Typealyzer tells it like it is

If you haven’t heard of Typealyzer I’ll fill you in: It’s an app that processes the content of a blog and spits out the personality of the author; thus:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Sounds a lot like me. Hours of fun on a Friday (and a useful too to understand potential audiences).

Mono-Stereo

Diptych poster set. One of those “rainy day projects” that has eventually come into fruition.

Ignore awards and have fun

Saying that I was at the opening of the BeST Awards exhibition last night and I had fun.

Salzburg Travel Guide

One of the best things about the world we now live in is how one seemingly irrelevant piece can become something much bigger. Like this photo on Flickr that I took last year while I was in Salzburg which is now part of mobile travel guide. A beautiful example of WebNext where we all help each other make the best of each experience.

Art imitates life imitates art

As designers I believe we have a certain responsibility, or at least we ought to. More a best practice than a code of conduct, self regulating rather than a book of rules. Like not misleading the audiences, or promoting behaviours that one might find morally objectionable. Or this, seen on the back of a truck about 1ookm south of Dubai. Try as hard as I can the only message I can see here is “to hell with the red light, let’s rip!” And if you ever decide to investigate the number of pedestrian casualties on the roads in the UAE you’ll see that this message is getting through.

Do brands matter in a recession?

Ije Nwokorie, Senior Strategist, Wolff Olins.

Award wining work

The BBT advertising pieces I created while at Base One have won the Best Use of Advertising, at the Construction Marketing Awards late last year. Excuse the lateness of the news but I only just heard about it.

The Winning Campaign - “All Consuming Ambition”
(Technical & Professional)

Using a humourous hook and eye catching imagery to stand out from our competitors in industry publications, the winning concept uses visuals of structures relevant to sector(s) created out of everyday meals or snacks to demonstrate all consuming ambition.

We have adapted and worked with the designs, not just for publications but E-shots, flyers and posters, as well as banners and exhibition stands. These adverts have proved immensely popular with clients and candidates alike, prompting positive feedback and praise, even from our competitors.

We are extremely proud of the success this advertising campaign has had, and thank you all for the support and feedback you have given over the past year.
More here

Funny how there is no mention of the Base One creative team there… So to rectify that, props to Dave Thomas (CD)and Dan Cummings (production whizz) at Base One and Chris at Storm for his legendary skills with the Hasselblad.

Paul Elliman at TypeSHED11

Paul Elliman is an artist and a writer, who uses letters and words in their most abstract forms to create pieces of art. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t know of him before he presented his work and ideas but having seen him talk I feel I have missed out a bit. Years ago I got my masters in perceptual psychology, and my dissertation was on object perception. The work I did then on lanellas and typical contours was pretty much forgotten until Paul’s presentation. Typical of his work is the distillation of an object representing a letterform to a single cross-section, its silhouette it you will, and then creating a message/idea from a collection of these forms (he never uses the same form twice). Much like Build’s Objectified piece.
He further abstrated the idea of messaging in a piece where the male and female voice artists commonly heard on the metro in Barcelona gave instructions from Spain to his house in London. Very interesting stuff and a name I will not forget.

Donald Beekman at TypeSHED11

Donald is pretty much single-handily responsible for all the drug (legal) and alt-drug branding and packaging to come out of Holland, through his company DBXL. And a fine man for the job really. Being in a variety of bands since his youth led him to combine his influences of music/psychedelic/acid house/punk etc into packaging that makes your eyeballs throb. But don’t just take my word for it, check out his website for a trip back in time or on my flickr for some eye-candy.

Experimenta at TypeSHED11

I have a soft spot for the guys at Experimenta (you won't see much in their site, it seems to be a blank one for now, so see our flickr). I have seen Duncan show his wares on more than one occasion and appreciate the craftsman approach, the constant struggle of setting up and maintaining design integrity. Their work is top notch too, although I sometimes feel it is a little cold. Not in the piece shown above though: they managed to get the symbol from the U.N.C.L.E into the branding for the Global Leaders Consortium. Nice.
There are obvious comparisons to the legends Experimental Jetset (and not just in name) but it is early days – they are not even 2 yet) and they have got a bright future ahead of them in my opinion.
More on Flickr.