipulate sizes which may be used and the appropriate use for different sizes.

TYPOGRAPHY
Consider typographic features that will impact the arrangement and aesthetics of any text representing the brand. You can look at kerning (letter spacing), leading (line spacing), tracking (text spacing) to control blocks of text. Include examples of text blocking at different sizes and state the tracking/leading information which may be pertinent to the different sizes and purposes. Ensure methods of hierarchy, hyphenation and emphasis follow a clear pattern throughout.

COPYWRITING
You may like to include this information if the brand is to have a strong voice through its copy. If you want to restrict all headings to 4 words and all straplines to fewer than 10 words then say so here. Would be good to mention tone of voice or keywords pertinent to the brand personality. For example if the brand is supposed to sound like its written by your nan using up to date slang is not going to sit well and vice versa.

IMAGERY
If imagery will play a strong role in marketing the brand, you should include any criteria that could impact this. For example, all images should include a person of a specified demographic or no images are permitted to show violence of any kind however mild.

Images sizing can be mentioned to control text/image balance. For example; only images of 100 mm x 100 mm should be used in annual reports or all adverts should include a full bleed image.

WEB GUIDELINES
Any brand around today intending to survive must consider their web presence.

Make sure any of the guideline criteria already covered which cannot be matched to an acceptable standard on the web are readdressed. If you use a particular font in your body copy which would be illegible or tiring to read on a screen select a more appropriate web font. Sizing of logos and elements can be adjusted to suit the medium.

Look at the buttons. Establish their usage, hierarchy and different visual states (native, hover, disabled and visited). Do the same for any icons to be used and explain the criteria for their use.

If there will be a logged in state, point out any differences that will occur.

For larger companies, or companies planning to scale, you may like to consider coding guidelines. Areas to cover are: CSS naming conventions, integration of Javascript, form styling, DocType and validation requirements, directory structures, accessibility standards (alt tags), testing methods and version control.

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Final things to remember.

Include a cover and contact details for those who have the authority to answer brand guideline queries.

Make it accessible, the best format would be an online pdf for ease of distribution and efficiency of updating.

Create a stripped down mini guide the includes the fundamentals for use as a refresher guide for existing designers or a quick reference for those doing small ad tweaks who may not need to read the full details.

Make available any templates in current use like standard advertisements or corporate stationery. Reducing the amount of times a document is set up from scratch reduces the scope for error.

Happy guideline creating!

Creativity and Community: the response to the #londonriots

When the purse strings of government are tight and budgets are scrutinised, invariably one of the first things to vanish is the arts funding. This is wrong and the importance of the arts should be noted.

If there is one thing that people need during hard times its a sense of community. Art and creativity bring people together; raising morale, showing that there are other ways of seeing and encouraging people to step up and create things.

The recent #londonriots have shown that our captial is in dire need of refreshing its community spirit. Residents need to have pride in the area that they live in, an atmosphere they help to create.

I love this photograph taken by David Levene in Peckham. It shows a message board set up by local theatre company Peckham Shed outside a Poundland store that was damaged during the rioting.


Spontaneity, a splash of colour and bucket loads of community spirit. More please.

Saville Science

Great to see that Prof Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaws's shiny new book The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen, is all encased in beautiful book jacket design thanks to Peter Saville.

This book deserves to be a display piece on everyone's bookshelf!
You can buy a copy here or read a review.

Not one but TWO Black Pencils!

Fittingly the Old Spice campaign created by Wieden + Kennedy strolled away in a manly fashion from this year's D&AD awards. Rumour has it that as well as the TWO Black Pencils received, other items being carried were a big fish, a candle stick and I think one of them was... wait... riding a horse?!
If you have somehow missed the whole campaign do have a little peruse on YouTube to seek out the gems of this campaign. Whoever was responsible for the casting of Isiah Mustafa should be given a nod of gratitude and a small swoon from ladies everywhere.

A hint of reality

Recently there has been a buzz around a new way of using a very old method of animation. The good old animated gif has been hauled out from the shadows and given an airing in a fine spring breeze. To find it you need to search for its shiny new name "Cinemagraph" termed so by the animated gifs' re-inventors Jamie Beck and Kevin Berg.

I've produced a couple of cinemagraphs, both from the same source images but using different areas of focus. Subject matter must be chosen carefully; movement of some items/objects you would not necessarily expect can leave your cinemagraph looking a bit odd but if you are going for the poltergeist look then I guess that is fine!

Here are my cinemagraphs, they are my unpolished first attempts but I'm pretty pleased with them.

Firstly, the one with the hair...
and secondly the one with the skirt...

There are a number of other cinemagraphs on the web, do check them out. Good ones can be found on From Me To You and Feel Guide

If you fancy making a cinemagraph yourself them you might like this tutorial by Fernando J Baez.